Precursor Predictions: Spirit Awards
Film Independent's Spirit Awards are a recognition of the year's best small budget, independently-financed films (though this last part has decreased over the years with the infusion of niche specialty houses from major studios making movies for little money). This is traditionally the final precursor to announce before the Oscars and will be doing so Friday evening. Here are our predictions for those awards.
Spirit Awards
Best Feature
Amreeka
(500) Days of Summer (Peter)
The Last Station
Precious (Wesley, Tripp)
Sin Nombre
View the rest of this article...
Favorite Oscar Moments, Part XIII
Our Oscar Favorite Moments series continues in our thirteenth outing with an Honorary Oscar presentation, a shocking outfit and a surprise winner.
Peter J. Patrick
1969, 42nd Academy Awards
Maggie Smith is the surprise Best Actress winner for The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, besting second generation Hollywood favorites, Jane Fonda (They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?) and Liza Minnelli (The Sterile Cuckoo).
View the rest of this article...
Best Actress
(Updated: 3/5/10, 12:44p - Added Wes' info) It's become one of the most watched races of the year and could very easily go down to the wire. Below are our predictions for the Bullock/Streep face off, plus five facts and our favorites.
Trivia: Five Facts
- The category was one of the first introduced in 1927/28.
- Only two winners in this category did so for a performance in a foreign language film. Sophia Loren was the first in 1961 for Two Women. Marion Cotillard was the second in 2007 for La Vie en Rose.
- 82 Oscars have gone out in this category.
- Katharine Hepburn and Barbra Streisand share the distinction of being the only individuals to tie for a win in this category in Oscar history in 1968 for The Lion in Winter and Funny Girl respectively.
- Meryl Streep, this year, surpassed Katharine Hepburn's 12 Lead Actress nomination with her 13th mention in the top category. Behind Hepburn in third place for most nominations is Bette Davis with 10 followed by Greer Garson with 7. And while many actresses have won this award twice, but only one actress has won more: Katharine Hepburn with 4.
Favorite Oscar Moments, Part XII
(Updated: 3/3/10, 11:57p to add John Wayne clip) Aging Hollywood legends showing up at the Oscars or receiving honorary awards are superbly memorable events. And other times, it's a simple performance that does the trick.
Tripp Burton
1979, 52nd Academy Awards
The Duke came back, in the last year of his life, to a rousing standing ovation. He is an American Icon, and watching him succumb to the love of Hollywood is still a heart-breaking moment.
View the rest of this article...
Best Cinematography
(Updated: 3/5/10, 12:46p - Added Wes' info) Our Post-ASC predictions are now ready to be revealed as we continue our look at the categories for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards. Here are five facts on the Cinematography award, our predictions and our favorites.
Trivia: Five Facts
- Among the first categories ever created, Cinematography has been going strong for 81 years. The category was split between black-and-white and color work from 1939 through 1956 and again from 1958 to 1966.
- Schindler's List was the first black-and-white film since the category dissolved in 1966 to win the Oscar, nearly 30 years later. Since 1993 when it won, no other film has managed the feat (only two films have been nominated since: The Man Who Wasn't There and Good Night, and Good Luck.)
- Since its inception, 123 statuettes have been given for Cinematography.
- Charles B. Lang Jr and Leon Shamroy are tied for the most nominations in Academy history with 18 each. Behind them is Robert L. Surtees with 16, Harry Stradling Sr with 14 and George Folsey with 13. The most wins is shared between Leon Shamroy and Joseph Ruttenberg with 4 each. Conrad L. Hall, Winton C. Hoch, Arthur Miller, Vittorio Storaro, Robert L. Surtees and Freddie Young are behind them with three each.
- Geoffrey Unsworth and Conrad L. Hall are the only two cinematographers to win the award posthumously in 1980 for Tess and 2002 for Road to Perdition respectively. Allen M. Davey, Joseph August, William C. Mellor and Harry Stradling Sr. were the only previous posthumous nominees.
Favorite Oscar Moments, Part XI
Milestones & quips make up many of our reflections for the Oscars. Here are three more moments that we enjoyed tremendously.
Peter J. Patrick
1973, 46th Academy Awards
A terminally ill Susan Hayward makes her last appearance on the arm of Charlton Heston and Katharine Hepburn makes her only appearance. As David Niven intones, “A star is a star is a star. Ladies and gentlemen, this is a star!”
The DVD Report #145: March 2, 2010
Two recent children’s films dominate this week’s new releases.
Maurice Sendak’s once controversial Where the Wild Things Are had previously been filmed as an animated short in 1973 and re-released with new narration in 1988. Spike Jonze’s new film stretches the thin story to the breaking point, but nonetheless has legions of admirers.
The original controversy stemmed from the 1963 book’s depiction of a violent child who is sent to bed without his supper, conquers some imaginary monsters and goes downstairs to eat his still hot supper. Librarians of the day thought it unseemly and refused to stock it. When children found it anyway, they took another look and decided it had a wholesome message after all. It wasn’t about a boy overcoming monsters, it was about a boy overcoming his anger.
In any event, the film has a lovely nostalgic opening and an equally lovely ending. What comes between is a matter of taste, but even if you’re not enthralled by the story you can’t help but be taken in by Carter Burwell and Karen O’s lovely score.
Max Records is quite natural as the boy, Max, and a genuine find. Catherine Keener does her usual strong work as his mother. Mark Ruffalo has a throwaway role as her new boyfriend whose presence precipitates the boy’s tantrum.
View the rest of this article...
Best Sound Mixing & Sound Editing
The sound awards are always one of the hardest to predict simply because it's hard to know what the Academy is hearing. They've gone for classic, quality sound mixes and they've gone for aural deluges with no coherence. We'll give you a few facts, share our predictions and our favorites and least favorites.
Trivia: Five Facts: Sound Mixing
- The Sound Mixing award, originally called Sound Recording, was introduced at the 3rd Academy Awards.
- For 39 years, the award for Sound Mixing went to the studio sound department instead of to the actual sound mixers. In addition to those 39 awards, 150 individual statuettes have been given out.
- After the first 6 years of awards going to the individual sound mixers, every single award was given to four individuals. In 2000, the first three-man team won the award for Gladiator. Including that win and going forward, 7 of the 9 awards were given to three individuals. This year, however, it looks like we'll either have a four-person team winning or the first pair to win since 1974.
- Kevin O'Connell is the most nominated individual in the history of the award with 20 nominations. Following him is Donald O. Mitchell with 14, Andy Nelson with 13, Les Fresholtz and Greg P. Russell with 12 each. The most honored sound mixers are tied with four awards each: Bob Beemer, Mark Berger, Scott Millan, Gary Rydstrom and Gary Summers.
- Although he's the most nominated sound mixer in history, he's also never won. No other individual in Oscar history has been nominated more often and never received an Oscar.
Favorite Oscar Moments, Part X
Sometimes the greatest moments are the ones least remembered by modern audiences. And sometimes they are just the surprise moments that you never realized were so important. Our tenth edition of Favorite Oscar Moments continues.
Tripp Burton & Peter J. Patrick
1977, 50th Academy Awards
Tripp: They came out to present the Best Sound award, and Holden ended up thanking Stanwyck on live TV for saving him from being fired from his first film and thus saving his career. This is the kind of great moment from aging Hollywood icons that are sacrificed these days in favor of flavor of the day "movie stars."
Peter: William Holden makes an impromptu speech about the woman whose on-screen generosity he owes his career to, co-presenter Barbara Stanwyck. (This is the precursor to one of Peter's other favorite moments already revealed in our Favorite Oscar Moments series)
View the rest of this article...
Precursor: Visual Effects Society
Avatar wins big at the Visual Effects Society Awards. Winners listed below.
Visual Effects Society
Visual Effects/Visual Effects-Driven Picture
Avatar (Wesley, Peter, Tripp)
Supporting Visual Effects
Sherlock Holmes
Animation/Animated Picture
Up (Wesley)
View the rest of this article...
Polls
What Did You Think of the Oscarcast?
- Quite Boring (100%, 1 Votes)
- Best Ever (0%, 0 Votes)
- Quite Exciting (0%, 0 Votes)
- Better Than Average (0%, 0 Votes)
- Average (0%, 0 Votes)
- Worse Than Average (0%, 0 Votes)
- Worst Ever (0%, 0 Votes)
Total Voters: 1
Loading ...OFTA
Administration
Opening This Week
- Green Zone (W) OT
- Remember Me (W)
- She's Out of My League (W)
- Our Family Wedding (W)
- Mother (N)
- Guide:
- W - Wide
- L - Limited
- N - New York and/or L.A.
- O - Oscar Contender (films that compete in all major categories)
- OT - Oscar Contender - Techs (films that compete in tech categories only)
Weekend Box Office
March 3-5, 2010
| 1. | Alice in Wonderland OT | ||
| $116.1M | (Total: $116.1M) | ||
| 2. | Brooklyn's Finest | ||
| $13.4M | (Total: $13.4M) | ||
| 3. | Shutter Island O | ||
| $13.2M | (Total: $95.8M) | ||
| 4. | Cop Out | ||
| $9.3M | (Total: $32.5M) | ||
| 5. | Avatar O | ||
| $8.1M | (Total: $720.6M) | ||
| 6. | The Crazies | ||
| $7.1M | (Total: $27.5M) | ||
| 7. | Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief OT | ||
| $5.1M | (Total: $78.1M) | ||
| 8. | Valentine's Day | ||
| $4.2M | (Total: $106.3M) | ||
| 9. | Crazy Heart O | ||
| $3.3M | (Total: $29.5M) | ||
| 10. | Dear John | ||
| $2.8M | (Total: $76.6M) | ||
Twitter Updates
Events Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||