Oscar Nominee Luncheon

Oopsie. Misremembered the date on this.

Thought it was tomorrow. Guess I should have checked my own calendar right here.

Here are my favorite bits from the live stream televised portion

• James Franco at the end of his interview "Is that it? WHAT? all right". Ha. the interviews were super super short.
• Learning that Jeff Bridges is recording an album with T Bone Burnett. Interesting.
• Michelle Williams being sad that Ryan Gosling wasn't nominated but then a quick "but there are lots of other friendly faces" and she was off without even saying thank you or bye to the room.
• Hailee Steinfeld admitting she mostly only watched the Oscars for the red carpet to see what they were wearing. Well, she picked up the gift quickly (see red carpet lineups)

• That Jacki Weaver was practically invisible under the microphone. Actually that wasn't HAPPY but it was interesting. couldn't they have had one of those moving stand that goes up and down.
• Nicole Kidman was asked about other Australians nominated. Re: Jacki Weaver: "its so wonderful to see to see Jacki Weaver who I grew up watching to have this chance it says to so many actors it doesn't matter what age you are you can have a huge break."
• Nicole Kidman also said that this nomination,her third, is the one that made her happiest. Partially because of the movie but also because of how long it's been since she was last honored. "10 years?"
• HAPPIEST MOMENT Hearing that Jacki Weaver has had several offers for new movies. Yes! She says "I've never had grand ambitions to work elsewhere and suddenly i'm thrust into this milieu of excitement. i must say it's become addictive quickly. I've been saying it's the twilight of career but it appears to be the midafternoon."
• One more Jacki Weaver quote: "How do I feel? If I were a bell I'd be ringing."
• John Hawkes was very nonchalant "It's a wonderful time in my life but I'm nervous that my cover is blown" Jeff Bridges also spoke about anonymity being a gift for actors.

• Amy Adams walking out to scattered quiet journalist applause. "That was tepid" she joked. "I'm just playing" She seemed very relaxed.
• Amy when asked about Christian Bale said 'all that matters to me about working with an actor is what happens between action and cut' Interestingly vague. She then said that he stays in character between takes.
• Annette Bening telling the truth about how to combat homophobia and other such issues. " if you can open people's hearts first then maybe people's minds get opened after that."

• Colin Firth on whether people have been treating him differently: "I do get the odd bow which I put down to confusion or facetiousness."
• Helena Bonham-Carter was hilarious throughout in one of the longer interviews. Second happiest moment for me, a long time fan, was her admitting that The King's Speech has born fruit and people are interesting in casting her again. YES.
• HBC on the offer for The King's Speech "When they first approached me I wanted to play George cause that's the best part. I didn't look in the mirror and think I was a dead ringer for the Queen Mum."
• HBC on what she'll wear to the Oscars "I have no idea really. it's probably going to be a catastrophe. "

Meanwhile in Regular Awardage...

Nicole Kidman arrives at SBIFF. [photo via Scott Feinberg]Busy night for gongs last night. Nicole Kidman accepted her Vanguard award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. [Photo left via Scott Feinberg.] I'm sure she'll cherish that one as much as her Film Experience Gold Medal ;)

The Annie Awards for animation also took place even. You can see the results here. It was a huge night for How To Train Your Dragon which is such a good film but the wins will undoubtedly be viewed as unimportant due to the Annies troubled relationship with Disney/Pixar. Pixar won only Best Short for Day and Night.

The ADG handed out their Art Direction honors [full info at Gold Derby] which went to The King's Speech (Period), Inception (fantasy) and Black Swan (contemporary). Swan wasn't nominated for Oscar but DePrez took the bronze medal here at the Film Experience. I'm sure that'll be great consolation.

Earlier that evening the WGA handed out their screenwriting honors.

Original Screenplay: Inception
Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network
(TSN also won the US Scripter yesterday)
Documentary Screenplay:  Inside Job
Drama Series: Mad Men
Comedy Series: Modern Family
Complete List of Winners Here

Note: The King's Speech was not eligible for the WGA which is how the path was cleared for Best Original Exposition to win the prize. Don't expect that to happen at the Oscars.

Best Actress. My Ballot and Time Capsule.

Time is a funny thing. It shifts our feelings, sorts them out. Awards are a product of time, a time capsule. They're equally funny. If you'd told me back in January 2010 when I first saw Blue Valentine that it would end the year as my 4th favorite picture and that Michelle Williams would be in my best actress list, I wouldn't have believed you. I liked her and the movie quite a lot back then but now come February 2011, I love them. The Williams/Gosling duet yields richer rewards each viewing, little intricacies thrown into sharper relief while other ideas you held about the characters get foggier with mystery.

It says a lot about the quality of this year's Best Actress field that Sally Hawkins in Made in Dagenham didn't even make the finalist list. She does expert work revealing how ordinary courage and moral outrage properly channeled, can transform even the meekest of people. It says a lot about the quality of this year's Actress field that Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone didn't even make the semi-finalist list. She does fine work embodying the cold small range of feeling that this life might allow for and she gives the hard film just the right amount of heart as a resilient eldest sibling acting as parent. In the end though, despite Lawrence's absence, my own ballot is the closest its come to Oscar's Actress list since...er... 1987. [Trivia: that's the only year from the past three decades that my own choices for Best Actress line up 5/5 with Oscar.]

Needless to say I was quite pleased with Oscar's nominations. It's my favorite Best Actress Oscar list in recent memory with the exception of 2006... maybe.

Needless to say part two: It was such a toss up for spots 4-8 that I'm sure I'll regret my choices tomorrow. If anyone in tier 2 had come out in 2009 or 2008 or 2007 or even 2006, they would've knocked someone out of the 5th spot. And if they'd ALL been released in 2005, my awards would have been radically different. Such is the arbitrary nature of awards, chained to calendars as they are.

Favorite Dozen Lead Actresses 2010 (in alpha order). If only I could nominate 12 people!

• Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
• Greta Gerwig, Greenberg
• Sally Hawkins, Made in Dagenham
• Kim Hye-Ja, Mother
• Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
• Lesley Manville, Another Year
• Natalie Portman, Black Swan
• Ruth Sheen, Another Year
• Paprika Steen, Applause
• Emma Stone, Easy A
• Tilda Swinton, I Am Love
• Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

My nominees with write-ups

This will undoubtedly feel anti-climactic as my own nominees are usually more off Oscar's path -- who knew they'd have such good taste this year ;) -- and I usually finish before Oscar nominations and here I am wrapping up the first half of the Film Bitch Awards (medals and all) a week late.

I think the year produced two true masterpieces I Am Love and The Social Network so I split on Picture/Director, Picture going to the one I've remained most possessed by but I think both will stand the test of time. And yes, Nicole Kidman finally gets her Gold Medal after many years of near-misses. She's just transcendent in Rabbit Hole nailing the insatiable hunger of grief for more and more of itself and doing so with the barest minimum of histrionics and more humor than you'd think was possible. She also brilliantly foreshadows Becca's escape route through her thicket of pain, a path cleared by her curiousity, compassion, and capacity for stillness on a park bench, feeling whatever it is she needs to feel.

Congratulations to the Kidman-Urbans

I don't know if you've heard but Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have pulled a fast one on the tabloids. They managed to keep their plans for a second child together hidden until a month after the child was even born ! That's a rare shell game in today's 24/7 news and infotainment cycle. TMZ has the report including this amusing graphic below...

Tthe surrogacy was here in the States since the couple is even more closely watched in Australia where there's less competition for Globally Recognizable Celebrity Among Us.

Baby Faith Margaret, younger sister to Sunday Rose (pictured left when she was just a wee thing -- she's now 2), is an awards season baby. She was born on December 28th the day after the Oscar ballots went out (and we learned Natalie Portman was pregnant) and her superstar parents finally told the media only after walking the red carpet at the Globes nearly a month later. Talk about keeping your private life private whilst in public.

Congratulations to the growing family. We hope Kidman is grabbing her 3rd Oscar nomination next Tuesday, but even if she's snubbed -- and it looks like a volatile field (take the BAFTA poll) -- it's a happy time at home.

Always The Hours

Virgina Woolf and Laura Brown ...on VH1?

My ladies.

Nicole Kidman  Julianne Moore They need their own Black Swan Nina/Lily moment...
"Come to bed Laura Brown"...

(apparently they kissed -see photo - though with that horizontal blur on Kidman's face she looks like...Mare Winningham?)