In Contention

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  • Shedding more light on ‘Tree of Life’

    Apologies for the radio silence last week — Kris is still enjoying his hiatus, while I had all manner of dull earthbound duties to take care of. As I kept one eye on Twitter and my regular blog roll, however, I didn’t feel I was missing matters of paramount importance: I have nothing to say about the much-vaunted trailer for “Super 8,” though I look forward to the film, and as much as I’d love to be at SXSW right now, little about the Texan fest is crying out for discussion from a distance.

    But one thing I know we’re all hungry for is “The Tree of Life” — and with the Cannes Film Festival now less than two months away, Terrence Malick’s fifth feature is beginning to seem like a real, tangible prospect rather than a rainbow’s-end myth. To fuel the excitement stoked a few months back by the trailer (which I’ve still managed not to see), Russian site Kinopoisk has unearthed over 70 images — many of them set photos rather than stills — for the faithful to pore over. I’ve selected a couple after the cut.

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  • Another barrier broken?

    Amid the barrage of critical brickbats tossed at Sunday night’s Oscar show — plus the widespread dissatisfaction with certain winners — I didn’t see much mention made of this particular milestone, but it strikes me as worthy of note, particularly a year after Kathryn Bigelow’s history-making Best Director win.

    I’m happy to say that one other category is no longer an all-boys’ club: as part of the technically robust “Inception” team, Lora Hirschberg became the first woman (to my knowledge) to win an Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing.

    Hirschberg shared the award with colleagues Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick, with whom she also scored her first nod two years ago for “The Dark Knight.” (The Cinema Audio Society has been more generous to her over years: dating back to “The Horse Whisperer” in 1998, she has amassed six nominations, if no wins, from that group.)

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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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  • An open letter to James Franco

    Dear James,

    So you don’t think much of the Academy. That’s okay. A lot of us don’t. And after the outcome of last night’s awards — in which capping an inevitable Best Picture Oscar for the safe, stolid stylings of “The King’s Speech” with that extraneous Best Director win for a worried-looking Tom Hooper was roughly akin to dipping Wonderbread in milk for maximum squishiness — I suspect even a lot of movie buffs who don’t make a year-round sport of henpecking the Academy’s choices are on your side.

    Your antipathy towards the Academy may be rooted in different disappointments than those of the blogging majority. We know for starters that you don’t much rate “The Social Network,” the 2010 title most clearly destined to fill the blank in many a “How did _______ lose?” whine-fest between awards geeks in years hence.

    But Lord knows your own pony was even more cruelly treated by voters: when the film’s artsy death-rattle of a theme song couldn’t even beat a rushed Randy Newman Xerox of a Pixar jingle that everybody forgot he already won for in 2001, it was clear the once-so-buzzy “127 Hours” had been reduced to a phantom presence in this year’s race.

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  • Interviews with the winners

    You can check out the 37 interviews we conducted with Oscar nominees this season here, but I thought I’d offer up one more list here at the end of things, the 12 interviews we conducted with those who were lucky enough to walk out of the Kodak with an Oscar in hand last night.  The are:

    Tom Hooper (Best Director, “The King’s Speech”)
    Colin Firth     (Best Actor, “The King’s Speech”)
    Robert Stromberg (Best Art Direction, “Alice in Wonderland”)
    Wally Pfister (Best Cinematography, “Inception”)
    Kirk Baxter (Best Film Editing, “The Social Network”)
    Angus Wall (Best Film Editing, “The Social Network”)
    Rick Baker (Best Makeup, “The Wolfman”)
    Trent Reznor (Best Original Score, “The Social Network”)
    Atticus Ross (Best Original Score, “The Social Network”)
    Randy Newman (Best Original Song, “Toy Story 3”)
    Chris Corbould (Best Visual Effects, “Inception”)
    Charles Ferguson (Best Documentary, “Inside Job”)

  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 55 — Special Edition! — Oscars postmortem

    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.

    The 2010-2011 film awards season has finally drawn to a close. And what a ride it was. After a weekend full of parties and awards shows, Anne and I are here on the final day of coverage this season to offer our thoughts on what was. So let’s get on with it and see what’s on the docket today…

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  • Comic Relief reunion?

    Reader comment in the Oscar Talk question solicitations thread:

    I was at a benefit last year in honor of Billy Crystal, in which Robin Williams and Whoopi Goldberg spoke. All three agreed that, if asked, they would co-host next year’s Oscar telecast in some sort of Comic Relief reunion. So, uh, both you and Anne and any other blogger listening— make that happen.

    Hmmm…

  • Congratulations to our pool winner!

    Thanks to the 412 Oscar obsessives who joined our Picktainment.com Oscar pool.  It was a tough year to call in a few areas, but the ultimate winner was Joe Sinopoli with an overall score of 41 (and coming incredibly close on the tie-breaker, too, guessing the show’s length at 3:03 — it was 3:11).

    If you’re reading, Joe, drop me a line with your mailing info and we’ll get a prize out to you for your troubles.  And again, thank you to everyone for participating.

  • Taking questions for Oscar Talk

    Here it is, the last solicitation of the season.  You know the drill, but no boundaries.  Ask as many questions as you want.  And get ’em in fast because we’ll be recording soon-ish.

  • 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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  • TECH SUPPORT: ‘Inception’ dominates below the line

    So, the morning after a terrible prediction record at this year’s Oscars, I’ll try to make some sense of what the Academy told us, and what it means for the crafts artists we got to know along the circuit this year.

    As the evening went on, many people began to wonder if “The Social Network” would triumph in Best Picture. While Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall managed to take Best Film Editing (on their second nomination), the very deserved win for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross in Best Original Score was somewhat surprising. The work trumped Alexandre Desplat for “The King’s Speech,” despite the latter film’s wins in the major categories. Desplat, with four nominations under his belt, could now be considered due, I think.  (Alas, Tom Hooper’s later win for Best Director removed doubts about the Best Picture winner.)

    The Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing and Best Visual Effects categories unsurprisingly went to “Inception,” making Oscar winners of Nolan’s usual crew of Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick, Richard Kind, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, and company. I congratulate them and wish them the best for “The Dark Knight Rises.”

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  • 2/28 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Aftermath

    • Drew McWeeney writes a lot of words explaining why he doesn’t watch the Oscars. [Motion/Captured]

    • Nikki Finke reminds who the “In Memoriam” sequence passed over. [Deadline]

    • Oscar ≠ A-List. [The Wrap]

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  • ‘King’s Speech’ wins four Oscars, including Best Picture…

    …and the sun will still rise tomorrow.  Full list of the winners at The Circuit.  We’ll be back tomorrow to put a bow on the season.  Feel free to carry over conversation from the open thread here.

  • 83rd Academy Awards open thread

    Alright, I’m ducking out of here for the night.  Feel free to use this space to discuss the show, the winners, whatever strikes you.  The red carpet starts up in about two hours.  I don’t think there will be too much strain on the server, but if things get sluggish, have patience with us.

    If you’re looking for a live stream of the Oscarcast, I’m told you can watch here and, of course, Oscar.com (if you don’t mind paying five bucks).  I imagine Justin.tv will have a page, too.  You can check the rundown of awards presentations here.

    Once again, if you haven’t joined our pool at Picktainment, do so here.  Meanwhile, my final predictions are here, Guy’s are here and Gerard’s are here.  The aggregated picks of others can be found at Awards Daily, Gold Derby and Movie City News.

    And…that should about cover it.  Enjoy the show, be safe, have fun, all of that good stuff.  The checkered flag is in sight.  Check back tomorrow for the season’s final Oscar Talk as Anne and I pick up the pieces and try to figure out what happened.

    [Photo: AMPAS]

  • 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).

  • Indie Spirits, HBO and Weinstein party down on Oscar eve

    Yesterday was a bit of a whirlwind.  The Indie Spirits was a lovely affair, though they really need to figure out the show aspect because it kind of fell apart this year.  I didn’t see it on television so maybe it was edited into shape, but in the room, it just felt like chaos.

    I spoke to Aronofsky — for the first time since he finally made my list, he noted.  The guy is paying attention.  I wished him the best of luck tonight but he shrugged it off, knowing much of anything beyond Natalie Portman winning just isn’t in the cards.  Nevertheless, it’s been a long, wonderful journey for the film, especially when you look at those box office numbers.

    Mostly I was stoked to see an old college buddy, “Cold Weather” producer Brendan McFadden.  He and director Aaron Katz are still working on that werewolf buddy cop script we told you about recently, and there’s a western in the cards, too.  Here’s hoping those ambitious projects take off.

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  • 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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