Image Credit: David James
This hills won’t come alive with the sound of music, and nobody will be singin’ in the rain, but The Oscars will be dedicating a portion of this year’s ceremony to movie musicals.
The producers of the Feb. 24 show announced today that they are planning a celebration of musical films from the past ten years, an era that starts with one they helped produce themselves — Chicago, which won Best Picture at the 2003 Academy Awards. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Stephanie Rausser
It was one of the most memorable moments in the history of the Academy Awards—and one of the most controversial: Awarded the Best Actor Oscar for his instantly iconic performance as Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather in 1973, Marlon Brando sent an unknown 26-year-old Native American activist and aspiring actress named Sacheen Littlefeather up to the stage to refuse the statuette on his behalf. As the stunned audience erupted with a confused mix of boos and applause, Littlefeather explained that Brando was regretfully turning down the award to protest “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry” and the ongoing siege of 200 American Indian Movement activists by armed authorities in Wounded Knee, S.D. “I beg at this time that I have not intruded upon this evening,” she concluded before leaving the stage, “and that we will, in the future, our hearts and our understandings will meet with love and generosity.” READ FULL STORY »
She has said it before. Now she’s saying it again.
Zero Dark Thirty filmmaker Kathryn Bigelow has written at length in an essay published in the LA Times about the scenes of torture featured in the movie, insisting once more than “depiction is not endorsement.”
The controversy has dogged the movie for weeks as politicians and pundits attacked the movie, which was based on screenwriter/producer Mark Boal’s interviews with intelligence and military sources, for showing CIA agents beating and torturing suspects who later give up information that leads to Osama bin Laden.
In the essay, Bigelow declares herself to be a pacifist who abhors the so-called “enhanced interrogation techniques” the movie shows, but says she felt obliged to put on screen the gruesome details of what was done in the name of counter-terrorism. READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Keith Bernstein
At least the critics still love him! On the same day he was snubbed of an Oscar nomination, Ben Affleck took home the Best Director award at the Critics’ Choice Awards for Argo, which also won Best Picture.
The rest of the honorees — held by the Broadcast Film Critics Association, the largest critics group in the country — were made up of newly-minted Oscar nominees like Daniel Day-Lewis (Best Actor for Lincoln), Jessica Chastain (Best Actress for Zero Dark Thirty), Anne Hathaway (Best Supporting Actress for Les Misérables) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Best Supporting Actor for The Master).
The cast of Silver Linings Playbook won the Ensemble award, and Beasts of the Southern Wild’s Quvenzhané Wallis received Best Young Actor/Actress.
Judd Apatow, the writer-producer-director of This is 40, won the somewhat tongue-in-cheek Louis XIII Genius Award for “an unprecedented demonstration of excellence in the cinematic arts.”
Movie fans, meanwhile, were invited to vote for their favorite film franchise for this year’s awards, and they chose Twilight over the likes of Batman, Harry Potter, James Bond, and Star Wars.
Check out the full list of winners below: READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Claire Folger
Of all the snubs for this year’s Academy Awards, one of the biggest shockers has easily been Ben Affleck’s missing nomination for directing Argo. But Affleck shouldn’t fret too much. Alan Arkin — who was nominated for his performance as the acerbic Hollywood producer who aids the CIA’s real-life rescue of six Americans trapped in Iran — hopes his fellow actor-director keeps all the accolades Affleck’s already received in perspective.
“He’s certainly got an enormous amount of attention for it across the board,” Arkin told EW, “and I think it absolutely secures his place as one of the most important directors in the country. So even though it’s a slight, I think he’s in good shape.”
The four-time nominee, who won in the same category for 2006′s Little Miss Sunshine, has also dabbled in directing from time to time, and he notes that Affleck’s background as an actor lent him an insight that helped the movie. READ FULL STORY »
With the nominations out, Seth MacFarlane is wasting no time getting out there to promote the Feb. 24 telecast.
The Academy and ABC has debuted five new videos teasing the Oscars. Check them out below, and on the last page vote for your favorite … READ FULL STORY »
The nominees for the 85th Academy Awards were officially announced this morning, officially beginning the final and most manic stage of the awards season. Check out a full list of the nominees here; below, a series of official announcements from the people who will have to spend the next six weeks campaigning, knowing full well that 80% of them will go home emptyhanded. (This page will be updated throughout the day.)
Hugh Jackman, Best Actor nominee for Les Miserables
“I hadn’t planned to listen live to the announcements, but when I got into the car this morning to go to work, the driver had the nominations streaming as they were being broadcast. To be honest, it’s very exciting but all a bit surreal, and it hasn’t fully sunk in yet. This is a brilliant awards year that has been defined by an eclectic list of stories that have been told by incredibly talented and courageous filmmakers, and it’s an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence as the other nominees in the Best Actor category. Having hosted the show, I have seen so many different sides of the Oscars, but to be an actual nominee is something I never would have dreamed possible.” READ FULL STORY »
Image Credit: Robyn Beck/Getty Images
You could hear the gasp when Benh Zeitlin’s name was read. It reverberated throughout Hollywood, which has to feel good if you’re the first-time feature director.
Even he didn’t expect himself to get a nomination. “For director, I honestly didn’t think there was any possibility that that was going to happen,” he told EW’s Karen Valby this morning. “And I thought they’d finished announcing the names so I wasn’t even nervous. … I just sort of tuned out and then I just heard my name out of the back of my head and I went into a black-out.”
If you’re three particular veteran directors … it didn’t feel quite so great.
The Beasts of the Southern Wild director wasn’t considered a favorite at all for a best director nomination … And where was Argo‘s Ben Affleck, Zero Dark Thirty‘s Kathryn Bigelow, and Les Miserables‘ Tom Hooper?
The directing category provided the most shocks, differing from the Directors Guild Awards contenders not just by one (which is typical) but by three. The other two surprises in addition to Zeitlin: Silver Linings Playbook‘s David O. Russell and Amour‘s Michael Haneke.
Here’s a breakdown of how some of the top categories shook out: READ FULL STORY »
Who’s in, who’s out?
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has finally settled the debate with its announcement of nominees for the 85th Academy Awards. Lincoln leads the pack with 12 nominations, followed by Life of Pi with 11.
There was a surprisingly strong showing for Beasts of the Southern Wild, which scored a directing nomination for Benh Zeitlin that few saw coming. Directing snubs for Argo‘s Ben Affleck, Zero Dark Thirty‘s Kathryn Bigelow, and Les Miserables‘ Tom Hooper does not bode well for those films going forward.
Below are the contenders for the ceremony, which will take place Feb. 24.
Image Credit: Jonathan Olley
Get ready, guys. The Academy Awards nominations will be announced tomorrow morning. After months and months of speculating and campaigning and preparing we’ll finally get to see what Academy members have chosen. How many films will there be in the Best Picture category? Will there be any unexpected films, actors, or actresses who will sneak onto the list? Check back in with EW tomorrow for the nominations announcements, Prize Fighter analysis, and nominee reactions.
As a pre-Oscars nomination primer, we’ve compiled all the top contenders in each category, along with a list of the awards that they’ve been nominated for and have won thus far. Take a look!
