MTV Movie Awards get a Quality Face Lift with Django Unchained and Ted Leading the Nominations

Over the past few years the inclusion of Twilight, it's actors and their many wins seemed to take this award show down negative path.  Last year this award show decided to add "an academy" of their own, and things started to change ever so slightly, but this group of nominees reminds me of the the way the nominees used to look when I was growing up.  The show blended popularity and quality, rather than just letting popularity dictate things.

Both Ted and Django Unchained have 7 nominations a piece including Movie of the Year.  Other Movie of the Year nominees are Silver Linings Playbook (6 nominations-mostly all for J-Law, and Bradley Cooper), The Avengers (4 nominations), and The Dark Knight Rises (4 nominations).  Without Twilight in the mix predicting the winner will be tricky, but with Rebel Wilson as a nominee and host I am going to watch this year!

MOVIE OF THE YEAR
"Django Unchained"
"Silver Linings Playbook"
"Ted"
"The Avengers"
"The Dark Knight Rises"

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables"
Mila Kunis, "Ted"
Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Emma Watson, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
Rebel Wilson, "Pitch Perfect"

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE
Ben Affleck, "Argo"
Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"
Jamie Foxx, "Django Unchained"
Channing Tatum, "Magic Mike"

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE
Ezra Miller, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"
Eddie Redmayne, "Les Misérables" 
Suraj Sharma, "Life of Pi" 
Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts of the Southern Wild" 
Rebel Wilson, "Pitch Perfect" 

BEST SCARED-AS-S**T PERFORMANCE
Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"
Alexandra Daddario, "Texas Chainsaw 3D"
Martin Freeman, "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Jennifer Lawrence, "House at the End of the Street"
Suraj Sharma, "Life of Pi"

BEST ON-SCREEN DUO
Leonardo DiCaprio and Samuel L. Jackson, "Django Unchained" 
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"
Mark Wahlberg and Seth MacFarlane as Ted, "Ted" 
Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo, "The Avengers"
Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis, "The Campaign" 

BEST SHIRTLESS PERFORMANCE*
Christian Bale, "The Dark Knight Rises 
Daniel Craig, "Skyfall 
Taylor Lautner, "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 2" 
Seth MacFarlane as Ted, "Ted" 
Channing Tatum, "Magic Mike"

BEST FIGHT
Jamie Foxx vs. Candieland Henchmen, "Django Unchained" 
Daniel Craig vs. Ola Rapace, "Skyfall" 
Mark Wahlberg vs. Seth MacFarlane as Ted, "Ted"
Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Chris Hemsworth, Scarlett Johansson & Jeremy Renner vs. Tom Hiddleston, "The Avengers" 
Christian Bale vs. Tom Hardy, "The Dark Knight Rises" 

BEST KISS
Kerry Washington and Jamie Foxx, "Django Unchained" 
Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman, "Moonrise Kingdom"
Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook" 
Mila Kunis and Mark Wahlberg, "Ted" 
Emma Watson and Logan Lerman, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

BEST WTF MOMENT
Jamie Foxx and Samuel L. Jackson, Candieland Gets Smoked in "Django Unchained"
Denzel Washington, Final Descent in "Flight" 
Anna Camp, Hack-Appella in "Pitch Perfect" 
Javier Bardem, Oops… There Goes His Face in "Skyfall" 
Seth MacFarlane as Ted, Ted Gets Saucy in "Ted" 

BEST VILLAIN
Javier Bardem, "Skyfall" 
Leonardo DiCaprio, "Django Unchained" 
Marion Cotillard, "The Dark Knight Rises"
Tom Hardy, "The Dark Knight Rises" 
Tom Hiddleston, "The Avengers" 

BEST MUSICAL MOMENT*
Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"
Channing Tatum, Matt Bomer, Joe Manganiello, Kevin Nash and Adam Rodriguez, "Magic Mike" 
Anna Kendrick, Rebel Wilson, Anna Camp, Brittany Snow, Alexis Knapp, Ester Dean & Hana Mae Lee, "Pitch Perfect" 
Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook" 
Emma Watson, Logan Lerman and Ezra Miller, "The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

Does the Independent Spirit Still Exist?

Last night the Weinstein Company film Silver Linings Playbook took home four prizes at the Independent Spirit Awards,  Best Picture, Best Director, Lead Actress, and Screenplay.  Now I don't know about you, but I would not define Silver Linings Playbook as an "independent film."  Silver Linings Playbook comes from a well established director,   The production budget for the film was also 21 million dollars.  21 million hardly screams low budget film.

The history of the trophy's symbolic nature proves this award show is a bit different, than the wins from last night.  The original trophy for the film was "presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. The trophy was modified in 2006 "depicting a bird sitting atop of a pole with the shoestrings from the previous design wrapped around the pole."  The goal of this award show was to honor small budget films, their directors, and the small films, which rarely got attention from either award shows or audiences.  The award catapulted many to much more famous careers. 21 million dollars is hardly a "shoe string budget."

Silver Linings competitor Beasts of the Southern Wild is the best example a film that mainstream audiences have seen, but still fits the category of being an independent film.  The budget for this film was very small, and a few sources I have seen cite it as 1.8 million dollars.  Making any film for this amount of money is next to impossible today.  First time film maker Benh Zeitlin used the "shoe string" mentality to weave the magic of this film, and Forbes magazine cites his model as one of the most innovative ways of putting a film together.

Does it matter that Beasts is Oscar nominee, no, it is one the small films which Oscar has started to embrace.  Over the year's the Independent Spirit Awards have matched up with many films which were Best Picture nominees at the Oscars.  At the bottom is a full list of ISA winners in Best Picture.  The is only one film which won at these awards and then won Best Picture at the Oscars, and thats The Artist.

Yet I have to think/hope/wonder shouldn't this group think independently?  Pick your own winners, do not try and line up with the Oscars.  The one category where this rang through last night was with Best Actor.  John Hawkes won for The Sessions, while competing against Oscar nominee Bradley Cooper.  I am tired of these award show honoring the true independent films in the "othered" categories like Beasts only winning in Cinematography, and films like Safety Not Guaranteed, Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Middle of Nowhere not making a bigger impact.  Those are the true independent films of the year.

Time for Film Independent, who puts on this award show to either own up to their Oscar correlation, and  get out of the tent in afternoon and be corporate.  Otherwise they should embrace the "spirit" of the film they are supposed to root for and be more independent minded.

Here is a list of the Best Feature Winners throughout the shows history
The Artist
Black Swan
Precious
The Wrestler
Juno
Little Miss Sunshine
Brokeback Mountain
Sideways
Lost in Translation
Far From Heaven
Memento
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Election
Gods and Monsters
The Apostle
Fargo
Leaving Las Vegas
Pulp Fiction
Short Cuts
The Player
Rambling Rose
The Grifters
Sex, Lies and Videotape
Stand and Deliver
River’s Edge
Platoon
After Hours

Academy Award Week (2013): Best Director (No Your Pick Can't be Ben Affleck)

This year one of the most interesting, if not the most interesting race is Best Director.  Over the years at the Academy Awards Best Picture and Best Director often match up.  Over the last twenty years (from 1992-2012) Best Picture and Best Director have matched up 16 times, which is an impressive statistic.  This year Argo's name is chiseled on the statue already, and unless if you have been living under a rock you know Ben Affleck was snubbed.  Affleck has won this award at the BFCA, Golden Globes, DGA, and BAFTA.  Without Affleck nominated this makes this race a lot more interesting than I can remember.

While I am not going to go on a rant about sexism within the film industry I am a bit baffled at why more people over cited Affleck's snub instead of Bigelow's snub.  I do believe that this will go down as one of the biggest mistakes in Oscar history.

How do you define great direction, and who was "snubbed?"  One way at looking at great direction is by using auteur theory.  Auteur theory "holds that a director's film reflects the director's personal creative vision, as if they were the primary "auteur" (the French word for "author"). In spite of—and sometimes even because of—the production of the film as part of an industrial process, the auteur's creative voice is distinct enough to shine through all kinds of studio interference and through the collective process."  While this perspective is a bit more old school and looks at film as a one man show, many would attribute this vision to greats like Orson Welles, and Alfred Hitchcock.  These men controlled the vision for their films.

If you look at this year's director race many would describe David O. Russell's direction using auteur theory.  O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook is a passion project dedicated to his son.  O. Russell's film is about a bi-polar man returning home to his family.  O'Russell has talked openly about his son being bi-polar and what it meant for him to make this film.

Benh Zeitlin who directed Beasts of the Southern Wild directed the script and scored the film.  This was Zeitlin's first film and made on a shoe string budget.  Zeitlin's heart and soul went into this film, and his vision drives the heart of the film.

One of the reasons auteur theory is widely criticized is because it negates the contribution of other people who worked on the film stating the the director is the end all be all.  Zeitlin and O. Russell did not create their films out of thin air, no man is an island after all.  If you look at Steven Spielberg's work in Lincoln and here him talk about Tony Kushner's script, and every aspect of the film you feel this sense of teamwork.

This couldn't be more true with Ang Lee and his direction of Life of Pi.  Lee's work with his cinematographer, visual effects team, screenwriter, and son on created an beautiful experience from a book that was thought to be impossible to adapt to the big screen.  The use of 3D technology along with many other elements transcends most traditional aspects of film making, and made this an incredible achievement.

The nominees are 

Michael Haneke-Amour

Ang Lee-Life of Pi

David O. Russell-Silver Linings Playbook

Steven Spielberg-Lincoln

Benh Zeitlin-Beasts of the Southern Wild

Who will win?  Without a previous winner/front runner in the group this leads things wide open.  While many would probably say Spielberg I just do not think he is going to win.  My gut tells me this is a race between David O. Russell and Ang Lee.  In the past director's win in this category have won a good deal of the time because the film "feels important" or because it has an "epic" nature."  Think Ben-Hur, Lord of the Rings, Schindler's List, Out of Africa, The Sound of Music.  There are location shots, visual effects, and so on.  This could be Beasts, Pi, or Lincoln.  Zeitlin is in fifth leaving Lincoln and Pi to fit that category.  Pi and Lincoln are both well respected films, from respected directors.  Before I go on about those two films like Silver Linings Playbook rarely win director, Annie Hall fits within that category, but that rarely happens.  So I am going to go with my gut and say Ang Lee.

Will Win: Ang Lee-Life of Pi

Spoilers: Steven Spielberg and David O. Russell

Oscar Round 2012:ACE Eddies (Editors Guild Award) go to Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Brave, Breaking Bad, The Newsroom, and Nurse Jack

In the final build up leading up to the Oscar ceremony there are a few Guilds left to help try and shed some light on who will win at the Oscars.  The American Cinema Editors (ACE) Eddies award is give out awards to the best in, you guessed it, editing in film in television.  The guild breaks down the film category into four categories drama, comedy/musical, animated feature, and documentary feature.

Last night's nominees were:

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic):

• Argo, William Goldenberg, A.C.E.
• Life of Pi, Tim Squyres, A.C.E.
• Lincoln, Michael Kahn, A.C.E.
• Skyfall, Stuart Baird, A.C.E.
• Zero Dark Thirty, Dylan Tichenor, A.C.E. and William Goldenberg, A.C.E.

(Comedy Musical, Documentary and Animated cats after the cut)

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedy or Musical)

• The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Chris Gill
• Les Misérables, Melanie Ann Oliver & Chris Dickens, A.C.E.
• Moonrise Kingdom, Andrew Weisblum, A.C.E.
• Silver Linings Playbook, Jay Cassidy, A.C.E. & Crispin Struthers
• Ted, Jeff Freeman, A.C.E.

Best Edited Animated Feature Film

• Brave, Nicolas C. Smith, A.C.E.
• Frankenweenie, 
Chris Lebenzon, A.C.E. & Mark Solomon
• Rise of the Guardians, 
Joyce Arrastia
• Wreck-It Ralph, Tim Mertens

Best Edited Documentary Feature

• Samsara, Ron Fricke & Mark Magidson
• Searching for Sugar Man
. Malik Bendjelloul
• West of Memphis, Billy McMillin

The winners were Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, Brave, and Searching for Sugar Man.  The next question does this help in predicting, or guessing what will happen next at the Oscars?  The answer unfortunately is not really. 

As we get closer to the Oscars one thing is certain the buzz around both the winners tonight is mounting, and these two films just may take home a good amount of the major awards.

In the feature film category both Argo, and Silver Linings Playbook were easily predicted winners here.   Argo will most likely win the editing award at the Academy Awards, Zero Dark Thirty was a threat at one point, but Argo's journey to Best Picture is preventing that win.  One thing is for certain you may end up hearing "And the Oscar goes to....Argo" or "And the Oscar goes to...Silver Linings Playbook" a lot on February 24th.  One of the other interesting elements are the constant standing ovations for Spielberg as he takes the stage.  Spielberg won film editor of the year last night.  Could Lincoln pull of the same achievement Braveheart did in 1995?

The next interesting category is Best Animated Feature, and while many folks are saying this award is up in the air, which there are many possibilities (except Pirates, and ParaNorman).  The race for this award seems to be between Brave, Wreck-It Ralph, and Frankenweenie.  I think Brave has a bigger lock on this than people are predicting, at the moment I think Wreck-It Ralph as the best odds, yet Brave keeps winning.  At the moment I am going to stick with my gut and say Brave wins.

In another world where no one is concerned with the Oscars....the television winners were as follows:

Best Edited Half-Hour Series for Television
"Nurse Jackie" - "Handle Your Scandal"
Gary Levy

Best Edited One-Hour Series for Commercial Television
"Breaking Bad" - "Gliding Over All”
Skip MacDonald, A.C.E.

Best Edited One-Hour Series for Non-Commercial Television
"The Newsroom" - "We Just Decided To (Pilot)"
Anne McCabe, A.C.E.

Best Edited Miniseries or Motion Picture for Television
"Hemingway & Gellhorn"
Walter Murch, A.C.E.

Best Edited Non-Scripted Series
"Frozen Planet" - "To the Ends of the Earth"
Andy Netley & Sharon Gillooly

Oscar Roundup 2012: BAFTAs Leaves Some Oscar Categories Shaken and Stirred Up

Well stick a fork in the Best Picture category folks, Argo has won almost every major Best Picture Award (non-critics), and will be poised to be the first film to win without a director nomination since Driving Miss Daisy in 1989.  Argo won two other prizes at BAFTA, Best Director, and Best Editing.

Affleck winning the Director race across the board, and being snubbed by the Academy poses an interesting question in this category.  Who will win?  Oscar pundits can't use data to help predict this award, predictions have to be based on a hunch this year.  At the moment I think this is a two person race, but surprise surprise I do not think either of those people is Steven Spielberg.  I think the director race is going to be between Ang Lee for Life of Pi, and David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook.  Spielberg may have received thunderous applause at DGA, and he is not out of this race, but Lincoln has been snubbed across the board; he was not even nominated for BAFTA.  Lee is a well like director, and many are impressed with the directorial achievement of this film.  O. Russell is ahead of Spielberg in my book for several reasons, this is seen as a personal project for him (people know this) he also has Harvey behind him, and Harvey could push him for a win in this category because of Affleck's snub.

BAFTA added a little variety to the Best Actress category picking Emanuelle Riva to win over favorites Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence. This is a big win, and here's why.  Silver Linings Playbook did not receive many nominations from BAFTA, they only received two nominations, and while no one predicted O. Russell to win Adapted Screenplay, he did, another surprise.  If BAFTA liked the film enough they would have picked Lawrence.  Zero Dark Thirty took home no awards, and while Chastain could still win she is in third place in my book.  While Zero Dark is fading Silver Linings Playbook is gaining momentum, and Amour is clearly beloved.  Winning at BAFTA in this category is a pretty good sign for a win at Oscar, Meryl Streep in The Iron Lady, Natalie Portman in Black Swan, Marion Cotillard in La vie en Rose, and many more.  While this is not fool proof this gives Emanuelle Riva a massive bump in the voting season.  Look for her to surprise with a potential win.

BAFTA has added another interesting layer to the Best Supporting Actor category as well.  Christoph Waltz who won the Golden Globe, won at BAFTA here today.  Tommy Lee Jones won at SAG.  Phillip Seymour Hoffman won at the critics choice, so wins at the Oscars?  Several critics on Twitter have said it best Waltz is lead in a supporting category, which gives him the edge, and the Academy likes this type of performance.  Waltz could take this!  Django also won in Best Original Screenplay, and while Tarantino is not up for WGA, neither is its fiercest competitor Amour.  Look for Tarantino to win screenplay, making up for his loss for Inglorious Basterds in 2009.

The other big surprises is that Les Miserables won four trophies (Best Production Design, Best Make-Up/Hair, Best Sound, and Best Supporting Actress).  The film is a British production so I am not surprised it won these awards, but may not at the Oscars.  The other British film which scored big was Skyfall, which won for Best British Film, and Best Score (Thomas Newman).

Overall BAFTA seals the deal for wins by Argo (Best Picture, Best Editing), Daniel Day-Lewis (Best Actor), Anne Hathaway (Best Supporting Actress), Life of Pi (Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects), Anna Karenina (Best Costume Design), and Amour (Best Foreign Language Film), and the rest are up to the fate of the Oscar Gods.

BEST FILM

X - "Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

"Les Misérables"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

BEST BRITISH FILM 

"Anna Karenina"

"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"

"Les Misérables"

"Seven Psychopaths"

X - "Skyfall"

BEST DIRECTOR

Michael Haneke, "Amour"

X - Ben Affleck, "Argo"

Quentin Tarantino, "Django Unchained"

Ang Lee, "Life of Pi"

Kathryn Bigelow, "Zero Dark Thirty"

BEST ACTOR 

Ben Affleck, "Argo"

Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"

X - Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"

Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"

Hugh Jackman, "Les Misérables"

BEST ACTRESS

Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"

Marion Cotillard, "Rust and Bone"

Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Helen Mirren, "Hitchcock"

X - Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Alan Arkin, "Argo"

Javier Bardem, "Skyfall"

Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master"

Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"

X - Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, "The Master"

Judi Dench, "Skyfall"

Sally Field, "Lincoln"

X - Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"

Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

"Amour"

X - "Django Unchained"

"The Master"

"Moonrise Kingdom"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

"Argo"

"Beasts of the Southern Wild"

"Life of Pi" 

"Lincoln"

X - "Silver Linings Playbook"

 

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM 

X - "Amour"

"Headhunters"

"The Hunt"

"The Intouchables"

"Rust and Bone"

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

"The Imposter"

"Marley"

"McCullin"

X-"Searching for Sugar Man"

"West of Memphis"

BEST ANIMATED FILM 

X - "Brave"

"Frankenweenie"

"ParaNorman"

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

"Anna Karenina"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

X - "Les Misérables"

"Skyfall"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

"Anna Karenina"

X - "Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

"Les Misérables"

"Skyfall"

BEST COSTUME DESIGN 

X - "Anna Karenina"

"Great Expectations"

"Les Misérables"

"Lincoln"

"Snow White and the Huntsman"

BEST EDITING

X - "Argo"

"Django Unchained"

"Life of Pi"

"Skyfall"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

BEST MAKEUP & HAIR 

"Anna Karenina"

"Hitchcock"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"Lincoln"

X - "Les Misérables"

BEST SCORE

"Anna Karenina"

"Argo"

"Life of Pi"

"Lincoln"

X - "Skyfall"

BEST SOUND

"Django Unchained"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

"Life of Pi"

X - "Les Misérables"

"Skyfall"

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

"The Avengers"

"The Dark Knight Rises"

"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"

X - "Life of Pi"

"Prometheus"

BEST DEBUT BY BRITISH WRITER/DIRECTOR/PRODUCER

Thina Garavi (writer/director), "I Am Nasrine"

X - Bart Layton (writer) and Dimitri Doganis (producer), "The Imposter"

David Morris (director) and Jacqui Morris (director/producer), "McCullin"

James Bobin (director), "The Muppets"

Dexter Fletcher (writer/director) and Danny King (writer), "Wild Bill"

RISING STAR AWARD

Elizabeth Olsen

Andrea Riseborough

Suraj Sharma

X - Juno Temple

Alicia Vikander