Oscar Updates: Shorts & Songs

The charts have all been updated... I started with the Animation, Shorts and Doc page which never gets enough attention and on which you'll see a lot of new information. Short films are such a crucial building block for young filmmakers and an ideal experimental playground for established filmmakers. They never get enough attention. We haven't culled enough information yet on the live action shorts but we know of three in the mix that have qualified that all happen to star Oscar talent: Sailcloth has two time nominee John Hurt as a nursing home escapee, The Sea is All I Know has recent winner Melissa Leo as a grieving mom and African Chelsea has Sally Kirkland as the mother of an exotic dancer. (Full disclosure: African Chelsea is advertising on the sidebar even as you read this but our love for Kirkland long pre-dates advertisements. We first fell for her during her spirited Oscar run for Anna, just as we were beginning to get an inkling of what "Oscar campaigning" was back in the day. Have you ever seen Anna? A must-see for actress obsessives.)

If you know of other live action shorts that have qualified feel free to share them in the comments and we'll investigate. Unless AMPAS releases a list (like they did with the animated and doc shorts) we're flying with one blind eye.

As for the bulk of the categories... there are minor gains for The Iron Lady, Hugo, The Descendants and such but buzz always grows when films start pushing or are about to open. Oscar is a marathon and it remains to be seen which currently sprinting films can keep at it for another 2 months. Stay hydrated movies, stay hydrated. Earlier releases like The Help and Moneyball may seem to be running on buzz fumes at the moment but it isn't necessarily a bad move to stretch and take a deep breath once you've already made a case for yourself. All the films that have already done so, will have to start sprinting again anyway once ballots are in hand anyway.

I've also filled out the Best Original Song competition. Despite the extranneaous nature of this category (songs have so little to do with filmmaking especially in the modern era when most movie songs are not originals) it could offer abundant Oscar Ceremony possibilities this year. Even if we don't get to see Captain America and his USO girls in a kickline or a performance or two from the beloved Muppets we still might have opportunities to see major names like Pink, Elton John or Zooey Deschanel performing.

That said, it's always possible they'll either select badly -- DON'T EVEN SPEAK TO ME ABOUT THE CHER SNUB LAST YEAR. The flames. On the side of my face.... -- or select well and then give all the numbers to some random celebrity to sing in a medley, anyway. Note to AMPAS: if you insist on keeping this category, do not deprive us of big gawdy song spectacles! 

What kind of musical performance would you love to see on Oscar night? Besides Billy Crystal's inevitable vaguely musical monologue that is.

Oscar Charts

"Young Adult" Chat: Diablo, Charlize, Patton... and Candace?

This Friday night at the DGA Theater in Manhattan, director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody's post-Juno reunion was unveiled for guild members. The second time was also a charm so I hope they keep working together. For such a dark and discomfiting comedy (many of the best laughs come while cringing reflexively), I thought the screening went very well with no walkouts and much laughter but my guest was more skeptical. He felt like the laughter was coming from very specific pockets of the theater which may well be true since it's a movie that some people will "get" (i.e. respond to) and others will probably leave in disgust since it keeps defying expectations, driving drunkenly up to traditional beats / redemptive arcs, only to turn its nose up at them and swerve off that well-paved road again.  We weren't allowed to take pictures, so I was playing court reporter and sketching the panel which included...

From left: Moderator Candace Bushnell, actress Charlize Theron, screenwriter Diablo Cody, actor Patton Oswalt and actress Elizabeth Reiser.

I kept altering the Candace drawing, sketching beer bottles strewn about her, adding bubbles in the air, because the real life "Carrie Bradshaw" was a MESS, all slurry, mealy mouthed, self absorbed and just not pulling it together. At one point after several repeated interludes wherein she managed to go on and on about the movie or her feelings about without asking a question, she began to compare Charlize's character "Mavis Gray" with Kim Cattrall's "Samantha Jones" in Sex & The City, which proved to be too much for the already patience-tested audience.

JUST ASK A QUESTION!!!"

...one man shouted from somewhere in the middle of the theater.

But through her haze of something, Candace touched on and was maybe even a living embodiment of the point she was attempting to make: certain types of behavior and some very famous characters that we enjoy onscreen would be absolutely insufferable in real life settings. Young Adult lays this down with nuanced flair.

Despite the problematic "Q" half of the Q&A session, the "A" was terrific. Diablo Cody was clever (no surprise), Patton Oswalt was just hilarious (apparently this is not a surprise if you're familiar though I wasn't having only seen him in The United States of Tara) and Charlize and Elizabeth managed to wring laughs from the crowd, too. It's kind of disgusting that Charlize, in addition to being one of the most beautiful women in the world is also one of the most talented and has a great sense of humor. Abundance of riches, that, and the movie wouldn't have worked at all without someone of her caliber headlining.

My recorder mysteriously contains only silence for 25 minutes  --wtf? -- so I can't share the highlights I intended to (wah-wah) but [SPOILER] the funniest moment came when Patton Oswalt was discussing his nude scene with Charlize and an audience member asked if he worked out from nerves beforehand. He said that going to the gym for his body would be like building a nice awning over a pile of rubble... and nothing would have ever helped being on camera with Charlize. Why couldn't he have done a nude scene with, like, Michael Moore instead? [/SPOILER]. Another good bit was Charlize talking about how unpopular she was in high school followed by a self-deprecating 'I'm sure you all feel very sorry for me.'

Here's the Q&A guests at another event that same night. (They didn't change clothes so I assume they were back-to-back events)

Oscar Nominations?
While the whole cast of Young Adult is sharp about how to play the tricky tone, particularly Collette Wolfe in a crucial role as Patton Oswalt's sister, most of them have very small roles (it's Theron & Oswalt's party...and they do throw one.) Charlize is a deserving contender for Best Actress but given how traditionally strong her competition is (what with easy Oscar gets like biopic mimicry and career narratives like "long gestating dream role" in the mix) she's no lock. That said she nails a complicated character who is in every scene and requires both finely honed comedic skill and a nuanced dramatic undertow. Patton Oswalt has both an easier role (audience voice / surrogate... to an extent) and an easier shot at Supporting Actor. I suspect the film is far too distinctive, tightly focused and resistant to catharsis for wider Oscar play so it's all about the writer's branch.

The Original Screenplay category this year is a fascinating beast. Six of the hottest tickets in this category (Young Adult, Beginners, Bridesmaids, Midnight in Paris, The Artist, Win Win) are either straight up comedies or dramas with very pronounced comedic sensibilities... so will they go there? Good news for Young Adult: Original Screenplay is a bit kinder to dramedies and comedies than other categories tend to be. You don't have to look back too far for a year that tilts comedic (the 2008 lineup includes Happy Go Lucky, Wall•E and In Bruges) though many of the years are as heavy on angsty drama as the lead acting categories tend to be. 

One Hundred Years of Linkitude

24 Frames a glowing profile of Shailene Woodley in The Descendants who is looking more and more like a real Supporting Actress contender. Alexander Payne even compares her to a young Debra Winger. 
Empire fun investigation of the parallels between Joss Whedon's The Avengers and the Whedonverse itself (Buffy and the like)
Animation Magazine digs into the Oscar race for Best Animated Film
NY Post Apparently Terrence Malick is a comedy loving Ben Stiller fan. Who'da thunk it. 
Variety Weird but true. Scarlett Johansson directing a Truman Capote novella 

Rope of Silicon likes the cinematography of We Need To Talk About Kevin, Rampart and Shame... and I come away singing Fiona Apple...

But he's been pretty much yellow
And I've been cryin' blue
But all I can see is
Red, red, red, red, red now
What am I to do

Ugh, I miss Fiona Apple so much some times. What happened to her?

Cinema Blend watch an artist transform Rooney Mara to Lisbeth Salander with one finger on his iPad.
Scene Stealers lists the best Twilight parodies online.
Socialite Life Mila Kunis kept her promise and attended that Marine Corps Ball. Good on her.
Coming Soon more Spider-Man set photos
Gothamist Edward Scissorhands on the F train
Tom Shone turns out not everyone loves Martin Scorsese's Hugo.
Guardian UK readers can see A Separation on DVD/BluRay now. By all means, get to it. I love this quote from the Guardian capsule:

It's not so much world cinema as world class." 

Tom Munro check out his awesome photoshoot of Madonna and Andrea Riseborough for W.E.  

Off Cinema
TV|Line Elisabeth Shue has been put out to pasture in the land of procedural television. Nathaniel wept. 
Salon unveils their People-adjacent list of the year's sexiest men. No movie stars or Bradley Cooper allowed though we're very pleased to see the wonderful director Cary Fukunaga (Jane Eyre) on the list. I was also happy to see Marcus Samuellson, star chef, make the list. He touched our table the very first time we ate at his new restaurant Red Rooster in Harlem. It's delicious and afforable, a combo that you can't beat. Try it if you're ever in NYC. 
Towleroad More divalicious links over there... if you want this link party to keep on rolling...

Oscar News: 15 Documentary Finalists. Major Snubs Are Mandatory.

The Academy have announced their finalists in the Best Documentary Oscar category. Guess what isn't it the running anymore: Senna, The Interrupters, Page One: Inside the New York Times, and The Carrier! And that's just the biggies off the top of my head without research.  Amir was just pontificating about Senna's Oscar hopes and he's hardly that movies only über fan. People will be up in arms. I suppose it wouldn't be the Best Documentary Feature, that storied and oft-controversial category, without these anger-making decisions. Remember when Grizzly Man got the boot? I know, right? Unthinkable though that still is...

The finalists are...

• Battle for Brooklyn (RUMER Inc.) 
• Bill Cunningham New York (First Thought Films)
• Buck (Cedar Creek Productions) 
• Hell and Back Again (Roast Beef Productions Limited)
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front (Marshall Curry Productions, LLC)
• Jane's Journey (NEOS Film GmbH & Co. KG)
• The Loving Story (Augusta Films)
• Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (@radical.media)
• Pina (Neue Road Movies GmbH)
• Project Nim (Red Box Films)
• Semper Fi: Always Faithful (Tied to the Tracks Films, Inc.)
• Sing Your Song (S2BN Belafonte Productions, LLC)
• Undefeated (Spitfire Pictures)
• Under Fire: Journalists in Combat (JUF Pictures, Inc.)
• We Were Here (Weissman Projects, LLC)

The highest profile films here are Buck, Pina (also eligible in Foreign Film), Project Nim, and Paradise Lose 3: Purgatory... but that's almost a whole shortlist in and of itself so expect more drama ahead.

Who are you rooting for and which snub makes you crazazy? 

Can Documentaries Break Free From Their Own Category?

Amir here.  When it comes to the Oscars, one of the things I love to complain about each year is the Foreign Language category. That’s hardly a surprise since the category gets so much flak from everyone, but my concern this time is about something more specific than the usual “shocking” snubs.

Looking over past lists of nominees, you'll notice that the Foreign Language Film category has failed to showcase a documentary before. Like... EVER! (Unless you count Waltz With Bashir, which some do and some don't). The reverse has happened many times: the documentary branch has nominated and awarded foreign documentaries.

To be fair to the Academy, not many documentaries are submitted to begin with in foreign film. But even when they are submitted and happen to be as deserving as say, Finland’s Steam of Life in 2010, they still get ignored. So I did a little research and came to the conclusion that this problem is not really limited to the foreign category. Documentaries have always had a hard time breaking out of their box. Admittedly, the voters’ hands are tied when it comes to some categories (acting, costume design, etcetera.) but there’s no reasonable explanation for the absence of documentaries in editing, cinematography and even the sound categories.

Which brings me to my main point: the Academy has at least four shots at righting this wrong come January. It’s highly unlikely that any of these nominations will come to fruition but staying silent about them won’t help the cause, so here we go: these are my suggestions for documentary nominations in non-documentary categories. From my mouth to cinema god’s ears.   

Pina (Foreign Film Category)
Several pundits (including Nathaniel) think the German entry has what it takes to make it to the top five. I’m not as high on the film as some critics seem to be, but considering what a delightful and remarkably unique nomination this would be should it happen, I can fully get behind it.

Jose & Pilar (Foreign Film Category)
Not quite as buzzy but even more deserving than the German submission is this Portuguese gem. This documentary is about one of my personal favourite writers, the Nobel Prize winning Jose Saramago, in the last years of his life with his wife Pilar. The film is rooted in Saramago’s ideology but also steps away to observe him from an external perspective. It succeeds both as an intimate portrayal of love between an older couple, and as a compelling character study of a man whose life is an endless source of fascinating political and literary ideas. I’ve only seen 12 of the submissions so far, but I have a hard time believing there are five better films among the rest. Nevertheless, I won’t get my hopes up. When there are films about children and WWII available to Oscar voters, what are Saramago’s chances?

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Cinematography)
Herzog’s film and Pina are the only two films I've seen recently that had me thinking “I’m glad I saw that in 3D” when exiting the theatre. In Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Peter Zeitlinger’s cinematography brings Chauvet Cave to the big screen without losing any of its magic. Zeitlinger’s poetic vision conveys the experience of visiting the cave and etches an array of mesmerizing images in our minds. 

Senna (Editing)
Is there a chance of this happening? If Senna is nominated in the best documentary category, that will be a beautiful achievement, but Chris King SO deserves a nomination all his one. Snubbed just last year for his intricate work on Exit through the Gift Shop, he’s back with an explosive blend of F1 action and personal drama. Transitioning between racing footage, family videos and adding only sound clips (without the talking heads) Senna is an eclectic mix that gets our adrenaline going but leaves us in tears at the end. It owes so much to King’s editing. It’s been 17 years since the Editor's branch nominated Hoop Dreams and it’s about time they embraced another documentary film.

Your turn! Which documentaries would you like to see nominated? Do you believe in miracles that it could happen for any of them in an extra category?