The Red Carpet Blog

By Christa Youngpeter

Documentaries are often forgotten in awards chatter, especially in this Avatar blockbusting day and age and flashbulb-laden entertainment industry. However, even short subject documentaries can offer seriously powerful, ground zero accounts of forgotten disasters and historical events on every level from personal to domestic to global.

For example, who can recount the devastation in China’s Sichuan province in 2008 when poorly constructed schools killed countless children? It may have been a 24 hour blip on CNN, but Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill’s China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of the Sichuan Province takes viewers face to face with the toll an earthquake can have on a rural town and unfamiliar culture where families are pressured to follow a strict one-child policy. With the recent devastation in Haiti, this candidate could either win big or be pushed aside by more recent events. You can see the trailer here.

Nominee The Last Campaign of Governer Booth Gardner is not the first time around the Oscar block for director Daniel Junge who was nominated last year for was nominated last year for his feature-length They Killed Sister Dorothy. Following Washington state’s Parkingson’s-plagued former governor and his battle for legally assisted suicide could certainly prove a worthy domestic candidate of the Oscar this year with it’s taboo subject and political human rights struggle. To see more Booth Gardner (the history, not the film), you can click here.

Another domestic nominee, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, offers a plight of a different nature- joblessness in the worst economic climate in decades. Filmed in a bare-bones style, but rife with heart-breaking emotion, Last Truck is a true testament to the hardest working suffering the most as giant corporations fall. America’s heartland is rarely depicted in all of its raw earnest, so Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert’s documentary could easily draw votes for its blue collar focus in a time where attention is focused seemingly everywhere but the common American. You can see the trailer here.

Music by Prudence, a 30 minute journey through a young, disabled woman’s impossible struggle from birth, is the kind of uplifting message that, let’s be honest, we all need right now. Prudence Mabhena was born in Zimbabwe with unimaginable disability- no legs, twisted arms, but gifted with a hauntingly beautiful voice. Surviving infanticide only to live as an outcast, Prudence winds up excelling thanks to a school for disabled youth. By Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett. You can visit the film’s official site to see more.

And then… there were rabbits. And the Berlin Wall. As odd as the premise may sound, Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra’s concept could very well lead to an Oscar win for this dark horse (rabbit?) nominee. Juxtaposed with black and white footage of Communist-era barbed wire, machine gun fire and brick and mortar construction, are families of blissfully ignorant rabbits running free. Certainly original, and with the 20^th anniversary of the Wall’s demise this past year, don’t count this one out. You can visit the official site for Rabbit a la Berlin for more information.

So in a field on international and local disasters, struggles and Communist oppression, who stands the best chance of bringing home the statue and with it, priceless visibility for funding future projects? Music By Prudence seems to have it all- life-long struggle in a developing nation, hidden talent that overcomes said struggle and ultimately a sincere, uplifting that ending that’s feel-good without being too saccharine-sweet. While the other nominees are strong despite their succinct time frames, Prudence may very well outshine the rest.

Road to the Oscars series:

February 4: Live Action Short – Kit Bowen

February 5: Animated Short – Kit Bowen

February 8: Documentary Short Subject – Christa Youngpeter

February 9: Documentary Feature – Nate Freiberg

February 10: Foreign Language Film – Paul Popiel

February 12: Animated Film – Nate Freiberg

February 15: Visual Effects – Mallory Pickard

February 16: Sound Mixing – Jeremy Martin

February 17: Sound Editing – Jeremy Martin

February 18: Original Song – Adam Spunberg

February 19: Original Score – Adam Spunberg

February 22: Makeup – Christa Youngpeter

February 23: Costume – Steve Neumann

February 24: Art Direction – Christa Youngpeter

February 25: Film Editing – Steve Neumann

February 26: Cinematography – Paul Popiel

February 27: Original Screenplay – Jeremy Martin

February 28: Adapted Screenplay – Jeremy Martin

March 1: Supporting Actress – Marla Seidell

March 2: Supporting Actor – Mallory Pickard

March 3: Actress – Marla Seidell

March 4: Actor – Kit Bowen

March 5: Director – Mallory Pickard

March 6: Picture – Kit Bowen

By Bryce Van Kooten

The Oscar nominations out, the dresses purchased, tuxes fitted. It’s a joyous occasion here in Hollywood – excitement in the air like the fresh smog surrounding the rainy, new decade. It’s a pleasure just to be nominated, right!? What about the snubs! What about the dynamite performances that got left behind?  Its time to shed some light on the ‘almosts’ this season; the top ten…well, eleven.

Best Picture:
Star Trek – One would hope for a little respect for this innovative grassroots story in a year where the nominations go from five to ten! A large portion of Americans had their biggest smiles of 09’ as they left Star Trek. Purely, the movie was a total blast, and worthy of a nod in a year where the Best Pic category proved to love its dramas just a little too much…again.

Best Actor:
Sharlto Copley – District 9 – First time actor Sharlto Copley dominates every minute he’s on screen in this incredible portrayal of a dimwitted, nerdy government official assigned to evict aliens in the perilous District 9. Assisted by incredible special effects, Copley’s portrayal of Wikus Van De Merwe was top notch at the least. Give the man his nod.

Matt Damon – The Informant! – I knew I’d be in for a quirky ride alongside The Informant!, but it wasn’t until the halfway mark that I realized the razor-edge line that Damon had been walking for the past hour. His interpretation is genius, endearing and utterly depressing; perfect for the Academy, right?

Hal Holbrook – That Evening Sun – This small film made almost no waves around the nation until Hal Holbrook’s performance was discussed for early Oscar lists. Holbrook – the bitter, savvy old man, Abner Meecham – comes on the tails of his Oscar snub for Into the Wild and is dually as moving. If you haven’t seen That Evening Sun, see it. A splendidly small film by director Scott Teems and a true testament of Holbrook’s strength when left alone to his craft.

Best actress:

Zoe Saldana – Avatar – I get it, I get it; I know many believe Avatar doesn’t belong in the Best Actor/Actress category alongside some of the other nominees, but hear me out. Everyone always talks about the power of progress — Dustin Hoffman was nominated for Tootsie, Jaye Davidson for The Crying Game — it would only seem right that Saldana was given a fair shake for her pioneering vision of Avatar’s main female lead, Neytiri. Ha! She didn’t even wear a CGI bubble suit….

Samantha Morton – The Messenger – Again, if you haven’t seen this tiny, beautiful picture, you’re going to need to go out and rent it, if only for the kitchen scene between Alpha Dog’s, Ben Foster (who is also brilliant) and Samantha Morton. This epically long, intrinsically beautiful slow-zooming scene leaves you pondering…did I actually just watched real life? Its worth the price of admission and surely should have been worth an Oscar bid.

Best Supporting Actor
Zach Galifianakis – The Hangover – Call me crazy, because I probably am, but there’s got to be more room in this shindig for comedies, especially comedies with the power of The Hangover. Throw in Galifianakis as yet another comedic tragedy to be looked over. Are you listening Steve Carell (40-Year-Old Virgin)?

Best Director:
Tom Ford – A Single Man – I wasn’t a very big fan of A Single Man, but I can say that it was a remarkable film. Beautiful, poignant and horribly sad, Tom Ford marched well down the path to mastering his new craft in a few short moments on screen. The bedroom scene alone is staggeringly made, but it’s worth noting that without Colin Firth, Ford gets only half noticed. But as is, well done Tom – you can do far more than make amazing suits.

Neil Blomkamp – District 9 – A terrific movie and outstanding directing. A movie where the lead character becomesmore human as he becomes more alien…genius! District 9 created drama in simple situations and a dazzling story from dynamic characters. To be honest, its going to be real hard to take down Cameron or Bigelow, but hey, atta boy, Neil.

Best Original Screenplay:
500 Days of Summer – the more I sit back and think, the more this movie inches closer to the top of my 2009 top ten. The script was extraordinary– I read it – and the movie splayed the words out like a fine sushi chef. I loved 300, 12 Angry Men and 3 Ninjas, so maybe I just like movies starting with numbers…

Honorable Mention:
Best Documentary
Tyson – In a year where Food, Inc. and The Cove basically changed my life, its tough to say another doc should be included in the fray…then I watched Tyson. The single power of Tyson’s interviews demand respect and afford the viewer no ability to turn away: a broken, shattered, shell of a man pouring his heart to the world which tore him down for so long. I can’t describe the power of some of these talking-head interviews; I walked away utterly grateful for the life I had been given.

By Kit Bowen
TheMovieKit.com

This may the first time an animated Pixar short didn’t make cut: “Partly Cloudy,” the short film released with “Up,” was conspicuously left off the list. It looks this stellar group of animated short film nominees have finally outshined the masters.

“French Roast” (France)
Who: Director Fabrice O. Joubert
What: A gentleman, enjoying his coffee in a French cafe, realizes he has forgotten his wallet and has to figure out how he’s going get away with it, while also dealing with a ragged old beggar, a sleeping nun and of course, the ever-present waiter. Watch the short in its entirety here:

——

“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” (Ireland)
Who: Director Nicky Phelan, written and performed by Katherine O’Rouke
What: A seemingly kindhearted grandmother tells her young grandchild a particular skewed version of “Sleeping Beauty” to try to help him go to sleep. She gets a little carried away in her storytelling. Watch the short in its entirety here:

—-

“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” (Spain)
Who: Written and directed by Javier Recio Gracia
What: The Grim Reaper and a do-gooder doctor fight over the life of an elderly lady, who really just wants to be with her deceased husband. Watch the short in its entirety here:

—-

“Logorama” (U.S.)
Who: Written and directed by Nicolas Schmerkin
What: In a world where company brand logos run the place, two Michelin Man cops chase down a rogue Ronald McDonald. A very clever twist to the buddy cop movie and quite colorful. Watch a clip from the short, explicit language and all:

—-

“A Matter of Loaf and Death” (U.K.)
Who: Written and directed by Nick Park
What: Wallace and Gromit are back for another adventure! This time, as bakery owners, they must catch a serial killer with the help of a mysterious woman and her poodle. Watch the trailer:

****

It’s nice to see that all the nominees are comedies – but it also makes it hard to choose. The Wallace and Gromit short probably won’t win, since Nick Park has already has a few Oscars, while “Logorama” is hand-drawn, thus giving it a disadvantage to the CGI shorts. So it’s between the last three, and although “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” made me laugh out loud, I think I’d go with “The Lady and the Reaper” because of the production value. Lots of funny stuff AND action in that one.

Road to the Oscars series:

February 4: Live Action Short – Kit Bowen

February 5: Animated Short – Kit Bowen

February 8: Documentary Short Subject – Christa Youngpeter

February 9: Documentary Feature – Nate Freiberg

February 10: Foreign Language Film – Paul Popiel

February 12: Animated Film – Nate Freiberg

February 15: Visual Effects – Mallory Pickard

February 16: Sound Mixing – Jeremy Martin

February 17: Sound Editing – Jeremy Martin

February 18: Original Song – Adam Spunberg

February 19: Original Score – Adam Spunberg

February 22: Makeup – Christa Youngpeter

February 23: Costume – Steve Neumann

February 24: Art Direction – Christa Youngpeter

February 25: Film Editing – Steve Neumann

February 26: Cinematography – Paul Popiel

February 27: Original Screenplay – Jeremy Martin

February 28: Adapted Screenplay – Jeremy Martin

March 1: Supporting Actress – Marla Seidell

March 2: Supporting Actor – Mallory Pickard

March 3: Actress – Marla Seidell

March 4: Actor – Kit Bowen

March 5: Director – Mallory Pickard

March 6: Picture – Kit Bowen

By Kit Bowen
TheMovieKit.com

There has been talk over the years of taking the Live Action Short Film – along with the Animated Short and Documentary Short Subject – out of the Academy Awards equation, but the outcry was too great for the Academy to even consider getting rid of those categories. Short films have always been a gateway for many filmmakers to bigger and better projects – and now, with the YouTubes of the world, there are more accessible. Winning an Oscar is just icing on the cake.

Plus, the categories are game changers in any serious Oscar pool. So, to be as informed as you can be for your Oscar picks, here’s the skinny on the five Live Action Short Film nominees:

“The Door”
Who: Writer/director Juanita Wilson
Country: Russia, Ireland
What: Moving forwards and backwards in time, this is an impressionistic, personal and heart-wrenching view of the universal tragedy of Chernobyl, following one man and his family, as they cope with life after the nuclear disaster. You get more information from the film’s official site.

“Instead of Abracadabra”
Who: Writer/director Patrik Eklund
Country: Sweden
What: Despite the exasperation of his family, a young man dreams of becoming a magician. From the trailer, it sort of looks like “Napoleon Dynamite” meets David Copperfield. Watch here:

“Kavi”
Who: Writer/director Gregg Helvey
Country: India
What: This film looks at modern-day slavery in India, as young boy and his parents are forced to work in a brick kiln. The boy dreams of playing cricket and going to school but faces the hard reality of his situation – until he decides to change it. You get more information from the film’s official site, including a trailer.

“Miracle Fish”
Who: Writer/director Luke Doolan
Country: Australia
What: Having the worst birthday party of his young life, where his friends tease him mercilessly, 8-year old Joe sneaks off, wishing everyone in the world would go away. He falls asleep and wakes up to find his dream may have become a reality. Sounds very “Twilight Zone”-ish. You can see the entire 17-minute film here.

“The New Tenants”
Who: Director Joachim Back
Country: USA, Denmark
What: This is the only film with name actors, including Vincent D’Onofrio and Kevin Corrigan, and is about two men who move into an apartment together, in hopes for a fresh start, but discover their new abode has a terrifying history. Watch the trailer:

The New Tenants trailer from Det Danske Filminstitut on Vimeo.

Hmmm, they all look pretty good. “The New Tenant” has some star power; “Instead of Abracadabra” looks pretty hilarious; “Kavi” seems like a tough subject. But if I were to pick one, I’d probably go with “The Door,” since it shows young children, struggling with cancer from the affects of radiation. That kind of stuff always tugs at the heart – and wins Oscars.

Road to the Oscar series schedule:

February 4: Live Action Short – Kit Bowen

February 5: Animated Short – Kit Bowen

February 8: Documentary Short Subject – Christa Youngpeter

February 9: Documentary Feature – Nate Freiberg

February 10: Foreign Language Film – Paul Popiel

February 12: Animated Film – Nate Freiberg

February 15: Visual Effects – Mallory Pickard

February 16: Sound Mixing – Jeremy Martin

February 17: Sound Editing – Jeremy Martin

February 18: Original Song – Adam Spunberg

February 19: Original Score – Adam Spunberg

February 22: Makeup – Christa Youngpeter

February 23: Costume – Steve Neumann

February 24: Art Direction – Christa Youngpeter

February 25: Film Editing – Steve Neumann

February 26: Cinematography – Paul Popiel

February 27: Original Screenplay – Jeremy Martin

February 28: Adapted Screenplay – Jeremy Martin

March 1: Supporting Actress – Marla Seidell

March 2: Supporting Actor – Mallory Pickard

March 3: Actress – Marla Seidell

March 4: Actor – Kit Bowen

March 5: Director – Mallory Pickard

March 6: Picture – Kit Bowen

Our first AwardsPicks podcast of 2010 is now live. Listen to Phil Wallace, Kit Bowen of TheMovieKit.com, Nate Freiberg of MovieContests.org, and Adam Spunberg of AwardsPicks discuss this year’s nominees. Remember to sign up for Oscar pools on this site!

By Adam Spunberg

After several months of hysterical tweeting and ravenous Advil consumption, we finally get the results of Best Picture expansion. As with many groundbreaking events in life, sometimes the actual transition has to happen before the effects can truly sink in. Now we can really pose the question: Has the Academy succeeded in bringing more mainstream interest to the show, or has its flagship category become too diluted?

Unfortunately, while the five extra nominees should quicken the pulses of a few eager fans, the end result is something of a charade. The biggest problem is that anyone can pick out the tag-alongs from the already-theres, and it has nothing to do with possessing some great insight or film savvy.

Best Picture may have expanded to 10 nominees, but the other categories remain unchanged. That includes Best Director, which – in the five-for-fighting days – often sported the same quintet as Picture. For 2009, we have Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Up in the Air, and Precious competing for Best Director honors. What does that say for District 9, An Education, A Serious Man, Up, and (gasp!) The Blind Side? Should we even bother putting them on the ballot when it’s so obvious that they’re the bottom feeders?

Put Directing aside and take a look at the Screenplay awards. Eight of the Best Picture nominations found a spot within Best Original Screenplay or Best Adapted Screenplay. Missing? The Blind Side and Avatar. We can excuse Avatar, since we all know it wasn’t the dialogue that drove that film (“Look at all that cheddar!”), but that’s strike two for The Blind Side.

What about Cinematography? Making it from the Best Picture list are Avatar, The Hurt Locker, and Inglourious Basterds. While not a tell-all category by any means, The Blind Side’s omission from Best Director, a Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography has pretty much assured any viewer that its inclusion was a sham. Sorry Michael Oher.

Perhaps one could argue that by giving a movie like The Blind Side a spot, the nomination itself serves as its own form of recognition. There is definitely some truth there, but how meaningful is that honor, truly, when the field has been so trivialized? The Blind Side simply does not belong.

On the flip side, the new format is not without benefit. At long last, we have an animated, Pixar film in Up that breaks the barrier. Expect that to be a trend in the coming years, as long as the 10-movie system is in place. Also, a thought-provoking sci-fi epic like District 9 gets a little more spotlight, and the glorious An Education (probably sixth on the Academy’s list) might enter the consciousness of the everyday filmgoer. These are all worthy causes.

In summary, I would have to say that the expansion has been a failure, but it is has its merits too. If the ceremony is in such need of a shakeup, why not compromise at eight films instead of 10? That way, at least all the nominees have a decent chance of garnering extra nominations in Directing, Screenplay, and/or Cinematography.

Of course, maybe the most sensible option would be to recall the famous song from worthy 1971-nominee Fiddler on the Roof: Tradition! Some things are best left as they were, if for no other reason than to honor the standards of yesteryear.

By Kit Bowen
TheMovieKit.com

There were a few surprises when the 82nd Academy Awards nominations were announced this morning, but overall it was pretty predictable, with “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” leading the pack.

As expected, the Academy voters and I picked “Avatar,””An Education,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Precious,” “Up” and “Up in the Air.” And I correctly tagged “District 9” as the chosen summer blockbuster. What I missed on were nominees “A Serious Man” and “The Blind Side.” I thought “The Hangover” might have a chance since it had won the Golden Globe, but of course, the Academy couldn’t possibly nominated something so crass. No, instead they went with something far more familiar to them, since “A Serious Man” deals with the trials and tribulations of a Jewish professor in the 1950s. As for “The Blind Side,” at one point I wanted to put it on my Best Pic list because of its box office prowess but realized the Academy probably wouldn’t nominate two sports movies. So, I stuck by “Invictus” because of its pedigree – and I backed the wrong horse.

The only acting category I flubbed was supporting actress. Penelope Cruz did sneak in there for “Nine” (and I DID laugh out loud), but I’m glad she made the list. She deserves the nod for her performance as the passionate – and delicate – mistress. The nomination I’m having an issue with is Maggie Gyllenhaal for “Crazy Heart” over Julianne Moore for “A Single Man.” Huh? That makes no sense to me. Gyllenhaal puts in a decent performance, but Moore truly shines in “Single Man,” as a desperate housewife in love with a gay man. Guess I’ll just chalk it up to bad judgment.

Here is the complete list of nominations:

Best Actor
Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon in “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Best Supporting Actress
Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Best Animated Feature
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up”

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, “District 9”
Nick Hornby, “An Education”
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, “In the Loop”
Geoffrey Fletcher, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, “Up in the Air”

Writing (Original Screenplay)
Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, “The Messenger”
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, “A Serious Man”
Bob Peterson and Pete Docter, “Up”

Best Director
James Cameron, “Avatar”
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Lee Daniels, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”

Best Picture
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9”
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

Art Direction
“Avatar”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“Sherlock Holmes”
“The Young Victoria”

Cinematography
“Avatar”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The White Ribbon”

Costume Design
“Bright Star”
“Coco Before Chanel”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“The Young Victoria”

Documentary (Feature)
“Burma VJ”
“The Cove”
“Food, Inc.”
“The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers”
“Which Way Home”

Documentary (Short Subject)
“China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province”
“The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner”
“The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant”
“Music by Prudence”
“Rabbit à la Berlin”

Film Editing
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Foreign Language Film
“Ajami” Israel
“El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
“The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
“Un Prophète” France
“The White Ribbon” Germany

Makeup
“Il Divo”
“Star Trek”
“The Young Victoria”

Music (Original Score)
“Avatar” James Horner
“Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
“The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
“Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
“Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)
“Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated)
“French Roast”
“Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty”
“The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)”
“Logorama”
“A Matter of Loaf and Death”

Short Film (Live Action)
“The Door”
“Instead of Abracadabra”
“Kavi”
“Miracle Fish”
“The New Tenants”

Sound Editing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Up”

Sound Mixing
“Avatar”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Star Trek”
“Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen”

Visual Effects
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“Star Trek”

You can now sign up for Oscar pools on AwardsPicks.com. If you were in a group last year, then the group leader can simply add the 2010 Oscar Game. If you want to start a new group, then go ahead and register. You can sign up for public and private groups.

Feel free to e-mail any questions or comments to Feedback@awardspicks.com

By Adam Spunberg

Several of our writers have come out with their nomination predictions, and I already offered my take on the Best Picture category. If there is one thing we can truly prognosticate, it’s that the question of tomorrow will be: “Who got snubbed?” And many, who were grossly off in their original picks, will take furiously to the keyboard like those valet guys in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off; ultimately, there are some who will never be satisfied with any outcome, so long as they have a sounding board for expressing their displeasure.

Snubs can be broken down into two categories: movies that were on a lot of people in-the-know’s lists, and movies that never stood a chance to begin with. If a movie gets a, “Wow, I can’t believe that got snubbed,” reaction, it’s in Group 1. Group 2 is more likely to elicit a, “The Academy is way too stuck up to consider a movie like that” response, or in some extreme cases, “That’s why I don’t watch the ***** Oscars!” (be rest assured…those people usually still do watch).
There will be plenty of time to discuss the travesties of Group 1, so I will cater here to a few candidates not on the Academy’s radar:

Best Actor:
1. Viggo Mortensen, The Road: Nobody seems to be mentioning him at all, which leads me to believe – as Phil Wallace astutely pointed out – that few people have actually seen The Road. Our favorite Aragorn-portrayer should have at least gotten some consideration for muddying around in the filth for a whole shoot. An understated film that genuinely illustrates the listlessness of Cormac McCarthy’s apocalyptic world, Viggo shines as the morally-conflicted father without answers. Mortensen deserves a shoeshine and a footprint on the red carpet.

2. Jesse Eisenberg, Adventureland: Eisenberg really seems to like movies with “land” in them (Adventureland and Zombieland in 2009), but that affinity won’t land him any Oscar love. I may be in the minority, but I thoroughly appreciated Adventureland for its good-natured spirit, compelling story, and perhaps most of all, the likeability of its main character. Eisenberg played his role perfectly, and for that he deserves to be on higher turf.

Best Actress:
1. Zooey Deschanel, (500) Days of Summer: While I was thrilled to see my former classmate (we even lived in the same dorm), Joseph Gordon-Levitt, get some attention at the Golden Globes, where was Zooey Deschanel? After all, the movie WAS about Summer, first and foremost, and Deschanel played the spellbindingly-unreachable temptress with almost as much nuance as Vivaldi in his Four Seasons.

2. Abbie Cornish, Bright Star: Cornish was entrancing in her portrayal of Miss Fanny Brawne, the open-to-the-world fashionista who fell hard for poet John Keats in the underappreciated Bright Star (see my earlier thoughts). I really can’t find fault with any aspect of her performance. This is one of those cases where her obscurity as an actress hurt her severely, whereas everyone knows Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep. Let’s hope Carey Mulligan wins it on behalf of the unknown Brits.

Best Supporting Actor:
1. Jim Broadbent, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: This is a clear case of discrimination by genre. Broadbent absolutely steals the show in the latest installment of the Potter series, playing the flawed-but-jolly Professor Slughorn with a hilarious air. Throughout the film, Broadbent speaks the mind of his character with comic contortions of his face, and when he speaks, it always seems humorous. J. K. Rowling and her rabid constituents were all thrilled with his performance.

2. Paul Giamatti, Duplicity: Duplicity may have been a mediocre film, forgettable as another not-so-serious man-woman spy movie (although I still enjoyed it). Lost within the averageness was a gem of a performance by Giamatti, as the over-the-top CEO desperate to use any kind of espionage imaginable to show up his nemesis. In one scene, Giamatti is especially brilliant as he holds a stockholder’s meeting where he believes he has his triumph. In a more notable movie, Giamatti would get more recognition.

Best Supporting Actress:
1. Melanie Laurent, Inglourious Basterds: I don’t know how Diane Kruger can be considered for a nomination and not the mesmerizing Laurent. Laurent’s extraordinary performance as the victim-turned-femme-fatale, ever more intoxicating through each new eye-movement and cryptic smile, should not only garner a nomination, but an Oscar win (see Mallory Pickard’s piece on Inglourious Basterds). If all predictions turn out true, the Academy is really missing the boat here.

2. Olivia Williams, An Education: An Education featured a number of prominent actors in minor roles, such as Emma Thompson as the school headmistress and Rosamund Pike as the friend of Jenny’s (Carey Mulligan) suitor. None compared to that of Williams, whose stony countenance conveyed such disappointment and earnest hope in the slightest gestures. Williams will not be recognized at the Oscars, but those who value solid acting will not soon forget her fine contribution.

Best Director:
1. David Yates, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: In a franchise that has zipped through several directors and been subject to inescapable hype, it’s truly remarkable that Yates will be retained from No. 5 through the two installments of No. 7. What makes Yates’ directing so exceptional is how he delicately approaches each scene. At times, I thought the Half-Blood Prince was as much an art film as a fantasy adventure, with such attention to detail and Yates’ determination to reveal the beauty of Rowling’s magical world.

2. Sam Raimi, Drag Me to Hell: An unconventional choice, certainly, but one that deserves some serious mention. Considering the difficulty of the genre, especially among critics, how to explain the 92% Rotten Tomatoes that Raimi has staggeringly achieved? As someone who normally shuns horror films, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Raimi’s devilishly-good directing. More than just a scary movie, Raimi poked fun of the traditional components of the horror movie, all while providing a ghastly tale of his own. I laughed and gasped and laughed and gasped, and I imagine Hollywood would too if they looked at it under an unprejudiced lense.

I will be extremely surprised if even one of these 10 films snags an unexpected nomination, but I encourage you – the viewers – to rise where the Academy could not, and contemplate the valor of these efforts while others receive the call.

By Mallory Pickard

I categorically and respectfully disagree with Michaela Zanello’s judgment that Inglourious Basterds will win an Oscar by virtue of “default” if it does indeed win the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film is Quentin Tarantino’s career masterpiece, and I feel the implied “offbeat comedy” and “tragic melodrama” of the narrative should not only be recognized as alternatives to genre convention, but to real life perceptions of good and evil that have become so ingrained in our culture, perhaps ironically, through film.

Inglourious Basterds provides us with not one, but two beautiful princesses-to-be in addition to handsome, eligible bachelors complete with a “Once upon a time” beginning. There is a perfect set-up for the traditional orphaned and virtuous damsel-in-distress narrative (Melanie Laurent), and the lone shoe Diane Kruger loses in a tavern after her identity is discovered comfortably parallels the whimsically romantic Cinderella story.

But happy endings were hard to come by in Nazi-occupied France, and Tarantino created Basterds accordingly. Shoshanna’s happy ending cannot be found in the charming, quarterback-dreamy soldier who pursues her because this is France in 1944, and Prince Charming is a Nazi who would sooner take pride in his number of executions than his number of touchdowns. Similarly, Bridget von Hammersmark’s celebrity-charmed shoe exposes her identity, but it is not the Prince who comes calling for Cinderella’s hand– it is a notorious Nazi who comes calling for the German double-agent’s throat.

So where does one find their own happy ending, their own knight in shining armor, in the midst of a war on basic humanity? Tarantino leaves it to his own true love – cinema – to fulfill the conventional need. In a time when language defined a person’s identity and too frequently their fate, the revisionist narrative of Inglourious Basterds allows for the universal language of justice to immortalize itself via filmmaking— above the barriers of language, military rank, or societal reputation.

It is Shosanna (Laurent) who has the final say in the fate of the Third Reich. It is also Shoshanna’s character who has existed under the name Emmanuel since her family was executed before her eyes by Hans Landa’s Nazi henchmen. Shoshanna cannot play at the language game like von Hammersmark (Kruger) who shifts between German, French, and English as needed, nor can she veer from her virtuous instinct long enough even to ensure her own vitality after she finally takes down Zoller, a Nazi who is equally relentless in his quest to conquer Europe and Shoshanna.

In other words, it is not the character of noble rank, the character who inhabits the right uniform, the character who says all the right things who achieves ultimate victory. It is the girl who cannot be defined by national, linguistic, or aesthetic expectations and the girl who refuses to play into the damsel-in-distress role who delivers the world from a government that operates within these rigorously defined borders. No less, she achieves immortality via film, a medium the Nazis heavily relied on to manipulate the public mindset and glorify their exploitations.

As Lieutenant Aldo Raine, Brad Pitt delivers a more scaled justice to his antagonist, Hans Landa (Christopher Waltz). Where Lieutenant Raine possesses an unwavering objective to achieve vigilante justice in Europe, Landa (“The Jew Hunter”) possesses an unwavering objective to become immortal in history books regardless of the means— to become infamous for the sake of being infamous. Raine’s quest to kill in order to let live versus Landa’s quest to kill in order to exterminate may illuminate Tarantino’s intentions in misspelling the film’s title— the traditional spelling is manipulated perhaps because when the proper form of anything is manipulated by evil (as by the “gentlemanly” character of Landa), then our definition of “proper” and “right” should be reconsidered.

After all, as a moonshine man who refuses to mask his Tennessee accent even in the midst of Nazi officers, it is unlikely that Aldo Raine would spell “bastards” any other way than phonetically— that is, with a Southern “e” in place of the proper “a”. The definition of the word “bastard” itself being “illegitimate” or “despicable” lends to the defiant and ironic misspelling. And when nationalistic Nazi forces hijack what society considers proper and legitimate language in order to normalize horrific behavior, then the ultimate tongue-in-cheek insult is not only to embrace a proper negative label like “bastard”, but to mock the atrocity rather than take offense to it.

In my opinion, Aldo Raine is the “e” in “Basterds”. He rejects appearance and properness as indications of truth or authority, and he is a non-Jewish American leading a team of Jewish-American soldiers (men who have no real nation during World War II— bastards) in an effort against men who have turned the idea of “motherland” into a vehicle for genocide and the abortion of an entire race of people. He is a figurative bastard of military parenting in his routine and voluntary defiance of the rules, and he plays father to a group of men who, solely by being born Jewish, have been labeled bastards of the world by the Nazis.

Accordingly, if Aldo Raine is the “e” in “Basterds”, then Hans Landa surely represents the “u” in “Inglourious”. It is a common vowel that marks the difference between American and Europeans spellings (“colour”, for instance), and for all intents and purposes, the distinction is unnecessary— it does not indicate an alternate definition or pronunciation, only an archaic formality in two separate forms of what is considered “proper” spelling.

Similarly, Hans Landa’s idea of distinction is superfluous and artificial; he equates appearance with identity in his virtueless, homicidal mission to become famed in one way or another, and appropriately, “inglorious” means “not famed or honored; dishonorable”. Tarantino dresses up the word “inglorious” with a “u” just as Landa dresses up his own monstrous intentions in overly formal language and mannerisms.

His character, though undeniably humorous, provides an unsettling explanation to years of questions that we have asked about Nazi Germany— mainly, how did so many people allow it to happen? Perhaps Hans Landa isn’t as much an offbeat comedic character as he is closer to the truth than Nazis portrayed in films past who are inevitably dark, twisted, and visibly evil. After all, sophistication is no indication of a person’s character. A man accustomed to and even entertained by the idea of genocide who also disguises himself as a gentleman is not less dangerous than a visibly ruthless killer, but infinitely more so— mainly because it is only individuals who know themselves and others outside of material culture who have the power to recognize such evil.

Even so, a story that begins with “Once upon a time” must provide some kind of happy ending. Despite the fact that Tarantino’s princesses consummate their wishes in death rather than marriage or procreation as the traditional fairy tale would have it, both play mother to all the victims of the war as both are instrumental in aborting Hitler and his cronies from the earth once and for all. Furthermore, Aldo Raine consummates his quest to abort Nazis from their stations of power in the final scene by permanently decorating “The Jew Hunter” with a carving that Private Utivich (B.J. Novak) fittingly claims is the Lieutenant’s masterpiece.

In classic fashion, Tarantino offers us an anti-happy-ending happy ending, a final scene of glorious justice in which the existence of millions of people is symbolically relinquished from a seemingly sophisticated society of monsters and returned in its free, undisguised form with the evil marked for all future generations to see— military violations, genre violations, historical violations, and misspellings be damned.

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, “Fiction reveals truth that reality obscures.” The Academy may not be naturally inclined to favor an inventive, revisionist war film for Best Picture or Best Screenplay, but it should seriously consider the positive implications of empowerment over the traditional depressing gravitas of traditional war films. Tarantino has hit a gold mine of cinematic possibility with a groundbreaking screenplay, an unforgettable and overwhelmingly likable cast, and a narrative that has relinquished itself from the grips of cinematic convention at the risk of creating something greater. My verdict: victory.