Blog Archives
James Earl Jones, Oprah Winfrey To Receive Honorary Oscars
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Oprah Winfrey, James Earl Jones and makeup artist Dick Smith have been picked to receive honorary Oscars.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says the three will be honored with Oscar statuettes at the Governors Awards in November. The academy’s Board of Governors voted Tuesday to recognize the entertainment industry veterans.
AMPAS Rule Changes Could Mean Anywhere From 5 to 10 Best Picture Nominees For 2011
The Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences has instituted all kinds of changes for the upcoming year, making predicting this year much more difficult than it has been in the last ten or so years. Full press release after the cut.
Final Predictions for the 83rd Academy Awards
This year has been a hard one to cope with, mostly because the race seemed pretty set early on and then changed so drastically about a month ago. I’d like to say a change like that is refreshing, but I just can’t because I don’t like how it’s changed. I, for one, agreed with the critics and precursors with their choice of The Social Network for Best Picture. Then the guilds came and changed everything and gave their top honors to The King’s Speech. I think I’m still a bit in shock from it all (and maybe a little bit in denial). So now, the day before the awards, I’ve got to make my final predictions and I find myself unable. My head says, “look at the wind, it’s blowing towards The King’s Speech,” but my heart is saying, “The Social Network is better, stick with it til the bitter end.” Long story short, after the cut you’ll see if I decided to go with my heart or with my head.
Preview: How The Critics’ Choice Awards Align With Oscar
It’s important to note first off that both the Broadcast Film Critics Association (Critics’ Choice Awards) and Hollywood Foreign Press Association (Golden Globe Awards) do not have any membership overlap with The Academy. The only awards that have any overlap the guilds: The Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guilt, Producers Guild, etc. That being said, the Critics’ Choice Awards usually have quite a few overlap nominations in its categories with The Academy. In fact, the Critics’ Choice winner for Best Picture has gone on to win Best Picture at the Oscars for 4 out of the last 5 years; Best Director and Best Actor 5 out of the last 5 years.
The National Board of Review – Awards Season is Officially Open
Like I said on my earlier post, winning at the NBR doesn’t necessarily mean winning come Oscar night. But it does help jump-start a film or a performance into the race and often is a good look at what the nominees could look like.
For example, Winter’s Bone‘s inclusion on their Top Ten list is a big push for a little film. So is Jennifer Lawrence’s win for Breakthrough Performance. Last year the NBR gave that award to two performances: Gabby Sidibe in Precious and Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker. Both performances wound up with Academy Award nominations.
82 Years of Oscar, 10 Favorites and 5 Films I Could Have Done Without
So I recently completed one of my life goals: watching every single film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I would say it took me 24 years, because that’s how old I am and the Academy Awards have been my favorite hobby as long as I can remember. However, it was in the last six weeks or so that I’ve been really hitting the list hard because I realized I only had twenty left and that seemed like a very doable task. All but two of these films are available on DVD. Sadly, one of my Top Ten Winners isn’t. You can, however, get it on VHS and find it on YouTube if you’re wily. It’s been a wonderful experience watching all 82 films. Most are really quite wonderful, others are so-so and a handful I thought were downright boring. My next goal is to watch all of the films that were nominated for Best Picture. There are 474 films that have been nominated and I’ve seen 257 of those films already, which only leaves 217. I’m figuring on some of the earlier films to be a little hard to come by and I also plan on taking a few years to try to complete this goal. I’m sure I’ll write something about that when I do finish it! But now on to my favorite and least favorite Best Picture winners.
Oscar Vault Monday – Chocolat, 2000 (dir. Lasse Hallström)
I really love this movie. When I first saw it in theaters I was with my mother and afterwards all we wanted to do was eat good chocolate. In recent year, I’ve noticed a tendency in film bloggers to complain about this movie for being nominated for Best Picture. They use it as a way of showing that a “mediocre” film can get nominated for the top prize with a great campaign and/or if it’s backed by the Weinsteins. I think this is a completely unfair and narrow view of the film. I would in no way call this a “mediocre” film, for one. Also, it’s a film that was both critically acclaimed and loved by audiences. Isn’t that the kind of film we always wish the Academy would nominate? You can’t complain about the Academy being too pretentious with one breath and then bash this perfectly lovely film with another. This film was nominated for five Academy Awards – Best Actress Juliette Binoche, Best Supporting Actress Judi Dench, Best Score, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Picture; it didn’t win a single award. It was up against Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Erin Brockovich, Traffic and winner Gladiator. 2000 was actually one of my favorite years for Best Picture nominees (behind 1997, which is maybe my favorite year) as I love every single film that was nominated for the top prize.
Oscar Vault Monday – Moonstruck, 1987 (dir. Norman Jewison)
I don’t even remember when I first saw this movie, but it must be over 15 years ago now. I love it so much. I used to own in on VHS, yes VHS, and I’d watch it anytime I needed a pick-me-up. There’s just this wonderful energy about the entire film. It’s a lot of fun and full of heart. It was up for six Academy Awards, winning three: Best Actress – Cher (she won), Best Supporting Actress – Olympia Dukakis (she won), Best Original Screenplay – John Patrick Shanley (he won), Best Supporting Actor – Vincent Gardenia, Best Director – Norman Jewison and Best Picture. It was up against Broadcast News, Fatal Attraction, Hope and Glory and winner The Last Emperor.
