Thursday, the visual effects of the year’s most successful film were nominated for an Academy Award. That film, of course, is The Avengers and the Industrial Light & Magic YouTube has now uploaded a sizzle reel of exactly why the film was given such an honor. It’s a five-minute look at the work that went into made the Hulk look real, that made us believe New York was being destroyed, that a aircraft carrier could fly, and that Mark Ruffalo could ever be considered anything but a good guy. Check it out below. Read More »
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Posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2013 by Angie Han
The Academy isn’t known for its unpredictability (well, this year’s snubs for Best Director notwithstanding), but it came as a big surprise when it was announced last year that they’d selected Seth MacFarlane to host the awards ceremony. The Family Guy creator is well loved among the younger set but little known among the older-skewing Oscar audience. In any case his “edgy” humor seems like an odd fit for a typically tame event.
This morning, we got a first taste of how MacFarlane might fare as master of ceremonies when he and Emma Stone announced the nominees together. Now the Academy has put out five short TV spots that show off his comedic chops. Watch them after the jump.
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Posted on Thursday, January 10th, 2013 by Angie Han
Emma Stone and Seth MacFarlane woke up at the crack of dawn this morning to announce the nominees for the 85th Academy Awards. Academy members nominated nine contenders for Best Picture, with Amour, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Django Unchained, Les Miserables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, and Zero Dark Thirty all in the mix. The choices aren’t totally surprising, but it’s still a strong group of competitors.
It’s always interesting to see how the Best Picture category correlates to the Best Director one, and the notable names shut out this year include Kathryn Bigelow, Ben Affleck, Tom Hooper, and Quentin Tarantino — the first three of whom were all nominated for the DGA prize earlier this week. Another notable snub that I know /Film readers will be all over is the lack of recognition for Looper, which scored in none of the major categories.
On a happier note, The Master hasn’t been getting much love so far but it managed to score three Oscar nominations, all in the acting categories. The Best Actress group proved a historic one, with both the oldest (85-year-old Emmanuelle Riva) and youngest (9-year-old Quvenzhane Wallis) nominees in the category. And the animated field went exactly the way you’d suspect, but I’m just happy to see ParaNorman get a nod. Hit the jump to read the list of nominees.
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Posted on Friday, December 21st, 2012 by Angie Han
It’s practically tradition among geeks at this point to bemoan the lack of recognition for genre movie come Oscar season each year. Even within the screenplay categories, which often give recognition some of the year’s more offbeat offerings, sci-fi films rarely seem to make the cut. And Jason Reitman thinks that’s just not fair.
In a new essay, Reitman makes the case for giving writer-director Rian Johnson (his archnemesis) a Best Original Screenplay nod for Looper. Read it after the jump.
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If the doling out of awards by the New York Film Critics Circle, and the release of the Annie Awards nominations hadn’t made it clear, as we’ve passed into December the movie business award season is officially open.
The latest stage in the game is the release of a shortlist of documentaries that will be considered by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for nomination for the Best Documentary Oscar early next year. (This is not the nomination list — that will be released in January.) There are a few nice inclusions (such as our Sundance fave Searching for Sugar Man), some expected inclusions (The Invisible War, The Imposter, How to Survive a Plague) along with a batch of other possible nominations that we can all argue over. Read More »
With the arrival of December, awards season is in full swing, and usually that just means limited releases of some big new films, to establish them as Oscar contenders. And so a film like Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty will open in New York and LA on December 21, but won’t go wide until January 11.
But we also see the occasional re-release, meant to remind Academy voters that films are worth considering for awards. And so December 7 sees two films re-opening, the better to angle for Oscar. Open Road is doing a nationwide re-release of David Ayer‘s End of Watch, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Peña as LA cops. And as the following tweet shows, Joe Carnahan‘s The Grey is getting a two-week run at two LA-area theaters:
Granted, Carnahan’s film, starring Liam Neeson as one of a team of roughnecks stranded in the Alaskan wilderness, has been on DVD for months; you can even stream it on Netflix right now. But it’s a solid film, and I’m happy to see it get a small shot at awards recognition.
Posted on Tuesday, October 16th, 2012 by Angie Han
Harmony Korine‘s edgy oeuvre isn’t exactly typical awards bait, but his upcoming Spring Breakers is apparently gunning for at least one of those little gold men. The drama is getting an Oscar-qualifying year-end release to give star James Franco, who plays drug kingpin Alien, a shot at the Best Supporting Actor award.
Franco isn’t totally unknown to the Academy, having previously been nominated for his lead turn in 127 Hours. But he’ll be up against some stiff competition, many of whom did fine work in films more likely to be appreciated by the older Academy crowd. More after the jump.
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UPDATE: MacFarlane has released a video announcement of his new gig.
Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy, American Dad, The Cleveland Show and writer/director of Ted has just been announced as the host of the 85th Annual Academy Awards taking place February 24, 2013. Read more after the jump. Read More »
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