Categories
Awards Season News

BAFTA Winners

Here is the full list of tonight’s BAFTA winners.

  • Best Picture – The Hurt Locker
  • Best Actor – Colin Firth, A Single Man
  • Best Actress – Carey Mulligan, An Education
  • Best Director -Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
  • Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
  • Best Supporting Actress: Mo’nique, Precious (Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire)
  • Original Screenplay: Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker
  • Adapted Screenplay – Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner for Up In The Air
  • Cinematography – Barry Ackroyd for The Hurt Locker
  • Editing – The Hurt Locker
  • Production Design: Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg & Kim Sinclair for Avatar
  • Makeup and Hair: Jenny Shircore for The Young Victoria
  • Costume Design: Sandy Powell for The Young Victoria
  • Visual Effects – Avatar
  • Sound – The Hurt Locker
  • Music – Michael Giacchino for Up
  • Film not in the English Language – Un Prophete
  • Animated Film – Up
  • Orange Rising Star Award – Kristen Stewart
  • Outstanding British Film: Fish Tank
  • Outstanding British Debut: Duncan Jones for Moon
  • Short Film – I Do Air
  • Short Animation – Mother Of Many

Just for the record, I managed to correctly predict all the main categories in a tweet earlier.

Below is a Flickr slideshow of photos from the night:

Categories
Awards Season Interesting

Actors on The Best Performances of the Decade

The New York Times recently asked a bunch of high profile actors (including Sandra Bullock, Colin Firth, Julianne Moore, Woody Harrelson and George Clooney) to discuss their favourite performances of the last decade.

I’m surprised at the general timidity of the choices (Eddie Murphy?!) but three I’d totally agree with are Woody Harrelson on Ulrich MĂŒhe (The Lives of Others), Vera Farmiga on Michael Fassbender (Hunger) and Zoe Saldana on Tang Wei (Lust, Caution).

Here’s a few I’d say were amongst the best performances of the last ten years:

I’m sure there are more, but I’m still amazed that no-one mentioned Daniel Day Lewis.

Categories
Awards Season News

Oscar Nominations – Full List

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The Oscar nominations have been announced and Avatar and The Hurt Locker lead the field with 9 nominations each.

Nominations were announced this morning by Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences president Tom Sherak and Anne Hathaway.

The final ballots get mailed out on February 10th and are due back at PricewaterhouseCoopers offices on Tuesday 2nd March (my birthday as it turns out).

The actual awards take place on Sunday 7th March at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles and will be hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

Here is the list in full:

Best Picture

  • Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers)
  • The Blind Side (Nominees to be determined)
  • District 9 (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers)
  • An Education (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers)
  • The Hurt Locker (Nominees to be determined)
  • Inglourious Basterds (Lawrence Bender, Producer)
  • Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers)
  • A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers)
  • Up (Jonas Rivera, Producer)
  • Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers)

Best Director

  • James Cameron, Avatar
  • Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
  • Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
  • Lee Daniels, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
  • Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Best Actor

  • Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
  • George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
  • Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
  • Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
  • Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Best Actress

  • Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
  • Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
  • Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
  • Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
  • Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Best Supporting Actor

  • Matt Damon in “Invictus”
  • Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
  • Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
  • Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
  • Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Best Supporting Actress

  • PenĂ©lope Cruz in “Nine”
  • Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
  • Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
  • Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
  • Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

  • “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
  • “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
  • “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
  • “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
  • “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

  • “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
  • “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
  • “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
  • “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
  • “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

Animated Feature Film

  • “Coraline” Henry Selick
  • “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
  • “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
  • “The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
  • “Up” Pete Docter

Art Direction

  • “Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
  • “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
  • “Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
  • “Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
  • “The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

  • “Avatar” Mauro Fiore
  • “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
  • “The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
  • “Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
  • “The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Costume Design

  • “Bright Star” Janet Patterson
  • “Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
  • “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
  • “Nine” Colleen Atwood
  • “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Documentary (Feature)

  • “Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-MĂžller
  • “The Cove” Nominees to be determined
  • “Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
  • “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
  • “Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (Short Subject)

  • “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
  • “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
  • “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
  • “Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
  • “Rabbit Ă  la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

  • “Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
  • “District 9” Julian Clarke
  • “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
  • “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
  • “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

  • “Ajami” Israel
  • “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
  • “The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
  • “Un ProphĂšte” France
  • “The White Ribbon” Germany

Makeup

  • “Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
  • “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
  • “The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score)

  • “Avatar” James Horner
  • “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
  • “The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
  • “Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
  • “Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

  • “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
  • “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
  • “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
  • “Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
  • “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)

  • “French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
  • “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
  • “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
  • “Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
  • “A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

  • “The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
  • “Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
  • “Kavi” Gregg Helvey
  • “Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
  • “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

  • “Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
  • “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
  • “Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
  • “Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
  • “Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing

  • “Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
  • “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
  • “Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
  • “Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
  • “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects

  • “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
  • “District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
  • “Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton
Categories
Awards Season

Oscar Nominations Live

Categories
Awards Season News

Oscar nominations to look out for

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The Oscar nominations are announced tomorrow (Tuesday 5.30am PST and 1.30pm GMT) and here are some of the films and people to look out for in the major categories.

BEST PICTURE

The is the most interesting category of all because this year the Academy expanded the number of nominees from 5 to 10 in order to let in films that were more commercially successful.

It was basically a move to pacify ABC executives tired of declining ratings for the telecast and low grossing winners.

Obviously it was a move that goes against everything the Oscars should stand for (like awarding excellence rather than box office) and as it turned out, Avatar would have made it in to the final five anyway.

With that in mind, these films are cast-iron certainties to get in to the final 10:

  • The Hurt Locker
  • Avatar
  • Up in the Air
  • Precious
  • Inglourious Basterds

After that, it gets a little trickier but I reckon that Up, Star Trek, District 9, An Education and A Serious Man will fill out the remaining slots. However, Invictus and A Single Man are possibilities.

BEST DIRECTOR

This is going to follow the Best Picture category with the following directors:

  • James Cameron, Avatar
  • Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
  • Lee Daniels, Precious
  • Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
  • Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

BEST ACTOR

This category is also relatively straightforward, with Jeff Bridges emerging as the frontrunner to win.

  • Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
  • George Clooney, Up in the Air
  • Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker,
  • Colin Firth, A Single Man
  • Morgan Freeman, Invictus

BEST ACTRESS

Another straightforward category with Sandra Bullock likely to win. Emily Blunt isn’t a dead cert for the fifth slot, which could go to Helen Mirren for The Last Station.

  • Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
  • Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
  • Carey Mulligan, An Education
  • Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
  • Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

For this category Christophe Waltz is a dead cert to win after scooping virtually every guild and critics award. The fifth slot is a hard one to call but if there is any justice Anthony Mackie should get a nod.

  • Christophe Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
  • Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
  • Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
  • Matt Damon, Invictus
  • Anthony Mackie, The Hurt Locker

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Another category where the winner is almost certain before the nominations are announced. Mo’Mique is the actress equivalent of Waltz in that she has dominated the critic and guild awards and a dead cert to win. This is quite a hard one to call and other possibles could include Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds), Penelope Cruz (Nine) and Mariah Carey (Precious).

  • Mo’Nique, Precious
  • Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
  • Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
  • Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
  • Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Of course, I could have got a few of these wrong but we shall see when Anne Hathaway and Tom Sherak announce them at a news conference at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills on Tuesday.

The Oscars themselves are on Sunday 7th March.

> Official site
> Get the latest awards season news at AwardsDaily and InContention

Categories
Awards Season News

Kathryn Bigelow wins the DGA Award

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Kathryn Bigelow won the DGA award last night for directing The Hurt Locker and became the first woman ever to scoop the honour.

Bigelow beat out fellow nominees Lee Daniels (Precious), Jason Reitman (Up in the Air), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds) and James Cameron (Avatar).

Some pundits favoured Cameron after his win at the Golden Globes and Avatar’s extraordinary box office success, which recently passed Titanic to become the highest grossing film of all time.

However, The Hurt Locker has been the most acclaimed film of the awards season, winning most of the critics and guild awards that pave the way to the Oscars next month.

Bigelow’s victory is her 15th award for her work on the film which examines the experiences of a bomb disposal unit in the Iraq War.

She is now the frontrunner for the Best Director Oscar, which the DGA has correctly predicted for 56 of its 62-year history.

We should also mention that her directorial team were:

  • Unit Production Manager: Tony Mark
  • First Assistant Director: David Ticotin
  • First Assistant Director (Canadian Unit): Lee Cleary

* Have a listen to our interview with Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal about The Hurt Locker *

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Categories
Awards Season News

BAFTA Nominations

The final BAFTA nominations were announced this morning with An Education, Avatar and The Hurt Locker leading the field with eight nominations each.

District 9 has seven nominations, while Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds and Up in the Air have six nominations each.

Given the opportunity, BAFTA members love to award homegrown talent (Atonment beating out No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood for Best Film in 2008 comes to mind) and it would seem An Education is favourite for Best Film and Best Actress, despite not being one of the Oscar big hitters this year.

The awards takes place at London’s Royal Opera House on Sunday 21st February.

BAFTA NOMINATIONS

Best Film

  • Avatar
  • An Education
  • The Hurt Locker
  • Precious
  • Up in the Air

Outstanding British Film

  • An Education
  • Fish Tank
  • In the Loop
  • Moon
  • Nowhere Boy

Director

  • Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
  • Neill Blomkamp, District 9
  • James Cameron, Avatar
  • Lone Scherfig, An Education
  • Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Actor

  • Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
  • George Clooney, Up in the Air
  • Colin Firth, A Single Man
  • Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker
  • Andy Serkis, Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

Actress

  • Carey Mulligan, An Education
  • Saoirse Ronan, The Lovely Bones
  • Gabourey Sidibe, Precious
  • Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
  • Audrey Tautou, Coco Before Chanel

Supporting Actor

  • Alec Baldwin, It’s Complicated
  • Christian McKay, Me and Orson Welles
  • Alfred Molina, An Education
  • Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
  • Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Supporting Actress

  • Anne-Marie Duff, Nowhere Boy
  • Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
  • Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
  • Mo’Nique, Precious
  • Kristin Scott Thomas, Nowhere Boy

Original Screenplay

  • The Hangover
  • The Hurt Locker
  • Inglourious Basterds
  • A Serious Man
  • Up

Adapted Screenplay

  • District 9
  • An Education
  • In the Loop
  • Precious
  • Up in the Air

Film not in the English Language

  • Broken Embraces
  • Coco Before Chanel
  • Let the Right One In
  • A Prophet
  • The White Ribbon

Animated Film

  • Coraline
  • Fantastic Mr Fox
  • Up

Cinematography

  • Avatar
  • District 9
  • The Hurt Locker
  • Inglourious Basterds
  • The Road

Costume Design

  • Bright Star
  • Coco Before Chanel
  • An Education
  • A Single Man
  • The Young Victoria

Editing

  • Avatar
  • District 9
  • The Hurt Locker
  • Inglourious Basterds
  • Up in the Air

Make-Up & Hair

  • Coco Before Chanel
  • An Education
  • The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
  • Nine
  • The Young Victoria

Music

  • Avatar
  • Crazy Heart
  • Fantastic Mr Fox
  • Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
  • Up

Production Design

  • Avatar
  • District 9
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  • The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
  • Inglourious Basterds

Sound

  • Avatar
  • District 9
  • The Hurt Locker
  • Star Trek
  • Up

Visual Effects

  • Avatar
  • District 9
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
  • The Hurt Locker
  • Star Trek

Short Animation

  • The Gruffalo
  • The Happy Duckling
  • Mother of Many

Short Film

  • 14
  • I Do Air
  • Jade
  • Mixtape
  • Off Season

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer

  • Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock, David Pearson (directors/producers, Mugabe and the White African)
  • Eran Creevy (writer-director, Shifty)
  • Stuart Hazeldine (writer-director, Exam)
  • Duncan Jones (director, Moon)
  • Sam Taylor-Wood (director, Nowhere Boy)

Orange Rising Star Award

  • Jesse Eisenberg
  • Nicholas Hoult
  • Carey Mulligan
  • Tahar Rahim
  • Kristen Stewart
Categories
Awards Season News

Golden Globes Winners

Here are the winners at the Golden Globes, which took place in Beverley Hills earlier today.

FILM

Best Picture (Drama): Avatar
Best Picture (Comedy/Musical): The Hangover
Best Director: James Cameron, Avatar
Best Actress (Drama): Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Best Actor (Drama): Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Actress (Comedy/Musical): Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Best Actor (Comedy/Musical): Robert Downey Jr, Sherlock Holmes
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon
Best Animated Feature: Up
Best Screenplay: Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
Best Original Score: Michael Giacchino, Up
Best Original Song: The Weary Kind, Crazy Heart

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TV

Best TV Series (Drama): Mad Men
Best TV Series (Comedy): Glee
Best TV Miniseries: Grey Gardens
Best Actress, TV Miniseries: Drew Barrymore, Grey Gardens
Best Actor, TV Miniseries: Kevin Bacon, Taking Chance
Best Actress, TV Drama: Julianna Margulies, The Good Wife
Best Actor, TV Drama: Michael C. Hall, Dexter
Best Actress, TV Comedy: Toni Collette, United States of Tara
Best Actor, TV Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Best Supporting Actress, TV: Chloe Sevigny, Big Love
Best Supporting Actor, TV: John Lithgow, Dexter

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The Golden Globes should always be taken with a pinch of salt, as they are voted for by a select group of foreign journalists in Los Angeles who basically try to second guess what the Oscar nominations will be.

The win for Robert Downey Jnr in Sherlock Holmes is reflective of the nonsensical, showbiz tastes that are rife amongst the ageing cabal of hacks that make up the HFPA.

With that in mind, the major winners could mirror the Oscars this year with Avatar, James Cameron, Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock all looking very strong in their respective categories.

Oscar pundits will tell you that Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique have been virtual certainties in the supporting categories for quite a while and their wins here were no surprise.

> Official site
> More about the Golden Globes at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season

Orange Rising Star Award 2010

This week at BAFTA headquarters, the 2009 winner Noel Clarke announced the nominee list for this year’s Orange Rising Star Award.

The award recognises five international actors and actresses whose talent has inspired popular acclaim from the British public and the nominees this year are: Jesse Eisenberg (Adventureland and Zombieland), Nicholas Hoult (A Single Man), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) and Kristen Stewart (Adventureland and Twilight).

Now in it’s fifth year, the winner will be announced at the Orange British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 21st February and you vote by clicking the above widget.

Everyone who votes will be automatically entered in to a prize draw to be in with the chance to win VIP tickets to this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards.

For more information just visit the official website: www.orange.co.uk/bafta

Categories
Awards Season News

DGA Nominations

The nominees for this year’s DGA Awards have been announced and they are:

It is seems highly likely that this will be the final five for the Oscars next month.

> Director’s Guild of America
> Find out more about the DGA at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season News

BAFTA Long List

The official long list of the BAFTAs was announced today, with An Education leading the field with 17 mentions.

Other films with quite a few nominations include Inglourious Basterds (15 mentions), The Hurt Locker (12 mentions), Avatar (11 mentions and The Lovely Bones (11 mentions).

Perhaps the suprising underdog of the pack – given the lack of US awards heat – is Moon which received 10 mentions, including the big categories of Best film, director and actor.

The process involves around 6000 members of BAFTA who vote in three rounds to decide the winners at the Orange British Academy Film Awards on February 21st.

The long list is the result of Round One voting, which whittles down eligible films down to fifteen in each category.

Round Two voting will then reduce these fifteen contenders down to the final five nominees which will be announced on Thursday 21st January at BAFTA HQ in London.

The asterisks below show the top 5 (or in certain cases 6) voted by each chapter of the Academy in this first round. (Have a listen to my interview with BAFTA’s Amanda Berry from 2008 for further details on how the voting system works).

As ever with BAFTA watch out for delayed releases (Gran Torino is a 2008 film which Warner Bros couldn’t be bothered to screen in time for last year’s deadlines) and the British bias (Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth seem like slam-dunks to win in their respective categories – not that they aren’t deserving, but there is something a little parochial when BAFTA voters go for the ‘home vote’).

Here is the long list in full:

BEST FILM
Avatar
District 9
An Education
Gran Torino
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Moon
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
The Road
A Serious Man
A Single Man
Star Trek
Up
Up in the Air

DIRECTOR
Avatar *
Bright Star
District 9 *
An Education *
Fish Tank
Gran Torino
The Hurt Locker *
Inglourious Basterds
Invictus
Moon
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
A Prophet *
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

LEADING ACTOR
Aaron Johnson (John Lennon) – Nowhere Boy
Andy Serkis (Ian Dury) – Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll *
Ben Whishaw (John Keats) – Bright Star
Brad Pitt (Lt. Aldo Raine) – Inglourious Basterds
Clint Eastwood (Walt Kowalski) – Gran Torino
Colin Firth (George) – A Single Man *
George Clooney (Ryan Bingham) – Up in the Air *
Jeff Bridges (Bad Blake) – Crazy Heart
Jeremy Renner (SSgt. William James) – The Hurt Locker *
Michael Sheen (Brian Clough) – The Damned United
Morgan Freeman (Nelson Mandela) – Invictus *
Peter Capaldi (Malcolm Tucker) – In the Loop
Peter Sarsgaard (David) – An Education
Sam Rockwell (Sam Bell) – Moon
Viggo Mortensen (Man) – The Road

LEADING ACTRESS
Abbie Cornish (Fanny Brawne) – Bright Star *
Amy Adams (Julie Powell) – Julie & Julia
Audrey Tautou (Gabrielle ‘Coco’ Chanel) – Coco Before Chanel
Carey Mulligan (Jenny) – An Education *
Emily Blunt (Queen Victoria) – The Young Victoria
Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) – Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire *
Helen Mirren (Sofya Tolstoy) – The Last Station
Katie Jarvis (Mia) – Fish Tank
Maggie Gyllenhaal (Jean Craddock) – Crazy Heart
Marion Cotillard (Luisa Contini) – Nine
Melanie Laurent (Shosanna Dreyfus) – Inglourious Basterds
Meryl Streep (Jane) – It’s Complicated
Meryl Streep (Julia Child) – Julie & Julia *
Penelope Cruz (Lena) – Broken Embraces
Saoirse Ronan (Susie Salmon) – The Lovely Bones *

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Aaron Wolff (Danny Gopnik) – A Serious Man
Alan Rickman (Professor Severus Snape) – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Alec Baldwin (Jake) – It’s Complicated
Alfred Molina (Jack) – An Education *
Anthony Mackie (Sgt. JT Sanborn) – The Hurt Locker
Brian Geraghty (Specialist Owen Eldridge) – The Hurt Locker
Christian McKay (Orson Welles) – Me and Orson Welles *
Christoph Waltz (Col. Landa) – Inglourious Basterds *
Christopher Plummer (Leo Tolstoy) – The Last Station *
Dominic Cooper (Danny) – An Education
Matt Damon (Francois Pienaar) – Invictus
Stanley Tucci (Mr Harvey) – The Lovely Bones *
Stanley Tucci (Paul Child) – Julie & Julia
Timothy Spall (Peter Taylor) – The Damned United
Zachary Quinto (Spock) – Star Trek

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Anna Kendrick (Natalie Keener) – Up in the Air
Anne-Marie Duff (Julia) – Nowhere Boy *
Claire Danes (Sonja Jones) – Me and Orson Welles
Diane Kruger (Bridget von Hammersmark) – Inglourious Basterds
Emma Thompson (Headmistress) – An Education
Julianne Moore (Charley) – A Single Man *
Kristin Scott Thomas (Mimi) – Nowhere Boy *
Mariah Carey (Mrs Weiss) – Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Mo’Nique (Mary) – Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire *
Olivia Williams (Miss Stubbs) – An Education
Penelope Cruz (Carla) – Nine
Rachel Weisz (Abigail Salmon) – The Lovely Bones
Rosamund Pike (Helen) – An Education *
Susan Sarandon (Grandma Lynn) – The Lovely Bones
Vera Farmiga (Alex Goran) – Up in the Air

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Crazy Heart
The Damned United
District 9 *
An Education *
Fantastic Mr Fox
In the Loop *
Invictus
Let the Right One In *
The Lovely Bones
Me and Orson Welles
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire *
The Road
A Single Man
Star Trek
Up in the Air *

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Avatar
Bright Star
Broken Embraces
Fish Tank
Gran Torino
The Hangover
The Hurt Locker *
Inglourious Basterds *
It’s Complicated
Moon *
Nowhere Boy
A Prophet
A Serious Man *
Up *
The Young Victoria

MAKE UP & HAIR
Avatar
Bright Star *
Coco Before Chanel *
District 9
An Education *
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus *
Inglourious Basterds
Julie & Julia
Me and Orson Welles
Nine
Nowhere Boy
The Road
Star Trek
The Young Victoria *

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
2012 *
Avatar *
District 9 *
Fantastic Mr Fox
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince *
The Hurt Locker
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Inglourious Basterds
The Lovely Bones
Moon
The Road
Star Trek *
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Watchmen
Where the Wild Things Are

SOUND
Avatar *
District 9 *
An Education
Fantastic Mr Fox
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker *
Inglourious Basterds
The Lovely Bones
Moon
Nine
Nowhere Boy
The Road
Star Trek *
Up *
Where the Wild Things Are

EDITING
Avatar *
Bright Star
District 9 *
An Education
The Hurt Locker *
Inglourious Basterds *
The Lovely Bones
Moon
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
The Road
A Serious Man
A Single Man
Star Trek
Up
Up in the Air *

COSTUME DESIGN
Avatar
Bright Star *
Coco Before Chanel *
District 9
An Education *
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Inglourious Basterds
Me and Orson Welles
Nine
Nowhere Boy
Sherlock Holmes
A Single Man *
Star Trek
The Young Victoria *

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Avatar
Bright Star *
Coco Before Chanel
District 9 *
An Education
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince *
The Hurt Locker
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus *
Inglourious Basterds
The Lovely Bones
Moon
The Road
Sherlock Holmes *
A Single Man
Star Trek

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar *
Bright Star *
Coco Before Chanel
District 9
An Education
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker *
Inglourious Basterds *
The Lovely Bones
Moon
The Road
A Serious Man *
A Single Man
Star Trek
Up in the Air

ANIMATED FILM
Coraline *
Disney’s A Christmas Carol
Fantastic Mr Fox *
Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
Up *

MUSIC
Avatar *
Bright Star
Coraline *
Crazy Heart *
An Education
Fantastic Mr Fox *
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Lovely Bones
Moon *
Nine
Nowhere Boy
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Up *
Up in the Air

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Broken Embraces
Coco Before Chanel
Let the Right One In
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

> Official BAFTA site
> Interview with BAFTA chief executive Amanda Berry from 2008

Categories
Awards Season Directors

Hollywood Reporter Directors Roundtable

THR Roundtable 1

The Hollywood Reporter recently hosted a round table discussion for directors up for awards this season.

It included: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Peter Jackson (The Lovely Bones), James Cameron (Avatar), Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) and Lee Daniels (Precious).

In three parts:

Categories
Awards Season News

Golden Globe nominations

Golden Globe Nominations

This year’s Golden Globe nominations have been announced and here the the film categories.

BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA

  • Avatar (Lightstorm Entertainment; Twentieth Century Fox)
  • The Hurt Locker (Voltage Pictures C/O 42West; Summit Entertainment)
  • Inglourious Basterds (The Weinstein Company)
  • Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire (A Lee Daniels Entertainment / Smokewood Entertainment; Lionsgate)
  • Up In The Air (Paramount Pictures)

BEST ACTRESS – DRAMA

  • Emily Blunt – The Young Victoria
  • Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
  • Helen Mirren – The Last Station
  • Carey Mulligan – An Education
  • Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire

BEST ACTOR – DRAMA

  • Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
  • George Clooney – Up In The Air
  • Colin Firth – A Single Man
  • Morgan Freeman – Invictus
  • Tobey Maguire – Brothers

BEST PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

  • (500) Days Of Summer (Watermark Pictures; Fox Searchlight Pictures)
  • The Hangover (Warner Bros. Pictures)
  • It’s Complicated (Relativity Media, Scott Rudin Productions; Universal Pictures)
  • Julie & Julia (Columbia Pictures; Sony Pictures Releasing)
  • Nine (The Weinstein Company)

BEST ACTRESS – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

  • Sandra Bullock – The Proposal
  • Marion Cotillard – Nine
  • Julia Roberts – Duplicity
  • Meryl Streep – It’s Complicated
  • Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

BEST ACTOR – COMEDY OR MUSICAL

  • Matt Damon – The Informant!
  • Daniel Day-Lewis – Nine
  • Robert Downey Jr. – Sherlock Holmes
  • Joseph Gordon-Levitt – (500) Days Of Summer
  • Michael Stuhlbarg – A Serious Man

BEST ANIMATED FILM

  • Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (Columbia Pictures And Sony Pictures Animation; Sony Pictures Releasing)
  • Coraline (Laika, Inc.; Focus Features)
  • Fantastic Mr. Fox (American Empirical Picture; Twentieth Century Fox)
  • The Princess And The Frog (Walt Disney Pictures/Walt Disney Animation Studios)
  • Up (Walt Disney Pictures/Pixar Animation Studios)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

  • Baaria (Italy)
  • Broken Embraces (Spain)
  • The Maid (Chile)
  • A Prophet (France)
  • The White Ribbon (Germany)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • PenĂ©lope Cruz – Nine
  • Vera Farmiga – Up In The Air
  • Anna Kendrick – Up In The Air
  • Mo’Nique – Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire
  • Julianne Moore – A Single Man

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Matt Damon – Invictus
  • Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
  • Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
  • Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
  • Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
  • James Cameron – Avatar
  • Clint Eastwood – Invictus
  • Jason Reitman – Up In The Air
  • Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

BEST SCREENPLAY

  • Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell – District 9
  • Mark Boal – The Hurt Locker
  • Nancy Meyers – It’s Complicated
  • Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner –  Up In The Air
  • Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

  • Michael Giacchino – Up
  • Marvin Hamlisch – The Informant!
  • James Horner – Avatar
  • Abel Korzeniowski & Karen O – A Single Man
  • Carter Burwell – Where The Wild Things Are

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

  • “Cinema Italiano” – Nine (Music & Lyrics By: Maury Yeston)
  • “I Want To Come Home” – Everybody’s Fine (Music & Lyrics By: Paul McCartney)
  • “I Will See You” Avatar (Music By: James Horner, Simon Franglen, Lyrics By: James Horner, Simon Franglen, Kuk Harrell)
  • “The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)” — Crazy Heart (Music & Lyrics By: Ryan Bingham, T Bone Burnett)
  • “Winter” Brothers (Music by: U2, Lyrics by: Bono)

The winners will be announced at the official ceremony on January 17th, 2010.

> Official Golden Globes site
> Find out more about the HFPA at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season

Interviews with Oscar Winners

Oscar Trophies

Here are links to interviews I’ve done in the past year with people involved in films that won at the Oscars last night.

I also interviewed people connected with films that were nominated:

Check out more interviews here and subscribe to our interview podcast via iTunes or RSS feed.

> My Oscar predictions from yesterday    
> All the interviews I’ve done since 2007
> Wikipedia entry for the 81st Academy Awards
> Official Oscar site
> More awards season analysis at Awards Daily and In Contention

Categories
Awards Season News

Oscar Winners

Oscar Winners 2009

Here is the full list of winners at the 81st Academy Awards:

  • Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire 
  • Best Director: Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire 
  • Best Actor: Sean Penn – Milk 
  • Best Actress: Kate Winslet – The Reader 
  • Best Supporting actor: Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight 
  • Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona 
  • Best Original Screenplay: Milk 
  • Best Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire 
  • Best Animated Feature Film: Wall-E 
  • Best Animated Short Film: La Maison en Petits Cubes 
  • Best Foreign Language Film: Departures (Japan) 
  • Best Documentary Feature: Man on Wire 
  • Best Documentary Short Subject: Smile Pinki 
  • Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 
  • Costume Design: The Duchess 
  • Make-up: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 
  • Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire 
  • Best Live Action Short Film: Spielzeugland (Toyland) 
  • Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 
  • Sound Editing: The Dark Knight 
  • Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire 
  • Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire 
  • Best Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire 
  • Best Original Song: Jai Ho – Slumdog Millionaire 

> Official Oscar site
> Follow more analysis at Awards Daily and In Contention

Categories
Amusing Awards Season Viral Video

Salon Oscar Runner Up Mashup

Salon have done an interesting mashup of different actors and their reactions to not winning an Oscar.

Although not included here, Samuel L Jackson’s reaction to losing to Martin Landau in 1995 (he clearly mouthed ‘sh*t!’) has to be the most refreshingly honest.

Categories
Awards Season Thoughts

Oscar Predictions

81st Academy Awards posterThe 81st Academy Awards are on tonight at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

The main feature of the awards this year is that a lot of the major categories seem to be already decided.

Of the big 6 awards only Best Actor seems a difficult one to call.

Having said that, there can be surprises.

Here are the nominations and my predictions:

BEST PICTURE

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Frost/Nixon
  • Milk
  • The Reader
  • Slumdog Millionaire

Who will win: Slumdog Millionaire.

After dominating the awards season up to this point, it would be a major upset if Slumdog didn’t get Best Picture. The unlikely feelgood story of the film is mirrored by extraordinary journey of this production.

Just a few months ago it was low budget drama with no stars that looked to be in major trouble after the closure of Warner Independent.

But after early buzz at festivals, it was acquired by Fox Searchlight (one of the savviest studios at marketing lower budget films) and has ridden an amazing wave of critical acclaim and word of mouth success.    

In some ways it is the Barack Obama of this Oscar season – an unlikely outsider who has trumped much better funded and more favoured early candidates like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon.

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
  • David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
  • Stephen Daldry, The Reader
  • Gus Van Sant, Milk

Who Will Win: Danny Boyle.

It is often the case that the director of Best Picture wins Best Director and that trend is almost certain to happen this year.

Given the visual style of Slumdog and the fact that he has also scooped the DGA award, it would be a major shock if Boyle didn’t win.

BEST ACTOR

  • Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
  • Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
  • Sean Penn, Milk
  • Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Who Will Win: Sean Penn.

This is the hardest major category to predict even if it is essentially a two horse race between Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn.

Both have won key awards but I slightly favour Sean Penn because he won the SAG Award (often an indicator for Oscar) and because his performance is showier than Rourke’s.

Another possible reason Rourke won’t win is because The Wrestler is the kind of gritty, contemporary film that puts off older members of the academy.

Whilst my heart is rooting for Rourke, as a win would be an extraordinary comeback, my head says Penn.       

BEST ACTRESS

  • Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
  • Angelina Jolie, Changeling
  • Melissa Leo, Frozen River
  • Meryl Streep, Doubt
  • Kate Winslet, The Reader

Who Will Win: Kate Winslet.

Having been nominated 5 times, it is almost certainly Winslet’s time.

Although The Reader is a film that wasn’t universally embraced, her performance (allied to her turn in Revolutionary Road, for which she could have also been nominated) is up to her usual high standards and exactly the kind that older Academy members love (remember her Extras speech?).

Some feel that Meryl Streep or even Melissa Leo could pull an upset but that looks highly unlikely. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Josh Brolin, Milk
  • Robert Downey Jr, Tropic Thunder
  • Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
  • Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
  • Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

Who Will Win: Heath Ledger.

This is the easiest category of all to predict. Ever since the film came out last summer the talk has been of Ledger being a lock for this category.

Not only will it be a tribute to the late actor’s career but it will also be an acknowledgement that The Dark Knight was more than just another blockbuster. (Some studio execs were upset that The Dark Knight was snubbed in the bigger categories).

Director Christopher Nolan looks likely to collect on Ledger’s behalf. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Amy Adams, Doubt
  • Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  • Viola Davis, Doubt
  • Taraji P. Hensen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Who Will Win: Penelope Cruz.

Although there is room here for an upset, it would be  a shock if Penelope Cruz didn’t win for her sparkling turn in Woody Allen’s latest film. 

If there is to be an upset then Viola Davis or Marisa Tomei are an outside possbility.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
  • Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
  • Dustin Lance Black, Milk
  • Martin McDonough, In Bruges
  • Andrew Stanton, Wall-E

Who Will Win: Dustin Lance Black.

Although this is something of a two horse race between Milk and WALL-E, I think Dustin Lance Black is going to win for the former.

Andrew Stanton is just as deserving, but the fact that his innovative screenplay is for an animated film (albeit a masterful one) may count against him.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  • Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
  • Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
  • David Hare, The Reader
  • Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

Who Will Win: Simon Beaufoy.

The Slumdog train will keep on rolling with Beaufoy almost certain to collect the award for his bold and clever adaptation of Vikas Sawrup’s novel. 

If there is an upset here then Peter Morgan would be my pick, but I don’t see that happening.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

  • Bolt
  • Kung Fu Panda
  • WALL-E

Who Will Win: WALL-E.

Arguably this masterpiece should have been nominated for Best Picture, but it looks certain to continue Pixar’s amazing run in this category.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

  • The Baader Meinhof Complex
  • The Class
  • Departures
  • Revanche
  • Waltz With Bashir

Who Will Win: Waltz With Bashir.

This looks like a two horse race between Waltz With Bashir and The Class.

I slightly favour Ari Folman’s remarkable film about his experiences as an Israeli soldier, which is a sadly prescient tale about the effects of war.

The Class is a more accessible film with a more feelgood vibe, so it could also win.

BEST DOCUMENTARY

  • The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
  • Encounters at the End of the World
  • The Garden
  • Man on Wire
  • Trouble the Water

Who Will Win: Man On Wire.

James Marsh’s outstanding documentary about Philippe Petit’s astounding wire walk between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 is the clear front runner.

It the most accessible of the nominees and has the added bonus of playing like a thrilling, existential heist movie.  

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

  • “Down To Earth” (WALL-E)
  • “Jai Ho” (Slumdog Millionaire)
  • “O Saya” (Slumdog Millionaire)

Who Will Win: Jai Ho.

Although Peter Gabriel’s song for WALL-E is a strong contender, I think the final song from Slumdog has the edge, especially given the fact that it accompanies the final song and dance number of the film. 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
  • Defiance, James Newton Howard
  • Milk, Danny Elfman
  • Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman
  • WALL-E, Thomas Newman

Who Will Win: A.R. Rahman

Although I think Thomas Newman did some fantastic work on the WALL-E soundtrack, the exotic joy of A.R. Rahman’s score for Slumdog played a large part in why its proved such a hit. So, another win for the Dog.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

  • Australia, Catherine Martin
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Jacqueline West
  • The Duchess, Michael O’Connor
  • Milk, Danny Glicker
  • Revolutionary Road, Albert Wolsky

Who Will Win: Jacqueline West 

There is a depressing logic that dictates that period dramas with big dresses always scoop this award – if this is the case then The Duchess will win.

However, given that the Academy has got a little smarter in recent years I’m hoping they will recognise the considerable achievement of Jacqueline West’s costumes in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which impressively span a number of decades.

BEST FILM EDITING

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall
  • The Dark Knight, Lee Smith
  • Frost/Nixon, Mike Hill & Dan Hanley
  • Milk, Elliot Graham
  • Slumdog Millionaire, Chris Dickens

Who Will Win: Chris Dickens.

It is very often the case that the Best Picture will also win Best Editing, so this will be another victory in this year of the Slumdog. 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • Changeling, Tom Stern
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Claudio Miranda
  • The Dark Knight, Wally Pfister
  • The Reader, Chris Menges & Roger Deakins
  • Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle

Who Will Win: Anthony Dod Mantle.

The Slumdog bandwagon will roll on with Anthony Dod Mantle, but even if it was the projected big winner of the night, he would still be a strong contender for his imaginative and stylish shooting of Mumbai. 

If there is to be an upset here, then look out for Claudio Miranda, who did some sterling work on Benjamin Button.

BEST ART DIRECTION

  • Changeling, James J. Murakami, Gary Fettis
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Donald Graham Burt & Victor J. Zolfo
  • The Dark Knight, Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando
  • The Duchess, Michael Carlin, Rebecca Alleway
  • Revolutionary Road, Kristi Zea, Debra Schutt

Who Will Win: Donald Graham Burt & Victor J. Zolfo

Given that The Curious Case of Benjamin Button had a ton of marketing money spent on it, expect some of that to stick when it comes to the technical categories. 

In any case, it is probably a deserving winner as the art direction was highly impressive. The main competition here is from The Dark Knight, which could also do well in the technical categories.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron
  • The Dark Knight, Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber, Paul Franklin
  • Iron Man, John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick, Shane Mahan

Who Will Win: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron.

It is hard to see Benjamin Button not winning here for the groundbreaking work by Digital Domain in ageing Brad Pitt backwards.

The main contender here would be The Dark Knight, but the deliberate lack of obvious CGI for that film may not have helped its chances (even though that’s what made it look so good). 

BEST SOUND EDITING

  • The Dark Knight, Richard King
  • Iron Man, Frank Eulner, Christopher Boyes
  • Slumdog Millionaire, Tom Sayers
  • WALL-E, Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood
  • Wanted, Wylie Stateman

Who Will Win: Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood

The sound work on WALL-E was simply extraordinary and it will be a scandal if it doesn’t win in both categories.

The Dark Knight is its main rival, so expect it to win if the Pixar film doesn’t.

BEST SOUND MIXING

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Mark Weingarten
  • The Dark Knight, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick
  • Slumdog Millionaire, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty
  • WALL-E, Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, Ben Burtt
  • Wanted, Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño, Petr Forejt

Who Will Win: Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, Ben Burtt.

See above as to why WALL-E should win.

BEST MAKEUP

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Greg Cannom
  • The Dark Knight, John Caglione, Jr., Conor O’Sullivan
  • Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Mike Elizalde, Thom Floutz

Who Will Win: Greg Cannom

A slam dunk win for Benjamin Button as its makeup effects were quite remarkable.

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

  • The Conscience of Nhem En, Steven Okazaki
  • The Final Inch, Irene Taylor Brodsky, Tom Grant
  • Smile Pinki, Megan Mylan
  • The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306, Adam Petofsky, Margaret Hyde

Who Will Win: The Conscience of Nhem En

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

  • La Maison de Petits Cubes, Kunio Kato
  • Lavatory – Lovestory, Konstantin Bronzit
  • Oktapodi, Emud Mokhberi, Thierry Marchand
  • Presto, Doug Sweetland
  • This Way Up, Alan Smith, Adam Foulkes

Who Will Win: Presto

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

  • Auf der Strecke (On the Line), Reto Caffi
  • Manon on the Asphalt, Elizabeth Marre, Olivier Pont
  • New Boy, Steph Green, Tamara Anghie
  • The Pig, Tivi Magnusson, Dorte HĂžgh
  • Spielzeugland (Toyland), Jochen Alexander Freydan

Who Will Win: Spielzeugland (Toyland)

If you have any predictions then leave them in the comments below. 

> Official Oscar site
> Follow more analysis at Awards Daily and In Contention

Categories
Awards Season News

Independent Spirit Award Winners

Indie Spirit Awards

The Wrestler led a fairly evenly split Film Independent’s Spirit Awards yesterday in Santa Monica, winning awards for Best Feature, Best Actor Mickey Rourke and Best Cinematography.  

The other notable winners were Milk, Vicky Cristina Barcelona and Frozen River.

Here is the complete list of who won what:

BEST FEATURE: The Wrestler

BEST DIRECTOR: Tom McCarthy, The Visitor

BEST FIRST FEATURE: Synecdoche, New York

JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD: In Search of a Midnight Kiss

BEST SCREENPLAY: Woody Allen, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY: Dustin Lance Black, Milk

BEST FEMALE LEAD: Melissa Leo, Frozen River

BEST MALE LEAD: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST SUPPORTING MALE: James Franco, Milk

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Maryse Alberti, The Wrester

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Man on Wire

BEST FOREIGN FILM: The Class

ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD: Synecdoche, New York – Charlie Kaufman (Director), Jeanne McCarthy (Casting Director), Hope Davis, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Catherine Keener, Samantha Morton, Tom Noonan, Emily Watson, Diane Weist, Michelle Williams

PIAGET PRODUCERS AWARD: Heather Rae, Frozen River

ACURA SOMEONE TO WATCH AWARD: Lynn Shelton, My Effortless Brillance

LACOSTE TRUER THAN FICTION AWARD: Margaret Brown, The Order of Myths

UPDATED: The highlight was Mickey Rourke’s acceptance speech:

 

> Official site for the Indie Spirit Awards
> Find out more about the awards at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season Interesting TV

Mickey Rourke on Charlie Rose

Mickey Rourke sits down for an hour long interview with Charlie Rose.

Fingers crossed he wins the Oscar a week on Sunday.

Categories
Awards Season Behind The Scenes

Benjamin Button Visual Effects

Digital Domain show how the visual effects in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button were done.

Categories
Amusing Awards Season

Mickey Rourke’s BAFTA Speech

Probably the highlight of last night’s BAFTAs was Mickey Rourke’s acceptance speech.

Categories
Awards Season News

BAFTA Winners

BAFTAs 2009 [Photo by Flickr user FoxyCoxy]

Here are the full list of winners at tonight’s BAFTA awards, which were held at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London.

BEST FILM
Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ACTOR
Mickey Rourke
– The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS
Kate Winslet – The Reader

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Milllionaire

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
In Bruges – Martin McDonagh

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Slumdog Millionaire – Simon Beaufoy

BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
I’ve Loved You So Long

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Wall-E

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD (Special achievement by a British director, writer or producer for their first feature film)
Steve McQueen (Director/Writer) – Hunger

BEST MUSIC
Slumdog Millionaire – AR Rahman

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Slumdog Millionaire – Anthony Dod Mantle

BEST EDITING
Slumdog Millionaire – Chris Dickens

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Donald Graham Burt, Victor J Zolfo

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
The Duchess – Michael O’Connor

BEST SOUND
Slumdog Millionaire – Glenn Freemantle, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, Tom Sayers, Ian Tapp

BEST SPECIAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Eric Barba, Craig Barron, Nathan McGuinness, Edson Williams

BEST MAKE-UP & HAIR
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – Jean Black, Colleen Callaghan

BEST SHORT ANIMATION
Wallace And Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death – Steve Pegram, Nick Park, Bob Baker

BEST SHORT
September – Stewart le Marechal, Esther May Campbell

BEST BRITISH FILM
Man On Wire

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

> Official BAFTA site
> Full list of this year’s nominees
> The original longlist

[Photo courtesy of Flickr user FoxyCoxy]

Categories
Awards Season Interesting

David Denby and A.O. Scott on the Oscars

David Denby of The New Yorker and A.O. Scott of the New York Times discuss this year’s Oscar nominations with Charlie Rose.

Categories
Awards Season News

SAG Winners

SAG LogoThe winners for this year’s Screen Actor’s Guild Awards have been announced.

They have been going since 1995 and are often seen as an important indicator of where the acting Oscars may end up.

Nominations for the awards come from 4200 randomly selected members of the union, with the full membership (120,000 as of 2007) available to vote for the winners.

Here they are in two different categories:

FILM

Ensemble Cast: Slumdog Millionaire
Lead Actress: Meryl Streep, Doubt
Lead Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Lifetime Achievement Award: James Earl Jones

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TELEVISION

Lead Actress, Comedy Series: Tina Fey, 30 Rock
Lead Actor, Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
Ensemble Cast, Comedy Series: 30 Rock
Lead Acress, Drama Series: Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
Lead Actor, Drama Series: Hugh Laurie, House
Ensemble Cast, Drama Series: Mad Men
Lead Actress, Miniseries: Laura Linney, John Adams
Lead Actor, Miniseries: Paul Giamatti, John Adams

> Official SAG awards site
> Find out more about SAG at Wikipedia

Categories
Awards Season News

Oscar Nominations

Oscar NominationsThe Oscar nominations have been announced for the 81st Academy Awards.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button leads the field with 13 nominations, including Best Picture.

Other Best Picture contenders are Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader and Slumdog Millionaire.

They were announced Thursday morning at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Los Angeles by Academy President Sid Ganis and actor Forest Whitaker.

In 15 of the last 20 years, the film with the most nominations went on to win Best Picture, but that trend has changed in recent years with the top nominee only winning best pic in two of the last five years.

The awards take place on Sunday 22nd February at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and will be hosted by Hugh Jackman.

Here are the nominations in full:

BEST PICTURE

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Frost/Nixon
  • Milk
  • The Reader
  • Slumdog Millionaire

BEST DIRECTOR

  • Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
  • David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
  • Stephen Daldry, The Reader
  • Gus Van Sant, Milk

BEST ACTRESS

  • Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
  • Angelina Jolie, Changeling
  • Melissa Leo, Frozen River
  • Meryl Streep, Doubt
  • Kate Winslet, The Reader

BEST ACTOR

  • Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
  • Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
  • Sean Penn, Milk
  • Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Amy Adams, Doubt
  • Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  • Viola Davis, Doubt
  • Taraji P. Hensen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Josh Brolin, Milk
  • Robert Downey Jr, Tropic Thunder
  • Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
  • Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
  • Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • Courtney Hunt, Frozen River
  • Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky
  • Dustin Lance Black, Milk
  • Martin McDonough, In Bruges
  • Andrew Stanton, Wall-E

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  • Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • John Patrick Shanley, Doubt
  • Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
  • David Hare, The Reader
  • Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

  • Bolt
  • Kung Fu Panda
  • WALL-E

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

  • The Baader Meinhof Complex
  • The Class
  • Departures
  • Revanche
  • Waltz With Bashir

BEST DOCUMENTARY

  • The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
  • Encounters at the End of the World
  • The Garden
  • Man on Wire
  • Trouble the Water

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

  • “Down To Earth” (WALL-E)
  • “Jai Ho” (Slumdog Millionaire)
  • “O Saya” (Slumdog Millionaire)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Alexandre Desplat
  • Defiance, James Newton Howard
  • Milk, Danny Elfman
  • Slumdog Millionaire, A.R. Rahman
  • WALL-E, Thomas Newman

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

  • Australia, Catherine Martin
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Jacqueline West
  • The Duchess,Michael O’Connor
  • Milk, Danny Glicker
  • Revolutionary Road, Albert Wolsky

BEST FILM EDITING

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall
  • The Dark Knight, Lee Smith
  • Frost/Nixon, Mike Hill & Dan Hanley
  • Milk, Elliot Graham
  • Slumdog Millionaire, Chris Dickens

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • Changeling, Tom Stern
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Claudio Miranda
  • The Dark Night, Wally Pfister
  • The Reader, Chris Menges & Roger Deakins
  • Slumdog Millionaire, Anthony Dod Mantle

BEST ART DIRECTION

  • Changeling, James J. Murakami, Gary Fettis
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Donald Graham Burt & Victor J. Zolfo
  • The Dark Night, Nathan Crowley, Peter Lando
  • The Duchess, Michael Carlin, Rebecca Alleway
  • Revolutionary Road, Kristi Zea, Debra Schutt

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

  • Australia, Catherine Martin
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Jacqueline West
  • The Duchess, Michael O’Connor
  • Milk, Danny Glicker
  • Revolutionary Road, Albert Wolsky

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton, Craig Barron
  • The Dark Knight, Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber, Paul Franklin
  • Iron Man, John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick, Shane Mahan

BEST SOUND EDITING

  • The Dark Knight, Richard King
  • Iron Man, Frank Eulner, Christopher Boyes
  • Slumdog Millionaire, Tom Sayers
  • WALL-E, Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood
  • Wanted, Wylie Stateman

BEST SOUND MIXING

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce, Mark Weingarten
  • The Dark Knight, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo, Ed Novick
  • Slumdog Millionaire, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Resul Pookutty
  • WALL-E, Tom Myers, Michael Semanick, Ben Burtt
  • Wanted, Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño, Petr Forejt

BEST MAKEUP

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Greg Cannom
  • The Dark Knight, John Caglione, Jr., Conor O’Sullivan
  • Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Mike Elizalde, Thom Floutz

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

  • The Conscience of Nhem En, Steven Okazaki
  • The Final Inch, Irene Taylor Brodsky, Tom Grant
  • Smile Pinki, Megan Mylan
  • The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306, Adam Petofsky, Margaret Hyde

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

  • La Maison de Petits Cubes, Kunio Kato
  • Lavatory – Lovestory, Konstantin Bronzit
  • Oktapodi, Emud Mokhberi, Thierry Marchand
  • Presto, Doug Sweetland
  • This Way Up, Alan Smith, Adam Foulkes

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

  • Auf der Strecke (On the Line), Reto Caffi
  • Manon on the Asphalt, Elizabeth Marre, Olivier Pont
  • New Boy, Steph Green, Tamara Anghie
  • The Pig, Tivi Magnusson, Dorte HĂžgh
  • Spielzeugland (Toyland), Jochen Alexander Freydan

> Official Oscar site
> Follow more analysis at Awards Daily and In Contention

Categories
Awards Season News

BAFTA Nominations

BAFTA TrophyThe BAFTA nominations have been announced and here are all the categories.

The films with the most nominations are Slumdog Millionaire and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which both have 11.

The following pack include The Dark Knight (9), Changeling (8), Frost/Nixon (6), The Reader (5) and In Bruges, Milk and Revolutionary Road all on 4.

The Orange British Academy Film Awards will take place on Sunday 8th February. 

BEST FILM

  • The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, Kathleen Kennedy / Frank Marshall / CeĂĄn Chaffin
  • Frost/Nixon, Tim Bevan / Eric Fellner / Brian Grazer / Ron Howard
  • Milk, Dan Jinks / Bruce Cohen
  • The Reader, Anthony Minghella / Sydney Pollack / Donna Gigliotti / Redmond Morris
  • Slumdog Millionaire, Christian Colso

DIRECTOR

  • Clint Eastwood, Changeling
  • David Fincher, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
  • Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
  • Stephen Daldry, The Reader
  • Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • Joel Coen / Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading  
  • J. Michael Straczynski, Changeling
  • Philippe Claudel, I’ve Loved You So Long
  • Martin Mcdonagh, In Bruges 
  • Dustin Lance Black, Milk

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  • Eric Roth, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
  • Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
  • David Hare, The Reader
  • Justin Haythe, Revolutionary Road
  • Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

  • The Baader Meinhof Complex, Bernard Eichinger / Uli Edel
  • Gomorrah, Domenico Procacci / Matteo Garrone
  • I’ve Loved You So Long, Yves Marmion / Philippe Claudel
  • Persepolis, Marc-Antoine Robert / Xavier Rigault / Marjane Satrapi / Vincent Parannaud
  • Waltz With Bashir, Serge Lalou / Gerhard Meixner / Yael Nahl Ieli / Ari Folman

ANIMATED FILM

  • Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi / Vincent Parannaud
  • Wall‱E, Andrew Stanton
  • Waltz With Bashir, Ari Folman

BEST ACTOR

  • Frank Langella,  Frost/Nixon
  • Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
  • Sean Penn,  Milk
  • Brad Pitt, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
  • Mickey Rourke,  The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS

  • Angelina Jolie, Changeling
  • Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long
  • Meryl Streep, Doubt
  • Kate Winslet, The Reader
  • Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
  • Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
  • Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
  • Brad Pitt, Burn After Reading

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Amy Adams, Doubt
  • PenĂ©lope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  • Freida Pinto, Slumdog Millionaire
  • Tilda Swinton, Burn After Reading
  • Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

BEST MUSIC

  • Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button 
  • Hans Zimmer / James Newton Howard, The Dark Knight 
  • Benny Andersson / Björn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia!
  • A. R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
  • Thomas Newman, Wall‱E

CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • Tom Stern, Changeling
  • Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
  • Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight
  • Chris Menges / Roger Deakins, The Reader
  • Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire

EDITING

  • Joel Cox / Gary D. Roach, Changeling
  • Kirk Baxter / Angus Wall, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
  • Lee Smith, The Dark Knight
  • Mike Hill / Dan Hanley, Frost/Nixon
  • Jon Gregory, In Bruges
  • Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire

PRODUCTION DESIGN

  • James J. Murakami / Gary Fettis, Changeling
  • Donald Graham Burt / Victor J. Zolfo, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
  • Nathan Crowley / Peter Lando, The Dark Knight
  • Kristi Zea / Debra Schutt, Revolutionary Road
  • Mark Digby / Michelle Day, Slumdog Millionaire

COSTUME DESIGN

  • Deborah Hopper, Changeling
  • Jacqueline West, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
  • Lindy Hemming, The Dark Knight
  • Michael O’Connor, The Duchess
  • Albert Wolsky, Revolutionary Road

SOUND

  • Walt Martin / Alan Robert Murray / John Reitz / Gregg Rudloff, Changeling
  • Lora Hirschberg / Richard King / Ed Novick / Gary Rizzo, The Dark Knight
  • Eddy Joseph / Chris Munro / Mike Prestwood Smith / Mark Taylor, Quantum Of Solace
  • Glenn Freemantle / Resul Pookutty / Richard Pryke / Tom Sayers / Ian Tapp, Slumdog Millionare
  • Ben Burtt / Tom Myers / Michael Semanick / Matthew Wood, Wall‱E

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

  • Eric Barba / Craig Barron /  Nathan Mcguinness / Edson Williams, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
  • Chris Corbould / Nick Davis / Paul Franklin / Tim Webber, The Dark Knight
  • Pablo Helman, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull
  • Shane Patrick Mahan / John Nelson / Ben Snow, Iron Man
  • Chris Corbould / Kevin Tod Haug, Quantum Of Solace

MAKE UP & HAIR

  • Jean Black / Colleen Callaghan, The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button  
  • Peter Robb-King, The Dark Knight
  • Daniel Phillips / Jan Archibald, The Duchess
  • Edouard Henriques / Kim Santantonio, Frost/Nixon
  • Steven E. Anderson / Michael White, Milk

SHORT ANIMATION

  • Codswallop, Greg Mcleod / Myles Mcleod
  • Varmints,  Sue Goffe / Marc Craste
  • Wallace And Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death, Steve Pegram / Nick Park / Bob Baker

SHORT FILM

  • Kingsland #1 The Dreamer, Kate Ogborn / Tony Grisoni
  • Love You More, Adrian Sturges / Sam Taylor-Wood / Patrick Marber
  • Ralph,  Olivier Kaempfer / Alex Winckler
  • September,  Stewart Le MarĂ©chal / Esther May Campbell
  • Voyages D’affaires (The Business Trip), Celine Quideau / Sean Ellis

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

  • Hunger, Laura Hastings-Smith / Robin Gutch / Steve Mcqueen / Enda Walsh
  • In Bruges,  Graham Broadbent / Pete Czernin / Martin Mcdonagh
  • Mamma Mia!, Judy Craymer / Gary Goetzman / Phyllida Lloyd / Catherine Johnson
  • Man On Wire, Simon Chinn / James Marsh
  • Slumdog Millionaire,  Christian Colson / Danny Boyle / Simon Beaufoy

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD (For Special Achievement By A British Director, Writer Or Producer For Their First Feature Film)

  • Simon Chinn,  Producer – Man On Wire
  • Judy Craymer,  Producer – Mamma Mia!
  • Garth Jennings, Writer – Son Of Rambow
  • Steve Mcqueen, Director/Writer – Hunger
  • Solon Papadopoulos / Roy Boulter, Producers – Of Time And The City

THE ORANGE RISING STAR (Voted For By The Public)

  • Michael Cera
  • Noel Clarke
  • Michael Fassbender
  • Rebecca Hall
  • Toby Kebbell

NOMINATION TOTALS

  • Slumdog Millionaire: 11
  • The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button: 11
  • The Dark Knight: 9
  • Changeling: 8
  • Frost/Nixon: 6
  • The Reader: 5
  • In Bruges: 4
  • Milk: 4
  • Revolutionary Road: 4
  • Burn After Reading: 3
  • Doubt: 3
  • The I’ve Loved You So Long: 3
  • Mamma Mia!: 3
  • Wall-E: 3
  • Duchess: 2
  • Hunger: 2
  • Man On Wire: 2
  • Persepolis: 2
  • Quantum Of Solace: 2
  • Waltz With Bashir: 2
  • The Wrestler: 2
  • The Baader Meinhof Complex: 1
  • Gomorrah: 1
  • Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull: 1
  • Iron Man: 1
  • Of Time And The City: 1
  • Son Of Rambow: 1
  • Tropic Thunder: 1
  • Vicky Cristina Barcelona: 1

> Official BAFTA site
> The original longlist

Categories
Amusing Awards Season

Kate Winslet at the Golden Globes

Did Kate Winslet‘s speech from the Golden Globes last night remind you of anyone?

Sally Field perhaps?

Or maybe even Meg Ryan? 😉

Categories
Awards Season News

Golden Globe Winners

Golden GlobesHere are the winners from the Golden Globes last night.

FILM

  • Best Picture, Drama: Slumdog Millionaire
  • Best Picture, Comedy Musical: Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  • Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
  • Best Actor, Drama: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
  • Best Actress, Drama: Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
  • Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
  • Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
  • Best Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
  • Best Foreign Language Film: Waltz With Bashir
  • Best Animated Feature: WALL·E
  • Best Actor, Musical/Comedy: Colin Farrell, In Bruges
  • Best Actress, Musical/Comedy: Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
  • Best Original Score: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millonaire
  • Best Original Song: Bruce Springsteen, The Wrestler
  • Cecil B. DeMille Award: Stephen Spielberg

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TELEVISION

  • Best Comedy Series: 30 Rock
  • Best Drama Series: Mad Men
  • Best Actor, Drama: Gabriel Byrne, In Treatment
  • Best Actress, Drama: Anna Paquin, True Blood
  • Best Actor, Comedy: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
  • Best Actress, Comedy: Tina Fey, 30 Rock
  • Best Miniseries: John Adams
  • Best Actress, Miniseries: Laura Linney, John Adams
  • Best Actor, Miniseries: Paul Giamatti, John Adams
  • Best Supporting Actor: Tom Wilkinson, John Adams
  • Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern, Recount

> Official site for the Golden Globes
> Check out the latest awards buzz at In Contention and Awards Daily

Categories
Awards Season News

DGA Nominations Announced

DGA LogoThe DGA nominations have been announced and the final five directors are:

  • David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Christopher Nolan, The Dark Knight
  • Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
  • Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
  • Gus Van Sant, Milk

The winner will be named at the 61st Annual DGA Awards Dinner on Saturday, January 31st, at the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles.

> Official DGA press release
> Find out more about the Director’s Guild of America at Wikipedia
> Listen to our interview with Danny Boyle abou Slumdog Millionaire

Categories
Awards Season News

BAFTA Longlist

BAFTA TrophyVariety have posted the BAFTA longlist, which is all the films that have been selected in the first round of voting.

The longlist of films includes 15 contenders in each category, from which the five nominees will be chosen in the second round of voting.

Once the final nominees are selected, the whole membership votes again to decide the best film, four acting prizes and film not in the English language.

In all the remaining categories, the members of each chapter determine the vote.

The best British film is not included on the longlist, as the whole membership will vote for nominees in the first round and the BAFTA film committee will whittle that number down in the next two.

Here is the longlist in full:

BEST FILM
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Burn After Reading
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
In Bruges
I’ve Loved You So Long
Milk
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
The Wrestler

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Baader Meinhof Complex
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Dean Spanley
Defiance
Doubt
The Duchess
Frost/Nixon
Gomorrah
Mamma Mia!
Persepolis
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

DIRECTOR
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Burn After Reading
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Hunger
In Bruges
I’ve Loved You So Long
Milk
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
The Wrestler

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Burn After Reading
Changeling
Che: Part One
Happy-Go-Lucky
Hunger
In Bruges
I’ve Loved You So Long
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Visitor
W.
Wall-E
Waltz With Bashir
The Wrestler

MAKE UP & HAIR
Australia
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Brideshead Revisited
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Frost/Nixon
Mamma Mia!
Milk
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
Tropic Thunder
The Wrestler

VISUAL EFFECTS
Australia
Changeling
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Cloverfield
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hancock
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Iron Man
Quantum of Solace
Slumdog Millionaire
Tropic Thunder
Wall-E
Waltz With Bashir

SOUND
Australia
Burn After Reading
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
In Bruges
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Iron Man
Mamma Mia!
Quantum of Solace
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

EDITING
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Burn After Reading
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
In Bruges
Man on Wire
Milk
Quantum of Solace
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
The Wrestler

COSTUME DESIGN 
Australia
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Brideshead Revisited
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Frost/Nixon
Mamma Mia!
Milk
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Sex and the City
Slumdog Millionaire
The Wrestler

PRODUCTION DESIGN 
Australia
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Brideshead Revisited
Changeling”
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
The Dark Knight”
The Duchess”
Frost/Nixon”
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull”
Mamma Mia!”
Milk”
Quantum of Solace”
The Reader”
Revolutionary Road”
Slumdog Millionaire”

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Australia”
Changeling”
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
The Dark Knight”
Doubt”
The Duchess”
Frost/Nixon”
In Bruges”
Mamma Mia!”
Milk”
Quantum of Solace”
The Reader”
Revolutionary Road”
Slumdog Millionaire”
The Wrestler”

ANIMATED FILM
Kung Fu Panda”
Persepolis”
The Tale of Despereaux”
Wall-E”
Waltz With Bashir”

MUSIC
Australia
Burn After Reading
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Frost/Nixon
Mamma Mia!
Milk
Quantum of Solace
The Reader
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire
The Visitor
Wall-E

LEADING ACTOR
Benicio del Toro – “Che Part One”
Brad Pitt – “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Christian Bale – “The Dark Knight”
Colin Farrell – “In Bruges”
Dev Patel – “Slumdog Millionaire”
Frank Langella – “Frost/Nixon”
George Clooney – “Burn After Reading”
Javier Bardem – “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Josh Brolin – “W.”
Leonardo DiCaprio – “Revolutionary Road”
Michael Fassbender — “Hunger”
Michael Sheen – “Frost/Nixon”
Mickey Rourke – “The Wrestler”
Richard Jenkins – “The Visitor”
Sean Penn – “Milk”

LEADING ACTRESS 
Angelina Jolie – “Changeling”
Anne Hathaway – “Rachel Getting Married”
Cate Blanchett – “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Frances McDormand – “Burn After Reading”
Kate Winslet – “Revolutionary Road”
Kate Winslet – “The Reader”
Keira Knightley – “The Duchess”
Kristen Scott Thomas – “I’ve Loved You So Long”
Meryl Streep – “Mamma Mia!”
Meryl Streep – “Doubt”
Nicole Kidman – “Australia”
Penelope Cruz – “Elegy”
Rebecca Hall – “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Sally Hawkins – “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Scarlett Johansson – “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Brad Pitt – “Burn After Reading”
Brendan Gleeson – “In Bruges”
David Kross – “The Reader”
Eddie Marsan – “Happy-Go-Lucky”
Heath Ledger – “The Dark Knight”
John Malkovich – “Burn After Reading”
John Malkovich – “Changeling”
Josh Brolin – “Milk”
Kevin Bacon – “Frost/Nixon”
Peter O’Toole – “Dean Spanley”
Philip Seymour Hoffman – “Doubt”
Ralph Fiennes – “The Duchess”
Ralph Fiennes – “In Bruges”
Ralph Fiennes – “The Reader”
Robert Downey Jr. – “Tropic Thunder”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – “Doubt”
Charlotte Rampling – “The Duchess”
Elsa Zylberstein – “I’ve Loved You So Long”
Emma Thompson- “Brideshead Revisited”
Freida Pinto – “Slumdog Millionaire”
Judi Dench – “Quantum of Solace”
Julie Walters – “Mamma Mia!”
Kathy Bates – “Revolutionary Road”
Marisa Tomei – “The Wrestler”
PenĂ©lope Cruz – “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”
Rebecca Hall – “Frost/Nixon”
Tilda Swinton – “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
Tilda Swinton – “Burn After Reading”
Vera Farmiga – “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas”
Viola Davis – “Doubt”

The BAFTA screening and awards schedule for this year breaks down like this:

 

 

 

  • Thursday 20 November 2008: Deadline for entry of films and submission of Screen Credits Forms
  • Monday 8 December: Round 1 of voting begins
  • Thursday 18 December: All entered films, including qualified films, must be screened to members by this date. Screenings may continue after this date
  • Monday 5 January 2009: Round 1 of voting ends
  • Tuesday 6 January 2009: Round 2 of voting begins
  • Tuesday 13 January 2009: Round 2 of voting ends
  • Thursday 15 January 2009: Nominations announced. Round 3 of voting begins.
  • Monday 2 February 2009: Round 3 of voting ends
  • Friday 6 February 2009: All entered films must open on general release by this date
  • Sunday 8 February 2009: Orange British Academy Film Awards

 

> Official BAFTA site
> Variety story

Categories
Awards Season Cinema Interesting

David Fincher and Brad Pitt on Charlie Rose

The director and star of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button talk to Charlie Rose for an hour about the film.

The film opens here on Friday 6th February.

> Official site for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
> David Fincher and Brad Pitt at the IMDb

Categories
Awards Season News

SAG Nominations 2008

SAG Awards 2008The nominations for this year’s Screen Actor’s Guild awards have been announced.

Here are the film nominees:

BEST ACTOR

  • Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
  • Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
  • Sean Penn, Milk
  • Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

BEST ACTRESS

  • Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
  • Angelina Jolie, Changeling
  • Melissa Leo, Frozen River
  • Meryl Streep, Doubt
  • Kate Winslet, Rev Road

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • Josh Brolin, Milk
  • Robert Downey , Jr., Tropic Thunder
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
  • Heath Ledger, The Dark Night
  • Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • Amy Adams, Doubt
  • Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina
  • Viola Davis, Doubt
  • Taraji P. Henson, Benjamin Button
  • Kate Winslet, The Reader

ENSEMBLE

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Doubt
  • Frost/Nixon
  • Milk
  • Slumdog Millionaire

You can download a full list of nominations (including the TV categories) as a word doc or or a PDF file.

The 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will be held on January 25th, 2009.

> Official SAG website
> Awards season reaction at InContention and Variety

Categories
Awards Season News

Golden Globe Nominations 2008

Golden GlobesThis year’s Golden Globe nominations have been announced.

As always, they will be seen as a signpost for the Oscars but it is worth noting that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association split the major categories into Drama & Musical/Comedy and can occasionally offer up some weird choices.

That said, a large chunk of the films and performances will be the ones up for Oscar and BAFTA recognition. 

The surprises that initially stick out below are the lack of nominations for Milk in the major categories and the nod for Tom Cruise in Tropic Thunder.

Here is the full list of film nominations:

Best Picture – Drama

  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Frost/Nixon
  • The Reader
  • Revolutionary Road
  • Slumdog Millionaire

Best Comedy/Musical

  • Burn After Reading
  • Happy Go Lucky
  • In Bruges
  • Mamma Mia
  • Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Best Actor – Comedy

  • Javier Bardem, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  • Colin Farrell, In Bruges
  • James Franco, Pineapple Express
  • Brendan Gleason, In Bruges
  • Dustin Hoffman, Last Chance Harvey

Best Supporting Actress – Musical or Comedy

  • Amy Adams, Doubt
  • Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  • Viola Davis, Doubt
  • Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
  • Kate Winslet, The Reader

Best Director

  • Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
  • Stephen Daldry, The Reader
  • David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
  • Sam Mendes, Revolutionary Road

Best Supporting Actor

  • Tom Cruise, Tropic Thunder
  • Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Tunder
  • Ralph Fiennes, The Duchess
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
  • Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Best Actor – Drama

  • Leo DiCaprio, Revolutionary  Road
  • Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
  • Sean Penn, Milk
  • Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Best Actress – Drama

  • Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
  • Angelina Joie, Changeling
  • Meryl Streep, Doubt
  • Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long
  • Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

Best Actress – Comedy

  • Rebecca Hall, Vicky Cristina
  • Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
  • Frances McDormand, Burn After Reading
  • Meryl Streep, Mamma Mia
  • Emma Thompson, Last Chance Harvey

Foreign Language Film

  • The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
  • Everlasting Moments (Sweden)
  • Gomorrah (Italy)
  • I’ve Loved You So Long
  • Waltz with Bashir

Best Animated Film 

  • Bolt
  • Kung Fu Panda
  • WALL-E

Best Screenplay

  • Slumdog Millionaire
  • The Reader
  • Frost/Nixon
  • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • Doubt

Best Score

  • Benjamin Button
  • Changeling
  • Defiance
  • Slumdog Millionaire
  • Frost/Nixon

Best Song

  • Down to Earth, Wall-E
  • Gran Torino, Gran Torino 
  • I Thought I Lost You, Bolt
  • Once in a Lifetime, Cadillac Record
  • The Wrestler, The Wrestler

> Check out the full list of nominations at the HFPA site
> Gauge reaction to the nominations at Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and In Contention

Categories
Awards Season Posters

New Che poster

This is the first one sheet poster for Stephen Soderbergh‘s biopic of Che Guevara, which consists of two films: The Argentine and Guerilla.

It screened at this year’s Cannes film festival as one four hour epic called Che, but it looks likely that it will be released as two films.

That is of course when it finally gets a US distributor. The production was financed by the French sales company Wild Bunch, but since bowing at Cannes there has been a lot of speculation as to why no US company has bought the rights to screen it.

However, it has been pre-sold to several major territories such as France (Warner Bros.), the U.K. (Optimum), Scandinavia (Scanbox) and Italy (Bim Distribuzione) and will it will be shown at the upcoming New York and Toronto film festivals. In the latter will screen as one whole film, as well as in two parts.

Variety reported back in February that three US distributors (one of whom must surely be The Weinstein Company) were ‘circling’ before Cannes – perhaps they are waiting until it screens at these festivals before taking the plunge. But given that this looks and feels like an award season contender – albeit a left field one – then it may be leaving it a little late to drum up buzz and resultant box office.

My guess is that who ever ends up with the film in the States should screen the 4 hour version in a platform release (i.e. just New York and LA) and then roll it out as two films in order to recoup costs.

A four hour film of this nature in wide release just looks like commercial suicide. Whatever happens, lets just hope that it does actually secure get a US theatrical release and doesn’t end up premiering as a 6 part mini-series on HBO.

Here in the UK The Argentine opens on January 2nd whilst Guerilla follows on February 20th.

> Official site for Che
> The Argentine and Guerilla at the IMDb
> Reactions to the film at Cannes
> Karina Longworth of speculates about the film at SpoutBlog

Categories
Amusing Awards Season

Gary Busey at the Oscars

All the red carpet stuff at the Oscars doesn’t really interest me but I just caught up with this rather amusing video of Gary Busey going a bit nuts before the ceremony.

Ryan Seacrest was speaking with Jennifer Garner and Laura Linney for the E! channel when Busey joins the action…

Categories
Amusing Awards Season

The Razzie Winners

The RazziesThe Razzies are the anti-Oscars, awarding the worst films of the year a Golden Raspberry award.

This year the winners were:

Worst Picture: I Know Who Killed Me

Worst Actor: Eddie Murphy in Norbit (as the character of Norbit)

Worst Actress: Lindsay Lohan in I Know Who Killed Me (tie) (as the character of Aubrey) and Lindsay Lohan in I Know Who Killed Me (tie) (as the character of Dakota)

Worst Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy in Norbit (as the character of Mr. Wong)

Worst Supporting Actress: Eddie Murphy in Norbit (as the character of Rasputia)

Worst Screen Couple: Lindsay Lohan and Lindsay Lohan (“as the yang to her own yin”) in I Know Who Killed Me

Worst Remake or Rip-off: I Know Who Killed Me (Hostel, Saw and The Patty Duke Show)

Worst Prequel or Sequel: Daddy Day Camp

Worst Director: Chris Sivertson for I Know Who Killed Me

Worst Screenplay: I Know Who Killed Me (written by Jeffrey Hammond)

Worst Excuse for a Horror Movie: I Know Who Killed Me

Mahalo Daily have a neat video covering this year’s awards:

> Check out the full nominees at The Razzies official site
> Find out more about The Razzie at Wikipedia

Categories
Amusing Awards Season

The Oscars in 60 Seconds

Here is last nights’ ceremony in 60 seconds courtesy of Mahalo Daily:

Categories
Awards Season News

The Oscar Winners

Here are this years Oscar winners in full:

Oscar Winners Mosaic

MAJOR CATEGORIES

Best Picture: No Country For Old Men

Best Director: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Best Actress: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men

Best Supporting Actress: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best Adapted Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men

Best Original Screenplay: Diablo Cody, Juno

Best Art Direction: Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet

Best Cinematography: Robert Elswit, There Will Be Blood

Best Costume Design: Elizabeth: The Golden Age

Best Film Editing: Le Mozart des Pickpockets

Best Makeup: La Vie en Rose

Best Music – Original Score: Dario Marinelli, Atonement

Best Music – Original Song: Falling Slowly – Once (performed by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova)

Best Sound Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum

Best Sound Mixing: The Bourne Ultimatum

Best Visual Effects: The Golden Compass

Best Animated Feature Film: Ratatouille

Best Documentary Feature: Taxi to the Darkside

Best Documentary – Short Subject: Freeheld

Best Short Film – Animated: Peter and the Wolf

Best Short Film – Live Action: Le Mozart des Pickpockets

> Official winners site for the Oscars (complete with the text of their acceptance speeches)
> YouTube channel for the Oscars

Categories
Awards Season News

The Oscars – Live

The Oscar ceremony is about to begin, and this will be a running commentary of the event.

Opening Monologue: Jon Stewart has an opening monologue with some amusing – and pointed – lines about the Writers’ Strike.

Jon Stewart - Oscar Opening Monologue

He asks if the Vanity Fair Oscar party was cancelled out of respect to the writers, then why don’t they invite them one year? I bet his team of writers enjoyed getting that one out of their system.

Best Costume Design: Alexandra Byrne wins for Elizabeth: The Golden Age. My predictions get off to a bad start as I was going for Atonement. 

Best Animated Feature: It goes to Ratatouille and Brad Bird goes up to collect his second Oscar after The Incredibles in 2004. My predictions are back on track. 

Best Makeup: The surreal sight of Norbit winning is averted as Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald win for La Vie en Rose.

Best Visual Effects: I thought Transformers would get it but the Oscar goes to Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood for The Golden Compass. Some consolation for New Line after all the money they spent on the film.

Best Art Direction: Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo win for Sweeney Todd. I think There Will Be Blood was robbed here.

Best Supporting Actor: And… Javier Bardem wins for No Country for Old Men. That was a slam dunk as he was red hot favourite.

Javier Bardem wins for No Country for Old Men

He even thanked his mother in Spanish, which was nice. 

Best Short Film – Live Action: Owen Wilson presents the Oscar to Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)

Best Short Film- Animated: For some reason Jerry Seinfeld is presenting this as his animated bee character. Anyway it goes to Peter and the Wolf. Possibly the low key victory of the night as Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman pick up the award with a puppet in tow.

Best Supporting Actress: This is the real tough one to call in the major categories. I fancy Cate Blanchett but Ruby Dee, Amy Ryan or Tilda Swinton have a good shot. Alan Arkin comes out to present the award and it goes to… Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton.

Tilda Swinton wins for Michael Clayton

She not only thanks her agent but says she is going to give the award to him(!).

Best Screenplay – Adapted: I fancied The Diving Bell and the Butterfly but The Coen Brothers win for No Country for Old Men. Their script was a great achievement in avery strong field.

Best Sound Editing: Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill come out to present the award to Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg for The Bourne Ultimatum. A deserved win although ironically the TV sound feed screws up during the acceptance speech.

Best Sound Mixing: In quick succession Bourne wins again in the sound category. Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis get the award for The Bourne Ultimatum.

Best Actress: Will Marion Cotillard, Julie Christie or (maybe) Ellen Page win? I’m going for Christie but it’s a tough one to call. Forest Whitaker is announcing the nominees now. And the award goes to … Marion Cotillard for La Vie En Rose.

Marion Cotillard wins Best Actress for La Vie En Rose

All her campaigning and the showy nature of her (admittedly highly accomplished) performance paid off.

Back after break, Jon Stewart is playing Wii tennis on the huge academy screen. After his use of an iPhone earlier for a gag, I’m sure Nintendo and Apple are happy.

Jack Nicholson comes out to present a montage of all the movies that have won Best Picture from Wings in 1928 to The Departed last year.

Best Editing: Renee Zellwegger comes out to present this award. Christopher Rouse wins for The Bourne Ultimatum. A great trio of technical Oscars for the superb sound and editing work for the best blockbuster in modern years.

Honoury Award for Robert F Boyle: This legendary production designer (who worked with Hitchcock on North By Northwest and The Birds) came on to accept his award at the age of 98. He thanked ‘Hitch’ for introducing him to his wife whilst Norman Jewison and Don Siegel also got shouts.

Robert F Boyle gets honoury award

Best Foreign Film: Penelope Cruz comes out to present and I think The Counterfeiters is a strong candidate here. But why on earth did France not select La Vie En Rose or The Diving Bell and the Butterfly for this category? They entered Persepolis which – whilst brilliant – never stood a change. In fact the rules about countries nominating one film must chance. Anyway the winner is The Counterfeiters and director Stefan Ruzowitzky goes up to collect. (We spoke to him back in October about the film – check out the interview here).

Best Song: John Travolta comes out to present this award. I’m hoping for a win for Falling Slowly from Once. But Enchanted has three songs up for the award. And the winner is… Falling Slowly by Glenn Hansard and Marketa Irglova. Great news and it will be a big boost for the film. Whilst we are plugging past interviews, listen to director John Carney speak about Once here.

Marketa Irglova and Glenn Hansard

They go to a break and Jon Stewart gets Marketa Irglova to come back on and finish her acceptance speech. Very nice! I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.

Best Cinematography: Possibly the strongest category with a four truly outstanding candidates. However, I feel Roger Deakins may suffer by having two brilliant films up for consideration. Cameron Diaz presents the award – and struggles to say ‘cine-ma-tog-raphy’ – which goes to Robert Elswit for There Will Be Blood.

Robert Elswit wins Best Cinematography for There Will Be Blood

A marvellous film with some truly incredible images so no complaints there but Roger Deakins will get it one day!

The In Memoriam segment now plays. Hard to think Ingmar Bergman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Heath Ledger are amongst those no longer alive.

Best Score: I secretly wanted James Newton Howard to win for his excellent work on Michael Clayton but the award goes to Dario Marinelli for his work on Atonement.

Best Documentary – Short Subject: Tom Hanks comes out to present but hands over to a bunch of US soldiers in Iraq who have pretaped the nominees and winners. Weird. But it goes to Freehold.

Best Documentary – Short Subject: Hanks stays on stage to present the feature award. Four of the nominees (especially Taxi to the Darkside and No End in Sight) are damning indicments of US foreign policy. Will one of them get it? Yes, but its the disturbing Taxi to the Darkside, directed by Alex Gibney . Five years on from Michael Moore getting booed – amidst the cheers – for denouncing Bush and the war, the Academy is now honouring a film that shows the truly squalid side of Bush’s war on terror. And thankfully no-one booed this time.

Best Screenplay – Original: I fancied Tony Gilroy (for Michael Clayton) could spring an upset but the hotly favoured Diablo Cody wins for Juno.

Image(569)

It was a good script and I’m sure the narrative of her life helped her out. Plus, all the Juno backbaiting of late has has got a little tedious. It is a really good film deserving of recognition. Go Diablo.  

Best Actor: Helen Mirren comes out to present the award. It will be a huge upset if Daniel Day Lewis doesn’t win.

The award goes to … Daniel Day Lewis for his great performance in There Will Be Blood.

Daniel Day Lewis wins Best Actor for There Will Be Blood

The big awards coming quick now.

Best Director: I’m tipping the Coens. Martin Scorcese (who finally gets to present after winning last year) opens the envelope and The Coen Brothers win for No Country for Old Men.

The Ceon Brothers win Best Director(s)

Although Paul Thomas Anderson may have been in with a shout I guess it was seen as the Coens’ time – that and the fact that it is a great film.

Best Picture: Denzel Washington comes out and the winner is No Country for Old Men. Producer Scott Rudin and The Coen Brothers (who were still in the wings after winning Best Director) come on to accept the big award.

No Country for Old Men wins Best Picture

Congratulations to the Coens and producer Scott Rudin – as he also produced There Will Be Blood (two modern classics in one year!).

But also props must go to Paramount Vantage and Miramax for backing these two dark yet brilliant films.

That’s it for this year.

I’m off to bed.

Categories
Awards Season

The Oscar Dark Horses

Oscar Dark HorsesNot long to go now before the Oscars and as you may have noticed I’ve already put up my predictions in full.

However, I thought I’d also post some thoughts about who the dark horses are in the major categeories.

Some categories are slam dunks but others much harder and at this stage last minute doubts always creep in.

So here are my predictions set alongside the dark horses who could cause a surprise

BEST PICTURE
My prediction: No Country for Old Men
Dark Horse: Michael Clayton

BEST DIRECTOR
My Prediction: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, No Country for Old Men
Dark Horse: Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood

BEST ACTOR
My Prediction: Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Dark Horse: George Clooney, Michael Clayton

BEST ACTRESS
My Prediction: Julie Christie, Away from Her
Dark Horse: Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose or Ellen Page, Juno

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
My Prediction: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Dark Horse: Hal Holbrook, Into the Wild

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
My Prediction: Cate Blanchett, I’m Not There
Dark Horses: Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton or Amy Ryan, Gone Baby Gone

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
My Prediction: Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Dark Horse: The Coen Brothers, No Country for Old Men 

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
My Prediction/Dark Horse: Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton (it should be noted that Diablo Cody’s script for Juno is the hot favourite in this category but I fancy an upset, so my predicton is for the dark horse)

> Check out my predictions for every category
> Download and print out the official Oscar ballot
> Official site for the Oscars
> Find out more about this year’s Oscars and nominees at Wikipedia