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2008 OSCAR PREDICTION ARCHIVE
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2009 OSCAR PREDICTION ARCHIVE
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Wardrobe sketches from ‘The Reader’

Tag: Conviction

Fox to supply SAG with online screeners via iTunes

Brave new world. Though we all know it’s heading in this direction. The trick will be getting the old stuck-in-their-ways types to learn how to work things, as always. The press release, in part:

Fox Filmed Entertainment (FFE) and iTunes are offering nearly 100,000 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) members Fox Searchlight Pictures’ 127 HOURS, BLACK SWAN and CONVICTION in HD from iTunes for viewing on their iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Mac or PC, or with Apple TV on their HD TV. The films will be available to members from January 7-28 during the SAG awards consideration window…Fox is discussing a similar arrangement in the future with AMPAS, BAFTA and other organizations to implement this new way to present their films for consideration…

“…while we would always prefer voters see films in theaters, we realize that is not always possible, so we wanted to make sure as many voters as possible have the opportunity to screen them…,” said Jim Gianopulos, Chairman and CEO of Fox Filmed Entertainment.

[Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures]

January 7, 2011
Predict the WGA and Scripter nominees

Also speaking up tomorrow will be the WGA (Writers Guild of America). The recently revealed list of ineligibilities makes picking this group’s choices much more fun, though it still kinda stinks because you know some of the best scripts of the year will be spectators.

Last year the beneficiaries of the purge (which ultimately missed with Oscar) were “Crazy Heart,” “Julie & Julia” and “Star Trek” in adapted, “(500) Days of Summer,” “Avatar” and “The Hangover” in original. From my vantage, there doesn’t appear to be as many options to choose from on the periphery of these races, but I’ll give it a stab.

Click on through the jump to see my picks in the adapted and original categories, as well as discussion of the USC Scripter Awards. (I’ll opt out of picking the documentary field from the WGA, which is likely to be a crap shoot, anyway.)

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January 3, 2011
Best in show 2010: the year in superlatives

The week, and with it, the bulk of my 2010 coverage, draws to a close today with a look at the best of the best. I’m offering up a personal list of superlatives, including most Oscar categories and some other fun fields thrown in for good measure. A tradition at this point.

There will be plenty going on next week, though, despite travel and the holidays. As always, we’ll be at your disposal. But allow me to put a tidy bow on the year here and keep forging ahead…

Best Picture
“Exit Through the Gift Shop”

Best Director
Mike Leigh, “Another Year”

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December 17, 2010
12/17 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Plea for Bardem, Swank’s potential parlay, HFPA and SAG by the numbers

• Scott Feinberg digs in to some exhaustive research on HFPA and SAG nominations history to help you navigate what it all means. [ScottFeinberg.com]

• Steve Pond is begging someone to step up to the plate and recognize what an amazing performance Javier Bardem gives in “Biutiful,” and in so doing, NOMINATE HIM. [The Odds]

• The top 25 hottest girls from Christmas movies. [Ranker]

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December 17, 2010
‘Social Network’ rules Boston critics’ awards

Okay, let’s lead with the really interesting news. By handing their Best Supporting Actress award to Juliette Lewis for her barnstorming, dialogue-jiggering hammery in “Conviction” (I mean that in wholly admiring terms, by the way), the Boston Society of Film Critics officially take the title for the coolest go-your-own-way pick of this admittedly young season. Is this win a one-night-only deal, or is Lewis a fun new name to add into the Oscar mix? The latter, I’m hoping.

Beyond that, it was back to regular business, as “The Social Network” furthered its reputation is this year’s critical darling by sweeping the top categories — Best Picture, Director, Actor and Screenplay, as well as a citation of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s score. Jesse Eisenberg toppled Colin Firth by a single vote to claim yet another handy precursor: that Oscar nomination is looking ever more comfortably in his grasp.

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December 12, 2010
FIRST-HALF FYC: Best Supporting Actor

Only two weeks into my new feature and I’m already a day late — apologies. My laptop (now cured, at least until its next mood swing) will graciously accept the blame.

If you missed last week’s introductory instalment, the game is a simple one. In the run-up to nomination day, I’m picking five outstanding contenders in each major category in films from the first half of the 2010 release schedule: a period repeatedly neglected by voters in favor of newer, shinier delights. We started with Best Supporting Actress — during which I learned that a lot of you really don’t like Taylor Swift, but you still all saw “Valentine’s Day” — and this week we fill in the male half of the equation.

Keen as I am on all five performances I dredged up from the January-to-June wilderness, I was somewhat disappointed to note a very similar template forming to last week’s list: one French breakthrough talent, one blockbuster high point, even one star from a particular film. All accidental, I assure you… but to think I complain about “slot” mentality in the Oscar-analysis game.

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December 8, 2010
12/6 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Truth behind ‘Speech,’ Mara on ‘Tattoo’ remake and a new breed of film director

• The real story behind ‘The King’s Speech.’ [Speakeasy]

• John Lopex has exclusive video on the making of “Black Swan”‘s production of “Swan Lake.” [Little Gold Men]

• How “The Long Walk” became “The Way Back.” [BBC]

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December 6, 2010
11/15 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Oscar’s shortest perf, gauging 16 animated submissions, Menken and Moore on ‘Tangled’

• John Lopez talks to “The Way Back” star and Best Supporting Actor hopeful Ed Harris. [Little Gold Men]

• From last year, Stinkylulu writes up the shortest performance ever nominated for an Oscar: Herminone Baddeley’s 2 minutes and 26 seconds in 1959’s “Room at the Top.” [Stinkylulu]

• Scott Feinberg smartly tracks down the HBO doc “High on Crack Street,” featuring prominently in “The Fighter.” [ScottFeinberg.com]

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November 15, 2010
11/11 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: R.I.P. Dino, screenwriters round table, Gonzalez Inarritu makes the press rounds

• Legendary producer Dino De Laurentiis dies at 91. [Reuters]

• Screenwriters round table with Aaron Sorkin, Simon Beaufoy, Michael Arndt, John Wells, Todd Phillips and David Lindsay-Abaire. [Hollywood Reporter]

• Todd Gilchrist talks to “Conviction” director Tony Goldwyn about capturing reality and avoiding the “Oscar Bait” curse. [Speakeasy]

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November 11, 2010
OSCAR TALK: Ep. 39 — ‘Megamind,’ ‘The Way Back,’ Oscar’s actress contenders and more

Welcome to Oscar Talk.

In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

As we move into November, AFI Fest is heating up, campaigns are in full swing (talent being pitched left and right) and pretty soon I’ll be eating turkey and watching “Planes, Trains and Automobiles.” Crazy. We had a slightly shorter window this week, but let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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November 5, 2010
10/29 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: O’Barry biopic on the way, stumping for Bell in ‘Exorcism,’ Reznor talks ‘Network’ synth

• Across the pond, Deborah Orr on a 15 rating due to harmless swearing weighing down an uplifting film like “Made in Dagenham.” [The Guardian]

• A feature biopic is in the works about “The Cove” activist Ric O’Barry. [Deadline]

• The deadline for animated feature submission nears. [Oscars.org]

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October 29, 2010
Penn going supporting for ‘Fair Game?’

Scott Feinberg is reporting that Sean Penn, who gives a rather wonderful performance in Doug Liman’s “Fair Game” with much more meat on its bones than Naomi Watts’s somewhat internalized work, will be pushed in the supporting category rather than lead.

Uh…why? First and foremost, I’d consider this a lead performance, but whatever, category fraud happens all the time and there are probably multiple perspectives to be had on this particular role. But I just wrote about the lead actor category Monday and noted that there is some softness outside of the generally agreed upon three (Colin Firth, James Franco and Jeff Bridges). The opportunity is ripe.

Meanwhile, the supporting actor category seems to be settling in. I feel like I’ve had the same five checked off for a month or two now. Where are the cracks in that armor? How does one look at that category and think it’s an easier climb?

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October 27, 2010
10/21 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Praise for ‘Love & Other Drugs,’ sussing out Best Actress, quotable ‘Social Network’

• Jeffrey Wells calls “Love & Other Drugs” Edward Zwick’s best film yet. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

• Peter Knegt assesses the Gotham Award nominations. [indieWIRE]

• Nathaniel Rogers hearts Sam Rockwell in “Conviction.” [Tribeca Film]

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October 21, 2010
LONDON: ‘Conviction,’ ‘Amigo,’ ‘Everything Must Go’

“To get the challenge to play someone like this makes me a better person,” said a rather intense-looking Hilary Swank at yesterday’s London Film Festival press conference — the someone in question, single mom turned crusading lawyer Betty Ann Waters, sitting to her immediate left.

Not being personally acquainted with Ms. Swank, I can’t verify the before-and-after truth of this claim, but I can say that this endearingly earnest tone is entirely shared by Tony Goldwyn’s film “Conviction” (**1/2).

A rote courtroom drama that is but one “The Betty Ann Waters Story” subtitle — and Jaclyn Smith casting switch — away from being Thursday night TV fodder circa 1988, “Conviction” (which opened in the US yesterday) is one of those so-implausible-it-has-to-be-true stories that blandly and single-mindedly champion blanket virtues like hope, loyalty and tenacity over finer, more fractious social and personal details, but keeps you dorkily invested in its principals’ plight despite your better instincts.

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October 16, 2010
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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October 15, 2010
EXCLUSIVE: Casting Sam Rockwell in ‘Conviction’ (clip)

Think fast: when was the first time you remember seeing Sam Rockwell on the big screen? Most people probably caught up with him in the late-1990s in films like “Safe Men,” “The Green Mile” and “Galaxy Quest.” Others perked up, surely, when George Clooney had the vision to give him the starring role in “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.” For me, it was a near walk-on in “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

He’s come a long way since taking on the role of a punk kid in the Foot Clan factory. I’ve loved him in pretty much everything, be it his aptly named Jimmy Silk in David Mamet’s “Heist,” his equally compelling grifter in Ridley Scott’s “Matchstick Men,” his underrated portrayal alongside Casey Affleck and Brad Pitt in “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” or, certainly, his pitch-perfect work in last year’s sadly forgotten (come awards season) “Moon.”

This year the actor is poised to potentially break out into the Oscar scene with a quality, lived-in piece of work in Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction.” Rockwell stars as Kenny Waters, a Massachusetts bad boy wrongfully imprisoned and eventually freed through the diligence of his sister, Betty Anne, who put herself through law school in order to prove his innocence. Fox Searchlight has provided us with an exclusive clip featuring Goldwyn and Betty Anne Waters discussing the casting of the role. Check it out after the jump.

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October 13, 2010
10/12 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Obama with the ‘Superman’ kids, handicapping the docs, ‘Debt’ delayed

• President Obama met with children featured in the film “Waiting for Superman” yesterday. [Associated Press]

• Handicapping this year’s documentary feature Oscar race. [Vulture]

• Dave Karger explains his Gurus choices, calls “Love & Other Drugs” (one of his predicted Best Picture nominees) one of the sexiest films he’s seen in years. [Oscar Watch]

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October 12, 2010
10/11 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Franco at MOMA, Schnabel’s Polaroids, O’Hehir and Ebert fight to the death

• Jeffrey Wells reports from a MOMA Q&A with “127 Hours” star James Franco. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

• Amy Kaufman talks with “Conviction” star Hilary Swank. [Los Angeles Times]

• Add Polaroid photography to Julian Schnabel’s list of artistic pursuits. [The Guardian]

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October 11, 2010

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