Oscar Style: Henry Hobson & Those Gorgeous Graphic Sequences

Manuel here to talk about the gorgeous designs we saw last night. The Oscar telecast was, as usual, a very pretty affair. Humor may be subjective (a pun can both garner a laugh and an eye roll) and winners can be fought over (oh those Birdman takedowns aren't gonna get any less nasty now are they?) but the show will always provide the eye candy. And I'm not just talking about the gorgeous dresses, the preened faces and the sculpted male torso that walked the stage. I'm here to talk about the beautiful title cards that were featured throughout the night. 

Combining Tumblr-ized minimalism and Instagram's cataloguing style, Henry Hobson and the Elastic Design created some beautifully stylized graphic sequences for last night's awards:

I particularly loved the (ever so brief! -- guess they wanted to keep these sequences short and sweet?) Best Picture montage:

Best Picture Oscar Nomination Title Sequence - 2015 from henry hobson directing & design on Vimeo.

If there's one objection to make about all these pretty pictures is that they seemed designed to deny us of the power of those moving pictures we were supposed to be honoring (or, in the case of the In Memoriam tribute, of the work which Meryl reminded us, would live on). 

Were you taken with the designs? Or did you wish we could have gotten full clips of some of these nominees, especially as the telecast was unusually reticent to show clips of any kind?

Oscar Night. Arrivals

Hollywood's High Holy Night has arrived!

Ms Musical. Anna Kendrick looks amazing tonight.

06:05 It's only once every 365 days and that's soooo long to wait. As I turn the TV on it appears that Ryan Seacrest is stalking Josh Hutcherson trying to find out where he stays when he vacations. Hutcherson will only reveal that he likes Madrid.

06:10 Common calls Oscars "the mountain top" of awards shows. Which is very obviously true but do you think the Grammys feelings are hurt since Common's a musician?

06:15 Reese Witherspoon is sharing texts from her mom on Instagram which will make you love the Witherspoon(s) even more

06:16 will.i.am says he goes to the movies every Friday and Saturday religiously and Selma is his favorite. 

Rosamund Pike terrors and Dakota Johnson lies after the jump

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Box Office: 50 Shades of Oscar Green

This weeks box office is nearly identical to last week's only less cash to go round. The top three films still reign holding off newcomers and outside the top five people are still checking out the Oscar nominees for some last minute looksies before the big ceremony tonight (yes, we'll be live-blogging). American Sniper is now just $17 million away from becoming 2014's #1 film.  But it has started to lose theaters and its per scene average isn't what it used to be. At any rate it's going to be a photofinish with the top three of 2014: Hunger Games 3 & Guardians of the Galaxy 1 are just 3 million apart in grosses and Sniper is approaching them with unblinking dead-eyed determination.

TOP OF THE BOX OFFICE
Click on the highlighted titles for past articles on that film
01 50 SHADES OF GREY $23.2 (cum. $130.1)
02 KINGSMAN $17.5 (cum. $67.1)
03 SPONGEBOB MOVIE $15.5 (cum. $125.1)
04 MCFARLAND USA $11.3 NEW
05 THE DUFF $11 NEW
06 AMERICAN SNIPER $9.6 (cum. $319.6) 
07 HOT TUB TIME MACHINE 2 $5.8 NEW
08 JUPITER ASCENDING $3.6 (cum. $39.5) 
09 IMITATION GAME $2.5 (cum. $83.9) 
10 PADDINGTON $2.2 (cum. $67.6)
11 STILL ALICE $2.1 (cum. $7.9) 

In happy news for our long awaited Julianne Moore Oscar coronation Still Alice, expanding to just under 800 screens, nearly made the top ten and has already earned a very healthy $8 million for a movie about the cheery topic of alzheimers. Selma will soon cross the $50 million mark. Despite whining in some corners that it underperformed it's actually the 4th most successful Best Picture nominee.

Readers Poll Results: Who *Should* Win?

With the Oscars arriving in 12 hours and your host (er, Nathaniel -- your host here at TFE-- not NPH) still sick as a dog, I turn the time over to you. Your votes have been tallied from the polls we ran on the individual Oscar Chart pages over the past month and here's who YOU -- the collective you at least -- are rooting for tonight.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Grand Budapest Hotel won 37% of your hearts. In solid second place was Birdman with 30%. Nightcrawler and Boyhood had their fans with 16% and 12% of the vote respectively. Trailing them all with a poor showing was Foxcatcher with 4%.

acting, director, picture after the jump

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Last Pre-Oscar Link Roundup!

Best Picture & Oscar Mania
Nicks Flick Picks preferences and predictions
Variety how to watch the Oscars online
Salon on the Birdman vs Boyhood battle for Hollywood's soul
Guardian on Ida and Leviathan's troubles at home as they head to the Foreign Film Oscar decision
NY Post goes out on a clickbait limb and predicts American Sniper for the Best Picture win
Disqus on which Best Pictures people are talking about in which states. Chart and graph madness!
Slant Eric Henderson has finally convinced me that Birdman is winning Sunday night. I don't know why I've been so resistant to that idea? It just seems way too experimental and funny and weird to me to think of it as a Best Picture winner but I guess I have to adjust my thinking.
Slate how to accept an Oscar properly 
In Contention on the dead heat for Best Director 

and ICYMI
Our Final Predictions Podcast
Category Overview Towleroad Article
Film Bitch Awards Oscar Correlative Ballot ~ Nathaniel's Votes 

Meet the Movie Press
I guest-starred on this show yesterday (I come in at about 24 minutes but I'm sad I missed the discussion of Alien cuz I love me that slimy acid-blood franchise) just as I was crashing into miserable sickness. Good timing. You can watch it right here. Thanks to the @theinsneider and for having me on. We discuss Oscar predictions.

Off Oscar Miscellania
Pajiba 10 movies John Cusack's made recently that you've never heard of. Pajiba's Cusack obsession is always fun
Coming Soon Birdman has convinced Hugh Jackman that he should keep playing Wolverine until he dies. Say what?
/Film Scarlett Johansson will star in The Psychopath Test. The synopsis (very lengthy) suggests two major male characters so I'm not sure who she'll play. Perhaps the psychologist that gets the plot rolling before the men take over?
/Film Wonder Woman to shoot in the fall
The Film Stage Tom Ford finally has his follow up to A Single Man (2009) lined up or his follow-ups really. Continuing Hollywood's most hateful trend it's said to be a two-part film. Movie people stop. You are not television. The mediums are for different things and TV is where the longform stories are supposed to go. If you want to tell a long story that's where you belong. (People hated me for hating that movie but I'm eager to see his next because he does have an eye.)