If 2012's Oscar-nominated movie posters told the truth
posted by Artw on Jan 25, 2012 - 243 comments

Christopher Plummer, playing a man who comes out of the closet in his 70s, might have won Best Supporting Performance, but at least four people voted for a dog. The results for the crazy free-for-all that is the Indiewire Annual Survey, which polled 168 critics this year, came out today. The Tree of Life swept Best Film and Best Director, but the choices that only got a handful of votes are often the most interesting, including three different cast members from The Three Musketeers for Best Supporting and a vote for Transformers: Dark of the Moon for Best Film. You can see the complete results and links to all of the critics ballots here. [more inside]
posted by alexoscar on Dec 19, 2011 - 24 comments

The King's Speech is an extremely well-made film with a seductive human interest plot, very prettily calculated to appeal to the smarter filmgoer and the latent Anglophile. But it perpetrates a gross falsification of history. - Christopher Hitchens on the historical revisionism of The King's Speech. The LA times suggests that this, along with the History Channel digging up footage of King George VI not really stuttering all that badly at all, might be the beginning of a backlash against the film, which has been gaining Oscar momentum since it's SAG Award wins. With The Social Network, 127 Hours and The Fighter also having a basis in reality, is today's film making too hung up on the "true" story?
posted by Artw on Feb 1, 2011 - 127 comments

Will female directors break through the glass ceiling? Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) has just won the Director's Guild of America Award for Best Director - a first for any female director. It's a good indicator for Oscar. But can she win against a strong field? [more inside]
posted by crossoverman on Jan 31, 2010 - 49 comments

Say "cheese" — stinky, expensive, overprocessed American cheese. The venerable Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has revealed its set design for the Seventy-Eighth Academy Awards® Telecast. This year's edition is described as "an homage to old movie theaters" by designer Roy Christopher. "It's a no-holds-barred return to classic Hollywood glamour." Others may beg to differ.
posted by rob511 on Feb 22, 2006 - 56 comments

The Key Art Awards honor theatrical trailers, posters, TV commercials, Internet ads and more. Here are this year's winners.
posted by Frank Grimes on Jun 27, 2003 - 2 comments

De Niro non disputandis est or, in English, don't fuck with Bobby De Niro. Which is what the English have been doing recently, naming Al Pacino as the greatest movie star of all time. Askmen.com is a little more appreciative but also brackets Pacino with De Niro. The American Film Institute [pdf format] will be giving De Niro their 31st Lifetime Achievement Award on June 12 but - there they go again - he's merely described as "widely regarded as one of the most skillful actors of the last three decades". Is nothing sacred anymore? Who's the man [read "of a certain age, experience and cojones"], after all? I mean, after Jack Nicholson, of course. Now I'm all confused!
posted by Carlos Quevedo on May 8, 2003 - 31 comments

The Pianist by Roman Polanski has been nominated for several Acadamy awards including best picture and best direction. The issue is that it's director Roman Polanski fled the US in 1977 when he was accused of sexually assaulting a 13 year old girl. (and after his wife Sharon Tate was killed by the Manson family). He fled because while he had worked out a deal with the prosecuter and the girls family, the judge in the case had set aside the plea bargain and Polanski faced up to a 50 year jail term. Now even the victim in the case Thinks Polanski should be allowed back into the states for the acadamy awards
posted by bitdamaged on Mar 10, 2003 - 51 comments

1st Annual Alties - AlterNet, the champion of indie journalism, has entered the movie award business. This "celebration of film and film culture" is accepting nominations in 15 different categories (including "Reinvention of the Chick Flick," "The Doobie Award" and "Best "Feel Bad" Movie of the Year") until February 10 and voting begins on February 14. Could this really be "your chance to think about and discuss your favorite movies and what they really mean" or will Chicago end up snagging "Best Soundscape"?
posted by boost ventilator on Jan 22, 2003 - 2 comments

Pick Your Winners For The Oscars: UK-based Blue Square gives you the odds. So how would you bet a virtual $100? And how much would you stand to win?(That is, if you could do the maths...)
posted by MiguelCardoso on Mar 20, 2002 - 9 comments

Lord of the Rings sweeps Baftas It must be wierd for Peter Jackson to be working on the final two acts of his trilogy when the first part is winning awards. I think this is what can be termed 'pressure to perform'.
posted by feelinglistless on Feb 24, 2002 - 9 comments

"Thanks for the honour. Oh, and for the Oscar too..." Is that an MBE on Russell Crowe's chest? A quick google suggests his grandad received one: dunno the protocol of wearing someone else's medal, but is that the first time an Oscar winner's gone on stage with a British gong?
posted by holgate on Mar 27, 2001 - 15 comments

The Oscar® nominations won't get announced until tomorrow, which means that the noms for The Razzies were announced today. The biggest contender? John Travolta revolting pet film, "Battlefield Earth," with eight.
posted by honkzilla on Feb 12, 2001 - 23 comments

The Oscars TM AMPAS will NOT consider any movie that was first shown on the Internet.
Looks like our firends at HowWrong Productions, the creators of "Jesus! The Semi-Animated Sorta-Movie!" have beenShafted.
Now they'll have to rent a theater for the sequel: "Jesus' Big Score", and then probably nobody'll show up.. cause they'll all be at The Schmolympics!
You owe me, Talbot. Big time.

posted by wendell on Jun 17, 2000 - 3 comments

The Razzies dis-honor the worst achievements in film for 1999. My personal favorite, Heather Donahue in Blair Witch. Forget the Oscars.
posted by E-Boogie on Feb 16, 2000 - 2 comments

This year's list of Oscar nominees seems way, way off. But here's my big five predictions given their lame choices (along with my personal faves if I could choose anything): best pic: American Beauty (Magnolia), Actor: Denzel Washington (John Malkovich), Actress: Hilary Swank (same), Supporting Actor: Tom Cruise (Philip Hoffman), and Supporting Actress: Angelina Jolie (same, she was amazing).
posted by mathowie on Feb 15, 2000 - 16 comments