BAFTA Winners & Gowns

Since they aren't broadcasting the ceremony live across the pond -- we'll get an edited tape-delayed version -- we aren't watching. We'll only give BAFTA its due once it joins us in the 21st century. If you're waiting to be "surprised" during the tape delay abridged stuff, don't click to continue this post. If you are as unwilling to care about things you can't watch live as we are, and don't even value themselves enough to include the audience (even in the UK it's not live), than click away to read the winners with some commentary. 

And gowns!

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The Last Link Years

Inside Movies Anna Kendrick talks the making of The Last Five Years
imgur Best Picture nominees as Legos
David Kawena has added Prince Hans from Frozen to his NSFW 'Disney Heroes' series
TFE ...and speaking of Frozen, I've updated that best "Let it Go" covers post with new entries 

 

Movie Morlocks Montgomery Clift in The Young Lions and the second chance that never was
Gothamist John Henson, puppeteer and son of Jim Henson, dies at 48
Sad and Useless "famous women with Steve Buscemi eyes" 
Variety reports on the Sci-Tech Awards. Goodbye to film, hello all digital 
THR The LEGO Movie blooper reel 

And Happy Birthday to Me! Netflix will release the second season of Orange is the New Black on my birthday June 6th.

Such a thoughtful gift!

Podcast: Sundance Debrief and DGA Reactions

On this week's special cross-country podcast recorded live from Utah, Nathaniel welcomes back Katey Rich in New York, Nick Davis in Chicago, and special guest Guy Lodge, also in Chicago en route to London. Guy and Nathaniel share their Sundance favorites, the chief crossover being Richard Linklater's Boyhood. 

Other Topics include: The Producers Guild of America and Directors Guild winners and what that might mean for 12 Years a Slave and Gravity come Oscar night, categories where we'd enjoy ties on Oscar night, and favorite "overheard" bits in movie theater lines regarding Dallas Buyers Club and Philomena. 

You can listen to the podcast right here at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments! 

Which tie would you love to see this year?

Sundance Debrief and Oscar Ties

Happy Birthday Amadeus!

Today is the 258th birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Of course he didn't live to see 258 (unless there's a vampire Mozart creeping around), dying an ignoble pauper's burial death at 35 despite a lifetime's worth of legendary brilliant compositions already behind him. Remember how great Amadeus (1984) was back when the biopic genre still produced huge quality epics? Remember when The Academy understood that movies could have two leads of the same gender? [More...]

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Cuarón Takes DGA

In non-surprising awards news Alfonso Cuarón has won the Directors Guild of America prize for his long-in-the-making sci-fi epic Gravity. Though I've long been predicting him to win the Oscar, the Best Picture race still seems competitive. It's insane that 12 Years a Slave, a magnificent film and a historically significant drama in several ways, isn't steamrolling but it isn't. My guess is that even if Gravity sweeps the craft categories, Best Picture will be a nail biter down to the last envelope opening. The most famous 'dominated the Oscars but still lost Best Picture' year is, of course, 1972. Cabaret won 8 Oscars but The Godfather beat it in two of the top 8 categories Adapted Screenplay & the big kahuna Best Picture. The end result: they were both winners. Cabaret took home a lot of Oscars and has the impressive distinction of being the biggest winner among all Best Picture losers. (There are some who think that 2002 was heading toward a similar outcome had The Pianist had another month to gain momentum on Chicago) 

Will we see another split year? No predominantly black film has ever won Best Picture which is depressing and bad news for 12 Years a Slave but no sci-fi film has won either which isn't exactly points in Gravity's favor. 12 Years has to convince voters who are resisting it to see the picture (if you ask me, AMPAS voters who won't watch all the Best Picture nominees each year before voting really ought to have their memberships revoked) and it needs to find a second wind with the media who have a predictable way of turning on frontrunners each year. I fear a Brokeback Mountain situation where the less evolved voters just won't give a seminal work its due because of the subject matter. Am I too pessimistic?

Gravity has the potentially easier task in that it only needs to convince voters that it isn't lightweight and that it won't age poorly (I'm not convinced on the latter). And, since it hasn't truly been the frontrunner at any point, it doesn't have much backlash to conquer. I'm leaning toward predicting Gravity to just (nearly) sweep the whole thing.