• Steve Pond lays it all out for “The Descendants” winning Best Picture, trying to make good on his two-year streak (though at least he had seen the other two before making those calls). [The Odds] • At Telluride, meanwhile, Sasha Stone laid down a cool 20-spot on Viola Davis taking Best Actress. (I’m a […]
9/8 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Pond picks Payne, Von Trier steps in it further, Waxman knocks ‘Warrior’ strategy
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:59 am · September 8th, 2011
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9/5 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Murphy upside, ‘The Help’ abroad, comparing two ‘Straw Dogs’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 7:02 am · September 5th, 2011
• S.T. VanAirsdale looks for the upside in Eddie Murphy potentially hosting the Oscars. [Movieline] • Nicole Sperling writes up Tilda Swinton’s tribute track at Telluride and Toronto. [24 Frames] • Emma Stone and Viola Davis talk about “The Help”‘s appeal abroad. [The Hollywood Reporter]
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OSCAR TALK: Ep. 58 — Wrapping up the summer, fall festival preview, ‘Warrior’ and ‘50/50’
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:00 am · August 26th, 2011
Welcome 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 […]
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Tell us what you thought of ‘The Help’
Posted by Guy Lodge · 3:52 pm · August 13th, 2011
I haven’t yet had a chance to see the bestseller-based civil rights drama “The Help,” but I gather a lot of you have. The film — and more specifically, its first-class female ensemble — clearly hit the right note for Kris, though other reports I’m hearing suggest there’s far more to like about the film’s […]
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Hollywood colonizes Broadway
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:01 am · June 14th, 2010
I wouldn’t normally make much mention of the Tony Awards, which took place in New York last night — this being a film site, after all, and me being an entire ocean away from the U.S. theater scene. (That said, I saw yesterday’s big winner “Red” on its initial run in London, and was suitably […]
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PAGE TO SCREEN: “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert
Posted by Guy Lodge · 1:31 pm · June 9th, 2010
(Apologies for the delay in posting this column. Page to Screen will return to its regular Tuesday spot next week.) Chick-lit, the unflatteringly named brand of light confessional writing intended to universalize the problems of modern professional women, has been a beast of a publishing phenomenon since the near-simultaneous arrival on the scene of Helen […]
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Ebert gathers his thoughts
Posted by Guy Lodge · 9:41 am · February 22nd, 2009
Ahead of tonight’s ceremony, Roger Ebert has collected some final, scattered musings — among them, a modest semi-boast that he predicted tonight’s probable “Slumdog” victory a mere 60 seconds after seeing the film last summer. He also anticipates a successful hosting performance from Hugh Jackman (the combination of being both Australian and a youngest sibling […]
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You were right, I was wrong: Guy’s final predictions
Posted by Guy Lodge · 1:24 pm · February 21st, 2009
(Expanded thoughts and reasonings on yesterday’s list of predictions.) It’s years like 2008 when I throw my hands up and admit (albeit with great reluctance) that my family and friends have been right for the last two decades. Carla, Tom, Kim, Auntie Mavis: I give up. I am insane to care as much as I […]
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Last minute jitters
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:16 am · February 19th, 2009
I’ll have a post up later today running a comb through my final predictions. Tomorrow we’ll showcase all contributor picks (as well as the “Who deserves it?” poll results), but for now, I thought I’d share my pain with the readership. By pain, I mean last minute jitters, those creepy, crawling, gut-twisting thoughts that leave […]
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2/18 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:08 am · February 18th, 2009
• Dave Germain digs into Oscar’s history of scene-stealers, joined this year by Viola Davis and Michael Shannon. [Associated Press] • Erika Kinetz, meanwhile, keeps at the same old “Slumdog Millionaire” story that has grown stale over the last few weeks. [Associated Press] • Ryan Adams eschews the usual “top 10 list” and instead cranks […]
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Not so very shocking
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:00 am · February 18th, 2009
Dave Karger has posted a list of ten potential “shockers” that he thinks could (however faintly) foreseeably shake things up on Oscar night. Many of them have been raised before, and are suitably fanciful. Though I’ve said before that there is a logical case to be made for Melissa Leo leapfrogging both Kate Winslet and […]
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Is Amy Adams a threat after all?
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:43 am · February 11th, 2009
Tariq Khan thinks so. Tom O’Neil reports that the Fox News pundit is predicting a major upset by the “Doubt” star, largely on the basis of what he perceives as “soft support” for frontrunner Penelope Cruz. Before you dismiss his ideas completely, it’s worth pointing out that his track record is pretty strong — he […]
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2/9 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:02 am · February 9th, 2009
• Thom Yorke and Gustavo Santaolalla to join forces on “Terminator Salvation” tunes?? [The Playlist] • Tom O’Neil spotlights the BAFTA voting process. [Gold Derby] • T.L. Stanley on the politics of Dustin Lance Black’s WGA acceptance speech. [Gold Rush] • David Poland says Universal dropped the ball on “Frost/Nixon,” as represented by its incredibly […]
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2/6 Oscarweb Round-up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:31 am · February 6th, 2009
• David Poland is probably wrong on two counts at the top of his recent Oscar column (certainly plkenty of us had our sites set on Davis and Shannon going into this awards season), but we’ll give him some slack. [Movie City News] • David Carr, via video, talks about Bill Condon and Larry Mark […]
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BAFTA admits it needs mending
Posted by Guy Lodge · 5:22 pm · January 31st, 2009
Interesting. Variety reports that BAFTA is to re-evaluate its voting process — and it appears to be a direct response to the widespread criticism that greeted this year’s nominations, which baffled pundits and industry folk alike with some questionable inclusions (Tilda Swinton, Freida Pinto, a whopping eight nods for “Changeling”) and equally baffling snubs (most […]
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SANTA BARBARA: Virtuosos on the march
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:55 pm · January 28th, 2009
Unfortunately, “Happy-Go-Lucky” star couldn’t make it to tonight’s presentation of the Virtuoso Awards at the Lobero Theatre due to surgery recovery, but Viola Davis, Richard Jenkins, Rosemarie DeWitt, Melissa Leo and Michael Shannon were on hand to talk their roles in five of the most critically acclaimed films of the year. James Cromwell did the […]
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Will SAG continue the ‘Slumdog’ sweep?
Posted by Guy Lodge · 11:04 am · January 25th, 2009
As I anticipated, “Slumdog Millionaire” walked off with the Producers Guild of America Award last night, confirming its status as the unstoppable underdog-turned-juggernaut of this year’s Oscar race. It’s highly significant that Danny Boyle’s film managed to claim this gong, in particular; as Kris pointed out yesterday, of all voting bodies, it’s the PGA that […]
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Santa Barbara heats up
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:29 pm · January 22nd, 2009
The air smells cleaner. The sound of waves crashing outside the hotel room is soothing. The hippies are dancing in the streets. It’s nice to get away from the mess of this morning and the frustration of Oscar season in general for eight days. But the awards circuit isn’t out of sight by any means. […]
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