criterionforum.org

They also awarded "Film Heritage Honors" to Criterion for the Vigo set.

Surprising to see Jessica Chastain. She brings a serious presence to TOL but doesn't have a whole lot of dialogue.

Why would that matter?

Yeah, Jean Dujardin is going to get nominated for Best Actor, and he doesn't have a whole lot of dialog either.

Alan Smithee wrote:Surprising to see Jessica Chastain. She brings a serious presence to TOL but doesn't have a whole lot of dialogue.

I think with her work in Take Shelter (I preferred her there), she deserved the win. I'm still curious to see if that hypothetical six-hour cut of ToL would flesh out more of her character.

Not much acting from Chastain either, though

Directors Guild Award nominees
WOODY ALLEN - Midnight in Paris
DAVID FINCHER - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS - The Artist
ALEXANDER PAYNE - The Descendants
MARTIN SCORSESE - Hugo

Malick doesn't even get a nomination?

How awesome would it be if those were the Oscar nominees?!

Duncan Hopper wrote:Malick doesn't even get a nomination?

He was considered a longshot. Unfortunately, the DGA plays the same awards-season game as everyone else and likes to be thought of as a predictor of Oscar nominations. Tree of Life is more or less out of the race. Malick still has an outside shot at getting the lone-director nod from the Academy, but it's not likely at this point. In a perfect world, Malick, Von Trier, Kiarostami, and Kelly Reichardt would all be joining Scorsese on the DGA stage. Just be grateful that they didn't nominate the guy that made The Help.

mfunk9786 wrote:How awesome would it be if those were the Oscar nominees?!

It's very likely. The overlap between the DGA membership and the Director's branch of the Academy is substantial. The nominations frequently line up, and in the past 63 years, there have only been six occasions where the winners did not align.

The buzz going on over at In Contention is that Glenn Close and Tilda Swinton are no longer close to being locks to get Best Actress noms, with Rooney Mara and Charlize Theron now coming on strong. Let's face it: Has anyone actually seen Albert Nobbs?

mfunk9786 wrote:How awesome would it be if those were the Oscar nominees?!

Not very? Two directors with movies that are among the weakest of their careers (Fincher and Payne), a pleasant-but-slight Woody Allen trifle, a slightly-less-pleasant-and-even-more-slight silent film tribute ... and Hugo, which is so much better than the other four it's hardly even funny, but still won't win.

No thanks. Better nominations needed.

Brian C wrote:

mfunk9786 wrote:How awesome would it be if those were the Oscar nominees?!

Not very? Two directors with movies that are among the weakest of their careers (Fincher and Payne)

Seriously? Dragon Tattoo's no Zodiac, but it's infinitely better and more interesting than Benjamin Button.

He did say among. From what I hear (haven't seen the movie yet) it's bottom three for his career.

It's not ideal, but it's better than noms for The Help and War Horse and The Tree of Life and whatever other maudlin shit I'm leaving out.

And for my money, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is probably in Fincher's top three, definitely top four. His failures (Fight Club, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) didn't even come close to touching the rest of his films, even the middling ones like Panic Room.

mfunk9786 wrote:The Tree of Life and whatever other maudlin shit I'm leaving out.

Haha, c'mon, you're just deliberately starting shit here

matrixschmatrix wrote:

mfunk9786 wrote:The Tree of Life and whatever other maudlin shit I'm leaving out.

Haha, c'mon, you're just deliberately starting shit here

I'm a baaaaad whittle boy

matrixschmatrix wrote:Seriously? Dragon Tattoo's no Zodiac, but it's infinitely better and more interesting than Benjamin Button.

Like knives pointed out, I did say "among". And honestly, I'd rather watch Benjamin Button again over Dragon Tattoo, which is an unpleasant, shallow piece of pop junk. At least Benjamin Button had the Russian interlude with Swinton, which is better than anything in Dragon Tattoo.

I didn't love the Malick either, but I would have been happy to see him get a nomination over any of the non-Scorsese four.

Now that the DGAs are out, I expect to see everyone's guesses for Oscar noms soon

And in other Oscar news, the Academy continues to not "get" documentaries

They may as well make it a nomination requirement that J. Hoberman review the doc in the Village Voice.

Enjoy your future Oscars, Michael Moore, Morgan Spurlock, and like three other people.

Edit: even better, Michael Moore helped write the freaking rules.

I'm out of the Oscar nomination guessing business. Too much wishful thinking and common sense goes into it on my part based upon the quality of the films/performances; as hard as I try to think like an Academy member, I just can't. But once the nominations are out, picking winners tends to be rather easy.

domino harvey wrote:Now that the DGAs are out, I expect to see everyone's guesses for Oscar noms soon

And in other Oscar news, the Academy continues to not "get" documentaries

Well, that doesn't come off as a self serving move on Moore's part at all, and is definitely a fair minded and useful change.

Well, I'll give it a go at least. My Best Pic predix were made knowing that the Academy will almost surely not nominate ten films, since the amount can fluctuate now between five and ten films. No fair listing ten titles and then claiming you guessed all five final nominees!

Best Picture
the Artist
the Descendants
the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
the Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
War Horse

Best Director
Woody Allen
David Fincher
Michel Hazanavicius
Alexander Payne
Martin Scorsese

Best Actor
George Clooney
Jean Dujardin
Michael Fassbender
Woody Harrelson
Brad Pitt

Best Actress
Will end up being the most interesting nominee battle-- coin-toss between Oscar sweetheart Theron and newcomer Mara, but I think there's an obvious Girl With the Dragon Tattoo groundswell this award season
Viola Davis
Rooney Mara
Meryl Streep
Tilda Swinton
Michelle Williams

Best Supporting Actor
Kenneth Branagh
Albert Brooks
Jonah Hill
Christopher Plummer
Corey Stoll

Best Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo
Jessica Chastain (the Help)
Melissa McCarthy
Octavia Spencer
Shailene Woodley

Best Adapted Screenplay
the Descendants
the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
the Help
the Ides of March
Moneyball

Best Original Screenplay
the Artist
Beginners
Bridesmaids
50/50
Midnight in Paris

Jeff wrote:Malick still has an outside shot at getting the lone-director nod from the Academy...The overlap between the DGA membership and the Director's branch of the Academy is substantial. The nominations frequently line up, and in the past 63 years, there have only been six occasions where the winners did not align.

As long as it means Stephen Daldry isn't nominated for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He's been nominated for EVERY movie he's directed so far. The Hours I get but Billy Elliot and The Reader too?

Kinda what mfunk said. I'm not even 100% sure I'll watch the Oscars this year. I don't know ... big talk probably. But I'm less and less convinced that they're even conducted in good faith anymore, so it makes it tough to stomach for me even besides the general disparity in taste.