Category Archives: the Academy Awards
R.I.P. Five-Time Oscar Winning and James Bond Composer John Barry
John Barry Prendergast, OBE was born on 3 November 1933 and died of a heart attack on 30 January 2011. Barry worked on over 100 films, including eleven in the James Bond series. He was nominated for seven Academy Awards, winning five times: Best Original Song and Best Original Score for Born Free (1966), Best Original Score for The Lion in Winter (1968), Best Original Score for Out of Africa (1985) and Best Original Score for Dances With Wolves (1990).
Site Update: Cinema Fanatic Guest Starred On A Podcast
Recently I recorded a podcast with The Dark of the Matinee‘s The Mad Hatter. You can find the podcast on the sidebar of their site, as well as on iTunes and various other podcast places on the vast interwebs.
Please take a listen. In it we discuss what we think about the Oscar nominations, as well as give some early predictions. There’s also a neat little intro wherein I answer questions like “What was the first movie you ever saw?” and “What essential film have you not seen?” My answer to that last one is rather shocking. Here’s the link again. Go take a listen. I swear you’ll enjoy it. Also, be sure to check back at The Dark of the Matinee tomorrow and leave feedback on their official post with your thoughts! And while you’re at it, check out their Facebook page as well.
Thoughts On The 83rd Oscar Nominations
Well, my predictions were pretty right on. For Best Picture I got 9 out 10 right (though I had the 10th as an alternate). I was not expecting Nolan to get snubbed in favor of the Coen Bros. though. I got 5/5 for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress (Jacki Weaver! Yes!) and 4/5 for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor (though I had both Javier Bardem and Jeremy Renner as alternates). What excites me the most is John Hawkes and Hailee Steinfeld getting their nominations! I also am excited to see The Illusionist in the Best Animated Feature category over Tangled. I’ve actually not seen The Illusionist yet, but it just seems so beautiful from all the clips I’ve seen. Adapted Screenplay went exactly as I had predicted and Original Screenplay proved that the Academy still loves Mike Leigh. I wasn’t sure that they would so I had Black Swan over Another Year in my predictions (though Another Year was my #1 alternate). I am pretty shocked that 127 Hours got the nomination for Best Editing over Inception.
I guess the biggest snubs of the day are Christopher Nolan not getting nominated for Best Director. It just seems the Academy is not the biggest fan of his directing, though he’s now got two nominations for his writing. Also a bit shocking was no nomination for Andrew Garfield for The Social Network. I guess the lack of a SAG nomination was more telling than I wanted it to be.
[Edit] Also just realized that Waiting For “Superman” got snubbed. That’s a real shocker. It looked like the frontrunner to win.
What do you guys think on the nominations as announced this morning? Who do you want to win?
Nominations For The 83rd Academy Awards!
Rest of the nominees added as soon as they’re available
Best Picture:
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Best Director:
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
David Fincher – The Social Network
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
David O. Russell – The Fighter
The Coen Bros. – True Grit
Best Actor:
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours
Best Actress:
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine
Best Supporting Actor:
Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Stienfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom
Best Animated Feature
How To Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3
Best Adapted Screenplay:
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Best Original Screenplay:
Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
Best Foreign Film
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
Hors la Loi (Outside the Law) (Algeria)
Incendies (Canada)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Best Cinematography
Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
True Grit
Best Editing
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
Best Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit
Best Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit
Best Makeup
Barney’s Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman
Best Original Score
127 Hours – A.R. Rahman
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
Inception – Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
The Social Network – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Best Original Song
127 Hour- A.R. Rahman, Rollo Armstrong, Dido(“If I Rise”)
Country Strong – Bob DiPiero, Tom Douglas, Hillary Lindsey, Troy Verges(“Coming Home”)
Tangled – Alan Menken, Glenn Slater(“I See the Light”)
Toy Story 3 – Randy Newman(“We Belong Together”)
Best Sound
Inception
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit
Best Sound Editing
Inception
Toy Story 3
TRON: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable
Best Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2
Best Documentary
Exit Through the Gift Shop
GasLand
Inside Job
Restrepo
Waste Land
Best Documentary, Short Subject
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang
Best Short Film, Animated
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, a Journey Diary
Best Short Film, Live Action
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143
Final Oscar Nomination Predictions
I’ve made my final predictions of what I think the Academy will announce tomorrow morning. The nominations are broadcast live at 5:30AM PST/ 8:30AM EST tomorrow morning. There’s always a few surprise nominees (think Maggie Gyllenhaal for Best Supporting Actress last year, The Blind Side up for Best Picture). I’ve only predicted in 21 of the 24 categories (I have no idea about the animated/live action/documentary shorts), also I’ve included alternates.
Best Picture:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
The Town
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone
Alternates: 127 Hours, The Ghost Writer, Shutter Island
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.
Hailee Steinfeld and the Best Supporting Actress Race
There’s been a lot of chatter as of late on Twitter about 14 year-old Hailee Steinfeld’s chances at an Oscar nomination and whether her performance should be considered for Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress. The debate seems to be whether the role is a lead role or a supporting role. While I think it is a lead role, what is really in question is where she has the best chance of getting a nomination – and even perhaps winning. That’s how studios decide how to campaign a role. Though Steinfeld is the heart of True Grit, she has the best chance in the Best Supporting Actress category.
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.
State of the Race – Is It Too Early To Start Predicting?
Yeah, a little. If predictions made in October were right last year Meryl Streep would have walked away with her third Oscar earlier this year instead of Sandra Bullock. However, it’s still fun to throw out predictions now and see how much they change over the next few months, as more films are released and reviews come out and buzz builds and buzz dies. There have been some really great discussions going on over at Awards Daily, and I was hoping I could get some discussions going with my readership here as well.
My predictions for the four acting categories after the cut.
the diary of a film history fanatic 