In Contention

Tag: The Reader

  • Four producer nominees for ‘The Hurt Locker’

    Mark Boal and Kathryn BigelowGlad to see this has been sorted out. You might recall that when the Best Picture nominations were read out on Tuesday morning, “The Hurt Locker” and “The Blind Side” were both slapped with the vague “nominees to be determined” tag — a stopgap the Academy issues wen there are admin issues to be ironed out.

    “The Hurt Locker” initially fell foul of the Academy’s arbitrary (and, for my money, rather misguided) recent rule that permits a maximum of three nominated producers per film. Exceptions, however, can be made: as was the case last year, when “The Reader” was allowed four nominees, including the late Anthony Minghella and Sydney Pollack.

    So I’m happy that the powers that be at the Academy have been equally reasonable about “The Hurt Locker,” ruling that its quartet of producers all have a legitimate claim to a nomination.

    Should it win on the big night, then, Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro will go up on stage to claim the statuette. (This, of course, makes both Bigelow and screenwriter Boal double nominees this year.)

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  • ‘White Ribbon’ triumphs at European Film Awards

    The White Ribbon

    (UPDATE: Due to an error on the EFA’s own website, we initially reported that the technical Prix d’Excellence had been awarded to “Vincere.” This is incorrect: the sound design team behind “A Prophet” took the prize.)

    Foreign-language Oscar favorites “The White Ribbon” and “A Prophet” have been locked in something of an awards duel since May, when they took the top two prizes at Cannes.

    However, while the latter film has been hogging the spotlight of late — pipping “Ribbon” to the post at the London Film Festival, the NBR Awards and even the Spirit noms — Michael Haneke’s Palme d’Or winner clawed back some momentum at tonight’s European Film Awards, taking the top three prizes for Best Film, Director and Screenwriter.

    “A Prophet,” which entered the race as the most-nominated contender, had to be content with a well-deserved Best Actor award for sensational newcomer Tahar Rahim, as well as the technical Prix d’Excellence for its sound team.

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  • ‘A Prophet’ dominates European Film Award nominations

    Tahar Rahim in A ProphetIs “A Prophet” gradually stealing awards-season momentum from “The White Ribbon?” (It’s the superior film, if you ask me.) Too soon to say, of course, but it certainly came out on top in this morning’s European Film Award nominations.

    Jacques Audiard’s searing chronicle of French prison gangs leads the field with six nominations, to four for Michael Haneke’s German Palme d’Or winner. The two films, seen by many pundits as the chief contenders for the foreign-language Oscar, also appear to be the frontrunners here, continuing a rivalry that started way back in May at Cannes.

    Also beating “Ribbon”‘s total, with five nods (six, if you include the People’s Choice Award), is “Slumdog Millionaire,” which didn’t make last year’s cut-off date. The film’s popularity clearly still lingers (to the point that it even eked out a Best Actor nod for Dev Patel, ahead of, say, Michael Fassbender), though I sense its moment has passed.

    (More discussion, and a full list of nominees, after the cut.)

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Critical condition

    Gabourey Sidibe in PreciousAhead of its U.S. release this week, there is a wave of mild surprise in the blogosphere over the fact that “Precious,” the film deemed by some (yours truly included) to be the present Best Picture frontrunner, is currently sitting on a lowly Metacritic score of 57. Fitting neatly with the largely media-fabricated talk of a backlash against the film, some commenters are citing this rather arbitrary number as a debit against the film’s chances.

    As much as I’d personally like that to believe that — and as relieved as I am to see that I’m not the only person who didn’t respond to the film – such talk will doubtless be short-lived, given the paucity of reviews making up the current score and the likelihood of raves to come. If anything, public support is more crucial than critical consensus to this film’s campaign – if audiences don’t turn up to see this grim, minority-oriented indie, many Academy members won’t feel compelled to either.

    That said, it looks increasingly possible that “Precious” (I refuse to use that lumpy subtitle all season, by the way) could turn out to be a more critically divisive item than might have been expected following an ecstatically received festival run.

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  • Desplat wins Composer of the Year award

    Alexandre Desplat You’d be hard pressed to disagree that Alexandre Desplat is pretty much at the top of the game in contemporary film scoring. In addition to his genius (“Birth” looks likely to remain my favorite score of the decade), his prolificity is awe-inspiring. This year alone sees the Frenchman’s name on seven features, running the gamut from “Julie & Julia” to “A Prophet” to “Fantastic Mr. Fox” to the latest “Twilight” installment.

    He seems bound to figure in the awards race for one film or another (“Cheri” would be my personal pick so far), so it’s a nice — if not terribly prescient — omen that he just won Composer of the Year at the 9th annual World Soundtrack Awards yesterday, as well as score of the year for his Oscar-nominated work on “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.”

    It’s a 2008-leaning list, with “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The Reader” also resurfacing, though a Lifetime Achievement Award for Marvin Hamlisch is clearly a nod to “The Informant!”

    The awards, handed out by the World Soundtrack Academy in Ghent, Belgium, an educational organization dedicated to the art of film music, don’t carry much weight to speak of, but since we’re having a day of small awards announcements, it’s a fun list of winners to add to the pile. Full list after the cut.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Post early for Christmas

    Jeremy Renner in The Hurt LockerLondon is in the midst of a postal strike. No mail, be it far-flung postcard or electricity bill, has popped through my front door for over a month. I recently had to stroll into Soho to pick up my London Film Festival accreditation pack by hand. And rather discouragingly, my local post office today put a hastily scrawled sign in the window: “Post NOW for delivery by Christmas.”

    If you’re wondering why I’ve started this week’s column with this fascinating tidbit from my domestic life – apart from the fact that, as Kris noted, the crickets are chirping in awardsville this week – it’s because, as I stared disbelievingly at the sign, it occurred to me that a similar memo should be sent to several specialty studios hoping for a stake in this awards season. (Yes, my mind works in curious ways.)

    In short: you have a little package that needs to deliver in time for Oscar consideration? Don’t wait until December. Send it out now.

    This may seem like crazy advice given Oscar voters’ ever-growing love affair with winter releases. Just last year, no pre-November release made the Best Picture cut. And Harvey Weinstein has proved time and again that substantial rewards can be reaped if you spring a film upon the Academy without giving them too much time to think about it – from “The Cider House Rules” to “Chocolat” to “The Reader,” he knows which films won’t survive a few months of critical and industry scrutiny.

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  • Bad things come to those who wait

    It’s so often these days that we see poorly cut trailers for otherwise high-pedigree films that we tend to brush them aside. “Well, it has to be better than that,” we say.

    Refreshingly, however, this trailer for Richard Eyre’s romantic thriller “The Other Man,” due for a late-September release after gathering dust since last year’s rocky Toronto debut, does a fine job of suggesting just how abysmal the film really is. (Not particularly accurately, mind you: it’s cute that in the wake of “Taken,” they’re trying to sell this as another “Neeson kicks ass” effort, but I can assure you that the chess match is about as physical as things get here.)

    You may recall that I gave the film a rather generous 1.5 stars last October (I figured the presence of Laura Linney alone merits an extra half-star, even if she has nothing to do), and went on to name it the year’s worst. But hey, at least it gave “The Reader” the chance to slap “Only the second-dreariest Bernhard Schlink adaptation of 2008!” on its DVD cover. Always a silver lining.

  • How Harvey corrupted Oscar

    Holly Hunter and Anna Paquin in The PianoIt’s a little over a week old, but I only just noticed Mike Goodridge’s rather interesting column at ScreenDaily, in which he offers yet another take on the Academy’s expanded Best Picture field. (Is it even a month since the announcement? It feels like we’ve been talking about this forever.)

    Unlike many, Goodridge is wholeheartedly in favor of the move, which he sees as a potential corrective to the more cynical manipulations of Oscar campaigning. I don’t necessarily agree with that conclusion, but I found myself nodding while reading the setup for his argument, in which he traces the Academy’s motivation back to Harvey Weinstein’s earliest campaigning days.

    Though Weinstein is now regarded as the poster boy for disingenuous campaigning, Goodridge looks back to a time (one many pundits seem to have forgotten) when he was a force for good on the Oscar trail, using his unsurpassed savvy to get deserving indie underdogs into the race.

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  • Three more highlights

    Philippe Petit at the 81st annual Academy AwardsCollecting all my thoughts last night was bound to leave a few gaps and so while flipping through the DVR recording of this year’s Oscar ceremony, I stumbled across a couple of moments that I had to tip my hat to.

    I already updated the recap post with a few notes about the Judd Apatow short, which was fantastic (especially the stoned giggling at “The Reader.”)  But having Janusz Kaminski in the mix was a stroke of genius.  We crossed paths last year and he cracked me up every time.  Nice to see him take the stage to present, the first time ever for a D.P.

    But also, I have to mention the class that was Danny Boyle thanking the producers of the telecast for putting on such a great show.  It really seemed like the obvious thing to do, yet it took until his Best Director presentation for someone to go there.  I can’t think of the last time the telecast was praised on the air like that, but then again, I can’t think of the last time the telecast deserved to be praised on the air, so there we are.

    And finally, I have to say that Philippe Petit’s appearance on the stage was a moment of levity that brought a huge smile to my face.  I preferred other docs in the category, but it’s difficult to argue with the feat.  And seeing him swiftly run up to the stage and steal the spotlight like he was meant to do so…it was just a great moment.

  • You were right, I was wrong: Guy’s final predictions

    (Expanded thoughts and reasonings on yesterday’s list of predictions.)

    It’s years like 2008 when I throw my hands up and admit (albeit with great reluctance) that my family and friends have been right for the last two decades. Carla, Tom, Kim, Auntie Mavis: I give up. I am insane to care as much as I do about the Oscars. They are stupid. They don’t matter, and I really should find something more important and rewarding to care about, like, oh, needlepoint classes or professional darts championships.

    But who am I kidding? I will always care about the Oscars, even in years like this when the race is so dry, and its significance so questionable, that I take great care in not caring. In a year when so few of my personal favourites have cracked the contenders list, it has at least been interesting to sit back and watch the furore unfold over the Academy voters’ spectacularly self-sabotaging antics this year.

    I’ve been wrong about a lot of things this year (Kris scoffed at my naive suggestion back in July that “Happy-Go-Lucky” could be a Best Picture nominee, and he was right to), and right about … well … “Milk’s” nomination for Best Costume Design. (Hey, let me salvage some glory from this year’s meagre spoils.) I don’t expect to be a hell of a lot more successful with the following predictions, but you never know. It’s still been a lot of fun riding out the season with you this year – here’s to a better slate of contenders (and a lot less grousing from me) in 12 months’ time.

    BEST PICTURE
    Apart from the fact that it is the most imaginative and entertaining of this year’s feeble clutch of nominees, the reason “Slumdog Millionaire” has a stranglehold on this category is because it’s the only one of the five that has any discernible relationship to contemporary cinema. The other four all feel to varying degrees like the finely-tooled Best Picture winners of decades past, but the younger, more curious Academy members have been moving away from such self-consciously packaged ‘prestige product’ in the past few years – even if they need a lot of pointing towards what to reward in its stead.

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  • Who deserves it? Poll results!

    The readership of In Contention has spoken.  Here’s who you all think deserves to win across the 24 Oscar categories we polled you on.  A couple of these races were very close but we didn’t have time to revisit the couple of categories that were decided by less than 10 votes.  Anyway, it’ll be interesting to see if there are any parallels Sunday night, but here’s what you had to say:

    Best Picture: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Director: Danny Boyle, “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 Adapted Screenplay: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Original Screenplay: “WALL-E”
    Best Animated Feature Film: “WALL-E”
    Best Art Direction: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Cinematography: “The Dark Knight”
    Best Costume Design: “The Duchess”
    Best Film Editing: “Slumdog Millionaire”
    Best Makeup: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”
    Best Music (Original Score): “WALL-E”
    Best Music (Original Song): “Down to Earth” from “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Editing: “WALL-E”
    Best Sound Mixing: “WALL-E”
    Best Visual Effects: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

    Thanks to everyone for voting.  Enjoy the show!

  • Last minute jitters

    Waltz with BashirI’ll have a post up later today running a comb through my final predictions.  Tomorrow we’ll showcase all contributor picks (as well as the “Who deserves it?” poll results), but for now, I thought I’d share my pain with the readership.

    By pain, I mean last minute jitters, those creepy, crawling, gut-twisting thoughts that leave you in a haze over what to pick in this category or that, even if a frontrunner is staring you in the face.  There are a number of categories doing this to me this year.

    First and foremost, I’ve been on the precipice of picking a “Slumdog” sweep for nearly two weeks now.  Nathaniel Rogers has been bold enough to go there, but I haven’t allowed myself (yet) to think the Academy will vote for the film in the Best Sound Editing field.  However, as a multi-nominated sound mixer friend told me, members generally just vote for their favorite film throughout the crafts categories (much to his own chagrin many times over).

    I also found out last night that the only films that reached the Cinema Audio Society in screener form were “Quantum of Solace” and…”Slumdog Millionaire,” which makes their vote a bit difficult to chalk up as comprehensive.  Maybe “The Dark Knight” and “WALL-E” are still very much in the mixing race and the Best Picture frontrunner will lose both statues.  But this is just one example of the insanity that flows through my mind this time of year.

    Another thought is all the bad “Reader” press lately and how that may or may not affect Kate Winslet’s chances of a win in the lead actress category.  Many have chalked Meryl Streep up as the competition, but there have been murmurs for some time that Melissa Leo is a prized commodity in this field.  Sasha Stone is spit-balling the possibility today as well.  She’s got people like Dustin Hoffman out there singing her praises.  And her film is a welcome point of variety in a slate of expected nominees (both here and in the original screenplay category).

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  • 2/17 Oscarweb Round-up

    WALL-E• Patrick Goldstein joins a massive chorus pondering this year’s lack of an “Oscar bump” at the box office. [The Big Picture]

    • David Poland responds…at length. [The Hot Blog]

    • The Gurus o’ Gold crank out the odds. [Movie City News]

    • Anne Thompson wonders if all the bad press for “The Reader” last week could affect its Oscar chances at the last minute. [Thompson on Hollywood]

    • The week after our own Guy Lodge dived into the matter, John Horn tackles the Oscar nominated “WALL-E” screnplay. [Los Angeles Times]

    • Tim Shipment, meanwhile, calls said bad press an “orchestrated attack.” [Daily Telegraph]

    • New Yorkers head west to help bring the Oscars to life. [New York Daily News]

  • 2/12 Oscarweb Round-up

    (from left) Afa the Wild Samoan and Mickey Rourke on the set of The Wrestler(Kind of quiet out there…)

    • David Carr addresses the “some stars won’t walk the red carpet” talk, slams fashionistas as being “pilot fish on a big whale.”  Ooooooohhhhh. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Rebecca Ascher-Walsh talks to double nominee Kate Winslet. [The Envelope]

    • Dave Karger says it’s Harvey vs. Miramax in the ladies’ acting fields. [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Sasha Stone goes deep with “WALL-E” helmer Andrew Stanton. [Awards Daily]

    • David S. Cohen writes up “The Wrestler”‘s unsung hero: trainer Afa “the Wild Samoan.” [Variety]

    • Patrick Goldstein responds to the week’s “Reader” slams. [The Big Picture]

  • Is this a new strategy?

    I’ve been flipping back and forth between Leno and Letterman and so far I’ve seen four Oscar TV spots: two for “The Reader,” one for “Slumdog Millionaire” and one for “The Wrestler.”  Instead of the usual 30 second trailers, there is interview footage edited in.  Rourke from “The Wrestler,” Boyle from “Slumdog” and besting the lot, Daldry, Winslet AND Hare (dropping the names of Pollack and Minghella) for “The Reader.”

    Is this a new strategy?  I can’t seem to recall late night television buys in recent Oscar past, but I certainly don’t recall commercials such as this, bringing the talent out in the open so formally.  It’s kind of brilliant, really.  Now instead of watching Amy Adams giggle about how unprepared she is for her wedding, you’ll be treated to other interviews during the advertising break that you weren’t expecting at all.

    Adams is a good call for this moment, especially being in a race some perceive as wide open and others say is ripe for her taking.  But all things considered, Rourke could have brought it all home with an appearance here instead of in late December for the film’s release.

    Or does it all…really not matter?

  • 2/11 Oscarweb Round-up

    Hugh Jackman• The first Oscar promo pic of Hugh Jackman. [Just Jared]

    • David Steinberg writes up Johnny Carson’s Oscar hosting legacy. [Los Angeles Times Magazine]

    • David Carr ponders the lead actress race. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Tom O’Neil conveys a case for Amy Adams in “Doubt.” [Gold Derby]

    • Dave Karger needs Oscar campaigns to get out of the way in order to enjoy “The Reader.” [Entertainment Weekly]

    • Mark Olsen chats with “Doubt” star Philip Seymour Hoffman. [The Envelope]

    • Michael Ordoña, meanwhile, gets some face time with Marisa Tomei. [The Envelope]

    • Christopher Campbell goes all in for “Milk”‘s original screenplay. [Spout Blog]

    • Maria Puente reports on the interior design of Oscar’s green room. [USA Today]

    • Anne Thompson spotlights the magazine rack’s Oscar issues. [Thompson on Hollywood]

  • 2/10 Oscarweb Round-up

    Jeffrey Dean Morgan in Watchmen• At least Ron Rosenbaum kind of gets it.  Though he apparently thinks he’s the only one a bit miffed at the redemption angle.  Do some more Googling, Ron. [Slate]

    • Joining the “Reader” bash, Noah Forrest pleads with the Academy not to hand the Oscar to Kate Winslet. [Movie City News]

    • Jeff Wells gets word that Steven Spielberg’s “Lincoln” could be in theaters by the end of the year. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

    • David Poland scatters “Watchmen” gossip while apparently indicating that Warner Bros. owes him and others a look at the film a month in advance. [The Hot Blog]

    • Patrick Goldstein is big on foreign film contender “The Class.” [The Big Picture]

    • Brits pick the most memorable movie quotes ever. [Daily Telegraph]

    • Sasha Stone talks to Oscar-nominated “Frozen River” scribe Courtney Hunt. [Awards Daily]

    • Thank God Michael Bay didn’t have his way with this year’s Oscar telecast. [Rope of Silicon]

    • Pete Hammond jumps on the “Mickey might win” bandwagon, becomes, like, the 10th person to draw a parallel to last year’s Best Actress race.  He also points to a potential Viola Davis upset in the supporting actress category. [Notes on a Season]

    • David Carr, meanwhile, comments on Rourke’s “whale of a speech” at the BAFTAs.  But he rather insultingly thinks voters would be “picking the speech over the performance.”  Hardly. [The Carpetbagger]

    • Xan Brooks prays for a little spice and surprising variety at this year’s Oscar ceremony. [The Guardian]

  • Pretty brave

    Most people seem to be going along with the assumption Kate Winslet has this year’s lead actress Oscar in the bag for “The Reader.” But if anyone is nipping at her heels, it has to be Meryl Streep, whose performance in “Doubt” (however off the rails it went) has been right there, waiting to upset the whole year.

    In my daily Variety visit this afternoon, I came across the following Spartan advertisement for Streep’s performance. No words, no pomp, no circumstance. Just the face. Pretty brave in the face of what so many are chalking up as a sure thing. Maybe this kind of modesty is the right idea, the right level of, “Hey, that’s unique.” Or maybe not.

    Meryl Streep in Doubt