In Contention

Tag: Australia

  • Is ‘Australia’ really in the Academy’s wheelhouse?

    I haven’t hidden the fact that I’m in the tank for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia,” or at least I hope to be — when we’re eventually allowed to see it. It is, bar none, my personal most-anticipated title of the next two months, sink or swim.

    I am, however, beginning to get nervous about its Oscar chances, as troublesome buzz circulates about its down-to-the-wire editing and last-minute narrative changes. The Academy tends to shy away from anything that might be perceived — deservedly or not — as a grand folly, preferring works that play the publicity game a little safer.

    A part of me has thought for some time that, should “Australia” overcome the naysayers, it could be welcomed by voters as a return to the more “traditional” model of Best Picture winner — sweeping, romantic, period-set and controversy-free — after four consecutive years of honouring bleak, un-pretty and (relatively) modern-day works. It’s argument that can also be made in favour of another unseen film widely presumed to be the one to beat: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

    However, over at The Film Experience, Nat Rogers makes an excellent point to the contrary, suggesting that the romantic epic is less of an Oscar ‘gimme’ genre than we tend to presume:

    My initial instinct, minus any research, was that Oscar loves to be romanced by beautiful people in period finery, their love story intertwined with famed world events. But is that really true? Perhaps it’s just that early Oscar champion “Gone With the Wind” casts a really long shadow …

    Oscar isn’t always in the mood for retro loving. But even when they aren’t, the films can quite often emerge with Best Actress and Costume Design nominations and a stray nomination of some other sort. “Australia”‘s chances in a wide array of categories clearly hinge on how deep audiences fall into reciprocal love with Kidman’s aristocrat and Jackman’s cattle driver.

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  • Oscar column? Ha.

    Nothing to show for myself yet again this week.  I swear, in seven days time, I’ll get my act in gear on that front.  But without something to push the passion, it’s kind of hard not to let other committments take hold.

    After AFI, some think “Doubt” has a Best Picture shot, others don’t.  I haven’t heard much from the peanut gallery on “Defiance,” which is odd — you’d expect the usual clawing over ourselves to be “first!”  I dug it.  I think it’s in the conversation.  But hey, there are still mysteries to behold.

    Which brings me to it: break out the films already.  This is the worst bout of Oscar foreplay we’ve suffered through in a LONG time.  “Revolutionary Road,” “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” “Australia” and “Seven Pounds” need to stop playing peek-a-boo and man up already.  Am I wrong here?

    Anyway, updated charts next time around.  Truthfully, they wouldn’t have changed much today if I did have a column in me.

  • 11/9 Oscarweb Round-up

    Warner Bros. Pictures' Watchmen• Steve Weintraub has a sweet four-video series on Ben Burtt’s process for creating the sounds of “WALL-E” and the “Star Wars” films.  Worth a look if you’re into the tech arena like we are. [Collider]

    • Bad news for Baz Luhrmann’s “Australia.”  A forced happy ending. [News.com.au]

    • Cherry Jones gives her approval of Meryl Streep’s turn in “Doubt.” [Gold Derby]

    • But elsewhere, the odds are being stacked against the film. [Vulture]

    • Dave Karger and Missy Schwartz discuss the season’s most unknown commodities: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Revolutionary Road.” [Oscar Watch]

    • Brad Brevet finds some striking similarities between the new “Watchmen” poster and an old “Dark Knight” international one-sheet. [Rope of Silicon]

    • In the midst of AFI Fest, John Horn gets some quality time with “Slumdog Millionaire” director Danny Boyle. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Meanwhile, Anne Thompson responds to a second “Slumdog” screening. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • The new gadgetry of Bond. [New York Daily News]

    • Amy Raphael profiles Kelly Macdonald as “Choke” lands across the pond. [The Guardian]

    • Also in the U.K., Toby Jones continues to stir the waters with below-the-radar portrayals. [The Times]

    • Deborah Solomon cranks out a Q&A with “Frost/Nixon” director Ron Howard. [New York Times]

    • Jeffrey Wells defends the violence of Matteo Garrone’s “Gomorrah” against the potential ignorance of the foreign film committee. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

  • International ‘Australia’ poster

    New and slightly improved, if you ask me — though I still think they missed an opportunity to go for an all-out 1940’s throwback design. (Thanks to Stale Popcorn for pointing it out.)

  • WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Doubt,’ Danny Boyle and a bit of politics

    In a week in which there were more important things going on than the movies (an outlandish notion, I know), these were nevertheless some of the highlights:

    • Several takes from the AFI Fest, including disappointment in “Doubt” …

    • … but hearty cheers for “The Wrestler.”

    • We caught up (twice) with the thoroughly delightful Danny Boyle, both in London and in L.A.

    • Meanwhile, Dennis Hopper was also feeling chatty.

    • In the wake of the reprehensible passing of Proposition 8, we wondered if “Milk” could have made a difference.

    • We bade farewell to Mr. Michael Crichton. Rest in peace.

    • “Australia” got a new trailer and a new poster. Smashing. Can we see it now, pretty please?

    • Listing the greatest English-language directors at work today. Debate, as ever, was heated.

    • Tech Support surveyed the horses in the Best Film Editing race.

    • Oh, you might have heard that the United States has a new president. The right one, at that.

  • Apple’s Set to Screen series: the music of ‘Australia’

  • Dave Karger says Obama’s win could help ‘The Dark Knight’ come Oscar time

    Heath Ledger in The Dark KnightFrom a recent post at EW’s Oscar Watch:

    I thought the sequence involving the two ferries (in which a group of commuters and a group of convicts have the power to blow up each others’ boats but don’t) was a bit too reality-show-ish for my taste. But I know most viewers loved it. Either way, that part of the film speaks to the innate goodness of human behavior. And let’s remember that Oscar ballots are due next January 12, just a week before Barack Obama is inaugurated. It’s safe to say most Hollywood types will also see that event as an example of innate human goodness. All of this only helps The Dark Knight‘s chances, don’t you think?

    Hm.  Nice point.  But the Best Picture chances of “The Dark Knight” are still extremely dependent, as David Poland noted today, on how films like “Revolutionary Road,” “Australia” and “The Reader” pan out.  If those films start to fall by the wayside, then we can REALLY start getting serious.

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Film Editing — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionNo matter how good the storyline, plot, acting, photography and other elements of a film may be, any poorly edited film will be difficult to watch, understand and enjoy.  An editor has the task of not only finding the appropriate length of a film but also putting together scenes so they flow coherently, both visually and story-wise.

    This is a category where I often feel “most” editing is confused with “best.”  I wholeheartedly agree that it is challenging to coherently put together a film with lots of action, musical scenes or a non-linear narrative – the sorts of films typically nominated in this category. Though I personally feel that often the most accomplished editing can be seen in the relaxed creation of appropriate pace and tone, stealth editing that goes unnoticed.

    This is also, happily, not a field that tends to bring back past nominees at the expense of newbies.  Few working editors have more than four career nominations and at least two to three newcomers seem to be nominated every year.

    Historically, this category has had an incredible crossover with Best Picture.  Though in recent years, that has changed, the last three years having had only a 2/5 crossover with the big category. Last year’s winner, “The Bourne Ultimatum,” is a very rare example of a winner that was not even nominated for Best Picture.

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  • Luhrmann: “It’s not naturalism”

    Baz Luhrmann’s massive “Australia” keeps hurtling nearer, with the director apparently in an editing-room frenzy to have it ready in time. A new trailer and poster emerged last week, together with word that the film is hovering around the 170-minute mark. Fine by me — if that’s the scale of the project, then so be it.

    However, one thing I’ve noticed about the reaction from many bloggers and commenters is how many people seem to have missed the point of what Luhrmann is aiming to achieve here. People are complaining that the film looks too “old-fashioned,” or that, heaven forbid, it doesn’t look “realistic.”

    Apart from the fact that realism has never been on Luhrmann’s agenda, it’s perfectly obvious that he’s working in a throwback vein here. All the footage we’ve seen suggests the film is a homage to the epics of Hollywood’s golden age, with all the heightened performance style and florid visual sensibility that entails. Whether or not it works remains to be seen, but one has to understand the mode he’s working in first.

    Luhrmann makes as much clear in an extensive piece in the Guardian, where he explains his epic intentions:

    When I make a film, people don’t seem to talk about the film itself. Instead, they say: ‘How can he mix genres and styles like that?’ or ‘How can that cinematic language be credible?’ One expects it with this film, too, because, although I draw the DNA very directly from the epic tradition, this isn’t a carbon copy.

    Will I be accused of reinventing the epic? Only if it works. If it doesn’t, I’ll be accused of wasting a lot of time and money. The cinematic language is not like in the Red Curtain trilogy [Strictly Ballroom, Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge!], but it’s not naturalism. I think you’ll see the influences of those movies I’ve loved, but it will also be something of its own. It’s a very difficult thing to achieve.

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  • I’m SO ‘off the carpet’ this week

    After the online drama of the last couple of weeks, it’s been nice to settle in and get to the actual movies for a change.  The media at large has gotten a look at “Frost/Nixon,” “Milk” and “Doubt,” while features and long lead writers have had their peeks at “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” and “Revolutionary Road.”  A elect few have seen “Defiance.”  The only outstanding variables of the season remain “Australia” (tick-tock) and “The Reader” (with a grand trailer debut late last week).

    We’re getting there.

    An array of interviews and AFI Fest commitments have kept me from really digging into a column this week, but I have adjusted the charts for the time being.  There’s still a lot of guessing going on, even if a number of categories are coming into focus.  But tomorrow’s results really could have an effect on this thing.  We’ll see how it plays out…

    Main Category Charts
    Technical Category Charts
    The Contenders
    Oscar Prediction Archives

  • ‘Australia’ poster

    20th Century Fox's Australia

  • New ‘Australia’ trailer

    (Thanks to Vlad for the tip.)

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Sound Editing — Volume One

    Tech Support at In Contention Swoosh.  Bang.  Grunt.  Clink.  Crash.

    These sorts of sounds can add a lot to a film’s mood and plot even though they are not recorded during filming and have to be created and mixed in later on.

    The individuals who create these effects are rewarded for their efforts in the category of Best Sound Editing.  The category used to be called Best Sound Effects Editing, which, in my opinion, is a better name.  Supervising sound editors and their teams are generally the individuals rewarded here.

    This category used to only have three nominees but was expanded to five two years ago.  This makes the category somewhat more difficult to predict, though there are five films this year that really strike me as frontrunners.

    Ever since “Monsters, Inc.” scored here in 2001, animated films, particularly those of Pixar, have fared very well.  I’d be very surprised if Andrew Stanton’s “WALL-E” failed to continue that trend.  Sound effects are key to any animated film so many of the sounds have to be created.  There is nothing to be captured while filming because, well…there is no filming!  For Stanton’s effort in particular, the sound effects were especially pivotal given the minimal dialogue.

    Jon Favreau’s “Iron Man” was another summer film where the sound effects were crucial to the film.  The explosions, clanks of armour and numerous experiments of Downey all required sound manifestation.  A huge hit and critically respected, the film in really depended on its sound editing and it flowed perfectly into the visual sights.  I’d be quite surprised if it didn’t get nominated here.

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  • Make a movie, win a trip to Oz

    Win a trip to Australia

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Art Direction — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionThe Academy Award for Best Art Direction is somewhat of an odd category in that the art director does not actually receive a nomination or statuette.  Rather, the award is given to two individuals with unique roles in the crafting of a film’s sets.  The production designer heads up the entire art department, specifically in charge of set creation and design. The award also recognizes the set decorator, responsible for filling in the sets with details and dressing to bring them to life.

    Much like he costume designers, this branch tends to favor period and fantasy work, surely because such sets naturally draw attention to themselves.  It does tend, however, to be more kind to fantasy than the branch’s costume designing colleagues. It also usually prefers grandiose work and large-scale set pieces.

    Just as I believe is the case in Best Costume Design, Catherine Martin might be leading the way for “Australia” here this year. Martin, who won this category for “Moulin Rouge!” in 2001 and was also nominated for “William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet” five years earlier, will have the opportunity to create the interiors – and exteriors – of a rugged Australian outback filled with hubby Baz Lurhmann’s distinct vision.

    Donald Graham Burt has fashioned numerous contemporary films, or films set in the relatively recent past, in his career to date. With “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” he has the opportunity to visually wow us through eight decades of 20th century. The film, at the least, should be visually spectacular so I suspect Burt is looking extremely good for a nomination.

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  • Making Dr. Manhattan

    Yahoo! Movies has a nice new featurette up about creating Dr. Manhattan in Zack Snyder’s “Watchmen.”  There are also a few production journals from production designer Alex McDowell, costume designer Michael Wilkinson, illustrator Dave Gibbons, director of photography Larry Fong, Snyder, etc.  Very interesting stuff.  Check it out here.

    These kinds of in-depth craft features are becoming a staple.  Two weeks ago we told you about the Apple exclusive on those Set to Screen “Australia” featurettes, which could go a long way toward directing attention to the work of these folks.  Kind of like DVD special features let loose on the net.  I’m betting you see more and more of this during the awards season as studios get wise to the value of peeling back the curtain and embossing the craft particulars of their films.

  • TECH SUPPORT: Best Costume Design — Volume One

    Tech Support at In ContentionThe Academy Award for Best Costume Design recognizes, shock of shocks, the clothes and accessories worn by actors in a film.  Clothing can add to the story and express the nature and situation of the characters who wear them.

    If a single word could be used to describe this category, it would be “period.”  31 of the 40 nominees here this decade were period pieces.  This is not altogether surprising.  Period clothes automatically draw attention by not being the sort of fashion we see every day on the street and require the costume designer to accurately portray the time in which the film takes place.

    The nominations two years ago “The Queen” and “The Devil Wears Prada” were refreshing in my opinion but extremely rare, being the first contemporary nominees in a dozen years.  Admittedly, fantasy films occasionally find a home here as well.  Seven nominees this decade fit that mold.  But even so, there is usually only one –- and never more than two –- spots available for non-period films in this category.

    This is also an arena that tends to reward many familiar faces.  In a typical year, only one or two of the nominees are first-timers, while many designers are (usually deservedly) seen year after year.  This trend has occasionally resulted in some films one would never expect to find in the awards race landing the label “Oscar nominee.”

    Catherine Martin might be leading the way this year.  She won this category seven years ago, the last time both she –- and her husband/director Baz Lurhmann -– worked.  That film was “Moulin Rouge!” and its design elements were fantastic.  Again doubling as a production designer on “Australia” this year, Martin will fashion the world of a Briton coming to a strange historical land, filled, as always, with Lurhmann’s bordering-on-fantastical elements.  The design opportunities should once again be amazing and I’d be quite surprised if Martin failed to make the cut.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Newman remembered, Rudin/Weinstein, Foreign film race

    Paul Newman in HudAs we head into the weekend, here’s a quick overview of what we (and you) have been talking about at In Contention this week:

    • Kris paid tribute to the incomparable Paul Newman, as well as rounding up some of the man’s greatest performances.

    • As the Scott Rudin-Harvey Weinstein soap opera continues, Kris wonders where this leaves “The Reader” in the race.

    • John Foote contemplated the screen’s greatest leading ladies, past and present.

    • Matteo Garrone presented his red-hot foreign-language contender “Gomorrah” in London. I was impressed with the film.

    • Speaking of which, all the submissions for Best Foreign Language Film are in.

    • In the wake of a sensational new trailer, Apple takes a mouthwatering look at the tech credits of “Australia.”

    • Continuing the technical conversation, Gerard previewed the runners and riders in the Best Sound Mixing race.

    • Clint Eastwood scooped the first in what could be yet another run of awards for him this season.

    • And finally, in case you weren’t aware awards season has started, the people behind “Frozen River” and “Elegy” would like to remind you otherwise.