Yes, the Academy Awards season (with all your fun-filled, socially-conscious, Oscar bait contenders) approaches. So until things get closer to the Real Deal. Here’s a thread to update any small blips on the AMPAS radar. This just in.
It would appear that this is a 2-horse race, with the multiple-winner Pixar battling the buzz-heavy 3D Zemeckis film. The former was gorgeous, but the latter is supposed to be remarkable. We’ll see…
And for the record, here are the official submissions for Foreign Language Film (one submission per country) and here’s the shortlist for the Documentary Short awards (the final nominee slate of 3 will be selected from these 8).
If the strike is going on at that point in time how will that affect the proceedings? Will the writing have to be done by Stewart himself? Can he do that, or is he a member of the union. Beyond that, will the writers show up to pick up their awards if they are striking, or will they boycott to make a point? And, how strong a point would that even be.
Hopefully, for the sake of the writers and their families, the strike will be over by them and this will all just be theoretical. Just made me wonder.
pat
ps:
Alvin and the Chipmunks? really? How did that even get up there? Not that I didn’t love the original, but. Really?
Oh. I rereading the post. I see. There needs to be atleast 8, so lots of film will wind up on this list. Looking at it I would guess the 3 nominated to be:
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie
Beowulf
I would lean towards Rattatouile, having not seen Beowulf, but I have seen the previews, and I don’t care for that motion capture like animation they use.
I feel so lame. Until now I had no idea that Beowulf was an animated movie. I thought it was a live-action film!
I hope Ratatouille wins.
Off topic, but not so off-topic…
I’ll be keeping track of the Guild Awards, as I’ve done for the past 8 years. I’ll post a link in whatever thread seems appropriate once they start. Lots of people say “who cares?” but for people who like to keep track or those who enter the Oscar office pools, it can come in very handy to know who won what, since while not all Guild members are Academy voters, almost all Academy voters in the crafts fields are Guild members, and they make up a majority of Academy voters, actors being the biggest branch.
Not that the Guilds always pick the Oscar winners, but some do very well and can at least help narrow down choices. For instance, the Directors Guild usually does very well. Here are the Guild winners since 2002. A * indicates that the director was nominated for an Oscar. A + indicates that the director won the Oscar. Except for Rob Marshall, who got beaten by Roman Polanski (The Pianist) they’ve picked the director who went on to win the Oscar. (btw, the “IMDB” is linked to their IMDB entries on the actual web page, but I’m too lazy to take them out.)
2007 winner: Martin Scorsese *+ (IMDB) - The Departed (IMDB)
2006 winner: Ang Lee *+ (IMDB) - Brokeback Mountain (IMDB)
2005 winner: Clint Eastwood *+ (IMDB) - Million Dollar Baby (IMDB)
2004 winner: Peter Jackson *+ (IMDB) - The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (IMDB)
2003 winner: Rob Marshall * (IMDB) - Chicago (IMDB)
2002 winner: Ron Howard *+ (IMDB) - A Beautiful Mind (IMDB)
For now, here’s the schedule I have:
I no longer keep track of the Hollywood Makeup and Hair Stylist Guild, the last of the 12 Guilds in Hollywood. Either they stopped giving out awards or they’re just keeping quiet about it for some reason. They haven’t released results since 2004.
The first major critics* awards were announced, from the National Board of Review, and they are:
Picture: No Country for Old Men
Actor: George Clooney, Michael Clayton
Actress: Julie Christie, Away from Her
Supp. Actor: Casey Affleck, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Supp. Actress: Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone
Director: Tim Burton, Sweeney Todd
Original Screenplay (tie): Juno & Lars and the Real Girl
Adapted Screenplay: No Country for Old Men
Foreign Film: The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Animated Feature: Ratatouille
Casey’s brother Ben won for Directorial debut, Ellen Page & Emilie Hirsch won Breakthrough Performance awards, and Roger Deakins (No Country, Jesse James, In the Valley of Elah) won the Career Achievement in Cinematography.
Here’s a full list of the winners and Top 10 lists.
Also, the Annie nominations (for achievement in Animation) were announced, and Pixar’s Ratatouille, not surprisingly, raked in the most.
*yes, I know the NBR aren’t really critics, but that’s a long story
I was going to start a new thread about Awards season to encompass all the non-Oscar awards. I might still. I was gathering up dates and names.
Here’s NBR’s Top 10 (it was 11 including their Best Picture) of 2007:
(In alphabetical order)
THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
ATONEMENT
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
THE BUCKET LIST
INTO THE WILD
JUNO
THE KITE RUNNER
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
MICHAEL CLAYTON
SWEENEY TODD
I’m happy about all the winners this year. Since none of my absolute favorite movies are up for awards this year, I can spread my happiness around to all the others, because they’re all worthy. Out of the NBR list, I’m especially happy for George Clooney, Casey Affleck, Ben Affleck, Amy Ryan, the Coens, and the love for Jesse James and Lars.
I’ve already seen sneak previews of Atonement, The Kite Runner and The Bucket List. In fact, I’ve seen all the films nominated except for Juno (I’ll see that on Tuesday), The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (all the foreign films), Body Of War, and Sweeney Todd.