Better late than never. A reader emailed me to remind us that we never mentioned the winners of the Satellite Awards, which got lost in our holiday hiatus last month. Just in case you’ve been on tenterhooks, they’re after the cut — with “The Hurt Locker” again dominating, and a unique choice for Best Actress.
Tag: Golden Satellite Awards
-
WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Lovely Bones’ bows, ‘New Moon’ reigns
• “The Lovely Bones” finally landed this week, to decidedly mixed reviews.• Kris and Anne offered their thoughts on the film (among others) in this week’s Oscar Talk.
• In Off the Carpet, we combed through the Best Adapted Screenplay contenders (which now include “District 9”).
• “New Moon” surprised nobody with a record-breaking box-office haul last weekend, and its dominance is set to continue.
• This week’s Long Shot column surveyed the growing buzz around populist contenders in this year’s Oscar race.
-
‘Nine’ leads Golden Satellites with 11 nods
(UPDATE: Full list of categories and special awards added, including a random Best Ensemble prize for “Nine.” Also, a pointless Ten Best Films of 2009 list that leaves out some of their very own Best Picture nominees. Don’t even try to make sense of it. Thanks to Ziyad for the info.) It isn’t really worth spending too much time talking about the Golden Satellites — after all, this is the group who last year thought “Elegy” was an original screenplay written by Philip Roth.
Still, while their nominations are typically meaningless, they are, as usual, fun to consider. At the very least, unlike many other awards bodies on the precursor track, they don’t slavishly try to anticipate the Academy’s choices. When they throw in a Best Picture nod for “The Stoning of Soraya M.,” or a Best Actress mention for Catalina Saavedra, Oscar is the furthest thing from their minds. I salute them for that.
Anyway, enjoy the list and its assorted quirks and surprises — from the exclusion of Gabourey Sidibe in Best Actress to the female triple-header in Best Director to their curious classification of “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” as “animated or mixed-media.” Just don’t take it too seriously.
Best Motion Picture (Drama)
“Bright Star”
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“The Messenger”
“Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire”
“The Stoning of Soraya M.” -
In case you care…Golden Satellite winners
Talk about spreading the wealth…
Best Film (Drama): “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Film (Comedy/Musical): “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Best Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Actress (Drama): Angelina Jolie, “Changeling”
Best Actor (Drama): Richard Jenkins, “The Visitor”
Best Actor (Comedy/Musical): Ricky Gervais, “Ghost Town”
Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Shannon, “Revolutionary Road”
Best Supporting Actress: Rosemarie DeWitt, “Rachel Getting Married”
Best Original Screenplay: “The Visitor”
Best Adapted Screenplay: “Frost/Nixon”
Best Art Direction and Production Design: “Austrailia”
Best Cinematography: “Australia”
Best Costume Design: “The Duchess”
Best Editing: “Iron Man”
Best Original Score: “Slumdog Millionaire”
Best Original Song: “Another Way to Die” from “Quantum of Solace”
Best Sound (Editing and Mixing): “The Dark Knight”
Best Visual Effects: “Australia”
Best Foreign-Language Film: “Gomorrah”
Best Animated or Mixed-Media Film: “WALL-E”
Best Documentary: (tie) “Anita O’Day: The Life of a Jazz Singer” and “Man on Wire” -
WEEKLY WRAP: ‘Slumdog’ surges, ‘River’ emerges
Sorry it’s a day late, but here’s the week that was. Awards and nominations left, right and centre — the season is officially under way, folks:• “Slumdog Millionaire” emerged as a bona fide frontrunner, taking Best Picture at the season kickoff, the National Board of Review awards …
• … only days after taking top honours across the Atlantic, at the British Independent Film Awards.
• Speaking of indies, “Frozen River” also enjoyed a great week, emerging victorious at the Gotham Awards …
• … while it was also one of the top nominees for the Independent Spirit Awards.
• We took a break from the awards beat to chat to the impressive ladies of “I’ve Loved You So Long,” Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein …
• The former of whom took a gong at the European Film Awards, which were otherwise all about “Gomorrah.”
• The Annie Awards for animation revealed their nominees, with “Kung Fu Panda” surprisingly leading the field.
• Meanwhile, the mysterious Golden Satellite nominations were as head-scratching as ever.
• The first reviews finally emerged on “The Reader,” and they generally like it … from a distance.
• While the appearance of reviews doesn’t make “Gran Torino” any less of a puzzle this awards season.
• And all the while, the rumblings around “The Dark Knight” grow louder.
-
Baffling Golden Satellite noms unveiled
I’ve never been sure what purpose the Golden Satellite Awards serve. People are only dimly aware when they take place, nobody cares who wins — least of all the winners — and they manage to be irrelevant both as serious film awards and as Oscar bellwethers.Nevertheless, they roll around every year, and they’ve just announced their nominations for 2008. It’s a typically eccentric list, with nominees in several categories seemingly drawn from a hat. Some people might read something into the fact that “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” is missing from the top categories — though I commend them for the quirky inclusion of “Frozen River” in the Best Picture lineup — but these awards truly mean nothing. The list below makes for entertaining (and occasionally amusing) reading, but nothing more.
For a good indication of the Satellites’ level of credibility, check out their bizarre nominees in the Best Original Screenplay category, which include not one, but two adaptations. Most hilariously, one of them is Philip Roth, nominated as the sole writer of “Elegy.” I’m sure Roth is surprised for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that he didn’t write the screenplay. What the fuck?
Best Motion Picture, Drama
“The Reader”
“Slumdog Millionaire”
“Revolutionary Road”
“Frost/Nixon”
“Milk”
“Frozen River”