In Contention

Tag: Susanne Bier

  • New AMPAS invitees include Sorkin, Hooper… and Beyoncé

    The annual announcement of the new members invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences — the latest batch of industry pros we get to blame for next year’s Oscar results — is a moment that always prompts as much satisfied head-nodding as bewildered head-scratching.

    The latter action isn’t always in response to unworthy choices (though I imagine many will deem the inclusion of, say, relatively unproven comedian-turned-movie-star Russell Brand premature), but more to the tardiness of others: every year, I find myself surprised that so-and-so wasn’t already a member. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the first time they’ve been asked — not everyone accepts the invitation.

    I’m surprised, for example, that one of this year’s most esteemed Oscar champs, screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, is only now being brought into the fold. He’s one of a number of 2010 winners on this year’s list of 178 newcomers, including directors Tom Hooper and Susanne Bier, documentarian Charles Ferguson, writer David Seidler, editor Angus Wall, short filmmaker Luke Matheny and “The King’s Speech” producers Iain Canning and Gareth Unwin. A host of this year’s nominees are also joining, among them actors Jesse Eisenberg, Jennifer Lawrence, John Hawkes and Jacki Weaver, as well as female writer-directors Lisa Cholodenko and Debra Granik.

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  • 2/21 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Seidler’s Oscar virgin confessions, Bier on ‘Better World,’ the close races

    • David Seidler: Confessions of a 73-year-old Oscar virgin. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Ageism and the Oscar party Bollywood would throw. [The Huffington Post]

    • Anne Thompson talks to “In a Better World director Susanne Bier. [Thompson on Hollywood]

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  • Susanne Bier’s latest in foreign Oscar hunt

    One week from the deadline and the Best Foreign Language Film submissions are coming in thick and fast — our updated list currently boasts 44 titles. The number of those titles I’ve actually seen is, regrettably, still in the single digits, but it does include one of today’s arrivals to the race, India’s “Peepli Live” — which coincidentally also opens in the UK today.

    I’d like to say supportive things about Anusha Rizvi’s well-intentioned but controversial media satire, which premiered in competition on Sundance and has been warmly received on the festival circuit, but I’m afraid I found it a pretty listless affair: the film takes on the potentially rich dramatic subject of farmers committing suicide to gain government aid for their families, but veers crudely between action and subtext without balancing them at once.

    Despite a vast film industry, India has accrued a scant three nominations in this category; though respect for “Peepli Live” is widespread, I somehow sense a fourth isn’t on the cards.

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  • 1/12 Oscarweb Round-up

    Peter Capaldi in In the Loop• Steve Pond talks “In the Loop” with Armando Ianucci and Peter Capaldi. [The Odds]

    • Dave Karger makes his Golden Globe picks. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Katey Rich runs down the pros and cons in a four-way race (but it’s actually a three-way race). [Cinema Blend]

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  • ‘Brothers’ trailer

    As someone who was never particularly taken with Susanne Bier’s popular 2004 melodrama “Brothers” — I find Bier’s work too patly earnest to repay real emotional investment — I approach Jim Sheridan’s long-delayed remake with a measure of caution.

    Judging from this just-released trailer, it seems to hew very close to the original, with added studio gloss and a gloopy background of Fray balladry that I hope isn’t in the film itself. On the plus side, Natalie Portman looks rather good, and needless to say, it’s a step up for Sheridan from the grim career nadir of “Get Rich or Die Tryin’.” (Uh, what isn’t?) Some might have Oscar-level expectations of this, given its December release date, but I’ll need to see the film to be convinced.