Oscars2009 Tagged Articles at Cinematical

This year's Oscar ceremony will mark the first time we're looking at ten (count 'em, TEN!) different Best Picture nominees -- and while I firmly believe this is a bad move, it also stands as a case of terrible timing. We're still feeling the "quality pinch" that arose with the arrival of the most recent WGA strike, which means ... heck, 2009 might have had a tough time doling out FIVE legitimate Best Pic noms, let alone double that amount.

But ten it shall be, and now that we're only a few weeks away from the beginning of the Awards Bait movie season, I thought it would be fun to play a simple guessing game. More specifically, which films do you think will be nominated for Best Picture? True, there are still several films that none of us have seen yet, but you don't need a crystal ball to assume that a few December titles will earn a nomination. (Come to think of it, this particular December looks remarkably skimpy on Oscar Bait.)

Based only on the "industry buzz," I'm confident in assuming that Best Picture nominations will go to films like The Road, A Serious Man, Nine, Up in the Air, and The Lovely Bones ... but where do we look after those ones? The Hurt Locker? Precious? Invictus? Moon? (I wish.) Feel free to chime in with your predictions below, and feel free to check out this Film.com piece that asks the same questions.

One thing about the Academy Awards' Best Foreign Language category that separates it from the acting, screenplay, director, and best picture categories is that in order to vote, Academy members must prove that they have actually seen all five nominees. In a way, this is good: it means there's less politicking and favoritism and more sincere praise for the film that voters actually believe is best. But on the other hand, the Academy members who have time to go to special screenings of the five nominees are liable to be the old, retired ones, and their tastes might not accurately reflect those of the Academy in general.

All of this was relevant this year, when a Japanese film no one had ever heard of, called Departures, won the Oscar when all the forecasts had been for either The Class or Waltz with Bashir (which, not coincidentally, were the only two nominees that had played in the U.S. at that point). The Academy voters had seen all five films. Had they, in their wisdom, chosen the film that truly was best?

The answer is: eh, maybe. Now that Departures is making the festival rounds in advance of its stateside release in May, we're able to see why it appealed to the voters. As it turns out, it's a perfect Oscar choice, a fine film that's gently funny and moving and not the least bit challenging or controversial. It tells its story with elegant simplicity and is aimed at neither the lowest common denominator nor the highbrow art-house crowd. Pleasantly in the middle is where it sits, and it's happy to be there.

The Academy Awards are known for their traditions (among many other things), and this year you may have noticed that some of those traditions were broken. Jack Nicholson wasn't sporting a pair of dark sunglasses and a devilish grin from the front row, Javier Bardem wasn't in attendance to help present the Oscar for best supporting actor and, likewise, Daniel Day-Lewis wasn't there to help present the best actor award. Granted, Oscar's tradition of the prior year's best actor and actress winners (in supporting and lead) presenting the latest award to the opposite sex was ditched in favor of a same sex group thing -- but that still shouldn't have given last year's winners an excuse not to show up. After all, both Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton were there.

So where was everyone? The Envelope did a little digging and were informed via a few secret sources that, originally, Jack Nicholson was asked to participate as part of a group for the best supporting actor award (and most likely be the one to speak of Ledger's Joker performance), but ducked out because he only wanted to present alone. Meanwhile, Bardem (who won best supporting actor last year for No Country for Old Men) didn't show because he was suffering from a back injury. Day-Lewis, however, had a much lamer excuse: he was tired. Not only was the best actor winner for There Will Be Blood against the group thing as well, but he was also apparently too tired from work on his new film Nine to show up and present.

Wow, so what's up with this group thing? Sure, I wasn't crazy about it, but it's a little sad when your ego is so big you demand to be on stage alone ... at the Academy Awards, no less. What do you folks think? Do these actors need to get over themselves or do they have every right to present solo?

I didn't do too badly in my Oscar predictions. At the last minute, I went sentimental and predicted Mickey Rourke over Sean Penn, which was a bad idea, given that the Oscars were all business and duty this week, with no room for anything sentimental or personal. The other big mistake I made was to predict The Dark Knight (55 screens) as a winner in most of its eight categories. Everyone in the free world saw the film and no one can deny that its achievements in these categories were ground-breaking in some cases, and superb in all cases. But the Academy dutifully chose The Curious Case of Benjamin Button for these awards.

I have yet to meet very many people who actually like Benjamin Button, so I think there are two factors at stake. One is the concept in which the movie that employed the most people subsequently gets the most Oscar votes. The other factor states that only a certain type of movie actually gets to win. Benjamin Button is an Oscar movie through-and-through. It's long, first of all, and has a high-class literary pedigree (F. Scott Fitzgerald). It has obvious award bait in all the categories, not only in acting, cinematography, editing and music, but also the lower categories like makeup, visual effects and sound that usually go to summer blockbusters.

So every year the Academy Awards does their little In Memoriam montage where they honor those who've passed throughout the year. Queen Latifah sang over the montage for this year's ceremony, which, of course, included lots but excluded a few -- most notably 'The Voice of God' himself, Don LaFontaine, who passed away back in September. LaFontaine, in case you forgot or didn't know, was an actor, producer and writer who provided voiceover for pretty much every trailer ever made (okay not that many, but he is the voice of more than 5,000 movie trailers and hundreds of thousands of television commercials, video game trailers and network promotions).

That's pretty impressive in and of itself, and more than worthy of a mention during the Oscar telecast. But wait, I'll give you one more -- LaFontaine was also the in-show announcer for the Academy Awards! YES! The guy lent his voice to the Academy Awards ceremony every year ... AND THOSE IDIOTS COULDN'T EVEN FIND THE TIME TO HONOR HIM! I haven't had the time to process this entirely since I've been quite busy for the past 24 hours, but this has to be one of their biggest snubs ever. And I don't care if the guy didn't belong to the right club or organization in order to have his work recognized by the Academy -- fact is, his voice helped sell the biggest (and smallest) movies of our time. He is (and always will be) a Hollywood legend. The Academy should be ashamed ... and since they didn't have the time, space or brains to give this guy a shout out -- we will. I will also call on other websites to do the same today.

Don LaFontaine (August 26, 1940 – September 1, 2008)



[via Film Drunk]

It was last night's Meryl Streep chit-chat that got me to thinking; Hell, 15 nominations is impressive enough, and she's even won the dang Oscar twice! For Kramer vs. Kramer and Sophie's Choice. But while in the lovely land of Hollywood that's a track record to be amazingly proud of, the simple truth is that, in the land of baseball, Meryl Streep would be batting a lusty .133. I've seen American League pitchers who can bat .133!

And that silly thought led to the next logically silly one: If Meryl Streep is batting .133, who ELSE is batting poorly? And conversely ... who's leading the league? Now, I've got to limit eligibility to those who've been nominated at least three times, because otherwise we'd have Anna Paquin as Mickey Mantle. And I'm limiting this project to actors only, because that way one can squeeze another post or two out of this lame concept if people actually like it.

1.000* -- Hilary Swank (2 for 2); Kevin Spacey (2 for 2)
.500 -- Daniel Day-Lewis (2 for 4)
.400 -- Sean Penn (2 for 5); Tom Hanks (2 for 5); Denzel Washington (2 for 5);
.333 -- Maggie Smith (2 for 6); Tommy Lee Jones (1 for 3); Helen Mirren (1 for 3); Philip Seymour Hoffman (1 for 3); Marisa Tomei (1 for 3); Alan Arkin (1 for 3); Renee Zellweger (1 for 3); Kathy Bates (1 for 3); Geoffrey Rush (1 for 3); Julia Roberts (1 for 3); Russell Crowe (1 for 3)
.285 -- Michael Caine (2 for 7)
.250 -- Jack Nicholson (3 for 12); Julie Christie (1 for 4); Cate Blanchett (1 for 4); William Hurt (1 for 4); Frances McDormand (1 for 4); Morgan Freeman (1 for 4); Ben Kingsley (1 for 4); Diane Keaton (1 for 4); Holly Hunter (1 for 4); Jon Voight (1 for 4);

More after the jump

Cinematical is live-blogging the Academy Awards, and next up is William Goss. Follow along down below, and don't forget to keep refreshing this page. Head over to Moviefone for additional Oscar coverage.

Click here for a full list of Academy Award winners updated in real time

Read our live-blog for the show's first hour with Eric D. Snider
Read our live-blog for the show's second hour with Scott Weinberg

11:55 p.m.: Well, that's that. The show seemed to lose its luster post-Memoriam (PS: Ledger was in last year's montage), but man, did it get off to one peppy start. Maybe something good came of this recession after all...

11:53 p.m.: Best Picture is Slumdog Millionaire.

11:49 p.m.: The Spielberg-introduced Best Picture montage compares Frost/Nixon to Citizen Kane, Slumdog Millionaire to 12 Angry Men, The Reader to Life is Beautiful, Milk to Braveheart (er...) and Network (better...), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to just about everything except for Forrest Gump.

Cinematical is live-blogging the Academy Awards, and next up is Scott Weinberg. Follow along down below, and don't forget to keep refreshing this page. Head over to Moviefone for additional Oscar coverage.

Click here for a full list of Academy Award winners updated in real time

Second Hour is Done -- Continue to The Final Hour with William Goss
Read our live-blog for the show's first hour with Eric D. Snider

10:31 -- I now hand you over to Sir William of Goss, for my cat is very hungry and I need to kick back for the big awards. As always, thanks for hanging at Cinematical for all your movie geekery.

10:28 -- Mr. Smith sticks around to give out Best Sound Editing (The Dark Knight) and Best Sound Mixing (Slumdog Millionaire).

10:27 -- Will Smith to dole out the Best Visual Effects award: Benjamin Button. I guess anyone who can make Brad Pitt can look ugly deserves an Oscar.

10:25 -- Action montage woulda been a lot cooler with the movies' noises instead of a lame rock song.

10:22 -- When Tom Cruise is being serious, he's dull. When he's being funny, he's pretty great. Who's with me? (This is in reference to the Tom Cruise / Jimmy Kimmel ad.) And now ... an action montage! Where's my volume button?

10:19 -- Pre-commercial female voice promises a 2008 Action Movie Montage! But first ... commercials!

10:18 -- Maher stays close by and gives the Best Documentary Short to Smile Pinki.

Cinematical is live-blogging the Academy Awards, and first up is Eric D. Snider. Follow along down below, and don't forget to keep refreshing this page. Head over to Moviefone for additional Oscar coverage.

Click here for a full list of Academy Award winners updated in real time

FIRST HOUR IS DONE - CONTINUE TO HOUR TWO

9:30 p.m.: And that it's for me, folks. I hand you over to my good friend Scott Weinberg for Hour 2 of the Academy Awards marathon. Stay safe, and remember, no wagering.

9:28 p.m.: Remember how some movies in 2008 had romance in them? The Academy does!

9:25 p.m.: Well, why wouldn't the guy from Twilight and the girl from Mammia Mia! be at the Oscars? Next we'll see presenters from Meet the Spartans and Witless Protection.

9:24 p.m.: Ben Button wins for Makeup, and the designer has a contest with himself to see how many random names he can rattle off in 30 seconds. Then he says, "New Orleans." Well said!

9:21 p.m.: This is a very dapper British gentleman whose Costume Design won for The Duchess. It's nice to see someone class up the joint after Hugh Jorifice's vulgarity. (Jay-kay, Hugh! We love you!)

9:19 p.m.: That orchestra might be tucked away in the back of the theater, but they will still cut you off, boys!

9:18 p.m.: Benjamin Button wins for Art Direction -- deservedly, as the insides of all those houses really did look like the insides of houses.

9:12 p.m.: This is the first time I've watched the Oscars in high-definition. You can see every crag and gully in Mickey Rourke's face.

9:09 p.m.: Hey, what gives?! Le Maison en Petit Cubes wins Best Animated Short, but that guy is NOT French! Nice shout-out to Mr. Roboto, though.

9:07 p.m.: No surprise here -- Best Animated Feature goes to WALL-E. There is momentary controversy here at headquarters over whether the director or producer accepts this award, but eventually everyone takes my word for it that it's the director.

9:05 p.m.: Nice of them to show a montage of all of last year's animated films, including the ones too crappy to be nominated. "Sucks to be you, guys! But here's two seconds of your hard work!"

9:04 p.m.: You knew that was coming -- Jennifer Aniston's on the stage, so we have to get a shot of Brad and the homewrecker.

9:01 p.m.: Simon Beaufoy begins what will presumably be a Slumdog Millionaire juggernaut with a win for Best Adapted Screenplay. How are you doing on your predictions? I'm three for three so far, thank you very much.

8:57 p.m.: Best Original Screenplay goes to Dustin Lance Black, who gives a sweet speech reassuring gay kids that God does love them. He goes on to prophecy that gay marriage will be legalized. You heard it here first, folks!

8:55 p.m.: Impressive -- they found a 5-second clip of In Bruges with no profanity.

8:53 p.m.: Steve Martin and Tina Fey together gives everyone in the room a simultaneous comedygasm.