In Contention

Tag: Hereafter

  • TECH SUPPORT: Final analysis, part two

    Yesterday we began our final look at the 10 crafts categories.  Check out part one here.  Today, the conclusion.  Meanwhile, you can find my final predictions in all categories here.

    Best Music (Original Score)

    Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, despite their atypical approach to film music composition, are very much contenders in this race. Having won the BFCA award and Golden Globe for their work on “The Social Network,” they must be taken seriously. The fact remains, however, that this is not a typical Oscar-winning score.

    Alexandre Desplat has had an amazing run since he broke onto the American scene in 2003 with “Girl With a Pearl Earring.” Four Oscar nominations later, it seems he is poised to win his first statuette for another Colin Firth film, “The King’s Speech.” Being behind the Best Picture frontrunner is a huge advantage. Moreover, its subtle elegance managed to win the BAFTA. Even so, a win is hardly assured as subtlety is actually not frequently awarded here.

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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Visual Effects

    This year the visual effects branch of the Academy followed the lead of the sound editing category and widened its net to five nominees. It did not, however, follow suit by eliminating the superfluous bake-off process, which whittles the contenders down to seven before deciding on the ultimate slate of nominees.

    This year the two films that missed the cut after making the bake-off were the inventive “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World” and, famously, the effects beast of the year “TRON Legacy.” The latter was shunned as a result of shoddy de-aging work despite having quality in spades throughout the rest of the film, but regardless, a drama with a single effects scene of note and a sequel with nothing new to offer managed to slide in instead.

    The nominees are:

    “Alice in Wonderland” (Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips)
    “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1” (Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi)
    “Hereafter” (Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell)
    “Inception” (Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb)
    “Iron Man 2” (Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick)

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  • 2/16 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Oscars invade Grand Central, details on Oscarcast opening number, Gurus’ final picks

    • Wes Anderson talks editing “Black Swan” with Andrew Weisblum. [Awards Campaign]

    • Oscars invade New York’s Grand Central terminal. [Oscars.org]

    • Mandi Bierly gets a few Oscarcast details on the Franco-Hathaway chemistry and the opening number. [Inside Movies]

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  • ‘Inception,’ ‘Dragon’ reign at VES awards

    Four for “Inception,” three for “How to Train Your Dragon” (which beat out “Toy Story 3” every step of the way).  “Hereafter,” meanwhile, took the supporting effects award.

    Key quote from Christopher Nolan, who received the inaugural Visionary Award:

    I know visual effects people pride themselves on doing the impossible.  I’d just like to encourage you to say “no” to the unreasonable.

    (Courtesy: David Cohen)

    Check out the full list of winners at The Circuit.

    [Photo: Warner Bros. Pictures]

  • TECH SUPPORT: Analyzing the nominees

    So the 83rd Annual Academy Award nominations were finally announced this week, and I did fairly well in handicapping the nominees. Outside of Best Sound Mixing, I never missed more than one nominee in a category. Unfortunately, there were no categories where I scored 100% (apart from Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay). Oh well.

    The massive overall tally for “The King’s Speech” resulted from a plethora of nominations in the crafts fields. “True Grit” and “Inception” got all but one plausible tech nomination (with one very notable exception for each, discussed below). “TRON Legacy”’s tally, on the other hand, has got to be considered a disappointment as must, to a lesser extent, those of “Black Swan” and “127 Hours.” The complete shut-out for “Shutter Island” was also somewhat of a surprise, but other branches saw fit to make Oscar nominees of some unlikely titles.

    Regardless, it was nice to see many deserving crafts artists get their due. With the throat-clearing out of the way, I’ll now give short reactions to – and previews of – each below-the-line field.

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  • ‘King’s Speech’ leads the pack with 12 Oscar nominations

    On the face of it, the nominees for the 83rd annual Academy Awards seemed fairly unremarkable. Aside from the deafening nature of not hearing Christopher Nolan’s name in the line-up for Best Director (the only true shock of the major categories), everything seemed to be within the expected parameters (even Javier Bardem sliding in, which seemed, increasingly, like a very real possibility these last few weeks).

    But then I got to looking through the craft category nominations and the real interesting beats started to surface. First and foremost, “The King’s Speech” led the field with a whopping 12 nominations, even scoring in the Best Sound Mixing category. That’s major, to say the least. And enough, along with the PGA win, to consider it the frontrunner to win the Oscar for Best Picture.

    “True Grit” wasn’t far behind with 10 nominations, including a bid for the Coen brothers in Best Director after all. Hailee Steinfeld stayed in Best Supporting Actress and Bridges was chalked up, but again, let me go back to the more intriguing crafts fields.

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  • TECH SUPPORT: Final analysis, part one

    It seems hard to believe that it’s been more than six months since I wrote this year’s introductory Tech Support column ( a dissection of the art direction race). Much has changed since then, naturally, as we are less than a week away from the big day when we find out the nominees for the Oscars this year. Today, I take a final look at the music categories, sound categories and the two categories that have been narrowed down to seven finalists – Best Visual Effects and Best Makeup.

    BEST MAKEUP

    In this utterly bizarre category, virtually any combination of the seven finalists would fail to surprise me as the final three. That said, I’ve had the same top two predicted all year and see no reason to change now: “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wolfman.” The former had massive box office and very noticeable makeup, whereas the latter is exactly the sort of movie that tends to score here and nowhere else.

    Logic may put “True Grit” or “The Fighter” next in line due to their Best Picture contender status. But as much as these films are loved, they don’t have as showy makeup as the other finalists, and this is a category that often doesn’t care how films are received overall.

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  • ‘Scott Pilgrim,’ ‘Hereafter’ make visual effects bake-off

    As we await the USC Scripter finalists (which should drop any minute), I should pass along the Academy’s bake-off finalists in the Best Visual Effects category.

    Last month the field was narrowed down to 15 titles. Today, seven titles remain, from which five nominees will be selected in a bake-off (which is an odd extra step now, given that the ultimate nominations field was expanded to five this year). So take two off of the following list:

    “Alice in Wonderland”
    “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1”
    “Hereafter”
    “Inception”
    “Iron Man 2    ”
    “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”
    “TRON Legacy”

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  • If I had a ballot

    The year is winding down.  Today, as part of the week’s on-going year-in-review specials, I’m offering up my annual “if I had a ballot” post.

    In years past I’ve tended to defer to studio campaigns for category placement, but this year I figured, “Screw it.”  After all, if I actually had a ballot I could call the shots.  So I have.

    You’re familiar with my Best Picture line-up by now.  I’ve opted out of the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary categories because there are a few films I’d rather have seen before making that call, but otherwise, it’s the usual Oscar fields with an ensemble category tacked on.

    Feel free to post up your own selections, if you have them, in the comments section below.  And remember to check back Friday as I close up shop on 2010 with my list of superlatives.  For now, check out my personal ballot after the jump.

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  • Visual effects race whittled down to 15

    This is the first year the race for Best Visual Effects will feature five nominees.  So take a third of these lucky semi-finalists and there we are.  The five I think most are expecting to show up are still in the mix.

    The most surprising omission for me is “Black Swan,” which used digital wizardry to very startling effect, especially in the film’s final act.  I also expected “The Tempest” to show up, but I guess it just leaves too bad a taste in people’s mouths.

    I’m happy to see “Shutter Island” get singled out.  If we start seeing the guilds respond to the work in this film (and indeed, we might), I think it would be fair to start taking it’s Best Picture chances seriously.  It’s holding up for more than you might expect.  And “Hereafter” shows up on this list, too.  I wouldn’t be surprised if it slid in for its opening sequence (which is rather respected in the VFX community).

    Full list after the jump.  The category’s Contenders page has also been updated with a proposed ranking.

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  • Predicting the National Board of Review awards

    Even more so than the Indie Spirit nods that landed yesterday, the National Board of Review honors are seen by many as the season’s official starting gun — though there are just as many who would question their right to such significance.

    The NBR gets stick on an annual basis for a range of middlebrow sins: their weakness for soft literary awards bait, their unwavering loyalty to Clint Eastwood (watch “Hereafter” aggravate everyone by showing up in tomorrow’s announcement) and their odd concessions to broad studio fare. (They’ll never live down the inclusion of “The Bucket List” — over “There Will Be Blood,” to boot — in the 2007 Top 10.)

    But as ill-advised and frequently obvious as their choices can be, the NBR can occasionally throw us a real curveball: nobody saw Campbell Scott’s Best Actor win for “Roger Dodger” coming in 2002, while the Best Picture hopes of “Quills” began and ended with its out-of-step triumph at the 2000 awards. And remember that if anyone can resist a seemingly sure thing, it’s these guys: last year, this was pretty much the only stop that sweepers Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique missed on the awards track all season.

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  • Summit toasts ‘Ghost Writer,’ ‘Fair Game,’ ‘Red,’ ‘Twilight’

    Holiday parties sure are getting earlier, as the team at Summit Entertainment held theirs last night at BOA Steakhouse on Sunset.  The event was held to toast the efforts of cast and crew on the studio’s 2010 films — “Fair Game,” “The Ghost Writer,” “Red” and “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.”

    I ended up chatting with Olivia Williams early in the evening about her experience on Roman Polanski’s film, which she clearly coveted.  She noted with candor how positive reinforcement isn’t exactly part of the process, not in any bad way, but just that hearing a “hey, nice job” isn’t the norm on a Polanski set, something she wasn’t expecting.  But she relished the experience and her handlers certainly think seeing her vibrant sense of humor on the circuit could make people realize how wonderful she is as a cold character in the film.

    Meanwhile, Jerry Zucker was there with his family as producer of “Fair Game.” While there was plenty to talk about regarding that political thriller, how do you engage in conversation with the guy who made “Airplane!” and “The Naked Gun” without going there?  We talked potential torch-bearers of the form today, and he made it a point of mentioning how right “The Hangover” got it, that it was a comedy constantly surprising you, and that is key.  He’s currently working on a send-up of Broadway musicals tentatively titled “You Are Here,” which should be a hoot.

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  • 11/3 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Hereafter’ works for AMPAS, Plame and Wilson talk ‘Game,’ Coppola on the Chateau

    • Lee Unkrich and Darla K. Anderson on “Toy Story 3” reviews, Oscar campaign, and sequel chances. [Vulture]

    • Steve Pond reports a positive reaction to Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter” at a recent Academy screening. [The Odds]

    • Gregory Ellwood sits down with Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson, subjects of Doug Liman’s “Fair Game.” [HitFix]

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  • 10/25 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Desplat honored, Watts and Plame on ‘Game,’ animated feature hopefuls reach 14

    • Colin Firth talks royalty and “The King’s Speech.” [Awards Campaign]

    • Alexandre Desplat named composer of the year. [Variety]

    • Scott Kraft chats with “Fair Game” star Naomi Watts and subject Valerie Plame. [Los Angeles Times]

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  • 10/22 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Arndt, Unkrich on Fresh Air, no ‘Hangover’ for Gibson, ‘Paranormal’ sequel scares L.A.

    • Lesley Manville talks “Another Year” across the pond. [The Guardian]

    • Terry Gross talks with “Toy Story 3” director Lee Unrich and writer Michael Arndt on Fresh Air. [NPR]

    • Watch in night vision as a Los Angeles audience reacts to a screening of “Paranormal Activity 2.” [HitFix]

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  • 10/20 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: ‘Complete Metropolis’ coming to TCM, buzz for Leo, Cameron on the usual talking points

    • Jeffrey Wells reminds of the forthcoming TCM airing of the restored “Metropolis” and one hour documentary “Metropolis Refound.”  I’ll…be…there. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Steve Pond conveys positive word on Christian Bale and (as reported for months here) Melissa Leo’s performances in “The Fighter” from ShoEast. [The Odds]

    • Naomi Watts on “Fair Game,” Valerie Plame and politics in Hollywood. [HitFix]

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  • 10/18 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Buzz for Rudd, Ebert chats up ‘Secretariat’ author, ‘Alice in Wonderland’ push for Best Pic

    • Jeffrey Wells posts a reader review of James L. Brooks’s “How Do You Know” that claims Paul Rudd is a sure-fire Best Supporting Actor nominee, but I’d expect a lead campaign for him and buzz for Jack Nicholson in support. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • Steve Rose on the secret of the Winkelvi from David Fincher’s “The Social Network.” [The Guardian]

    • Roger Ebert still high on “Secretariat,” sits down with the source material’s author, Bill Nack. [Chicago Sun-Times]

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  • 10/15 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: An unpolished ‘Hereafter,’ women dominate doc shorts, CGI in story-driven contenders

    • Melissa Silverstein on female dominance in the documentary shorts field. [Women and Hollywood]

    • Turns out Clint Eastwood filmed an early, unpolished draft of Peter Morgan’s “Hereafter.”  Well…it shows. [Vulture]

    • Speaking of which, David Cohen spotlights the impact of digital wizardry on that story-driven film as well as Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan.” [Variety]

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