Steven Allan Spielberg was born December 18, 1946, in the great state of Ohio. Before becoming one of our most beloved directors, Spielberg attended Long Beach State University, and made his first short film, Amblin‘, while working as an intern at Universal Studios (the title of which used when naming his production company, Amblin Entertainment). His first television job came when he was chosen to direct one of the segments for the 1969 pilot episode of Night Gallery. He would go on to direct a few TV films, including Duel (1971), a film about a truck driver that goes crazy and runs people off the road. Spielberg’s debut feature film was The Sugarland Express (1974).
Read more on Circuit 3: Steven Spielberg…
Categories: Circuit 3 Tags: circuit 3, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Indiana Jones, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Lincoln, Minority Report, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Steven Spielberg, The Color Purple, war horse
 And the Nominees Are:
Guillaume Schiffman
“The Artist”
Oscar Scene: Waking up from the sound dream sequence
Jeff Cronenweth
“The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
Oscar Scene: Opening credits
Robert Richardson
“Hugo”
Oscar Scene: Traveling through the train station
Emmanuel Lubezski
“The Tree of Life”
Oscar Scene: Creation
Janusz Kaminski
“War Horse”
Oscar Scene: Joey running through the battle
Read more on Oscar Circuit: Best Cinematography…
Categories: Article, Editor, Oscar Circuit Tags: Cinematography, Editor, Emmanuel Lubezski, Hugo, Janusz Kaminski, Jeff Cronenweth, Oscar Circuit, Robert Richardson, the artist, The Tree of Life, war horse
 As you’re reading this, the Oscar voters have already made their final selections for each category of the Academy Awards, and there’s nothing left to do but wait for the results at the awards ceremony on Sunday. It got me to thinking, what kind of case has each Best Picture contender made for their shot at the award? Below are arguments that could be made, regardless of if I agree with them or not (I don’t completely, and obviously I personally am more or less fond of certain ones), as well as avoiding the precursor results. Later on, there will be a spot as usual for you to let us know the case you’d make for your personal picks in these groups (or all of them if you so desire), but for now, this is how I see it…as objectively as possible. In short, this how I think each film would pitch itself to voters at the last minute if they were standing on even ground going into the ceremony. Yes, I’m a bit bored in Florida (for those of you who know I’m temporarily out of New York City until sometime next month), but any writing is better than no writing. Anyway, here goes nothing…
Read more on Making the final case for each Best Picture nominee……
Categories: Article Tags: best picture, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Oscar hopefuls, the artist, The Descendants, The Help, The Tree of Life, war horse
 And the Nominees Are:
The Artist – Laurence Bennett and Robert Gould
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – Stuart Craig and Stephanie McMillan
Hugo – Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo
Midnight in Paris – Anne Seibel and Hélène Dubreuil
War Horse – Rick Carter and Lee Sandales
So where I began with Sizing Up has ended with four of my five “Pole Position” contenders (with Midnight in Paris being the sole “Second Tier” to make it from the outside) being nominated for this award. And, rather tediously, the film that I had predicted would the whole thing outright is still way out in front on a seemingly unstoppable course to victory. Barring a huge upset, this will be the third consecutive garishly colorful, CGI-filled spectacle to win this award. I’m starting to feel a little down on this category in the wake of just how show-offy their preferences have become, especially since recent years have yielded some truly creative visual design choices that consistently get passed over. Will future big-budget epics just take the hint and follow suit with less and less subtle visual choices? *Sigh*…okay, enough complaining. Let’s take a look at the nominees:
Read more on Oscar Circuit: Art Direction…
 And the Nominees Are:
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
War Horse
Just as my colleague and friend Mike Ward detailed the Best Sound Mixing race (the excellent write up can be found here), I’m diving right in and tackling the Best Sound Editing race. I know that there’s often some confusion about which category is which and what exactly they both do. In short, the Mixing category deals with recording and re-recording, while Editing literally has to do with editing or design in terms of sound. This is in some ways the “sexier” category, but both obviously have their place in terms of importance. I’ll freely admit that I sometimes have a hard time predicting this category, though oddly enough my overall percentage is pretty high for Sound Editing in the end. I guess it just takes me a bit longer than in some other categories to come around to the winner. Will it be the same this year or do I already have the race figured out? Well, let’s find out…
Read more on Oscar Circuit: Best Sound Editing…
Last year's Oscar winners for Best Sound Mixing for "Inception" (L to R – Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick). Novick is a nominee again this year for "Moneyball".
The 2011 Nominees For Best Sound Mixing Are…
• THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
• HUGO
• MONEYBALL
• TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON
• WAR HORSE
At my annual Oscar party, invariably some assemblage of attendees always ask questions such as “What is Cinematography?” “How do they judge Art Direction?” and a rather common one, at least in my circles… “What is the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing? How are we supposed to know the difference?”
To the lay movie fan, below-the-line work is often taken for granted and/or rarely, if ever, thought about. If a movie looks great, it looks great, but few people ever remark that the Director of Photography or Cinematographer’s work was fantastic. Sure the movie may look fantastic and the settings quite glorious, but who amongst your friends and loved ones have ever proclaimed that the art direction and set decoration work of [insert name] was exceptional.
And make no mistake, all of that is fine in a general sense. At the end of the day, people go to the movies to escape, to live another life or decompress from their daily affairs. People paying to see Transformers: Dark Of The Moon or Jack And Jill, or even a conventional dramatic Oscar contending film will simply not be concerned with how a film was lensed, how the sets were constructed, or possibly even be aware that the pacing and rhythm and sequencing of shots they enjoy are meticulously planned out and performed by an editor. At the end of the day, people just want to be entertained and not analyze every moment of the story they just experienced.
Read more on Oscar Circuit: Best Sound Mixing…
 Oscar.com has launched its brand new web series, “Nominated with Dave Karger”, that provides moviegoers with an in-depth look at each of the 2012 Oscar Nominees for Best Picture. Entertainment Weekly’s Oscar columnist, Dave Karger, hosts the web-series with insightful commentary that is inter-cut between clips of the films and interview footage from the crew, actors, and filmmakers involved with each nominated motion picture. Check out the first Webisode in the series, beginning with a comprehensive focus on Steven Spielberg’s War Horse: Read more on Oscar Web Series Launches on Oscar.com…
"It's okay, we'll at least make Best Picture!"
If you want a good laugh, take a look at early Oscar predictions of any given year. It doesn’t matter who you look at, they’ll look ridiculous. Not only are some of the forecasted contenders mediocre at best, but it seems obvious, looking back, that of course such films wouldn’t make any headway in the awards season. And make no mistake, they always pop up. Last year it was Hereafter and Love and Other Drugs, before that we had Nine and Invictus, and so on.
This year probably had some of the most surprising nominees and omissions of any Oscar year in recent memory, with films well outside of their wheelhouse actually making it in (yep, I was the biggest Tree of Life skeptic on the site), and of course that left several early frontrunners in the dust, most of the time deservedly. So which “serious contenders” fell flat on release, and what can we learn from them? Read more on Hindsight’s a Bitch…
 And the Nominees Are:
Ludovic Bource – “The Artist”
Oscar Scene: “Bang!” (in the home theater)
John Williams – “The Adventures of Tintin”
Oscar Scene: Tintin and the big chase through the town square.
Howard Shore – “Hugo”
Oscar Scene: Georges Méliès’ movie
Alberto Iglesias – “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”
Oscar Scene: Opening Credits
John Williams – “War Horse”
Oscar Scene: Joey running through the war.
Read more on Oscar Circuit: Best Original Score…
Categories: Editor, Oscar Circuit Tags: Best Original Score, howard shore, Hugo, John Williams, Oscars, oscars 2012, The Adventures Of Tintin, the artist, tinker tailor soldier spy, war horse
 Thanks to Sasha Stone @ Awards Daily
FEATURE FILMS CATEGORY
BEST SOUND EDITING: SOUND EFFECTS AND FOLEY IN A FEATURE FILM
- Drive
- Fast Five
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
- Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Read more on MPSE Sound Editors Nominees…
Categories: News, Precursors Tags: Drive, Fast Five, Hop, Hugo, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, news, Precursors, Priest, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, sound, Sound Editing, Super 8, the girl with the dragon tattoo, The Tree of Life, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, war horse
 Often called “the invisible art” of the movies, editing is a crucial and frequently undervalued (and misunderstood) element of filmmaking. Even more debatable is how to judge what “best” editing entails. Is it more commendable when an editor cuts a mediocre film out of pure garbage, or if they simply make impeccable footage flow well for the finished product? Is a film full of quick cuts more award-worthy than one comprised of long takes? Can we even compare the editing of Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol to the editing of The Tree of Life? These are questions that even die-hard cinephiles have a hard time addressing, and Academy members – at least based on their voting habits – don’t really bother with. The rule of “Most” applies here as always; thrillers with tons of cuts and ensemble films split across multiple plot strands have a historical advantage here. More importantly, however, is just how crucial this category is to the Best Picture race. Simply put, it is very rare for a film to win the top prize without a Best Editing nod. The last one to do so was Ordinary People…31 years ago. So with that, let’s see what we’ve got…
Read more on Sizing Up the Best Film Editing Field…
 The exclusion of Steven Spielberg and War Horse from the DGA race is a big deal indeed. Big enough to impact the entire Oscar race.
It stands to change entire fabric of the current race right down to Best Picture. A nomination for Spielberg as Best Director could have easily become a win and at that moment War Horse becomes the favorite for Best Picture. No more. While I admit I am shocked that Spielberg was ignored, especially by a guild that has made him the single most nominated and winning director in their history, let’s not forget they did not nominate him either A.I. – Artificial Intelligence (2001) or Minority Report (2002). War Horse was a different matter however, because he seemed to be a lock. An absolute lock.
I suppose on one hand it sends out the message that no one is a lock.
The nominees held a couple of major surprises, but more for who is not there than for who is. I fully expected Spielberg to be there, along with Allen, Payne and Scorsese, but admit that I did not see David Fincher in the running at all. Does this mean The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a potential Best Picture nominee? Maybe. Maybe not. Does it mean the DGA feel they owe Fincher for the debacle of last year when he lost for The Social Network (2010) to Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech (2010)??
Does Spielberg’s exclusion mean he’s out of the Oscar race??
Read more on A Word About Spielberg’s DGA Snub…
 Probably the most important precursor of them all, the Directors Guild of America announces their nominees tomorrow. With the field of Best Picture anywhere between five and ten, the names called tomorrow morning will be essential to making the final cut in both Motion Picture and Director. Last year, the group chose Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), David Fincher (The Social Network), David O. Russell (The Fighter), Christopher Nolan (Inception), and eventual DGA and Oscar Winner for Director Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech). Four out of the five men were nominated with Christopher Nolan, yet again, missing out at a nomination. Will this year be more telling?
Read more on Directors Guild of America Preview & Predictions…
Categories: Article, Editor Tags: Article, Directors Guild of America, Editor, Hugo, Martin Scorsese, Michel Hazanavicius, Midnight in Paris, predictions, Steven Spielberg, Tate Taylor, the artist, The Help, war horse, Woody Allen
 So what could one possibly say about Best Costume Design that one couldn’t possibly infer from all of my previous installments? Even non-Oscar watchers could tell you that the most ornate and attention-grabbing costumes get the lion’s share of these prizes, meaning that period pieces and fantasy films almost always clean up here (but almost never science fiction…go figure). Unfortunately, that means a lot of more subtle, mood-specific costumes are passed over for films that look like either history museums or fashion shows. More interestingly, a film does not necessarily have to be a hit elsewhere to be recognized here. Indeed, sometimes an outright critical dud can make it to the winner’s circle on the strength of their costumes alone. I’ll just briefly go through what few contenders we have to keep our eye on here… Read more on Sizing Up the Costume Design Field…
 As the year stands behind us and we gear up for the upcoming award shows including the Critics Choice Awards which will be broadcast on VH1, Thursday, January 12th @ 8pm ET. Make sure you tune in.
As for our own critics here at the Awards Circuit, I am pleased to present the Staff Writers choices for the Top 10 Best Films of 2011. Having a hand in hiring most of these writers that are on board, I am also eager to see the eclectic tastes as we try to form a non-consensus here at the site. We fully embrace how we are all different and look at film in a different way from our next critic or reader. We respect and we view with curiosity. I sincerely hope the readership of the Awards Circuit will share your Top Ten films in the comment section because I’m eager to hear what you guys and gals loved in 2011 as well.
Read more on Awards Circuit Staff Top Ten of 2011…
Categories: Community, Editor, Staff Tags: Beginners, Bellflower, Best of the year, Bridesmaids, Certified Copy, Crazy Stupid Love, Drive, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, Horrible Bosses, Hugo, Insidious, Melancholia, Midnight in Paris, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Moneyball, Of Gods And Men, Project Nim, Rango, Red State, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Shame, The Adventures Of Tintin, the artist, The Beaver, The Descendants, The Help, The Ides of March, The Interrupters, The Muppets, The Tree of Life, Top Tens, war horse, Warrior, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Weekend, Win Win, Young Adult
 Scott Feinberg has astutely pointed out that Steven Spielberg’s War Horse has galloped into the lead for the Oscar as Best Picture, easing past The Artist and The Descendants, with its old fashioned emotion and sentiment set against the horrors of war. Is anyone really surprised? Spielberg evokes the great works of John Ford and David Lean in his new film, which works its magic on the audience throughout, drawing tears here and there through the film until sob fest that is greeting the ending in some theatres. I watched more than a few grown men and women dabbing at their eyes as they left the theatre, warm smiles on their faces, fathers with one arm on their children, wives holding the arm of their husbands. The movie impacts people in that way, and the Academy likes that sort of movie, they always have.
The question of course is whether or not they will like it enough to honor it with a Best Picture award? They certainly might, and at this writing I am leaning to the fact that indeed they will.
Read more on War Horse for Picture, Scorsese for Director?…
2011 presented a nice eclectic view of cinema we haven’t seen throughout the years. If we summed it up to a ‘theme’ for the year, “silence” or “origins of cinema” would come to mind. Films like Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Artist” and Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” would fall in line with those thoughts.
When creating my ballots for the Best of the Year, the are obvious categories that are stacked to the brim which would be inevitable for some omissions that in other years would either make the shortlist or be the clear front winner. I’ll address all of these as the week’s ‘Year-In-Review’ winds down but I’ll be curious to hear the thoughts of our readership.
Listed below is the Honorable Mention films ranking my #20 through #11 along with the unranked citations of certain films from the year.
Read more on Year-In-Review (Editor’s Honorable Mentions)…
Categories: Community, Editor Tags: arthur christmas, Best of the year, Bridesmaids, Carnage, Certified Copy, Crazy Stupid Love, Hugo, Like Crazy, Martha Marcy May Marlene, Midnight in Paris, pariah, Super 8, Take Shelter, The Descendants, The Muppets, The Tree of Life, Top Ten, Top Tens, war horse, Warrior, Winnie the Pooh
- Anna Belickis concluded her countdown of the worst, most vile, most inhumane offenses to art that graced the TV screen last year. What was the worst of the worst, and what was the runner-up?
Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 01/01)…
Categories: Blog Tags: Circuit Round-Up, Crazy Stupid Love, Declaration Of War, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, H8R, Hugo, Jane Eyre, Project Nim, Sleeping Beauty, The Beaver, The Descendants, The Tree of Life, war horse, We Need To Talk About Kevin
 At its core, War Horse is a heartfelt story about a young man and the bond he creates with a horse who reciprocates that bond. The film is beautifully shot and looks stunning on the big screen, as Steven Spielberg reminds us just how the art of making motion pictures comes incredibly easy to him. When you look at War Horse, all the key components are in place – the sweeping score, the breathtaking and picturesque look of the film, the dramatic arc of a horse impacting lives in and around the time period of World War I. In fact, War Horse feels like a film from an era just passed, a sweeping and grand epic which in years previously might have been heralded as something akin to a masterpiece. War Horse dresses up nice, looks the part, and can even move you into thinking that it is a film of extraordinary accomplishment.
Read more on War Horse (**½)…
Read more on Circuit Round-Up (Week Ending 12/25)…
Categories: Circuit Round-Up Tags: Circuit Round-Up, David Fincher, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Red State, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Shame, The Adventures Of Tintin, the artist, The Awards Circuit Staff, the girl with the dragon tattoo, The Help, the playboy club, tinker tailor soldier spy, war horse, Warrior
Per usual, the year’s end is very crowded with ambitious Oscar contenders and highly-anticipated prestige projects. The surprisingly (or perhaps it isn’t; Brad Bird is a movie maestro, no?) acclaimed Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol looks to edge past the competition by a hair, and based on Joey’s report is entirely deserved. But what of the new releases?
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo has been in theaters since Tuesday, but now mainstream moviegoers will get the chance to really turn out in droves for it; a rare feat for a disturbing serial killer mystery. Then again, David Fincher achieved commercial success with Se7en, and his newest is based on a best-selling novel, so why not another brutal and nasty box office success from him? I’ll estimate an $18-23 million take over the next three days. Joey and I were both pleasantly surprised by the unusual tension and lurid style of this remake/adaptation, though I still had serious issues with the story’s empty nihilism. Such dark material will prove a difficult sell for the Academy, and likely has little chances of making Best Picture, Director or Adapted Screenplay. Craft nods, on the other hand, are not out of the question, especially since many of them were feted last year from their Social Network nominations. Read more on Weekend Openings (December 23-25)…
Categories: Weekend Openings Tags: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, In the Land of Blood and Honey, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Oscar contenders, Oscar hopefuls, Pina, The Adventures Of Tintin, The Darkest Hour, the girl with the dragon tattoo, war horse, We Bought a Zoo, Weekend Openings
FOOTE (****)
On stage the horses are created with puppets, which I understand is rather effective. The same sort of thing was accomplished with Equus in the seventies, when actors wore crowns that looked like the head of a horse and stood on hooves to create the illusion of a horse. It was a stunning effect, that when they made the film of Equus (1977) they left the illusion behind and went with real horses, which makes perfectly good sense. But the play was a deeply religious work, metaphorical, the imagery of man merged with horse essential to its message, so while Richard Burton and Peter Firth gave excellent, Oscar nominated performances in the film, the picture never quite captured the power of the stage play.
Spielberg’s film does, and more.
Though I do not place War Horse on a level with Schindler’s List (1998), it cannot be denied that the picture is one of the directors’ best and certainly one of the finest of the year. Spielberg seems to continue to grow as a filmmaker, leaving the debacle that was Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) a distant memory with this stunning new film that is among the most beautifully shot films of the year. Of course we do not go to the movies to look at the scenery, there must be a story with it and safe to say the one that goes along with War Horse is a deeply moving saga set against the backdrop of World War One. How many great films are there about that First World War?
Read more on War Horse (Multiple Reviews)…
 TOP TEN FILMS
The Descendants
The Artist
Hugo
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
Drive
Midnight in Paris
Win Win
War Horse
The Help
BEST ACTOR
Winner – George Clooney (The Descendants)
Runner-up – Michael Fassbender (Shame)
Read more on Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards…
Categories: Precursors Tags: Drive, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Precursors, the artist, The Descendants, The Help, The Tree of Life, war horse, Win Win
 Continuing with our look at the crafts categories is the favorite of many an Oscarphile, and it’s easy to see why. After all, aren’t the specific lighting and camera choices made by a DP what distinguishes cinema as, well, cinematic? As with Best Art Direction, the Academy historically tends to nominate the “most” of this category rather than necessarily the most unique, aesthetically striking or groundbreaking uses of camera work in a given film. The “prettiest” films showcasing picturesque locales and dramatic lighting usually have the advantage here, as well as just plain being an Academy darling. However, in recent years this category has yielded some winners outside the usual Oscar beltway; certainly a CGI-heavy blockbuster and a stark sci-fi heist thriller don’t usually come to mind when thinking of noticeable cinematography.
With that said, this category seems to be the most “locked” of all the crafts races. Nothing is completely set in stone, but the same five – maybe six – films so far are way ahead of the pack here, but first, let’s take a look at what is not getting in: Read more on Sizing Up the Best Cinematography Field…
|
