Sunday, January 21, 2007

This and Oscary That

Updates to the FB Awards including Best Supporting Actor and more of the behind the scenes contributions like Adapted Screenplay and the ever important Art Direction and Film Editing and Sound Editing. My Final Oscar Nomination Predictions will be up either late tonight or tomorrow morning (I need a breather before the madness of the nominations themselves) In other Oscar focused news: Eddie has begun posting the fun survey results of "Best & Worst 'Best Actress' Wins" --reading through the Worst lists and the understandably bitchy quipping makes you want to throttle AMPAS all over again. Never a Stanwyck or a Garland and still no Winslet, Moore or Pfeiffer ... and for whom? Arrrrrgh.


Oh and Little Miss Sunshine won its first "Best Picture" prize --from the Producers Guild of America. Not too shabby (The Producers Guild wisely chose Brokeback last year and Moulin Rouge! in 2001 so they have built up some goodwill with me) So now all of next Tuesday's nominees have at least one prize under their belt going into the big race - will we have an actual five-way race this year? Unheard of but exciting.

26 comments:

Paxton Hernandez said...

It was a shocker in deed that Little Miss Sunshine took the Best Picture award at the PGA Awards. Leaving the frontrunners biting their own dust.

The thing that did annoy me was the quick rationalization of it Kris Tapley and Tom O'Neill came up with. Maybe, the PGA actually thought LMS was the best picture? just, maybe?

Anonymous said...

LMS is a perfect "fit" for the PGA win. Little movie. Big Profit.

I think it will win the Best Ensemble award at the SAG Awards as well - but I don't think the hype is going to carry through to the Oscars.

If it were to win BP at the Academy Awards, LMS would hands down be one of the worst films ever awarded the prize. Right up there with THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH and FORREST GUMP.

NATHANIEL R said...

yipes you think LMS is that bad? I'd prefer it to a lot of the recent BP winners. It's slight sure, but it's also a good comedy and they never win prizes which is sad.

Anonymous said...

I'm so there with Brad - LMS, if it does take that top Oscar, would join the holy pantheon of BP mediocrity - see A Beautiful Mind, Braveheart and Forrest Gump for recent examples.

And Nat, been loving the site as always - just haven't been able to post for a while owing to final year thesis hell (Deleuze, baby). But that's over now - and just in time for nomination morning - woohoo.

But can I just say - I saw Venus this morning, and why oh why is Peter O'Toole not even a Film Bitch Best Actor finalist? I was ready to accept an O'Toole sentimental nod/win, but my gosh, was this performance beautiful and graceful. He totally deserves the Oscar this year, in my opinion. One of his bests - and that's saying something.

Sid said...

Re: Marie Antoinette for Best Production Design.

Nat, I think I heard someone mention (I think it was Kris) that the movie was pretty much shot inside Versailles -- which would mean there wasn't necessarily any "art direction" required. How far would you agree with that?

Paxton Hernandez said...

I don't think LMS was bad, near as bad as some of the other mediocre winners for one single reason: It WASN'T made just to take awards home (Yeah, I'm talking to you A Beautiful Mind). Not at all.

And I agree with Nathe. Comedy as well as any other genre that isn't drama is a despised genre by the Academy and a ton of other people. It's their loss

NATHANIEL R said...

There are a lot of films shot on location that have been nominated for art direction --it doesn't negate the work if you have material already there to work with, you still have to modify, you still have to choose set elements and locations

The production designer has to control the overall aesthetic of the picture (in collaboration with the DP and with virtually everyone you can think of reporting to them: costumes, etc...) and I'd say that Marie Antoinette is a grand success in the overall aesthetic department.

but yeah, i understand why some people feel that shooting in Versailles makes it lesser than... but i personally don't. The award is not called "best set construction" ;)

but thank you for asking --I did take it into consideration before making the choice.

NATHANIEL R said...

and p.s. i love having to consider all this because it gets me doing more research about filmmaking in general and it's good to study all the distinctions.

Adam Luis said...

I love the screenplay nomination for Marie-Antoinette, but I wonder, wouldn't have it been more appropriate in the Original Screenplay category? This strikes me as an "inspired by" kind of thing, rather than strict adaptation, much like last year's Syriana.

Anonymous said...

VERY GOOD NATHANIEL...
Casino Royale & United 93 (Editing)

GOOD NATHANIEL...
Marie & Dahlia (Art Direction)
Casino Royale (Sound FX)

BAD NATHANIEL...
NO Descent (Editing)
NO Curse of the Golden… (Art Direction)

VERY BAD NATHANIEL...
NO Little Children / Notes (Screenplay)

Anonymous said...

My Nominees for the Best Adapted Screenplay of 2006:
CASINO ROYALE – Neal Purvis, Robert Wade
THE DEPARTED – William Monahan
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA – Aline Brosh McKenna
NOTES ON A SCANDAL – Patrick Marber
LITTLE CHILDREN – Todd Field, Tom Perrotta

My Nominees for the Best Editing of 2006:
BABEL – Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
CASINO ROYALE – Stuart Baird
THE DEPARTED – Thelma Schoonmaker
THE DESCENT – Jon Harris
UNITED 93 – Clare Douglas, Christopher Rouse

My Nominees for the Best Art Direction of 2006:
APOCALYPTO – Thomas Sanders
THE BLACK DAHLIA – Dante Ferretti
CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER – Tingxiao Huo
MARIE ANTOINETTE – K.K. Barrett
PAN’S LABYRINTH – Eugenio Caballero

My Nominees for the Best Sound Effects Editing of 2006:
CASINO ROYALE
THE DEPARTED
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA

Cinesnatch said...

LMS & Babel are two of the best films I've seen from 2006. I'd be happy if either of them won. I liked them much better than "The Queen," which I thought was okay.

LMS was, IMO, better than Crash, Million Dollar Baby, Chicago, Beautiful Mind, Shakepeare in Love, just to name a few. The Academy could do a lot worst and it certainly has.

NATHANIEL R said...

i can't help you there. i suppose "inspired by" is a judgment call. but i kept reading that it was based on that book.

i have a bad taste in my mouth regarding inspired bys becoming originals like that whole Gangs of New York debacle when it was considered an adapted work for two years of production and then was suddenly "inspired by" to fit into the oscar race as original.

argh

anyway... i don't know. it's a gray area

Anonymous said...

I am very much enjoying the Film Bitch Awards for the 6th time. Thanks for keeping it up.

And, sorry, but I love to nitpick. You mis-alphabatized Art Direction.

Adam Luis said...

Thanks for that response.

The movie just seems like a completely different take from the book. The book is a biography, and the movie has such a precise point-of-view in terms of character and theme, it seems like something completely different.

Anonymous said...

In terms of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE winning the PGA, well, it has only confirmed my suspicions that this could be a repeat of the wild 1995 award season.

Think about it:

UNITED 93 is this years LEAVING LAS VEGAS (the critics gem that fails to get a Best Picture Oscar nod.)

THE QUEEN is this years SENSE & SENSIBILITY (the more accessible critic’s gem that gets a nod for BP but probably won’t win.

LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is this years APOLLO 13. The audience fav that won the PGA and (like APOLLO) will likely win the SAG.

So, is THE DEPARTED this year’s BRAVEHEART. Both films won Best Director at the Globes. Hmmmm.

The only question is; how much does the Academy love DREAMGIRLS and BABEL. The question will likely be answered on Tuesday.

Anonymous said...

My nominees for the Best Actor in Supporting Role 2006:

Steve Carell – LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Jackie Earle Haley – LITTLE CHILDREN
Jack Nicholson – THE DEPARTED
Brad Pitt – BABEL
Mark Wahlberg – THE DEPARTED

Glenn Dunks said...

But it's also "Set Decoration", which is a major factor.

On the PGA thing, I'll just copy and paste what I told Adam at his blog:

"I'm glad. I mean, sure, stuff like Dreamgirls and The Departed are slick and all, but how hard was the producer's job on that? And then compared to a movie like Little Miss Sunshine who had to work their arses off... yeah, good choice by the PGA. Very good choice."

Cause, really, how hard was it to get a Scorsese gangster picture up with Leo, Jack, Mark, Matt, Alec and Martin? And the same with Dreamgirls? So, way to go Little Miss Sunshine crew!

LOVE the Best Adapted Screenplay nominees.

Glad to see Meryl Streep in Supporting Actress for Prairie, even though it was pretty obvious.

Nat, was anybody lead in your mind for Little Miss Sunshine? Consider Kinnear is supporting that would make Collette also supporting so the only possible lead is Breslin?

The editing and production design nominees are smashing too! I wish the Academy was this diverse. I wish The Prestige received more love from the guilds.

Paxton Hernandez said...

Nice Supporting Actor line-up! Great to see Greg Kinnear and Marky Mark there, since I love those perfomances. But I'll never understand all this Tucci love. What is so great about him?! Seriously.

My Best Supporting Actor ballot? Here it comes:

*Daniel Craig for The Jacket
*Richard Jenkins for North Country
*Erik Knudsen for Saw II
*Jan Vlásak for Hostel
*Mark Whalberg for The Departed

And just in a side note, tomorrow the Razzies announce their nominations at 5:30 am, EST. They gonna hate getting up so early, for sure!

Anonymous said...

I love your supporting actor picks especially Marky Mark.

Yaseen Ali said...

Excited to see names popping up on the acting shortlists every few hours, although aside from Wahlberg, I can't say I'm a fan of the Supporting Actor line-up. And I detested Streep in A Prairie Home Companion (I would back a Lily Tomlin nod 100% though.)

Barry said...

Best Supporting Actress Nomination for the Film Bitch Awards: Rachel Weisz- The Fountain

She does so much w/ her face and body language in so little time

par3182 said...

so much love for LMS but paul dano doesn't even make your supporting actor finalists? harsh

Anonymous said...

I'm shocked by how thrilled I am to see Greg Kinnear here. I'm actually rooting for him.

Rob

NATHANIEL R said...

sorry i don't much like Weisz in The Fountain. I don't see a character at all.

As for Dano, good show but I just wasn't "wowed" and this category doesn't excite me this year. I wasn't even wowed by all my nominees in the category

adam k. said...

I don't get all this Weisz hate/ambivalence. Tapley apparently hates her even though he loves the film.

I didn't think she was meant to play a character so much as an idea, and she did that brilliantly. To me, it was very similar to what she was doing in Constant Gardener, albeit with more of it to do in that film.

Anyway, I can't decide if she's lead or supporting, but in supporting, she might land a spot on my ballot.