Category: Oscars

2012 Oscar Nomination Analysis

The Academy really shook up the Awards season with their 2012 Oscar Nominations.

When the Academy introduced the new rule for Best Picture nominees, they wanted an element of surprise added back into the Oscar race.

They got it.

It seemed as if we all knew what was coming as soon as the graphic was flashed on screen such that only eight nominees would make it into the Best Picture race, with “War Horse” and “The Tree of Life” being the surprises.

But as if to slap all the Oscar prognosticators in the face for thinking the Academy was predictable and boring, Academy President Tom Sherak announced “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” last, a movie long thought dead in the minds of critics and bloggers. I in fact picked all eight of the other nominees save for “Extremely Loud,” and to see it pick up not one but two nominations was something of a gut punch.

The film was critically panned, and rightfully so. What shocks me is how of all the performers in that film, Max von Sydow was the one to steal the last spot in the Best Supporting Actor category, effectively robbing Albert Brooks of a nomination for his chilling work in “Drive.”

This is the first time in several years I have not seen all the nominees prior to their announcement, but I quickly saw ‘Extremely Loud” the same afternoon. I left flabbergasted into wondering why this not only irritating and cloying film, but one that often is more literally hurtful and painful than it is melodramatic and soppy, not only has enough people who like the film but have more than five percent of people who feel it is the best movie of the year. Continue reading “2012 Oscar Nomination Analysis”

2012 Oscar Nominations Announced

“Hugo” and “The Artist” lead a field of nine films for the Best Picture Oscar after being announced by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Tuesday morning.

New rules for Best Picture voting indicated that anywhere from five to 10 films could be nominated, leaving the exact number uncertain until this morning when Academy President Tom Sherak and former nominee Jennifer Lawrence announced the full list of nominees.

The other Best Picture nominees included “The Descendants,” “Midnight in Paris,” “The Help,” “Moneyball,” “War Horse,” “The Tree of Life” and the long thought dead in the water “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.”

The current Oscar frontrunner, the silent, black and white movie “The Artist,” took home 10 nominations, including for Best Director Michel Hazanivicius, Best Actor Jean Dujardin and Best Supporting Actress Berenice Bejo. Martin Scorsese’s children’s fantasy “Hugo” however made the race interesting by leading the pack with 11 nominations.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt found their long presumed spots in the Best Actor category, but fellow A-lister Leonardo DiCaprio was left out altogether in favor of Jean Dujardin, “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s” Gary Oldman and “A Better Life’s” Demian Bichir. DiCaprio’s film “J. Edgar” was forgotten as well.

Also performing strongly was the comedy “Bridesmaids,” scoring a nomination for Melissa McCarthy for Best Supporting Actress and for Best Original Screenplay, despite not receiving a Best Picture nomination.

Meryl Streep received her record 17th Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in “The Iron Lady,” and she’ll be up against Michelle Williams, Viola Davis, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo’s” Rooney Mara and “Albert Nobbs’” Glenn Close.

The Academy surprised in many of the smaller categories as well, only nominating two songs from “The Muppets” and “Rio” for Best Original Song. What’s more, the Academy removed the Oscar powerhouse Pixar from contention by not nominating the poorly reviewed “Cars 2” for Best Animated Feature.

Iran’s “A Separation,” which is not only the front runner in the Best Foreign Language film category, is now also a serious contender in the Best Adapted Screenplay category.

The Academy Awards Ceremony will be held on Sunday February 26.

A full list of nominees is below: Continue reading “2012 Oscar Nominations Announced”

2012 Golden Globes Recap

“Ricky Gervais’s monologue is over, and we’ve heard all we need to about Jodie Foster’s Beaver. Can I stop watching the #goldenglobes now?”

So I tweeted roughly five minutes into the ceremony. I did watch the entire evening, and because they kept Gervais locked in a cupboard (or occupied at the bar) all night, it never reached that same level of amusement, but it at least did not sink to absolute wretchedness and languish the way last year’s Oscars did.

But what the evening lacked was a clear winner or any convincing surprises that would give us a deeper insight into the Oscars. Continue reading “2012 Golden Globes Recap”

2012 Oscar Nomination Predictions

My predictions for the 2012 Oscars have eight films being nominated for Best Picture, including “The Tree of Life” and “The Artist.”

1/21 Update: I’m going to stick to my original predictions that I said I had set in stone less than two weeks back, but already with the Golden Globes, the DGAs and a variety of other nominations and awards being announced within days of one another, the field has changed somewhat drastically. Films thought dead are now serious contenders, and some considered front runners are now on the bubble to even be recognized. I detail all my new changes and thoughts in bold and italics below, but the long and short of it is that “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Bridesmaids” have some momentum, “War Horse” has tripped on the last furlong, and “Drive” and “Young Adult” were perhaps always too hopeful of picks on my part.

Welcome to Oscar season, where an analysis of which period pieces will be nominated for Best Costume Design can make a bracketology advocate during March Madness look sane.

This year’s race is closer than the Iowa caucuses (and most of the candidates just as mediocre) and the new voting system is more confusing than the BCS Championship.

But I’m here to coach you through what will happen when the nominees are announced on Tuesday, January 24. Continue reading “2012 Oscar Nomination Predictions”

The Anti-Oscars

In “The Anti-Oscars,” I make a list of the Best Movies and Performances of the Year that don’t stand a chance at getting nominated.

This article will not help you win your Oscar pool.

On this Oscar Nomination ballot, you will not find any Streeps, Clooneys, Plummers or Spielbergs.

No, this is the Anti-Oscars! This is the opposite of what will happen when nominations are announced on Tuesday, January 24.

I’ve made picks in five of the six major categories, but while these certainly don’t reflect what will happen, they aren’t even necessarily what I think should happen. The Academy gets some things right some of the time.

Rather this list is my personal ballot dedicated to the not-even-out-of-the-gate contenders that were marvelous in 2011 but for whatever reason will not receive the attention they deserve at the biggest award ceremony of the year.

I’ll also use this space to discuss why they are not in the race and what that means for the actual contenders. So if any of these names are in your predictions, rethink your decisions now, and watch me eat my words when I predict the real ballot next week.

 

Best Picture

  • Drive
  • Beginners
  • Super 8
  • Incendies
  • The Skin I Live In
  • Certified Copy
  • Weekend
  • Melancholia

If there’s one thing the Best Picture hopeful lineup is missing, it’s a good dose of darkness. Is “Moneyball” really the darkest movie this year’s Oscars have to offer? My list, which conveniently resembles all eight films in my Top 10 list not solid contenders for nomination (the other two being “Midnight in Paris” and “Hugo”), shows a much more even split of heavy and lighter entertainment. Continue reading “The Anti-Oscars”

2012 Oscar Analysis Post Golden Globes Nominations

Here’s the state of the 2012 Oscar race following some surprises with the Golden Globe nominations.

So I kind of forgot the Golden Globes were a thing this year.

Each year the Globes and a few bloggers at Entertainment Weekly pretend it’s the only other awards ceremony after the Oscars that means something, and yet every year the nominations come out and thoroughly embarrass themselves with their shameless glorification of A-list driven pictures (I’m looking at you “The Tourist”) and moneymakers.

Instead, I’ve been greatly invested in the 2012 Oscar race but have not yet gotten an opportunity to write about them. Simply put, in a year that has been mediocre to weak to plain bad for movies, it has surprisingly led to the most interesting Oscar race in years in which no front runners, or even clear nominees for each category have truly presented themselves. And with the rule change in the Best Picture category from 10 nominees to God-knows-how-many, anything can happen.

And in looking at this year’s Golden Globes nominations that were announced Thursday morning, a few unexpected wrenches have been thrown into the race that have made everything that much more intriguing.

The real reason for this is that the Globes did not completely vomit in their own faces with their nominations this year. They awarded “The Artist,” a modern silent movie, with six nominations, the most of any film in the race. People assumed that even the Oscars might not get behind such a movie, and this says a lot.

In fact, “The Artist’s” nomination, amongst other nods, illustrates what sort of indicator the Golden Globes are for the Oscar nominees. Movies expected to be nominated for GGs that do doesn’t mean a thing in the Oscar race, and it only sometimes matters when movies expected to be nominated for GGs don’t. But Golden Globe surprises revitalize an Oscar campaign. It says, if this group of geniuses in the Hollywood Foreign Press Association look like they know what they’re talking about, what’s the Academy missing?

Best Picture Continue reading “2012 Oscar Analysis Post Golden Globes Nominations”

Oscars Best Picture nominees will range from 5-10

AMPAS announced a rule change to the Best Picture prize today, nominating anywhere from five to 10 films.

Photo courtesy of The New York Times and Associated Press

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences dropped a bombshell of Oscar news two years ago when the Best Picture field doubled from five to 10 films.

In a press release on Wednesday, AMPAS dropped yet another with the changed rule that the Best Picture field will now range anywhere from five to 10 films. This is based on the criteria that a movie must receive at least five percent of a first place vote to qualify for a nomination.

The Academy justified this decision by explaining that from 2000 to 2008, prior to the switch to 10 films, votes tabulated through this new method would have resulted in six, seven, eight or nine films. The idea is to find the middle ground of praising all of the highly loved films of the year without snubbing some and without padding out the field to include ones that aren’t worthy.

One other rule change affected the Best Animated Feature category. Originally, unless the list of eligible movies was 16 or above, nominees were limited to three films. Now if the list falls in between 13-16, there will be four nominees. Continue reading “Oscars Best Picture nominees will range from 5-10”