Awards Archive for January, 2010

All Not Together Now

By David Poland - Monday, January 25th, 2010

ninesag490.jpg
When I saw this foursome on the SAG Awards (oddly without the present Ms Loren), I was struck by how this group of four women looked as though they had barely ever met. And the movie feels just like that, even though each individual got a wonderful chance to stretch and play.

11 Comments »

PGA Offers An Actual Surprise In Award Season

By David Poland - Sunday, January 24th, 2010

The Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures
THE HURT LOCKER
Kathryn Bigelow
Mark Boal
Nicolas Chartier
Greg Shapiro
The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures
UP
Jonas Rivera
The Producers Guild of America Producer of the Year Award in Documentary Theatrical Motion Pictures
THE COVE
Fisher Stevens
Paula DuPr

43 Comments »

SAG Awards

By David Poland - Saturday, January 23rd, 2010

No surprises at all.
Winners after the jump… for the sake of avoiding spoilers for late West Coast viewers…

Read the full article »

62 Comments »

Globes Catch-Up

By David Poland - Monday, January 18th, 2010

My take on The Golden Globes this year was a little unexpected.
I thought Ricky Gervais did a solid job that was perfect for The Globes and will never be appropriate for The Oscars. Good call on both teams.
There were a few goofy choices… and that’s fine. The only award of any significance was Sandra Bullock in a category that has some great work in it, but is by no means an intensely competitive group of “must votes.” The Bullock win (and the co-win at BFCA) will get Academy members who hadn’t put the DVD in the player to do just that. The urge to offer a loving hand to a well-liked and high-grossing member of the community may do the rest.
The most significant element of The Globes is always the impression that winners make at these shows with their speeches, Was Mo’Nique’s speech genius or a melodramatic bore? Did Jim Cameron come off as a good-natured winner or will Academy members really want to see Kathryn Bigelow speak and make history? That kind of thing.
I went to the parties afterward and was reminded that, indeed, we are all part of a big high school. I am not a studio exec or an actor or director… but I am some kind of member of the family and as such, an evening out at the penultimate high school reunion creates its own perspective. There are so many levels of communication going on at once… so many people whose lives touch, but work on so many different layers of intimacy (or lack thereof).
A night of thousands of indifferent people becomes a lovely thing with a few moments with people you are genuinely happy to see. This is a note to myself for when I get angry about the absurdity of it all. I will always get sucked into rage over hypocrisy. But there is never a real question about why I still work in this world. I love it. And I am lucky to have my passion indulged.

37 Comments »

Golden Globes BYOB

By David Poland - Sunday, January 17th, 2010

Have at it if you like… not much for live blogging…

54 Comments »

PRESS RELEASE – LAFCA's Top 13 Of The Decade

By David Poland - Tuesday, January 12th, 2010

LOS ANGELES FILM CRITICS ANNOUNCE MULHOLLAND DR. FILM OF THE DECADE
LOS ANGELES, January 12, 2009

10 Comments »

PRESS RELEASE – ACE Awards For Editing

By David Poland - Monday, January 11th, 2010

(embargoed until tomorrow… embargo broken by Variety… embargo no withdrawn)
NOMINEES FOR 60TH ANNUAL ACE EDDIE AWARDS
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC):
Avatar
Stephen Rivkin, A.C.E., John Refua, A.C.E. &
James Cameron, A.C.E.
District 9
Julian Clarke
The Hurt Locker
Bob Murawski & Chris Innis
Star Trek
Maryann Brandon, A.C.E. & Mary Jo Markey, A.C.E.
Up in the Air
Dana Glauberman, A.C.E.
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (COMEDY OR MUSICAL):
500 Days of Summer
Alan Edward Bell
The Hangover
Debra Neil-Fisher, A.C.E.
Julie & Julia
Richard Marks, A.C.E.
A Serious Man
Roderick Jaynes
It

4 Comments »

ASC Noms

By David Poland - Monday, January 11th, 2010

Barry Ackroyd, BSC for

15 Comments »

Press Release – WGA Noms

By David Poland - Monday, January 11th, 2010

2010 Writers Guild Awards Screen Nominees Announced
LOS ANGELES, NEW YORK — The Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) have announced nominations for outstanding achievement in writing for the screen during the past year. Winners will be honored at the 2010 Writers Guild Awards held on Saturday, February 20, 2010, at simultaneous ceremonies in Los Angeles and New York.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
(500) Days of Summer, Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber; Fox Searchlight
Avatar, Written by James Cameron; 20th Century Fox
The Hangover, Written by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore; Warner Bros.
The Hurt Locker, Written by Mark Boal; Summit Entertainment
A Serious Man, Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Focus Features
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Crazy Heart, Screenplay by Scott Cooper; Based on the novel by Thomas Cobb; Fox Searchlight
Julie & Julia, Screenplay by Nora Ephron; Based on the books Julie & Julia by Julie Powell and My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud

18 Comments »

DGA Noms

By David Poland - Thursday, January 7th, 2010

What is there to say?
DGA is remarkably consistent in matching 4 of 5 Oscar nominees.
2009: Oscar nominee Stephan Daldry in for DGA nominee Christopher Nolan
2008: Jason Reitman in for Sean Penn
2007: Clint Eastwood in for Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris
Paul Greengrass in for Bill Condon
2006: Exact Match
2005: Mike Leigh in for Marc Forster
2010?
I would guess that Lee Daniels will be the odd man out. I would guess that Clint Eastwood or Lone Scherfig takes the slot. But this could be one of those rare No Change years. Invictus is weak, though its primary appeal is with the older crowd that is better represented in The Academy. (This is also true o Eastwood himself.) Scherfig is a bit of a long shot, as An Education has faded a bit in recent weeks,

34 Comments »

The WriGAms

By David Poland - Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

ADD: 11:17p – An e-mail landed at 5:44p from a publicist – “You’re probably already aware but just in case you’re not, wanted to bring to your attention that Disney/Pixar’s UP is unfortunately ineligible for DGA and WGA Awards because the filmmakers are not signatory members of either guild.”
=======
Nice job by Steve Pond in pointing out the real story on why The Weinsteins didn’t chase WGA noms for three of their awards season films. The films just weren’t eligible.
Add to that An Education, which was DQed because its WGA member, Nick Hornby, is not a member of the Writers Guild of Great Britain and did not write the Brit-made, non-Sony-funded film under their CBA. To wit;
To be eligible, a theatrical motion picture must have been written under the WGA MBA or under a bona fide collective bargaining agreement of the Australian Writers Guild, Writers Guild of Canada, Writers Guild of Great Britain, Irish Playwrights & Screenwriters Guild or the New Zealand Writers Guild (collectively,

6 Comments »

Quote Unquotesee all »

It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon