2013 Academy Award Nominations

[Johann]

I don't consider myself sophisticated. Cinephile, sure.
These people are in the business. They are supposed to be able to pick this shit out of pepper.
There should be no doubt about the nominees. The Winners you can allow for wiggle room because of voting, but all films should be beyond critique for their nominations. No one should be pulling their hair out over movies they love being ignored over other "lesser" pictures.
No one should be saying they won't tune into their TV sets that night, like I did last year and will do again this year. The Oscars don't mean much to me anymore. They never really did. I just watched to see the tributes to those who passed, which they also have ignored people with!

[Johann]

I read the latest issue of Film Comment which has nice articles on Django Unchained and Lincoln and Gavin Smith wrote a nice letter from the editor. He brings up distribution and the plethora of films out there, with fewer and fewer people buying tickets. He confirmed a fear of mine, because about 6 months ago I was gonna drop everything and make my own film, put it on a DVD and take it to TIFF- do the whole thing myself.

But there are so many films and filmmakers out there! Who are all vying for recognition and distribution.
I'd have to make something that came from @#!*% MARS in order to become a new name.

Gavin mentioned Christopher Nolan, and how even he has to have nerves of steel to do what he does, even with all of his "Power" and "Clout".

Cinema is thriving, but there are way too many cooks in the kitchen....

[cinemabon]

I believe I saw that film once, "The thing that came from f**king Mars!"

[cinemabon]

Congratulations to Tab on his big win over the weekend. "Argo" took both PGA (Producers Guild) and SAG Awards for "Best Picture" signalling that barring what happens at the DGA awards this Saturday, "Argo" is a shoe in for Best Picture of the Year. My reservations are moot.

And, since Affleck cannot win Best Director (even if he wins DGA), then its up for grabs and will be the first time in years that Best Director and Picture are different (assuming the trend continues and there's no reason to believe it won't).

Who would you pick for director (out of the nominees)?

[Chris Knipp]

Is it really true that ARGO is a shoe-in for Best Picture? If so I am sure of being very annoyed at the Oscars, which I was beginning to suspect. My choices for Best Director? Wes Anderson, Paul Thomas Anderson, or Leos Carax! But of course they can't win because they, like Ben Affleck, aren't nominated. I think Michael Haneke is a very great director, even if his work is cold and cruel a lot of the time. So is Stephen Spielberg, but not this time. His recent work has not quite deserved that title. It's assured, but without the spark of true originality.

[cinemabon]

What about Russell being given the conciliatory prize?

[Chris Knipp]

I thought of that. I like his work, and the public (Audience Prize at Toronto being an indication) likes Silver Linings Playbook.

A Vegas handicapping article says Lincoln, Spielberg, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence, Tonny Lee Jones, Anne Hathaway [:(].

[cinemabon]

I would agree with Vegas except for Best Pix, because those odds are not based on the latest criteria (Boy do they like Affleck! Where is Tab?). This weekend, if the directors go with the trend and pick Affleck for DGA, all bets are off. This would be one of those weird times when the guilds and the Academy do not mesh. That would make Affleck the only director who ever won all of the other awards and didn't win an Oscar. I can't think of another director that happened to.

[Chris Knipp]

That could be better publicity than if he won the Oscar. Like Ivo Pogorelich (classical pianist I l like) who became famous by being eliminated in the third round from the Warsaw Chopin competition in 1980 when Martha Argerich, former winner and the most famous judge, walked off the jury in protest saying he was a genius. The next year he had major debuts at Carnegie Hall and in London. Not winning the Warsaw Chopin competition was better than winning it. A Korean won it, who is forgotten.

[tabuno]

Tab was under all the dense smog and smuck and blankets and blankets of snow and shovels.

Russell and Silver Linings Playbook win as a compromise choice. Affleck has a chance for a Director's Guild win, though Chris Knipp's comment has stuck in my brain as to how the ensemble focus may detract from the singular effort of directing my Affleck. Let's go with something less dramatic and explosive for a change...America and the world has been through too much crap and drama, we'll all worn down and depressed, the movie audience needs something to rally around that speaks to the more lighter, exhilarating side of life and coincides with the hope of the American economy and the re-election of a President who holds the promise of a majority of voters.

[cinemabon]

I sincerely hope your air is retored to normal (it was in all of the press reportings recently) and having lived in LA years ago, there were days with smog alerts, long before the press reported such things, when you couldn't see across the street! Talk about life with brown air!

This might be one of those strange years when Best Pix and Best Director do not coincide. We might see Russell win and Lincoln, or Spielberg with Silver Linings, OR the big surprise that Django wins Best Pix. Now that would be a feather in all our caps! If it does, I would say that Stacey Sher should grab Quentin Tarantino and the two should strut up to the stage!

[tabuno]

Danjo is the only major power house movie I have yet to see and its omission makes my discussion of award winners a little like a stack of cards.

[Johann]

Peter Howell says this year is the weirdest for the Oscars.
He thinks by rights Lincoln should triumph, as it is perfect Oscar Manna.

Can't see any argument to that. Maybe I will tune in just to see what a wild night it could be.

[tabuno]

While voting against Lincoln for best picture might be like voting against gun control, abortion, apple pie, there are legitimate reasons to seek another movie for best picture. It's hard hard to find direct best picture Oscar comparisons as


The Artist (2011) - romantic historical drama. A sympathetic historical depiction usiing the unique contemporary "silent" picture technique.

Black Swan (2010) - drama (individual struggle). This was a singular in-depth look at one individual's intense suffering for art.

The Hurt Locker (2009) - war action drama. The apparent real life "technical" weaknesses of this movie were overlooked. A safe look a the patriotic sacrifice of macho American male.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008) - drama (foreign cultural romance mystery). Unlike Lincoln, this movie captured a life time of character development infused with an exotic depiction of another place. Lincoln while being a period movie of Americana, didn't really infuse the movie with the same depth of richness of the Civil War era.

No Country for Old Men (2007) - action crime thriller drama. Another movie where the "technical" weaknesses were overlooked and the performance of a supposedly unusual odd character like the use of "silent" movie in The Artist allowed the movie to stand out.

The Departed (2006) - period crime thriller. Interestingly enough it is this movie that offers an example of the possibility that Lincoln might be voted as best picture, as The Departed had great acting, great interplay between characters but a delivery that was less than perfect.

Crash (2005) - drama that focuses on racial discrimination with a number of inter-related subplots that follow specific characters and story lines. A politically correct movie for Hollywood, but controversial topic nation-wide. This might be more suggestive of Silver Linings Playbook winning the best picture.

Million Dollar Baby (2004) - sports drama. Another intimate personal struggle drama.

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) - epic fantasy adventure.


Chicago (2003) - winning Broadway musical adaptation.

Earlier best picture winners don't really equate with Lincoln. One needs to go back to Dances with Wolves (1990), an epic American period western drama had more intimate social-political and character development than Lincoln which might suggest why Lincoln would be upset by another movie and not be on par with Dances with Wolves as a standard. Interestingly even though Sally Fields has been nominated and won a few awards for best supporting actress in Lincoln, as a weak second place runner-up for this year's Oscar, it is especially her role as Lincoln's wife that seems most out of place and distracting with Field's own persona seemingly intruding into the role, perhaps its the lack of creative make-up unlike Daniel Day-Lewis as President in Lincoln.

Really past precedence would suggest that the strongest persuasive force that Lincoln has going for it isn't so much past Oscar winners rather it is subjective timing and meaning of the Civil War and its being remembered for its 100 year memory and President Obama's re-election that recalls the political and military struggles on behalf of African Americans.

[tabuno]

With the February 2nd announcement by the Director's Guild of America that award Ben Affleck for Argo as best director may be sufficient to anble Argo to win Best Picture Oscar even though the Oscar's omitted Afflect from its award lineup for best director. With a steady stream of best picture awards piling up for Argo, besides Zero Dark Thirty whose director also didn't get nominated for best Oscar director, the more safe, less controversial and all American success story has a definite chance of beating out Lincoln and Silver Lining's Playbook which may have to settle for the best actress award and possibly the best director awards.