• “Why, in troubled times, does America turn to a hard-drinking, half-blind US marshal?” [The Guardian]
• Bob Verini takes the pro/con route on each Best Picture hopeful. [Variety]
• Larry Rohter chats with “Dogtooth” director (and unlikely Oscar nominee) Yorgos Lanthimos. [The Carpetbagger]
And with that, “True Grit” crosses $150 million domestic and keeps chugging. “The King’s Speech” moved up a notch in rank and still has $100 million in its sights (and has also leaped-frogged a few 2011 debuts in the process). “Black Swan” brings up the rear and one more week will get it across that mark, while “The Fighter” is just on the outside of the top 10, aimed at $90 million for now. And “Tangled,” I notice, is crawling toward a $200 million mark it’ll likely never reach.
Now, enough of all that. Super Bowl.
(Courtesy: Exhibitor Relations)
In a busy night for industry awards, the Art Directors’ Guild also dished out their trophies yesterday. “Inception” claimed its second Guild prize in one night as it triumphed in the Fantasy category — fending off fellow Oscar nominee “Alice in Wonderland,” which would be a surefire winner for “most art direction,” in the process.
I’m pleased the elaborate-but-ugly stylings of the latter film weren’t rewarded, though I’m struggling to get critic Mike McCahill’s description of “Inception”‘s production design as resembling a “revolving Best Western” out of my head.
The other two categories were more predictable, as “The King’s Speech” took Period honors, while “Black Swan” triumphed in the Contemporary field — a win that places at least some balm on the wound of last week’s Oscar snub. (Rewatching Darren Aronofsky’s film a few days ago renewed my dismay that the Academy’s bias against modern-day work in this category struck again: I just can’t see how Stuart Craig’s work on the latest “Harry Potter” chapter is more inspired than Thérèse DePrez’s intricately coded melding of stage, domestic and psychological spaces.)
I’ve been, unintentionally, taking note of the various tactics this year’s Best Picture hopefuls have been using as phase two barrels ahead and members have ballots in hand.
The smartest stroke, I think, was The Weinstein Company following up the “Some Movies You See, Others You Feel” campaign with a “Find Your Voice” push for “The King’s Speech.” It’s obviously two-fold. Yes, it indicates the narrative of the film, but it also works wonderfully in a “don’t let anyone tell you what to vote for” kind of way.
Meanwhile, Sony is perhaps reaching a bit to find its own campaign voice for “The Social Network,” as “One Movie Connects Us All” is a bit faux-profound. Show of hands of who’s mother isn’t on Facebook? But that making-of documentary (which is available online, on demand and came in disc form in the trades this week) was certainly a smart play.
This was making the rounds last week but I never got around to it. A great peak behind the veil on some stellar below-the-line work that was sadly ignored by the Academy next week.
Well, if you didn’t get the message after last night’s DGA result, SAG’s Best Ensemble award just underlined it for you — the Best Picture race is over. In the 16 years that the three Guilds have co-existed, only one film has taken the big prize from the DGA, PGA and SAG and not won the Best Picture Oscar — and “Apollo 13” was handicapped by its lack of a Best Director Oscar bid. No such obstacle in this case: “The King’s Speech” has it in the bag.
So, it seems, do a couple of other folks. It was a highly predictable night, as the de facto frontrunner prevailed in each of the four individual acting categories.
Colin Firth, of course, continued his march to the Oscar podium with another impeccably wry, self-deprecating speech — “I’d like to thank security for letting me into the building,” he quipped, earning the night’s biggest laugh. With his victory, “The King’s Speech” becomes the first film to take Best Ensemble and a lead acting gong since “Chicago” eight years ago; this time, however, it won’t lose the latter on February 27.
It looks like “The King’s Speech,” which went much wider this weekend, could quietly become a $100-million grossing movie. Meanwhile, that re-expansion for “The Social Network” didn’t make much of a dent and it seems increasingly unlikely it’ll cross that mark, leaving “Black Swan,” “Inception,” “Toy Story 3,” “True Grit” and potentially “The Fighter” as the only Best Picture nominees to ultimately get there.
In more depressing news, “The Way Back” will barely make $3 million when all is said and done.
(Courtesy: Exhibitor Relations)
I nearly forgot tomorrow brings the DGA awards. I thought they were next weekend. Anyway, I guess this can be your place to offer up predictions. I’ll say this, though. I don’t think David Fincher has this in the bag. At all. Ballots were due in today, by the way, which means the Oscar nominations could have an impact. Maybe last minute voters want to spring for Christopher Nolan after he was unceremoniously snubbed by the Academy?
Fincher’s dominance in the critics awards circuit is unmistakable. But now you’re talking about 10,000 people rather than a 30-person media organization (and, in most cases, much smaller than that). “Inception” is a populist film, but so, too, is “The King’s Speech.” And I think I’m just brazen enough to predict Tom Hooper to win.
Yep, I am. I think Darren Aronofsky deserves it above all comers, but that’s unlikely. And Fincher would be my second pick. He could well win, and “The Fighter” could take the SAG ensemble prize, blowing the race wide open (for some). But no, I’m going to put my chips on a sweep for “The King’s Speech” that started with PGA, will continue tomorrow night and keep going through Sunday with an ensemble win. What about you?
[Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]
So the 83rd Annual Academy Award nominations were finally announced this week, and I did fairly well in handicapping the nominees. Outside of Best Sound Mixing, I never missed more than one nominee in a category. Unfortunately, there were no categories where I scored 100% (apart from Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay). Oh well.
The massive overall tally for “The King’s Speech” resulted from a plethora of nominations in the crafts fields. “True Grit” and “Inception” got all but one plausible tech nomination (with one very notable exception for each, discussed below). “TRON Legacy”’s tally, on the other hand, has got to be considered a disappointment as must, to a lesser extent, those of “Black Swan” and “127 Hours.” The complete shut-out for “Shutter Island” was also somewhat of a surprise, but other branches saw fit to make Oscar nominees of some unlikely titles.
Regardless, it was nice to see many deserving crafts artists get their due. With the throat-clearing out of the way, I’ll now give short reactions to – and previews of – each below-the-line field.
For me, one of the most disappointing below-the-line Oscar snubs on Tuesday morning was that of “Black Swan” in Best Costume Design — not only because Amy Westcott’s intelligent contemporary design work was thoroughly deserving of notice (more so than “The Tempest,” on which the great Sandy Powell had something of an off-day), but because of the concern that a credit controversy, over which she had no control, might have cost her votes.
If you missed the story, fashion house Rodarte worked on the film’s stage costumes but weren’t eligible for joint awards consideration due to Guild rules — and voiced their dissatisfaction with the situation in a manner that led to some accusing Westcott of taking credit for their work.
Now, in a detailed interview with the website Clothes on Film, Westcott openly expresses her own dismay at the Rodarte tangle, and explains that theirs was a more collaborative partnership than has thus far been implied.
On the face of it, the nominees for the 83rd annual Academy Awards seemed fairly unremarkable. Aside from the deafening nature of not hearing Christopher Nolan’s name in the line-up for Best Director (the only true shock of the major categories), everything seemed to be within the expected parameters (even Javier Bardem sliding in, which seemed, increasingly, like a very real possibility these last few weeks).
But then I got to looking through the craft category nominations and the real interesting beats started to surface. First and foremost, “The King’s Speech” led the field with a whopping 12 nominations, even scoring in the Best Sound Mixing category. That’s major, to say the least. And enough, along with the PGA win, to consider it the frontrunner to win the Oscar for Best Picture.
“True Grit” wasn’t far behind with 10 nominations, including a bid for the Coen brothers in Best Director after all. Hailee Steinfeld stayed in Best Supporting Actress and Bridges was chalked up, but again, let me go back to the more intriguing crafts fields.
Two weeks ago, one of our readers, KevinK, asked the following question for Oscar Talk:
What do you think of the atmosphere that comes out of this late stage of the awards season? I think the atmosphere is really toxic and really flies in the face of what we all care about in the first place: a love of film.
We didn’t get to it on the air. So I saved it. Then Thursday, Guy touched on some profound textures in his final pre-nod column. It was one of his best, a sound consideration of the posterity of an awards season above its pageantry.
The Yin and Yang of things is what struck me. To Kevin’s point, the environment around these films is more and more enhanced or diminished by steadily increasing media attention — this outlet being no exception. He went on to note a well-regarded critic’s perceived change of heart on one of last year’s front-running contenders due to its consistent registration during the season, as if a virginal opinion had been sullied by the air of competition and acclaim.
Thanks to everyone for participating in our “Black Swan” music box contest. It’s tough to illuminate the pro and con of a movie and I think everyone gave it a great stab.
Ultimately, I was most convinced by Bryan and Cat Scott’s entries. So each of you drop me a line with your address and we’ll get your prizes in the mail. Winning entries after the jump.
She’s got two entries on the box office chart and a headwind going into phase two. Nice ink for “The King’s Speech” being in the top four after last night’s big win. “True Grit” closes in on $150 million.
(Courtesy: Exhibitor Relations)
Yesterday, I began my very far-fetched (and in some cases, frankly impossible) wishlist for Tuesday’s Oscar nominations with my favorite achievements in the technical categories. Today, I offer up my picks in the top races, and I don’t mind telling you things got pretty agonizing in some categories.
“Why can’t I have 15 nominees for Best Supporting Actress?” one half of my brain asked earlier this morning, as I once more marvelled that any pundits could once have deemed that particular race “weak.” Cooler instincts prevailed, but it bears repeating just what a staggering, and pleasingly varied, year it’s been for female performances on both sides of the category divide. I was also surprised to see how many performances stood tall from films that weren’t necessarily on their stars’ level — I like to think there aren’t too many coattail picks here.
I’ve veered from Academy format in one respect: I’ve dispensed with a Best Foreign Language Film category. Not only do I dislike the award in principle — it’s a different language, not a different medium — but my general picks are heavy enough on foreign fare that a ghetto category seemed superfluous. Check out my picks after the cut, and share your thoughts in the comments.
For the past two years running, I’ve celebrated Oscar Nomination Eve by assembling my own ideal (and, usually, incredibly far-fetched) ballot, so here we go again. As well as a kind of last-ditch prayer to the Oscar gods, I also look on it as a salute to the worthy contenders who haven’t a hope in hell of hearing their names read out on Tuesday morning.
At the request of some readers, I’ve bent the rules to accommodate several titles unfairly ineligible for Oscar consideration in any category: most of you are aware of the arcane ruling that has denied “A Prophet” the chance to ever compete in a non-ghetto category, while the TV airings of “Red Riding” and “Carlos” keep them out of the game too. I’m less clear on why the likes of “White Material” and “Fish Tank” aren’t on the Academy’s list of eligible titles, but they aren’t, and I must make my peace with that.
Anyway, screw ’em: this ballot represents what I found most awards-worthy from all the theatrical features released in the US last year, and you can’t get fairer than that. I’ll begin, as usual, with the ten technical categories — in which I was pleased to end up with a healthy spread of 33 films across 48 slots. Jump in after the cut, and share your own thoughts in the comments. (Also, check out Kris’s very different ideal ballot here.)
Yesterday I began a final look at the crafts categories. Today, a look at the four remaining fields: Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Film Editing.
BEST ART DIRECTION
The precursors of the BFCA, BAFTA and Art Directors Guild have been fairly consistent in citing four titles in this category. Last year’s winner, Robert Stromberg, seems poised to dip again for creation of a 3D world on Tim Burton’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Eve Stewart, on the other hand, will likely be returning to the fold after an 11 year absence for “The King’s Speech.”
Guy Hendrix Dyas and Jess Gonchor also have got all necessary precursors, and have fashioned surefire Best Picture nominees, in “Inception” and “True Grit” respectively. It is true that they have had difficulty being nominated in the past but Gonchor has also never had such an Oscar-friendly opportunity, whereas the impressive, integral-to-the-story nature of Dyas’s work has been especially embraced by the precursors.
• The French lose their marbles not just over the exclusion of “Of Gods and Men” from this year’s foreign film shortlist, but the INCLUSION of Algeria’s “Outside the Law.” [The Carpetbagger]
• Elizabeth Snead talks to a number of costumers on this year’s awards circuit [Deadline]
• Is this Banksy? [Cinematical]