Academy Awards - Old Movies

January 22nd 2007 23:09

This will be old news to some. The other day I mentioned the Golden Globes, so I thought I might put up the winners here. We'll wait and see how many nominations and wins correlate with the Oscars.

Best Picture - Drama
WINNER: Babel
OTHER NOMINEES: Bobby, The Departed, Little Children, The Queen

Best Picture - Musical or Comedy
WINNER: Dreamgirls
OTHER NOMINEES: Borat, The Devil Wears Prada, Little Miss Sunshine, Thank You for Smoking

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama
WINNER: Forest Whitaker (for 'The Last King of Scotland')
OTHER NOMINEES: Leonardo DiCaprio (for 'Blood Diamond'), Leonardo DiCaprio (for 'The Departed'), Will Smith (for 'The Pursuit of Happyness') and Peter O'Toole (for 'Venus')

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
WINNER: Sacha Baron Cohen (for 'Borat')
OTHER NOMINEES: Chiwetel Ejiofor (for 'Kinky Boots'), Johnny Depp (for 'Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest'), Will Ferrell (for 'Stranger Than Fiction') and Aaron Eckhart (for 'Thank You for Smoking').

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama
WINNER: Helen Mirren (for 'The Queen')
OTHER NOMINEES: Kate Winslet (for 'Little Children'), Judi Dench (for 'Notes on a Scandal'), Maggie Gyllenhaal (for 'SherryBaby') and Penelope Cruz (for 'Volver')

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
WINNER Meryl Streep (for 'Devil Wears Prada')
OTHER NOMINEES: Beyonce Knowles (for 'Dreamgirls'), Toni Collette (for 'Little Miss Sunshine'), Renee Zellweger (for 'Miss Potter') and Annette Bening (for 'Running with Scissors')

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
WINNER: Eddie Murphy (for 'Dreamgirls')
OTHER NOMINEES: Brad Pitt (for 'Babel'), Jack Nicholson (for 'The Departed'), Mark Wahlberg (for 'The Departed') and Ben Affleck (for 'Hollywoodland')

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
WINNER: Jennifer Hudson (for 'Dreamgirls')
OTHER NOMINEES: Adriana Barraza (for 'Babel'), Rinko Kikuchi (for 'Babel'), Emily Blunt (for 'Devil Wears Prada') and Cate Blanchett (for 'Notes on a Scandal')

Best Director - Motion Picture
WINNER: Martin Scorcese (for 'The Departed')
OTHER NOMINEES: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu (for 'Babel'), Clint Eastwood (for 'Flags of Our Fathers'), Clint Eastwood (for 'Letters from Iwo Jima') and Stephen Frears (for 'The Queen')

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Academy Awards

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It's Oscar Season!

January 19th 2007 07:57

The Academy Awards are, to me, what the Grand Final is to Rugby League-heads. I love the Oscars. I can't get enough of 'em. I own a couple of books on them, I study various websites detailing stats of past winners and losers, I'm on a mission to watch every film that ever won a significant Oscar (ie. Best Film, Director, or any of the acting awards. Maybe the writing awards too). Simply put, I'm a fanatic.

That's why it's kind of sad that I don't get to watch as many new movies as I used to. I'm not as much of a bum as I used to be, I just don't get the time to hang loose and catch up on all the latest flicks. The total number of new films I've watched this year at the movies is three... 'Over The Hedge', 'Borat' and 'The Departed'. Sad, sad, sad!

Anyway, the Golden Globes happened recently. I don't watch the Globes, they don't really interest me. It's often said that the Globes are a good indicator or who will win Academy Awards... I wouldn't say this is completely untrue, but the Oscars are governed by no real laws or trends, so it's impossible to predict them completely accurately. Sometimes a real left-field film or actor will get a nomination, sometimes an absolute underdog will shine and win the coveted award, sometimes a better performance will be overlooked in favour of a more popular actor who has been deemed by his peers as being 'ready' for his Oscar. Sometimes it's very clear who will win - no one really disputed that Charlize Theron would not win the Best Actress award for her breakout performance in Monster, and everyone knew Schindler's List would get Spielberg a Best Director award. But then again, it isn't always like this.

As I haven't kept up with the latest films this year it's hard for me to make any predictions. Usually you can tell which films and performances will get nominated though without even having seen them... these films have a certain look, a certain kind of promotional angle, the media highlights who has the 'Oscar buzz' around them. Most tellingly, almost all of these films are released around 'Oscar time', between January and February the cinemas are chock-full of 'Oscar-worthy films'. It's become quite cliched, and in some cases quite manufactured. Are these films' sole purpose for existence the fact that they're Oscar-worthy? Why only release them around this time of year? What's with all the freaking biopics lately? Just because two or three actors win for playing a real life person it doesn't mean we have to have twenty-fucking-million films about every two-bit singer, writer, politician and prostitute who ever made a name for themself. Do these filmmakers have any credibility? Why not just make a film for the sake of making a decent film? Why can't it be released earlier in the year? Why do you have to be mindful of what the Academy will or will not recognise? Does it really matter?

Sorry, that paragraph could go on forever without saying anything else. My point is that - as much as I love the Academy Awards - Hollywood has become a little too aware of them. It's like almost every Academy Award-nominated film or performance was specifically crafted as bait for an Oscar... which sort of misses the point of awarding excellence and originality.

In the next few weeks I'll probably be talking about the Oscars a bit... the history, some interesting statistics and all that sort of jazz. Hope you don't mind!

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Posted By: Luke - Category: Academy Awards

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