As was the case last year, this year’s Best Director race pits one foreign first-time nominee against a quartet of more established American auteurs — will the outsider emerge victorious again? We examine who will win, and who should.
Oscar Guide 2011: Best Director
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:45 am · February 22nd, 2012
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
The Lists: Top 10 Oscar upsets we'd like to see
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:04 am · February 21st, 2012
With ballots due in a matter of hours, we’re in the home stretch of Oscar season. But while some of the races are decided, that doesn’t mean we’re not crossing our fingers for this upset or that for deserving competitors watching the inevitability from the sidelines.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Cannes regains its Oscar foresight
Posted by Guy Lodge · 4:43 pm · February 20th, 2012
With “The Tree of Life” the first Cannes Palme d’Or winner in nine years to receive a Best Picture nomination, and “The Artist” set to join the short list of top Oscar champs that debuted on the Croisette, was the French festival last year’s most important Oscar hunting ground?
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Off the Carpet: We won't get another hero
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:44 am · February 20th, 2012
Oscar season heads into the home stretch with no real surprises in sight.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Digging into the cinematography field
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 6:34 pm · February 17th, 2012
This has been bugging me. I’d say the two hardest categories to predict this year are, of all things, Best Costume Design and Best Documentary Feature. Guy worked through the former today, while I worked through the latter yesterday. But Best Cinematography is also something I keep circling back around to.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Tech Support Interview: Emmanuel Lubezki on capturing the moment in 'The Tree of Life'
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:41 am · February 16th, 2012
The experience of working on a Terrence Malick film is drastically different than the goings-on of a typical film set. And a photographer’s work, much like an actor’s, is collaborative at the start, but ultimately an element to be manipulated to the director’s will. But while some on a crew or cast might chafe at having their ego squashed like that, cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki finds it liberating and educational.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention · Interviews
The top 10 shots of 2011: part one
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:58 am · February 14th, 2012
They’re heeeeeeerrrrreeeeee. That’s right, the images have been assembled, the conversations have been had and the top 10 shots of 2011 are ready for their close-up (or over the shoulder, or two-shot, or insert, etc.).
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
ASC awards Emmanuel Lubezki and 'The Tree of Life' best cinematography of 2011
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 8:57 pm · February 12th, 2012
The American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) held its annual awards ceremony this evening, honoring achievement in feature film photography.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
MCN's Gurus make their final calls
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 9:26 am · February 11th, 2012
The Gurus o’ Gold collective of Oscar dorks (yours truly included) at Movie City News have offered up final-ish predictions. I imagine David Poland will give us all an opportunity to change this or that, and certainly, my own picks aren’t final until the Friday or Saturday before the show, but for the most part, these are where the chips lie.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Why it should be 'Tree of Life'
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 11:03 am · February 7th, 2012
When the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards were announced two weeks ago, there was one Best Picture nominee that yielded a great sigh of relief from me. It was less that I felt it was deserving (it unquestionably is, but to quote “Unforgiven,” deserve’s got nothing to do with it when it comes to the Oscars) than the fact that I was actually going to have something to passionately champion.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Could this be Brad Pitt’s year after all?
Posted by Roth Cornet · 10:52 am · February 4th, 2012
Brad Pitt’s “Moneyball” stumping this week amid an air of uncertainty around the Best Actor race makes you wonder: could he pull off a big surprise.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Round-up: Paying tribute to Damien Bona
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:30 am · February 2nd, 2012
Also: Farewell to paper Oscar ballots, and rechristening the Kodak
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Round-up: Madge's vote for Malick
Posted by Guy Lodge · 6:30 am · January 31st, 2012
Also: In praise of Viola Davis, and J.Lo and Uggie added to Oscar bill
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
On Woody and Terrence, Oscar's inevitable no-shows
Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 5:29 pm · January 28th, 2012
The DGA Awards will be going down tonight, and the smart money remains on Michel Hazanavicius. And speaking of directors, I hadn’t quite taken note yet of the fact that two of the Academy’s nominees in the field are inevitable no-shows for the event.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Oscar Guide 2011: Best Cinematography
Posted by Guy Lodge · 12:53 pm · January 26th, 2012
The cinematographers’ branch didn’t search far and wide for contenders in this category, settling on four Best Picture nominees, as well as four previously nominated DPs — in keeping with this year’s unofficial theme of sticking with the familiar.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
The Long Shot: Fade away and radiate
Posted by Guy Lodge · 1:50 pm · January 25th, 2012
This year’s Oscar nominations were not only kind to Hollywood’s old guard, but a number of films with their eye on the rear-view mirror.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Round-up: The incredible comeback of 'Extremely Loud'
Posted by Guy Lodge · 8:11 am · January 25th, 2012
Also: R.I.P. Theo Angelopoulos, and Oscar nomination post-mortem
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Stuck in the middle with you: thoughts on the Oscar nominations
Posted by Guy Lodge · 2:28 pm · January 24th, 2012
If it’s hard to settle on one emotional response to this year’s Academy Award nominations, that could be the result of the Academy’s own split instincts.
Filed in: HitFix · In Contention
Archives