New Beginnings

After more than one year, Inside the Gold is saying goodbye. The good news is that it's not as much a goodbye as a "smell ya later," and "later" just happens to be now (sorry, you need to be a Simpsons fan to understand all that). In any case, I invite you to join us in a new endeavor called "Film Cheer," a place to celebrate film all-year long and not focusing too much on award season.

I thank you for sticking with us through our ups and downs and hope that you follow us over to "Film Cheer." Lots of fun and surprises are in store for you if you do -- and candy, lots of free candy!!! Continue Reading...

Basterds, An Education, A Serious Man: Anti-Semitic?

In a provocative article from the Jewish Journal, writer Tom Tugend explores whether the portrayal of Jews in "Inglourious Basterds," "An Education" and "A Serious Man" (all best picture candidates at the Oscars) is in fact, anti-semitic. I haven't seen "A Serious Man," but have seen the other two. To be sure, "Inglourious Basterds" is my top film of the year. "An Education," not so much. The article focuses mostly on "An Education" with some passing references to "IB" and "A Serious Man" (which the author says brings back Woody Allen's "neurotic Jew" stereotype into the fold). In any case, here's a quick excerpt:

Is anti-Semitism in America alive, well and dangerous, or merely a figment of a paranoid-prone people’s imagination?

The old debate is undergoing a revival through the portrayal of Jews in two movies, both of which have received generally favorable reviews and are considered to be among this year’s Oscar contenders.

Depending on the viewpoint, “An Education” and “A Serious Man” represent either vile throwbacks to Jewish stereotypes in Nazi propaganda movies or creative works of art that show Jews, like other ethnicities, as multidimensional human beings.

The first attitude is expressed more often by “ordinary” moviegoers, while film critics and academics have rallied to defend the movies. So, surprisingly, has the Anti-Defamation League, usually the first to protest perceived slights against Jews.

The British import “An Education” centers on the not unwilling mental and physical seduction of Jenny, a bright 16-year-old English schoolgirl, by suave and unscrupulous David Goldman, a Jewish real estate speculator in his 30s.

Jenny, played by fetching Carey Mulligan, hailed as a latter-day Audrey Hepburn, is the pride of her middle-class family with her eyes set on Oxford.

David (Peter Sarsgaard) readily proclaims his Jewishness, knows all the angles and fashionable places, and fits naturally into the hustle and bustle of 1960s London emerging from the austerity of the war and post-war years.

He is, all in all, an urbane scoundrel who devalues middle-class neighborhoods, cons widows out of cultural artifacts, and, when proposing to Jenny, fails to mention that he already has a dowdy Jewish wife. In other words, not a nice guy, and certainly not a nice Jewish boy.

When writer Irina Bragin, who teaches world and English literature at Touro College, went to see “An Education” at a West Los Angeles theater, she walked out in the middle, leaving behind her husband and another couple to sit through to the end.

Later, in an article in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles and in a subsequent interview, Bragin explained her reaction.

“This is an artful film which wraps old anti-Semitic messages into a pretty new package,” she said. “David resembles the parasitical Jew of Nazi propaganda films.”

Bragin was born in post-war Romania and left with her family when she was 12, but she well remembers the blatant anti-Semitism of her countrymen and the shrewdness of Communist propaganda to vilify the regime’s enemies.

To read the full article, click here. Continue Reading...

It's the Oscars: The Hurt Locker, Avatar Tie with 9 Nominations

First of all, congrats to the fiercest queen of cinema, Meryl Streep, on her record-setting sixteenth Oscar nomination (image borrowed from ONTD). At this point, I don't even care if the nomination came from something as disposable as "Julie & Julia," for she is La Streep, and she can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned.

A morning with a few surprises: no Julianne Moore, but yes to Penelope Cruz in "Nine" for reprising her role in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." No to the "Inglourious Basterds" ladies, but yes to Anna Kendrick and her superficial portrayal in "Up in the Air."

The great news around these parts is the inclusion of "District 9" in the best picture field (with another 3 nods in other categories). I am thrilled to see such an original film recognized by the Academy. On the other hand, "Bright Star" barely made a blimp. No fair. "The Hurt Locker" made a fantastic showing, and is even represented in the acting category by Jeremy Renner. All of its nominations are more than deserved.

Without further ado, here's the full list of nominees:

BEST PICTURE
•"Avatar"
•"The Blind Side"
•"District 9"
•"An Education"
•"The Hurt Locker"
•"Inglourious Basterds"
•"Precious"
•"A Serious Man"
•"Up"
•"Up in the Air"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
•Penelope Cruz, "Nine"
•Vera Farmiga, "Up in the Air"
•Maggie Gyllenhall, "Crazy Heart"
•Anna Kendrick, "Up in the Air"
•Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
•Matt Damon, "Invictus"
•Woody Harrleson, "The Messenger"
•Christopher Plummer, "The Last Station"
•Stanley Tucci, "The Lovely Bones"
•Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds"

BEST ACTRESS
•Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side"
•Helen Mirren, "The Last Station"
•Carey Mulligan, "An Education"
•Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
•Meryl Streep, "Julie and Julia"

BEST ACTOR
•Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"
•Geroge Clooney, "Up in the Air"
•Colin Firth, "A Single Man"
•Morgan Freeman, "Invictus"
•Jeremey Renner, "The Hurt Locker"

BEST DIRECTOR
•James Cameron, "Avatar"
•Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker"
•Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds"
•Lee Daniels, "Precious"
•Jason Reitman, "Up in the Air"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
•Mark Boal, "The Hurt Locker"
•Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds"
•Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, "The Messenger"
•Joel and Ethan Coen, "A Serious Man"
•Pete Docter, Bob Petersom and Tom McCarthy, "Up"

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
•Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, "District 9"
•Nick Hornby, "An Education"
•Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, "In the Loop"
•Geoffrey Fletcher, "Precious"
•Jason Retiman and Sheldon Turner, "Up in the Air"

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
•"Coraline"
•"The Fantastic Mr. Fox"
•"The Princess and the Frog"
•"The Secret of Kells"
•"Up"

ART DIRECTION
•"Avatar" (20th Century Fox), Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
•"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (Sony Pictures Classics), Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro, Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
•"Nine" (The Weinstein Company), Art Direction: John Myhre, Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
•"Sherlock Holmes" (Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood, Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
•"The Young Victoria" (Apparition), Art Direction: Patrice Vermette, Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

CINEMATOGRPAHY
•"Avatar" (20th Century Fox), Mauro Fiore
•"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (Warner Bros.), Bruno Delbonnel
•"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment), Barry Ackroyd
•"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company), Robert Richardson
•"The White Ribbon" (Sony Pictures Classics), Christian Berger

COSTUME DESIGN
•"Bright Star" (Apparition), Janet Patterson
•"Coco before Chanel" (Sony Pictures Classics), Catherine Leterrier
•"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (Sony Pictures Classics), Monique Prudhomme
•"Nine" (The Weinstein Company), Colleen Atwood
•"The Young Victoria" (Apparition), Sandy Powell

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
•"Burma VJ" (Oscilloscope Laboratories), A Magic Hour Films Production, Anders A¸stergaard and Lise Lense-Maller
•"The Cove" (Roadside Attractions), An Oceanic Preservation Society Production, Nominees to be determined
•"Food, Inc." (Magnolia Pictures), A Robert Kenner Films Production, Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
•"The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers", A Kovno Communications Production, Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
•"Which Way Home", A Mr. Mudd Production, Rebecca Cammisa

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
•"China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan, Province", A Downtown Community Television Center Production, Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill
•"The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner", A Just Media Production, Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
•"The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant", A Community Media Production, Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
•"Music by Prudence", An iThemba Production, Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
•"Rabbit A la Berlin" (Deckert Distribution), An MS Films Production, Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

BEST FILM EDITING
•"Avatar" (20th Century Fox), Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
•"District 9" (Sony Pictures Releasing), Julian Clarke
•"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment), Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
•"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company), Sally Menke
•"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate), Joe Klotz

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
•"Ajami" (Kino International), An Inosan Production, Israel
•"El Secreto de Sus Ojos" (Sony Pictures Classics), A Haddock Films Production, Argentina
•"The Milk of Sorrow", A Wanda Visión/Oberon Cinematogrà /Vela Production, Peru
•"Un Prophète" (Sony Pictures Classics), A Why Not/Page 114/Chic Films Production, France
•"The White Ribbon" (Sony Pictures Classics), An X Filme Creative Pool/Wega Film/Les Films du Losange/Lucky Red Production, Germany

BEST MAKEUP
•"Il Divo" (MPI Media Group through Music Box), Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
•"Star Trek" (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment), Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
•"The Young Victoria" (Apparition), Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
•"Avatar" (20th Century Fox), James Horner
•"Fantastic Mr. Fox" (20th Century Fox), Alexandre Desplat
•"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment), Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
•"Sherlock Holmes" (Warner Bros.), Hans Zimmer
•"Up" (Walt Disney), Michael Giacchino

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
•"Almost There" from "The Princess and the Frog" (Walt Disney), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
•"Down in New Orleans" from "The Princess and the Frog" (Walt Disney), Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
•"Loin de Paname" from "Paris 36" (Sony Pictures Classics), Music by Reinhardt Wagner, Lyric by Frank Thomas
•"Take It All" from "Nine" (The Weinstein Company), Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
•"The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart" (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
•"French Roast" , A Pumpkin Factory/Bibo Films Production, Fabrice O. Joubert
•"Granny O'Grimm's Sleeping Beauty" (Brown Bag Films), A Brown Bag Films Production, Nicky Phelan and Darragh O'Connell
•"The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)", A Kandor Graphics and Green Moon Production, Javier Recio Gracia
•"Logorama" (Autour de Minuit), An Autour de Minuit Production, Nicolas Schmerkin
•"A Matter of Loaf and Death" (Aardman Animations), An Aardman Animations Production, Nick Park

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
•"The Door" (Network Ireland Television), An Octagon Films Production, Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
•"Instead of Abracadabra", (The Swedish Film Institute), A Directörn & Fabrikörn Production, Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
•"Kavi", A Gregg Helvey Production, Gregg Helvey
•"Miracle Fish", (Premium Films), A Druid Films Production, Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
•"The New Tenants", A Park Pictures and M & M Production, Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

BEST SOUND EDITING
•"Avatar" (20th Century Fox), Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
•"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment), Paul N.J. Ottosson
•"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company), Wylie Stateman
•"Star Trek" (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment), Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
•"Up" (Walt Disney), Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

BEST SOUND MIXING
•"Avatar" (20th Century Fox), Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
•"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment), Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
•"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company), Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
•"Star Trek" (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment), Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
•"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (DreamWorks and Paramount in association with Hasbro, Distributed by Paramount), Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
•"Avatar" (20th Century Fox), Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
•"District 9" (Sony Pictures Releasing) , Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
•"Star Trek" (Paramount and Spyglass Entertainment), Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton Continue Reading...

Oscar Predictions

I'm only doing the top categories because I'm swamped with work. Here goes nothing!

BEST PICTURE

Avatar

The Blind Side

District 9

An Education

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Invictus

Precious

Up

Up in the Air

BEST DIRECTOR

Avatar, James Cameron

The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow

Inglourious Basterds, Quentin Tarantino

Precious, Lee Daniels

Up in the Air, Jason Reitman

BEST ACTRESS

Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria

Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Carey Mulligan, An Education

Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

BEST ACTOR

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

George Clooney, Up in the Air

Colin Firth, A Single Man

Morgan Freeman, Invictus

Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Matt Damon, Invictus

Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Christian McCay, Me & Orson Welles

Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds

Mo'Nique, Precious

Julianne Moore, A Single Man

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

A Serious Man

Up

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

An Education

Bright Star

District 9

Precious

Up in the Air

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Argentina, El Secreto de Sus Ojos

Australia, Samson & Delilah

France, A Prophet

Germany, The White Ribbon

The Netherlands, Winter in Wartime

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

A Christmas Carol

Coraline

The Fantastic Mr. Fox

The Princess & the Frog

Up

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Avatar

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

The Lovely Bones

The White Ribbon

BEST EDITING

Avatar

District 9

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Up in the Air

Not sure how I'll do, but I'll be up at the crack of dawn to find out. Continue Reading...

'Cemetery Junction' trailer

The first real trailer for the new Ricky Gervais-Stephen Merchant film, Cemetery Junction, was released today.

The clip doesn't embed, so check it out here.

Continue Reading...

The Razzies!

A magical day is upon us. In fact, I think it is the second-most magical day of the year when it comes to award season, right behind the big show, because this year's Razzies have been announced, honoring (?) the very worst films of the year. These are the same folks who named an award after Uwe Boll, and I can get behind any organization that would do such a thing. Let's be honest, they bring on the laughs. I'll stop gushing now and list this year's nominees:

WORST PICTURE OF 2009
"All About Steve"
"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra"
"Land of the Lost"
"Old Dogs""
"Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (a.k.a. "Trannies, Too")

WORST ACTOR OF 2009
All Three Jonas Brothers, "Jonas Brothers: The 3-D Concert Experience"
Will Ferrell, "Land of the Lost"
Steve Martin, "Pink Panther 2"
Eddie Murphy, "Imagine That"
John Travolta, "Old Dogs"

WORST ACTRESS Of 2009
Beyonce, "Obsessed"
Sandra Bullock, "All About Steve"
Myley Cyrus, "Hannah Montana: The Movie"
Megan Fox, "Jennifer’s Body" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"
Sarah Jessica Parker, "Did You Hear About the Morgans?"

WORST SCREEN COUPLE OF 2009
Any Two (or More) Jonas Brothers, "The Jonas Brothers 3-D Concert Experience"
Sandra Bullock and Bradley Cooper, "All About Steve"
Will Ferrell and any co-star, Creature or "Comic Riff," "Land of the Lost"
Shia Lebouf & Either Megan Fox or Any Transformer, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"
Kristin Stewart and either Robert Pattinson or Taylor Whatz-His-Fang, "Twilight Saga: New Moon"

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF 2009
Candice Bergen, "Bride Wars"
Ali Larter, "Obsessed"
Sienna Miller, "G.I. Joe"
Kelly Preston,"Old Dogs"
Julie White (as Mom), "Trannies, Too"

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR OF 2009
Billy Ray Cyrus, "Hannah Montana: The Movie"
Hugh Hefner (as himself), "Miss March"
Robert Pattinson, "Twilight Saga: New Moon"
Jorma Taccone (as Cha-Ka), "Land of the Lost"
Marlon Wayans, "G.I. Joe"

WORST PICTURE OF THE DECADE
"Battlefield Earth" (2000)
"Freddy Got Fingered" (2001)
"Gigli" (2003)
"I Know Who Killed Me" (2007)
"Swept Away" (2002)

WORST ACTOR OF THE DECADE
Ben Affleck - "Daredevil," "Gigli," "Jersey Girl," "Paycheck," "Pearl Harbor," "Surviving Christmas"
Eddie Murphy - "Adventures of Pluto Nash," "I Spy," "Imagine That," "Meet Dave," "Norbit," "Showtime"
Mike Myers - "Cat in the Hat," "The Love Guru"
Rob Schneider - "The Animal," "Benchwarmers," "Deuce Bigalo: European Gigolo," "Grandma's Boy," "The Hot Chick," "I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry," "Little Man," "Little Nicky"
John Travolta - "Battlefield Earth," "Domestic Disturbance," "Lucky Numbers," "Old Dogs," "Swordfish"

WORST ACTRESS OF THE DECADE
Mariah Carey – "Glitter"
Paris Hilton - "The Hottie & The Nottie," "House of Whacks," "Repo: The Genetic Opera"
Lindsay Lohan - "Herbie Fully Loaded," "I Know Who Killed Me," "Just My Luck"
Jennifer Lopez - "Angel Eyes," "Enough," "Gigli," "Jersey Girl," "Maid in Manhattan," "Monster-in-Law," "The Wedding Planner"
Madonna - "Die Another Day,"
Source Continue Reading...

Bigelow Wins DGA

What a marvelous triumph. I'll confess I did not stay up to find out who the victor would be, but what a nice surprise to wake up to. History in the making; from the Wrap:

Kathryn Bigelow added another huge victory on her road to the Oscars on Saturday night, becoming the first woman to ever win the Directors Guild of America award for feature film.

Bigelow’s film “The Hurt Locker,” which has dominated the awards picture despite the enormous commercial success of her ex-husband James Cameron’s “Avatar,” was chosen out of a field that included “Avatar,” Jason Reitman’s “Up in the Air,” Quentin Tarantino’s “Inglourious Basterds” and Lee Daniels’ “Precious.”

Bigelow and Cameron were widely considered the frontrunners for the award, which has gone to the eventual winner of the Academy Award for Best Director all but six times since the DGA began handing out honors in the 1940s.

Afterwards, Bigelow called the award "extraordinarily gratifying and thrilling," but had trouble answering a question about how she felt to become the first woman to win the award.

"I suppose I like to think of myself as a filmmaker," she said, "and it's truly extraordinary to be honored by this amazing directorial body."

More here. Continue Reading...

Mad Genius Tim Burton to Preside Cannes Jury

Tim Burton, the offbeat filmmaker known for stylized, darkly comic movies such as Beetlejuice, Ed Wood, Edward Scissorhands and Sweeney Todd, has been selected to preside over the 2010 Cannes Film Festival jury.

In announcing the news, the French festival's president, Gilles Jacob, referenced Burton's distinctive filmmaking style, calling him "a magician of visual delights."

A filmmaker "with a heart of gold and silver hands, Tim Burton is first and foremost a poet," Jacob said in a statement. "We hope his sweet madness and gothic humour will pervade the Croisette [one of the main roads in Cannes and where the festival's main site is located]."

Read the rest here.

Continue Reading...

Color me Surprised: PGA Honors "The Hurt Locker"

Even the bottom-line focused Producers Guild of America has honored "The Hurt Locker" as best film of the year. I fully expected them to go with "Avatar" and didn't even bother posting the predictions, but this is a pretty eventful award -- possibly the winner with the lowest box office in the organization's history. On the animated side, "Up" took top honors. No real surprise there. Needless to say, this bodes well for both films' Oscar hopes. Continue Reading...

SAG Predictions

Oh boy, it's that time of the year already. Days are just flying by. Anyways, I very much doubt there will be many if any surprises at tonight's SAG Awards ceremony. Should there be one, I expect it to come either in the lead actress or best ensemble categories. Here are my predictions:

Best Ensemble: Precious [Alt: Inglourious Basterds]

Lead Actress: Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia [Alt: Sandra Bullock]

Lead Actor: George Clooney, Up in the Air [Alt: Jeff Bridges]

Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious [Alt: Vera Farmiga]

Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds [Alt: Stanley Tucci]

I don't know why I added alternates in the supporting categories -- those two are headed straight to the press room at the Oscars. Continue Reading...

Hope for Haiti Now

You can also visit http://www.hopeforhaitnow.org. Continue Reading...

BAFTA Nominees Announced - No Alarms and No Surprises

Other than a terrific showing by "District 9" and "The Hurt Locker," I'm not really surprised by anything here. I am, however, thrilled at those nods if it means that, at least for D9, there will be a chance for some Oscar recognition (I'm pretty sure "The Hurt Locker" will get its dose of love, deservedly so). Also nice to see Ronan and Tucci's work in "The Lovely Bones" acknowledged. Finally, good showing by "Precious" (yay!) but not so good for "Inglourious Basterds," which missed out on a best pic nod (boo).

BEST FILM

AVATAR - James Cameron, Jon Landau
AN EDUCATION - Amanda Posey, Finola Dwyer
THE HURT LOCKER - Nominees TBC
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE - Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness, Gary Magness
UP IN THE AIR - Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman, Daniel Dubiecki

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

AN EDUCATION - Amanda Posey, Finola Dwyer, Lone Scherfig, Nick Hornby
FISH TANK - Kees Kasander, Nick Laws, Andrea Arnold
IN THE LOOP - Kevin Loader, Adam Tandy, Armando Iannucci, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche
MOON - Stuart Fenegan, Trudie Styler, Duncan Jones, Nathan Parker
NOWHERE BOY - Kevin Loader, Douglas Rae, Robert Bernstein, Sam Taylor-Wood, Matt Greenhalgh


OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

LUCY BAILEY, ANDREW THOMPSON, ELIZABETH MORGAN HEMLOCK, DAVID PEARSON - Directors, Producers – Mugabe and the White African
ERAN CREEVY - Writer/Director – Shifty
STUART HAZELDINE - Writer/Director – Exam
DUNCAN JONES - Director – Moon
SAM TAYLOR-WOOD - Director – Nowhere Boy

DIRECTOR

AVATAR - James Cameron
DISTRICT 9 - Neill Blomkamp
AN EDUCATION - Lone Scherfig
THE HURT LOCKER - Kathryn Bigelow
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS - Quentin Tarantino

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

THE HANGOVER - Jon Lucas, Scott Moore
THE HURT LOCKER - Mark Boal
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS - Quentin Tarantino
A SERIOUS MAN - Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
UP - Bob Peterson, Pete Docter

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

DISTRICT 9 - Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell
AN EDUCATION - Nick Hornby
IN THE LOOP - Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE - Geoffrey Fletcher
UP IN THE AIR - Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

BROKEN EMBRACES - Agustín Almodóvar, Pedro Almodóvar
COCO BEFORE CHANEL - Carole Scotta, Caroline Benjo, Philippe Carcassonne, Anne Fontaine
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN - Carl Molinder, John Nordling, Tomas Alfredson
A PROPHET - Pascale Caucheteux, Marco Chergui, Alix Raynaud, Jacques Audiard
THE WHITE RIBBON - Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka, Margaret Menegoz, Michael Haneke

ANIMATED FILM

CORALINE - Henry Selick
FANTASTIC MR FOX - Wes Anderson
UP - Pete Docter

LEADING ACTOR

JEFF BRIDGES - Crazy Heart
GEORGE CLOONEY - Up in the Air
COLIN FIRTH - A Single Man
JEREMY RENNER - The Hurt Locker
ANDY SERKIS - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll

LEADING ACTRESS

CAREY MULLIGAN - An Education
SAOIRSE RONAN - The Lovely Bones
GABOUREY SIDIBE - Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
MERYL STREEP - Julie & Julia
AUDREY TAUTOU - Coco Before Chanel

SUPPORTING ACTOR

ALEC BALDWIN - It’s Complicated
CHRISTIAN McKAY - Me and Orson Welles
ALFRED MOLINA - An Education
STANLEY TUCCI - The Lovely Bones
CHRISTOPH WALTZ - Inglourious Basterds

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

ANNE-MARIE DUFF - Nowhere Boy
VERA FARMIGA - Up in the Air
ANNA KENDRICK - Up in the Air
MO'NIQUE - Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS - Nowhere Boy

MUSIC

AVATAR - James Horner
CRAZY HEART - T-Bone Burnett, Stephen Bruton
FANTASTIC MR FOX - Alexandre Desplat
SEX & DRUGS & ROCK & ROLL - Chaz Jankel
UP - Michael Giacchino

CINEMATOGRAPHY

AVATAR - Mauro Fiore
DISTRICT 9 - Trent Opaloch
THE HURT LOCKER - Barry Ackroyd
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS - Robert Richardson
THE ROAD - Javier Aguirresarobe

EDITING

AVATAR - Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron
DISTRICT 9 - Julian Clarke
THE HURT LOCKER - Bob Murawski, Chris Innis
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS - Sally Menke
UP IN THE AIR - Dana E. Glauberman

PRODUCTION DESIGN

AVATAR - Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair
DISTRICT 9 - Philip Ivey, Guy Poltgieter
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE - Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS - Nominees TBC
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS - David Wasco, Sandy Reynolds Wasco

COSTUME DESIGN

BRIGHT STAR - Janet Patterson
COCO BEFORE CHANEL - Catherine Leterrier
AN EDUCATION - Odile Dicks-Mireaux
A SINGLE MAN - Arianne Phillips
THE YOUNG VICTORIA - Sandy Powell

SOUND

AVATAR - Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson, Tony Johnson, Addison Teague
DISTRICT 9 - Nominees TBC
THE HURT LOCKER - Ray Beckett, Paul N. J. Ottosson, Craig Stauffer
STAR TREK - Peter J. Devlin, Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, Mark Stoeckinger, Ben Burtt
UP - Tom Myers, Michael Silvers, Michael Semanick

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

AVATAR - Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones
DISTRICT 9 - Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE - John Richardson, Tim Burke, Tim Alexander, Nicolas Aithadi
THE HURT LOCKER - Richard Stutsman
STAR TREK - Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt Dalton

MAKE UP & HAIR

COCO BEFORE CHANEL - Thi Thanh Tu Nguyen, Jane Milon
AN EDUCATION - Lizzie Yianni Georgiou
THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS - Sarah Monzani
NINE - Peter ‘Swords’ King
THE YOUNG VICTORIA - Jenny Shircore

SHORT ANIMATION

THE HAPPY DUCKLING - Gili Dolev
MOTHER OF MANY - Sally Arthur, Emma Lazenby
THE GRUFFALO - Michael Rose, Martin Pope, Jakob Schuh, Max Lang

SHORT FILM

14 - Asitha Ameresekere
I DO AIR - James Bolton, Martina Amati
JADE - Samm Haillay, Daniel Elliott
MIXTAPE - Luti Fagbenle, Luke Snellin
OFF SEASON - Jacob Jaffke, Jonathan van Tulleken
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"The Runaways" Just Got A Lot More Interesting

Color me surprised, but an already "must see" film in my list has gotten even more interesting. Today a movie clip from "The Runaways" and it features none other than Michael Shannon (Bug, Revolutionary Road) as producer/songwriter Kim Fowley

Big fan of Shannon's here, so this is a wonderful surprise. Here's the trailer if you missed it:
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Carey Mulligan: Lost in the Shuffle?

Here's an interesting article about Carey Mulligan, star of "An Education." The article theorizes about the disconnect between the initial reaction to Ms. Mulligan's fine performance in the film which all but guaranteed an Oscar triumph and today's reality -- that is, a reality in which Streep and Bullock seem to be battling it out in the orchestra front row, with everyone else leaps behind, mezzanine style.

Personally, I think Mulligan put in very solid work in a less than spectacular film. As wide-eyed Jenny, she brings unexpected gravitas to a potentially forgettable, cloying character. But I wasn't left in awe and the thought of OSCAR did not really enter my mind as it did with, say, Gabourey Sidibe. I'm not totally surprised by this turn of events, but who knows what will end up happening. The Oscar wheel turns unpredictably -- so I wouldn't count her out just yet.

So Whatever Happened to Awards Darling Carey Mulligan?
Written by S.T. VanAirsdale

One of the most bittersweet moments of last night’s Golden Globes occurred during the deployment of the Best Actress - Drama prize. Requisite shots of each nominee accompanied Mickey Rourke’s reading of their names: Emily Blunt, grinning in rather extreme close-up; Sandra Bullock, the favorite, perched and ready to rise; Helen Mirren, the distinguished elder; Gabourey Sidibe, the gleeful neophyte… and just prior to Sidibe, Carey Mulligan, the one-time favorite for this prize and perhaps every other in 2009, meekly clapping, dwarfed in the back of the room, all but invisible with the tiny entourage from her breakthrough An Education. The viewer knew just as well as Mulligan did: She didn’t have a chance. But why?

"Apart from Mo’Nique’s own towering performance in Precious, she was the closest thing to an Oscar lock Sundance had."
After all, it was almost a year ago when An Education’s Sundance premiere sparked instant Oscar chatter for Mulligan, not to mention a lightning-quick, seven-figure distribution deal with awards-savvy distributors Sony Pictures Classics. The 24-year-old ingenue’s performance as Jenny Miller — faltering at the fork in the road leading to either bohemian early-’60s living or a conservative Oxford education — yielded just the right class, brass and vulnerability to dazzle critics and Oscar voters. Assuming Sony Classics could strategically cultivate Mulligan’s It-Girl status in the months to come, the general public would fall in line behind them. Apart from Mo’Nique’s own towering performance in Precious, she was the closest thing to an Oscar lock Sundance had.

That remained the conventional wisdom throughout spring and early summer, when SPC and Lionsgate (which had bought Precious after a bit of saber-rattling with Harvey Weinstein) each clamped down on their stars’ and their movies’ visibility, carefully controlling against overexposure. But while Lionsgate secured a Cannes berth, a Toronto Film Festival gala and a prestigious centerpiece slot at the New York Film Festival for Precious, SPC went only so far as to drop An Education into Berlin and Toronto. It seemed a perfect fit for the NYFF’s opening-night selection (the programmers instead went for Alain Resnais’s Wild Grass, another SPC release), but Mulligan and her film remained hidden almost entirely from view as its Oct. 9 release date approached.

While that approach never stopped An Education from remaining near the front of the Oscar pack for much of 2009, you don’t need hindsight to conclude it was an overreaction against peaking too soon. That might work if you’re Mo’Nique, a brilliantly self-promoting, pay-to-play diva with whom Mulligan once shared an almost equivalent level of Oscar certitude. It isn’t working so well for Team Mulligan, however, which utterly failed to build any public image or brand for their awards hopeful. Any number of unknowable internal factors contributed to this, from Mulligan’s personal reluctance to play the game (especially after she started dating Shia LaBeouf) to SPC’s institutional thriftiness to simply taking an awards nod for granted, thus planning to regroup in February — after the Oscar nominations are announced — for a legitimate campaign.

All of those dynamics may have been workable four or five years ago, before the Oscars started drawing fire (and crummy ratings) for its seeming insularity. But in 2009, Team Mulligan most severely miscalculated where her real competition would come from. While Gabourey Sidibe was dancing with Ellen DeGeneres, for example, Mulligan wowed exactly no one on The Late Show with David Letterman (just one day before An Education opened in New York and Los Angeles, by the way). While Meryl Streep was dominating August as Julia Child, Mulligan was dolled up in the NYT talking about the “insane” people she encounters in Los Angeles while riding the bus to meetings. And while Sandra Bullock scored the biggest hit — and the most awards traction by far — of her career in The Blind Side, Mulligan idled inconspicuously the art house, where An Education never expanded beyond 317 theaters. On the one hand, sure: You don’t want it to turn out like Nine, overextended and flailing in medium-wide release. On the other, at least the Weinstein Company would wheedle and pester their actresses to nominations — or die trying, maybe even literally.

"Despite myself, as one who was in that first Sundance audience and enjoyed the rare privilege of seeing a star born in person, I fear the worst."
The consequences will come in waves. We witnessed the first in that sad scene at the Globes, with its lone shot of Muliigan as neither an underdog nor even a dark horse but — Heaven forbid — a slouching, cheek-biting also-ran. The next will arrive this week during Sundance, when some other budding actress will be coronated “this year’s Carey Mulligan,” possibly restoring a bit of late, insider luster to Mulligan’s awards-season standing. The last wave will come Feb. 2, when the Oscar nominations could snub her entirely in favor of a Weinstein special (Marion Cotillard, Melanie Laurent) or a late-coming ingenue (Blunt, Abbie Cornish — both of whom have Cotillard’s one-time Oscar guru Bob Berney working their cases behind the scenes). Despite myself, as one who was in that first Sundance audience and enjoyed the rare privilege of seeing a star born in person, I fear the worst.

Though Mulligan’s Oscar chances are flagging, they’re not unsalvageable. That said, what do you do if you’re Sony Classics? As noted above, Mulligan has been a cinch for a nomination for nearly 12 months; a new round of press or for-your-consideration ads probably just seems like a waste of money with that kind of myth and momentum behind you. Moreover, it seems like panic — such a Harvey move. Still, this is a young woman who was once expected to win this award, not just be satisfied with a nomination. (Surely SPC didn’t spend $4 million on this at Sundance to merely be nominated.) If ever there were a time to repeal this doctrine of underexposure — to get Mulligan in front of a few smart, Academy-concentrated audiences where her Oscar trajectory can find a boost before it’s too late — now is the hour. Suggestions?

Source Continue Reading...

GOLDEN GLOBES: AVATAR WINS PIC, DIRECTOR

***Denotes actual winner

(Loving the Scorsese tribute, he's so gracious; excellent montage, and I liked his shout out to Bergman and all the greats!)

1. BEST MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
a. AVATAR***
b. THE HURT LOCKER (WILL WIN)
c. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS
d. PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE
e. UP IN THE AIR

2. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
a. EMILY BLUNT, THE YOUNG VICTORIA
b. SANDRA BULLOCK, THE BLIND SIDE***
c. HELEN MIRREN, THE LAST STATION
d. CAREY MULLIGAN, AN EDUCATION
e. GABOUREY SIDIBE, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE (WILL WIN)

3. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – DRAMA
a. JEFF BRIDGES, CRAZY HEART***(nice surprise)
b. GEORGE CLOONEY, UP IN THE AIR (WILL WIN)
c. COLIN FIRTH, A SINGLE MAN
d. MORGAN FREEMAN, INVICTUS
e. TOBEY MAGUIRE, BROTHERS

4. BEST MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. (500) DAYS OF SUMMER
b. THE HANGOVER***
c. IT’S COMPLICATED
d. JULIE & JULIA
e. NINE (WILL WIN)

5. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. SANDRA BULLOCK, THE PROPOSAL
b. MARION COTILLARD, NINE
c. JULIA ROBERTS, DUPLICITY
d. MERYL STREEP, IT’S COMPLICATED
e. MERYL STREEP, JULIE & JULIA (WILL WIN)***

6. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. MATT DAMON, THE INFORMANT!
b. DANIEL DAY-LEWIS, NINE
c. ROBERT DOWNEY JR, SHERLOCK HOLMES*** (ridiculous)
d. JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT, (500) DAYS OF SUMMER (WILL WIN)
e. MICHAEL STUHLBARG, A SERIOUS MAN

7. BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
a. CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS
b. CORALINE
c. FANTASTIC MR. FOX
d. THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG
e. UP (WILL WIN)***

8. BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
a. BAARIA (ITALY)
b. BROKEN EMBRACES (SPAIN)
c. THE MAID (CHILE)
d. A PROPHET (UN PROPHETE) (FRANCE)
e. THE WHITE RIBBON (GERMANY) (WILL WIN)*** (HELL YES)

9. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
a. PENÉLOPE CRUZ, NINE
b. VERA FARMIGA, UP IN THE AIR
c. ANNA KENDRICK, UP IN THE AIR
d. MO’NIQUE, PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL PUSH BY SAPPHIRE (WILL WIN)***
e. JULIANNE MOORE, A SINGLE MAN

10. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
a. MATT DAMON, INVICTUS
b. WOODY HARRELSON, THE MESSENGER
c. CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER, THE LAST STATION
d. STANLEY TUCCI, THE LOVELY BONES
e. CHRISTOPH WALTZ, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (WILL WIN)***

11. BEST DIRECTOR – MOTION PICTURE
a. KATHRYN BIGELOW, THE HURT LOCKER (WILL WIN)
b. JAMES CAMERON, AVATAR***
c. CLINT EASTWOOD, INVICTUS
d. JASON REITMAN, UP IN THE AIR
e. QUENTIN TARANTINO, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

12. BEST SCREENPLAY – MOTION PICTURE
a. NEILL BLOMKAMP, TERRI TATCHELL: DISTRICT 9
b. MARK BOAL: THE HURT LOCKER
c. NANCY MEYERS: IT'S COMPLICATED
d. JASON REITMAN, SHELDON TURNER: UP IN THE AIR*** (boo)
e. QUENTIN TARANTINO: INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

13. BEST ORIGINAL SCORE – MOTION PICTURE
a. MICHAEL GIACCHINO, UP***
b. MARVIN HAMLISCH, THE INFORMANT!
c. JAMES HORNER, AVATAR (WILL WIN)
d. ABEL KORZENIOWSKI, A SINGLE MAN
e. KAREN O, CARTER BURWELL, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

14. BEST ORIGINAL SONG – MOTION PICTURE
a. «CINEMA ITALIANO» – NINE
b. «I WANT TO COME HOME» – EVERYBODY'S FINE
c. «I SEE YOU» – AVATAR
d. «THE WEARY KIND (THEME FROM CRAZY HEART)» – CRAZY HEART (WILL WIN)***
e. «WINTER» – BROTHERS

Television predictions after the jump.


15. BEST TELEVISION SERIES – DRAMA
a. BIG LOVE (HBO)
b. DEXTER (SHOWTIME)
c. HOUSE (FOX)
d. MAD MEN (AMC) (WILL WIN)***
e. TRUE BLOOD (HBO)

16. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
DRAMA
a. GLENN CLOSE -DAMAGES
b. JANUARY JONES - MAD MEN
c. JULIANNA MARGULIES -THE GOOD WIFE***
d. ANNA PAQUIN - TRUE BLOOD
e. KYRA SEDGWICK - THE CLOSER

17. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
DRAMA
a. SIMON BAKER - THE MENTALIST
b. MICHAEL C. HALL - DEXTER (WILL WIN)***
c. JON HAMM - MAD MEN
d. HUGH LAURIE - HOUSE
e. BILL PAXTON - BIG LOVE

18. BEST TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. 30 ROCK (NBC)
b. ENTOURAGE (HBO)
c. GLEE (FOX) (WILL WIN)***
d. MODERN FAMILY (ABC)
e. THE OFFICE (NBC)

19. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A TELEVISION SERIES –
COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. TONI COLLETTE - UNITED STATES OF TARA (WILL WIN)***
b. COURTENEY COX - COUGAR TOWN
c. EDIE FALCO - NURSE JACKIE
d. TINA FEY - 30 ROCK
e. LEA MICHELE - GLEE

20. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A TELEVISION SERIES – COMEDY OR MUSICAL
a. ALEC BALDWIN- 30 ROCK***
b. STEVE CARELL - THE OFFICE (WILL WIN)
c. DAVID DUCHOVNY - CALIFORNICATION
d. THOMAS JANE - HUNG
e. MATTHEW MORRISON - GLEE

21. BEST MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. GEORGIA O'KEEFFE (LIFETIME TELEVISION)
b. GREY GARDENS (HBO)(WILL WIN)***
c. INTO THE STORM (HBO)
d. LITTLE DORRIT (PBS)
e. TAKING CHANCE (HBO)

22. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. JOAN ALLEN, GEORGIA O'KEEFFE
b. DREW BARRYMORE, GREY GARDENS*** (yay!)
c. JESSICA LANGE, GREY GARDENS (WILL WIN)
d. ANNA PAQUIN, THE COURAGEOUS HEART OF IRENA SENDLER
e. SIGOURNEY WEAVER, PRAYERS FOR BOBBY

23. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. KEVIN BACON, TAKING CHANCE***
b. KENNETH BRANAGH, WALLANDER: ONE STEP BEHIND
c. CHIWETEL EJIOFOR, ENDGAME (WILL WIN)
d. BRENDAN GLEESON, INTO THE STORM
e. JEREMY IRONS, GEORGIA O'KEEFFE

24. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. JANE ADAMS, HUNG
b. ROSE BYRNE, DAMAGES
c. JANE LYNCH, GLEE (WILL WIN)
d. JANET McTEER, INTO THE STORM
e. CHLOË SEVIGNY, BIG LOVE***

25. BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINI-SERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
a. MICHAEL EMERSON, LOST
b. NEIL PATRICK HARRIS, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER
c. WILLIAM HURT, DAMAGES
d. JOHN LITHGOW, DEXTER (WILL WIN)***
e. JEREMY PIVEN, ENTOURAGE Continue Reading...

Critics Choice Award Winners

No surprises here, except for the Streep/Bullock tie. Fairly pedestrian picks, so I'll just post the winners list for the sake of posting them. From AD:

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best Original Screenplay: Inglourious Basterds
Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air
Best Acting Ensemble: Inglourious Basterds
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges
Best Actress: Meryl Streep & Sandra Bullock
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, Precious
Best Young Actress: Saoirse Ronan
Best Documentary: The Cove
Best Foreign Language Film: Broken Embraces
Best Animated Movie: Up
Best Comedy Movie: The Hangover
Best Score: Up
Best Song: The Weary Kind
Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria
Best Make-Up: District 9
Best Action Movie: Avatar
Best Cinematography: Avatar
Best Visual Effects: Avatar
Best Art Direction: Avatar
Best Editing: Avatar
Best Sound: Avatar Continue Reading...

Critics Choice Awards -- Tonight!

I totally forgot about this and was looking forward to an evening of film watching. Alas, I kind of feel obligated to see this sham if anything to keep up with the award season. In any case, here are my 5-minutes-until-the-show-starts predictions:

BEST PICTURE: "Avatar"
BEST ACTOR: George Clooney - "Up in the Air"
BEST ACTRESS: Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christoph Waltz – “Inglourious Basterds”
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Mo’Nique – “Precious”
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS: Saoirse Ronan – “The Lovely Bones”
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE: Precious
BEST DIRECTING: Kathryn Bigelow – “The Hurt Locker”
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Mark Boal – “The Hurt Locker”
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner – “Up In The Air”
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Mauro Fiore – “Avatar”
BEST ART DIRECTION: Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg – “Avatar”
BEST EDITING: Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua, James Cameron – “Avatar”

Continue Reading...

Miep Gies, Hero, Dies

I realize this is a film blog, but the passing of Miep Gies is one that should be marked by everyone who believes in the goodness of human kind. "The Diary of a Young Girl" is my favorite book. I've read it countless times and it is always an intense experience to pick it up, and more devastatingly, to put it down. Miep Gies is a testament to what greatness truly means. Her book, "Anne Frank Remembered" and the documentary of the same name must be seen by everyone, they are heart-wrenching yet illuminating pieces which portray Gies for who she was, despite her constant denials, a hero.

I am glad she lived a long life but nevertheless feel sad that one of life's true heroes is no longer with us. From the NYT:

Miep Gies, the last survivor among Anne Frank’s protectors and the woman who preserved the diary that endures as a testament to the human spirit in the face of unfathomable evil, died Monday night, the Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam said. She was 100.

The Miep Gies Web site said Mrs. Gies died after a short illness but provided no other details.

“I am not a hero,” Mrs. Gies wrote in her memoir, “Anne Frank Remembered,” published in 1987. “I stand at the end of the long, long line of good Dutch people who did what I did and more — much more — during those dark and terrible times years ago, but always like yesterday in the heart of those of us who bear witness.”

Mrs. Gies sought no accolades for joining with her husband and three others in hiding Anne Frank, her father, mother and older sister and four other Dutch Jews for 25 months in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. But she came to be viewed as a courageous figure when her role in sheltering Anne Frank was ultimately revealed with the publication of her memoir. She then traveled the world while in her 80s, speaking against intolerance. The West German government presented her with its highest civilian medal in 1989, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands knighted her in 1996.

When the Gestapo raided the hiding place in the annex to Otto Frank’s business office on Aug. 4, 1944, and arrested its eight occupants, it left behind his daughter Anne’s diary book and her writings on loose sheets of papers. The journals recounted life in those rooms behind a movable bookcase and the hopes of a girl on the brink of womanhood. Mrs. Gies gathered up those writings and hid them, unread, hoping that Anne would someday return to claim them.

But when Anne’s father returned to Amsterdam at the end of World War II, having been liberated from Auschwitz, he was the lone survivor of the eight. Anne Frank had died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp three months before her 16th birthday. Her sister, Margot, died there at age 19 and their mother, Edith Frank, had died at Auschwitz.

Mrs. Gies gave Anne’s writings to Mr. Frank, and they were first published in the Netherlands in 1947 in an abridged version. “Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl” has since been translated into dozens of languages in several editions, read by millions and adapted for the stage and screen, a voice representing the six million Jews killed by the Nazis.

But Mrs. Gies remained largely anonymous until an American writer, Alison Leslie Gold, persuaded her to tell her story and worked with her on “Anne Frank Remembered.”

Miep Gies was born Feb. 15, 1909, as Hermine Santrouschitz, a member of a Roman Catholic family in Vienna. When she was 11, she was sent to Leiden to be cared for by a Dutch family, having been among the many Austrian children suffering from food shortages in the wake of World War I. She was given the Dutch nickname Miep and later adopted by the family.

When she was 13, the family moved to Amsterdam, and in 1933 she became a secretary to Otto Frank, who was overseeing the Dutch branch of a German company selling an ingredient for manufacturing jam. Mr. Frank had fled Hitler’s Germany, and he was soon joined by his wife and daughters.

Miep became a trusted employee and friend of the Frank family and joined in its alarm over the persecution of German Jews. In May 1940, the Netherlands fell in Germany’s invasion of the Low Countries. In July 1942, when thousands of Dutch Jews were being deported to concentration camps, the Frank family went into hiding in unused rooms above Mr. Frank’s office. He had asked Mrs. Gies if she would help shelter them, and she unhesitatingly agreed.

The annex became a hiding place not only for the Franks but for three members of a family named van Pels — the father a business colleague of Mr. Frank’s — and Mrs. Gies’s dentist, Fritz Pfeffer.

Having married a Dutch social worker, Jan Gies, in 1941, Miep Gies joined with him and three other employees of Mr. Frank’s business in sheltering the eight Jews and caring for their daily needs. The protectors risked death if caught by the Nazis.

Mrs. Gies, while continuing to work for Mr. Frank’s business, which remained open under figurehead Christian management, played a central role in caring for the hidden. She found food for them, brought books and news of the outside world and provided emotional support, bringing Anne her first pair of high-heeled shoes and baking a holiday cake. On one occasion, Miep and Jan Gies (he is referred to in the diary as Henk, one of many pseudonyms Anne used) spent a night in the annex to experience the terror there for themselves.

At their apartment a short bicycle ride away, Mrs. Gies and her husband, a member of the Dutch resistance, hid an anti-Nazi university student.

When the Gestapo raided the hiding place — tipped off by someone unknown to this day — Mrs. Gies was working in the building. But one of the Nazi agents spared her from arrest, probably in light of their common Austrian heritage. Mrs. Gies later went to Gestapo headquarters in Amsterdam in a futile attempt to offer a bribe for the lives of the eight arrested Jews.

Mrs. Gies endured the Hunger Winter in the Netherlands during the war’s final months, then lived quietly in Amsterdam, a homemaker. But upon publication of her memoir, she began to travel widely as a living link to Anne Frank and spoke on the lessons of the Holocaust, often talking to schoolchildren who were reading Anne’s diary. A small woman — just a shade over 5 feet tall — whose hair had turned white, she bore a single remembrance of those days in the hiding place, a black onyx ring with a diamond in the center, worn on her left hand. It was a gift from Auguste von Pels, one of the doomed Jews she had sheltered.

Every Aug. 4, the anniversary of the raid on the annex, Miep and Jan Gies remained at their Amsterdam home. They withdrew from the world and reflected on the lost.


Mrs. Gies’s husband died in 1993. The other three people who helped shelter the Frank family — Johannes Kleiman, Victor Kugler and Elisabeth Voskuijl — had died earlier.

Otto Frank, who lived with Miep and Jan Gies for a time after the war, died in Basel, Switzerland, in 1980. The building housing the secret annex, at Prinsengracht 263, has become a museum, the Anne Frank House.

In her diary entry on May 8, 1944, Anne Frank wrote how “we are never far from Miep’s thoughts.”

In her memoir, Mrs. Gies told of her emotions when she finally read the diary.

She wrote: “The emptiness in my heart was eased. So much had been lost, but now Anne’s voice would never be lost. My young friend had left a remarkable legacy to the world.

“But always, every day of my life, I’ve wished that things had been different. That even had Anne’s diary been lost to the world, Anne and the others might somehow have been saved.

“Not a day goes by that I do not grieve for them.”

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New Wave Filmmaker, Eric Rohmer, Dies

From the NYT:

Eric Rohmer, the French critic and filmmaker who was one of the founding figures of the internationally influential movement that became known as the French New Wave, and the director of more than 50 films for theaters and television, including the Oscar-nominated “My Night at Maud’s” (1969), died on Monday. He was 89.

His producer, Margaret Menegoz, announced his death in Paris, Agence France-Press

Aesthetically, Mr. Rohmer was perhaps the most conservative member of the group of aggressive young critics who purveyed their writings for publications like Arts and Les Cahiers du Cinéma into careers as filmmakers beginning in the late 1950s. A former novelist and teacher of French and German literature, Mr. Rohmer emphasized the spoken and written word in his films at a time when tastes — thanks in no small part to his own pioneering writing on Alfred Hitchcock and Howard Hawks — had begun to shift from literary adaptations to genre films grounded in strong visual styles.

His most famous film in America remains “My Night at Maud’s,” a 1969 black-and-white feature set in the grim industrial city of Clermont-Ferrand. It tells the story of a shy, young engineer (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who passes a snow-bound evening in the home of an attractive, free-thinking divorcée (Françoise Fabian).

Read more here. Continue Reading...

WGA Announces Nominees -- All the usual suspects present

Not only do the usual suspects make an appearance ("The Hurt Locker," "Precious," and "Avatar"), but there are also a number of surprise nominees -- take "The Hangover" for example (which is apparently the best selling DVD comedy OF ALL TIME!!!!!!), and the dreadful "Julie & Julia." In light of this, I only have one question: where is "District 9"? There are some glaring omissions, but our friend Craig over at LiC explains: "If you don’t see your favorite on one of these lists, it might not have been so much a snub or even a sign of future Oscar doom. The screenplay simply may not have been eligible due to the writer not being in the WGA. Inglourious Basterds, A Single Man, The Road, An Education, Me and Orson Welles, In the Loop and District 9 are among the noteworthy screenplays that were not eligible this year."

Full list from Awards Daily:

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
(500) Days of Summer, Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber; Fox Searchlight
Avatar, Written by James Cameron; 20th Century Fox
The Hangover, Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore; Warner Bros.
The Hurt Locker, Written by Mark Boal; Summit Entertainment
A Serious Man, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Focus Features

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Crazy Heart, Screenplay by Scott Cooper; Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb; Fox Searchlight
Julie & Julia, Screenplay by Nora Ephron; Based on the books Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex
Prud’homme; Sony Pictures
Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher; Based on the novel Push by Sapphire; Lionsgate
Star Trek, Written by Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman; Based upon Star Trek, Created by Gene Roddenberry; Paramount Pictures
Up in the Air, Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner; Based upon the novel by Walter Kirn; Paramount Pictures

DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY
Against the Tide, Screenplay by Richard Trank; Moriah Films
Capitalism: A Love Story, Written by Michael Moore; Overture Films
The Cove, Written by Mark Monroe; Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions
Earth Days, Written by Robert Stone; Zeitgeist Films
Good Hair, Written by Chris Rock & Jeff Stilson and Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar; Roadside Attractions
Soundtrack for a Revolution, Written by Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman; Freedom Song Productions and Louverture Films

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