In Contention

Tag: CAS

  • ‘True Grit’ wins CAS

    The second industry organization of the night has announced, and as a tip of the hat to the SoundWorks Collection (which reported the news via Twitter), I figured I’d offer up their custom profile of the film. I knew there was some complaining about the “Inception” mix in the sound community, but I don’t know that it’ll stretch to the Academy at large, which will still likely go the route of the big blockbuster. But it’s very much between these two films.

    Our Oscar Guide on this year’s Best Sound Mixing category can be found here.

  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 53 — BAFTA fallout, foreign language and animated short races, Banksy in L.A.

    Oscar TalkWelcome 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 of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    We’ve got another 10 days left in the 2010-2011 awards season, not that anyone’s counting. That means three more episodes of Oscar Talk and Anne and I will exit stage right, but for now, there is still, as always, plenty to chew on. Let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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  • Predict the weekend in societies

    Anne and I will be briefly previewing the American Cinema Editors and Cinema Audio Society awards in tomorrow’s Oscar Talk, and maybe a little Motion Picture Sound Editors thrown in to boot.  All three will be announcing winners this weekend, while members of the Costume Designers Guild will put a bow on the guild season Tuesday night when they present their awards.

    So, let’s start with the editors.  It’s one of the oldest industry organizations, going all the way back to 1961, and this year marks its 50th anniversary.  In that 50 year existence, the Society has awarded the eventual Oscar winner for Best Film Editing 35 times.

    Additionally, 20 times their choice was also reflected in the Academy’s selection of Best Picture of the year (including four instances where the Society awarded a film that did not win Best Film Editing at the Oscars but still won Best Picture).

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  • CAS springs for ‘Hurt Locker’

    The Hurt Locker

  • Henry Selick to be honored by CAS

    Henry SelickTwo months ago Randy Thom was announced as this year’s Cinema Audio Society Lifetime Achievement Award winner.  Now comes word that Henry Selick will receive the guild’s Filmmaker Award.  Recent recipients have included Paul Mazursky, Bill Condon and Gil Cates.

    The press release, in part:

    Multi-faceted stop-motion filmmaker Henry Selick will receive the CAS Filmmaker Award at the 46th CAS Awards on February 27, 2010 at the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium-Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles.

    “The Cinema Audio Society is delighted to be honoring one of the vanguards of stop-motion animation as this year’s Filmmaker Recipient and, once again we are thrilled we have synergy between our Career Achievement Recipient Randy Thom and our Filmmaker Honoree through their collaboration on CORALINE. We look forward to another year of honoring the best in the Sound Mixing field at this year’s dinner,” said CAS President Edward L. Moskowitz.

  • Randy Thom to be feted by CAS

    Randy ThomThe press release, in part:

    Rerecording Mixer/Sound Designer, Randy Thom will receive the Cinema Audio Society’s highest accolade, the CAS Career Achievement Award, to be presented at the 46th CAS Awards on February 27th, 2010 at the Crystal Ballroom of the Millennium-Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles.

    “The Cinema Audio Society’s Career Achievement Award honors the best of the best and Randy Thom’s career spanning more than 30 years and over 75 films and numerous awards certainly warrants being honored,” stated CAS President Edward L. Moskowitz. “He has collaborated with some of the finest producers and directors on project as varied as blockbusters, independent films, cutting edge animation, commercials and videogames. His work exemplifies the perfect integration of sound with image.”

    Thom has been nominated four times by the Cinema Audio Society for his work on FORREST GUMP, JUMANJI, CONTACT and CAST AWAY and took the top honor in 1995 for FORREST GUMP. He has shared in 14 nominations for Academy Awards, winning for Best Sound Editing for THE INCREDIBLES and Best Sound for THE RIGHT STUFF and nominated for: STAR WARS: EPISODE VI-RETURN OF THE JEDI, NEVER CRY WOLF, BACKDRAFT, CONTACT, CAST AWAY, THE POLAR EXPRESS and RATATOUILLE.

    Thom began his career in film 30 years ago working on the film APOCALYPSE NOW and is currently the Director of Sound Design at Skywalker Sound.

  • ‘Slumdog’ tonight, too?

    In addition to the ADG award “Slumdog Millionaire” took yesterday, the Cinema Audio Society also bestowed it with their award in something of a surprise (I’d say).  I usually go to that ceremony, but with it being Valentine’s Day, other duties beckoned.

    I will, however, be at tonight’s ACE Eddies ceremony, so look for a from-the-floor posting when the winner is announced.  Are we expecting anything other than “Slumdog” here?  And for comedy, I don’t know.  “Tropic Thunder” maybe?  Personally, I’d give it to “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.”

    Pretty quiet for the most part otherwise, but let us all wish Guy a happy birthday.  I expect he’s face deep in his 10th pint across the pond by now.  Better be, anyway.

  • OFF THE CARPET: From the horse’s mouth

    Kate Winslet at the 66th Annual Golden Globe AwardsThe last two weeks have been a leaf blower to the debris an awards season can accumulate.  Individuals with some real say in the ultimate Oscar picture have finally gone on the record, painting a rather clear picture of the industry’s favorite films of 2008.

    But before diving into the realities of the various guild announcements, it is probably worth touching upon the gleeful diversions of the Critics’ Choice Awards and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Golden Globe Awards.

    These are the two culminating critics soirees, capping off the annual critical kudos sprint through December and early January.  Both proudly declare themselves Oscar harbingers but only one seems to find itself decided from a critical mindset (even if that mindset is still warped by pegging a zeitgeist).  The other is, as always, a drunken time amongst industry friends that goes its own way.

    But dare I say it, this year the HFPA may have actually raised the bar for the Academy.  After years of embarrassing nominations announcements and sometimes bewildering winner choices, the group awarded a slate of contenders last night that stuck out as noble and, shockingly, novel.

    Can the Academy’s membership reach out to Mickey Rourke and meet him half way like he has clearly done this season to an industry that has shunned him for so many years?  Can they find a way to spread the kudos love while an inevitable “Slumdog” sweep pushes through the evening of February 22?

    Moreover, can AMPAS have the balls to follow in the HFPA’s footsteps with a double win for Kate Winslet, arguably deserving this year and a move that would be inarguable as a hell of an apology for years of Oscar losses?  The actress joined Sigourney Weaver last night as one of only two actresses to win a pair of Golden Globe awards for film performances in one evening.  Your move, Oscar.

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  • Cinema Audio Society nominees

    Cinema Audio Society awardThe five contenders for the 2009 Cinema Audio Society (CAS) Awards are:

    “The Dark Knight”
    “Iron Man”
    “Quantum of Solace”
    “Slumdog Millionaire”
    “WALL-E”

    So this is the second “Defiance” snub that has surprised me so far, following Eduardo Serra coming up short with the lensers earlier today.

    “The Dark Knight,” “Iron Man” and especially “WALL-E” were certainly expected, but the show of support for “Slumdog Millionaire” indicates the deep industry love this film has going for it.  I wouldn’t necessarily expect this to translate to a Best Sound Oscar nomination, given the fates of films like “Finding Neverland,” “Crash,” “Babel” and “Into the Wild,” Best Picture frontrunners that scored with CAS but missed with AMPAS (though “Wild” is something of an anomaly there).

    Then again, “Slumdog” is a much more craftily conceived piece of filmmaking than those efforts.  I thought the sound was amazing, personally.  So perhaps this could be the first year since 2003 that the guild matches the Academy’s picks 5/5.

    The inclusion of “Quantum of Solace” is particularly interesting, though.  “Casino Royale” had a solid showing in the 2006 guild circuit, scoring with the art directors, costume designers, sound editors and even the visual effects artists.  But the mixers in the CAS gave it the cold shoulder where a lot of us thought the film had its best shot.  That the Society would tip its hat to the sequel is somewhat telling, I’d say.

    With that in mind, I’d be tempted to predict this quintet for Oscar as well.  The only Edward Zwick movie to miss a CAS nomination and turn up in the Academy’s tally was “Legends of the Fall” in 1994.  So there is still hope for mixing legends (and branch favorites) Anna Behlmer and Andy Nelson.  But the duo also have two other contenders in play: “Australia” and “Cloverfield,” which might be leaving their colleagues with too many choices.

    There are a number of other possible surprise nominees in the mix, all of them featuring respected sound mixing talent.  Add to the aforementioned “Australia,” “Defiance” and “Cloverfield” (my pick for the best work here in 2008) “Body of Lies” and “Valkyrie,” and you’re still looking at a number of possibilities.  And let’s not forget another Best Picture frontrunner, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” strong in this arena in a number of sequences.  But I would have expected a mention here if it was in the cards for Oscar.

    Like I said, this is a smart list to bet on, with “Defiance” as the spoiler.

  • Cinema Audio Society to vet Dennis Maitland, Paul Mazursky

    The Cinema Audio SocietyThe Cinema Audio Society (CAS) has announced plans to honor esteemed but wrongfully Oscar-snubbed sound mixer Dennis Maitland and Oscar-nominated writer and director Paul Mazursky at this year’s CAS Awards, set to be held on February 14.  Here is the press release, in part:

    In keeping with the synergy of the three previous CAS Filmmaker and Career Achievement recipients, Maitland and Mazursky both have distinguished individual careers which have overlapped on many projects resulting in wonderful collaborations on several films including the Oscar® Nominated AN UNMARRIED WOMAN, TEMPEST, WILLIE AND PHIL and MOSCOW ON THE HUDSON.

    In making this announcement, CAS President Edward L. Moskowitz said “We are thrilled to present both our Career Achievement and our Filmmaker Award to two consummate filmmakers who have contributed so much to filmmaking and brought us so many enjoyable and prestigious projects. This is what the CAS awards endeavor to acknowledge and this year we have hit another home run.”

    Maitland has worked on more than 80 feature films including the critically acclaimed and Oscar® nominated: AS GOOD AS IT GETS, THE PRINCE OF TIDES, MOONSTRUCK, PRIZZI’S HONOR, …AND JUSTICE FOR ALL, LENNY, THE PAWNBROKER, THE WAY WE WERE, THREE DAYS OF THE CONDOR and SEARCHING FOR BOBBY FISCHER to name a few

    As the 27th recipient of the Cinema Audio Society’s highest honor, Mr. Maitland joins an illustrious group of past honorees that include: Ray Dolby, Robert Altman, Jack Solomon, John Bonner, Bill Varney, Don Rogers, Walter Murch, Jim Webb, Richard Portman, Tomlinson Holman, Mike Minkler, Ed Greene and Dennis Sands.