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Awards Season Short Films

Aningaaq

Aningaaq

A short companion film to Gravity, Aningaaq is 7-minute tale that directly corresponds to a scene in the full length feature.

Directed by Jonas Cuaron, it neatly fills out a conversation from the movie and provides a little story of its own too.

> LFF 2013 review of Gravity
> Official site
> Reviews of Gravity at Metacritic
> Interview with Jonas and Alfonso Cuaron about Ano Una in 2008

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Awards Season Thoughts

The Oscar Horse Race

Oscar Horse Race

With the most interesting and unpredictable awards season in years drawing to a close, it seems like a good time to reflect and speculate on what might win on Sunday at the 85th Academy Awards.

How are Oscars won and why exactly do some films become frontrunners early on only to triumph (or not) on the big night?

The simple answer is that the 6,000 members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences are balloted and then vote for what they think is ‘the best achievement’ in a particular category.

By this point, contenders will have emerged and then nominees are announced.

It all culminates in a globally televised ceremony in which the winners are announced and the famous gold statuettes are handed out and the arguments begin over who deserved what.

But how are they really won?

The months leading up to the ceremony are often more interesting than who wins and also provide a useful snapshot of a particular year – the book ‘Scenes from a Revolution’ by Mark Harris examining the 1967 Oscar race is fascinating and one of the best film books in recent years.

A lot of words get written about famous snubs, such as when Ordinary People beat Raging Bull for Best Picture in 1980, why the Academy took so long to honour Martin Scorsese and the lack of Best Director trophies awarded to cinematic giants like Welles, Kubrick and Hitchcock.

But there can be interesting years like 1974 (when The Godfather II was up against Chinatown and The Conversation) and 2007 (when No Country For Old Men was competing with There Will Be Blood and Michael Clayton) when an unfortunate surfeit of quality leads to classics losing out.

Amidst all the glamour and hoopla, it isn’t just the perceived quality of the films that determines winners.

Perhaps the biggest change since around the early 90s has been the aggressive behind-the-scenes campaigning, which is filled with the kind of stuff you’d expect to see on-screen: suspicion, intrigue, heroes and villains.

Of course the latter depends on who is campaigning for you and whether or not you win.

Generally speaking, the ‘awards season’ really heats up with the Telluride, Toronto and Venice film festivals at the end of August and beginning of September, although other major festivals can be important – Beasts broke out at Sundance 2012 and  Amour won the the Palme d’Or at Cannes in May.

Plenty of factors have distinguished winners since the late 1920s: box office, how an actor or director was (or is) perceived by the Hollywood community, PRs, awards consultants, and (lest we forget!) excellence in a particular category.

It doesn’t always work out, and there have been some infamous snubs, but generally when the nominations come around each year there is a lot to chew on in terms of quality, unless it is a really bad year.

How is the buzz then channelled into Oscar victory?

It often starts when a movie is green lit by a studio or financier as they assemble the package, although at this stage and during production, it would be foolish to assume anything.

Other features of a potential Oscar winner might include: a period setting, heavyweight acting talent, a name director trying to make a serious or issue film, often featuring a major character with some kind of disability.

As the films go through the cogs of the awards cycle, the various critics groups and guild awards give their verdicts, and this is where the punditry and guessing games kick in.

Traditionally, this was a more restrained affair, with the studios taking out ‘For Your Consideration’ ads in the two major trade journals: Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

But as both publications have lost their influence in the rapidly advancing online world, the vacuum has subsequently been lost to websites such as Deadline, Awards Daily, Hollywood Elsewhere, IndieWIRE, The Wrap, Gold Derby, Movie City News and In Contention which offer more in-depth and often better coverage via social media, podcasts and long-form video interviews.

Some of these sites measure the Oscar odds through statistics, getting out in the real world and talking anonymously to voters, and just generally gauging what they think is the pulse of the Academy mind.

There are also a raft of people with years of experience at schmoozing voters such as Harvey Weinstein (arguably the king of Oscar campaigning, first at Miramax and now at The Weinstein Company) and Cynthia Swartz (the awards strategist behind The Hurt Locker and The Social Network).

What makes this year’s race interesting is the spread of nominees in the major categories and the way in which the introduction of online voting may have affected the process – even though BAFTA have been doing it since 2003 – and members still had the option to mail them instead.

Voting opened on December 17th and the fifteen branches that make up the Academy (actors, directors, costume designers etc.) are then asked to vote for members of their particular branch, from which the final nominees are then selected.

Argo is currently the favourite for Best Picture, but Lincoln and Life of Pi are very strong contenders, and there could be a three-way split amongst the vote, mainly due to Ben Affleck’s weird absence from Best Director, which has only happened a handful of times in Oscar history.

Affleck’s omission is not the only anomaly.

It is very rare for the director of a foreign language film to get nominated, let alone his leading actress, but Michael Haneke and Emmanuelle Riva have managed to achieve recognition for their outstanding work in Amour.

The presence of 85-year old Riva and 9-year old Quvenzhané Wallis (for Beasts of the Southern Wild) in the Best Actress race is mind-blowing and testament to both their work and the unusual nature of this year, which could be the result of the change in the balloting date or just chance.

Ah, yes. Chance.

That factor we like to forget because we can’t quantify the unknown and it can make us look ignorant of things we might have missed, underlying trends and the basic fact that each year is a different collection of films voted on by 6,000 human beings with their own unique tastes and quirks.

Given the new online voting system introduced this year and the insanely eclectic list of nominees, this year’s lineup is harder to call than ever.

With that in mind here’s my take on the three frontrunners and the rest of the pack:

  • Lincoln: Daniel Day Lewis gives a remarkable performance as the iconic US president and the film marks a big return to form for Steven Spielberg, with a lucid script by Tony Kushner. For whatever reasons, The Academy has had mixed feelings about Spielberg down the years, but this is his best work since Minority Report (2002) and Munich (2005).
  • Life of Pi: Yann Martel’s novel about an Indian teenager stranded in the Ocean with a tiger was considered unfilmable until visual effects reached a certain level. That day has now come and the resulting adaptation an extraordinary technical achievement for Ang Lee and his crew. Featuring no big stars, it has been a big hit at the global box office. A definite dark horse.
  • Argo: An extremely well-constructed thriller about an unlikely true life tale, Ben Affleck’s third film as director was set against a tricky subject (the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis). Produced by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, Affleck also stars and despite some uneasy comedy in places, the pacing, tension and Affleck’s awards campaigning make it a well liked film.

And for the rest:

  • Amour: Michael Haneke’s outstanding drama about an elderly Parisien couple is a surprising but welcome addition to the Best Picture category. It is rare for a foreign language film to get recognition in a major category but since winning the Palme d’Or in May, has ridden a wave of richly deserved acclaim. Look out for Emmanuelle Riva to cause an upset in Best Actress on her 86th birthday even though Jennifer Lawrence is favourite for Silver Linings Playbook.
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild: Another remarkable achievement with young director Benh Zeitlin becoming the toast of Sundance with his debut film. It won’t win anything but its four nominations (including director, actress, screenplay and adapted screenplay) are a stunning achievement for both the film and Fox Searchlight, who acquired it back in January 2012.
  • Django Unchained: Tarantino’s ‘slavery spaghetti western’ may get a screenplay nod and Christoph Waltz is definitely a possibility in Best Supporting Actor, but a combination of the violence (extreme even by the director’s standards) and unnecessary last 25 minutes is likely to have put voters off.
  • Les Misérables: Working Title teamed up with Cameron Mackintosh to finally bring his blockbuster musical to cinemas with mixed results. Director Tom Hooper assembled an impressive cast (Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway) but musicals are a divisive genre (generally speaking, I can’t stand them) and early on this lost momentum. However, Hathaway is red hot favourite for Best Supporting Actress.
  • Silver Linings Playbook: A romantic comedy about bipolar disorder might seem an unlikely contender but David O’Russell’s film shouldn’t be counted out. Not only does it contain two contemporary stars (Cooper and Lawrence) and a former legend (De Niro), but it features in all the major categories and has had the formidable machinery of The Weinstein Company behind it.
  • Zero Dark Thirty: Just three years after winning Best Picture, screenwriter Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow teamed up for their second ‘war on terror’ movie. Arguably superior to The Hurt Locker, this focused on the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, but it’s awards season chances were damaged by the ‘torture controversy’ that blew up before its wide release. It could get a screenwriting award for Boal as a counter blast to all its critics.

There is a strange duality to the Oscars that mirrors Hollywood’s wider mix of commerce and art: red carpet glamour is mixed with backstage whispers; careers can be boosted (or even strangely derailed) by wins, people are snubbed for years and sometimes the planets align for no particular reason.

Some years a large portion of the global TV audience is wondering why they haven’t even heard of the nominees, let alone seen the films.

Whilst all the media attention will be on who does win, remember not to take any awards ceremony too seriously.

The Academy Awards can be a useful snapshot of a particular year, but the ultimate judge of any film’s importance is time.

> Official site
> More on the 85th Academy Awards at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season News

84th Academy Awards: Winners

The Artist won five awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, (Michael Hazanavicius) and Best Actor (Jean Dujardin).

Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) was awarded Best Actress, whilst in the supporting categories Christopher Plummer (Beginners) and Octavia Spencer (The Help) won for their respective roles.

Hugo was the big winner in the technical categories, winning Cinematography, Sound Editing and Mixing, Art Direction and Visual Effects.

The Artist also became the the first silent film to win Best Picture since Wings (1927), which won the same prize at the very first Academy Awards.

So in a year that has seen great changes as cinema shifts from celluloid to digital, there was something appropriate in the big winners being tributes to the silent era and one of its true pioneers, Georges Méliès.

FULL LIST OF WINNERS

Official Oscar site
> Explore the 84th Academy Awards in depth at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Final Predictions

  • Best Picture: THE ARTIST
  • Best Director: MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS – The Artist
  • Best Actor: JEAN DUJARDIN – The Artist
  • Best Actress: VIOLA DAVIS – The Help
  • Best Supporting Actor: CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER – Beginners
  • Best Supporting Actress: OCTAVIA SPENCER – The Help
  • Best Original Screenplay: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS – Woody Allen
  • Best Adapted Screenplay: THE DESCENDANTS – Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash from The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
  • Best Animated Feature: RANGO
  • Best Art Direction: HUGO – Dante Ferretti
  • Best Cinematography: THE TREE OF LIFE – Emmanuel Lubezki
  • Best Costume Design: THE ARTIST – Mark Bridges
  • Best Documentary Feature: PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY
  • Best Documentary Short Subject: SAVING FACE
  • Best Film Editing: THE ARTIST – Annie-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
  • Best Foreign Language Film: A SEPARATION
  • Best Makeup: THE IRON LADY
  • Best Original Score: THE ARTIST – Ludovic Bource
  • Best Original Song: THE MUPPETS – Man or Muppet
  • Best Animated Short Film: THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR MORRIS LESSMORE
  • Best Live Action Short Film: TUBA ATLANTIC
  • Best Sound Editing: HUGO – Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
  • Best Sound Mixing: HUGO – Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
  • Best Visual Effects: RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White, and Daniel Barrett
Categories
Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Best Picture

NOMINEES

This category is the only one in which every member of the Academy is eligible to nominate and vote on the final ballot.

It is the final award given out during the ceremony and since 1951, is collected by the film’s producers.

At the 1st Academy Awards there was no ‘Best Picture’ award, but instead it was split between ‘Outstanding Production’ (won by Wings) and Artistic Quality (won by Sunrise).

It was the following year that the Academy instituted Best Production and decided to honour Wings, which is the reason it is  is often listed as the winner of the first Best Picture award.

From 1944 until 2008, the Academy the Academy nominated five films for Best Picture until they expanded it to ten films from 2009-10.

This year saw more changes to the category when it was announced that the number of nominees would vary between five and ten films, provided that the film earned 5% of first-place votes during the nomination process.

Part of the reason for these changes was anxiety about declining ratings of the ceremony, which is actually a big deal because that’s where the Academy make most of their money but whether these changes have made any difference is an open question.

With that in mind, here are this year’s Best Picture nominees and their listed producers.

THE ARTIST – Thomas Langmann

Back in May the idea of a silent, black and white French film winning Best Picture seemed highly unlikely. But Harvey Weinstein returned to the Oscar game last year with a vengeance and returned to the kind of feelgood ‘underdog’ period film of his Miramax days.

It also happens to be brilliantly made and utterly delightful. Against all odds, since early September it has been the unlikely frontrunner.

THE DESCENDANTS – Jim Burke, Jim Taylor and Alexander Payne

For a long time it seemed the closest rival to The Artist, Alexander Payne’s bittersweet comedy-drama. Despite only one Best Picture winner (Slumdog Millionaire) Fox Searchlight have a formiddable awards machine.

With an acclaimed premiere at Telluride, it seemed they had a strong contender for Best Picture, but the momentum of The Artist has proved irresistible for voters.

EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE – Scott Rudin

Uber-producer Scott Rudin was screened two films late in the awards season game and this adaptation  of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel got a critical hammering. Why then was it nominated for Best Picture?

I’m guessing that it moved some Academy voters before the negative reviews came out and Max Von Sydow’s character has become a kind of avatar for older viewers as they try to process the genuine horrors of 9/11.

THE HELP – Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Baranathan

The sleeper hit of the summer obviously appealed to the tastes of certain Academy members. Despite the lingering controversy over its depiction of race, it could still see two actresses (Viola Davis and Octavia) pick up awards.

This is the kind of film which benefitted enormously from being released over the summer when it stood out against more commercial fare. With the log jam of Autumn and Winter, will awards contenders be tempted to follow its example?

HUGO – Graham King and Martin Scorsese

It has the most nominations (11), but Hugo’s best shot is in the technical categories. Scorsese’s 3D love letter to cinema has many intriguing parallels with The Artist, but it was caught up in the Thanksgiving weekend crush and faltered at the box office.

However, it may come to be seen as an important film in years to come as the high priest of celluloid (Scorsese) uses the latest digital tools (ARRI Alexa camera on a Cameron-Pace 3D rig) to craft a tribute to the medium we love.

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS – Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum

When Woody Allen’s latest film was heralded at Cannes it seemed like it was a case of Fracophile love for the director. But this really was a delightful return to form, if not quite the career heights of the late 1970s and 80s.

Given his prodiguous and patchy output over the last decade (when some of his films have failed to secure UK theatrical distribution) it was a welcome return to the kind of smart fantasy/comedy of Zelig (1983) and The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985).

MONEYBALL – Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, and Brad Pitt

When Sony gradually realised how this movie was playing  given this a big push all season and it is a remarkable film pulled out of the ashes of a previously cancelled production. In any other year Brad Pitt and Bennett Miller would be strong contenders.

But whilst the filmmaking is impeccable, the subtle themes and execution probably meant it didn’t satisfy Academy voters looking for a more triumphalist sports movie. In the same way Billy Beane’s theories had a major influence on baseball, hopefully it can inspire other major studios to take more chances.

THE TREE OF LIFE – Dede Gardner, Sarah Green, Grant Hill, and Bill Pohlad

Possibly the greatest film of the bunch, it divided audiences (but not critics) who were freaked out by the ambition and the little matter of a creation sequence, which actually makes perfect sense in the context of the film. The old guard of the Academy really came through for Malick here just by nominating this film, showing the respect and awe he inspires in voters. It won’t win but the fact that this film even got made in 2011 is a miracle.

WAR HORSE – Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy

As soon as this went into production in 2010 it was an immediate contender for this year. The pedigree of Spielberg, the high calibre of his regular collaborators, period setting and the emotional vibes all seemed tailor made for the Academy.

But it doesn’t always work out and despite the strong box office this didn’t garner many heavyweight nominations and the lack of a Best Director nod was noticeable.

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Picture at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Best Director

NOMINEES

At the 1st Academy Awards there were two directing awards – one for drama and the other for comedy – but the latter was was eliminated the following year.

Only twice has it been awarded to a co-directing team, rather than to an individual director: Jerome Robbins and Robert Wise for West Side Story (1961) and Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for No Country for Old Men (2007).

WOODY ALLEN – Midnight in Paris

MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS – The Artist

TERRENCE MALICK – The Tree of Life

ALEXANDER PAYNE – The Descendants

MARTIN SCORSESE – Hugo

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Director at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Best Actor

NOMINEES

DEMIAN BACHIR – A Better Life

GEORGE CLOONEY – The Descendants

JEAN DUJARDIN – The Artist

GARY OLDMAN – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

BRAD PITT – Moneyball

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Actor at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Best Actress

NOMINEES

GLENN CLOSE – Albert Nobbs

VIOLA DAVIS – The Help

ROONEY MARA – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

MERYL STREEP – The Iron Lady

MICHELLE WILLIAMS – My Week With Marilyn

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Actress at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor

NOMINEES

Like the Supporting Actress category, it wasn’t until the 8th Academy Awards ceremony (1935), that this category came into being as the Best Actor award covered all actors, be they supporting or lead.

After complaints that it was leading actors were unfairly favoured the current system was introduced at the 9th Academy Awards ceremony (1936), when Walter Brennan won for Come and Get It.

KENNETH BRANAGH – My Week With Marilyn

JONAH HILL – Moneyball

NICK NOLTE – Warrior

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER – Beginners

MAX VON SYDOW – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Supporting Actor at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actress

NOMINEES

It wasn’t until the 9th Academy Awards ceremony (1936) that this award was given and the first recipient was Gale Sondergaard for her performance in Anthony Adverse.

Until the 8th Academy Awards (1935), nominations for the Best Actress award included all actresses, whether the performance was a leading or supporting one.

BERENICE BEJO – The Artist

JESSICA CHASTAIN – The Help

MELISSA McCARTHY – Bridesmaids

JANET McTEER – Albert Nobbs

OCTAVIA SPENCER – The Help

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Supporting Actress at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Original Screenplay

NOMINEES

This category was created in 1940 as a separate writing award when Preston Sturges won for The Great McGinty and in 1957 the two categories were combined to reward only the screenplay.

In 2002, the name was altered from “Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen)” to “Writing (Original Screenplay)”

Woody Allen is nominated this year and is the screenwriter with the most nominations in this category (15).

THE ARTIST

BRIDESMAIDS

MARGIN CALL

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

A SEPARATION

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Adapted Screenplay at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Adapted Screenplay

NOMINEES

This award is given to the writer(s) of a screenplay adapted from another source, which often means a novel, play, short story, or piece of journalism.

Of the two screenplay categories this is the oldest, with the first winner in 1927 being Benjamin Glazer for adapting Austin Strong’s play Seventh Heaven for the screen.

Traditionally movies have always been an adapted art form (i.e. based on another source) so it was not until  1940 that a separate writing award was created for Best Story, then in 1957 those two categories were combined to reward the screenplay.

THE DESCENDANTS

HUGO

THE IDES OF MARCH

MONEYBALL

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Adapted Screenplay at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Sound Mixing

NOMINEES

As this category is closely connected to Sound Editing it is worth checking the nominees there, as they duplicate each other with the exception of Moneyball.

This award generally given to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film.

Normally the engineer will mix 4 main elements: speech (dialogue, ADRvoice-overs etc.), ambiencesound effects and music.

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

HUGO

MONEYBALL

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

WAR HORSE

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Sound Mixing at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Sound Editing

NOMINEES

The question that often comes up every year is ‘what is the difference between sound editing and sound mixing’?

In the modern era, sound editing refers to the creation of the overall sound-scape of the film, whilst sound mixing is blending of these elements together to create the final sound mix.

The award is usually received by the Supervising Sound Editors of the film, sometimes accompanied by the sound designers.

As sound in movies has evolved, so has this award, which dates back to 1963.

From that year until 2000, it was adjusted for the sound design of the winning movie, so Best Sound Effects (1963–1967, 1975), Sound Effects Editing (1977, 1981–1999) and  Sound Editing (1979, 2000–present).

The sound mixing category is the one that dates back to the early years of the Oscars.

What’s interesting about sound this year is that some of the nominees (notably Transformers 3 and War Horse) have taken advantage of Dolby’s new 7.1 surround sound.

DRIVE

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

HUGO

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

WAR HORSE

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Sound Editing at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Cinematography

NOMINEES

Easily the most interesting technical category this year, as the nominees reflect old school 35mm (War Horse, The Tree of Life), colour celluloid transformed to B&W with digital post-production tools (The Artist), digital 3D (Hugo) and 2D digital (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo).

When this award began, for the first four years the cinematographer was not named and it wasn’t until 1931 that the current system came in, whereby individuals are listed alongside a film.

When The Garden of Allah (1936, A Star is Born (1937) and Sweethearts (1938) became the first colour films to win Special Achievement Oscars from 1939 until 1966, the award was split between black-and-white and colour.

Since then, the only black-and-white film to win is Schindler’s List (1993).

THE ARTIST

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

HUGO

THE TREE OF LIFE

WAR HORSE

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Cinematography at Wikipedia

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84th Academy Awards: Film Editing

NOMINEES

This award began in 1934 and is closely watched because it is often seen as good indicator for Best Picture.

That’s because since 1981 every Best Picture nominee has also been nominated for editing, and nearly two thirds of the eventual Best Picture winners have also won the award for editing.

The nominations are voted on by members of the Editing Branch, which in 2008 consisted of 233 members.

Academy Rules state:

  1. A Reminder List of all eligible motion pictures shall be sent with a nominations ballot to all members of the Film Editors Branch, who shall vote in the order of their preference for not more than five productions.
  2. The five productions receiving the highest number of votes shall become the nominations for final voting for the Film Editing award.
  3. …only film editors who hold principal position credit(s) shall be considered eligible for the Film Editing award.
  4. Final voting for the Film Editing award shall be restricted to active and life Academy members.
  5. Only the principal, “above the line” editor(s) as listed in the film’s credits are named on the award; additional editors, supervising editors, etc. are not generally eligible.

Intriguingly, this is the reverse of the BAFTA voting system where the winner is selected by members of the equivalent editing  branch (or ‘chapter’ as it called in the UK).

THE ARTIST

THE DESCENDANTS

THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO

HUGO

MONEYBALL

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Editing at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Visual Effects

NOMINEES

Although one might think that this is a relatively new category, it actually dates back to the very first Oscar ceremony when the Academy gave an award for ‘Best Engineering Effects’ to the World War I flying drama Wings (1927).

Willis O’Brien‘s animation work in King Kong (1933) raised the profile of visual effects but it wasn’t until 1938  that Spawn of the North was awarded a special achievement award.

From 1938 onwards Special Effects became a category, but until 1962 visual effects were shared with sound effects nominations in a combined category.

From 1964 until 1971, the name of the category was Best Special Visual Effects, but after 1977 was changed to Best Visual Effects.

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2

HUGO

REAL STEEL

RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Best Visual Effects at Wikipedia

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Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Art Direction

NOMINEES

Despite its title this award recognises the production design of a particular film and the two nominated candidates are often the production designer and art director.

So, why isn’t the category called ‘Production Design’ instead of ‘Art Direction’?

The Academy rules state:

Eligibility for this award shall be limited to the production designer and set decorator primarily responsible for the design of the production and the execution of that concept, as verified by the producer. The Art Directors Branch shall have the discretion to give more weight to design than to execution.

The title of this award has its roots in history as ‘art director’ was used to denote the head of the art department, which is the group of people in charge of the overall look of a film.

But this role has evolved, as from 1927 until 1939 the award was called ‘Interior Decorator’.

This changed when producer David O. Selznick felt that William Cameron Menzies played such a significant role in the look of Gone with the Wind (1939), that he gave him the title of ‘Production Designer’.

However, from 1940 until 1946 the award was still called ‘Interior Decoration’ and was split between colour and black and white.

Then from 1947, the award was given to the art director and set decorator and the colour/black and white split was phased out in 1967.

So, essentially the award keeps the old title, but rewards the production designer and set decorator.

THE ARTIST

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2

HUGO

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS

WAR HORSE

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners of Art Direction at Wikipedia

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84th Academy Awards: Costume Design

NOMINEES

Eligible films must meet certain requirements, including: costumes be ‘conceived’ by a costume designer (might sound obvious, but it is to acknowledge the designing of costumes for their use in a film); designer members of the Art Directors Branch vote in order of preference; eligibility is decided by the costume designer members of that branch at a meeting prior to nominations ballots being mailed; only principal designers can be nominated; and the five films receiving the highest number of votes become the final nominees.

Although in the post-war period (1949 to 1966) many winners of this award were contemporary movies, the trend in recent decades has been to reward period films.

ANONYMOUS

THE ARTIST

HUGO

JANE EYRE

W.E.

> Official Oscar site
> Explore previous winners of Best Costume Design at Wikipedia

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Animation Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Animated Feature

NOMINEES

  • A Cat in Paris  – Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
  • Chico & Rita – Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
  • Kung Fu Panda 2 – Jennifer Yuh Nelson
  • Puss in Boots – Chris Miller
  • Rango – Gore Verbinski

This is a relatively new category that was created in 2001 to reflect the growing artistic and commercial success of animated features.

The first winner was Shrek and, since the Best Picture nominees were expanded in 2009, both Up (2009) and Toy Story 3 (2010) have featured in both.

A CAT IN PARIS

From French studio Folimage, is this tale of a cat who lives a double life – pet by day and skilled thief by night. Notable for being hand-painted, its highly stylized, colour-saturated design makes it unusual in an age of computer animation.

Directors Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli talk with David Poland as part of his DP/30 series [36 mins]

CHICO & RITA

Directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal this is the story of a songwriter and singer chasing their dreams set against the backdrops of Havana, New York City, Las VegasHollywood and Paris in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

The official UK site is www.chicoandrita.co.uk, the US site www.gkids.tv/chico and director Fernando Trueba talks with David Poland here.

KUNG FU PANDA 2

The sequel to the 2008 blockbuster sees Po and his friends battle to stop a new villain. The strong reviews managed to make this one of the better received sequels of the year and the darker than usual themes may have something to do with executive producer Guillermo del Toro.

Director Jennifer Yuh Nelson talks with David Poland for a DP30 interview and there are more materials at the DreamWorks awards season site.

PUSS IN BOOTS

The spinoff prequel to the Shrek franchise follows the character Puss in Boots and his sidekicks (Humpty Dumpty and Kitty Softpaws) as they take on Jack and Jill.

There are some similarities to its DreamWorks stable-mate Kung Fu Panda 2: it got good reviews, made a lot of money and featured Guillermo Del Toro.

More material is available at DreamWorks dedicated awards site and the director Chris Miller sits down for a lengthy DP/30 chat with David Poland.

RANGO

Although produced by Nickelodeon MoviesGore Verbinski and Graham King, this is the first CGI animation feature from Industrial Light & Magic, until now best known for their visual effects work.

A Western filled with references to movies and made like a theatrical production (instead of recording voice parts separately, the actors shared a soundstage) this is currently the hot favourite.

The Paramount Awards site has more material and director Gore Verbinski sat down for a DP/30 interview with David Poland.

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners and nominees of Best Animated Feature

Categories
Awards Season Documentaries

84th Academy Awards: Documentary (Feature)

NOMINEES

HELL AND BACK AGAIN

A film about a sergeant in the United States Marines Corps, who returns from the Afghanistan conflict with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Visit the official site www.hellandbackagain.com and connect with the film on Facebook and Twitter.

IF A TREE FALLS

Director Marshall Curry explores the origins, motives, and organization of the Earth Liberation FrontEco-terrorism and how the Department of Justice was able to find and arrest Daniel McGowan.

The official site is www.ifatreefallsfilm.com

PARADISE LOST 3: PURGATORY

The sequel to the landmark documentaries Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations, which chronicle the arrest, 18 year imprisonment, and eventual release of the West Memphis Three.

The official site is www.paradiselost3themovie.com and connect with the film on Facebook and Twitter

PINA

3D documentary about the late Pina Bausch, directed by Wim Wenders.

The official site is www.pina-film.de

UNDEFEATED

The film documents the struggles of the Memphis’s Manassas Tigers as they attempt a winning season under a new coach after years of losses.

The official site is www.undefeatedmovie.com

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners and nominees of Best Documentary Feature

Categories
Awards Season Documentaries

84th Academy Awards: Documentary (Short Subject)

NOMINEES

  • The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement – Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
  • God Is the Bigger Elvis – Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
  • Incident in New Baghdad – James Spione
  • Saving Face – Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
  • The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom – Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: FOOT SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

The story of James Armstrong as he prepares in 2008 for the election of America’s first black President and reflects on his own contribution to the Civil Rights Movement.

Raising questions about democracy and prejudice, it charts the long struggle for racial harmony

Find out more at the official site: www.barberofbirmingham.com and see Robin Fryday interviewed on the Tavis Smiley Show.

GOD IS THE BIGGER ELVIS

The story of Dolores Hart, who gave up her career as an actress in Elvis Presley movies to become a Benedictine nun.

IMDb link

INCIDENT IN NEW BAGHDAD

An exploration of the notorious deaths in 2007 of two Reuters journalists and several civilians at the hands of U.S. attack helicopters on the streets of Baghdad.

Recounted by US soldier Ethan McCord – one of the first troops on the scene – it has already won awards at the Tribeca and Rhode Island Film Festivals.

The official site is www.incidentinnewbaghdad.com

SAVING FACE

Documentary which explores a Pakistani plastic surgeon who returns to his homeland to operate on victims (all women) of acid violence, a grisly and disturbing phenomenon in the country.

It focuses on two survivors of acid attacks and their battle for justice and their journey of healing. Directed by Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy.

The official site is www.jungefilm.com/films/saving-face

THE TSUNAMI AND THE CHERRY BLOSSOM

Director Lucy Walker explores how survivors of Japan’s recent tsunami rebuild their lives just as cherry blossom season begins.

Official site is www.thetsunamiandthecherryblossom.com and connect with the film on Facebook and Twitter.

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners and nominees of Best Documentary Short

Categories
Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Makeup

NOMINEES

Usually, only three films are nominated in this category (rather than five).

Previously, make-up artists were only eligible for special achievement awards for their work, but the competitive category was formed in 1981 after complaints that the make-up work in The Elephant Man (1980) was not going to be honoured.

This category has different stages of nominating: a preliminary list of nominees is drawn up by the members of the branch; then a final list of nominees is worked out before the whole Academy votes on the winner.

ALBERT NOBBS

HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2

THE IRON LADY

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners and nominees of Best Makeup at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Foreign Language Film

NOMINEES

The foreign language category has been the subject of much debate in recent years.

In particular, critics have wondered why some of the most acclaimed films in world cinema have been repeatedly snubbed and there seems to be confusion about the selection process.

Stephen Galloway and Kim Masters of The Hollywood Reporter sat down with Mark Johnson, Chairman of the Academy’s foreign language film selection committee, for a wide-ranging discussion about the process.

BULLHEAD (Belgium) in Dutch and French (Dir. Michaël R. Roskam)

A drama  about a Limburgish cattle farmer (Matthias Schoenaerts) who is approached by an unscrupulous veterinarian to make a shady deal with a notorious West-Flemish beef trader.


RUNDSKOP (BULLHEAD) trailer HD 720p english… by myfilm-gr

The film was selected for 61st Berlin International Film Festival and Drafthouse Films will release it on February 17th in limited release (UK release is TBC). It has won several festival awards at AFI FestFantastic FestPalm Springs International Film Festival and the Magritte Awards.

FOOTNOTE (Israel) in Hebrew (Dir. Joseph Cedar)

Drama exploring the power struggle between a father and son who teach at the Talmud department of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

It premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and won the Best Screenplay Award. North American distribution rights for the film were acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.

Director Joseph Cedar spoke to David Poland here. [32 mins]

IN DARKNESS (Poland) in Polish (Dir. Agnieszka Holland)

Holocaust drama based on the true story of Polish Jews in Nazi-occupied Lvov, who inhabit the city’s sewers in order to survive.

It began its North American festival run at Telluride and Toronto and Sony Classics will release in the US.

Find out more at the official websiteIMDb and David Poland has interviewed Holland for his DP/30 series (31 mins).

MONSIEUR LAZHAR (Canada) in French (Dir. Philippe Falardeau)

Drama set in Montreal about an Algerian who takes over a class after a tragedy whilst experiencing difficulties of his own.

It won the Best Canadian Feature Film award at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival is is a shortlisted nominee for Best Picture at the 2012 Genie Awards.

You can watch Phillipe Falardeau speak with TSO (15 mins) and Strombo (15 mins).

A SEPARATION (Iran) in Persian (Dir. Asghar Farhadi)

Iranian drama about a middle-class couple who separate, and the resulting complications which follow when the husband hires a caretaker for his elderly father.

It won the Golden Bear for Best Film and the Silver Bears for Best Actress and Best Actor at the 61st Berlin International Film Festival, becoming the first Iranian film to scoop top prize there.

Director Ashgar Farhadi has spoken to David Poland for his DP/30 series [37 mins]

Official Oscar site
Explore previous winners and nominees of Best Foreign Language Film at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season music

84th Academy Awards: Original Score

This category is notable for seeing the double nomination of John Williams  – although an Academy favourite it is very unusual to have two projects compete in the same year.

THE ADVENTURES OF TIN TIN (John Williams)

John Williams has two scores in the race this year and his score for Tin Tin is was his first new film material since Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008).

You can also listen to samples of the score over at Paramount’s official awards site.

THE ARTIST (Ludovic Bource)

The film’s score was composed by Ludovic Bource and recorded by Brussels Philharmonic and conducted by Ernst Van Tiel.

Here is a 30 minute interview Bource did with David Poland:

Only one song (with lyrics) used in the soundtrack, “Pennies from Heaven”, sung by Rose “Chi-Chi” Murphy.

The Weinstein Company are streaming the score here at their official awards site.

HUGO (Howard Shore)

This is the sixth collaboration between Martin Scorsese and Howard Shore. Like the film, Shore’s score is a love letter both to French culture of the 1930s and to the pioneers of early cinema.

Shore’s music is composed for two ensembles, inside a full symphony orchestra resides a smaller ensemble, a sort of nimble French dance band that includes the ondes Martenot, musette, cimbalom, tack piano, gypsy guitar, upright bass, a 1930s trap-kit, and alto saxophone. “I wanted to match the depth of the sound to the depth of the image” says Shore.

Paramount are streaming samples of the score at their awards site and you can buy it from Amazon or iTunes.

TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (Alberto Iglesias)

Although probably best known for his work with Pedro Almodovar, Iglesias was recruited by Swedish director Tomas Alfredson for this John Le Carre adaptation.

Focus Features are streaming samples of the score at their official awards site.

WAR HORSE (John Williams)

The second score Williams has in the running this year, is for his other Spielberg movie, an adaptation of the Michael Morpurgo children’s book.

The Wall Street Journal have a short video feature on Williams.

Official Oscar site
Explore past winners of Best Original Score at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season music

84th Academy Awards: Original Song

There’s only two contenders up for original song this year, and both are from family movies.

MAN OR MUPPET from THE MUPPETS (Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie)

This song was used as the official music video for the film and was performed by Jason Segel and Walter the muppet.

The Muppets Original Soundtrack available on Walt Disney Records and more information is on their official site.

You can also download the sheet music and read an Observer profile on Jason Segel here.

REAL IN RIO from RIO (Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown / Lyric by Siedah Garrett)

In the film, this song is divided in two parts: the first is played in the opening sequence and the second is sung in the penultimate  scene of the film. (On the soundtrack, the song is complete).

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have made the full track officially available, so I’ve included the promotional 2 minute clip that the studio released on YouTube back in the Spring.

The official website for Rio is here and you can download the score from the iTunes store here.

Official Oscar site
> Explore past winners of Best Original Song at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season Short Films

84th Academy Awards: Short Film (Live Action)

Most of this year’s live action shorts are screening in selected cinemas across the world now and will be available on iTunes Stores in 54 countries across the globe beginning February 21st.

A list of where they are showing can be found on the Shorts HD website.

PENTECOST (Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane)

The story follows an eleven-year-old boy who is a last-minute call-in by his local church to serve as an altar boy at an important mass.

Technical details are available here.

RAJU (Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren)

The story is about a young couple (Julia Richter and Wotan Wilke Möhring) who arrive in Kolkata, India, to adopt a young child.

The official site is here.

THE SHORE (Terry George and Oorlagh George)

The story of two childhood friends, Joe (Ciarán Hinds) and Paddy (Conleth Hill), who are divided by 25 years of misunderstanding.

The official site has lots of information and Terry George has done a 15 minute interview (highly recommended).

TIME FREAK (Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey)

Time travel comedy in which a an inventor gets the opportunity to relive the same everyday situation.

The film’s Facebook page has a lot of information and the filmmakers recently did an interview with Blog Talk Radio.

Listen to internet radio with 123 Film Easy on Blog Talk Radio

TUBA ATLANTIC (Hallvar Witzø)

Norwegian story comedy about an old man with not long to live who decides to forgive his brother for a disagreement years ago.

The film has a Twitter account (@TubaAtlantic) as does the director (@HallvarW). You can also listen to this interview with him on Soundcloud and check out his Vimeo channel.

Official Oscar site
> Oscar Shorts
> Steve Pond at The Wrap/Reuters on this year’s live action shorts
> Past winners of the Oscar for Live Action Short at Wikipedia

Categories
Animation Awards Season

84th Academy Awards: Short Film (Animated)

Some of this year’s animated shorts (e.g. The Fantastic Flying Books…, Wild Life) have been made available in full online, but where they haven’t I’ve included a trailer. (Also, be sure to check out the links to interviews.)

DIMANCHE (Patrick Doyon)

Featuring traditional hand-drawn animation, this Canadian short from director Patrick Doyon is about a boy who plays with coins on a train track whilst visiting his grandparents.

You can download it from the National Film Board of Canada and there is an interview with Doyon in Animation Magazine.

THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR MORRIS LESSMORE (William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg)

A story about the healing powers of storytelling, it follows a man who loses his books in a hurricane, only to find them somewhere else.

Directed by William Joyce (formerly of Pixar and Dreamworks) and co-directed by Brandon Oldenburg, who are both of Moonbot Studios. It is also available as a companion interactive iPad storybook.

LA LUNA (Enrico Casarosa

A coming of age fable about a young boy who is taken out to sea on a boat by his Father and Grandfather.

Enrico Casarosa talks to David Poland for 30 minutes here and you can get more details on the film at the IMDb.

A MORNING STROLL (Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe)

Based on an event recounted in Paul Auster’s book ‘True Tales of American Life‘, which tells the story of a New Yorker’s early morning encounter with a chicken.

Already a BAFTA winner for Short film Animation 2012, it also won at Sundance 2012. Find out more at BBC News and the Studio AKA site.

WILD LIFE (Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby)

The story of a dapper young remittance man sent from England to Alberta in 1909.

An interview with Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby at Living in Cinema and the official PDF press kit at the National Film Board of Canada.

Also check out this interview at Cartoon Brew.

> Official Oscar site
> Cartoon Brew’s coverage of this years animated nominees

Categories
Awards Season

84th Academy Awards Categories

This is the first in a series of posts looking at every category in the upcoming 84th Academy Awards.

Final polls close on Tuesday 21st, so now seems like a good time to examine this year’s crop of films before the prizes are awarded on Sunday 26th.

Not being a member of the Academy, it can be hard to see all the foreign films or shorts, but when that is the case I’ll do my best to post relevant links.

Over the next few days, I’ll be looking at the following and updating each link when it goes live.

UPDATED 26/02/12 13:16. The links below to all the relevant posts are now live.

> Official Oscars site & Facebook page
> Wikipedia entry for the 84th Academy Awards
> Awards Daily and In Contention at Hitfix

Categories
Awards Season Thoughts

When BAFTA Got It Right

There were rumblings of discontent when the BAFTA nominations were announced but let’s celebrate the times when the voters got it spot on.

Before we do this though we should have a moment of silence for:

On Sunday, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden will play host to some of the world’s A-list film talent, including Brad Pitt, Martin Scorsese and George Clooney.

It wasn’t always the case.

Growing up watching the awards in the UK could be an odd affair as many of my childhood memories are of BAFTAs being won and the recipient not actually being there.

Until the early 2000s it was held after the Oscars, which frequently meant that A-list talent didn’t turn up as they saw the Academy Awards as the end of awards season.

You could almost hear the agents in LA say to their clients: “why fly all the way to London to be pipped by a Brit?”

But the UK and US have always had a strangely symbiotic relationship when it comes to films – many American productions film over here and utilise British studios and crews (e.g. The Dark Knight, Harry Potter).

The career of Stanley Kubrick almost embodies this duality – he so resented studio interference on Spartacus (1960) that he came to film every one of his subsequent productions in England, utilising our crews to create his extraordinary visions.

At the same time members of the Academy have always had a sweet tooth for English period fare (e.g. Chariots of Fire) and no-one has exploited this more than Harvey Weinstein, both in his days at Miramax and last year with The King’s Speech.

More generally, it is very rare to find a Best Picture winner that isn’t a period film, so the Academy’s tastes naturally align with the British addiction to period costume dramas.

But whilst BAFTA has suffered in the past from a ‘vote-for-their-own’ syndrome, they have also pulled out some corkers.

So, let us salute the worthier winners of the mask designed by Mitzi Cunliffe.

BEST PICTURE

Dr. Strangelove (1964): In the year that the Academy gave Best Picture to My Fair Lady, the members of BAFTA went with Kubrick’s Cold War masterpiece. Ironically, the British set musical was filmed entirely on sound stages in Los Angeles, whilst the War Room in Washington was recreated at Shepperton Studios in England.

Day for Night (1973): Truffaut would have been 80 this week, so its worth remembering that in the year the Academy awarded The Sting Best Picture, BAFTA was rewarding one of cinemas great directors. Given that his comments about British cinema were often misquoted it was perhaps a surprise that BAFTA should salute him in this way.

But then again perhaps not. They were of the filmmaking generation that been affected by The 400 Blows (1959) and Jules et Jim (1962) so Truffaut’s masterful depiction of movie making was probably too much for them to resist. (The parallels with the Academy awarding a French film about movie making this year are interesting to chew on).

DIRECTORS

Stanley Kubrick for Barry Lyndon (1975): The Academy maye have never honoured Kubrick with a Best Director honour but BAFTA did. From Lolita (1962) onwards all of Kubrick’s films were shot in the UK, where he made his home and utilised the various studios just outside of London.

With his 1975 adaptation of Thackeray’s novel, Kubrick utilised the countryside in the UK and Ireland and even used lenses created by NASA for the impeccable interior lighting. No wonder this is Martin Scorsese’s favourite Kubrick film.

The 1970s are often talked of as a golden age for Hollywood, with The French Connection (1971), The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and Annie Hall (1977) all winning Best Picture, as well as the many other classics that got nominated.

But check out the BAFTA winners for Best Director during the 1970s – it reads like a slightly more daring version of the Oscars.

(N.B. Butch Cassidy was 1969 but got to the UK a year late, as was the case with some films in the 1970s)

Peter Weir for The Truman Show (1998): The big Oscar battle in 1998 was between Shakespeare in Love and Saving Private Ryan. But BAFTA wisely chose the most prescient film of that year and rewarded a director who is still without an Oscar. It not only predicted the onslaught of reality TV during the 2000s but also managed to showcase Jim Carrey’s considerable acting chops (can someone please get him to do more dramas?).

BEST ACTOR

Peter O’Toole for Lawrence of Arabia (1962): O’Toole still hasn’t won a Best Actor Oscar and there was a minor kerfuffle when he initially wanted to turn down an honorary Oscar in 2003 (so he “could win the bugger outright”) before relenting. BAFTA was awarding them to O’Toole in the early 1960s.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Samuel L Jackson for Pulp Fiction (1994): It was at the infamous ‘Letterman Oscars’ that Jackson was caught mouthing a four letter word as the Oscar went to Martin Landau for Ed Wood. When Barry Norman caught up with Jackson during a post-show interview Jackson responded with a cool “we’ll take care of that at the BAFTAs”. They certainly did.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sigourney Weaver for The Ice Storm (1997): Whilst the Academy went with Kim Basinger for LA Confidential, BAFTA selected one of Weaver’s best performances. Ang Lee has always been a fine director of actors and this bittersweet drama was filled with great acting from Kevin Kline, Joan Allen, Tobey Maguire and Christina Ricci.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Geoffrey Unsworth for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Such was Kubrick’s mastery of all aspects of filmmaking – and so total his control over his productions – that his DPs tend to get overshadowed. But Geoffrey Unsworth’s work in making outer space believable, just as the Apollo program was doing it for real, was fully deserving of a BAFTA.

Jordan Cronenweth for Blade Runner (1982): Its initial commercial failure didn’t deter BAFTA voters from rewarding the pioneering visuals in this sci-fi masterpiece. As Ridley Scott has noted the rainy city look appeared on a regular basis on MTV in the 1980s. Anecdote alert: at a London screening of the film I overheard someone who actually worked on it (almost certainly a BAFTA member) tell editor Terry Rawlings that he still thought there were ‘problems’ with it. Bollocks to that. It continues to dazzle, which is a miracle when you think that the original financiers almost ruined it (at one point they even fired Ridley Scott and producer Michael Deeley). Jordan sadly passed away in 1996, but his son Jeff is nominated this year for David Fincher’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011).

SCREENPLAY

Luis Bunuel and Jean-Claude Carriere for The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972): It was good to see that awards for European masters weren’t just confined to the ghetto of a foreign category.

This surrealist masterpiece has some pretty wild ideas in its script, which are executed brilliantly. The screenplays that the Academy honoured that year were The Sting (Original) and The Exorcist (Adapted).

EDITING

Sam O’Steen for The Graduate (1967): Whilst this was a landmark film and a gigantic hit, it wasn’t justly rewarded at the Oscars that year. Nichols won Best Director, whilst In the Heat of the Night got Best Picture. But it remains a masterclass in editing, with the pool scene being an often quoted highlight.

Steen’s wife Bobbie even wrote a book ‘Cut to the Chase‘ based their on conversations. Incidentally, Nichols’ film was pipped for the editing Oscar that year by In the Heat of the Night, which edited by future director Hal Ashby.

SOUND

Art Rochester, Nat Boxer, Mike Ejve & Walter Murch for The Conversation (1974): In the days when this award was still called ‘Sound Track’, BAFTA recognized one of the most influential of all sound movies. Coppola was on a roll in 1974, managing to squeeze in The Godfather Part II that year, but it was the amazing sound design that was integral to this film’s story and power.

Murch had already done pioneering work on American Graffiti and would revolutionize sound on film further with Apocalypse Now. The Oscar that year went to Earthquake, which may have been its use of Sensurround.

BEST SHORT FILM

Mark Herbert and Chris Morris for My Wrongs 8245-8249 and 117 (2002): Before he unleashed Four Lions on the UK, Chris Morris made this short starring Paddy Considine as a mentally disturbed man taking care of a friend’s Doberman.

Morris didn’t collect the award as he was – in the words of Herbert – “at home watching 24“.

UNITED NATIONS AWARD

The War Game (1966): Believe it or not, back in the Cold War when there was the persistent threat of nuclear annihilation there was actually an award for films that raised global issues. Although Dr. Strangelove (1964) had won it two years before, Peter Watkins’ The War Game was rewarded two years later for its chilling recreation of what a nuclear strike would like in 1960s Britain.

In fact it was so good, it also won the Oscar that year although it wasn’t shown on British television until 1985.

If you have any BAFTA winning films worthy of note, just leave a comment below.

> BAFTA Nominations
> More on past BAFTA ceremonies at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season News

84th Academy Awards Nominations

Below are all the nominees for the 84th Academy Awards which will be held on February 26th.

In terms of numbers, Hugo (11) and The Artist (10)  lead the field, but there is an interesting cross section of films below them with Moneyball (6), War Horse (6), The Descendants (5), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (5) and The Help (4).

BEST PICTURE

  • The Artist (Thomas Langmann, Producer)
  • The Descendants (Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers)
  • Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (Scott Rudin, Producer)
  • The Help (Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers)
  • Hugo (Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers)
  • Midnight in Paris (Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers)
  • Moneyball (Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers)
  • The Tree of Life (Nominees to be determined)
  • War Horse (Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers)

BEST DIRECTOR

  • The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius
  • The Descendants – Alexander Payne
  • Hugo – Martin Scorsese
  • Midnight in Paris – Woody Allen
  • The Tree of Life – Terrence Malick

BEST ACTOR

  • Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
  • George Clooney in “The Descendants”
  • Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
  • Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
  • Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”

BEST ACTRESS

  • Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”
  • Viola Davis in “The Help”
  • Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
  • Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”
  • Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
  • Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
  • Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
  • Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
  • Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”
  • Jessica Chastain in “The Help”
  • Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
  • Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”
  • Octavia Spencer in “The Help”

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

  • The Descendants” Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
  • “Hugo” Screenplay by John Logan
  • “The Ides of March” Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
  • “Moneyball” Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin Story by Stan Chervin
  • “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

  • “The Artist” Written by Michel Hazanavicius
  • “Bridesmaids” Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
  • “Margin Call” Written by J.C. Chandor
  • “Midnight in Paris” Written by Woody Allen
  • “A Separation” Written by Asghar Farhadi

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

  • “A Cat in Paris” (Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli)
  • “Chico & Rita” (Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal)
  • “Kung Fu Panda 2″ (Jennifer Yuh Nelson)
  • “Puss in Boots” (Chris Miller)
  • “Rango” (Gore Verbinski)

ART DIRECTION

  • “The Artist” Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould
  • “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2“ Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
  • “Hugo” Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
  • “Midnight in Paris” Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil
  • “War Horse” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • “The Artist” Guillaume Schiffman
  • “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Jeff Cronenweth
  • “Hugo” Robert Richardson
  • “The Tree of Life” Emmanuel Lubezki
  • “War Horse” Janusz Kaminski

COSTUME DESIGN

  • “Anonymous” Lisy Christl
  • “The Artist” Mark Bridges
  • “Hugo” Sandy Powell
  • “Jane Eyre” Michael O’Connor
  • “W.E.” Arianne Phillips

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

  • “Hell and Back Again” Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
  • “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
  • “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
  • “Pina” Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
  • “Undefeated” TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)

  • “The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement” Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
  • “God Is the Bigger Elvis” Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
  • “Incident in New Baghdad” James Spione
  • “Saving Face” Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
  • “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

EDITING

  • “The Artist” Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
  • “The Descendants” Kevin Tent
  • “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
  • “Hugo” Thelma Schoonmaker
  • “Moneyball” Christopher Tellefsen

SOUND EDITING

  • “Drive” Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
  • “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Ren Klyce
  • “Hugo” Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
  • “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
  • “War Horse” Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

SOUND MIXING

  • “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
  • “Hugo” Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
  • “Moneyball” Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick
  • “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
  • “War Horse” Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

VISUAL EFFECTS

  • “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
  • “Hugo” Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
  • “Real Steel” Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
  • “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
  • “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

  • “Bullhead” Belgium
  • “Footnote” Israel
  • “In Darkness” Poland
  • “Monsieur Lazhar” Canada
  • “A Separation” Iran

MAKEUP

  • “Albert Nobbs” Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
  • “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
  • “The Iron Lady” Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

  • “The Adventures of Tintin” John Williams
  • “The Artist” Ludovic Bource
  • “Hugo” Howard Shore
  • “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Alberto Iglesias
  • “War Horse” John Williams

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

  • “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
  • “Real in Rio” from “Rio” Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett

SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

  • “Dimanche/Sunday” Patrick Doyon
  • “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
  • “La Luna” Enrico Casarosa
  • “A Morning Stroll” Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
  • “Wild Life” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

  • “Pentecost” Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane
  • “Raju” Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
  • “The Shore” Terry George and Oorlagh George
  • “Time Freak” Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
  • “Tuba Atlantic” Hallvar Witzø

In June Academy President Tom Sherak announced that there would be changes to the following categories:

  • Best Picture: The final nominees can now range from anywhere between 5 and 10. The nomination voting process will be the same (through preferential balloting) but now only films that receive a minimum of 5% of total number one votes are eligible for Best Picture nominations.
  • Best Animated Feature: This is now a permanent competitive category, and no longer requires annual ‘approval’. It was only introduced in 2001, so there was perhaps an anxiety that there wouldn’t be enough animated films of sufficient quality, but clearly the last decade has seen a massive change in mainstream animation. There has also been increased flexibility in how many individuals can be nominated.
  • Best Documentary Feature: Here the eligibility period has been modified. Prior to this year, documentaries that screened theatrically between September 1 and August 31 of the following year were eligible. Now that period has changed to match the calendar year from January 1 to December 31. (As a transition, this year documentaries will be eligible if they were released between September 1, 2010 to December 31, 2011)
  • Best Visual Effects: Before there were 7 shortlisted VFX contenders announced several weeks before the official nominations announcement, but this now been expanded to 10 to coincide with last year’s enlargement of the category from 3 to 5 nominees.

My predictions as to what will ultimately win on February 26th are:

  • Best Picture: The Artist
  • Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
  • Best Actor: George Clooney – The Descendants
  • Best Actress: Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
  • Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer – Beginners
  • Best Supporting Actress: Bérénice Bejo – The Artist or  Octavia Spencer – The Help

Official Oscars site
The 84th Academy Awards at Wikipedia
> Analysis at Awards Daily and Hitfix

Categories
Awards Season News

Oscar Nominations Live Stream

The 84th Academy Awards Nominations Announcement is being streamed on YouTube.

You can also watch it on BBC News and the official ABC Oscar site.

Because of the recent voting changes no-one is sure how many Best Picture nominees there will be this year.

For the last two years the Academy have increased the number of films nominated for Best Picture to 10.

The new rules mean this year there could potentially be anything from 5 to 10 Best Picture nominees.

> Official Oscars site
> The 84th Academy Awards at Wikipedia
> Analysis at Awards Daily and Hitfix

Categories
Awards Season News

BAFTA Nominations

The BAFTA nominations were announced earlier today and The Artist leads the field (12 nominations), closely followed by Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (11 nominations).

I think its a given already that George Clooney (The Descendants) and Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) are hot favourites in the actor category – although Dujardin and Bejo could surprise.

Like the Oscars I still think The Artist is the one to beat for Best Picture.

But the main talking points are:

  • The absence of Olivia Colman for Tyrannosaur
  • The weird snub of Hugo from Best Film
  • The surprise inclusion of Drive for Best Film and the absence of Albert Brooks in Best Supporting Actor
  • The scandalous absence of The Tree of Life in both cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki) and visual effects (Dan Glass & his team)
  • The love for The Help in Best Film and Screenplay which suggests it hits a comfort zone in voters of a certain age.
  • Senna winning a (richly deserved) editing nomination, which is rare for a documentary.
  • Carey Mulligan’s nomination for Drive instead of her (superior) work in Shame
  • The absence of The Interrupters from Best Documentary
Here are the nominations in full:

BEST FILM

  • THE ARTIST Thomas Langmann
  • THE DESCENDANTS Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
  • DRIVE Marc Platt, Adam Siegel
  • THE HELP Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo

DIRECTOR

  • THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius
  • DRIVE Nicolas Winding Refn
  • HUGO Martin Scorsese
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tomas Alfredson
  • WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Lynne Ramsay

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius
  • BRIDESMAIDS Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig
  • THE GUARD John Michael McDonagh
  • THE IRON LADY Abi Morgan
  • MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Woody Allen

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  • THE DESCENDANTS Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
  • THE HELP Tate Taylor
  • THE IDES OF MARCH George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
  • MONEYBALL Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan

LEADING ACTOR

  • BRAD PITT Moneyball
  • GARY OLDMAN Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  • GEORGE CLOONEY The Descendants
  • JEAN DUJARDIN The Artist
  • MICHAEL FASSBENDER Shame

LEADING ACTRESS

  • BÉRÉNICE BEJO The Artist
  • MERYL STREEP The Iron Lady
  • MICHELLE WILLIAMS My Week with Marilyn
  • TILDA SWINTON We Need to Talk About Kevin
  • VIOLA DAVIS The Help

SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER Beginners
  • JIM BROADBENT The Iron Lady
  • JONAH HILL Moneyball
  • KENNETH BRANAGH My Week with Marilyn
  • PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN The Ides of March

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • CAREY MULLIGAN Drive
  • JESSICA CHASTAIN The Help
  • JUDI DENCH My Week with Marilyn
  • MELISSA MCCARTHY Bridesmaids
  • OCTAVIA SPENCER The Help

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

  • MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Simon Curtis, David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, Adrian Hodges
  • SENNA Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Manish Pandey
  • SHAME Steve McQueen, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Abi Morgan
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tomas Alfredson, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo, Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan
  • WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Lynne Ramsay, Luc Roeg, Jennifer Fox, Robert Salerno and Rory Stewart Kinnear

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

  • ATTACK THE BLOCK Joe Cornish (Director/Writer)
  • BLACK POND Will Sharpe (Director/Writer), Tom Kingsley (Director), Sarah Brocklehurst
  • (Producer)
  • CORIOLANUS Ralph Fiennes (Director)
  • SUBMARINE Richard Ayoade (Director/Writer)
  • TYRANNOSAUR Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

  • INCENDIES Denis Villeneuve, Luc Déry, Kim McGraw
  • PINA Wim Wenders, Gian-Piero Ringel
  • POTICHE François Ozon, Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer
  • A SEPARATION Asghar Farhadi
  • THE SKIN I LIVE IN Pedro Almodóvar, Agustin Almodóvar

DOCUMENTARY

  • GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD Martin Scorsese
  • PROJECT NIM James Marsh, Simon Chinn
  • SENNA Asif Kapadia

ANIMATED FILM

  • THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN Steven Spielberg
  • ARTHUR CHRISTMAS Sarah Smith
  • RANGO Gore Verbinski

ORIGINAL MUSIC

  • THE ARTIST Ludovic Bource
  • THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
  • HUGO Howard Shore
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Alberto Iglesias
  • WAR HORSE John Williams

CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • THE ARTIST Guillaume Schiffman
  • THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Jeff Cronenweth
  • HUGO Robert Richardson
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Hoyte van Hoytema
  • WAR HORSE Janusz Kaminski

EDITING

  • THE ARTIST Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius
  • DRIVE Mat Newman
  • HUGO Thelma Schoonmaker
  • SENNA Gregers Sall, Chris King
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLIDER SPY Dino Jonsater

PRODUCTION DESIGN

  • THE ARTIST Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould
  • HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
  • HUGO Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald
  • WAR HORSE Rick Carter, Lee Sandales

COSTUME DESIGN

  • THE ARTIST Mark Bridges
  • HUGO Sandy Powell
  • JANE EYRE Michael O’Connor
  • MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Jill Taylor
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Jacqueline Durran

MAKE UP & HAIR

  • THE ARTIST Julie Hewett, Cydney Cornell
  • HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
  • HUGO Morag Ross, Jan Archibald
  • THE IRON LADY Marese Langan
  • MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Jenny Shircore

SOUND

  • THE ARTIST Nadine Muse, Gérard Lamps, Michael Krikorian
  • HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 James Mather, Stuart Wilson, Stuart Hilliker, Mike Dowson, Adam Scrivener
  • HUGO Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Tom Fleischman, John Midgley
  • TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY John Casali, Howard Bargroff, Doug Cooper, Stephen Griffiths and Andy Shelley
  • WAR HORSE Stuart Wilson, Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, Richard Hymns

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

  • THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN Joe Letteri
  • HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS – PART 2 Tim Burke, John Richardson, Greg Butler, David Vickery
  • HUGO Rob Legato, Ben Grossman, Joss Williams
  • RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White
  • WAR HORSE Ben Morris, Neil Corbould

SHORT ANIMATION

  • ABUELAS Afarin Eghbal, Kasia Malipan, Francesca Gardiner
  • BOBBY YEAH Robert Morgan
  • A MORNING STROLL Grant Orchard, Sue Goffe

SHORT FILM

  • CHALK Martina Amati, Gavin Emerson, James Bolton, Ilaria Bernardini
  • MWANSA THE GREAT Rungano Nyoni, Gabriel Gauchet
  • ONLY SOUND REMAINS Arash Ashtiani, Anshu Poddar
  • PITCH BLACK HEIST John Maclean, Gerardine O’Flynn
  • TWO AND TWO Babak Anvari, Kit Fraser, Gavin Cullen

THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

  • ADAM DEACON
  • CHRIS HEMSWORTH
  • CHRIS O’DOWD
  • EDDIE REDMAYNE
  • TOM HIDDLESTON

> BAFTA
> Analysis at Awards Daily and Hitfix

Categories
Awards Season News

BAFTA Longlist

This year’s BAFTA longlist has been announced for the upcoming awards and the field is led by My Week with Marilyn and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with 16 mentions each.

The way it works is that members have a first round of voting which whittles down 15 contenders in each category, which are then reduced to five final nominees.

The animated film and documentary category longlist five films each, which are then reduced to three nominees in the final round.

All BAFTA members vote in the first two rounds for all categories except Documentary, Film Not in the English Language and Outstanding British Film, which are voted for by Chapters (groups of over 80 members with specialist skills or experience in a particular area).

The asterisks below signify the top five selection of the relevant Chapter.

In the final round, winners are voted for by specialist Chapters in all categories except for Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Documentary and Film Not in the English Language and the four performance categories, which are voted for by all members.

LONGLIST

Best Film

  • The Artist
  • The Descendants
  • Drive
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • The Help
  • Hugo
  • The Ides of March
  • The Iron Lady
  • Midnight in Paris
  • Moneyball
  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Senna
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  • War Horse
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin

Director

  • The Artist*
  • The Descendants
  • Drive*
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • The Help
  • Hugo*
  • The Ides of March
  • The Iron Lady
  • J. Edgar
  • Midnight in Paris
  • Moneyball
  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
  • War Horse
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin*

Leading Actor

  • Antonio Banderas (Robert Ledgard) – The Skin I Live In
  • Brad Pitt (Billy Beane) – Moneyball*
  • Brendan Gleeson (Gerry Boyle) – The Guard
  • Daniel Craig (Mikael Blomkvist) – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Eddie Redmayne (Colin Clark) – My Week with Marilyn
  • Gary Oldman (George Smiley) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
  • George Clooney (Matt King) – The Descendants*
  • Jean Dujardin (George Valentin) – The Artist*
  • Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar Hoover) – J. Edgar
  • Michael Fassbender (Brandon) – Shame*
  • Owen Wilson (Gil) – Midnight in Paris
  • Peter Mullan (Joseph) – Tyrannosaur
  • Ralph Fiennes (Caius Martius Coriolanus) – Coriolanus
  • Ryan Gosling (Driver) – Drive
  • Ryan Gosling (Stephen Meyers) – The Ides of March

Leading Actress

  • Bérénice Bejo (Peppy Miller) – The Artist*
  • Carey Mulligan (Sissy) – Shame
  • Charlize Theron (Mavis Gary) – Young Adult
  • Emma Stone (Skeeter Phelan) – The Help
  • Helen Mirren (Rachel Singer) – The Debt
  • Jodie Foster (Penelope Longstreet) – Carnage
  • Kate Winslet (Nancy Cowan) – Carnage
  • Kristen Wiig (Annie) – Bridesmaids
  • Meryl Streep (Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady*
  • Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre) – Jane Eyre
  • Michelle Williams (Marilyn Monroe) – My Week with Marilyn*
  • Olivia Colman (Hannah) – Tyrannosaur
  • Rooney Mara (Lisbeth Salander) – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Tilda Swinton (Eva) – We Need to Talk About Kevin*
  • Viola Davis (Aibileen Clark) – The Help*

Supporting Actor

  • Alan Rickman (Prof. Severus Snape) – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
  • Albert Brooks (Bernie Rose) – Drive
  • Ben Kingsley (George Méliès) – Hugo
  • Benedict Cumberbatch (Peter Guillam) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  • Christopher Plummer (Hal) – Beginners*
  • Colin Firth (Bill Haydon) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  • Eddie Marsan (James) – Tyrannosaur*
  • Ezra Miller (Kevin – Teenager) – We Need to Talk About Kevin
  • George Clooney (Mike Morris) – The Ides of March
  • Jim Broadbent (Denis Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
  • John Hurt (Control) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  • Jonah Hill (Peter Brand) – Moneyball*
  • Kenneth Branagh (Sir Laurence Olivier) – My Week with Marilyn*
  • Paul Giamatti (Tom Duffy) – The Ides of March
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman (Paul Zara) – The Ides of March*

Supporting Actress

  • Alexandra Roach (Young Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
  • Bryce Dallas Howard (Hilly Holbrook) – The Help*
  • Carey Mulligan (Irene) – Drive
  • Emily Watson (Rosie Narracott) – War Horse
  • Evan Rachel Wood (Molly Steams) – The Ides of March
  • Jessica Chastain (Celia Foote) – The Help* Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2012 – Longlist Page 5
  • Judi Dench (Dame Sybil Thorndike) – My Week with Marilyn*
  • Kathy Bates (Gertrude Stein) – Midnight in Paris
  • Kathy Burke (Connie Sachs) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  • Marion Cotillard (Adriana) – Midnight in Paris
  • Melissa McCarthy (Megan) – Bridesmaids*
  • Octavia Spencer (Minny Jackson) – The Help*
  • Olivia Colman (Carol Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
  • Shailene Woodley (Alexandra King) – The Descendants
  • Zoe Wanamaker (Paula Strasberg) – My Week with Marilyn*

Film Not in the English Language

  • Abel
  • As If I Am Not There
  • The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan
  • Calvet
  • Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries)
  • Incendies
  • Little White Lies
  • Pina
  • Post Mortem
  • Potiche
  • Le Quattro Volte
  • A Separation
  • The Skin I Live In
  • Tomboy
  • The Troll Hunter

Outstanding British Film

  • Arthur Christmas
  • Attack the Block
  • Coriolanus
  • The Guard
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
  • The Iron Lady
  • Jane Eyre
  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Senna
  • Shame
  • Submarine
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  • Tyrannosaur
  • War Horse
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin

Original Screenplay

  • 50/50
  • Anonymous
  • Arthur Christmas
  • The Artist*
  • Beginners
  • Bridesmaids*
  • The Guard*
  • The Iron Lady
  • J. Edgar
  • Midnight in Paris*
  • Senna
  • Shame
  • Super 8
  • Tyrannosaur
  • Young Adult*

Adapted Screenplay

  • The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
  • Coriolanus
  • The Descendants*
  • Drive
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
  • The Help*
  • Hugo
  • The Ides of March*
  • Jane Eyre
  • Moneyball*
  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
  • War Horse
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin

Cinematography

  • The Artist*
  • The Descendants
  • Drive*
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo*
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
  • Hugo*
  • The Ides of March
  • J. Edgar
  • Jane Eyre
  • Midnight in Paris
  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
  • The Tree of Life
  • War Horse
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin

Editing

  • The Artist*
  • The Descendants
  • Drive*
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
  • Hugo*
  • The Ides of March
  • The Iron Lady
  • Midnight in Paris
  • Moneyball
  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Senna*
  • Tinker Tailor Solider Spy*
  • War Horse
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin

Production Design

  • Anonymous
  • The Artist*
  • Coriolanus
  • Drive
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2*
  • The Help
  • Hugo*
  • The Iron Lady
  • J. Edgar
  • Jane Eyre
  • Midnight in Paris
  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
  • War Horse*

Make Up & Hair

  • Anonymous
  • The Artist*
  • Bridesmaids
  • Coriolanus
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2*
  • The Help
  • Hugo*
  • The Iron Lady*
  • J. Edgar
  • Jane Eyre
  • Midnight in Paris
  • My Week with Marilyn*
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  • War Horse

Costume Design

  • Anonymous*
  • The Artist*
  • Coriolanus
  • A Dangerous Method
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
  • The Help
  • Hugo*
  • The Iron Lady
  • J. Edgar
  • Jane Eyre*
  • Midnight in Paris
  • My Week with Marilyn*
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
  • War Horse

Special Visual Effects

  • The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
  • The Artist
  • Captain America: The First Avenger
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2*
  • Hugo*
  • Midnight in Paris
  • Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol
  • Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
  • Rise of the Planet of the Apes*
  • Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
  • Super 8
  • Transformers: Dark of the Moon*
  • War Horse
  • X-Men: First Class

Documentary

  • George Harrison: Living in the Material World
  • Life in a Day
  • Pina
  • Project Nim
  • Senna

Sound

  • The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
  • The Artist
  • Drive
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2*
  • Hugo*
  • The Iron Lady
  • Midnight in Paris
  • Moneyball
  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Senna
  • Super 8
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
  • War Horse*
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin

Original Music

  • The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
  • The Artist*
  • Drive
  • The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
  • The Help
  • Hugo*
  • The Ides of March
  • The Iron Lady
  • Jane Eyre
  • Moneyball
  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
  • War Horse*
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin

Animated Film

  • The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
  • Arthur Christmas*
  • Gnomeo and Juliet
  • Puss in Boots
  • Rango*

Note: Documentary, Outstanding British Film and Film Not in the English Language are Chapter votes in Rounds One and Two of voting.

†: As there was a tie in the Chapter vote in Supporting Actress, six individuals are flagged in this category.

> BAFTA
> More on the awards at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season Interesting

The Hollywood Reporter’s Actor’s Roundtable 2011

The Hollywood Reporter have posted the full video of their awards season round table with various actors in this year’s Oscar race.

It includes George Clooney (The Descendants and The Ides of March), Christopher Plummer (Beginners), Gary Oldman (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), Christoph Waltz (Carnage), Albert Brooks (Drive) and Nick Nolte (Warrior).

As you can imagine this kind of gathering makes for a pretty fascinating discussion, especially as it lasts just over an hour:

It zig and zags across various issues but here’s a mini-breakdown of the highlights:

  • Oldman on being asked to play Charles Manson, the influence of his mother and the Bryan Forbes film that inspired a
  • Plummer on playing King Lear on stage, the most challenging role he’s played, being 80 and what makes actors great.
  • Clooney on becoming an actor, the career of his aunt Rosemary Clooney and making challenging films.
  • Nolte on getting old, 48 Hours, not finding work, repertory theatre companies and a great story about Barry Lyndon.
  • Brooks on the psychology of stardom, why Jack Benny was his idol and the overall social value of acting.
  • Waltz on finding success relatively late in his career, his roles after Inglourious Basterds and the nature of acting.

The Hollywood Reporter
> Latest on the awards season at Awardsdaily and In Contention

Categories
Awards Season News

BIFA Winners 2011

Tyrannosaur won three major prizes at the British Independent Film Awards in London tonight, including Best Picture and Best Actress.

The major winners were Lynne Ramsay (Best Director for We Need to Talk About Kevin), Michael Fassbender (Best Actor for Shame), Olivia Colman (Best Actress for Tyrannosaur), Vanessa Redgrave (Best Supporting Actress for Coriolanus) and Michael Smiley (Best Supporting Actor for Kill List).

Tyrannosaur also picked up three trophies for Best British Independent Film, Best Actress and Paddy Considine was awarded The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director.

The full list of nominations is below, with the winners highlighted in bold:

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM (Sponsored by Moët & Chandon)
SENNA
SHAME
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
TYRANNOSAUR
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BEST DIRECTOR (Sponsored by The Creative Partnership)
Ben Wheatley – KILL LIST
Steve McQueen – SHAME
Tomas Alfredson – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Paddy Considine – TYRANNOSAUR
Lynne Ramsay – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR] (Sponsored by 3 Mills Studios)
Joe Cornish – ATTACK THE BLOCK
Ralph Fiennes – CORIOLANUS
John Michael McDonagh – THE GUARD
Richard Ayoade – SUBMARINE
Paddy Considine – TYRANNOSAUR

BEST SCREENPLAY (Sponsored by BBC Films)
John Michael McDonagh – THE GUARD
Ben Wheatley, Amy Jump – KILL LIST
Abi Morgan, Steve McQueen – SHAME
Richard Ayoade – SUBMARINE
Lynne Ramsay, Rory Kinnear – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BEST ACTRESS (Sponsored by M.A.C)
Rebecca Hall – THE AWAKENING
Mia Wasikowska – JANE EYRE
MyAnna Buring – KILL LIST
Olivia Colman – TYRANNOSAUR
Tilda Swinton – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BEST ACTOR
Brendan Gleeson – THE GUARD
Neil Maskell – KILL LIST
Michael Fassbender – SHAME
Gary Oldman – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Peter Mullan – TYRANNOSAUR

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Felicity Jones – ALBATROSS
Vanessa Redgrave – CORIOLANUS
Carey Mulligan – SHAME
Sally Hawkins – SUBMARINE
Kathy Burke – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Michael Smiley – KILL LIST
Tom Hardy – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Benedict Cumberbatch – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Eddie Marsan – TYRANNOSAUR
Ezra Miller – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER (Sponsored by STUDIOCANAL)
Jessica Brown Findlay – ALBATROSS
John Boyega – ATTACK THE BLOCK
Craig Roberts – SUBMARINE
Yasmin Paige – SUBMARINE
Tom Cullen – WEEKEND

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION (Sponsored by Deluxe142)
KILL LIST
TYRANNOSAUR
WEEKEND
WILD BILL
YOU INSTEAD

THE RAINDANCE AWARD (Sponsored by Exile Media)
ACTS OF GODFREY
BLACK POND
HOLLOW
LEAVING BAGHDAD
A THOUSAND KISSES DEEP

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Chris King, Gregers Sall – Editing – SENNA
Sean Bobbitt – Cinematography – SHAME
Joe Walker – Editing – SHAME
Maria Djurkovic – Production Design – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Seamus McGarvey – Cinematography – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

BEST DOCUMENTARY
HELL AND BACK AGAIN
LIFE IN A DAY
PROJECT NIM
SENNA
TT3D: CLOSER TO THE EDGE

BEST BRITISH SHORT
0507
CHALK
LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT
RITE
ROUGH SKIN

BEST FOREIGN INDEPENDENT FILM
ANIMAL KINGDOM
DRIVE
PINA
A SEPARATION
THE SKIN I LIVE IN

THE RICHARD HARRIS AWARD (for outstanding contribution by an actor to British Film) [Sponsored by Working Title]
Ralph Fiennes

THE VARIETY AWARD
Kenneth Branagh

THE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
Graham Easton

> Official site
> More on the BIFAs and previous winners at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season News

The Hollywood Reporter Director’s Roundtable

The directors Alexander Payne (The Descendants), Mike Mills (Beginners), Steve McQueen (Shame), Jason Reitman (Young Adult), Bennett Miller (Moneyball) and Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist) all sat down recently for an awards season round table chat with Stephen Galloway of The Hollywood Reporter.

Part 1 

Where they talk about makes a great director and get into a discussion about Ryan O’Neil in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon.

Part 2

Where they discuss the lack of female and black directors before Steve McQueen questions why more minorities aren’t cast in movies (this video has generated quite a lot of talk on Twitter, presumably because it hits on an uncomfortable truth)

Part 3

Where they discuss their best and worst experiences as directors, which includes tales of actors not memorising their lines and a crew member being fired.

A transcript of the session is here

> The Hollywood Reporter
> Latest on the awards season at Awardsdaily and In Contention

Categories
Awards Season Festivals

The Tree of Life wins the Palme d’Or

Will the Cannes win for Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life boost its box office and awards season chances?

Despite being the most eagerly awaited film at this year’s festival, it divided critical opinion after screening last Monday and tonight’s win was, for some pundits, something of a surprise.

Can a film as bold and out there as Malick’s film is reported to be, really click with modern upscale audiences?

Some might pour cold water on the idea of this film being an Oscar contender and an arthouse hit, as it seems to take the usual ingredients of Malick’s films and takes them to new levels of sheer Malickness.

Take this paragraph from Todd McCarthy’s review of the film for the Hollywood Reporter:

“Brandishing an ambition it’s likely no film, including this one, could entirely fulfil, The Tree of Life is nonetheless a singular work, an impressionistic metaphysical inquiry into mankind’s place in the grand scheme of things that releases waves of insights amid its narrative imprecisions. This fifth feature in Terrence Malick’s eccentric four-decade career is a beauteous creation that ponders the imponderables, asks the questions that religious and thoughtful people have posed for millennia and provokes expansive philosophical musings along with intense personal introspection”

Somehow I don’t think this quote is going on the poster.

Let’s also not forget the very existence of this film in 2011 is something of a miracle.

Malick apparently approached Bill Pohlad, the head of production company River Road, several years ago with the basic idea for the project.

Filming began in 2008 and over the course of three years Malick shot and refined the film which features an extended sequence showing the birth of human existence (!); a family in 1950s Texas (starring Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain); and present day scenes of a man (Sean Penn) reflecting on his childhood.

Over the course of the last four years, the distribution company set up by Pohlad and Bob Berney (the now ironically named Apparition) came and went, whilst the film’s release was delayed from 2009 until 2010, when some expected it to play at that year’s Cannes festival.

A few months after that didn’t happen, Fox Searchlight eventually stepped in as US distributor, there were rumoured grumblings from exhibition folk that the film was too esoteric, and UK distributor Icon got in to a fight with international sales agent Summit over the release date (which means the UK opening is currently in limbo).

When the film was finally unveiled at Cannes last week, the divided responses were perhaps predictable, but the feverish anticipation before it screened and the added kick of a Palme d’Or win might actually say something powerful about the state of cinema in 2011.

In the same weekend that a movie based on a fairground ride dominates the global box office, could there be actually be an upscale hunger for a maverick auteur like Terrence Malick?

Fox Searchlight are past masters at releasing awards season bait (even if they only have one Best Picture win) but

At the moment, it seems like Win Win and The Descendants would be their most likely shots at Oscar glory.

Could it be that this upscale movie breaks out of the die-hard cineaste realm to become a respectable arthouse success?

Not only is there the unusualness of the project (I can’t think of anything remotely similar in recent memory), but also the selling point of its reclusive, poet-genius director.

I’m sure he has sincere reasons for doing zero press, but whether intentional or not, it just stokes the aura surrounding his already legendary status to levels that must leave PR professionals gasping in awe.

Could it be possible that the unusual and ‘uncommercial’ qualities of The Tree of Life and its director become a strength rather than a weakness?

> Official site and Tumblr
> Terrence Malick at Wikipedia
> Reviews of The Tree of Life from Cannes 2011

Categories
Awards Season Interesting

Oscar Twitter Chart

Twitter reaction to the 83rd Oscars didn’t prove as popular as The Grammys or the Superbowl but there were some surprising trends.

The online social network was gauged last night by the firms Mass Relevance and TweetReach, and Techcrunch posted a data map of what was being said on the popular micro-blogging service.

Unsurprisingly, the most mentioned accounts were @TheAcademy, @JamesFranco (who was busy posting backstage all night long) but people who won such as @Trent_Reznor and @LeeUnkrich also rated highly.

Surprisingly, amongst the most re-tweeted accounts were @TheOnion and @KeithObermann, which suggests online satirical news sites and former MSNBC presenters wield a lot of clout in the online Oscar world.

It is also interesting to note that the tweets spiked when Inside Job won Best Documentary, which could have been because of the reaction to the auto-tune montage sequence, the presence of Oprah Winfrey, the anticipation of Banksy appearing on stage or Charles Ferguson’s comments about Wall Street getting away with criminal activity.

Techcrunch report that the Oscar ceremony didn’t spark anywhere near the same level of interest as comparable televised events like the Superbowl or The Grammys:

Davis told me that the event paled in comparison to the Super Bowl and The Grammy, where TweetReach saw 17,000 tweets in a single minute. In contrast, the spikes topped out at 12,000 at the Oscars.

Twenty Oscar-related terms (e.g. Oscars, #Oscars, Academy) were tracked as the show went out live and there were 1,269,970 tweets, 1,663,458,778 potential impressions, and 388,717 users tweeting.

Here is the data map:

Categories
Awards Season Interesting

Oscars Real Time with James Franco

Actor and Oscars co-host James Franco recorded a lot of the backstage action last night on his mobile.

When he came out for the opening with Anne Hathaway, you may have noticed him filming the audience on his phone.

He posted a collection of the photos and videos during the ceremony last night, under the name of Oscars Real Time, and they give an interesting glimpse to what goes on backstage at a big TV event like the Oscars.

Video Intro:

Getting in a lift before the show:

Walking Backstage (a Spinal Tap ‘Hello Cleveland‘ vibe to this one):

More walking backstage:

Famous last words right before the show begins (‘it might be bad’):

Entering the stage and filming the audience:

Showing Anne Hathaway something funny on his phone backstage:

Backstage with Anne Hathaway and Oprah Winfrey:

Oscars Real Time: Oprah!

Backstage in drag whilst David Seidler wins for The King’s Speech:

Walking out on stage with the phone in his pocket whilst he introduces Scarlett Johansson and Matthew McConaughey:

Backstage with the head writer of the show Jordan:

Laughing backstage with Anne Hathaway:

‘What am I doing?’:

Posing with Billy Crystal and Anne Hathaway:

Oscars Real Time: Billy

Backstage whilst Randy Newman plays the song from Toy Story:

‘Are you filming again?’:

Anne Hathaway tells the audience that the nominees have power bars under their seats:

Oscar writer Bruce Villanch backstage:

Tired

Florence:

The Best Actor bit with Sandra Bullock:

Anne Hathaway gives him a hand massage (not what it sounds like):

At the airport heading back to college:

:(

> See more Franco photos and videos here
> James Franco at Wikipedia