There’s been no film more divisive or more igniting in terms of strong Oscar speculation then Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. After months of shooting, word of a last minute edit (some believe editing is still going on currently), the film has finally hit cinematic eyes and the “final” product is both bold and misguided. Django Unchained is big and full of Tarantino life and color that we’ve come to love about him. On sheer production value, it’s his finest film endeavor to date. Set designs are simply gorgeous, Robert Richardson captures some beautiful shots, and Sharen Davis proves once again, she’s one of the most awe-inspiring designers working today. Tarantino does go a bit “out there” in his choices of dialogue along with the developing and rising structure of the story. Where Tarantino succeeds is in digging some terrific performances out of his principal cast, even if his film is at times lunky, problematic, and a bit messy. Read more on Django Unchained (***)…
Winners to be announced live on the CW Television Network from the Barker Hangar in Santa Monica on January 10, 2013.
BEST PICTURE Argo Beasts of the Southern Wild Django Unchained Les Miserables Life of Pi Lincoln The Master Moonrise Kingdom Silver Linings Playbook Zero Dark Thirty
As LAFCA, NYFCO, and BSFC all proved yesterday, you can’t keep a good ol’ film when its down. The Master resurrected after being nearly shut out thus far and won Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress with the prestigious Los Angeles Film Critics.
Normally, and I mean in any other year, I wouldn’t put so much stock into these awards but with SAG ballots due today, Critics Choice Nominations being announced tomorrow, followed by Golden Globes and SAG, Oscar will be looking for some validation of their choices. AMPAS ballots are due January 10 and they’ll be looking for some guidance in places where they can. DGA won’t announce until after the Oscar nominations.
I’ve made some updates to the Oscar Predictions and most notable is the change in Supporting Actor. Robert DeNiro, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Tommy Lee Jones all still seem good for nods. The big win for Dwight Henry yesterday from LAFCA and the many runner-up mentions for Christoph Waltz for Django Unchained have started a buzz that only seems deserving. The latter performance I’m not allowed to comment on until Wednesday but I’ll say it’s something that many can get behind and in THE RIGHT category. Ann Dowd makes her appearance in the top five for Compliance and if you heard our Awards Circuit Power Hour yesterday, she’s very likable and will play the awards circuit very well.
Tomorrow morning, the Critics Choice Awards will bestow their nominees for the world to see. While it might sound biased, I very much respect the organization’s choices more times than not. While their known for predicting the outcome of the Academy Awards, they do reward powerful and eclectic cinema when everyone else seems to be ignoring.
Last year the ten Best Picture nominees were:
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse
As we all know, there were nine Best Picture nominees chosen by the Academy last year and ALL nine are represented. The group may be more telling then meets the eye, at least in Best Picture. The acting awards usually have their fair share of Academy picks but as you we see with nominations for Carey Mulligan for Shame, Ryan Gosling for Drive, Michael Fassbender for Shame, and Patton Oswalt for Young Adult, the group often chooses the “more” deserving and not the one’s with the “buzz.”
Below, find my predictions for the organization. The Critics Choice Movie Awards airs LIVE on January 10, 2013. Better yet, the BFCA is introducing several new categories including “Favorite Fan Franchise,” where The Awards Circuit will be one of the voting beacons for all fans to vote. Get ready! Read more on Critics’ Choice Movie Awards Preview…
Washington Film Critics have announced their winners after just announcing their nominees a day ago. Zero Dark Thirty emerged victorious along with director Kathryn Bigelow.
Washington Film Critics have announced their winners after just announcing their nominees a day ago. Zero Dark Thirty emerged victorious along with director Kathryn Bigelow.
Read the Press Release and check out the full list of winners down below:
A representative for the Weinstein Company has just confirmed that Christoph Waltz’s role in Django Unchained will be campaigned as a Supporting role for the rest of the awards season. Waltz, who plays Dr. King Schultz ,will now compete against co-stars Leonardo DiCaprio, who just won the National Board of Review’s award for Supporting Actor and Academy Award nominee, Samuel L. Jackson. Waltz was named one of the runner-ups in the recent New York Film Critics Circle. just earlier this week.
In 2007 no one saw the Best Actor nomination for Tommy Lee Jones in In the Valley of Elah (2007), it was one of those happy surprises that reminded us the acting branch really does watch the films and pay some attention. Way back in 1975 there was another such shock when James Whitmore received a Best Actor nod for his filmed stage show Give ‘em Hell Harry (1975), though it was not quite as deserving as Jones’ nomination.
With the strong reviews coming in for Brad Pitt in Killing Them Softly (2012), could he knock out one of the so-called locks and be in the category come Oscar night? He is well liked, the Academy likes him, critics like him and he has grown substantially as an actor through the years. For my money he should have been nominated for Best Actor for The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) and for Babel (2006). Last year he won the New York Film Critics Award for Best Actor for Moneyball (2011) and was an Oscar nominee, and I think discounting him this year is a huge mistake. Read more on The Underestimation of the Lead Actor Brad Pitt in ‘Killing Them Softly’…
While Zero Dark Thirty, admittedly a brilliant, troubling film, has taken two of the major Best Picture and Best Director Awards, I am still a firm believer that Lincoln will take the Academy Award for Best Picture. Steven Spielberg I am less sure about, though the members of the Academy will acknowledge that his brilliant decision to allow the actors and the screenplay to shine was a superb directorial decision, the stuff of Best Director indeed. Audiences use to his stunning visuals, (and who isn’t?), instead found a film that focused on character, thereby performance, on words, and atmosphere, something he accomplished with Schindler’s List (1993) which won him his first Oscar for Best Director. Read more on Why ‘Lincoln’ Can Still Win Picture……
The New York Film Critics have announced their winners for the best in cinema for 2012. The East Coast group that awarded Best Picture to Michel Hazanavicius’ The Artist last year chose the brilliant Zero Dark Thirty directed by Kathryn Bigelow. The film won a total of three awards from the coveted group including Cinematography for Greig Fraser and Director for Bigelow. The film has put itself in a prime position for the Oscars.
In a surprising mention, Rachel Weisz won Best Actress for her portrayal in Terence Davies’ The Deep Blue Sea. Buzz for Weisz’s performance and film had been dead for months and with her highly praised work, she has regained some momentum for an Academy Award nomination. After winning for The Constant Gardener (2005), Weisz has not been on critics’ radar. Her film performed minimally at the box office and had a very early release date. Is this mention to be taken seriously for a nomination? Let’s see if she shows up in more places for the season. She wasn’t the only surprise however; Matthew McConaughey beat out Philip Seymour Hoffman and Tommy Lee Jones to be named Best Supporting Actor for his works in Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike and Richard Linklater’s Bernie. Has a spot just freed up for the character actor in this year’s Oscar race? Read more on McConaughey and Weisz Surprise with NYFCC, Zero Dark Thirty and Lincoln take 3 awards…
Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow and Oscar-winning screenwriter Mark Boal take their newest effort, Zero Dark Thirty, to places I couldn’t have imagined. Based on the events leading up to the killing of Osama bin Laden, the two display an impressive amount of control in the way the film is told and showcases some brilliant moments in filmmaking. Zero Dark Thirty hooks you from minute one and just DOESN’T. LET. GO. It’s one of the best pictures of the year! Read more on Zero Dark Thirty (****)…
They seem to all cite Christoph Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson. No sign of Leo. Even praise for Don Johnson. Many saying it’s fantastic. My interest has just shot up through the roof. I’ll find out Wednesday. Read some down below:
During the debacle of the site being down, I didn’t get a chance to weigh in on the Visual Effects that were narrowed down to ten films. The ten films still in contention for the Visual Effects Oscar are:
With Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables about to seen by the first set of eyes this coming Friday, many pundits predict this could be the first musical nominated for Best Picture since Rob Marshall’s Chicago (2002).
Before it opens nationwide on December 7, catch a glimpse of Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel in their new romantic comedy, Playing for Keeps. You can download the seven new clips here. Also see the official trailer after the jump.
Something has happened to Judd Apatow since he busted onto the scene with The 40 Year Old Virgin (2005). Apatow has never had a real problem with entertaining and his writing has always been at the very least average to say the least if at times juvenile or unfocused. In his newest film This is 40, the sort-of-sequel to his hit-film Knocked Up (2007), Apatow presents his most matured outing as a writer and director to date. Perhaps it was the already made foundation from his previous film and the characters Pete (Paul Rudd) and Debbie (Leslie Mann), whatever it is, This is 40 very successfully encapsulates marriage and life in a tender and comedic way. It’s one of the 2012’s great surprises. Read more on This is 40 (***)…
If there is a criticism heard over and over about Steven Spielberg’s work as a director, it might be the lack of truly great performances in his films or the fact no actor has ever won an Oscar in a Spielberg picture. Excuse me??? Are they serious? Many of the performances in his films have earned Oscar nominations and while no one has ever won an Oscar for acting in a Spielberg film, did anyone in a Kubrick film win an Oscar for acting? Or Chaplin? Even the great Oscar-winning actor Burt Lancaster weighed in on the criticism about the performances in his films, focusing on Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) as the older actor knew a thing or two about finding the character and bringing the character to the audience while spending most of the film dodging bullets, fighting, cracking the whip, romancing the girl, and running and scampering. Understanding that Ford gave us a character from the moment he walked out of the dark into the light of the frame after cracking his whip and disarming a man of his gun with a knowing scowl, Lancaster had nothing but praise for the actor. Knowing the challenges of portraying a character in a physical film, Lancaster reminded audiences, actors and critics of just how fine Ford was as Jones, creating in a character in a film that barely gave him time to do so. Many of Spielberg’s films are special effects laden works, which means the actor often has to work twice as hard to create their character. However, make no mistake, his reputation among actors is very strong, and he widely considered, in his own way, an actors director.
Like other games played for the two possible outcomes of success or failure, life requires an ever-evolving collection of strategies for easier navigation. For better or worse, these methods can’t be learned from books or theories, but best serve their purpose when picked up through practical application, as apparent in Silver Linings Playbook. In his latest, David O. Russell charmingly combines his penchant for offbeat comedy with heartfelt character interactions to highlight the quirks people adopt as a means of compensating for the lack of rules or set plans to follow in the playing field of life. He masterfully treats subjects of cynicism—mental illness, infidelity, marital failures—with a playful lightness that borders on being socially inappropriate but manages a sense of realistic endearment instead. The perfectly complementary performances of lead actors, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, as well as the supporting cast serve the cause of establishing a tightly-knit narrative.
We spoke about this possibility on a podcast a few weeks back but it seems that a source as confirmed to Tom O’Neil of Gold Derby that Academy Award Winner Christoph Waltz will be campaigned as a lead actor in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Django Unchained. Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx, who plays a slave-turned-bounty hunter that is searching for his wife will compete against Waltz along with the entire roster of the Weinstein Company. Read more on Gold Derby Confirms Christoph Waltz being campaigned as Lead Actor…
The Oscars have officially announced that 21 films have been submitted for Animated Feature. Many of the films still have not had their qualifying run but at least we know what’s in contention.
Two-time Academy Award winner Jodie Foster will be honored by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association with their prestigious Cecil B. Demille Award. Announced today by Simon Baker and Kristen Stewart, Foster is the first woman to be awarded with the organization’s highest honor since Barbara Streisand in 2000. Not only is she being rewarded in a year where women are making their marks, she is the youngest recipient since Charlton Heston in 1967. Read more on Jodie Foster to Receive Cecil B. Demille Award from HFPA…
Last year I made a sad observation for the comedy genre that often gets overlooked time and time again. As Halloween is canceled on the East Coast due to the storm, I realized the Horror genre gets the finger more often than its comedic counterpart. How many horror films would you throw in a Best Picture lineup over the years? Or a simple Screenplay nomination at least? Films like The Sixth Sense (1999) have powered through their respective Oscar seasons but is that our most deserving film to make the cut? Surely not. As films like Frankenweeniepay homage to the monster genre, could it be more acceptable to embrace the scares for Oscar consideration?
I’m taking a look at a few names that come to mind but I’m sure the great readership will name dozens more after this is said and done.
There’s been no film more divisive or more igniting in terms of strong Oscar speculation then Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained. After months of shooting, word of a last minute edit (some believe editing is still going on currently), the film has finally hit cinematic eyes and the “final” product is both bold and misguided. Django Unchained is big and full of Tarantino life and color that we’ve come to love about him. On sheer production value, it’s his finest film endeavor to date. Set designs are simply gorgeous, Robert Richardson captures some beautiful shots, and Sharen Davis proves once again, she’s one of the most awe-inspiring designers working today. Tarantino does go a bit “out there” in his choices of dialogue along with the developing and rising structure of the story. Where Tarantino succeeds is in digging some terrific performances out of his principal cast, even if his film is at times lunky, problematic, and a bit messy.
Before it opens nationwide on December 7, catch a glimpse of Gerard Butler and Jessica Biel in their new romantic comedy, Playing for Keeps. You can download the seven new clips 
Like other games played for the two possible outcomes of success or failure, life requires an ever-evolving collection of strategies for easier navigation. For better or worse, these methods can’t be learned from books or theories, but best serve their purpose when picked up through practical application, as apparent in Silver Linings Playbook. In his latest, David O. Russell charmingly combines his penchant for offbeat comedy with heartfelt character interactions to highlight the quirks people adopt as a means of compensating for the lack of rules or set plans to follow in the playing field of life. He masterfully treats subjects of cynicism—mental illness, infidelity, marital failures—with a playful lightness that borders on being socially inappropriate but manages a sense of realistic endearment instead. The perfectly complementary performances of lead actors, Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, as well as the supporting cast serve the cause of establishing a tightly-knit narrative.
