In Contention

Tag: Avatar

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Film Editing

    Gabourey Sidibe in PreciousThe Best Film Editing category tends to be a shadow of the Best Picture category in some ways. With there being 10 Best Picture nominees this year, however, the field was bound to nail down five of the contenders. So considering the old stand-by stat (no film has won Best Picture without an editing nomination since “Ordinary People”), this is a race to keep an eye on.

    In fact, it might be a bellwether for the rest of the show when the envelope is opened. Which means the competition has been boiled down to the same to films the media is keeping an eye on for Best Picture. In this instance, however, that reduction isn’t as ill-considered.

    The nominees are:

    “Avatar” (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)
    “District 9”     (Julian Clarke)
    “The Hurt Locker” (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)
    “Inglourious Basterds” (Sally Menke)
    “Precious” (Joe Klotz)

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  • Bill Paxton on Cameron, Bigelow

    Bill PaxtonActor Bill Paxton always seems to give Kevin Bacon a run for his money in the “six degrees” department.  I’ve always joked that if they ever wanted to nut up and do “Aliens vs. Predator vs. Terminator,” Paxton had better be in it since he’s the common thread throughout.

    That ubiquity has, of course, led him to work with a number of talented filmmakers, including the two at the center of this year’s Best Director showdown.  For James Cameron Paxton has appeared in everything from “The Terminator” to “True Lies,” while he starred in Kathryn Bigelow’s 1987 vampire western “Near Dark.”

    The actor stopped by Jimmy Fallon last night (which I was only watching because it was background noise — I try to steer clear of frat boy hour) and Fallon asked about working with the two of them, especially Cameron.  It’s not earth-shattering stuff but it makes for nice viewing on an idle Wednesday.  Although it’s too bad there was no “Reach!” inquiry.  Have a look after the jump.

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  • Up, up and away

    George Clooney in Up in the AirBack in a November installment of Off the Carpet, I noted that, by my measure, the films of 2009 reflected a particular theme.  “I’ve always come back to one thought on this year’s slate of films: catharsis,” I wrote at the time.  “With expected exceptions here and there, in one way or another, the bulk of what we’ve seen on screens in 2009 has very much been about emotional purging, bleeding out the past and, not to be too on-the-nose with the zeitgeist connotations, change.”

    I bring it up because it’s something I was reminded of while reading this Cristy Gosz piece at the LA Times, which treads similar waters but comes up with the idea that a number of the year’s films use travel as a metaphor for a character’s “visceral transformation” on the screen.

    The piece takes quotes from Jason Reitman and Jon Landau (at least one more would have been nice) to buttress the thesis and ens up making a solid enough point.  It’s always interesting to note similar thematic rhythms in a given film year, however irrelevant they might ultimately be.

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  • On the preferential system

    BallotWe’ve said it before, but the preferential balloting aspect of this year’s Best Picture race has been somewhat neglected by the media and the insistent positioning of the race as “Avatar” vs. “The Hurt Locker.” I see in one corner of the web that Anne Thompson is still calling that the battle “all the way,” with no mention of how the new schematic totally changes that perception.

    Elsewhere, it’s catching on.  In his latest Notes on a Season column, Pete Hammond posits, as I did in this space last week, that Pixar’s “Up” could be a potential beneficiary of the system as it could be in the number two or three position on a great many ballots.  Intriguingly, he also finds a Fox exec willing to say the same thing about “Avatar,” a film clearly more polarizing than a number of it’s co-nominees.

    Hendrick Hertzberg is also coming around to things at The New Yorker, noting that few people who have seen “The Hurt Locker” actively dislike it, which is of course why it’s our likely victor.  Even though Hertzberg is coming from the “Avatar” versus “The Hurt Locker” side of things, at least he’s posing the argument.

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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Sound Mixing

    Transformeres: Revenge of the FallenThe year’s sound mixing category had relatively few surprises, just glancing at the tea leaves of the season.  There was a typical 4/5 crossover between the Cinema Audio Society and the Academy, with “District 9” missing both here and in the sound editing field.

    One might be quick to chalk this, in fact all of the tech races up to the tech-heavy elephant in the room.  But let’s not forget “Slumdog Millionaire” managed a win here last year, over a decently respected piece of blockbuster entertainment.  And at the end of the day, the Academy at large generally just votes for its favorite film of the bunch, rather than think too much about what’s deserving in the field.

    The nominees are:

    “Avatar” (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson)
    “The Hurt Locker” (Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett)
    “Inglourious Basterds” (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano)
    “Star Trek” (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin)
    “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” (Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)

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  • On the sound of ‘Avatar’

    More on the sound mixing category in tomorrow’s Oscar Guide.  For now, courtesy of the Soundworks Collection:

  • SANTA BARBARA: Directors on directing, Virtuosos, ‘Provinces of Night,’ Bigelow

    Jamie Lee Curtis in Blue SteelThe fest feels incredibly easy-going this year.  More than last.  Maybe that’s because there aren’t as many films I’m interested in seeing.  After “The Secret of Kells” last week and Atom Egoyan’s “Chloe” later this week, nothing really strikes my fancy.

    Yesterday before darting back down the 101 for a Super Bowl party in LA, I caught about an hour or so of the directors panel, “Directors on Directing.”  It was an engaging discussion between Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Pete Docter, Todd Phillips and Quentin Tarantino, and absolutely packed house.  Jason Reitman couldn’t make it.

    The most interesting bit that I saw was Tarantino discussing the immersive experience of “Avatar,” how when filming “Kill Bill,” he was very interested in the experience of a movie and making the audience feel participatory in some way.  He said he thinks he failed to do that, though some sequences, namely the House of Blue Leaves sequence, were close, but when he saw “Avatar,” he said, “That’s it.  That’s the ride I was thinking about.”

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  • Gleiberman’s mea culpa

    Ralph Fiennes in The Hurt LockerA few weeks ago we directed you to an Owen Gleiberman piece focusing on the perceived Best Picture battle of “Avatar” vs. “Up in the Air,” that it was a battle of film culture significance.  Obviously, as Gleiberman notes in his recent “my bad” post, that doesn’t appear to be the race anymore, and I’m as guilty for boiling it down at that time as anyone.

    If one is still inclined to boil things down to a “race,” then it appears more likely that it is “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar,” and as I noted following the former’s PGA victory, that makes for an incredibly compelling clash of filmmaking values.

    “It’s low budget, efficient, muscular independent filmmaking versus blockbuster, groundbreaking, high octane studio entertainment,” I wrote at the time.  “It’s level-headed political realism versus archetypal political grandstanding.  It’s character versus idea.  It’s measured theatrical meditation versus visceral theatrical experience.”  And Gleiberman is now saying virtually the same thing.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: Dear James, Suck it! Signed, ‘Dear John’

    Dear John*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    After spending only seven weeks at the top of the box office, “Avatar” was humiliatingly defeated by “Dear John” and doomed to obscurity forever by dropping to second place.

    The new weekend victor earned a phenomenal $32.4 million to end James Cameron’s epic reign and finally give 2010 something new to talk about. The result is better than the $28.3 million start of “He’s Just Not That Into You” on this same weekend last year and boosts the star power of Channing Tatum and Amanda Seyfried.

    Seyfried has had an interesting career filled with hits (“Mamma Mia!”) and misses (“Jennifer’s Body”), but avoiding the glory or the blame that comes with both. This victory clearly belongs to her, though, and who would have thought watching “Mean Girls” that in five years, she would have a career and Lohan would not?

    “Avatar” dipped 25% to $23.6 million in its first post-Oscar nominations weekend. The running total is now $630.1 million and $700 million should be a piece of cake, particularly if a Best Picture win comes in early March. If so, Cameron would have the only two films to hit that mark in the last 26 years, but he shouldn’t get too comfortable with that stat since I just heard Taylor Lautner is going to be in the “Stretch Armstrong” movie.

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  • S&S slams awards “xenophobia”

    Niels Arestrup in A ProphetBeing a fairly highbrow cineastes’ mag, Sight & Sound tends to keep a safe distance from awards season — which is probably just as well, if Nick James’s grim-faced editorial on the subject is anything to go by.

    Like many British journalists, James’s analysis of the Oscar race is a little wobbly: he states that “Avatar” is a certainty to win Best Picture based on its Golden Globe success, but makes no mention of the Guild awards. More vexing, however, is his airy dismissal of this year’s cinematic crop: claiming that 2009 was “the weakest year for American cinema since the 1980s,” and that “in terms of quality US films last year, “The Hurt Locker,” “Up in the Air,” “Precious,” “Inglourious Basterds” and “Up” are literally all there is.” (He then goes on to pick holes of most of those films anyway.)

    And I thought I was negative about this year’s race. Sure, I have problems with at least half this year’s Best Picture nominees, but neither am I claiming that the category contains all the standout American films of 2009.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Oscar nomination week

    Anne Hathaway and Tom Sherak announcing the 2009 Academy Award nominations• Did you hear? The 2009 Academy Award nominations were announced. “The Hurt Locker” and “Avatar” led the pack.

    • Days before, Kathryn Bigelow nabbed the Directors’ Guild Award — the first woman ever to do so.

    • Back to the Oscars, we collected reaction statements from 44 of this year’s nominees.

    • I rounded up some of the most pleasant surprises in the nominations, as well as the most unwelcome snubs.

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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Visual Effects

    Star TrekThe field of visual effects contenders didn’t seem to need the annual bake-off reduction to know which way the wind was blowing this year.  Three films seemed to be headed for recognition from the outset, and on nomination morning, the category made for one of the least surprising collectives of the day.

    Furthermore, it has also become something of a foregone conclusion which film will ultimately take the win, and that hasn’t changed for months on end.  At the end of the day, I think few will argue with the fact that this will be the least compelling “race” of the night.  But each nominee is incredibly deserving of their invitation to the big dance and we are happy to spotlight them here.

    The nominees are:

    “Avatar” (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones)
    “District 9”     (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robret Habros and Matt Aitken)
    “Star Trek” (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton)

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  • FRIDAY FORECAST: 72 degrees and ‘Avatar’

    John Travolta in From Paris with Love*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    “Avatar” has swept aside the entire January schedule with relative ease and is aiming for an eighth weekend at the top of the box office. Considering it dropped only 10% last week despite some direct male competition from Mel Gibson and it now has 9 Oscar nominations to brag about, you can expect another slim decline and $25 million+. That should be more than enough to secure victory against Channing Tatum and John Travolta.

    Tatum headlines “Dear John” with Amanda Seyfried, from the author of “The Notebook.” It’s a date movie for the date crowd and hey, did we mention it’s from the author of “The Notebook?” The premise sounds like a 1940s film, writing letters to a soldier and all. Shouldn’t the title be “New Facebook Message, RE: Miss U Lots xo <3?” Anyway, that very fact mixed with the cast should satisfy women of all ages and help this one to $21 million or so.

    The director of “Taken” is back and blowing more shit up with “From Paris With Love.” There are three reasons why this won’t be as successful. One: Mel Gibson’s movie may not have done well but it’s still out and still direct competition. Two: Lionsgate is releasing and there is a ceiling to what they can accomplish with an action film ($18 million). Three: Liam Neeson looked all sorts of badass in the “Taken” trailer. In this, John Travolta looks like the bouncer at the Jackhammer gay club in Tribeca. $13 million.

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  • 2/5 Oscarweb Round-up

    Leonardo DiCaprio in Shutter Island• Scott Bowles writes up the forthcoming Leo/Marty thriller “Shutter Island.” [USA Today]

    • Charting the piracy of this year’s Oscar nominees. [Waxy]

    • Pete Hammond gets James Cameron to puff his chest out on “Avatar”‘s box office potential, among other notes on the town. [Notes on a Season]

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  • “I’m rooting for the ex-wives here.”

    Linda HamiltonWith the “exes” angle seemingly set to run and run in this year’s Oscar media coverage, The Guardian at least took a slightly sideways approach in their weekly podcast by roping in a third ex — “Terminator” star and James Cameron’s fourth wife Linda Hamilton — for her thoughts on the matter. (She has a new movie to promote, so it’s not as tacky as all that.)

    Regarding the Oscar race, Hamilton semi-jokingly claims to be cheering the “ex-wives’ club,” but she also offers some interesting personal perspective on the 12-year gestation of “Avatar”:

    After “Titanic,” there were quite a few things he was getting ready to do: he was was going to do the “Spider-Man” franchise, he was going to do a really great script about multiple personality disorder, “Avatar” to me was, like, the third favorite. I read it and was, like, “Hmm, yeah, uh” … and that just goes to show you that I should never be directing or making movies. I wasn’t sure that it was going to have an audience … It didn’t necessarily say anything to me, but Jim obviously saw something way beyond what was on the page.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Now what?

    Jeremy Renner in The Hurt LockerA whole 31 days ahead of the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, the race already feels like it’s winding down.

    Of the precursors, only BAFTA and the lesser guilds (sorry, WGA, but you brought irrelevance upon yourself) lie in wait to distract us from a month of wafty speculation and idle editorializing. Trust me, you’re going to get very sick of the phrase “battle of the exes” before the month is out … if you aren’t already.

    For me, a trip to the Berlinale next week couldn’t be better timed – a few days of seeing and discussing some new films, including several of this year’s hot Sundance titles, will be a welcome vacation from the ever-dwindling pool of names and titles we’ve been talking about since the fall.

    But if you’re not one of the lucky few who can make it to a festival – or if you’re as uninspired as everyone else by the new releases of the last few weeks – fresh perspective needn’t come only from fresh films. I recently had the pleasure of rewatching “The Hurt Locker” and getting happily reacquainted with it as a movie, rather than as the industry story it has grown into over the months.

    Awards season can sometimes smother the movies it celebrates, turning them into representations of competing social and artistic ideals that they were never intended to be. As the competition narrows, these definitions get progressively more binary – and the side-taking more vicious. (You only have to look at Roger Ebert’s online opposition of “Avatar” to see what the season can make us do to movies we even like.)

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  • Yes…and more than one movie, actually…

    Cover of Entertainment WeeklyAlright.  It must be said.  I’m as guilty as anyone, perhaps more than most, at positioning this year’s Oscar race as a two-horse sprint to the finish between “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker.” But slowly it’s occurred to me that this Oscar race has been boiled down so quickly because it makes for such a sexy headline.  There’s David and Goliath, there’s the exes thing, there’s plenty of meat in the idea that these two films are out in front of the pack.

    And now I see it once again with Entertainment Weekly’s cover query: “Can anything beat ‘Avatar?’”

    Has the press (again, guilty) been lazy in allowing things to be positioned as such?  Well, yes and no.  The usual indicators tell us that these are the two films in question for obvious reasons. Guild support has been rampant for both, after all.  And the list of Oscar nominations had each out in front, tied with nine nominations apiece.  But there is a crucial point that many a journalist (again, guilty) is failing to consider when calling this thing.

    This year the Best Picture category (and only the Best Picture category) will use the preferential voting system rather than the standard one-vote system to determine the winner.  In so many words, the answer becomes: Which film is the most acceptable to the group, regardless of passion pockets?

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  • February winner predictions

    Jeff Bridges in Crazy HeartThese appeared at Movie City News’s Gurus o’ Gold page this morning, so you probably already saw them.  Here they are in any case, since, you know, I guess it’s about that time:

    Best Picture: “The Hurt Locker”
    Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
    Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
    Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
    Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
    Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious”
    Best Adapted Screenplay: “Up in the Air”
    Best Original Screenplay: “The Hurt Locker”

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