In Contention

Tag: Poster Girl

  • The In Contention Readership Ballot

    Today’s the big day. No more Oscar Guide, no more polls, just a few choice hours left in the season and then, the 83rd annual. (And not a moment too soon.)

    I appreciate everyone participating in the daily polls this month and last, which accompanied each of our Oscar Guide entries. It offers us a nice glance at the majority opinion of how the race SHOULD go down, so I’m happy to offer up, for the second-straight year, the In Contention Readership Ballot.

    There were a handful of frisky choices this year, though not too many. Your big winners were Christopher Nolan’s “Inception” and David Fincher’s “The Social Network” (which is owed Best Picture by your estimation).  Both films racked up five of your wins.  Nothing else was close. And, interestingly enough, the film likely to walk away with the most awards tonight? It only deserves one prize in your book: Best Actor.

    Check out the ballot after the jump, and good luck to your favorites tonight.

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  • CINEJABBER: Hey now!

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    This week flew by, I thought. Hopefully the next two will, too.

    This is the first weekend without football in months.  I don’t know what to do with myself.  Maybe I’ll catch up on those non-Oscar-related Netflix discs that have been waiting patiently for me to have the time?  Read a book?  Get the hell away from my computer for a day?  I don’t know.

    I’ve randomly been revisiting The Larry Sanders Show lately.  It started out as some nostalgia to pass the time online the other day and eight episodes later, it looks like I might just push through all of it.  Great TV, and a landmark for that breed of comedy.  Any fan of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” owes it a debt.

    The Oscar Guide has been coming along well. Thanks for participating in our daily polls. With that in mind, I thought I’d post the short category polls again this weekend, seeing as Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International released their package of nominees into theaters this weekend. If you get a chance to see them and still want to vote, now’s your opportunity. I’ll post them up again next weekend, too.

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  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Documentary (Short Subject)

    This is the first year the documentary shorts will be a part of Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International’s annual program.  They will open with the live action and animated contenders in New York on February 11 and in Los Angeles on February 18.  Bravo for including them.

    It’s also a great slate of films.  As we know, 2010 was a very strong year for documentary feature filmmaking.  But that quality seems to have extended well into the short subject side of things if this year’s nominees in the category are any indication.  Each entry is powerful in its own way, a wide array of issues and personas skillfully tackled across the board.

    The nominees are:

    “Killing in the Name” (Jed Rothstein)
    “Poster Girl” (Sara Nesson and Mitchell W. Block)
    “Strangers No More” (Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon)
    “Sun Come Up” (Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger)
    “The Warriors of Qiugang” (Ruby Young and Thomas Lennon)

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  • AMPAS, Cinema Eye Honors narrow doc short fields

    The Academy has just announced the eight finalists for this year’s Best Documentary Short award.  They are:

    “Born Sweet”
    “Killing in the Name”
    “Living for 32”
    “One Thousand Pictures: RFK’s Last Journey”
    “Poster Girl”
    “Strangers No More”
    “Sun Come Up”
    “The Warriors of Qiugang”

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