Gurus o’ Gold: Oscar Nominations (Pt 2 of 3)
| Rank | Last Chart | Foreign Language | Appelo | Breznican | Ellwood | Hammond | Hernandez | Howell | Karger | Levy | Olsen | Poland | Pond | Stone | Tapley | Thompson | Wloszczyna | Votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Incendies Canada |
2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 47 | |||||
| 2 |
In A Better World Denmark |
4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 41 | |||||
| 3 |
Biutiful Mexico |
1 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 38 | |||||
| 4 |
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) Algeria |
5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 11 | 21 | |||||
| 5 |
Dogtooth Greece |
3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 11 | 18 |
| Rank | Last Chart | Animated Feature | Appelo | Breznican | Ellwood | Hammond | Hernandez | Howell | Karger | Levy | Olsen | Poland | Pond | Stone | Tapley | Thompson | Wloszczyna | Votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 |
Toy Story 3 Lee Unkrich |
1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 36 | |||
| 2 | 2 |
How to Train Your Dragon Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois |
3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 21 | |||
| 3 | 4 |
The Illusionist Sylvain Chomet |
2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 15 |
| Rank | Last Chart | Documentary Feature | Appelo | Breznican | Ellwood | Hammond | Hernandez | Howell | Karger | Levy | Olsen | Poland | Pond | Stone | Tapley | Thompson | Wloszczyna | Votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Inside Job Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs |
2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 53 | ||||
| 2 |
Exit through the Gift Shop Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz |
1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 44 | ||||
| 3 |
Restrepo Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger |
4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 33 | ||||
| 4 |
Waste Land Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley |
5 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 31 | ||||
| 5 |
Gasland Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic |
3 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 19 |
| Rank | Last Chart | Cinematography | Appelo | Breznican | Ellwood | Hammond | Hernandez | Howell | Karger | Levy | Olsen | Poland | Pond | Stone | Tapley | Thompson | Wloszczyna | Votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
True Grit Roger Deakins |
1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 54 | ||||
| 2 |
Black Swan Matthew Libatique |
4 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 37 | ||||
| t3 |
Inception Wally Pfister |
5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 31 | ||||
| 5 |
The King's Speech Danny Cohen |
2 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 27 | ||||
| t3 |
The Social Network Jeff Cronenweth |
3 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 19 |
| Rank | Last Chart | Editing | Appelo | Breznican | Ellwood | Hammond | Hernandez | Howell | Karger | Levy | Olsen | Poland | Pond | Stone | Tapley | Thompson | Wloszczyna | Votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Social Network Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter |
4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 52 | ||||
| 2 |
The King's Speech Tariq Anwar |
3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 42 | ||||
| 3 |
Black Swan Andrew Weisblum |
1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 12 | 39 | ||||
| 4 |
The Fighter Pamela Martin |
2 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 26 | ||||
| 5 |
127 Hours Jon Harris |
5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 22 |
| Rank | Last Chart | Art Direction | Appelo | Breznican | Ellwood | Hammond | Hernandez | Howell | Karger | Levy | Olsen | Poland | Pond | Stone | Tapley | Thompson | Wloszczyna | Votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Alice in Wonderland Robert Stromberg, Karen O'Hara |
2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 47 | ||||
| 2 |
The King's Speech Eve Stewart, Judy Farr |
3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 46 | ||||
| 4 |
True Grit Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh |
4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 33 | ||||
| 3 |
Inception Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias and Doug Mowat |
1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 12 | 23 | ||||
| 5 |
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan |
5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 12 |
| Rank | Last Chart | Costume Design | Appelo | Breznican | Ellwood | Hammond | Hernandez | Howell | Karger | Levy | Olsen | Poland | Pond | Stone | Tapley | Thompson | Wloszczyna | Votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
Alice in Wonderland Colleen Atwood |
1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 51 | ||||
| 2 |
The King's Speech Jenny Beavan |
2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 48 | ||||
| 3 |
True Grit Mary Zophres |
4 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 12 | 39 | ||||
| 5 |
The Tempest Sandy Powell |
3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 12 | 24 | ||||
| 4 |
I Am Love Antonella Cannarozzi |
5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 12 | 18 |
| Rank | Last Chart | Makeup | Appelo | Breznican | Ellwood | Hammond | Hernandez | Howell | Karger | Levy | Olsen | Poland | Pond | Stone | Tapley | Thompson | Wloszczyna | Votes | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |
The Wolfman Rick Baker and Dave Elsey |
3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 27 | |||||
| 2 |
Barney's Version Adrien Morot |
1 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 11 | 20 | |||||
| 3 |
The Way Back Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng |
2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 19 |
interesting that the only thing people can agree on is that Toy Story is number 1 in animation and that Harry Potter is dead last in art direction.
also interesting that only Deakens and Libatique get number one votes, and that no one is picking for the Fighter or 127 Hours in editing. I suppose King’s Speech could sweep all these categories, but I’m feeling more of a spread the wealth year than a straight up sweep, but who can tell. this is a hard year to call across the board for me.
I am amused by the fact that The Wolfman may get an oscar.
This just occurred to me. Is the reason True Grit didn’t get nominated for Best Editing is that everyone knows that the editor, Roderick Jayne, is actually a pseudonym for The Coen Brothers? And the editors just wanted to give it to an “actual” editor? just a thought.
except the Coens as Jayne have been nominated for editing twice before.
To say a bit more about the editing, True Grit was well cut, but did not stand out as exceptionally well cut, it didn’t have characteristics that distinguished the other top cut films of the year.
These five nominations make sense, Social Network impressively balances multiple timelines and the transitions between varying perspectives (and the styles of those storytellers), as the story is intelligently and clearly told. It keeps a talking head movie fascinating and as fast moving as the machine gun dialog.
127 Hours is an exemplary piece of expressionistic editing. One editor I knew raved that the opening montage–which tells us everything we need to know about Ralston’s weekday life without showing us one frame of him. Our first glimpse of him is his preparation for what he lives for, his weekends free in the wild–as perfectly cut, and an incredibly stunning piece within the whole film. And he went on to rave about the entirety of the film’s editing, justifiably, imo, it’s the best cut of the nominations (and not because it is the most cut).
Black Swan is nominated because it so exquisitely balances the fine line between lucid perspective and skewed perspective of our protagonist (the perspective from which we’re told the story) such that it’s virtually invisible where the changeovers are for Nina, but they are riddled throughout, so that sometimes a single scene we’re seeing is a mixture of reality and projection, it’s very well done.
King’s Speech has to take a movie about talking and keep it from dragging in a way it was uniquely vulnerable to; it had to be cut so that you as an audience are never trying to impatiently fill in the words for Bertie. How often have you ever got impatient with someone stammering or stuttering in person? The editing of this film had to make sure that you never once got impatient with Bertie trying to get through the rest of the scene. The cutting had to bring us closer to Bertie throughout the film from the distance and embarrassment we feel in that very first scene far away from him to the intimacy we feel in the nearly final scene when we’re tight in the tiny booth with him. The editing has to perform that progression intelligently throughout the film, and like the rest of the film it is done with a quiet and competent excellence.
The Fighter has boxing. They replicated the feel of the original TV fights in the wides and match lead in. But in the close ups they emphasized the brutality of the Rumble in the Jungle strategy of letting an opponent wear themselves down by primarily guarding while you let them swing. The editing created in-ring drama that is more or less nonexistent in real boxing (which from every time I’ve watched it on TV is an incredibly boring sport with a couple jabs that are always blocked, or the whole match is spent wrapping each other up for round after round as the boxers stumble around the ring hugging each other).
But as good as these two are, there were two other master classes in editing this year. Thelma Schoonmaker’s fabulous work in Shutter Island did what both Black Swan and 127 Hours did and did both better than either film. The impressive expressionism of the cutting on the film combined with the balance of lucid and skewed perspectives telling the story was utterly ingenious, giving the film a gothic, unnerving manner that played right in to the stunning construction of dread that Schoonmaker’s rhythms built into the film, making it intense and even scary with hardly a single “jump” moment actually in the film.
And even Schoonmaker isn’t as impressive as the editing of Inception. Not only does the theme of the film have meta-level implications for film as a medium (why does time seem to stretch on for so long in the climax of an action movie? Because a film IS shared dreaming and time moves slower of course. ;)), the editing between the layers of the film was utterly ingenious, intelligent, easy to follow and without a single misstep. It’s a film where every cut is a pleasure to watch, and it so brilliantly manages the shifts in tone and time-flow from layer to layer to layer to layer. Since each layer has time moving at different rates, the editing moves at different rates in the various layers, and yet despite shifting between all these subtly different paces, it always works, and works beautifully. The work is mind-boggling, something I’ll watch for years to study, and a work that I’m confident will be used to teach the art of editing for generations. I can’t see a single ACE or Oscar nominee in the last twenty years that has better—or more meaningful and essential—cutting.
Best actress – Paprika Steen is great