Biggest snubs by the Producers: Nine and The Blind Side. I’m amazed that 9 got in over Ponyo and Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs.
Edit to add, no The Lovely Bones is also a big snub.
The Producers nominees never correspond with the AMPAS nomination exactly. At Awards Daily, a poster noted some films that were nominated by the Producers but snubbed by the Academy voters:
My prediction, but I’m so bad at predictions, is that District 9 and/or Star Trek are out, and The Blind Side and but probably not or Nine is in. I’d love to see AMPAS pull out some big surprises, such as The Messenger and/or [hopeless wishful thinking]Away We Go[/hopeless wishful thinking].
Turns out Ponyo is eligible, but this year there will be five films nominated, not the usual three. Whenever more than 16 films are eligible, the Oscar field is expanded to five.
The frontrunners as I see it (in this order):
Up
Princess and the Frog
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ponyo
Coraline
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
A Town Called Panic (a critics’ darling which I haven’t seen)
Monsters vs. Aliens
If Distict 9 doesn’t get nominated in a field of 10 that to me is just a huge mis-step. Of the movies I’ve seen, District 9 is by far the most visceral and compelling (although I gather a weak sister to Hurt Locker).
She’s actually won 2 (a supporting for Kramer vs Kramer), but that was over a quarter century ago, so I’m sure most of the Academy is aware of how big of a sport she’s been losing 11 consecutive times.
If anything, Streep may have an advantage in that, in addition to her longevity and dry spell (victory-wise), she also is the only real contender in any category this year who plays a real person, and for the last 11 years, at least one person has won an acting award for portraying a real historical figure. She may very well continue that streak.
I knew that she’d won 2, but it’d been so long ago, and she often jokes about being the losingest acting nominee in history. ArchiveGuy’s right, she’s such a great sport about it.
And she really was wonderful as Julia Child, but I still wonder if she should be in Supporting. I take it I’m the only one. As much as I love Amy Adams, I wish the whole movie had been about Julia.
The Scripters don’t have anything to do with the Oscars (actually, the Guilds are the only Oscar-watching awards that matter) but here are the nominees. To explain a bit about what the Scripters are:
Glad to see District 9 there but sorry they didn’t have room for Wes Anderson. I really hope both get extra attention outside of their obvious categories.
Now the field has been narrowed down to seven (indicated by bold and blue). A few out in the cold were obvious longshots but I thought Watchmen might have a reasonable chance.
Avatar’s a lock and odds are good for Trek, too, but I really hope District can squeeze in (since the Academy has a very mixed record in nominating franchise sequels in this category).
I predict Avatar, Star Trek and 2012. Avatar for the win. A District 9 nomination would be nice considering how much they did on such a tiny budget, but I wouldn’t bet money on it.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) nominations come out next Monday, and there will be BIG surprises. Turns out that several films that we might expect to be nominated aren’t eligible.
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino is not a member of WGA) The Road (Joe Penhall not a member of WGA) A Single Man (Tom Ford & David Scearce not members of WGA) An Education (Nick Hornby not a member of his local WGA Great Britain) District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell not members of WGA)
I’m confused as to the reasons, but these aren’t eligible either: In The Loop Fantastic Mr. Fox Up
This means absolutely nothing to anyone but the filmmakers and fans, and of course won’t affect the Oscars at all, but the BAFTA long list was released and I’m thrilled that Moon was mentioned 10 times! And The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus got 4 mentions! For those who may not know, BAFTA is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. According to Awards Daily:
This is a guess, but by chapter I’m assuming it’s like AMPAS, where Directors nominate Directors, Writers nominate Writers, Actors nominate Actors, etc. etc. and all nominate Picture.
I don’t expect Moon (or Parnassus) to survive the first round in any category, but a girl can dream, can’t she? Moon is being way too ignored everywhere. So is Parnassus, but that’s more understandable. It’s a truly wonderful film IMO but way too weird for most people.
member of the Sam Rockwell Should Be Nominated For An Oscar And Everything Else Club
Period film
“A Serious Man,” production, designer, Jess Gonchor
“Inglourious Basterds,” David Wasco
“Julie & Julia,” Mark Ricker
“Public Enemies,” Nathan Crowley
“Sherlock Holmes,” Sarah Greenwood
Fantasy film
“Avatar,” Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg
“District 9,” Philip Ivey
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” Stuart Craig
“Star Trek,” Scott Chambliss
“Where the Wild Things Are,” K.K. Barrett
Contemporary film
“Angels & Demons,” Allan Cameron
“The Hangover,” Bill Brzeski
“The Hurt Locker,” Karl Juliusson
“The Lovely Bones,” Naomi Shohan
“Up in the Air,” Steve Saklad
It should be noted that there are some conspicuous omissions, and that’s likely because the film wasn’t eligible under one guild rule or another. Viable films (for the Oscar) that couldn’t play in this race include:
District 9
An Education
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Inglorious Basterds
The Road
A Single Man
Probably the most conspicuous eligible film missing from the list is Up (especially since Pixar usually has good luck with the WGA).
Post #49.
**
American Cinematographers Society** nominations:
Barry Ackroyd, BSC for The Hurt Locker
Dion Beebe, ASC, ACS for Nine
Christian Berger, AAC for The White Ribbon
Mauro Fiore, ASC for Avatar
Robert Richardson, ASC for Inglorious Basterds
I haven’t seen The White Ribbon yet.
Avatar’s inclusion is a big deal, since a guild like the ASC can often be slow to embrace new technologies (and the Academy branch even more so). Fully digital photo capture has yet to be honored at the Oscars in this category, but this might the year that Cameron breaks through.
As for White Ribbon, I don’t think it’s been released anywhere yet, except NY & LA.
One thing Bridges has going for him is Robert Duvall. He also appears in Crazy Heart, and Duvall has traditionally been a good luck charm for male nominees.
Gregory Peck. John Wayne. Marlon Brando. Robert DeNiro. Peter Finch. Billy Bob Thornton*. All of them won Oscars for films that featured Duvall (and that’s not counting Duvall’s award himself). So maybe Bridges will be a nice add-on to that list.
The 7 finalists for the Make-up bakeoff for the Oscars have been announced:
District 9
Il Divo
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
The Road
Star Trek
The Young Victoria
ACE nominations (the editors guild)
Drama Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Up in the Air
Comedy 500 Days of Summer
The Hangover
It’s Complicated
Julie & Julia
A Serious Man
It should also be noted that since 1990, no film has ever won Best Picture at the Oscars without being at least nominated for an “Eddie”–all but one of those times (Chicago) coming from the Drama category.
I doubt it will happen, but oh boy am I hoping for some love for Doctor Parnassus at the Oscars, if even only from the Makeup folks. It’s such a wonderful movie. I’m seeing it again for the 3rd time tonight after work. Broadcast Film Critics Winners (Critics Choice Awards):
Best Picture: The Hurt Locker Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) Best Original Screenplay: Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino) Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air (Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner) Best Acting Ensemble: Inglourious Basterds Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart) Best Actress: Tie! Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) & Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique (Precious) Best Young Actress: Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) Best Documentary: The Cove Best Foreign Language Film: Broken Embraces Best Animated Movie: Up Best Comedy Movie: The Hangover Best Score: Up (Michael Giacchino) Best Song: “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell) Best Make-Up: District 9 Best Action Movie: Avatar Best Cinematography: Avatar (Mario Fiore) Best Visual Effects: Avatar Best Art Direction: Avatar (Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg) Best Editing: Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron) Best Sound: Avatar Best Picture Made For Television: Grey Gardens
The rest of the nominees are in my first post to this thread.
The Golden Globes are tomorrow night (Sunday 1/17). I’m trying to find a place I can watch them online since I don’t have cable or satellite anymore. I’m going to see Black Dynamite but I should be home in time for the show, if I can find it.
I’m also seeing The Lovely Bones, which finally opened here. With that, I will have seen all those winners except for The Cove and Grey Gardens (I own the DVD but haven’t watched it yet).
