So many awards this weekend!

Designers, makeup artists, and personal stylists must be logging looooong hours this month. There's so many awards galas happening crammed in before Oscar night. We already covered the DGA and the Annies but that wasn't all that happened this weekend (and the Grammys are still to come tonight!). After the jump, a list of other prizes handd out this weekend to luminaries like Greta Gerwig and Roger Deakins.

USC Scripter Awards
Greta Gerwig won this prize along with the posthumous Louisa May Alcott and gave this lovely acceptance speech...

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April Foolish Predictions #2: Music and Sound Categories

[drumroll] It's Time! Our annual April Foolish Oscar Predictions have begun.

Ad Astra was supposed to be out next month but rumors are that it's not finished yet

First we looked at Animated Features and now we turn our attention to the Sound categories. It's rather perverse to do them second and here's why: Original Songs and Original Scores are among the last things we have confirmed each year. Technically speaking you can wait until your whole film is nearly complete before adding a score or commissioning an original song. It's not always wise to wait of course since songs, especially, can be more effective if they're woven in and some directors prefer to work with some idea of what the score will be like while they're editing. Nevertheless there is much that's completely unknown about this film year in terms of its music...

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12 days til Oscar - a dozen wishes as Oscar voting begins

Though we're dreading the Oscars for the first time in our lives that we can recall (it's that damn gnawing off of their own limbs while in ABC's trap that they're doing) we'll still be watching and hoping for the best. With Oscars just twelve days away and voting beginning here are

12 WISHES FOR THE REMAINDER OF THE SEASON...

1. For voters to watch one or two more screeners before they vote. Better, or at least fairer choices will be made if they have seen every option within a category. Particularly in the lower profile categories like Animated Short or Documentaryl don't just vote for Bao or RBG because they're the ones you've seen -- vote for them only if you think they're the actual best.

2. That John Bailey and the Board of Governors realize their disgusting mistake and reverse course yet again restoring the cut categories to the Broadcast. Giving out awards during commercial breaks is shameful and also, as we've heard from people who've attended, extra disrespectful because in the room there is tons of noise during commercial breaks as everyone runs for drinks, bathroom breaks, to visit friends in other seats, etc...

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Thoughts I Had... about the Oscar Luncheon Class Photo

Watching this video (embedded after the jump) is so worth your time. Why does anyone want the Oscars to be short? Even 48 minutes just to celebrate the nominees taking a photo is too short!

00:27 Why isn't Laura Dern president of the Academy. Save us, Laura! Things have gone so haywire and the rumor is you yourself put the kabosh on the "popular film Oscar" idea so we know you have common sense. 

01:15 "...A narrative that does not propagate myths but dispel them."  Hmmm, whatever/whoever/what political party / propaganda channel could she ever be talking about? Hee.

02:00 I imagine these decorative bells on her dress making beautiful tiny ringing noises, too faint for the mic, when she moves, like she herself is giving wings to many angels by the second. She's one of them...

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Sundance: "The Sound of Silence"

Abe Fried-Tanzer reporting from Sundance

There is a lot of noise in New York City. You’d be hard-pressed to find a single person who disagrees with that statement. Suggesting that there is meaning to be found within the multitude of sounds emanating at all volumes and all times of the day and night is more of a stretch. That’s the premise of Michael Tyburski’s The Sound of Silence, playing as part of the U.S. Dramatic Competition at Sundance.

Peter Sarsgaard stars as a 'house tuner,' also named Peter, who helps people achieve an aural balance in their homes that will translate to harmony and tranquility in other aspects of their lives...

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