Awards Season 2011

[rohmerin]

Come on !!!! Prince Alberto is Grace Kelly's son. Come on ! He and his wife should have given Best picture Oscar and not the crazy film -bad actor- star

[mfunk9786]

Silent movie! You know... it was silent!

[Professor Wagstaff]

Moneyball's terrific score couldn't get a nomination, yet the Academy found it appropriate enough to be the theme for the entire show.

[mfunk9786]

Come on !!!! Prince Alberto is Grace Kelly's son. Come on ! He and his wife should have given Best picture Oscar and not the crazy film -bad actor- star

I don't understand most of that

[Murdoch]

Guess I have to watch a silent movie now IN THE 21ST CENTURY

[knives]

Given what a shit fit they threw over Hamlet winning all those years ago I wonder what they're thinking with two foreign best pictures in a row?

[domino harvey]

Guess I have to watch a silent movie now IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Don't listen to the sourpusses on this forum, the Artist is a fantastic film

[matrixschmatrix]

It's like half an hour of fun stuff and an hour and a half long wallow in a dude feeling bad about himself for reasons that don't seem particularly compelling

[Murdoch]

I think Bérénice Bejo is cute so I'd watch it even on mute, oh wait

[mfunk9786]

Does the fact that it's an above average silent film really warrant a Best Picture Oscar, though? I will never understand that.

[domino harvey]

"Fact"

[mfunk9786]

Okay, one of the best silent films ever made, gotcha

[matrixschmatrix]

It's one of the best three silent movies ever to win best picture

[mfunk9786]

I'll keep thinking about 2007 and just hope something similar happens again. You know, good films being nominated and whatnot

[domino harvey]

ANYWAYS, Kimmel's Movie: the Movie was roughly a million times better than any "comedy" on the actual Oscars. Gary Oldman's diagnosis, Clooney facing off against Black Hitler, and "Daniel Day Lewis as you've never seen him before--" all killed it

[mfunk9786]

All of this has me wondering... what do the Oscars accomplish at this point? They don't reflect arthouse or populist tastes... they've got an incredibly dull ceremony full of shockingly dull nominees and winners... realistically, how far are we from this just being the Grammys II?

[knives]

They boost sells. That's all they ever have do and all they have ever done (aside from some union busting of course).

[Jeff]

Completely ridiculous year-in-advance predictions:

Best Picture
Anna Karenina
Cloud Atlas
The Great Gatsby
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Life of Pi
Lincoln
The Master
Les Miserables
Skyfall

Director
Paul Thomas Anderson
Peter Jackson
Ang Lee
Steven Spielberg
Joe Wright

Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Great Gatsby)
Bill Murray (Hyde Park on Hudson)
Brad Pitt (Cogan's Trade)

Actress
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)
Scarlett Johansson (Under the Skin)
Keira Knightly (Anna Karenina)
Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby)

Original Screenplay
Woody Allen (Nero Fiddled)
Paul Thomas Anderson (The Master)
Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom)
Judd Apatow (This is Forty)
Quentin Tarantino (Django Unchained)

Adapted Screenplay
Tony Kushner, John Logan (Lincoln)
Baz Luhrmann, Craig Pearce (The Great Gatsby)
David Magee (Life of Pi)
Tom Stoppard (Anna Karenina)
Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, Peter Jackson, Guillermo del Toro (The Hobbit)

[tarpilot]

Life of Pi

Up until now I have managed to remain blissfully unaware that this piece of shit finally emerged from development hell. Thanks, Jeff

[gfxtwin]

Seems like the politics and desire for viewership that sometimes inform the Academy's decisions were in full force tonight. I don't see the logic in awarding a movie solely based on it being likeable and up to industry standards, technically (but not raising any bars whatsoever). I know shows like these shouldn't be taken to heart, but why not award a filmmaker because of his/her ability to add something to the industry, offer new experiences, ambitious concepts, and dazzling technical wizardry? The Tree of Life did all of these things but couldn't even manage a much-deserved cinematography award. Drive was one of the most stylish and thoughtful pop movies of the year, and it was totally shut-out (oh, I forgot the sound mixing nomination. Because that's what everyone remembers about Drive). Why? The TOL was too "weird" and Drive was too violent I imagine. Unfortunate.

Usually the academy are conscious about awarding movies that strike a balance between critic-pleaser and crowd-pleaser. They did that this year to some degree, but it's too bad their criteria for best picture apparently leaned far more in the latter direction than the former. More so than any year in recent memory.

[domino harvey]

All of this has me wondering... what do the Oscars accomplish at this point?

Everyone has their reasons and justifications, but as far back as I can remember, the Oscars were An Event in my household. My mother and I would fill out the ballots and watch and the winner would get to pick where we'd go out to eat to celebrate (eating out being a rare treat). I don't know that I ever considered it a correct matrix of taste so much as a fascinating omnipresent construct: The Oscars. But I was a strange little boy, perhaps-- When I was nine or ten I would go to the library sales and snatch up all the old Entertainment Weekly issues I could find and read them cover to cover. Immersed in that self-aggrandizing world of industry importance that feeds itself, the Oscars always made sense. They still do. The Oscars are the Oscars, and they're for the Academy-- and those curious few still on the outside looking in. I don't blame anyone who doesn't think the Oscars reflect their personal taste, but I could do without the annual bellyaching about their irrelevancy-- when were the Oscars ever about relevancy?!

All that said, the Artist still remains a great film

[Jeff]

That's a great post, Domino. My tastes haven't really aligned with the Academy's since I was a kid, but they have an appeal of their own. I also filled out Oscar ballots (torn out of TV Guide pre-internet) as a young kid, and collected issues of Entertainment Weekly as a teen.

[Noiretirc]

Yeah, great post Domino, and you have convinced me to watch The Artist. (In honor of Oscar night, I watched Santa Sangre. Did I miss much? Any love for Tree Of Life?)

[thirtyframesasecond]

Nothing controversial but I'm happy with the winners from the noms at least. I always thought Dujardin's English was dodgy, must've had some serious lessons in prep for the Oscars and subsequent Hollywood work. Expect him to be the next Bond villain or something.

[eerik]

Does the fact that it's an above average silent film really warrant a Best Picture Oscar, though? I will never understand that.

One word: Weinstein.