Awards Season 2010

[lacritfan]

Godard will get an honorary Oscar as well as Francis Ford Coppola and Eli Wallach. And, like last year, they'll get them at an untelevised ceremony Nov 13 and not during the Oscar telecast. Stupid, stupid, stupid fuckin' Oscar producers...

[aox]

When you get one of these, can you be labeled an "Oscar Award Winning Director/Actor"? Or do you have to win one through natural competition to boast that on movie posters/DVD art?

[matrixschmatrix]

Is Godard actually going to show up to get an Oscar? It's hard to imagine he'd be anything other than contemptuous of the whole process...

[FerdinandGriffon]

Is Godard actually going to show up to get an Oscar?

No.

[Markson]

Is Godard actually going to show up to get an Oscar?

Imagining him up there is pretty bizarre and incredible. But, um, probably not.

[Markson]

While I have no problem with Coppola getting an honorary nod, I wonder what the specific "reason" is, seeing as he's already won a few the old fashioned way. I know that the Thalberg is often given to previous winners, but I wonder why now for FFC?

[willoneill]

When you get one of these, can you be labeled an "Oscar Award Winning Director/Actor"? Or do you have to win one through natural competition to boast that on movie posters/DVD art?

There's no hard and fast rules when it comes to these things. I remember the ads for Changing Lanes, and now also The Company Men, which have the billing of Academy Award Winner Ben Affleck, even though he won for writing, not acting. In fact The Company Men also bills Kevin Costner as an Academy Award Winner, but he won for directing. So I guess you can be as disingenuous as you want.

[Werewolf by Night]

I know that the Thalberg is often given to previous winners, but I wonder why now for FFC?

The Thalberg award is given to producers, so this is ostensibly for Coppola's production work (which has overshadowed his actual filmmaking of the past couple of decades). His only previous award for production is the Best Picture Oscar for The Godfather: Part II.

[domino harvey]

Holy shit, Godard and Wallach getting Oscars?! Could this be the first promise of a good Oscars after the last couple embarrassments?

[knives]

Their awards are not being televised, so it will probably be as dire as it's ever been. Godard giving a speech at the oscars (never will happen of course) and it being televised would be the funniest and most surreal thing to happen there in years though.

[Markson]

I know that the Thalberg is often given to previous winners, but I wonder why now for FFC?

The Thalberg award is given to producers, so this is ostensibly for Coppola's production work (which has overshadowed his actual filmmaking of the past couple of decades).

Makes sense. I knew he'd produced his daughter's work, but had forgotten about Kinsey, The Good Shepherd and––what surely was the deciding factor––the Jeepers Creepers duology.

[antnield]

It's not been mentioned yet, but Kevin Brownlow is getting honoured too.

[swo17]

Is this all just a ruse to get Brownlow and Coppola in the same room together to work out their differences?

[lacritfan]

I know that the Thalberg is often given to previous winners, but I wonder why now for FFC?

I initially thought it was redundant to give him an honorary Oscar (kind of Elia Kazan) but now that I think about it in the Criterion Collection "Francis Ford Coppola Presents" is on Kagemusha, Mishima and (one of these months/years) the Qatsi triology; George Lucas wouldn't have a career if Coppola hadn't produced American Graffiti; so fuck it, yeah, give him the Thalberg.

[HarryLong]

George Lucas wouldn't have a career if Coppola hadn't produced American Graffiti; so fuck it, yeah, give him the Thalberg.

But it's a solid reason to deny him the Hersholt Humanitarian award.

[Jeff]

Because absolutely nobody asked for it, and it's a particularly boring Saturday morning, here are my silly waaaaaay-too-far-in-advance Oscar predictions. Predicted winners are in blue. Predictions are based on AMPAS predilections and buzz, not artistic merit.

Picture
127 Hours
Another Year
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids are All Right
The King's Speech
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit

Alternates: Rabbit Hole, Secretariat

Best Director
Danny Boyle (127 Hours)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Christopher Nolan (Inception)
David O. Russell (The Fighter)

Alternates: Mike Leigh (Another Year), Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Robert Duvall (Get Low)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)

Alternates: Mark Wahlberg (The Fighter), Javier Bardem (Biutiful)

Best Actress
Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone)
Leslie Manville (Another Year)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Alternates: Sally Hawkins (Made in Dagenham), Anne Hathaway (Love and Other Drugs)

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Matt Damon (True Grit)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)
Justin Timberlake (The Social Network)

Alternates: Dustin Hoffman (Barney's Version), Josh Brolin (True Grit)

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Dianne Wiest (Rabbit Hole)

Alternates: Mila Kunis (Black Swan), Miranda Richardson (Made in Dagenham)

Best Original Screenplay
Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids are All Right)
Billy Ivory (Made in Dagenham)
Mike Leigh (Another Year)
David Seidler (The King's Speech)
Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson (The Fighter)

Alternates: Christopher Nolan (Inception); Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin (Black Swan)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Michael Arndt (Toy Story 3)
Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy (127 Hours)
Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit)
David Lindsay-Abaire (Rabbit Hole)
Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

Alternates: Debra Granik, Anne Rosellini (Winter's Bone); William Davies, Dean Deblois, Chris Sanders (How to Train Your Dragon)

Best Cinematography
Roger Deakins (True Grit)
Anthony Dod Mantle, Enrique Chediak (127 Hours)
Matthew Libatique (The Black Swan)
Wally Pfister (Inception)
Robert Richardson (Shutter Island)

Alternates: Jeff Cronenweth (The Social Network), Robert Elswit (The Town)

[domino harvey]

Surely Winter's Bone will manage a placement in the Best Pic 10

[knives]

Unless The Fighter flops real badly I doubt it. Despite support here and elsewhere it's too small a film for the academy to treat with that particular nom. Though it will probably get a lead actress and screenplay nom.
No way is Deakins going to win though. Academy hates him for some reason (for much the same reason I doubt Fincher will win anything even if Social Network were to sweep all the other categories). Did he spit on an actor once or something? Also I hope Kids doesn't win best screenplay, that was easily the weakest part of a really weak film. As much as I don't think she deserves it Bening is probably going to win though.

[Jeff]

I really liked Winter's Bone, and would love to see it get lots of attention, but I don't think it's likely. Besides being too small, it's from too early in the year. I suspect that some year-end love from critics' associations will help boost Jennifer Lawrence's prospects, but to connect in any other categories, the film is going to need a much bigger awards push than I imagine Roadside Attractions can provide.

I'm probably overestimating Roger Deakins' prospects (and maybe True Grit in general), but I suspect they're going to give it to him eventually, if only to get that particular monkey off their backs. Deakins is the Susan Lucci of cinematographers. They can't hate him entirely, or they wouldn't have nominated him eight times.

The same goes for Fincher. The first time he directed something that remotely appealed to the Academy's sensibilities, they plotzed. The mostly awful Benjamin Button recieved 13 nominations, including one for Fincher. With critics falling over themselves to declare The Social Network a zeitgeist-capturing, Citizen Kane level masterpiece wherein Fincher's sensibilities mesh with Sorkin's in unimaginably awesome ways, I don't think they'll be able to ignore it. Of course a film that (over?)hyped is bound to disappoint on some level, and I can already smell the backlash coming.

[John Cope]

Somewhere will absolutely be in there somewhere. It's being underestimated at the moment but its sympathetic character handling and subject matter concentration will appeal to Hollywood narcissism far more than is currently presumed.

[tavernier]

Best Supporting Actor
Justin Timberlake (The Social Network)

By far the weakest performance in the film, so it's almost certain he'll get the nom.

[Jeff]

Somewhere will absolutely be in there somewhere. It's being underestimated at the moment but its sympathetic character handling and subject matter concentration will appeal to Hollywood narcissism far more than is currently presumed.

I hope you're right, John. I really like Coppola, and the trailer for Somewhere was beautiful. The early, very mixed, critical reaction has me wary. I'm anxiously, yet cautiously, awaiting the film's debut. I had it in mind as potential alternates for screenplay, cinematography, actor, and supporting actress, but didn't end up finding room for it in any category.

Best Supporting Actor
Justin Timberlake (The Social Network)

By far the weakest performance in the film, so it's almost certain he'll get the nom.

You've seen it, tavernier? I'd love to hear your take in the thread for the film. My decision to put Timberlake in over, say, Andrew Garfield was due to the Academy's fondness for what William Goldman called "the dancing-bear syndrome." "Oh, look at that! It's a pop singer...and he's acting in this movie!"

[Tom Hagen]

Bill Maher crowned The Kings Speech as the winner of the Academy Awards last night -- "why bother having the Oscars at all?" --, congratulated the British, and said, "unless someone in America is making a movie where Meryl Streep teaches Anne Frank how to box, we give up."

[knives]

Hadn't heard of The Kings Speech before, but that definitely is oscar baity as all hell. Speaking of Boxers and oscar bait, what do you think Eastwood's new film will win in?

[flyonthewall2983]

Bill Maher crowned The Kings Speech as the winner of the Academy Awards last night -- "why bother having the Oscars at all?" --, congratulated the British, and said, "unless someone in America is making a movie where Meryl Streep teaches Anne Frank how to box, we give up."

It was funny, until I remembered this was the guy who brought Billy Bob Thornton on his show to talk about the music business, and fawned all over Ron Howard when he made an appearance.