I watched the Critic’s Choice Awards last night and was pretty surprised by the tie for Best Actress. I thought it was almost a lock that Gabourey Sidibe would win. Sandra Bullock, really??
Have you seen The Blind Side? If you have, you would understand. She was terrific! It’s the role of a lifetime for her. I expected the critics to choose Carey Mulligan, so it surprised me too, but not because it wasn’t deserved.
(I’m on break at work. I never log in and respond at work, but I had to this one time just to say this. Really, if you see The Blind Side you’ll say “Ok, I get it now.”)
No, I haven’t seen that one. Is it actually good? Honestly, the trailers I’ve seen made it look like a cliche Lifetime movie type film.
I just watched Moon tonight and really liked it. It was very different from what I expected–I thought it was going to be some kind of mystery/suspense story and it wasn’t that at all. It was very much a character study and Sam Rockwell was terrific in it. Too bad he’s not getting more attention for it.
Thanks to Equi from the Golden Globe thread, here are last night’s winners:
- Best Picture, Drama – Avatar
- Best Picture, Comedy/Musical — The Hangover
- Best Director — James Cameron, Avatar
- Best Actress, Drama — Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
- Best Actor, Drama – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
- Best Actress, Comedy/Musical — Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
- Best Actor, Comedy/Musical — Robert Downey Jr, Sherlock Holmes
- Best Supporting Actress — Mo’Nique, Precious
- Best Supporting Actor — Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
- Best Foreign Language Film — The White Ribbon
- Best Animated Feature — Up
- Best Screenplay — Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
- Best Original Score — Michael Giacchino, Up
- Best Original Song — The Weary Kind, Crazy Heart
The big losers were:
The Hurt Locker, though Cameron gave Bigelow props when he accepted the Director award. And the Avatar award comes as no surprise, since this is the Foreign Press awards, and the Cameron has been a huge international hit and more readily accessible to foreign tastes than its two biggest competitors. I think for the Oscar, the race is still between HL and UitA.
Nine, which went 0-for-5, fairly amazing since the Globes tend to be overly generous to musicals. For The Hangover to beat it (as funny as it may be), it must have zero traction with audiences, and seems unlikely to make much of a splash at all at the Oscars (beyond a few craft/technicals).
This coming Saturday is the SAG awards.
The shortlist for the Foreign Language film category has been announced:
Argentina, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, Juan Jose Campanella, director;
Australia, Samson & Delilah, Warwick Thornton, director;
Bulgaria, The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner, Stephan Komandarev, director;
France, Un Prophète, Jacques Audiard, director;
Germany, The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke, director;
Israel, Ajami, Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, directors;
Kazakhstan, Kelin, Ermek Tursunov, director;
The Netherlands, Winter in Wartime, Martin Koolhoven, director;
Peru, The Milk of Sorrow, Claudia Llosa, director.
The two heavy hitters are from France (Grand Prize winner at Cannes) and Germany (Golden Globe winner plus a myriad of critics awards), so the exclusion of either will probably cause a big stir. The final ballot will consist of 5 nominees, and the winner is one of the few categories where members are prohibited from voting unless they can verify they’ve seen all 5 candidates.
I haven’t seen any of those movies, but I’m hoping The White Ribbon will move from my least favorite theater to one I like once it gets an Oscar nomination. And I can’t wait for The Prophet to open, partly because I want to see it, and partly so I don’t have to see the trailer anymore. One of the problems with going to the movies a lot is that you see some trailers WAY too many times. Can Edge of Darkness just fucking OPEN ALREADY?!
Here are the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) nominations courtesy of Awards Daily.
The BAFTA nominations came out. They don’t have anything to do with the Oscars, but I still usually find their picks interesting. It’s nice to see the Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus get SOME recognition. It’s nice to see Duncan Jones and Moon get a little love, though not as much as it deserves. Same with Fantastic Mr. Fox and A Serious Man. They also threw out some other surprises. Audrey Tautou, Andy Serkis (I hadn’t heard of his movie), Christian McKay and Alfred Molina getting very well-deserved nominations. The Hangover!?! for Screenplay!?! Wow. I’ve seen almost all of the nominees, but I hadn’t heard of Nowhere Boy. I’ll have to look it up.
Avatar, An Education and The Hurt Locker all received 8 nomintions.
BEST FILM
AVATAR – James Cameron, Jon Landau
AN EDUCATION – Amanda Posey, Finola Dwyer
THE HURT LOCKER – Nominees TBC
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE – Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness
UP IN THE AIR – Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman, Daniel Dubiecki
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
AN EDUCATION – Amanda Posey, Finola Dwyer, Lone Scherfig, Nick Hornby
FISH TANK – Kees Kasander, Nick Laws, Andrea Arnold
IN THE LOOP – Kevin Loader, Adam Tandy, Armando Iannucci, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche
MOON – Stuart Fenegan, Trudie Styler, Duncan Jones, Nathan Parker
NOWHERE BOY – Kevin Loader, Douglas Rae, Robert Bernstein, Sam Taylor-Wood, Matt Greenhalgh
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
LUCY BAILEY, ANDREW THOMPSON, ELIZABETH MORGAN HEMLOCK, DAVID PEARSON – Directors, Producers – Mugabe and the White African
ERAN CREEVY – Writer/Director – Shifty
STUART HAZELDINE – Writer/Director – Exam
DUNCAN JONES – Director – Moon
SAM TAYLOR-WOOD – Director – Nowhere Boy
DIRECTOR
AVATAR – James Cameron
DISTRICT 9 – Neill Blomkamp
AN EDUCATION – Lone Scherfig
THE HURT LOCKER – Kathryn Bigelow
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – Quentin Tarantino
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE HANGOVER – Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
THE HURT LOCKER – Mark Boal
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – Quentin Tarantino
A SERIOUS MAN – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
UP – Bob Peterson, Pete Docter
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
DISTRICT 9 – Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
AN EDUCATION – Nick Hornby
IN THE LOOP – Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE – Geoffrey Fletcher
UP IN THE AIR – Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
BROKEN EMBRACES – Agustín Almodóvar, Pedro Almodóvar
COCO BEFORE CHANEL – Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo, Philippe Carcassonne, Anne Fontaine
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN – Carl Molinder, John Nordling, Tomas Alfredson
A PROPHET – Pascale Caucheteux, Marco Chergui, Alix Raynaud, Jacques Audiard
THE WHITE RIBBON – Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, Margaret Menegoz, Michael Haneke
ANIMATED FILM
CORALINE – Henry Selick
FANTASTIC MR FOX – Wes Anderson
Up – Pete Docter
LEADING ACTOR
JEFF BRIDGES – Crazy Heart
GEORGE CLOONEY – Up in the Air
COLIN FIRTH – A Single Man
JEREMY RENNER – The Hurt Locker
ANDY SERKIS – Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
LEADING ACTRESS
CAREY MULLIGAN – An Education
SAOIRSE RONAN – The Lovely Bones
GABOUREY SIDIBE – Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
MERYL STREEP – Julie & Julia
AUDREY TAUTOU – Coco Before Chanel
SUPPORTING ACTOR
ALEC BALDWIN – It’s Complicated
CHRISTIAN McKAY – Me and Orson Welles
ALFRED MOLINA – An Education
STANLEY TUCCI – The Lovely Bones
CHRISTOPH WALTZ – Inglourious Basterds
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
ANNE-MARIE DUFF – Nowhere Boy
VERA FARMIGA – Up in the Air
ANNA KENDRICK – Up in the Air
MO’NIQUE – Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS – Nowhere Boy
MUSIC
AVATAR – James Horner
CRAZY HEART – T-Bone Burnett, Stephen Bruton
FANTASTIC MR FOX – Alexandre Desplat
SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL – Chaz Jankel
UP – Michael Giacchino
CINEMATOGRAPHY
AVATAR – Mauro Fiore
DISTRICT 9 – Trent Opaloch
THE HURT LOCKER – Barry Ackroyd
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – Robert Richardson
THE ROAD – Javier Aguirresarobe
EDITING
AVATAR – Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron
DISTRICT 9 – Julian Clarke
THE HURT LOCKER – Bob Murawski, Chris Innis
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – Sally Menke
UP IN THE AIR – Dana E. Glauberman
PRODUCTION DESIGN
AVATAR – Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair
DISTRICT 9 – Philip Ivey, Guy Poltgieter
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE – Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS – Nominees TBC
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds Wasco
COSTUME DESIGN
BRIGHT STAR – Janet Patterson
COCO BEFORE CHANEL – Catherine Leterrier
AN EDUCATION – Odile Dicks-Mireaux
A SINGLE MAN – Arianne Phillips
THE YOUNG VICTORIA – Sandy Powell
SOUND
AVATAR – Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson, Addison Teague
DISTRICT 9 – Nominees TBC
THE HURT LOCKER – Ray Beckett, Paul N. J. Ottosson, Craig Stauffer
STAR TREK – Peter J. Devlin, Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Mark Stoeckinger, Ben Burtt
UP – Tom Myers, Michael Silvers, Michael Semanick
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
AVATAR – Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones
DISTRICT 9 – Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE – John Richardson, Tim Burke, Tim Alexander, Nicolas Aithadi
THE HURT LOCKER – Richard Stutsman
STAR TREK – Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt Dalton
MAKE UP & HAIR
COCO BEFORE CHANEL – Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen, Jane Milon
AN EDUCATION – Lizzie Yianni Georgiou
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS – Sarah Monzani
NINE – Peter ‘Swords’ King
THE YOUNG VICTORIA – Jenny Shircore
SHORT ANIMATION
THE HAPPY DUCKLING – Gili Dolev
MOTHER OF MANY – Sally Arthur, Emma Lazenby
THE GRUFFALO – Michael Rose, Martin Pope, Jakob Schuh, Max Lang
SHORT FILM
14 – Asitha Ameresekere
I DO AIR – James Bolton, Martina Amati
JADE – Samm Haillay, Daniel Elliott
MIXTAPE – Luti Fagbenle, Luke Snellin
OFF SEASON – Jacob Jaffke, Jonathan van Tulleken
The Orange Rising Star nominees
JESSE EISENBERG
NICHOLAS HOULT
CAREY MULLIGAN
TAHAR RAHIM
KRISTEN STEWART
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) winners:
Motion Picture:
* Best Ensemble — Inglourious Basterds
* Best Actress — Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
* Best Actor — Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
* Best Supporting Actor — Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
* Best Supporting Actress — Mo’Nique, Precious
* Best Stunt Ensemble — Star Trek
No real surprises there, though it wouldn’t have been surprising if Meryl Streep had won. Meryl and Sandra will be neck and neck at the Oscars. I think they might as well just give the Oscars to Bridges, Waltz and Mo’Nique. It would be a HUGE upset if any of them lost. IG was a natural choice to win Best Ensemble. Actors LOVE Quentin Tarantino, he always makes them look great. He revives and starts careers better than any other director working today. IG won’t win the Oscar (not that I wouldn’t cheer if it did) but it deserved this win.
Here’s TV if anyone wants them. I haven’t seen any of these, but I’m sure they’re all good.
Television:
* Best Ensemble, Drama — Mad Men
* Best Actress, Drama — Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
* Best Actor, Drama — Michael C. Hall, Dexter
* Best Ensemble, Comedy — Glee
* Best Actress, Comedy — Tina Fey, 30 Rock
* Best Actor, Comedy — Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
* Best Actor, Miniseries — Kevin Bacon, Taking Chance
* Best Actress, Miniseries — Drew Barrymore, Grey Gardens
* Best Stunt Ensemble — 24I love Jeff Bridges’ rambling acceptance speeches, because they are so genuine and cheerful. Drew Barrymore’s stuttering speechlessnes, on the other hand, came across as kind of fake. Christoph Waltz’s speeches (Golden Globes and SAG) sound like he’s trying WAY too hard and are kind of tiresome. Speech of the night goes to Betty White (lifetime award). She had everyone rolling with laughter. Clooney’s later callback to her speech was hilarious, too.
Yay for Glee!
I thought Drew was very sweet, and her flustration was genuine. Jessica Lange had been winning the awards but all of a sudden Drew got the last two. She’s going to cringe when she sees a replay and has to relive all her “Ummms” but I believe she was truly surprised and grateful. I loved that she mentioned her actor ancestors, it reminded everyone in the room of the legacy she has on her shoulders. Damn, I have to watch Grey Gardens. Why wasn’t it released to theaters? Argh! It’s received so much praise it might have been a film awards contender.
Shoot, I missed Betty White’s speech because I was in the kitchen.
For those who love the more technical awards, here’s what the sound guys like (link is to source, which also has the television and specialty nominations):
Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE)
2010 GOLDEN REEL AWARD NOMINEES
FEATURE FILMS
Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Music, Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film Animation
9
Coraline
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Monsters Vs. Aliens
The Princess and the Frog
Up
Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in a Foreign Feature Film
An Education
Coco Avant Chanel
District 9
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
Red Cliff
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Best Sound Editing: Music in a Feature Film
2012
(500) Days of Summer
An Education
Avatar
It’s Complicated
Star Trek
Sherlock Holmes
The Informant!
Best Sound Editing: Music in a Musical Feature Film
Crazy Heart
Every Little Step
Nine
This is it
Best Sound Editing: Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film
(500) Days of Summer
A Serious Man
Avatar
GI Joe
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
The Hurt Locker
The Stoning of Soraya M.
Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film
2012
Avatar
Inglourious Basterds
Push
Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Watchmen
I love that Red Cliff, The Baader Meinhof Complex and The Stoning of Soraya M. are recognized by the SOUND Guild! And check out Soraya in a regular category, not just Foreign (I grinned at seeing Harry Potter in the “Foreign” category)
The Producers Guild of America (PGA) have honored The Hurt Locker as their choice for Best Picture of the year. I’m very happy for everyone involved!
A full list of nominees are in post #40.
Full list of winners:
Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Animated Feature: Up
Documentary: The Cove
Comedy Television: 30 Rock
Long Form Television: Grey Gardens
Live Entertainment and Competition: The Colbert Report
Selznick Award: John Lasseter
Non-Fiction Television: 60 Minutes
Stanley Kramer Award: Precious
TV Drama: Mad Men
Vanguard Award: Joss Whedon
Milestone Award: Sony’s Amy Pascal and Michael Lynton
This comes as a fairly big upset, since the general consensus was that Avatar, because of its massive box office take, would win. The PGA awards have been around for a decade now, and of the last 9 winners, 5 went on to win the Academy’s Best Picture but the 4 that didn’t were generally considered bigger crowd pleasers over the eventual Oscar winner (Moulin Rouge! over A Beautiful Mind, Little Miss Sunshine over The Departed, etc.). The PGA has never gone for the picture that made the least money of the 5 nominees, so for them to go with The Hurt Locker comes as quite a surprise (though a very welcome one).
Directors Guild of America (DGA) winners:
Kathryn Bigelow won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures award for her movie The Hurt Locker! As Roger Ebert said in his Twitter reaction: “In 58 of the last 60 years, the DGA winner went on to win the Oscar for best director. Don’t bet against Kathryn Bigelow”
Louie Psihoyos, a first-time director, won the Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary award for his movie The Cove.
I would have been happy too if Cameron or Tarantino had won, but I’m thrilled for Bigelow.
It should be noted that in the last 60 years, the DGA winner has not gone on to win the Best Director Oscar 6 times (it’s the most reliable precursor by a significant degree). Bigelow now appears to be a mortal lock for the Academy Award and Hurt Locker the favorite for Best Picture, too.
Bigelow is also the first woman who’s ever won a DGA award for a feature film.
Is Ebert wrong then? I went to bed immediately after I posted, and now I have to go fill in at work, so I can’t check. What are the particulars? I do agree it’s the most reliable precursor.
Edit to add, the Academy Award nominations come out Tuesday morning.
He’s wrong. Here’s a breakdown of the DGA winner/Oscar winner mismatches:
1968: DGA honored Anthony Harvey (The Lion in Winter); AMPAS honored Carol Reed (Oliver!)
1972: DGA honored Francis Ford Coppola (The Godfather); AMPAS honored Bob Fosse (Cabaret)
1985: DGA honored Steven Spielberg (The Color Purple); AMPAS honored Sydney Pollack (Out of Africa)
1995: DGA honored Ron Howard (Apollo 13); AMPAS honored Mel Gibson (Braveheart)
2000: DGA honored Ang Lee (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon); AMPAS honored Steven Soderbergh (Traffic)
2002: DGA honored Rob Marshall (Chicago); AMPAS honored Roman Polanksi (The Pianist)
Also, since the Director winner usually matches with the Picture winner at the Oscars, this means that the DGA winner has around an 80% accuracy rate with the eventual Academy winner for the top prize (again, no other precursor comes close).
My Predictions:
PICTURE
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Invictus
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
ACTOR
Jeff Bridges
George Clooney
Colin Firth
Morgan Freeman
Jeremy Renner
ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock
Helen Mirren
Carey Mullign
Gabourey Sidibe
Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
SUPP.ACTOR
Woody Harrelson
Alfred Molina
Christopher Plummer
Stanley Tucci (Julie & Julia)
Christoph Waltz
SUPP.ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga
Anna Kendrick
Mo’Nique
Julianne Moore
Samantha Morton
DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow
James Cameron
Michael Haneke
Jason Reitman
Quentin Tarantino
ORIG.SCREENPLAY
(500) Days of Summer
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
A Serious Man
Up
ADAPT.SCREENPLAY
District 9
An Education
In the Loop
Precious
Up in the Air
CINEMATOGRAPHY
*The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Nine
A Serious Man
The White Ribbon
*
ART DIRECTION
Avatar
Inglorious Basterds
The Road
Sherlock Holmes
Where the Wild Things Are
EDITING
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Up in the Air
COSTUME DESIGN
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
Inglorious Basterds
Nine
Young Victoria
SCORE
Avatar
Brothers
The Informant!
A Single Man
Up
SONG
“Almost There”
“Cinema Italiano”
“Take It All”
“The Weary Kind”
“You’ve Got Me Wrapped Around Your Little Finger”
SOUND MIXING
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds
Star Trek
SOUND EDITING
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Star Trek
Up
VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek
MAKE-UP
District 9
The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus
Young Victoria
ANIMATED FEATURE
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Ponyo
The Princess and the Frog
Up