TCM's 31 Days of Oscar *CONTEST*

March is Reader Appreciation Month!

Have any of you been catching up on past Oscar nominees during Turner Classic Movie's annual marathon of Oscar nominated films? They've been doing it for years. The thing we love most about it now that Oscar has left March for February is that it just bleeds over into March to make up for February's abbreviated obstinance. The festival ends Friday in the early AM but TCM is always showing movies and they pack so many in that we still have 15 Oscar nominated movies to look forward to in this particular program. It's kind of a godsend if you have the flu like me. I might just lay on the couch and watch all of them. I'm watching East of Eden (which JA just wrote about) as I type this.

CHECK OUT THE SCHEDULE AT TCM.COM/31DAYS

For you actressexuals out there, the schedule tomorrow features three major screen divas: Barbra Streisand in The Way We Were (1973) one of the greatest romantic dramas Hollywood ever made; Bette Davis in the Hollywood drama The Star (1952); and Maggie Smith in the Neil Simon comedy California Suite (1978). Three films that Nick, Mike and I have discussed in the Best Picture From the Outside In series are also featured tomorrow: Grand Hotel, The Broadway Melody and Mutiny on the Bounty.

So that's it. Once again please visit TCM, it's a great station for movie lovers like us.

THE CONTEST
Last year when we held this contest Sam in Texas won a 5 DVD pack from TCM of my choosing which were: Double Indemnity (1944), A Star is Born (1954), The Umbrellas of Cherbourgh (1964), The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989) and They Shoot Horses Don't They (1969). I got a note from Sam when he received them so I know he enjoyed.  This year, we'll have TWO winners of 5 DVD packs. TCM handles this contest so it's only open to readers in the U.S. and Canada (sorry international readers. You know I usually include you.)

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED FOR ENTRIES

1. Send an email to Nathaniel with "TCM CONTEST" in the subject line by [CLOSED]
   
2. Include your name and shipping address.
3. List the 5 DVDs from the following 31 you'd like if you win: Citizen Kane, Easy Rider, A Streetcar Named Desire, Funny Girl, Gandhi, Birdman of Alcatraz, South Pacific, Glory, The Battle of Algiers, Annie Get Your Gun, The Graduate, Gone With The Wind, Miracle on 34th Street, Casablanca, Kiss of the Spiderwoman, Lawrence of Arabia, American Beauty, Network, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Teh Best Years of Our Lives, Amadeus, Sahara, Doctor Zhivago, On the Waterfront, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Annie Hall, Arthur, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Around the World in 80 Days and North By Northwest.
   
4. Finally click around on TCM's schedule for March 5th-7th and tell me... which of those movie(s) you'd most like to see written about here on The Film Experience and why -- you don't even have to have seen it. Maybe it's a type of film or a time frame or an actor. It doesn't matter. I'll DVR either the most convincing argument made or the movie that shows up on the most entries and I'll write it up next week.

You must have all 4 of those bullet points to win. The two winners will be chosen at random and announced on Sunday March 6th.

Tuesday Top Ten: Actress Psychic ~ The Winners

As faithful readers know, The Film Experience has been doing a little contest called ACTRESS PSYCHIC for the past four years. It goes like this: Readers have to pick their 5 predicted BEST ACTRESSES in the first week of April and those actresses earn points throughout the year through special events, nominations, wins, certain magazine covers, etcetera. In other words, guessing LONG before there is much buzz at all outside of Sundance entries. In 2010 Nathaniel (c'est moi) majorly biffed this contest due to time constraints and a series of unfortunate events. Points were never tallied and the drama of the contest was lost.

 
And boy would there have been drama. I definitely picked the wrong year to drop this (crystal) ball. The shame, the shame.

BEST ACTRESS was unusually competitive this year and a lot of the women that readers picked would have racked up some points here and there like Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right) and Noomi Rapace (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo). The most common guess that didn't pan out was Anne Hathaway in Love and Other Drugs... but NO ONE was psychic enough to say "I bet she won't get traction but will become the next Oscar host!" Whod'a thunk it? Hilary Swank in Betty Anne Waters (that's what Conviction was called a year ago) was also a very popular guess. At least the Swankster got a SAG nomination. Helen Mirren in The Tempest and Carey Mulligan in Never Let Me Go were popular guesses that never caught fire in reality later on. The most frequently cited names for films that didn't show up at all (this happens every year) were Hiam Abbas in Miral and Robin Wright in The Conspirator.

I didn't want to let awards season end without sharing a hearty congratulations to a dozen contestants in particular. 12 READERS GUESSED FOUR OF THE EVENTUAL FIVE ACTRESSES THAT WERE NOMINATED. Well done! You're in the tippity top percentile of Oscar Psychics!  The order of the following over-achievers is estimated since we biffed the contest and point tallying but Portman would have obviously been the highest point earner (wins and celebrity ubiquity) and Williams worth the least points (not an Oscar newbie, low profile and not showing up in each battle.) From the people who were not nominated Hathaway, Moore, Swank, Rapace and the like would have probably been worth the most due to Globes, SAG or BAFTA recognition.

THE TOP TEN PSYCHICS

Best Actress 2010: Portman, Williams, Lawrence, Kidman, Bening

10 (3 WAY TIE)  Ryan RM, Ronald R and Chicano1616 guessed 4 of the 5 Actresses correctly but they all chose the wrong film for Annette Bening (Mother and Child which was not an uncommon guess either) and that would have costs them many of the Bening-centric points.

09 DJ guessed everyone but Portman. Whoops: Robin Wright

08 Lucas G guessed everyone but Portman. Whoops: Hathaway

07 Wayne guessed everyone but Portman. Whoops: Hathaway but nailed the tiebreaker by predicting The Kids Are All Right to get 4 nominations.

06 SaveFerris guessed everyone but Williams. Whoops: Jennifer Connelly

05 sasnyder guessed everyone but Lawrence. Whoops: Hathaway

AND NOW OUR MEDALISTS...
Imagine Canada and US national anthems now.

04 (BRONZE)  SCOTT L guessed everyone but Williams (Whoops on Hathaway) but I am estimating that Williams would have been the lowest point earner of the 5 eventual nominees and Hathaway would have been worth a bit.

02 (SILVER MEDAL TIE) RICH AUNT PENNYBAGS missed only Kidman. (Whoops on Swank).
DEREK in NY missed only Williams. (Whoops on Hathaway) They tied on the tiebreaker going over and under the correct answer.

01 (GOLD MEDAL)  MIKE28 is our winner. He missed only Michelle Williams. (Whoops picked Anne Hathaway though she was still worth some points. Saturday Night Live hosting and more.) And his tiebreaker answer for number of nominations for The Kids Are All Right: 4. Spot on.

Contest Winners: Warren Beatty "STAR"

Warren & Natalie at the April 1962 Oscars.While Hollywood is busy celebrating Annette Bening's latest big screen triumph, we thought we'd celebrate her husband Warren Beatty with a giveaway of the biography "Star. How Warren Beatty Seduced America" . It's out on paperback finally. I asked contestants to tell me about their favorite Warren Beatty film and I was actually surprised at the breakdown (I expected Bonnie & Clyde to capsize the competition but it did not.) In fact, the contest entries were pretty evenly spread among the top three.

The Holy Trinity...er, Quadrilogy
1. Splendor in the Grass (1961)
2. Bonnie & Clyde (1967)
3. [tie] Shampoo (1975) & Heaven Can Wait (1978)

Reds, Dick Tracy, McCabe and Mrs Miller, The Parallax View and Bulworth, in that order, lagged behind. Those nine films are a pretty smart snapshot of the cream of his crop reminding us once again that Film Experience readers are awesome. (Duh!) The rest of Beatty's thin but substantial filmography wasn't mentioned; Beatty only made 22 movies over his 40 year career. Of the 13 that weren't name-checked the most interesting is probably Lilith (1964) about an institutionalized woman (Jean Seberg) and the most infamous is undoubtedly the adventure comedy Ishtar (1987) with Dustin Hoffman.

The classic Bonnie & Clyde (1967) with Beatty & Dunaway

Contest winners and notes on Bonnie & Clyde, Reds and Dick Tracy with Madonna after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Contest: Warren Beatty "STAR"

Had a few difficulties with contests last year, but 2011 is a new year, new site, new beginning. We start anew. Here's contest #1. More to come.

I have three copies of Peter Biskind's book "Star: How Warren Beatty Seduced America", recently released in paperback, to give away. With Warren Beatty escorting The Bening to all these awards shows, I figure it's a good time to expand her current spotlight to include him, "The Most Promising Newcomer of 1962." 

I'd already read the hard copy of this book being a long time Beatty fan and it's rich in Hollywood lore and makes an interesting companion piece to the great Pictures at a Revolution once you get around to Bonnie & Clyde. Though Biskind claims he wanted to write the book to promote a reevalutaion of Beatty's important career as a renaissance man in Hollywood the book is awfully salacious. They must know this is a selling point as the cover even uses this blurb:

Totally Entertaining. Giddily Salacious.

So expect lots of inside Hollywood politics, lots of sex (it's not for the prudish) and cameos or lengthy visits by numerous storied actresses like Leslie Caron, Joan Collins, Natalie Wood, and Julie Christie (who is a completely fascinating character in this book) among others.

TO ENTER...

• Send an email to filmexperience (at) gmail (dot) com with "BEATTY" in the subject line.
• Name your favorite Warren Beatty film (here's a list) and tell us in a few sentences why you love it.
• Full name and mailing address in case ya win.

Send me those e-mails by Monday, February 7th.
I may quote your descriptions of the films so be forewarned.