The Academy has released the annual list of new invitations to their hallowed ranks. Now you can blame THESE people next time you don't like a nomination or win! I hope none of these people are reading because I'm going to be divvying them up into the following categories:
"duh!" an obvious choice that makes sense based on current career or recent nomination.
"starfucking" the public or the industry is hot for them now.... even if they're not exactly "oscar worthy"
"now?" isn't this too early OR too late?
"curious" Perplexing choices. Some of them are wonderful but we still can't figure out why they've been given this great honor... especially if their fame is largely TV based (There's another Academy for that. You may have heard of them since they also give out coveted statues.)
"wtf" we do not approve.
New Actors
Duh!: Vincent Cassel, Jesse Eisenberg, John Hawkes, Mila Kunis, Jennifer Lawrence, Anthony Mackie, Lesley Manville, Ellen Page, Mia Wasikowska, Jacki Weaver
Starfucking: Russell Brand, Gerard Butler, Bradley Cooper, Beyonce Knowles
Now?: Rooney Mara, Jennifer Garner, Nastassja Kinski, Tea Leoni, Connie Nielsen, Wes Studi
Curious: Robbie Coltrane, Rosemarie DeWitt, Peter Dinklage, Dominic Monaghan
WTF: John Corbett, David Duchovny...
....John Corbett is obviously qualified to judge the artistry of Tilda Swinton and Daniel Day-Lewis, don't you agree?
New Directors
Duh!: Susanne Bier (In a Better World) and Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) both won Oscars last year and Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right) and Debra Granik (Winter's Bone) both directed Best Picture nominees. Cholodenko and Granik were also invited to the writer's branch so they'll be able to nominate in three categories: Picture, Director and Screenplays.
Surprising but welcome choices: Gregg Araki and John Cameron Mitchell
Curious: Yojiro Takita (do they always invite the foreign directors whose films win? He directed Departures) Now?: Neil Burger (The Illusionist, Limitless).
♥: Gregg Araki (Kaboom) and John Cameron Mitchell (Rabbit Hole)
But that's not all...
Sylvain ChometAnimators
Geefwee Boedoe (Let’s Pollute), Alessandro Carloni, Kristof Serrand and Jakob Hjort Jensen (How to Train Your Dragon), Sylvain Chomet (The Illusionist), Biljana Labovic (The Cow Who Wanted to Be a Hamburger), Tomm Moore (The Secret of Kells), Teddy Newton (Day & Night), Javier Recio Gracia (The Lady and the Reaper), Andrew Ruhemann and Shaun Tan (The Lost Thing), Simon Wells (Mars Needs Moms)
Finally Bob Peterson (Up) was invited for both this category and the writer's branch which means he gets three nomination ballots: Picture, Animation, Screenplay.
Art Directors, Set Decorators and Production Designers
Anahid Nazarian (The Virgin Suicides), Lauren E. Polizzi (Cowboys & Aliens), Judy Farr (), Gene Serdena (The Fighter), Howard Cummings (I Love You, Beth Cooper), Therese DePrez (Black Swan), Guy Hendrix Dyas (Inception), Jess Gonchor (True Grit), Jane Musky (Something Borrowed), and Eve Stewart (The King’s Speech)
Eric SteelbergCinematographers
Frank Byers, Patrick Cady, Danny Cohen (nominee last year), Luka Ettlin, Steven Fierberg, Barry Markowitz, Charles Minsky, Lawrence Sher, and Eric Steelberg (the latter, in particular, seems like a good choice as he did fine work on Up in the Air and (500) Days of Summer)
Costume Designers
Odile Dicks-Mireaux who should have been nominated for An Education, Sarah Edwards who does strong work in contemporary films like Salt and Michael Clayton and Danny Glicker of Milk fame.
Documentary
Jon Alpert (China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province), Amir Bar-Lev (The Tillman Story), Diane Weyermann and Lesley Chilcott (Waiting for ‘Superman), Carl Deal (Trouble the Water), Charles Ferguson (Inside Job), Tim Hetherington (Restrepo)... this is a posthumous honor. RIP, Sebastian Junger (Restrepo), Thomas Lennon and Ruby Yang (The Warriors of Qiugang)
Film Editors
Tariq Anwar (The King’s Speech), Naomi Geraghty (Limitless), Jon Harris (127 Hours), Darren Holmes (How to Train Your Dragon), Pamela Martin (The Fighter), Joel Negron (Transformers: Dark of the Moon), Terilyn A. Shropshire (Jumping the Broom), Angus Wall (The Social Network) and Andrew Weisblum (Black Swan)
Live Action Short Films
Luke Matheny (God of Love)
Makeup Artists and Hairstylists
Judy Chin who should've been nominated for Black Swan as well as Kathrine Gordon (3:10 to Yuma),
Trefor Proud (Topsy-Turvy), Cindy Jane Williams (Burlesque), Wesley Wofford (Big Mommas: Like Father, Like Son)
Music
Terence Blanchard (Inside Man), Fernand Bos (Crazy Heart), Graeme Revell (Darfur Now)
Sound
Andrew DeCristofaro,Joe Dorn, Marc Fishman, Lora Hirschberg, Chris Jargo, John Midgley, Ed Novick, Hammond Peek, Brian Vessa, Mark Weingarten
Visual Effects
Tim Alexander, Rob Bredow, Tim Burke, Peter Chesney , Paul Franklin, Kevin Tod Haug, Florian Kainz, Marshall Krasser, Sean Phillips, Peter G. Travers, Brian Van’t Hul, Mark H. Weingartner
Writers
Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko, Debra Granik, Karen McCullah Lutz, Aline Brosh McKenna, Bob Peterson, David Rabe, Anne Rosellini, David Seidler, Scott Silver, Kirsten Smith, Aaron Sorkin, Daniel Waters
The weirdest thing here is probably Lutz and Smith who wrote The Ugly Truth. What's with the Academy's group love for The Ugly Truth team? (Gerard Butler was also invited). Now this team also wrote the wonderfully funny Legally Blonde but don't you have to deduct points for The Ugly Truth? You have to, right? If it's not a rule, it should be.
Miscellania -not a specific category so their only nomination ballot would be for Best Picture.
Casting: Nina Gold, Jina Jay, Lora Kennedy. Executives: William J. Damaschke, Richard M. Fay, Donna Langley, Leslie Moonves, Vanessa L. Morrison, Bill Pohlad, Rich Ross, Jeff Small and Thomas Tull; Producers: Iain Canning, Cean Chaffin,Kevin Feige,Gary Goetzman,Sisse Graum Jorgensen,Jeffrey Levy-Hinte,Todd Lieberman,Robert Lorenz, Celine Rattray, Emile Sherman,Emma Thomas, Gareth Unwin; Public Relations:
Susan Ciccone, Alissa Grayson, Jeffrey Hall, Jill Ann Jones, Mark Markline, Carmelo Pirrone, Ira Rubenstein
David Schneiderman, Loren Schwartz, Lance Volland; "At Large": George Aguilar, Barry Bernardi, Christopher Dodd, Ted Gagliano, James L. Honore, Dawn Hudson, Beverly Pasterczyk, Randall Poster, Ric Robertson, David Schnuelle, Randy Spendlove, Beverly Joanna Wood