In Contention

Tag: Oscars

  • On the ballots wasted under new Best Pic rules

    Since the Academy announced its latest mathematical tweak to the Best Picture category last week, few have taken against the adjustment in principle — in a race notionally about “best,” it seems fair that films liked by many but loved by few should be left out, even if there’s no clear way of knowing which films that might hinder. (Many are taking it for granted that the new system would have spared us a “The Blind Side” nomination last year — but can we be so sure that fewer than 1 in 20 voters named it their favorite film of the year? I’m not.)

    The downside of the change, as The Wrap’s Steve Pond explains, is that the new-model Best Picture slate will likely end up representing a smaller portion of Academy members than the previous one. The beauty of the old system, which redistributed the votes of those members whose top choices hadn’t made the cut, is that nearly every ballot wound up contributing to the final list of nominees. Even if a member’s vote eventually went to, say, his fifth-favorite film, he still exerted a measure of influence on the outcome — encouraging for voters whose ballots are dominated by less Oscar-friendly fare.

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  • On the Academy’s other rule changes

    With the big news out of the way, there are a few other annual house-cleaning rule alterations that ought to be addressed.

    First up, the Best Animated Feature Film category — which seems to get a face-lift in the rule book every summer — will now have anywhere from three to five nominees. As it was, in a year with 16 qualifying titles, five nominees would be selected. Less than the magic number 16 would yield just three nominees. Now, if 13 to 15 films qualify, four of them will be nominated by the branch. Under that, I’m assuming it’s just three as always.

    VERDICT: I’m okay with this, I suppose, but the qualifying numbers still feel quite arbitrary. Still, this keep quality-heavy films that happen to be quantity-thin for animated output from being slighted.

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  • AMPAS shakes up the Best Picture scenario

    The Academy has added a new twist to the Best Picture category, which was shaken up two years ago with the expansion of the field from five to 10 nominees. According to a late-breaking press release Monday, the organization has elected the field to include anywhere from five to 10 nominees, depending upon what percentage of number one votes contenders receive during the ballot-counting process.

    Think of it as kinda/sorta like the Best Original Song category, which can have anywhere from two to five nominees, but in order to place, a hopeful must first land a certain “score” from the branch. In this instance, the “score” would be the percentage of number one votes received by a given film, with 5% being the minimum. Assuming they hold onto the rule, we could have different years with different numbers of Best Picture nominees, etc.

    It’s interesting because the race could shake out predictably — given that a handful of films are agreed upon leading up to the nominations announcement, with one or two already conceded as barely making the cut — or it could be ignited even more with a dash to squeeze into that top percentile. Who knows? But I’m a BIG fan of this measure. It seems like a happy medium between the exclusivity of five nominations and the perceived diminishing of the honor of 10. And maybe even a bit more dialed in. Not to mention, the resulting number of nominees could be a nice representation of the Academy’s stance on an overall year of film. Nicely done.

    Full press release follows…

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  • Gone fishin’

    And so we come to the end of the 2010-2011 Oscar season.  Like Jerry said, what a long, strange trip it’s been.

    Naturally, I want to thank all of the readers who make this an engaging and fun place to come to every day.  I’ve received a lot of generous notes, Tweets and comments in recent weeks regarding the overall culture of the site this season, but I really do attribute much of that to the audience.

    You’re only as good as your readership in this game, I think, but you do get what you put out there.  For our part, we strive to put out a level evaluation of a silly process while infusing it with enough of our own passions and personal considerations to hopefully steer it clear of analytical boredom, all the while refraining from taking any of it too seriously.  It’s the only way I know how to do it, frankly.  And that’s what we got back from you, as well.  So thank you for that.

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  • Ranking Oscar’s 41 features (minus one)

    Every year, when I finally get around to everything, I like to toss up my arbitrary ranking of the year’s Oscar-nominated feature films (and invite you to do the same).

    There were 41 films nominated this year. One of them I didn’t see and won’t until some time this year, I imagine. But here’s the top 10. The rest after the jump. Feel free to rank what you’ve seen in the comments section if you like.

    1. “Exit Through the Gift Shop”
    2. “Another Year”
    3. “Black Swan”
    4. “The Social Network”
    5. “Toy Story 3”
    6. “The Way Back”
    7. “Blue Valentine”
    8. “True Grit”
    9. “Inception”
    10. “The King’s Speech”

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  • Reminder: Join our Picktainment Oscar pool!

    If you haven’t joined our Oscar pool at Picktainment.com, you can do so by going here.  Sign up for an account if you’re new and then go back to this link and start making your picks.

    I’ve completed the weighting of the categories.  I had to settle on something because the poll stopped working randomly on that last suggestion thread, so I just went with a 1-4 point scale based on perceived difficulty to predict…

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  • Charting Oscar’s ups and downs

    Some of you may have been following Movieline’s Oscar Index. It has been a nice way to visually track the Oscar race all season, and now, they’ve put all of them together with the following time lapse video, showing all of Oscar’s ups and downs along the way:

  • Oscar the Grouch’s Oscar picks

    (Courtesy: AOL)

  • Training continues

  • Oscar’s class of 2010

    (Click for larger version)

  • Nominees luncheon LIVE Q&A

    Wrapped now. Repeat in the embed below. Best quote, from James Franco:

    It was funny to me when the Academy made the announcement, because there was a lot of, ‘Oh, an obvious ploy by the Academy to bring in younger viewers.’ Yeah, duh. Is that a bad thing?

    Jesse Eisenberg had some zingers, too.

  • Ballots are out

    It’s all happening.  Via AMPAS press release, in part:

    Final ballots for the 83rd Academy Awards® were mailed today (February 2) to the 5,755 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

    Completed ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) by 5 p.m. Tuesday, February 22. Ballots received after the deadline will not be counted.

    Listed on the ballots are nominees in 19 Awards categories. Separate ballots for five categories (Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject, Foreign Language Film, Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film) will be distributed after verification of mandatory member attendance at screenings.

    Following the tabulation of the votes, the winners’ names will be placed in sealed envelopes to be opened on Oscar Night®, Sunday, February 27.

  • The In Contention Oscar pool

    You might recall the last few years we’ve used AwardsPicks.com’s Oscar pool.  The site has changed names and is now Picktainment.com, but it’s pretty much the same interface.  We’ve already got this year’s pool up and running, so head on over and make your picks.

    I haven’t settled on a way to weight the categories yet, so I’m open to suggestions.

  • Nominations live stream and reactions thread

    Alright folks, AMPAS president Tom Sherak and actress Mo’Nique will be announcing the major category nominations in, oh, 20 minutes or so.  The full list will be available at Oscar.com immediately after (though sometimes during) that announcement.

    I’ll leave this space for your instant reactions and will post up my own extended thoughts shortly thereafter.  Anne and I will be doing a four-way Oscar Talk with Peter Knegt and Guy Lodge later this morning, and Guy will circle back later in the afternoon with his extended thoughts on the announcement.  But, for now, here’s your playground.  Check out a live stream of the announcement (which begins at 5:30am PT, 8:30 am PT) after the jump.  More to come shortly.

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  • 1/25 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Final predix edition!

    We’re just a handful of ticks on the clock before the Academy unveils its list of nominees for this year’s Oscars.  And I’m up way too early.  But for today’s round-up, it seemed like a good idea to point you to all the final predictions popping up from pundits across the web, so here’s what the “experts” are thinking…

    • Dave Karger [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Tom O’Neil [Gold Derby]

    • Nathaniel Rogers [The Film Experience]

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  • What is the most difficult category to predict this year?

    In your opinion.  I’ll be using the most agreed-upon answers as part of a contest Monday, so speak up.

  • Mo’Nique to join Sherak in announcing Oscar nominees

    Just when we thought Mo’Nique was done with the season, she’s baaaack.  The press release, in part:

    Nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards® will be announced on Tuesday, January 25, by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Oscar-winning actress and Academy member Mo’Nique.

    Sherak and Mo’Nique will unveil the nominations in 10 of the 24 categories at a 5:30 a.m. news conference at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills, where hundreds of media representatives from around the world will be gathered. Nominations information for all categories will be distributed simultaneously to news media in attendance and via the Internet on the official Academy Awards website, www.oscar.com.

  • 83rd Oscarcast posters revealed

    I always look forward to the official poster(s) for a given Academy Awards ceremony.  I remember being giddy at the Alex Ross-crafted image (however cheesy “The Gold Knight Returns” might have been as a tagline) from a few years ago.  This year we have four “inviting” you to the show.  Check them out in full after the jump.

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