Tag Archives: Gravity

Jan 16 2014
Leave a comment
Uncategorized

3 Films ‘Hustle’ for the Lead – Oscar Nominations Breakdown

gravity 12 years hustle split

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts ad Sciences (AMPAS) gave us plenty of surprises – both good and bad – when they announced their 86th Annual Oscar nominations this morning.

The big story is American Hustle, which tied Gravity for the lead with 10 nods each, followed closely by 12 Years a Slave with 9. Any one of them could still win, but this proves it really is a 3-way race. All 3 got the crucial Picture/Director/Editing trifecta that is often necessary to go the distance.

All 9 of the Best Picture nominees got more nominations than any of the other films. A majority of the different branches seemed to be on the same page. I feel like this kind of symmetry is actually pretty rare. (Scroll to the bottom of my complete nominations list for a list of total nominations per film.)

I’m actually pretty proud of a decent showing in my own predictions. (Scroll down to see my brag list and how I did on each category.) But there were a fair number selections and snubs that few people saw coming – including at least one that NOBODY could’ve guessed.

The Good…

  • A much stronger-than-expected showing for The Wolf of Wall Street and Dallas Buyers Club was very heartening to see.
  • Philomena for Best Pic, expected but not guaranteed.
  • American Hustle got nods in all 4 acting categories (the best thing about the movie). This is extremely rare, and yet it’s 2 years in a row for a David O. Russell film.
  • Leonardo DiCaprio for Best Actor. I predicted it, but most pundits figuring he was in 6th place. Now that he’s in, I think he actually has a decent chance for the win, though it’s still a tight race.
  • Sally Hawkins was excellent in Blue Jasmine I’m happy to see her remembered here.
  • The Hobbit’s FX and dual Sound nods. Despite the series’ chronic bloating, it still continues to break new ground on the tech front.
  • Ernest & Celestine!!!
  • Get A Horse!

The Bad…

  • American Hustle‘s tied for the most nominations makes it even more likely to steal the ultimate win from Gravity and 12 Years a Slave (two vastly superior films).
  • Zero nominations for Rush, The Butler, Pacific Rim, or The Hunger Games.
  • Captain Phillips had a worse showing than expected, with both Tom Hanks and director Paul Greengrass missing out on nominations.
  • Part of the Rush shutout, Daniel Bruhl was passed over for one of the very best performances of the year.
  • Part of The Butler shutout, Oprah Winfrey (the best part of that film) was denied.
  • The Coen Bros. missed a screenplay nod for Inside Llewyn Davis. The film itself only managed 2 mentions.
  • 12 Years a Slave’s stunning cinematography was ignored.
  •  Part of The Hunger Games shutout, the amazing costumes were not mentioned, nor the memorable Makeup & Hairsyling
  • Speaking of M&H: the Academy seemed to love American Hustle, so how did it miss out here for those amazing hairdos?
  • No love for Hanz Zimmer’s excellent score for 12 Years a Slave, or Alex Ebert’s work on All Is Lost.
  • No Pacific Rim for visual effects is a travesty. If it weren’t for Gravity, I would’ve pegged it for the de facto winner.
  • Monster’s University is Pixar’s second ever miss for Animated Feature, after Cars 2.
  • Blackfish really deserved a nomination, and it could’ve used the extra publicity to help its valiant cause.
  • Stories We Tell was also widely expected to compete for the documentary win. While I haven’t seen it yet, everything I’ve read makes me disheartened that it was left out.

The WTF??!?!…

  • Best song. This category is notorious for providing some real head-scratchers year after year. (Last year they included a little-known documentary, and the year before that they only nominated TWO songs!) This year is no different, with an unexpected snub for Lana del Rey’s “Young and Beautiful” from The Great Gatsby.
  • But the real shot of crazy here is “Alone Yet Not Alone” from a film of the same name. A film which NOBODY has ever even heard of, let alone seen. It doesn’t appear on Metacritic, Rotten Tomatoes, or Box Office Mojo. It turns out it’s a religious film with a fairly offensive sounding synopsis, made purely for the Christian market. So how the hell did it get nominated? Perhaps because one of the composers is head of the Academy’s music branch…

Brag List
79 (+ 9 alternates) correct out of 108 predictions
2 perfect categories (+ 6 with alternates)
14 categories missed only one
5 missed two
0 missed more than two
Plus I got the one animated short I predicted, Get A Horse!

My predictions, by the numbers…

Best Picture 9/9!!!
Out: Saving Mr. Banks; Blue Jasmine

Best Director 4/5 + alternate
In: Alexander Payne, Nebraska; Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street
Out:  Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips; Spike Jonze, Her

Best Actor 4/5
In: Christian Bale, American Hustle; Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Out: Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips; Robert Redford, All Is Lost

Best Actress 4/5 + alternate
In: Amy Adams, American Hustle
Out: Emma Thompson, Saving Mr Banks

Best Supporting Actor 3/5 + alternate
In: Bradley Cooper, American Hustle; Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Out: Daniel Bruhl, Rush; James Gandolfini, Enough Said

Best Supporting Actress 4/5
In: Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Out: Oprah Winfrey, The Butler

Best Adapted Screenplay 5/5!!!

Best Original Screenplay 4/5 + alternate
In: Dallas Buyers Club
Out: Inside Llewyn Davis

Cinematography 4/5
In: The Grandmaster
Out: 12 Years a Slave

Costume Design 4/5
In: The Grandmaster
Out: The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Editing 4/5
In: Dallas Buyers Club
Out: The Wolf of Wall Street; Rush

Makeup and Hairstyling 2/3
In: Dallas Buyers Club
Out: American Hustle; The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Score 3/5 + alternate
In: Philomena; Saving Mr. Banks
Out: 12 Years a Slave; All is Lost

Song 3/5
In: Alone Yet Not Alone (Alone Yet Not Alone); “Happy (Despicable Me 2)
Out: Young and Beautiful (The Great Gatsby); So You Know What It’s Like (Short Term 12)

Production Design 4/5 + alternate
In: Her
Out: The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Sound Editing 4/5
In: The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug
Out: Rush

Sound Mixing 4/5
In: The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug
Out: All Is Lost

Visual Effects 3/5 + alternate
In: The Lone Ranger; Star Trek Into Darkness
Out: Pacific Rim; Oblivion

Foreign Film 4/5 + alternate
In: The Missing Picture
Out: The Grandmaster

Animated Feature 4/5 + alternate
In: Ernest & Celestine; Despicable Me 2
Out: Monsters University

Documentary Feature 3/5
In: Cutie and the Boxer; Dirty Wars
Out: Blackfish; Stories We Tell

Animated Short 1/1

Tagged , , , , ,
Jan 14 2014
1 Comment
Uncategorized

Visual Effects Society Nominations

VES-logo-post

Gravity vs. Not-Gravity. The story of FX this year is dominated by one movie. Gravity essentially won the Oscar in this category (and probably several others) within the first 5 minutes of its first screening.

That’s not to say there wasn’t a lot of impressive work on display from other films. Any other year I’d say Pacific Rim had this in the bag. But like The Lord of the Rings, Avatar, and The Life of Pi, there’s just no competition with the groundbreaking, industry-changing behemoth in the room.

That said, the fun of the Visual Effects Society (VES) Awards, is all the OTHER categories. Seriously, they have a category for EVERYTHING – “Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture”??? Check out the guild’s nominations below…

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Feature Motion Picture
“Gravity”
“Iron Man 3”
“Pacific Rim”
“Star Trek: Into Darkness”
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Feature Motion Picture
“Rush”
“The Great Gatsby”
“The Lone Ranger”
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”
“The Wolf of Wall Street”
“White House Down”

Outstanding Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2”
“Despicable Me 2”
“Frozen”
“Monsters University”
“The Croods”

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program
“Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” – Pilot
“Almost Human”
“Battlestar Galactica” – “Blood & Chrome”
“Game of Thrones” – “Valar Dohaeris”
“Inseparable” – “Chernobyl”

Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Broadcast Program
“Banshee” – Pilot
“Da Vinci’s Demons” – “The Lovers”
“Hawaii 5-0” – “Ho’onani Makuakane“
“Mob City” – “A Guy Walks in to A Bar”
“Moonfleet” – “Episode 2”
“The Borgias” – “Relics”

Outstanding Real-Time Visuals in a Video Game
“Call of Duty” – “Ghosts”
“Crysis 3”
“Killzone Shadow Fall”
“NBA 2K14”
“Ryse: Son of Rome”

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Commercial
“Call of Duty: Epic Night Out”
“Galaxy Chauffeur”
“Liberty Group Limited: Answer”
“PETA: 98% Human”
“Sony PlayStation: Perfect Day”

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Special Venue Project
“Hayden Planetarium’s Dark Universe”
“Mysteries of the Unseen World”
“Mystic Manor”
“Space Shuttle Atlantis”
“SpongeBob SquarePants 4D: The Great Jelly Rescue!”

Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
“Gravity” – Ryan
“Oz the Great and Powerful” – China Girl
“Pacific Rim” – Kaiju – Leatherback
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” – Smaug

Outstanding Animated Character in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
“Epic” – Bomba
“Epic” – Mary Katherine
“Frozen” – Bringing the Snow Queen to Life
“The Croods” – Eep

Outstanding Animated Character in a Commercial or Broadcast Program
“Game of Thrones” – Raising the Dragons
“PETA — 98% Human”
“Smithwick’s” – Squirrel
“Three, The Pony”
“Toy Story of Terror”

Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
“Elysium” – Torus
“Gravity” – Interior
“Gravity” – Exterior
“Iron Man 3” – Shipyard
“Pacific Rim” – Virtual Hong Kong

Outstanding Created Environment in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
“Epic” – Pod Patch
“Frozen” – Elsa’s Ice Palace
“Monsters University” – Campus
“The Croods” – The Maze

Outstanding Created Environment in a Commercial or Broadcast Program
“Game of Thrones” – The Climb
“Hell On Wheels” – “Big Bad Wolf”
“Inseparable” – “Chernobyl”
Liberty Group Limited — “Answer”

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
“Gravity”
“Iron Man 3”
“Man of Steel”
“Pacific Rim” – Hong Kong Ocean Brawl
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

Outstanding Virtual Cinematography in a Live Action Commercial or Broadcast Program
“Mad Max” – “Ethos”
“Murdered” – “Soul Suspect”
Qualcomm Snapdragon – “A Dragon is Coming”
“The Crew”

Outstanding Models in a Feature Motion Picture
“Gravity” – ISS Exterior
“Pacific Rim”
“Star Trek: Into Darkness”
“The Lone Ranger” – Colby Locomotive

Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Live Action Feature Motion Picture
“Gravity” – Parachute and ISS Destruction
“Man of Steel”
“Pacific Rim” – Fluid Simulation & Destruction
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in an Animated Feature Motion Picture
“Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2”
“Epic” – Boggan Crowds
“Frozen” – Elsa’s Blizzard
“The Croods”

Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a Commercial or Broadcast Program
“PETA: 98% Human”
Sony PlayStation – “Perfect Day”
Toyota Avalon – “Formula”
“Toy Story of Terror”

Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture
“Elysium”
“Gravity”
“Iron Man 3” – Barrel of Monkeys
“Iron Man 3” – House Attack
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug”

Outstanding Compositing in a Broadcast Program
“Banshee” – Pilot
“Game of Thrones” – The Climb
“The Conquering of Yunkai”
“Vikings” – “Dispossessed”

Outstanding Compositing in a Commercial
“Call of Duty”— “Epic Night Out”
Jean-Paul Gaultier – “The Sailor”
“Mercedes Sensations”
“Sony PlayStation — Greatness Awaits”
“Sony PlayStation — Perfect Day

Outstanding Visual Effects in a Student Project
“Initium”
“Morphium”
“Rugbybugs”
“Runaway”
“Where the Dream Begins”

Tagged , , , , ,
Jan 13 2014
Leave a comment
Uncategorized

What Does the Split Say?

gravity 12 years hustle split

Last night the Golden Globes decided to go with a 3-way Split, awarding their two Best Picture awards to 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle, while giving Best Director to Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity.

When it comes to the Oscars, Picture/Director splits are very rare and hard to predict (though it did happen last year). In the vast majority of cases Best Picture and Best Director go hand in hand. This makes sense: if you believe a film is really “best,” then you have to know that the director is a huge part of that.

Example: Back in 2011, by the time the Oscars rolled around, those of us reading the tea leaves had all bowed our heads to the stupid-but-inevitable fact that The King’s Speech would beat The Social Network for Best Picture, but many of us, myself included, held out hope for the vastly superior David Fincher to prevail in Director anyway. That was a bad bet – the voters liked TKS better and they rewarded director Tom Hooper for it.

So naturally it would seem to make sense that this tendency would hold true for the Golden Globes as well, right? Well, I decided to go do a little research. The results surprised me…

14 out of the 33 years the Globes have been around, they’ve awarded Best Director to a film that didn’t win Best Pic in either Drama or Comedy/Musical. Almost 50%. In fact is 50% if you just look at the last 10, when the 3-way split happened 5 times. So then the question becomes why. What the difference? What makes the HFPA more willing to “spread the wealth” than the Academy?

The more I think about it, the only answer that makes sense is the dual categories. With two Best Picture options but only one Director, they are guaranteed to have a split EVERY YEAR, in at list one of their favorite films. So if they’re comfortable not awarding one of the directors, maybe that makes it feel more OK to pass over the other one too.

So does the Globes split give us any insight into how we should expect the rest of the season to play out? Well with a 50% track record that doesn’t really seem to match up with Ocsar, the answer would seem to be no. But this year, within in the context of other awards and nominations we’ve seen so far, I do think there’s a take-away to be had.

Among the nominations and awards from various critics’ groups, 12 Years and Gravity appear to be neck and neck, with Hustle not far behind. Among the industry guild nominations so far, Hustle has hit the mark with as many if not more groups than any other. Gravity may seem behind on the guild side, but it was never going to get a SAG Ensemble nomination, and the popular opinion seems to be (however incorrectly) that its Screenplay is just as sparse as its cast and similarly unwarranted of recognition, just based on structure.

All this is to say we have a real 3-way tie on our hands. And the Globes split just confirmed it. In previous years it may not have meant much. In 2008 for example, neither Sweeney Todd nor The Diving Bell and the Butterfly were ever going to with the Oscar, and Atonement was already losing steam to No Country for Old Men. The Globes just wanted to be contradictory that year, for whatever reason. But this year their split seems to reinforce the fact that we have a real race for once. There’s no good way yet to predict which of the 3 will ultimately prevail.

And that’s exciting! This is the kind of thing that makes following the awards races fun. It’s been a long time since there was this kind of uncertainty in the Best Picture race. In various acting and other races? Sure, that happens fairly regularly. But not in Best Picture.

In a week, when the Oscar nominations come out, we may know more. And shortly after that, when the guilds begin announcing their winners, it may be all over but the shouting. But until then, I choose to embrace the uncertainty and enjoy it while it lasts. We don’t get this very often. It’s fun!

Tagged , , , , ,
Newer posts →