Awards
Why Can't Gotham Get Serious About Movie Awards?
I like IFP. I want to support IFP.
But regardless of how they keep on trying to make The Gotham Awards the first step on the road to Oscar – neck and neck with the idiotic National Board of Review – the event remains a very nice place to be honored… and completely meaningless when it comes to the rest of the award season.
A few years ago, 2004, they figured out how to pick the lowest hanging fruit of the awards tree – awards for actresses – with the “Breakthrough Actor Award” and got behind Catalina Sandino Moreno, then Amy Adams, then Rinko Kikuchi, then Ellen Page, and last year, Melissa Leo.
Best Feature has been less successful in pushing nominees along since the category was launched in 2004. The first two – Sideways and Capote – got in. The last three – Half Nelson, Into The Wild, and Frozen River – did not.
Breakthrough Director Award has gone to Joshua Marston, Bennett Miller, Ryan Fleck, Craig Zobel, and Lance Hammer… only Bennett went on to a nomination (or his film with it).
In the four years of “Best Ensemble,” six films have won… only Babel got a Best Picture nod.
Writing and below-the-line awards were dropped over a decade ago.
And so… congrats to everyone who is being honored at this party.
This year, they are putting their bets on A Serious Man and The Hurt Locker. A 10 film Oscar BP list makes this safer than in past.
And for Breakthrough Actor, there is only one actress… which should make Jeremy Renner, the only actor on the list with a shot at an Oscar nod, a little anxious. (I wish him the very best of luck, indeed.)
Onward…
Indie Party Catch Up…
The Indie Spirit Awards are adding to the changes. First, it was the move to Friday night instead of Saturday afternoon. Today, they announced that the event will take place downtown in a tent. Oh… and Dick Clark Productions, which made the truly irrelevant HFPA into an awards season institution, is – with Overture chief Chris McGurk’s wife, Jamie McGurk, sharing duties – exec producing the show. ( I don’t mean to devalue McGurk’s producing skills by making the Ovation connection, but it is a very unusual conflict of interest.)
And what’s going to be “indie” about it? Well, they are going to be on live at 8p pst, so it will be late in NY. The show will still be in IFC, though with Dick Clark’s company involved, you have to know that they are chasing a “broadcast network” for 2010 or 2011.
We’ll judge the changes when they happen. But so far, it looks like one more effort by FIND to chase the establishment instead of building something of weight that really can make a difference in the community of indies… that is, for more than one night in a tent of already familiars.
Meanwhile, The Gotham Awards continue their bizarre chase of The Indie Spirits with an OCTOBER 19 list of nominees… excuse me… for what year?
PGA Goes To 10 Too!
The Press Release…
PRODUCERS GUILD OF AMERICA AWARDS EXPAND NOMINATIONS IN BEST PRODUCED MOTION PICTURE CATEGORY TO INCLUDE TEN FILMS
LOS ANGELES (September 21, 2009)
Awards Want It Long & Hard
There is nothing that The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences would like better these days than a shorter Oscar show. The ratings slip a little most years and the sense is that a shorter show would be a more popular show and a more popular show would keep The Academy rich, fat, generous, and happy.
But what do you cut?
The Television Academy faced this issue and got tough about it. They made the call. Shorter show… some awards presented before the telecast and acceptance highlights to run during the big show.
BZZZZT!!!
Not so fast, buckaroos! Winning awards on national TV is our entitlement and we’re going to fry your asses if you try to minimize that in any way! TV Land Prime here we come!
Okay… perhaps that is pushing it a little far. But what are the awards givers going to say when the answer comes back from the networks on the next contract or the one after that and the nets just say, “2.5 hours and you are off the air”?
As the Super Bowl shows, if they can sell those ads, the networks will whore out untold numbers of hours of television space to that end. This last year, NBC, Fox and ESPN all did two hours of pre-show before NBC took the game… with 20 minutes for show before the kick-off.
The Academies are going in the opposite direction.
I respect that this is a big moment in people’s lives and that all the different talent that do great work feel they are due their respect. But as I understood it, this plan by ATAS was to split “the pain” amongst all the disciplines being celebrated. No one has, to my knowledge, ever brought that generous notion up at AMPAS. It’s always been about the less-pop branches defending their turf.
Someone’s eventually going to have to step up, act like adults, and be less celebrated in the name of keeping the entire organization healthily funded. Maybe next year…
Awards Slog
Gothams on December 1.
National Bored Of Review on Dec 3.
Why not November 1 and 3? Really. I so hate the premature first round of the award season.
The New Guggenheims Are Here!
The list of 2009 Guggenheim Fellows (press released here) was released today and there were many filmmakers on the rise.
Amongst my faves are Ramin Bahrani, Julia Loktev, and Kelly Reichardt… but I am sure that others would be on that list if I knew more of their work… which, hopefully, these grants will make possible.
Ramin Bahrani (GOODBYE SOLO), Filmmaker, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Adjunct Professor of Screenwriting and Directing, Columbia University: Film.
Danae Elon (PARTLY PRIVATE), Filmmaker, Brooklyn, New York: Film.
Lynn Hershman Leeson (STRANGE CULTURE), Filmmaker, San Francisco, California; Chair, Department of Film, San Francisco Art Institute: Film.
Henry Hills, Filmmaker, New York City: Film.
Sam Kauffmann, Filmmaker, Medfield, Massachusetts; Associate Professor of Film, Boston University: Film.
Julia Loktev (DAY NIGHT DAY NIGHT), Filmmaker, Brooklyn, New York: Film.
Julia Meltzer, Filmmaker, Los Angeles, California; Director, Clockshop: Film.
Arturo P
LA Press Club's 2nd Annual National Entertainment Journalism Awards
I just got a note than Shawn Edwards and have Russ Simmons won Best TV Film Critic, the second year in the row the the pair have been honored as Best TV Film Critics.
This is the only winner I know of, as the awards winners, given out last night, have not been announced anywhere I can find on the web, including the LAPC website.
In any case, this win made me curious about who was in the running…
THE FINALISTS… As Reported by The LA Press Club on March 8, 2009
A1. NEWS STORY, PRINT
* Alexis Chiu, People Magazine
* Dan Halpern, Playboy
* John Horn, Los Angeles Times
* Oliver Jones, Alexis Chiu, Johnny Dodd, Jennifer Garcia and Brenda Rodriguez, People Magazine
* John Lafayette, Greg Baumann and Tom Gilbert, TelevisionWeek
A2. NEWS STORY, TELEVISION
* Robert Kovacik, Jeffreu Scharping and KhallidShabazz, KNBC-TV
* George Pennacchio, KABC-TV
* George Pennacchio, KABC-TV
A3. NEWS STORY, RADIO
* Claude Brodesser-Akner and Matt Holzman, KCRW
* Rachel Dornhelm, NPR
The Weekend That Was
Things have changed a lot over the years
4 Comments »More Slumavation
ACE Awards…
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (DRAMATIC):
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Chris Dickens
BEST EDITED FEATURE FILM (COMEDY OR MUSICAL):
WALL-E
Stephen Schaffer
BEST EDITED DOCUMENTARY:
Man on Wire
Jinx Godfrey
STUDENT EDITING COMPETITION
Junna Xiao
Slumdog Wins Another Award… Shocker, Huh?
Los Angeles 14 February 2009
33 Comments »BAFTA As Predictor
I don’t want to spend too much time on this, but…
All four acting slots that won BAFTA the last two years won Oscars.
In both of those last two years, only one of the four slots was really a surprise of any kind… Tilda last year and Alan Arkin the year before. Huzzah – even though guessing the Oscars is not really the point – for them.
Before that, they were about .500 predicting acting wins.
No other categories are reliable in any way.
Thank you for your momentary attention.
Images From A Season
I was really struck by a quick reaction shot of David Fincher at BAFTA yesterday… his face seemed to say it all… “how did we become an also-ran?”…
Thing is, Fincher and everyone at Paramount has been nothing but gracious as the year that was supposed to be theirs became the Year of the ‘Dog. In the end, there is nothing more (or less) that they could have done. In the end, in this year as in almost every other one, it is the movies that guide the awards’ final destination. And for all the magnificent craft of BB, it seems the awards world’s heart belongs to Danny.
Sigh…
BAFTA Has Spoken…
Okay… here is a list of winners…
I will comment – 100% SPOLIERS – after the jump…
BAFTA Rolls Along…
The Guardian is live-blogging the event from inside the theater.
Oh, how I hate live-blogging.
It’s funny… when I talk to people about Blu-ray BD-Live features, like IMing during a synced movie, they almost always get a vomitty look on their face. But for me, I consider that in that case, kids have almost invariably seen the film over and over again on the Blu-ray or regular DVD and that the interaction is, indeed, of some value. Like a director
Gus van Sant Shoots Dustin Lance Black For Vogue Paris pour Hommes
The awards season brings out the weird in many people.
How I came to end up with a copy of what purports to be the Fall/Winter edition of Vogue Hommes International with a photo shoot that Gus van Sant shot and Dustin Lance Black posed for in various states of dress and undress is really not the point.
But to the studio that feels slammed and endangered by the images in this profile, written by Bruce Benderson and Philippe Garnier, it is a low blow meant to derail their movie
