In Contention

Tag: Exit Through the Gift Shop

  • OFF THE CARPET: Sun came up

    Steven Spielberg couldn’t have put it more concisely during his presentation of the Best Picture category last night.  To paraphrase, he noted that whichever films did not happen to win Best Picture this year would join the ranks of numerous classics of the medium.

    Was it preemptive damage control?  I hope not.  Why be apologetic?  Was it lecturing?  Maybe a bit, and I think a great many needed to hear it again (unfortunately).  But it felt so incredibly inside baseball that it was probably completely unnecessary.  After all, a very popular film won Best Picture this year.  It seems silly to address a media concern (albeit one shared by plenty of cineastes).

    Ultimately, the season ended where many thought it might, going way back to the early days of September.  Some held out hope that David Fincher could take the lead in his field on respect and admiration alone, but Best Picture and Best Director will always be a better bet in lock-step.  The real post-show discussion focused on the ceremony itself, which was, mercifully, a short affair this year.  Just over three hours.  But they were three kind of excruciating hours.

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  • At not with

    No reason, I just love this shot of Thierry Guetta, aka Mr. Brainwash, from yesterday’s Spirit Awards ceremony (snapped by Jeff Wells).

  • Guess again: final predictions and preferences

    “Oh Sister, I have such doubts!”

    I’m not given to quoting overwrought (if Oscar-nominated) ecclesiastical dramas at the best of times, but let’s face it, this is not the best of times. There comes a time in every Oscar-watcher’s life when he has to accept the things he cannot change — or simply stop changing the many, many things he can — and commit to some bloody predictions already.

    That time has come particularly late for me this year, just a few hours ahead of the ceremony that will finally answer such burning world issues as whether Colleen Atwood will win her third Oscar tonight, or Jenny Beavan her second. I had my reasons for stalling — only this afternoon did I complete my viewing of all the short film contenders, meaning I have now seen (or at least skimmed) everything up for an award tonight save, unavoidably, “Country Strong.” (Sorry, Gwyneth, but I’m rooting for ya anyway.)

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  • The In Contention Readership Ballot

    Today’s the big day. No more Oscar Guide, no more polls, just a few choice hours left in the season and then, the 83rd annual. (And not a moment too soon.)

    I appreciate everyone participating in the daily polls this month and last, which accompanied each of our Oscar Guide entries. It offers us a nice glance at the majority opinion of how the race SHOULD go down, so I’m happy to offer up, for the second-straight year, the In Contention Readership Ballot.

    There were a handful of frisky choices this year, though not too many. Your big winners were Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” and David Fincher’s “The Social Network” (which is owed Best Picture by your estimation).  Both films racked up five of your wins.  Nothing else was close. And, interestingly enough, the film likely to walk away with the most awards tonight? It only deserves one prize in your book: Best Actor.

    Check out the ballot after the jump, and good luck to your favorites tonight.

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  • Big night for ‘Black Swan’ at Spirit Awards

    Kris was on the scene at the Independent Spirit Awards today, and will, I’m sure, have some first-hand commentary to add later. For now, let me lead the cheers for “Black Swan,” which finally had its moment in the sun this awards season.

    Two years after its sort-of-sibling “The Wrestler” nabbed the top prize, the surprise crossover hit took four awards, including Best Feature and Best Director for Darren Aronofsky — the third Spirit win of his career, though his first for directing.

    The only other multiple winner of the ceremony was fellow Best Picture Oscar nominee “Winter’s Bone,” which took a well-deserved brace of supporting trophies for John Hawkes and Dale Dickey — the film’s only reward for a field-leading haul of seven nominations. “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” meanwhile, was a popular victor in the Best Documentary category.

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  • To the highest bidder

    As you know, Banksy has been all over town making his presence known in the lead-up to the Oscars.  All These Wonderful Things documentary know-it-all A.J. Schnack happened by one of the artist’s latest pieces 10 minutes before it was tagged and 20 minutes before the owner of the building started the inevitable removal procedure with an endgame that fully proves Banksy’s point in “Exit Through the Gift Shop.” Here’s a photo:

    (Check out Schnack’s recently posted analysis of the doc feature fields for both the Oscars and the Spirits here.)

    [Photo: A.J. Schnack]

  • The five categories giving me hell

    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 copious supplies of food and alcohol for my second annual hotel-suite Oscar party (sorry, the guest list is full) and somehow finding time to write a final predictions piece.

    Before I can check off that last task, however, I actually have to settle on some final predictions — and despite the presence of solid frontrunners in most key categories, this year is giving me more trouble than most. For a race that, only a couple of weeks ago, seemed smothered in blanket affection for a single film, other possibilities have opened up that unusually equalize the possibilities of both a titanic sweep and a widely splintered share-a-thon.

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  • Revisiting the veracity of ‘Gift Shop’

    With more pundits latching onto the possibility of “Exit Through the Gift Shop” taking an atypical (and for the Academy, potentially awkward) Oscar win on Sunday, the LA Times’s Jason Felch is raking one final comb through the question of the film’s authenticity.

    With Banksy, Thierry Guetta (aka the film’s subject, Mr. Brainwash) and Joachim Levy (a filmmaker and collaborator of Guetta’s threatening to sue Banksy for insufficiently crediting his contribution to the project) all vouching for the truth of the events depicted in the film, no concrete reason has yet surfaced not to take it at face value — but doubts persist, largely because of Banksy’s own established reputation as an artistic prankster.

    Some like to float the theory that Guetta is Banksy — one easily dashed by the former’s public records and the number of journalists who have, in confidence, interviewed the latter over the years.

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  • ‘Social,’ ‘Alice’ win ACE awards

    Alright, so I should have gone with what I said was the safe bet for the ACE drama Eddie.  Rather than making history by awarding a film not nominated for the editing Oscar and giving it to the truly deserving contender, “Inception,” the editors decided to rethink it and go with “The Social Network” instead.  Fair enough.

    I was, however, correct in assuming “Alice in Wonderland” had a better play on the win than the other comedy hopefuls.  “Toy Story 3” triumphed in the animated field as expected, while I was also on the money with “Exit Through the Gift Shop” winning in the doc category.  I’ll take three out of four.

    “Inception” could, however, take the Cinema Audio Society award for sound mixing, which is what most are expecting.  More on that when those awards wrap up shortly.

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  • 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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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Documentary (Feature)

    It has been noted what a solid year of documentary filmmaking 2010 was. It was well-reflected in the Academy’s initial narrowing of the feature field to 15 contenders and is certainly evident in the ultimate quintet of nominees, each of them informative and bold in their own ways.

    Still, it came as quite a shock to many that the perceived frontrunner of the year, Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for Superman,” was left off the list. Theories run rampant, but at the end of the day, it seemed the branch just didn’t go for the film’s stretching of truths and hastily boiled-down rhetoric. Nevertheless, an opportunity may have been missed to shine a light on the issue of education reform, which is still a considerable one.

    The nominees are:

    “Exit through the Gift Shop” (Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz)
    “Gasland” (Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic)
    “Inside Job” (Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs)
    “Restrepo” (Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)
    “Waste Land” (Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley)

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  • I know the feeling

    More of Banksy’s hijacking of Los Angeles in the run-up to Oscar at his official site.

  • 2/10 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Gasland’ director fires back, Wahlberg/Russell on Aronofsky, hoping Banksy stays away

    • Mark Wahlberg and David O. Russell on Darren Aronofsky’s departure from “The Fighter.” [Inside Movies]

    • Eric Kohn writes up the Oscar shorts. [indieWIRE]

    • Josh Fox fires back at gas industry accusations about the accuracy of his documentary, “Gasland.” [Facebook]

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  • Someone’s campaigning for Banksy

    Following its semi-surprise Oscar nomination last week, “Exit Through the Gift Shop” has received a nifty publicity boost from this prominent Banksy-honoring mural (pictured right, and in more detail after the jump) that went up recently in Los Angeles. Although some were quick to assume it’s the work of the man himself, all signs point instead to Mr. Brainwash — the Banksy-mentored street artist who emerges as the hapless protagonist of the documentary.

    The resulting is-it-or-isn’t-it discussion neatly echoes the conversation around the film as a whole — and since Banksy can hardly work the campaign circuit himself, at least someone’s doing on behalf of the film.

    Meanwhile, the more I think about this particularly Oscar race, the more I think there’s something to Kris’s prediction that it’s the inevitably absent Banksy who will emerge victorious on February 27. This is, after all, a category on which voters are required to see all five nominees before checking off their ballots — a situation where the film’s eccentricity could work in its favor.

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  • 1/26 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Facebook is over it, ‘Superman’ snub “myths,” an all-white acting class

    • Facebook on the film’s eight-nomination haul: “We’re over it, thanks.  Trying to build the future here.” [Hollywood Reporter]

    • A.J. Schnack attempts to unravel the myths behind the “Waiting for Superman” snub. [All These Wonderful Things]

    • Patrick Goldstein notes the (anticipated) lack of color in this year’s acting categories. [The Big Picture]

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  • Oscar nominations: the good, the good and the good

    Even when they aren’t being read out with gale-force enthusiasm by Mo’Nique, the Oscar nominations tend to attack you with breathless speed that you need at least half an hour to decide how you feel about them at all. As usual, this morning’s announcement found me bouncing from one split-second reaction to another: Yay! No! What? That? Why? Who’s missing? What did she say? That? No! Did I call that? Yay!

    As Kate Winslet would say in such situations: “Gather.” And now that I’ve stepped back, gathered and taken into account that no Oscar nomination slate in history has been without its disappointments, I can honestly say that I’m more happy than not with the list in front of me.

    Some of the day’s biggest surprises didn’t elicit much of an emotional reaction from me. My eyebrows rose as high as anyone’s over Christopher Nolan’s latest failure to secure a Best Director nomination — is he the first man in Oscar history to fall three times at this hurdle after being DGA-nominated? — though I always said he couldn’t be regarded as a sure thing.

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  • Post-nod winner predictions (and a new poll)

    Did you hear?  The Oscar nominations were announced this morning.  And there was a lot to chew on.  (And boy can we be grateful for that.)

    With a full slate of contenders in front of us, it seemed only right to go ahead and offer up the latest set of winner predictions.  They are indicated by asterisk in the sidebar and are listed out in full after the jump.

    After roughly a week of falling into the logic (and blaring rhetoric) suggesting “The Social Network” would turn its critics run into Oscar gold, I’m back to my instincts (and, judging by its nomination haul, the will of the Academy) with a bet on “The King’s Speech.” Not only that, but I think we could see a mini-sweep for the film, as a couple of potentially formidable competitors were ousted from the nominations in a few craft fields.

    Of course, things could change.  But I’m sensing a momentum shift, and it’s frankly one we could have expected was around the corner.

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  • My dream Oscar ballot, part two

    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.

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