This Day in Oscar History: January 24 (2015)
Here's what happened today in Oscar History.
Born
Died
Released
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Film Preview: Effie Gray (2015)
Poster
Trailer Link
Release Date:
April 3, 2015
Synopsis:
From IMDb: "A look at the mysterious relationship between Victorian art critic John Ruskin and his teenage bride Effie Gray."
Poster: C
Review: Stylized toward the setting of the film, the poster doesn't make the subject seem as important as she must be to be the title character of the piece. It highlights the dullness of downtime pursuits in the period in which it takes place, which won't help to satisfy the interests of younger audiences.
Trailer: C+
Review: It's a straight forward costume drama with plenty of Edwardian intriguing and romantic denials without feeling like an original film fitting into the long history of period dramas.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Revisions:
(January 18, 2015) Original
Oscar in Box Office History (Week 4, 2015)
Every week, we'll take a look back 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 years into the box office past to explore how Oscar's nominees were doing at the box office that weekend historically. All data is taken from Box Office Mojo. The first section under each year is the positioning of all Oscar nominees during that weekend at the box office. The second section is an alphabetical list of those films and the categories in which they were nominated. And to start each week off, we'll be looking at the films releasing over the weekend that have the best chance of getting Oscar nominations and specifying the categories where we think they have the best chance at this stage of the game. Please let us know if you like our new feature or if you want to see more information and we'll see what we can do!
This Year: Potential Oscar Nominees Releasing This Weekend
None
The NEW Friday Face-Off #77
We started over at the beginning of August 2013, but with a new, more streamlined methodology to collecting votes. Just choose one selection in each of the ten categories below. Our first few weeks will be to select winners in cases of ties or in years where multiple categories existed for each discipline. After that, we'll go into the full face-off contest where each winner will then move on to a second round to face off against others.
Here is this week's ten face-offs. So, let's get started.
2014 Precursor Predictions: Producers & Screen Actors Guilds
This weekend, two of the biggest guild precursors bring us our last real chances at upset victories. Looking over our predictions, there seems to be a lot of variance in many places, suggesting that no one is precisely certain how these sometimes-persnickety groups will vote. We still try to take a stab at it.
The Producers Guild of America will kick things off Saturday evening at a private awards dinner. The Screen Actors Guild will finish out the weekend Sunday night with their televised event celebrating the best of film and television this year. For SAG, I'll be posting the winners live. For the PGA, I will be posting the winners Sunday morning as I won't have easy access to the internet Saturday evening (though, if I can get it posted sooner, I will).
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This Day in Oscar History: January 23 (2015)
Here's what happened today in Oscar History.
Born
Died
Ceremonies
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Poll: Best Supporting Actress (1996 – 2000)
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Best Supporting Actress Poll: 1996 - 2000
Film Preview: Ant-Man (2015)
Poster
Trailer Link
Release Date:
July 17, 2015
Synopsis:
From IMDb: "Armed with a super-suit with the astonishing ability to shrink in scale but increase in strength, con-man Scott Lang must embrace his inner hero and help his mentor, Dr. Hank Pym, plan and pull off a heist that will save the world."
Poster: B / B
Review: (#1) This design has plenty to draw and intrigue the wandering eye, though it may not have as much significance to those who aren't already familiar with the comic book basis. (#2) While this design is horribly bland, it's a clever take on the protagonist's stature.
Trailer: C+
Review: A straight-forward, generic comic adaptation trailer that tries to make the film seem exciting without exploring the narrative thrust behind the action, which makes it seem less interesting as a result.
Oscar Prospects:
This should do well for Disney/Marvel in terms of visual effects. Innerspace did quite well with the Academy, though Honey, I Shrunk the Kids wasn't so lucky.
Revisions:
(January 18, 2015) Original
Oscar Profile #221 – Sorting Out the Nominees
This week I thought it would be nice to do something a little different in light of last week’s Oscar nominations.
The films with the most nominations among this year’s Best Picture nominees are Birdman and The Grand Budapest Hotel with nine each, followed by The Imitation Game with eight, American Sniper and Boyhood with six each, The Theory of Everything and Whiplash with five each and Selma with two.
While Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Imitation Game have more nominations, some in technical categories it was not eligible for, critics’ favorite Boyhood would seem to be the one to beat.
The biggest surprise among the nominees is American Sniper which opened to respectful reviews as did two other major war movies, Unbroken and Fury, but none of these three films received anything anywhere near the rave reviews of Selma which received just one other nod.
Whiplash, though not really a surprise, is noteworthy as the only nominee appealing largely to a young audience, beating such hopefuls appealing to the same audience as Gone Girl, Nightcrawler and Snowpiercer.
Birdman, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything were all expected to be nominated. The Grand Budapest Hotel was considered a long shot because it opened last March to respectful reviews but no one at the time predicted it would be an Oscar front-runner.
2014 Oscar Winner Predictions: Post-Nominations
While we're quite a bit delayed from when we had expected to have these posted, here are our first post-Oscar Nominations predictions. We give you a primary choice and a runner-up in each category. We did not share commentary this time as we'll get deeply into that with our annual Rundown series, which begins next week.
Looking at our predictions, it's surprising how easily we align on many categories, mostly in the above-the-line categories. Even below, we have several unanimous picks, but looking at our runners-up is where the true diversity lies.
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This Day in Oscar History: January 22 (2015)
Here's what happened today in Oscar History.
Born
Died
Ceremonies
Our Site Milestones
2010: The Oscar Guy Became Cinema Sight (5)
Poll: What Are You Watching? (Jan. 23-25, 2015)
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What Are You Watching? (Jan. 23-25, 2015)
Film Preview: Run All Night (2015)
Poster
Trailer Link
Release Date:
April 17, 2015
Synopsis:
From IMDb: "An aging hitman is forced to take on his brutal former boss to protect his estranged son and his family."
Poster: -
Review: There was no poster immediately available for my review. Should one become available in the future, this section will be updated.
Trailer: B-
Review: The film looks like a cross between A History of Violence and Taken with none of the significance or originality necessary to pull off such a comparison. Liam Neeson has gotten into a single mode of acting and is unrelenting in his pursuit of such roles, which is unfortunate considering the talent he showcased back in the 1990's.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Revisions:
(January 18, 2015) Original
Looking at the Weekend: Jan. 23-25, 2015
None of this week's releases are likely to pull enough box office away from American Sniper to keep it from topping a second week, but if there are two films with a shot, it's Mortdecai and Strange Magic. Family auds may not be as likely, so I give the edge to Mortdecai.
Individual Commentaries
Wesley Lovell: A whole lotta "meh" this weekend.
Peter J. Patrick: Nothing being released this week I want to see, ever!
Tripp Burton: The early-year doldrums are upon us...I'm catching up on Oscar nominees this weekend.
Thomas LaTourrette: There are a couple of films that might be good, including Cake, but it also could be a weekend to catch up on the Oscar nominated films.
2015 Spring Season Preview: February
The end of the year brings the most combative environment for films trying to become Oscar winners. The next four months will be an interesting proving round.
Time to the Oscars
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- ACADEMY’S FEBRUARY SCREENINGS TO FEATURE “BACK TO THE FUTURE,” “BLADE RUNNER,” “THE GOONIES,” AND “THE DEPARTED” January 20, 2015
- 87TH OSCARS® NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED January 15, 2015
- 21 Scientific And Technical Achievements To Be Honored With Academy Awards® January 13, 2015
- ACADEMY TO ANNOUNCE OSCAR NOMINATIONS IN ALL 24 CATEGORIES LIVE January 9, 2015
- Oscars® Nominations Voting Ends Thursday, Jan. 8 January 6, 2015