Interview: on "Welcome to Chechnya" and putting visual effects to humanitarian use.

by Nathaniel R

Director David France and Visual Effects Supervisor Ryan Laney on "Welcome to Chechnya"

If you haven't yet screened the documentary Welcome to Chechnya, a finalist for Best Documentary Feature, don't delay. The film details the journey of a group of incredibly brave LGBTQ activists in Russia, working to help people escape Russia and Chechnya where the government condones the abduction, torture, and murders of queer people, by denying that it's happening at all. The primary storyline involves "Grisha" (not his real name) a gay event planner who was abducted and tortured in Chechnya while working on a job there.

Due to the unique risks to the people involved and the need to protect their identities, Welcome to Chechnya opted to deploy innovative visual effects rather than the traditional "shot in shadow" or blurred faces you would usually see with anonymous voices in documentary. Now the film finds itself charting unfamiliar awards territory as a finalist for the Best Visual Effects Oscar, a category that's usually focused on sci-fi films, superheroes, and action blockbusters...

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Lunchtime Poll: Who would Bette & Larry vote for?

IT'S 10 DAYS UNTIL OSCAR NOMINATIONS. Academy voting on those nominations begins right now. For a bit of silly "lunchtime poll" fun, let's place ourselves in the shoes of 10* times nominated legends Bette Davis and Sir Laurence Olivier.

Both legendary performers liked to go BIG. Bette was a dangerous risk-taker and Sir Larry a big ol' THESPIAN ham. Pretend they're still alive and staring at their Oscar ballots. We know Sir Larry loved other hams (Mickey Rooney was his favourite) but what did Bette like in other actors? She was inarguably opinionated but her passions and turn-offs were hard to predict. We know that in the 1980s she preferred Debra Winger's work to Meryl Streep's (which makes a lot of sense if you consider that Debra's obstinant fire was much closer to Bette's persona than Streep's chameleon fluidity) but who would she have been into right now?   

Which movies and stars would they be voting for this year? Share your theories! 

* Bette has 10 official Best Actress nominations but we view it as 11 due to her write-ins for Of Human Bondage (1934). Olivier had 13 nominations but 3 of them were in non-acting categories.

Showbiz History: An Unmarried Woman, Oscar Balloting, and Hula Hoops

7 random things that happened on this day, March 5th, in showbiz history...

Best Actor and Best Actress, Victor McLaglen & Bette Davis

1936 The 8th Academy Awards are held honoring the best of 1935. Victor McLaglen (The Informer) and Bette Davis (Dangerous) take the acting Oscars. Mutiny on the Bounty wins Best Picture (and nothing else). That happened three times in the first eight years of Oscar history and has literally never happened since. That same night John Ford wins the first of his four Best Director prizes (the all time record) for The Informer. Curiously only one of his Best Director wins, How Green Was My Valley, came with a companion Best Picture win. (So he's like if you combined Alfonso Cuaron and Ang Lee's records, both of whom have won twice without a companion Best Picture win, and rewrote history -- which we'd sure like to *cough Brokeback* -- to add in 1 random Best Picture win.) The four wins without much help from Best Picture frontrunner status is such a crazy record if you think on it for even half a second. It's hard to imagine that it will ever be broken...

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"What a character!"

by Nathaniel R

We're almost finished with the Film Bitch Awards in the Oscar parallel catgories but we took a wee break from that to continue the fun stuff, the "extra" prizes. We've already announced Breakthroughs, Juvenile Performances, Casting and Ensemble work so now we move on to best characters (and we'll end next week with "limited/cameo" performances plus incredible invidividual scenes). This is great fun for us each year so hopefully that cinematic joy is contagious...

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Will Regina King be nominated for Best Director? It'd be a first in more than one way.

by Eurocheese

All Oscar season, I’ve heard a comment that didn’t sit quite right with me. When discussing Regina King’s Oscar chances for a Best Director nomination, the belief was that because she is a well-known actress, her nomination was more likely. Is that true, when we look at previous Best Director nominees? My knee jerk reaction has been 'tell that to Ben Affleck and Bradley Cooper', two of the most surprising Oscar snubs in the category over the last decade. Does Best Director typically resist award winning actors? And would King be an unusual choice for a nominee? My answer to both questions is yes, and before you object, I brought receipts.

There have certainly been acclaimed actors (mostly white males, of course) that have crossed from the acting world to become acclaimed directors. Examples typically fall into a few specific categories...

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