Atlantic one of the best defenses of Carol's 'coldness" that you'll read. And as I've been saying since October... "If this is chilly, bring on winter."
Awards Daily has the nominations for the Canadian Screen Awards with Room and Felix & Meara (Canada's Oscar submission) leading the way. Perhaps Canadian readers can tell me about this one: How is it different than the long running Genies?
Comics Alliance Wonder Woman get a "brassy" logo... which looks exactly like how you'd expect since that W on her breastplate is fairly iconic
Pajiba Wonder Woman has also released a couple of very brief clips including a campy look "disguise" will glasses that will remind you instantly of Lynda Carter librarian sexy look on the TV show. Unfortunately Wonder Woman looks as dark and gloomy as the other DC movies... it's a problem when you have to constantly brighten every still in Photoshop just so you can even see it.
The Retro Set looks at Broken Lance, that interesting 1954 western we discussed a few months back
Amiresque Amir's "Best of" choices for the film year. A reminder to me that I really should have seen Queen of Earth
The Directors Cut Auteur Paul Thomas Anderson interviews Oscar-nominated Adam McKay on The Big Short
YouTube The Suicide Squad gets a new trailer w/ Margot Robbie looking like the obvious standout
Oscar Fights & Carol Honors after the jump...
The #Oscars. The White BET Awards. https://t.co/8qjLR0uysI
— Chris Rock (@chrisrock) January 15, 2016
The Ongoing Oscar Brouhaha
The Envelope documents the continued fallout over the Oscar nominations and how the pleas to boycott from Jada Pinkett Smith (whose two time Oscar-nominated husband was passed over this time around) have put other celebrities in a bind as well as angered some much-less privileged actors (Aunt Viv and Alexis Arquette in particular aren't having it). Apparently people are even asking Chris Rock to step down which... well contracts and basic professionalism probably won't allow for that. The Envelope also spoke to the woman who started the #OscarsSoWhite tag last year. (She has a lot of interesting things to say and she seems knowledgeable about the process.) Meanwhile individual Academy voters are getting defensive since no one likes to be called awful names. Then there's this awful defeatist article at The Guardian where they claim that nothing will change. That's a conclusion that's frankly insane because the Academy has been getting MORE diverse (not less). Another fact that's gone missing in the uproar: Things have been improving in multiple areas...
DIVERSITY STRIDES IN PAST 10 OSCAR SEASONS (2005-2014)
• 50% of the Best Director wins have gone to someone other than a white men: a woman and three men of color, one of them twice (Ang Lee)
• 40% of the Supporting Actress winners have been women of color (Hudson, Mo'Nique, Spencer, and Nyong'o)
• Two men of African-descent were nominated for Best Director (Daniels & McQueen)... tripling the all time number
• Seven men of color have been nominated for Best Actor which is about equal to or better than any similar stretch of time.
• More black songwriters have been nominated since at any time since the 1980s.
• First black winners in the following categories: Best Documentary, Best Adapted Screenplay (twice over), Best Documentary Short, and Best Picture
• First Asian winners in the following categories: Best Animated Short, Best Sound Mixing, Best Original Song (twice over)
• First Mexican winners in the following categories: Best Director (twice over), Cinematography (thrice over)
My point in sharing this is there are reasons to be optimistic though it's obvious in our political climate with the angriest shouters on either side (Sanders/Trump) getting the most traction that people prefer to be pessimistic. But yes, it's 100% true that these past two years have not been kind to actors of color in terms of Oscar cred and Best Actress is still a particularly troubling area. Halle Berry remains the only winner and few black women are asked to lead motion pictures and even when we get a great actress who any sane person would think could become an Oscar perennial Hollywood doesn't know what to do with them (Viola & Lupita are easy recent versions of Angela Bassett in the 90s -- obvious star... so where are the film carrying roles?).
Anyway we've always hoped here at TFE that Hollywood would start practicing more diversity in their hiring practices (which would obviously shift Oscar nominations) but my personal dream is that one day this diversity discussion can become less virulent and more inclusive. This quote from Lupita Nyong'o is smart about reframing the discussion as "calling for change in expanding the stories that are told and recognition of the people who tell them".
If it's not about diversity in general you miss out on the fact that this year's best film was queer and missed Best Picture and Best Director which should have been easy gets...
Seriously contemplating an Oscars meme with Mean Girls quotes over nominees. @chrisvfeil @nathanielr pic.twitter.com/QX536mbNtX
— Anne Marie (@WeRecycleMovies) January 19, 2016
Chris's "Rachel McAdams is Flawless" post from yesterday inspired a meme on twitter #OscarMeanGirls - so check it out.
Finally...
The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association (full disclosure: two of our writers here are members) have announced their "Dorian Award" winners for 2015. You can see the complete list here but the important thing to know is that Carol won a bunch including Cate Blanchett for Best Actress. It also took both of the top prizes "Film of the Year" and the "LGBT Film of the Year" which are two separate categories with Carol as the only crossover nominee. Film of the Year nominees looked alot like Oscar's list since Carol competed against The Big Short, Brooklyn, Mad Mad Fury Road, and Spotlight. As for the LGBT Film of the year, Carol beat The Danish Girl, Freeheld, Grandma and Tangerine to that less competitive title. (Not sure how Freeheld and The Danish Girl made it into that list but to each their own when it comes to "best".) The only multiple winners besides Carol were over on television where Empire took two prizes (Best Actress and Campy Show of the Year) and Transparent three honors (Comedy, LGBT Show of the Year, and Best Actor)