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I stuck my neck out back in February at the Berlin Film Festival and said that Vanessa Redgrave will snag a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination (at least) for her galvanizing interpretation of Volumnia in Ralph Fiennes’s hopped-up take on Shakespeare’s “Coriolanus.” I’m sticking to my guns — and I imagine more voices will join […]
‘Coriolanus’ UK trailer
Posted by Guy Lodge · 7:03 am · August 11th, 2011
Filed in: Daily
The five categories giving me hell
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:48 pm · February 25th, 2011
With a little over 48 hours until the big night, I find myself in an uncommon state of disarray — my crammed Oscar weekend “To Do” list includes viewing all 15 short nominees in order to make an informed dart-throw of a prediction (stickler that I am, I held out for a theatrical screening), preparing […]
Filed in: Daily
OFF THE CARPET: Heading into the home stretch
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:48 am · February 21st, 2011
I’m watching CNN’s report of the on-going situation in Libya as I write these comparably pointless words. The “real world” seems so unique, so foreign after having our head in the awards season clouds since September. Now, six months in, victory lane is a mere six days away. And man, it’s been a marathon. So […]
Filed in: Off the Carpet
2/17 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Leo’s faux pas, Bagger chats up ‘Waste Land’ helmer, what to learn from Grammys
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:18 am · February 17th, 2011
• Nikki Finke chats with Relativity Media honcho Ryan Kavanaugh. [Deadline] • Gregory Ellwood thinks Melissa Leo flushed her chances at an Oscar down the drain. [Awards Campaign] • Melena Ryzik catches up with “Waste Land” director Lucy Walker. (Oscar Guide on documentary features coming tomorrow.) [The Carpetbagger]
Filed in: Daily
INTERVIEW: ‘The Fighter’ actress Amy Adams
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 2:30 pm · February 16th, 2011
Amy Adams. You know the girl. Sweet, bright-eyed, purveyor of naive, fresh-faced screen creations. You certainly wouldn’t peg her as an expected fit for Charlene Fleming, boxer Micky Ward’s tough-as-nails bartender girlfriend in David O. Russell’s “The Fighter,” but as it turns out, she delivers perhaps her most accomplished performance to date in that role, […]
Filed in: Interviews
BERLIN: ‘Coriolanus,’ Redgrave and an early Oscar bet
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:58 pm · February 14th, 2011
The cavernous Berlinale Palast theatre was packed to the gills for today’s noontime press screening of “Coriolanus” (***), and small wonder — in a Competition lineup heavy on oatmeal fare boasting comparatively unfamiliar names, Ralph Fiennes’s directorial debut is one of the few entries that affords viewers a little star-gazing. Fiennes, of course, takes the title […]
WEEKLY WRAP: Nomination week
Posted by In Contention Staff · 6:16 am · January 29th, 2011
• In case you’ve just emerged from a coma, “The King’s Speech” led the Oscar nominations on Tuesday with 12 bids. • “The King’s Speech” was also the surprise winner at the Producers’ Guild Awards, drastically shaking up the Best Picture race. • In the wake of these developments, Kris adjusted his winner predictions accordingly. […]
Filed in: Daily
OSCAR GUIDE: Best Supporting Actress
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:12 am · January 26th, 2011
Like last year, this year’s Best Supporting Actress race was a free-for-all when it came to the last spot. Potential category confusion almost had two spots up for grabs. And there was absolutely no shortage of possible spoilers once the BAFTA had spoken up with a slate of formidable possibilities. And great work was still […]
Filed in: Oscar Guide
WEEKLY WRAP: Globes chatter, Batman buzz, foreign Oscar surprises
Posted by In Contention Staff · 6:42 pm · January 21st, 2011
• The Golden Globes did their thing, with Ricky Gervais’s antics drawing more attention than the sweep for “The Social Network.” • David Fincher’s film continued its dominance at the Broadcast Film Critics’ Association Awards, which Kris reported from first-hand. • As if to remind us that there’s more than one film in the race, this […]
Filed in: Daily
OSCAR TALK: Ep. 49 — Final pre-nod discussion
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:00 am · January 21st, 2011
Welcome to Oscar Talk. In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty […]
Filed in: Oscar Talk
POLL: Who gets the fifth supporting actress slot?
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:22 am · January 18th, 2011
One of the interesting things about this morning’s BAFTA announcement is that it scattered the already fluid Best Supporting Actress category to the winds. Nominations for Barbara Hershey, Miranda Richardson and Lesley Manville put them in the hunt with contenders like Mila Kunis and Jacki Weaver for what appears to be an up-for-grabs fifth slot. […]
Filed in: Daily
Five things I learned from the Golden Globes
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:37 pm · January 17th, 2011
Appropriately enough for the occasion, I watched last night’s Golden Globe awards in a celebratory alcoholic fog (the night having coincided with a friend’s birthday) so thick it took most of today to sleep it off — hence the apologetically late posting. My memory of the evening’s finer details is therefore about as clear as, […]
Filed in: Daily
“Quentin, I’ve got webbed toes.”
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:55 am · January 16th, 2011
Dear Academy, please nominate Jacki Weaver for Best Supporting Actress. Quite aside from her terrific performance in “Animal Kingdom,” as long as she continues to be this delightful in person, it’d be nice to have her on the publicity circuit for a few more weeks. From David Poland’s Hot Blog:
Filed in: Daily
The lost contenders of ‘For Colored Girls’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:16 am · January 14th, 2011
Thanks to a crippling flu attack during the film’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it UK release, I was late in getting round to Tyler Perry’s “For Colored Girls” — a rumored Oscar spoiler for about seven-and-a-half minutes back in the autumn, before Lionsgate got curiously tentative about publicizing it. A paucity of press screenings meant several key online voices […]
Filed in: Daily
1/13 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: No dice for Winklevi, Alice Ward fights for her life, Weaver keeps making the rounds
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:07 am · January 13th, 2011
• Away from Oscar and in real life, Micky Ward’s mother is in a hospital fighting for her life… [Boston Globe] • …while the Winklevi lose their Facebook settlement appeal. [Paid Content] • Is “The King’s Speech” royalist propaganda? [The Guardian]
Filed in: Daily
Helena Bonham Carter slights her own performance
Posted by Guy Lodge · 11:28 am · January 10th, 2011
In last week’s episode of Oscar Talk, one reader cheekily asked Anne and Kris which probable nominee they would most like to see out of the running. After much hemming and hawing, Anne landed upon Melissa Leo, while Kris stumped for (or against, rather) Annette Bening. While I’d co-sign neither of those choices, it’s just […]
Filed in: Daily
Rudin’s reasoning for Steinfeld in supporting
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:13 am · January 7th, 2011
During last night’s DVD release party for “The Social Network” I ended up in a spirited debate with producer Scott Rudin about the category placement of Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit.” Thankfully it went beyond ideas of the Hollywood star system and strategy and into the philosophy of the narrative itself. Since it’s been such […]
Filed in: Daily
FIRST-HALF FYC: Best Supporting Actress
Posted by Guy Lodge · 12:46 pm · November 30th, 2010
It’s an Oscar complaint as unfailingly annual as telecast overlength and foreign-language category blunders: with the season so geared towards the glut of prestige titles released in the year’s final quarter, standout contenders from the mist-shrouded months of spring and the previous winter have to fight that much harder to be heard – that is, […]
Filed in: Daily
