Oscars 2015

NPH hosting.

ALAN TURING ftw

DR MORBIUS complaining

Can Pynchon win an oscar? Oh, and Best Director to the Norwegian! Otherwise, don't care.

Angelina POW movie will win.

see u in Feb.

See you in detrius.

(btw i still have box of Milk Duds in fridge, last of my prizes from last Oscars' bar pool)

we still have a lot of Movie Duds to extract this season

i can't believe it's feb already

leap year

you put milk duds in the fridge?

if it takes me 7+ months to eat a boxful, yes

croup u really dont have to be such a pantswetter xo

Force Majeure for the foreigner win!

5 gay movies for best foreign film. An attainable goal.

campaign for Stranger By the Lake Best Picture nod starts here

looool woulda been eligible last year, no?

anyway never doubt the milquetoast taste of TIFF audiences, The Imitation Game is totally taking this

gonna put some money on Ros Pike i think.

^^Hillbillies only gonna take it away.

http://deadline.com/2014/10/oscars-best-documentary-feature-submissions-1201269055/

Interesting that The Look of Silence is unaccounted for.

anyone seen any of that list?

The Look of Silence is probably gearing up for a run next year? I've seen Ai Weiwei and Manakamana. Will hopefully watch a few more, including Look of Silence and Concerning Violence, over the next few weeks.

I saw a few: Anita, Citizen Koch, Concerning Violence, The Dog, Fed Up, Finding Vivian Maier, Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia, The Internet’s Own Boy, Particle Fever, The Pleasures of Being Out of Step, Rich Hill, Watermark, and Whitey: United States of America v. James J. Bulger. (I've got an upcoming ticket for Last Days in Vietnam.) I liked Particle Fever the best, then the Gore Vidal and Nat Hentoff films. This is the first I've read of Mitt, which is indeed about who I was hoping it was about. Got to see that.

Seen/liked Jodorowsky's Dune and Life Itself. Have The Dog on hold at the library. Will look into the Vidal and Hentoff films, and probably some of the others once I read up on what they're about. Watching Mitt Romney for 90+ mins, though? Not gonna happen.

MITT is a Netflix Original it says. looks a bit more toothless compared to, i dunno say The War Room or the Broomfield doc about Sarah Palin or any other on-the-way-to-the-White-House type docs i can think of. but still looks worth seeing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLHxbemvpxY

Wiseman will get ignored again for National Gallery obv while there is such ambitious material as Mitt to deal with

Thought the Prop 8 doc was HBO.

Anyone besides Frederic watched Force Majeure?

I think it opens here in a week.

Gov Awards were handed out to Harry Belafonte, Jean-Claude Carriere, Hayao Miyazaki, and Maureen O’Hara. Watch here:

http://www.oscars.org/governors

Force Majeure was good, despite one of those too cute endings. Dunno if this is the place to mention it.

Miyazaki getting an Oscar reminds me of this academy voter:

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!original/rec.arts.movies.current-films/rE5j9gGLy0A/PDli4VpgdMQJ

feature docu shortlist

"Art and Craft," Purple Parrot Films
"The Case against 8," Day in Court
"Citizen Koch," Elsewhere Films
"CitizenFour," Praxis Films
"Finding Vivian Maier," Ravine Pictures
"The Internet's Own Boy," Luminant Media
"Jodorowsky's Dune," City Film
"Keep On Keepin' On," Absolute Clay Productions
"The Kill Team," f/8 filmworks
"Last Days in Vietnam," Moxie Firecracker Films
"Life Itself," Kartemquin Films and Film Rites
"The Overnighters," Mile End Films West
"The Salt of the Earth," Decia Films
"Tales of the Grim Sleeper," Lafayette Film
"Virunga," Grain Media

I thought The Missing Picture was a runner this year, some of these are pretty shit in comparison.

ya think? I would never watch the Ed Koch thing but it's apparently quite a brownnose job.

among the predictably missing: Manakamana, National Gallery

Thought for sure the Glen Campbell film was in.

The Case Against 8 is very much a TV doc, I thought.

Vivian Maier is a fine subject but this is a standard mediocre vanity doc made by some little uninteresting shit who can't resist telling you just a little bit more about himself.

Jodorowsky's Dune is a celebration of a thunderous, boorish, mediocre arsewipe who made lousy pretentious b-movies and he talks shit about a lousy movie he never made.

visual FX shortlist

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Godzilla
Guardians of the Galaxy
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Interstellar
Maleficent
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb
Transformers: Age of Extinction
X-Men: Days of Future Past

(zilch for Noah and Moses Bale)

Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb

What kind of Carmen Sandiego movie title is this?

A "last Robin Williams movie" kind?

This is what I call a "late career" FYC project:

http://d1oi7t5trwfj5d.cloudfront.net/08/63/a5c121b34090bf200b502308ef8a/six-dance-lessons-in-six-weeks-poster.jpg

Whatcha lookin at, Cheyenne?

Didn't realise people who aren't involved/associated somehow with "The Industry" still watched the Oscars

Jodorowsky's Dune is a celebration of a thunderous, boorish, mediocre arsewipe who made lousy pretentious b-movies and he talks shit about a lousy movie he never made.

lol wrong

the cinematographer on that Gena Rowlands movie is Vilmos Zsigmond

Rex Reed gave it an effusive whorequote

so Simmons and Arquette have got it locked, it seems. Jake looking more likely for a nod too.

I am still having a hard time picturing Arquette actually winning (esp. if Chastain can start building up a little momentum), but Simmons seems Leto-locked.

9 shortlested for foreign film Oscar:

Argentina, "Wild Tales," Damián Szifrón, director;
Estonia, "Tangerines," Zaza Urushadze, director;
Georgia, "Corn Island," George Ovashvili, director;
Mauritania, "Timbuktu," Abderrahmane Sissako, director;
Netherlands, "Accused," Paula van der Oest, director;
Poland, "Ida," Paweł Pawlikowski, director;
Russia, "Leviathan," Andrey Zvyagintsev, director;
Sweden, "Force Majeure," Ruben Östlund, director;
Venezuela, "The Liberator," Alberto Arvelo, director.

Biggest snubs seem to be Winter Sleep, Norte, the End of History, the Dardennes, Xavier floppyhair.

weeeeell, none of the snubs are really oscar-y. Go Östlund, I say.

so unborkened is gonna be this yrs extremely loud incredibly close huh

Ebert gonna beat Snowden for the doc prize

I think Snowden wd be a better film critic

I bow to you.

Cross-posted from SELMA thread.

http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/oscar-films-the-prison-of-historical-accuracy.html

weird article - "sometimes people share factual inaccuracies and it's good because it explains why unbroken wasn't good, but sometimes it's bad because the inaccuracies of the imitation game make it good, etc". it seems like it's trying to say that facts don't matter if the film is good, but then keeps backpedaling because (well, imo) facts DO matter even if you enjoyed the movie.

I don't really see Foxcatcher as being part of a "history" debate... that's just a "true crime" tale which Hollywood is usually even more footloose (as in very loosely transforming the details of Dog Day Afternoon, to no one's outrage).

There's also a significant difference between altering / condensing things regarding Alan Turing and Selma, where all the participants are either dead or very old, and ZDT where the PRECEDING YEAR and the actions of the current government are being dramatized.

definitely sympathetic to someone wanting to argue that historical accuracy is not the whole of a biopic's value, but when someone takes it to some sort of "let's stop caring what really happened" stance then well no, let's not let popular myths go unchecked thank you

The last paragraph about ZDT was especially awkward.

it's as if the writer were cracking his knuckles until the moment he could cite the film receiving the most abuse in recent years.

the most torture even

Noms, noms, noms.

All of the noms.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/alfonso-cuaron-jj-abrams-chris-pine-and-cheryl-boone-isaacs-to-announce-oscar-noms-live-20150109

god i am so sick of chris pine and i've only seen him in like one movie

he is like the most boring type of "hollywood good-looking" person imaginable

guess whooo? Hope you're right about Cotillard, but I prefer to expect the worst.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/2015-oscar-nomination-predictions

the Nick Pinkteron line about biopics is so good that I wish it were true.

I could barely muster up the effort for the nominations articles. It's only really fun Oscar blogging imo when you have a preset slate you can rip into.

well, you used "distaff" in a sentence, so that counts.

You went for Cotillard and Jake too.

I told Ed he totally subtweeted me with his choice of pics (e.g. each seems like the most likely to not get nominated).

what are yr off-the-record picks for makeup, then?

I was about to write Steve Carell's nose even before checking to see if there was a shortlist and ... I'll be damned, it's actually in the running.

Also, it feels like Budapest is headed toward double-digit nominations, so.

you think? that would shock me.

I guess the probability that it's getting scratched in acting categories stands in the way of that.

If Cotillard, Spall, and Fiennes all made it, I would delight in Jeffrey Wells' head exploding.

It's not well known that the Carell nose is the same one Woody & Diane stole in Sleeper.

it does seem like there's been this crazy momentum shift towards GBH

Won the Globe, led the BAFTA nods, hasn't really missed any major guild nominations...

I would've never guessed it.

driven by empty calories of year-end bullshit, finally?

Gone Girl took nothing at the GGs and i bet the same happens at the Oscars. what is it with Fincher? Se7en, Social Network and Fight Club were all stiffed too and Zodiac didn't even get ONE nomination!

actually GG will at least maybe win best adapted screenplay i guess. but still..

it's still in the running for best pic and i figured it had a good chance after leaving the theater but there's been so much bait released EOY it'll get pushed out. the imitation theory game just got plopped right in there.

XP Zodiac's original release was bumped from awards season due to some studio be, and after that I don't think any lobbying bucks were thrown its way.

"Studio B.S."

ah i vaguely remember that.

Brody on Oscary acting in "grotesquely tasteful" bait by good actors (ie JuMoo and Aniston)

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/oscars-go-bad-performances

how thrilling

http://www.awardsdaily.com/blog/2015/01/academy-to-announce-all-24-categories-live/

Too much of a good thing, perhaps.

i'm amused that Hair & Makeup goes in the first tier, Docs in the second

Mark Harris' fourth and final predix column of the week

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/2015-oscar-nomination-predictions-best-director-best-picture/

FilmExp

http://thefilmexperience.net/prediction-index/

Just Jared: http://www.justjared.com/2015/01/15/oscar-nominations-2015-final-predictions-live-stream/

all coalescing around same shit

whoa, no Ebert doc

keira knightley. didn't expect that.

she was cited often in the last few weeks but tbh I didn't notice her amid the nonsense

Gone Girl stiffed for Adapted Screenplay. Fincher's lousy Oscars run continues.

Cotillard is in.

fucking Steve Carrel and Bradley Cooper. No Jake.

boringly predictable the whole thing.

American Sniper with Best Pic nod, no directing nod for Clint.

boringly predictable the whole thing.

― piscesx

Coop was a long shot.

Selma got only BP and song, i believe

Ida and Mr Turner for cinematography

thinking Ida beats Leviathan for foreign

probably

only one nod for Gone Girl. Who's going to watch this broadcast w/out the audience pleasers?

how the hell did bennett miller get that directing nom?

re Gone Girl, how can a film that made THAT much money with such a relatively small budget, was so critically respected and liked by the public get such short shrift? i know subjects like that never do well with 'The Academy' but still. good to see Ros Pike get a nod mind.

my predix:

GBH, maybe Boyhood
Wes Anderson, maybe Linklater
Cumberbatch, maybe Keaton
Moore or Cotillard (fingers crossed for the latter)
Arquette
Simmons

It's Moore.

wondering if The Judge is really so awful.

No Best Actor nod for Fiennes is a shame.

Can anyone point me to a piece by a reliable Oscarologist on why Grand Budapest Hotel has gone so much further than other Anderson movies? It's different (and excellent) but not different enough to explain this giant leap in recognition.

box office $$ and years of accumulating good will in the Academy sense

Lot of familiar names just scattered around various categories, especially the acting noms, which should just be called "people we know who are in lots of movies all the time but this time we're arranging them in shorter lists." Oyelowo was hosed. Too measured?

Yeah, Fiennes, too. Talk about carrying a movie.

GBH and its setting and title are very "prestigious" in a way

Boyhood and Linklater will win. Moore is the easy way out, but hope for Cotillard. I bet Keaton gets the statue, and he's lauded with a long standing O like he's 20 years older and it's the second coming of Nicholson.

Was Lego Movie this year?

Yeah. It was robbed.

Would be happy with a split vote: Boyhood for film and Anderson for director.

sorry omar, there is no way Budapest is winning best picture

still think Birdman (unseen by me) is at least even money for picture, director or both. 12YS last year broke the showbiz run, it's time to get back on track.

How in the world did The Lego Movie not at least receive a best animated feature nomination? Egregious.

On the other hand, How to Train Your Dragon 2, which I finally saw, is indeed great, and truly gorgeous.

Princess Kaguya ftw (but it won't)

oh so Birdman didn't get editing? Doom?

Yeah, I can live with a Lego snub in exchange for a Ghibli nod.

my predix:
GBH, maybe Boyhood
Wes Anderson, maybe Linklater

Given Birdman isn't winning best picture by a longshot, I'm starting to sense this a little bit too. Of course, Weinstein's 8 nominations could easily turn into the "Boyhood can't win" alternate.

I bet Keaton gets the statue, and he's lauded with a long standing O like he's 20 years older and it's the second coming of Nicholson

Just read somewhere that if Keaton wins, he'll actually be the second oldest best actor winner ever, which is crazy. (And maybe untrue.)

On the other hand, How to Train Your Dragon 2, which I finally saw, is indeed great, and truly gorgeous.

No, it's an aimless, paint-by-numbers follow up to one of the best mass entertainments of the last decade. Total pap.

wait... Henry Fonda, and no one else was over 63? Top o' my head, John Wayne was about 62... xp

holy fuck keaton is older than nicholson was when he won for as good as it gets wtf

i guess it's understandably hard for me to match what 60 looked like when i was a teenager and what 60 looks like to me now

Jack was 60 in '97.

and keaton's 63

hence...

And I just found out that Eddie Redmayne is only a couple years younger than me and not the 22 I sort of thought he was.

Also, fuck Foxcatcher.

that factoid is true btw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_oldest_and_youngest_Academy_Award_winners_and_nominees#Best_Actor_in_a_Leading_Role

only 2 best actresses older than MK too

H'wood hates looking at the olds

OK, thinking now "Last Days in Vietnam" will win doc. Made by political royalty who doesn't question US imperialism and will endorse Hillary.

Jennifer Aniston, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Amy Adams weren't nominated for an Oscar by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Thursday, Jan. 15 -- but Dick Poop was. Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs incorrectly announced Dick Pope's name in the Cinematography category for his work in Mr. Turner, which led to a slew of hilarious reactions via Twitter.

and Chris Pine standing next to her did not laugh. Captain Kirk has been taken over by an alien force.

Laura Dern plays Witherspoon's mom, no? Nine years older.

Yep. She's used for poignant effect, but that's all she is – a holy spirit of poignancy.

Holy Caucasian people, Batman. Is this the whitest list of films ever?

i read Wild during a brief and ill-advised association with an office book club. 'twas wretched, so as much as i enjoy reese i can't muster the energy to see the film

But hey, the Selma song mentions Ferguson, they're covered. xp

Best Actor

Steve Carell, "Foxcatcher"
Bradley Cooper, "American Sniper"
Benedict Cumberbatch, "The Imitation Game"
Michael Keaton, "Birdman"
Eddie Redmayne, "The Theory of Everything"

Best Actress

Marion Cotillard, "Two Days, One Night"
Felicity Jones, "The Theory of Everything"
Julianne Moore, "Still Alice"
Rosamund Pike, "Gone Girl"
Reese Witherspoon, "Wild"

Best Supporting Actor

Robert Duvall, "The Judge"
Ethan Hawke, "Boyhood"
Edward Norton, "Birdman"
Mark Ruffalo, "Foxcatcher"
J.K. Simmons, "Whiplash"

Best Supporting Actress

Patricia Arquette, "Boyhood"
Laura Dern, "Wild"
Keira Knightley, "The Imitation Game"
Emma Stone, "Birdman"
Meryl Streep, "Into the Woods"

Cinematography

"Birdman"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Ida"
"Mr. Turner"
"Unbroken"

Costume Design

"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Inherent Vice"
"Into the Woods"
"Maleficent"
"Mr. Turner"

Directing

Alejandro González Iñárritu, "Birdman"
Richard Linklater, "Boyhood"
Bennett Miller, "Foxcatcher"
Wes Anderson, "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Morten Tyldum, "The Imitation Game"

Foreign Language Film

"Ida," Poland
"Leviathan," Russia
"Tangerines," Estonia
"Timbuktu," Mauritania
"Wild Tales," Argentina

Makeup and Hairstyling

"Foxcatcher"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Guardians of the Galaxy"

Original Score

"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"The Imitation Game"
"Interstellar"
"Mr. Turner"
"The Theory of Everything"

Adapted Screenplay

"American Sniper"
"The Imitation Game"
"Inherent Vice"
"The Theory of Everything"
"Whiplash"

Original Screenplay

"Birdman"
"Boyhood"
"Foxcatcher"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"Nightcrawler"

Best Picture

"American Sniper"
"Birdman"
"Boyhood"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"The Imitation Game"
"Selma"
"The Theory of Everything"
"Whiplash"

Animated Feature Film

"Big Hero 6"
"The Boxtrolls"
"How to Train Your Dragon 2"
"Song of the Sea"
"The Tale of the Princess Kaguya"

Documentary Feature

"Citizenfour"
"Finding Vivian Maier"
"Last Days in Vietnam"
"The Salt of the Earth"
"Virunga"

Documentary Short Subject

"Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1"
"Joanna"
"Our Curse"
"The Reaper (La Parka)"
"White Earth"

Film Editing

"American Sniper"
"Boyhood"
"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"The Imitation Game"
"Whiplash"

Original Song

"Everything Is Awesome," "The Lego Movie"
"Glory," "Selma"
"Grateful, "Beyond the Lights"
"I"m Not Gonna Miss You," "Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me"
"Lost Stars," "Begin Again"

Production Design

"The Grand Budapest Hotel"
"The Imitation Game"
"Interstellar"
"Into the Woods"
"Mr. Turner"

Animated Short Film

"The Bigger Picture"
"The Dam Keeper"
"Feast"
"Me and My Moulton"
"A Single Life"

Live Action Short Film

"Aya"
"Boogaloo and Graham"
"Butter Lamp"
"Parvaneh"
"The Phone Call"

Sound Editing

"American Sniper"
"Birdman"
"The Hobbitt: The Battle of the Five Armies"
"Interstellar"

Sound Mixing

"American Sniper"
"Birdman"
"Interstellar"
"Unbroken"
"Whiplash"

Visual Effects

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
"Dawn of the Planet of the Apes"
"Guardians of the Galaxy"
"Interstellar"
"X-Men: Days of Future Past"

so is Coop our generation's William Hurt?

hmmm will ponder

At last we see what kind of British actors elude the Academy: David Oyelowo.

how the hell did bennett miller get that directing nom?

― LIKE If you are against racism (omar little), Thursday, January 15, 2015 7:58 AM (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Silver lining: Ashley Olsen at the Oscars.

so is Coop our generation's William Hurt?

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, January 15, 2015 10:55 AM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Not a bad comparison:
http://scottfeinberg.com/bradley-cooper-could-become-the-10th-actor-to-earn-a-third-consecutive-oscar-nom

Just 1 nomination for Selma

2, pic & song

I do not understand what anybody likes about Bradley Cooper

tot meh on him too

They should have campaigned harder that Oyelowo was a British, and therefore doing more acting. Maybe he would have gotten the nom then. Or maybe the voters thought he'd just been nominated last year.

xpost Dragon 2's plot was nothing special, but it was really, really beautifully painted by numbers.

Actually the third movie since the switchover to land the dubious honor of being nominated for Best Picture with only 1 other nomination behind it, but at least The Blind Side and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close's other nods came in the acting categories.

Best Picture
Best Song

That just looks really sad.

Odds that Cooper as the racoon and Vin as the tree give an animated intro to an award ...

yea cooper is totally meh. i guess he is okay in some comedies but as a dramatic actor i don't know. to say dude is like william hurt is way off imo

hm cool, glad I can root for duvall & dern but im never seeing those movies, or most of these movies overall actually

hurt has always brought a thoughtfulness and gravitas to his acting that i never really see in cooper

Coop is a fine comedic actor, he should do more.

hurt has always brought a thoughtfulness and gravitas to his acting that i never really see in cooper

― marcos,

oh I just meant "Aryan white guy gets three consecutive noms"

Half of Hurt's roles seem seriously sedated. Would watch Coop in an "Altered States" reboot, though.

he was ok in American BS

Wm "hIT ON hEAD BY 2x4" Hurt

does Kiss of the Spider Woman hold up btw? good book and director.

His first and second nods in this trio are both fine. It's this one that's annoying and wan.

Not really. Hurt used his denseness to smart effect in Broadcast News and The Big Chill.

Morbs xpost

I think Kael wrote about Hurt in Woody's Alice sumthin like "I wonder if he figured out he's the WASP Asshole?"

I don't think it's much admired round here, but I got a kick out of his AHOV bit.

i think the hurt role i most love is smoke

Hurt's not great or anything but he made some interesting/strange choices in terms of roles and uses his blankness to varying effect. Cooper is just I dunno what, there's no there there, he's completely anonymous to me.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/2015-academy-award-nominations-selma/

Matt Damon's doing the blankness-to-varying-effect well now.

Odds that Cooper as the racoon and Vin as the tree give an animated intro to an award ...

― Josh in Chicago

i love those bonkers Poochy moments at the oscars

A trio of Florida film critics admitted in December to being baffled by absence of Selma screeners.

hurt in a history of violence is incredible

also...body heat!!!

best performance in HOV beyond the two leads is stephen mchattie as the alpha dude of the two psychos from the beginning. real old school henriksen vibe in that role.

hurt and harris great too, tbh.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/2015-oscar-nominations-show-lack-of-diversity-in-a-year-when-films-didnt/2015/01/15/676f2cc2-9cc1-11e4-a7ee-526210d665b4_story.html?hpid=z1

As the lucky nominees were identified — first by the directors J.J. Abrams and Alfonso Cuaron, then by actor Chris Pine and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, an organization that has already been criticized for being old, white and male looked increasingly so. With such right-on exceptions as Sandra Adair in the editing category, precious few women were nominated for the top technical and creative awards. High-profile snubs included the author Gillian Flynn, who adapted her novel “Gone Girl” for the screen, and “Selma” director Ava DuVernay, who just a few days ago was the first African American woman ever nominated in that category at the Golden Globes. David Oyelowo, was also overlooked for what most critics and viewers agree is a stunning performance as Martin Luther King, Jr. in the film.

Hurt's repeated line readings of "broheem" in HOV always get a laugh from me

xp

xxxp otm, mchattie belongs in the tough guy character actor hall of fame

I should've known that when I didn't come out of Selma hating the thing it was probably doomed.

David Oyelowo, was also overlooked for what most critics and viewers agree is a stunning performance as Martin Luther King, Jr.

yeah but who would you eliminate. like i mean steve carell played a NOSE.

I would've thought that, even if it was complete garbage, Selma was a shoo-in for a best picture nomination.

uh it was nominated

agree w/ Harris it shdve been released sooner

Selma's not out in the UK yet but judging from recent buzz Flynn, DuVernay and Olewoyo all seem like weird omissions to me.

Everything should be released sooner. The Deer Hunter "let them WANT to see it during the voting period" strategy is played out in our current echo-chamber Oscar culture.

still nothing on Spike Lee's Twitter aside from promotion of his Ganja & Hess remake.

Grand Budapest was back in March, right? If it won, it'd be one of the longest stretches between release and reward since ... Silence of the Lambs?

uh it was nominated

Guess I was right, then.

My brain is clearly halfway off today. Allow me an attempt to salvage my argument: I'd have thought that, even if it was complete garbage, Selma would've had a legitimate shot at winning best picture. Given the dearth of non-musical supporting nominations, any chance it might've had as even a dark horse candidate seems to have been scuttled.

Not sure, but I and some other lucky fest-goers saw The Hurt Locker a year and a half before it took Best Picture.

(xp)

@lag00n

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Ag0BxADNLZqgcFZOcnNoN0Vxd0Q3YTdOZ2hvRlpSQWc&usp=sharing#gid=0

you guys, conservatives are fuming about the oscars too. because nolan got the shaft. lmao.

Sasha Stone @AwardsDaily · 6h 6 hours ago
In not nominating Gillian Flynn the Academy just passed up a chance to honor the first and only woman to adapt her own novel in 87 yrs.

This morning may have finally sent her off the deep end.

and Sasha Stone?

http://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/2015-oscar-nominations-a-dark-day-for-women-in-hollywood-20150115

Fiennes getting no nod.. that's truly baffling too. fuckers don't 'get' funny performances but i wonder what Ralph has done to piss them off. film gets 9 noms but the guy that carries the damn thing gets nothing.

Given the furor over the lack o' ladies in the running across the board, the smear campaigns against Boyhood are really going to write themselves.

looking back thirty yrs these are the closest roles to 'comedy' by lead male actors

Tom Hulce - Amadeus
Robin Williams - Good Morning Vietnam
Roberto Benigni - Life is Beautiful
Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Wolf of Wall Street

and those are all in movies that aren't pure comedies or anything

I'm hardly a fan of Fiennes in general but he is incredible in GBH, definitely carries it, so many great line deliveries ("you FUCKERS!")

Wouldn't Nicholson's latest two at bats count as at least technically comedic?

these British and Irish actors get funnier as they age.

i love ra(l)phie fiennes, dude is vv good at comedy. would like to see him do a purely sleazy scumbag role a la his cameo in 'the good thief'.

Not sure I'd call Fiennes' failure to be nominated "baffling." Best Actor was v. competitive. Some people thought he might benefit from GBH's recent momentum, but he was always in the #6-#10 range. I'm guessing that he, Oyelowo, and Gyllenhaal were the next three vote-getters (followed by Spall, maybe?), though it'd be interesting to know the order.

i bet carell nosed out gyllenhaal's eyes at the end.

true to form the Academy nominated the least interesting combination.

Absofuckinglutely.

btw all you people going, "You know, my girl/boyfriend are catching up on Oscar movies and are gonna give Foxcatcher a chance," I'm warning you now.

Carell, Cooper, Cumberbatch, Keaton, Redmayne

vs.

Fiennes, Gyllenhaal, Oyelowo, Spall

You could put literally anyone in the latter group -- Wahlberg in Transformers, McConaughey in Interstellar, Sorbo in God's Not Dead -- to bring it up to five and it would still be unquestionably the better group.

forgot about wahlberg, intense perf

http://static1.businessinsider.com/image/53b0f1bceab8ea2863981c82/mark-wahlberg-running-transformers-4.gif

Jon Langford in Revenge of the Mekons

xp

Beautiful shot.

Enough of a rooting interest for the Boyhood categories and Citizenfour that I'll probably watch a little more of the show than usual. Very disappointed that Yo La Tengo's 40 seconds in Boyhood doesn't qualify anywhere--Best Wim Wenders Imitation or something.

http://graphics.latimes.com/oscar-nominees-2015/

Observers were quick to point out that the 87th Academy Award nominees lack racial diversity. All the finalists in the best actor and supporting actor categories are white. “Birdman” director Alejandro Inarritu is the only non-white nominee in the best director category.

The lack of diversity prompted the hashtag, #OscarsSoWhite on Twitter. An L.A. Times study in 2012 revealed that 94% of Oscar voters who choose the nominees were white and 77% male. Blacks represented 2% of the academy while Latinos were even fewer.

As was widely expected, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced a slate of Best Picture nominees on Thursday morning that have gone largely unseen by general moviegoers so far.

Ahead of nominations, the eight movies nominated for Best Picture had earned a combined $203.1 million. That's the lowest total since the Academy expanded the field beyond five nominees—and by a large margin, too. The previous low was 2011, when the movies had earned a combined $519 million ahead of nominations.

The highest-grossing Best Picture nominee this year is The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is writer/director Wes Anderson's biggest movie ever with $59.1 million. Budapest opened back in March—a few weeks after last year's Oscar ceremony—and is already available to watch on HBO. Therefore, don't expect any kind of serious theatrical re-release here.

At least now everyone can see the expansion experiment was a total failure.

Cranky old Bob Lefsetz was ranting that the Oscars are out of touch with real people like him who uh, just watch Breaking Bad and stuff and don't go to the movies.

ignoring Interstellar, Lego, Guardians, Gone Girl.. yeah i'd say that was out of touch. i guess they've been through this a few times before; the late 60s, the mid 80s etc. i recall hearing that the nod/s for Beverly Hills Cop in 84 were a sop to more populist movies. obviously the massively out of touch late 60s era is documented in that Pictures At A Revolution book. for it to be *news* everywhere, that the Oscars are now so bland and uniform really does 'The Academy' no favours.

ignoring Interstellar, Lego, Guardians, Gone Girl.. yeah i'd say that was out of touch.

Maybe you'd like them to nominate the box-office chart so they'd be even more like the fucking Grammys.

Interstellar was shit btw, tech nominations are more than enough for that geekwank.

15 nominations btwn Budapest and Boyhood is about as "in touch" as they get from my POV

can we plz throw "populist" in the goddamn garbage can re film, music etc

that shit is populAR

The lack of anything egregiously Blind Side-esque in the best picture noms is kinda heartening.

Maybe you'd like them to nominate the box-office chart so they'd be even more like the fucking Grammys.

The Lego Movie and Gone Girl were critical hits, bub.

yeah not enough for me to see em tho

Let a little populism into your life, Morbs.

It would be nice for them to recognise that making a Marvel blockbuster as witty and imaginative as GotG is harder than making a solid biopic of a troubled Brit scientist but that will never happen.

Unusually good year for big box-office movies. At least half of these got great reviews:

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?yr=2014

yeah Re-Model, Stranger by the Lake was also eligible, so talk to the hand.

http://www.oscars.org/sites/default/files/2014_reminder_list.pdf

Someone should add up the total cost of, say, those top 20 movies. And then we can all barf together as one.

Carell, Cooper, Cumberbatch, Keaton, Redmayne

vs.

Fiennes, Gyllenhaal, Oyelowo, Spall

You could put literally anyone in the latter group -- Wahlberg in Transformers, McConaughey in Interstellar, Sorbo in God's Not Dead -- to bring it up to five and it would still be unquestionably the better group.

― Vulvacura (Eric H.), Thursday, January 15, 2015 4:35 PM

even punch up with Eisenberg in Night Moves

The lack of anything egregiously Blind Side-esque in the best picture noms is kinda heartening.

Sez you.

that Mr. Peabody & Sherman gross proves that brats and their parents will watch anything

Just for the sake of argument, here's my subjective list of the 2014 movies that made over $50M that based on critical/popular reception would not be incredibly outlandish to consider as best picture nominees:

4	The LEGO Movie	WB	$257,760,692	3,890	$69,050,279	3,775	2/7	9/4
15	Interstellar	Par.	$185,136,958	3,561	$47,510,360	3,561	11/5	-
17	Gone Girl	Fox	$167,210,252	3,284	$37,513,109	3,014	10/3	-
25	Into the Woods	BV	$107,130,087	2,833	$31,051,923	2,440	12/25	-
53	The Grand Budapest Hotel	FoxS	$59,100,318	1,467	$811,166	4	3/7	8/

In other words, the Academy basically did just about all they could this year frankly.

On which chart is The Judge

that Mr. Peabody & Sherman gross proves that brats and their parents will watch anything

You're half right. Unfortunately, they don't let you leave little kids alone at the movies; it's a bigger scam than 3D. Fortunately, my kids had no interest in seeing this, though that has no bearing on their brattiness.

if anything i thought parents wd drag the kids to that under the delusion it wd be like the early '60s toons.

http://www.oscars.org/about/join-academy

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/movies/2012/02/oscar-voters-meet-the-academys-youngest-members.html

if anything i thought parents wd drag the kids to that under the delusion it wd be like the early '60s toons.

That's the thing that I found really weird about the Peabody & Sherman movie -- not even the parents of today's kids grew up with Rocky & Bullwinkle. I mean, I saw it once in a while the Bozo Show, but it wasn't a cherished childhood memory.

You're gonna love the upcoming Kukla, Fran & Ollie CGI snarkfest.

If they made an "iPad: The Movie," it would top the box office for months.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLnoLmCqT30

The Force Majeure director reaction video has to be a stunt, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYTWqLmnjt0

i have not seen the movie but as i gather it's kind of a black comedy this could be a gag on their part

then again, europeans (and most directors really) Take Their Shit Very Seriously

wait so how bad is that Sherman & Peabody movie they are showing it as a $1 night movie at my kid's elementary school on Friday night

fwiw I have never understood why those original R&B cartoons were considered good/funny

oh u r lucky i don't FP

kinda bewildered by the idea that the "parents of today's kids" didn't grow up w/ rocky and bullwinkle because it was always on when i was a kid on at least one channel, it's like the law&order of kids' shows. maybe that's not the case anymore but it sure was in the late 80s/early 90s.

Born 1975. Did not grow up watching R&B, though I was at least aware of it. But no, not even the barest tinge of nostalgia when that Peabody movie came out. At least no more than when this popped up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-pqvOPnNEk

And this was 20 years ago!

kinda bewildered by the idea that the "parents of today's kids" didn't grow up w/ rocky and bullwinkle because it was always on when i was a kid on at least one channel, it's like the law&order of kids' shows. maybe that's not the case anymore but it sure was in the late 80s/early 90s.

Morbs:

http://thesciencedog.files.wordpress.com/2013/12/strawman-full.jpg

that wasnt me

Born in 1969 and I watched R&B like a motherfucker when I was a kid. I have them on DVD and everything.

Rocky And Bullwinkle was on kids Tv a fair bit in the 80s in the UK iirc.

i want Shakey to clarify if he didnt think the Bullwinkle cartoons were funny, or just the Peabody ones, so we know how much of a tar base we need for the feathers.

The failure of the R&B movie (in ... 2000?) pretty much represented the tail end of nostalgia for the series. Imo. The shows are of course brilliant, but alas I can say first hand that they are too slow and, well, old for kids. Kids still dig the manac anarchy of the Marx Bros. and Muppet Show, though.

http://www.collegehumor.com/post/7008648/honest-titles-for-2015s-oscar-nominated-movies

literally never saw R&B in reruns growing up, had to actively seek them out to find out why other stuff referenced them so much. and my mom always spoke highly of it.

Another reason to be thankful for Channel 52 (Corona, CA) in the early 70s.

the animation is crappy and all the referential stuff falls flat without its context. JiC otm in that Marx Bros and Muppet Show (and I would add old Warner Bros and Fleischer cartoon shorts and tons of Disney shorts obviously) still appeal/don't seem as stuck in a particular era. When I got around to watching Laugh-In I didn't find much of that funny either (Nixon cameo aside). Comedy ages in weird ways...

the novelty of a cartoon referencing radio serials is kinda not novel or even meaningful anymore, for ex.

Saw lots of R&B and S&P growing up, always dug them. My main gripe with the reboots, apart from their very existence, is that the voices are way off.

Marx Bros and Muppet Show ... still appeal/don't seem as stuck in a particular era

yeah, like Groucho joking about Liberty magazine, the Saturday Evening Post and Strange Interlude

the animation is crappy

i won't even

peabody and sherman was always my least favorite r&b interstitial; even preferred AESOP & SON (aka "edward everett horton is busy today")

favorite r&b joke: when they tell "the magnate of a powerful shipping company" that they want to borrow a boat to go after "maybe dick", and the shipping magnate says "you want to go after MAYBE DICK?" and rocky's like uh-huh! and the shipping magnate says "YOU want to go after maybe DICK???" and bullwinkle says "for a powerful magnate, you don't pick things up very fast"

favorite r&b animation: look on boris' face after pausing in the midst of a moose-and-squirrel-could-not-possibly-find-us-here monologue to answer a knock on the door, revealing bullwinkle looking to borrow a match, and hurriedly slamming door: IS MOOSE!

(but yeah not exactly snow white)

obv it was over kids' heads a lot, like Pee-wee

like Groucho joking about Liberty magazine, the Saturday Evening Post and Strange Interlude

but see the difference is there is MORE to the Marx Bros than just this (btw I only recognize one of those you cite, I doubt my daughter knows any), with everything else I cited there's great formal artistry at work, underpinning the whole thing. R&B is just ugly to look at + outdated joeks.

my daughter also loves Pee-Wee fwiw

The references in the Marx Bros. are almost irrelevant, it is so manic and disruptive. I mean, the kind of variety show referenced by the Muppets is sort of an outdated model, too, but it's so funny and crazy that kids don't care. And yeah, they love Looney Toons.

And Morbs, kids today - "kids today!" - have been so spoiled in terms of sophisticated animation. When you're raised on/by the likes of Pixar, the visual bar has been set pretty high. Even Loony Toons is largely saved (in their eyes) by the pace and chaos.

Of course, kids today would gladly still sit through the contemporary equivalent of the shit I watched growing up. I think, going the other direction, if it's super dumb the animation does not need to be sharp. If it's super smart (which is to say, referential and witty), it has to be fast and zippy. Like, say, "Phineas and Ferb," which is an amazing balance of fast and funny and smart on both an adult and kid level.

this thread's gone nuts.

That's how exciting the Oscar noms were this year.

what JiC said although I would add that one of the reasons Looney Tunes still appeals to generations raised on Pixar et al is that those cgi studios have cribbed a *shitload* from Warner Bros cartoons in terms of framing, pacing, character design + animation - just the way stuff moves in general

xp

there's a shared visual language that they recognize

anyway lol

Never thought I'd say this, but

Remove Bookmark from this Thread

But how will you otherwise learn about the Oscars in 2015?!

oh did I shit up your annual industry handjob thread sorry my bad

Has anyone named Oscar ever been nominated for an Oscar?

Asghar Farhadi

Hammerstein

Hammerstein's the only Oscar to win an Oscar. Others nominated: Brodney, Homolka, Lagerstrom, Millard.

shoulda been Oscar Levant

Shoulda been Oscar Isaac.

what JiC said although I would add that one of the reasons Looney Tunes still appeals to generations raised on Pixar et al is that those cgi studios have cribbed a *shitload* from Warner Bros cartoons in terms of framing, pacing, character design + animation - just the way stuff moves in general

xp

― Οὖτις, Friday, January 16, 2015 3:02 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

OTM. Also, the voices. There has never been another voice artist who comes anywhere near Mel Blanc's genius.

What do "kids today" get in their animation? "And Bradley Cooper as the talking piece of celery!"

(which I guess he kind of is irl anyway, but still)

not rly sure what was 'strawman'-ish about my point, any more than jaymc's -- i assume i'm in the rough age range of parents of kids today (32, btw), and rocky & bullwinkle was about as easy to see as old looney tunes or any other popular 'old' cartoon.

anyone who thinks R&B is bad should compare it to basically any u.s. animated cartoon from 1965 till about 1990, an unparalleled wasteland of shitty writing, bland-to-the-point-of-inhuman art, and soul-destroying banality.

You take that back, He-Man, GI Joe and Thundercats were awesome. Because they were on, and we had no choice.

Oscar winner, 1963

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiYjwRZK_NM

uh

After three excellent weeks in limited release, American Sniper expanded nationwide on Friday and earned a stunning $30.5 million.

This the largest single day ever in January; the previous record belonged to Avatar, which took in $25.8 million on January 2nd, 2010. It's also 77 percent higher than the previous opening day record, which belonged to Cloverfield ($17.2 million). Finally, American Sniper's opening was over twice as big as last year's Lone Survivor and Ride Along (both at $14.4 million).

With great word-of-mouth ("A+" CinemaScore), Sniper should play well through the rest of the weekend. Even if it takes a big drop against tough competition from the NFL conference championship games on Sunday, it should still wind up over $80 million for the three-day weekend

just when I count Clint Eastwood the fucker delivers

Absolutely pre-sold.

The Force Majeure director reaction video has to be a stunt, right?

― Vulvacura (Eric H.), Friday, January 16, 2015 5:56 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol if i'd remembered to go to the Q+A with him later that night i probably could've told you :(

For instance, only directors can suggest best director nominees and only actors can nominate actors. But the entire academy membership can submit suggestions for best picture.

: http://www.sacbee.com/entertainment/article7075169.html#storylink=cpy

wait, people are actually going to see "american sniper"?

unless they portray that guy to be the fucked-up asshole he was i have zero interest.

(btw remind me to tell you about the time i visited sgt york's childhood home)

i think psychology has proved that "war heroism" is v often insanity, temp or othwise

(btw remind me to tell you about the time i visited sgt york's childhood home)

― I dunno. (amateurist

remind me to tell you about the time I looked into the heart of an artichoke

(couldn't resist)

Never in my life have I been so thoroughly nonplussed by a being movie nominated for Best Picture as I am with Sniper. Politics aside the movie is an absolute piece of shit. (I do have to admit BCoop is great.)

If the movie is a big hit (as it seems to be) i wdn't completely write off a Cooper win at the Oscars, whatev the politics

Everyone in that category outside of Carell has "a shot."

Isn't it odd that Under the Skin got zero nominations? Not even one for the immaculate soundtrack?

no

Yeah that is not an academy-type movie. Def on my best of list for the year.

american sniper aka the hurt locker II: more hurt, less locker

More Hurt, Less Locker, No The

So, yeah, it took Sniper all of ONE SINGLE DAY to become this year's highest-grossing best picture nominee.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4003&p=.htm

I've followed news about its climbing grosses all weekend. And here I thought Gran Torino would be Eastwood's last box office hurrah.

I'm choosing to pretend that this phenomenon is strictly stemming from Eastwood worship, lest I have to once again back away from American pop culture slowly.

Hollywood Obamaists circling the wagons discreetly, preferring their pro-war American exceptionalism to come from the shadowy artsiness of Bigelow-Boal.

They do that, don't they?

can one circle a wagon discreetly?

At night. It will become less discreet soon.

This might actually push a few doc votes to Citizenfour as a "statement." (I am still thinking Last Days in Vietnam, which apparently says nothing politically.)

Alfred, you circle wagons COLLECTIVELY, you don't circle around one wagon. You are fired from my remake of Rio Grande.

He Wore a Red AIDS Ribbon

Rally Round the F**, Boys!

Brokeback Stagecoach

The apparent success of American Sniper seems pretty not surprising to me. Muddled morals fog of war movie, hero whose lies took traction but whose truth has my guess gone unknown by the same hyper patriots who embraced the fiction, military, Eastwood, America - it's like pan partisan movie bait. And it's probably the only best picture nom with machine guns.

Ludicrously enough, I think the Wes Anderson one has 'em.

Firing? Or just soldiers standing around? I can't remember.

I noted way back when on the "Interstellar" thread how refreshing it was, love the movie or hate it, to see a big budget blockbuster with no guns or other military fetishising.

Just two dudes breaking each other's industrial helmets on a rocky, bombed-out looking terrain while somewhere nearby a flag waves.

Mark Harris:

There’s something else to consider: In part as a result of that huge box-office number, the conversation around and about American Sniper is about to get a lot more political. Eastwood’s film pretty much skated through its prenomination heats because of (1) Clint love among the Academy’s mostly old/white/male votership, which is not monolithic but, you know, not entirely non-monolithic; and (2) the history police being too busy disemboweling Selma to pay much attention to the fact that Eastwood’s movie was about a man who made his name by killing 160 people in the Iraq War.

Now that changes. The next few days are likely to see any number of right-of-center media outlets herald the film’s box office triumph as a victory for “real Americans,” and an implicit counterweight to “Hollyweird.” And there’s going to be more discussion all along the ideological spectrum about the degree to which American Sniper is in fact a conservative movie — conservative not in the kind of overt expression of politics that it shrewdly takes pains to avoid, but rather in its relative lack of interest in the people Chris Kyle killed, or the country in which they were killed, or what we were doing there.

is this footnote true?

You’d have to go all the way back to 1941’s immensely popular hit Sergeant York to find an Academy Award–nominated war movie that so directly equated American war heroism with a body count.

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/american-sniper-bradley-cooper-box-office-oscar-race/

There's a huge gun battle in GBH

Xp

I never saw Black Hawk Down

Was it Sam Fuller that said there's no such thing as a totally anti-war movie?

that who

last days in vietnam was about as feel-good as a vietnam movie can possibly be for americans without actually making everything up. found what i saw pretty boring.

every time i see an ad for the eastwood movie it reminds me of the movie in inglourious basterds.

http://sites.williams.edu/cthorne/files/2011/06/IB-Hitler-laughs.png

dfh, r u Seth Rogen? he tweeted same

not far off, at this point

LDIV was pretty well-made and effective for what it was imo, though someone who saw it and had no idea what happened in vietnam would probably come away thinking that the worst thing that happened there was that we left, which is A Problem of course

Lol I haven't seen GBH in almost a year, but totally, there is a gunfight in the lobby! I totally forgot!

plan on seeing american sniper to see if there's anything to the hogwash folks on both sides of the aisle seem to be flinging at it. i seem to recall someone at the ny times labeling it "pro-family" in a v. glorious strawman piece and based on talking to the critics i know who've seen it and dug it (who are not righties), it's decidedly...not some "men of valor" B.S. (or whatever that movie was starring actual navy SEALs).

there is a gunfight in the lobby

pretty entertaining one too. reminded me of a comic variant on the amazing gunfight in the hotel in johnnie to's exiled

For a change, the docs are the strongest of the three short film lineups. The Reaper and Our Child are incredibly tough to watch.

Imitation Game is bad beyond belief. Direct to TV trash. 1/10

i wish it were that bad, it'd be more interesting.

they are forecasting

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/tags/academy+awards

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B8853c1IUAEPumR.jpg

could not ID the two on the right w/out looking at nominees list.

so will Wachowskis' bomb be Redmayne's Norbit?

The reviews I've bothered to look at say he's by FAR the best thing in it, so no.

btw that Beat the Crowd contest is now open -- the one that had no winner last year, cuz, the crowd picked every winner.

no way tatum isn't the best thing about that movie

Mark Harris:

I’m not sure why, in the last four years, Oscar voters have suddenly become so determined to turn inward, although they certainly live in a world that encourages it. Every year now, awards season seems to be twice as noisy as the year before. Given the glut of mailings, screenings, DVDs, trade publications, and blogs that exist because of Oscar advertising, roundtables, preliminary awards, dinners, contrived festival honors, panels, and Q&As, it’s easy for people who live and work inside the bubble to start to believe, between October and February, that the bubble is all there is. When they go home for the holidays in December, it’s with a stack of screeners; when they self-disgustedly flee Hollywood in January, they get only as far as Sundance. And this winter, the scandal over the Sony hack and The Interview provided an unusual corroboration of the idea that what Hollywood does really is front-page news with real-world stakes. In that context, a vote for Birdman, which might have looked like an act of self-absorption back in November, may now feel more like a defiant act of self-affirmation: We’re here, we’re deeply flawed but sincere — get used to it!

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/best-picture-birdman-academy-awards-producers-guild/

they're self-obsessed and sexee [sic]

Slant pair doing v well with their forecasts imho; kudos Eric.

and Ed ranked all the nominees (but one), and the loser is Whiplash.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/ranking-oscars-2015-nominees

for someone who claims to hate this whole rat race stuff you sure spend a lot of time reading blogs about it

yeah well, life is boring when there's literally nothing to do at work

just do what i do and read wikipedia pages about obscure soviet apparatchiks killed in stalin's purges

daring call on orig screenplay by Eric; GBH still seems too good.

It won the WGA and the BAFTA, so it's not that daring.

I def think GBH is winning at least 3 or 4. Just not the big ones.

just do what i do and read wikipedia pages about obscure soviet apparatchiks killed in stalin's purges

― I dunno. (amateurist)

what I was reading about last week: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marozia

4th of Harris' 5 prediction columns:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/oscar-predictions-part-4-the-acting-categories/

most entertainingly headsploding result of the night wd be Citizenfour for doc, Am Sniper for, well let's say best actor.

also hadn't realized before reading E's piece today that the best actresses' films only got ONE other nomination total.

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/oscar-winner-predictions-2015-actress

That's not exactly what I was saying. I was saying the three actresses who are most dominant in their film (i.e. most screen time) only got one other nod. Useless Jones' movie got 5 nods.

ok got it

(drugged)

Which, at the risk of incriminating myself, isn't to say that those clamoring for a solution to the problem are any less toxic, diminishing the merits of Moore's valiant, stricken performance in Still Alice as though it's a crime against humanity that she's going to collect her overdue Oscar for a disease-of-the-month melodrama and not for, say, flashing her bush in Robert Altman's Short Cuts or telling Marky Mark where he can put his money shot in Boogie Nights. Many refuse to examine the ways Moore, a dependably controlling performer, wrestles with the material, and how that struggle enriches the plight of her character facing early-onset Alzheimer's disease. And they're the same ones endorsing Cotillard (perfectly fine in a role that mainly asks her to cry and collapse) simply by virtue of her appearing in a more respectable film, engaging in an equally deleterious practice of equating "best actress" with "any female performer who happens to appear in the movie I'm the least embarrassed to be talking about."

otm

also: cranky because an hour ago I had written something similar

I'm cranky because Mark Harris basically started to make the exact same points as I did and then said, "but that's for another time." X(

last of a Fandor series: aternate Oscars, this one post-1980s

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/the-alt-oscars-and-now-for-the-nominees

Mark Harris' final predictions. Best Picture essay worth reading:

http://grantland.com/hollywood-prospectus/final-oscar-predictions-who-will-win-on-sunday/

does Robin, Shirley or Mickey win the obit montage?

oh, Temple died before last year's Oscars, PSH too

Academy member John Boorman on Boyhood:

What have you liked that you’ve seen lately?

Of course I’m voting [for the Oscars], so I’ve seen everything that’s around. I have to say that in the foreign language category, there are three films — “Timbuktu,” “Leviathan” and “Ida” — that are head and shoulders above anything in the English-speaking film world. They’re magnificent films. Daring and full of conviction.

What do you think of the films that are in the best picture race?

“Birdman” is a fascinating film, made with some of the daring that I was missing elsewhere. “Boyhood” seems to be the front-runner, it won every critics award, but I was a bit disappointed in it because the boy turned out to be rather uninteresting. His sister was much more interesting, but we don’t see much of her. All the things that boys get up to in my experience as a father, like not doing their homework and smoking and getting into fights, none of that seemed to happen to this kid.

most entertainingly headsploding result of the night wd be /Citizenfour/ for doc, /Am Sniper/ for, well let's say best actor.
--touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius)

entirely possible - if nowhere near a lock - that this happens, tbh.

John Boorman overestimates Ida

and Birdman.

I read a bit of speculation, are people really so dumb that they are actually arguing that it matters which way the 2- and 3- favorites will be checked? If a film need 50% of the vote to win, then it doesn't matter. There can't both be 50% with Birdman over Boyhood, and 50% with Boyhood over Birdman.

It means that, for people who put movies that aren't Boy or Bird at #1, they still have votes that matter.

well The Times clearly has itself a crystal ball judging from the Julianna Moore Best Actress splash at the top of the page

http://40.media.tumblr.com/730a781054a3f31795019cf22ae0c17d/tumblr_nk58np1ZxU1u5f06vo1_1280.jpg

It means that, for people who put movies that aren't Boy or Bird at #1, they still have votes that matter.

― poxy fülvous (abanana), 22. februar 2015 08:20 (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Right, that's not what I'm talking about. But some of the pundits are saying, that if Selma and Theory of Everything are the nominees with least support, then since their #2 votes will be added first, the big question is which film those voters also liked. But that is nonsense. Birdboy might be in a tight race, but they can't both be in front of the other on 51% of the ballots, no matter which way they are counted.

Right?

tried to find Eric's "Birdman's not winning best picture" post

he's read the tea though

I'm sure it was in detrius somewhere.

I'm not predicting the director/pic split either.

Argo years aside, you never should. Which is what screwed everyone out of perfect scores last year.

drinking rules, anyone?

Don't drive.

Boorman otm about boyhood

Not sure I needed mason to smoke and punch per se, but his placidity made the film anticlimactic

my favorite present-day Mason scene isn't with the girl in the desert but the one in the bar where he listens to his dad with affection and mild teen contempt babble on and on about Charlie Sexton.

I was like, "Mason Jr. otm"

Oh yeah I really appreciated seeing him lose a little esteem for his dad with maturity.

i don't think i have any way to watch the whorefest tonight, and im ok with that.

watch it on your Morbsphone.

"they can't both be in front of the other on 51% of the ballots" is right.
"the big question is which film those voters also liked. But that is nonsense." is wrong. prognosticators are used to the american voting system, and having to take everyone's opinion into account requires a mental adjustment.

Okay, I try again. The nonsensical part is focusing especially on Selma and Theory of Everything, as if Birdboy could create a majority through those votes, while Boyman would have the majority if the votes from American Sniper and Whiplash were counted instead. But there can only be a majority for one film, so it doesn't matter which way they are counted.

I want Boyman to win lots of awards, and I've cleared the night, so I'll watch the whole show, which I haven't done for a few years. (I generally listen while piddling around on the computer in the adjacent room.) When Birdman wins, I'll be sure to already dislike it when I finally get around to seeing it.

Boyman a better title for the Innaritu picture.

Boyz II Menhood.

Julianna Moore is the most forgone Best Actress conclusion since.. when? Hilary Swank in '99 maybe.

the most forgone Best Actress winner since Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine.

can't remember the last time there was a shock win in this damn thing.

Jennifer Lawrence was a surprise in that you'd have thought they would've waited a few years and noms before she'd get something.

mm yeah. although i thought she was p amazing in SLP.

➻ BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

I didn't get around to seeing any of them. You want the truth? I shouldn't have voted, but I did. This is bad, but here's the power of advertising: everywhere I looked, I saw pictures of this stupid carcass — whatever the fuck that was — and I thought, "That's a cool-looking thing." And I fucking voted for a movie based on the dead whatever it was in the ad thinking that it looked cool. [laughs]

MY VOTE: Leviathan

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/brutally-honest-oscar-ballot-no-773905?mobile_redirect=false

"The Gutillard girl"

Oh, yeah. I read those. The Hollywood Reporter interviewed several academy members about who they voted for and why, and kept them anonymous. The responses included, openly and explicitly:

Points off for "not liking" a main character
Points off for not being as likely to win (well, who wants to vote for a loser?)
Points off for "being tired of" an actor, especially if they've won before
Points off for "not getting it" (defensible, actually)
Points off if the cast came to a publicity event with "I can't breathe" t-shirts
Points off for "not showing what a character feels"
Points off an actors performance if they didn't like the movie apart from the performance
Points off if a character is a bad model
Points off for being "britishy"
Points off if the subject of a documentary is (personally) "annoying"
Points given for an actor who has less chance of winning in the future
Points given for a movie that "shows that people will go [to movies] if you put something out that they want to see (was successful)
Points given for liking an actor in the interviews they've done, for another actor who's "humble and endearing" in real life
Points given in one category if they felt the movie was snubbed in another category

Shocking

morbs can u plz weigh in now with something deeply cynical bcz I can't pull it off convincingly even though i hate the oscars with a fire matched only by mid-term elections

Points off for "being tired of" an actor, especially if they've won before

Fair enough IMO!

although GTFO with
Points off if a character is a bad model

geena davis robbed

Points off if a character is a bad model

Eddie Redmayne was a great model tho.

http://charliefanjp.cocolog-nifty.com/photos/uncategorized/2014/05/25/eddie.jpg

not sure how legit this is but seems you can see the whole shebang on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nKSXG3Nbd4&feature=youtu.be

aw

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B-fNRymIMAAAq6d.jpg

love the editor's notes in the hollywood reporter article

for that movie not to be in over these two obscure freakin' Chinese fuckin' things that nobody ever freakin' saw [an apparent reference to the Japanese film The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, as well as the Irish film Song of the Sea]?

tough but fair

it's been said that the Irish are the Japanese of Europe

Alexa Chung's SKY tv commentary coming in for a pasting and it's barely started.

it's not legit, piscesx

damn.

I heard that in Hollywood, Oscar is king.

so yeah this was awks jesus

https://vimeo.com/120322425

Gaga in Wonderland.

Robin Roberts, u gotta ask Chris E if he really knows how baby tastes.

let's be real robin roberts totally knows that babies taste best

oh god not a song

Think I broke my mute-button record.

"best and whitest"

CUT TO

Benedict Cumberbatch

Snow White moment

the night the Tonys suddenly didn't look so gay

it's a parody you yutzes

Eddie Murphy is there!

Ok fine, I'm watching

no Nicholson sighting so far.. maybe he's ill

I'm all-in on this too.

Ed Norton = ageless

I had to look him jup to remember why I knew him--yes, Spiderman.

i was gonna say every grey straight on the globe tuned out in 2 minutes but clemenza made my point for me

holy shit that speech was a genuine emo moment!

Simmons has probably done more man-on-man buttfucking on TV than any other American actor.

and is 60, obv offputting to alder viewers

hey NPH thinks "confirmed kill" joeks are golden. Def the house f*ggot.

p sure Liam Neeson now knows he will be remembered as the less haggard Charles Bronson

i wonder if Milena Canonero (won her first for Barry Lyndon) thought Kubrick was as big an ivory-tower twee nerd as Wes Anderson

wow a speech dedicated entirely to Wes Anderson. it's a new world.

(make that 2)

Those are the "welp, started winning technical awards, nothing coming in the big awards" speeches iirc

been some decent commercials so far (where were they 3 weeks ago)

anyone got a stream link

some terribly written pre-envelope-opening bits this year

please thanking you?

stream here http://www.vipleague.is/usa-tv-shows/286005/1/ceremony-87th-academy-awards-2015-%7C-oscars15-%7C-oscars-%7C-theacademy-live-stream-online.html

click the E tv link or the SKY one. woring fine for me.

hey a Holocaust film won

Never forget.

Everything really is awesome.

Fitting how NPH's embarrassed performance happening 20 years after another embarrassed Oscar host perf.

oh yeah we all know who you're referring to SERIOUSLY WTF

Dave?

thanks very much piscesx!

Yeah, i was reminded of that when he singled out Oprah in the audience xpost

hey two different crisis hotline shorts won

a theme

was that Mark Mothersbaugh??

Harris really is acting a bit like a hostage

Not presenting lifetime awards right on the show is the worst decision they every made.

man what I would've given to have seen Belafonte, Jean-Claude Carriere, and Miyazaki on stage.

was that Mark Mothersbaugh??
--Abstinence Hawk (frogbs)

yes indeed!

More of a general observation, but anybody who gets one of those awards ought to get their two minutes of glory during the big broadcast.

when did they stop presenting lifetime awards in the show? can't recall the last one.

But what about the singing and dancing?

oh and honorary Oscars (Chaplin, Groucho etc) they don't do that anymore.

(xpost) Maybe five or six years ago? Kazan's is one of the last I remember.

the last one on the show was... Jerry Lewis.

v classy snubbing Maureen O'Hara, Alfred. (sorta like waiting til she's 94 to give her an Oscar)

http://dailycontributor.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/jerry-lewis-humanitarian-award-oscars.jpg

it was the Hersholt

I coulda sworn they gave sidney lumet his lifetime achievement one on the actual show in like 2005

(xposts)

v classy snubbing Maureen O'Hara, Alfred. (sorta like waiting til she's 94 to give her an Oscar)

hey I wasn't the one who decided not to show her

Didn't know Margot was Aussie.

have any NON favourites won in any category yet?

one of the shorts maybe

Whiplash won sound bcz it is about JASS MUSIC do you see

yay for P.A.

Patty on fiyuh

and there's your one Boyhood win of the night

wow some excitement at last.

yay for P.A.

― rip van wanko, Sunday, February 22, 2015 9:56 PM (54 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

came here to post this

maybe Boyhood wasn't *so* bad..

Yay. (They should have had Enrique from Boyhood present Arquette her award, give everyone something to squawk about.)

that was dope, arquette killing it out there. perhaps should see boyhood one day

Patricia Arquette for president

patricia keeping it the definition of 100

shot of Mason Jr. looking genuinely moved genuinely moving

acceptance speech 12 years in the writing

yeah Boyhood guy looks even more emo tonight than usual.

as EMPIRE pointed out on twitter; too many Gone Girl spoilers in this show. and then they show the advert for the film in the ad breaks.

The backdrop of that stage makes me feel like I'm in the cockpit of the Millennium Falcon.

Don't they usually show a clip or two of the SFX nominees?

I loved the Interstellar score.

good booze gag

Just me, or are the speeches more serious and aware than usual?

Feast was charming.