Oscar Contenders Stack the Decks at Asia Pacific Screen Awards

Glenn here. Rarely discussed by Oscar commentators for reasons unknown to me are the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. Held annually on the Gold Coast in Australia, these awards recognise, well, cinema from Asian and Pacific regions. This year's batch of contenders are from a typically diverse group of nations with several high profile Oscar contenders in the mix. Amongst this year's roster of nominees are the foreign language submissions from Palestine (Omar), Iran (The Past), Saudi Arabia (Wadjda), China (Back in 1942), Hong Kong (The Grandmaster), Singapore (Ilo Ilo), New Zealand (White Lies), South Korea (Juvenile Offender) and Kazakhstan (The Old Man) as well as films amongst the long lists for animation (The Wind Rises) and documentary (The Art of Killing). Just imagine if Japan had chosen Like Father Like Son and India had chosen The Lunchbox!

Some history and this year's nominees after the jump.

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Happy Birthday, Leo! (And a Monologue)

Andrew here  to join the Wheeler clan in wishing Leonardo DiCaprio a happy birthday…

…although, he doesn’t seem especially delighted at the well-wishes.

Is that image from Revolutionary Road a dismal birthday scene or what, though? Sometimes I imagine if I had a bloggers' party to celebrate Leo's actorly talents the soiree would be just as dismally attended. Am I wrong?

As odd as it may sound, I often find myself feeling sorry for Leonardo DiCaprio. Sure he's got good-looks, money and the perceived love of millions of fans, yes, but of the actors in his demographic he always seems the least likely to be considered a good actor. If I were to say that he’s my favourite actor under forty, I always expect raised eyebrows in response, and they are generally forthcoming. DiCaprio is not the most diverse actor in his demographic, but I'm often suspicious of attaching quality necessarily to variation. He has specific gifts and even more specific flaws. Many actors are at their best when they exploit their gifts but considering my favourite performance of his for today's monologue, I find I like Leo best when he exploits his flaws.

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Looking back on the 2003 Best Animated Feature nominees

Andrew Stanton with the first of his Animated Feature OscarsTim here. This November, we’ve been reflecting on the films of 2003, in preparation for the newest edition of the Supporting Actress Smackdown, and I’d like to use this as the opportunity to return us all to a simpler time. An easier time. A saner time. A time when the Best Animated Feature category at the Academy Awards wasn’t routinely filled up with five nominees because some much-too-small arbitrary threshold had been reached.

There were three nominees in the category that year, out of a field of eleven. And even that was not quite a small enough number to keep away from something a bit like a filler nomination (looking at the list, the fact that Satoshi Kon could have two eligible titles in Millennium Actress and Tokyo Godfathers, and swing a nomination for neither of them, depresses me something fierce). But it’s not a bad mix of films at all, anchored by two films that have survived the intervening decade as bona-fide classics of the medium, and one film that… hasn’t, though it’s clung to an appreciative cult.

Fish, Bear and Other after the jump

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Juliette & George, Together Again

It hadn't even occurred to me that August: Osage County wasn't the first collaboration between George Clooney and Juliette Lewis. Nearly 20 years ago the two starred together in From Dusk till Dawn battling vampires in Texas with Quentin Tarantino, Harvey Keitel and a python-loving Salma Hayek. A lot has changed since then and it's doubtful you'd find either making a gory horror flick again, but it was nice to see Lewis post this photo of the pair on Instagram. 

I killed vampires w this guy in 95 and now he's one of the producers of #AugustOsageCounty And still… http://t.co/1ql4xsRJdx

— Juliette Lewis (@JulietteLewis) November 11, 2013

As an aside, how glad do you think Clooney is that The Momunents Men got booted into 2014 and so doesn't have to spend months promoting it for awards season alongside August and Gravity? 

As a secondary aside, will Juliette Lewis have her own Dallas Buyers Club soon? A role that, like Jared Leto's this year, makes audiences remember that she was once an incredible actor who just couldn't find a spot in the Hollywood system and so turned to rock music? I can only hope so!

As a third aside, don't we all look forward to Nathaniel's thoughts on August once he returns from AFI Fest? I know I do!

Thoughts I Had... Staring at the Poster for "Bullets Over Broadway: The Musical"

Glenn here. Remember when The Film Experience asked what "fictional art you want to experience"? The Broadway show from Woody Allen's 1994 classic Bullets Over Broadway was a definite favourite. The new stage adaptation directed by Susan Stroman will likely be the closest we will ever get, so I guess we should take a look at the new poster (or, at least, new to me).

•  Hopefully this is a bigger success for Stroman than the recently opened - and now recently closing - stage adaptation of Big Fish. Stroman also directed the immensely popular The Producers so this period is certainly in her wheelhouse.
• How much do you reckon the budgetary figure for "neon signs" is going to be on this production?
• I was unaware that Woody Allen himself was in charge of writing the adaptation. It should come as no surprise, however, that the music will not be original. That's a big shame I think since the Helen Sinclair (Dianne Wiest) and Olive Neal (Jennifer Tilly) characters could especially have some fun original tunes written for them, don't you think?
• Purists will certainly like the use of songs from the "American Songbook" (a horrifying term) I am sure, especially the light of The Great Gatsby.
• I actually really like the poster. It's colourful and vibrant, plus bonus points for not alerting anybody to the fact that Zach Braff stars in the John Cusack role (image below via Braff's Twitter feed).

• As natural as it feels for Bullets Over Broadway to make the leap to the stage, I actually think other Allen titles could work just as well, if not better. They could certainly do some interesting things with The Purple Rose of Cairo (an actual cinema screen on stage that its cast walk in and out of? actors dressed and made up in black and white while everyone else is in color? use of the audience as part of the set?), and Melinda & Melinda could actually prove a fascinating tour de force for the right actor in the right adaptation. I would also be awfully surprised if nobody's figuring out how to make Midnight in Paris work since its rotating sets and eras would likely prove popular and brand recognised.
• If it's a hit, will we get a film adaptation? Who would possibly want to come up against Woody Allen in the comparison game? Stroman didn't fare too well in the screen adaptation of The Producers (I am a fan, though) so I doubt she would return to that well. Any suggestions? Speak up in the comments!