Alt Film Guide

Bérénice Bejo, Omar Sy: César Winners

Andre Soares — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:32:57 PST

Bérénice Bejo as Peppy Miller in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist THE ARTIST, Michel Hazanavicius, A SEPARATION: César Winners Pt.1 Best Actor Sami Bouajila, Omar m'a tuer / Omar Killed Me François Cluzet, Intouchables / Untouchable Jean Dujardin, The Artist Olivier Gourmet, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Denis Podalydes, La conquête / The Conquest * Omar Sy, Intouchables / Untouchable Philippe Torreton, Présumé coupable / Guilty Best Actress Ariane Asquaride, Les neiges du Kilimanjaro / The Snows of Kilimanjaro * Bérénice Bejo, The Artist Leila Bekhti, La Source des femmes / The Source Valérie Donzelli, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War Marina Foïs, Polisse Marie Gilain, Toutes nos envies / All Our Desires Karin Viard, Polisse Best Supporting Actor * Michel Blanc, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Nicolas Duvauchelle, Polisse Joey Starr, Polisse Bernard Lecoq, La conquête / The Conquest Frédéric Pierrot, Polisse Best Supporting Actress Zabou Breitman, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Anne Le Ny, Intouchables / Untouchable Noémie Lvovsky, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance * Carmen Maura, Les femmes du 6e étage / The Women on the 6th Floor Karole Rocher, Polisse Most Promising Actor Nicolas Bridet, Tu seras mon fils / You Will Be My Son * Grégory Gadebois, Angèle et Tony / Angèle and Tony Guillaume Bouix, Jimmy Rivière Pierre Minet, J'aime regarder les filles / I Love Watching Girls Dimitri Storoge, Les Lyonnais Most Promising Actress (tie) * Naidra Ayadi, Polisse Adele Haenel, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Céline Salette, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance * Clotilde Hesme, Angèle et Tony / Angèle and Tony Christa Theret, La brindille / Twiggy Best Original Screenplay Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache, Intouchables / Untouchable Maïwenn, Emmanuelle Bercot, Polisse * Pierre Schöller, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Best Adapted Screenplay David Foenkinos, La Délicatesse / Delicacy Vincent Garenq, Présumé coupable / Guilty Olivier Gorce, Roschdy Zem, Rachid Bouchareb, Olivier Lorelle, Omar m'a tuer / Omar Killed Me Mathieu Kassovitz, Pierre Geller, Benoît Jaubert, L'ordre et la morale / Rebellion * Yasmina Reza, Roman Polanski, Carnage Best Documentary Le Bal des menteurs / The Liars' Ball directed by Daniel Leconte Crazy Horse directed by Frederick Wiseman Ici on noie les algériens / Here We Drown Algerians directed by Yasmina Adi * Tous au Larzac / Leader-Sheep directed by Christian Rouaud, Clémence Latour Michel Petrucciani directed by Michael Radford Best Short Film * L'accordeur / The Piano Tuner directed by Olivier Treiner La France qui se lève tôt / Early Rising France directed by Hugo Chesnard J'aurais pu être une pute / I Could've Been a Whore directed by Baya Kasmi Je pourrais être votre grand-mère / I Could Be Your Grandmother directed by Bernard Tanguy Un monde sans femmes / A World Without Women directed by Guillaume Brac Best Animated Feature Le Tableau / The Painting directed by Jean-François Laguionie Le Cirque / The Circus directed by Nicolas Brault * Le Chat du rabbin / The Rabbi's Cat directed by Joann Sfar, Antoine Delesvaux Monstre à Paris / A Monster in Paris directed by Bibo Bergeron La Queue de la souris / A Mouse's Tale directed by Benjamin Renner Honorary César Kate Winslet Bérénice Bejo/The Artist photo: The Weinstein Company

THE ARTIST, Michel Hazanavicius: César Winners

Andre Soares — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:27:38 PST

Jean Dujardin, Missi Pyle, The Artist Best Film La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War produced by Edouard Weil, directed by Valérie Donzelli Le Havre produced by Fabienne Vonier, directed by Aki Kaurismäki * The Artist produced by Thomas Langmann, directed by Michel Hazanavicius Intouchables / Untouchable produced by Denis Freyd, directed by Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache L'exercice de l'État / The Minister produced by Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun, directed by Pierre Schöller Pater produced by Michel Seydoux, directed by Alain Cavalier Polisse produced by Alain Attal, directed by Maïwenn Best Foreign Film Drive (United States) directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Black Swan (United States) directed by Darren Aronofsky Incendies (Canada) directed by Denis Villeneuve Melancholia (Denmark / Sweden / France / Germany) directed by Lars von Trier * A Separation (Iran) directed by Asghar Farhadi The King's Speech (United Kingdom) directed by Tom Hooper Le gamin au vélo / The Kid with a Bike (Belgium) directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne Best Debut My Little Princess directed by Eva Ionesco * Le cochon de Gaza / When Pigs Have Wings directed by Sylvain Estibal 17 filles / 17 Girls directed by Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin Angèle et Tony / Angèle and Tony directed by Alix Delaporte La Délicatesse / Delicacy directed by David Foenkinos, Stéphane Foenkinos Best Director Alain Cavalier, Pater Valérie Donzelli, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War * Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Aki Kaurismäki, Le Havre Maïwenn, Polisse Pierre Schöller, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, Intouchables / Untouchable Best Cinematography Pierre Aïm, Polisse Josée Deshaies, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Julien Hirsch, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister * Guillaume Schiffman, The Artist Mathieu Vadepied, Intouchables / Untouchable Best Editing Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Laurence Briaud, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Pauline Gaillard, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War * Laure Gardette, Yann Dedet, Polisse Dorian Rigal Ansous, Intouchables / Untouchable Best Original Score Alex Beaupain, Les bien-aimés Bertand Bonello, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Matthieu Chedid aka -M-, Patrice Renson, Monstre à Paris / A Monster in Paris * Ludovic Bource, The Artist Philippe Schoeller, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Best Production Design * Laurence Bennett, The Artist Alain Guffroy, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Pierre-François Limbosch, Les femmes du 6ème étage / The Women on the 6th Floor Jean-Marc Tran Tan Ba, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Wouter Zoon, Le Havre Best Costume Design Catherine Baba, My Little Princess Mark Bridges, The Artist Christian Gasc, Les femmes du 6ème étage / The Women on the 6th Floor Viorica Petrovici, La Source des femmes / The Source * Anaïs Romand, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Best Sound Pascal Armant, Jean Goudier, Jean-Paul Hurier, Intouchables / Untouchable Jean-Pierre Duret, Nicolas Moreau, Jean-Pierre Laforce, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance * Olivier Hespel, Julie Brenta, Jean-Pierre Laforce, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Nicolas Provost, Rym Debbarh-Mounir, Emmanuel Croset, Polisse André Rigaut, Sébastien Savine, Laurent Gabiot, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War [Continues on next page. See link below.] Jean Dujardin/Missi Pyle/The Artist photo: The Weinstein Company

Oscar Predictions 2012: Best Supporting Actor Christopher Plummer

Andre Soares — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 13:03:34 PST

Christopher Plummer, Beginners As in the case of The Help's Octavia Spencer, only an Act of Zeus will prevent Christopher Plummer from taking home the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as Ewan McGregor's gay father in Mike Mills' real-life-inspired Beginners. Plummer has won numerous critics awards (his chief competitor among US critics, Drive's Albert Brooks, wasn't even nominated), the Golden Globe, and the SAG Award. The 82-year-old Plummer also has prestige — more than five decades in the business. Plummer's Best Supporting Actor Oscar will thus be his Career Achievement Award. Max von Sydow, however, should be getting his Honorary Award in the very near future, I hope. This year, the six-decade film veteran will have to content himself with his somewhat surprising nod for Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The other three Best Supporting Actor contenders with (for all purposes) no chance of winning are Kenneth Branagh for his Laurence Olivier in Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn, Jonah Hill for supporting Brad Pitt in Bennett Miller's Moneyball, and Nick Nolte for his alcoholic former boxer in Gavin O'Connor's Warrior. Christopher Plummer/Beginners photo: Andrew Tepper / Focus Features.

Oscar Predictions 2012: Best Supporting Actress Octavia Spencer

Steve Montgomery — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 12:41:16 PST

Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, The Help Barring a miracle, the 2012 Best Supporting Actress will go to Octavia Spencer in Tate Taylor's The Help. Spencer has won several critics' awards, was the SAG Award winner (and came up with an "inspirational" speech, that's always a major plus), and took home a Golden Globe as well. Now, if instead of Spencer's The Help co-star Viola Davis the Academy chooses The Iron Lady's Meryl Streep for Best Actress, some will surely accuse voters of being racist for throwing a supporting category bone at a black performer while bypassing the lead actress for the more important award. But that would be sheer nonsense. Spencer will win the Oscar because she has a showy role and awards-season momentum going for her. That's it. Albert Nobbs' Janet McTeer, The Help's Jessica Chastain, The Artist's Bérénice Bejo, and Bridesmaids' Melissa McCarthy don't stand a chance. Barring a miracle, that is. The Help picture: Dale Robinette / DreamWorks / Disney Enterprises.

Oscar Predictions 2012: Best Actor Jean Dujardin

Andre Soares — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 23:01:40 PST

Jean Dujardin as George Valentin, The Artist In the Oscar 2012 Best Actor category, Gary Oldman, Demián Bichir, and Brad Pitt are dark horses for, respectively, their performances in Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Chris Weitz's A Better Life, and Bennett Miller's Moneyball. That leaves George Clooney, who plays a befuddled father in Alexander Payne's The Descendants, and Jean Dujardin, who plays a mix of Douglas Fairbanks, John Gilbert, and A Star Is Born's Fredric March in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. This awards season, Clooney has been the US critics' favorite, and would've been the favorite for the Academy Awards as well if it weren't for Dujardin's SAG Award victory. Though not exactly a total shock, the outcome was unexpected because Clooney was technically the sentimental favorite — he has never won a Best Actor SAG Award. Then enter Dujardin, a star in France but all but unknown in the United States, to claim the trophy as his own. So, at this stage, if George Clooney takes home this year's Best Actor Oscar, that will be an upset. We're betting on Jean Dujardin to become the first Frenchman to win an Oscar in the acting categories. Note: In case our Oscar 2012 predictions are accurate, the Best Picture (The Artist), Best Actress (Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady), and Best Actor Academy Awards will all go to The Weinstein Company releases. Jean Dujardin/The Artist pic: The Weinstein Company.

Oscar Predictions 2012: Best Actress Meryl Streep

Steve Montgomery — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 20:21:29 PST

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady The 2012 Best Actress Oscar will go to one of two nominees: Meryl Streep, for her portrayal of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady, or Viola Davis, for her portrayal of a dignified nanny in Tate Taylor's comedy-drama The Help. We've narrowed the race down to Streep and Davis not because their performances are superior to those of the other nominees, but simply because sentiment is on their side. If Viola Davis wins, she'll be the first black woman to take home a Best Actress Academy Award since Halle Berry (who's actually part-black) won for Marc Forster's Monster's Ball ten years ago. If Meryl Streep wins, that'll mark her first Oscar victory since she won for Alan J. Pakula's Sophie's Choice 29 years ago. Between that early 1983 Oscar ceremony and now, Streep has received thirteen other Oscar nods, losing twelve times. To put things in perspective: throughout Katharine Hepburn's five-decade career, the former Oscar record-holder in the acting categories received 12 nominations, winning four times. Additionally, Harvey Weinstein's The Weinstein Company is making sure that Academy voters realize that Streep is due for her third Oscar. As a result of all of the above, we're betting on Meryl Streep getting more sentimental votes than Viola Davis. Streep and Davis' competitors are Rooney Mara for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Michelle Williams (as Marilyn Monroe) for My Week with Marilyn, and Glenn Close for Albert Nobbs. Close, by the way, will have to wait for her seventh nomination to get the Academy's sentimental vote. Meryl Streep/The Iron Lady photo: Alex Bailey / Pathe Productions Ltd / The Weinstein Company.

Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Jean Dujardin, Gary Oldman

D. Zhea — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 19:43:22 PST

Best Actor nominees 2012: Gary Oldman, Jean Dujardin, Demián Bichir, Brad Pitt, George Clooney Oscar 2012 Best Actor nominees Gary Oldman, Jean Dujardin, Demián Bichir, Brad Pitt and George Clooney at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon held in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Oldman is in the running for Tomas Alfredson's spy drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, featuring John Hurt and Colin Firth; Dujardin for Michel Hazanavicius' silent comedy-drama The Artist, with Bérénice Bejo and John Goodman; Bichir for Chris Weitz's L.A.-set drama A Better Life, with José Julián; Pitt for Bennett Miller's baseball drama Moneyball, with Jonah Hill and Robin Wright; and Clooney for Alexander Payne's family comedy-drama The Descendants, with Shailene Woodley and Judy Greer. (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Jean Dujardin, Gary Oldman, and Demián Bichir are first-time Oscar nominees. Brad Pitt has two previous Oscar nominations: Best Actor for David Fincher's fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), opposite Cate Blanchett, and Best Supporting Actor for Terry Gilliam's mind-bending sci-fier Twelve Monkeys (1995), with Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe. In the acting categories, Clooney has three previous Oscar nominations: he won as Best Supporting Actor for his scuzzy American spy in Stephen Gaghan's Syriana (2005), featuring Matt Damon and Christopher Plummer; and was nominated as Best Actor for Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton (2007), with Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson, and Jason Reitman's Up in the Air (2009), with Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. As mentioned elsewhere on this site, since 2005 Clooney has been shortlisted for an acting Academy Award every other year. If that pattern continues, he will earn his fifth acting nomination for a movie released in 2013. Among the different possibilities are the following projects: The $700 Billion Man, Enron, Human Nature, The Monumental Men, The Boys from Belmont, and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Watch Oscars 2012 Online Live-Streaming Red Carpet

D. Zhea — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 18:24:42 PST

Amy Adams (not about to slap) Dave Karger How to watch this year's Academy Awards online? Well, the 2012 Oscar ceremony will not be officially live-streamed online. Videos, photos, and interviews will be posted at the 2012 Oscars' official website. Those generally feature red-carpet, behind-the-scenes, and/or post-Oscarcast interviews. Dave Karger should once again be the Oscar ceremony 2012's official red-carpet greeter. (Oscar iPad/iPhone apps can be downloaded here.) At this time, it's unclear whether the Academy will be live-streaming red-carpet arrivals. In case they do, you'd likely find it here. You can also watch Oscar 2012 red carpet arrivals at E! Live from the Red Carpet. Beginning at 5:30 ET / 2:30 PT, Ryan Seacrest and Giuliana Rancic will be hosting a three-hour Oscar marathon featuring the nominated movies, red-carpet arrivals and perhaps some departures as well. Additionally, E! will have an Oscar Red Carpet Online Livestream in a "companion show" hosted by Ross Matthews and Kristina Guerrero starting at 5:15 p.m. ET / 2:15 PT. (Red carpet iPhone and iPad apps can be downloaded here.) Now, several sites such as ustream.tv, tv.com, livestream.com, rentadrone.tv, and Justin.tv may offer user-generated live-streams of the 2012 Oscar ceremony. Bear in mind that those will be of poor quality. You'll be watching someone else's TV through a video camera. This year's Oscar presenters/participants include host Billy Crystal, in addition to The Fighter/The Flowers of War/The Dark Knight Rises' Christian Bale; Monster's Ball/Dark Tide/Cloud Atlas' Halle Berry; Bridesmaids' Rose Byrne, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig, and the Cirque du Soleil. Also: The Words/Outrun/The Place Beyond the Pines/The Silver Linings Playbook's Bradley Cooper; Mission: Impossible IV – Ghost Protocol/Rock of Ages' Tom Cruise; Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides/Nero Fiddled/Into the World's Penélope Cruz; Bad Teacher/Gambit/What to Expect When You're Expecting's Cameron Diaz; and Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps/Haywire/Behind the Candelabra's Michael Douglas. Plus: Casa de Mi Padre/Dogfight's Will Ferrell; 30 Rock/Date Night's Tina Fey; The King's Speech/Gambit's Colin Firth; The Hangover's Zach Galifianakis; Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close/Cloud Atlas' Tom Hanks; The Tourist/Salt/Maleficent's Angelina Jolie; Resident Evil: Retribution/The Three Musketeers' Milla Jovovich; and Welcome to the Rileys/Dwegons/Flight's Melissa Leo. And finally: What to Expect When You're Expecting/Parker/Ice Age: Continental Drift's Jennifer Lopez; Thor/Black Swan/No Strings Attached's Natalie Portman; What to Expect When You're Expecting/2 Days in New York's Chris Rock; The Secret Life of Walter Mitty/Neighborhood Watch's Ben Stiller; The Amazing Spider-Man /The Help/Movie 43/The Gangster Squad's Emma Stone; and The Iron Lady/August: Osage County/Great Hope Springs' Meryl Streep.

Lina Romay: Sex/Horror Movie Actress Dies

Andre Soares — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 15:07:02 PST

Lina Romay, a pretty brunette who starred in numerous risqué features for longtime companion Jesus Franco, has died. According to online reports, Romay died of cancer on February 15. She was 57. Born Rosa María Almirall Martínez in Barcelona on June 25, 1954, Romay began her film career while in her late teens. The source for her artistic name was another Lina Romay, a singer with Xavier Cugat's band who had featured roles in movies such as Love Laughs at Andy Hardy and Joe Palooka in the Big Fight. (This Lina Romay died at age 91 in December 2010 in the L.A. suburb of Pasadena.) The Spanish Lina Romay's movies, however, were anything but G-rated fare. Her gialli and erotica efforts had titles such as Tender and Perverse Emanuelle (1973), Justine and the Whip (1979), The White Slave (1985), and Alone Against Terror (1987). From the early '70s to 2005, she was featured in more than 100 productions. (Possibly more than 200, according to some sources.) Among Romay's movies directed (and oftentimes edited/scored/shot/etc.) by Jesus Franco (aka Jess Franco and countless other pseudonyms) were Swedish Nympho Slaves (1977), The Sadist of Notre Dame (1979), White Cannibal Queen (1981), Hellhole Women (1981), and Macumba Sexual (1983). Romay also helped Franco in the directorial/editing process, and under the pseudonyms Lulu Laverne/Candy Coster directed a dozen movies in the 1980s. Additionally, she was perfectly comfortable performing in sexually explicit fare. Needless to say, the Franco-Romay movies were no-budget efforts. Yet, the couple managed to carve out for themselves a lasting place in the realm of erotica/gialli filmmaking. "It's said than I am an exhibitionist," Romay is supposed to have once remarked. "Every actor is one — I gladly accept that. I'm not a hypocrite." I'm unfamiliar with Romay's film work, but she may have had quite a bit of acting talent to back up her exhibitionist side. In his Lina Romay obit, movie blogger Tim Lucas wrote: "No other woman gave quite as much of herself to the fantastic cinema as Lina Romay. As Franco's muse, she inspired and facilitated as many as 200 or more films, and in many of them she withheld nothing of herself from his voracious camera, body or soul. Theirs was an ideal meeting of exhibitionist and voyeur, both giving generously to one another in one of cinema's most provocative love stories. As the years passed, Lina changed and her body changed, but it never mattered to Franco, who continued to star her and film her as if she were the most desirable woman on earth. This is not to say that Franco's adoration of her was blind; on the contrary, Lina became a skilled actress under his tutelage, acquitting herself admirably not only as vampire women and nymphomaniacs, but in roles requiring the deft touch of a light comedienne. She could carry a film without dialogue; she could be funny, tragic, insanely desirable, shocking, even embarrassing in ways that left one admiring her bravery." If so, how many performers can lay claim to such versatility and dramatic effectiveness? Three years ago, Jesus Franco was given an Honorary Goya — the Spanish equivalent of the Honorary Oscar. (Imagine such an honoree at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Governors Awards.) Franco is now 81. Lina Romay photo.

Oscar Predictions: Best Picture Upset?

Andre Soares — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:23:00 PST

Asa Butterfield, Jude Law in Martin Scorsese's Hugo Oscar Predictions: Best Picture THE ARTIST In early 1996, the Best Picture win of Mel Gibson's Braveheart wasn't a surprise, as the Producers Guild/Directors Guild award winner Apollo 13 had failed to be shortlisted in the Academy Awards' Best Director category. In fact, Ron Howard's DGA win — much like Steven Spielberg's for The Color Purple a decade earlier — could be seen as a message to the Academy: highly commercial, crowd-pleasing filmmakers are people, too. On the other hand, considering that both Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee were Best Director Oscar winners for, respectively, Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Brokeback Mountain (2005), the Shakespeare in Love and Crash Best Picture victories turned out to be major upsets. This year, the two movies that could theoretically lead to such an upset are Martin Scorsese's Hugo and Alexander Payne's The Descendants. Hugo would be banking chiefly on Scorsese's prestige, as the film hasn't been all that lucky with the guilds this awards season, and, relative to its cost (as high as $170 million), it has been a major box-office disappointment. The Descendants, for its part, has already won a Writers Guild Award (Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist screenplay was ineligible) and was a surprise winner of the ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Motion Picture – Drama. (The Artist won in the comedy/musical category.) An unheard-of upset would be Tate Taylor's socially conscious SAG Award winner The Help winning Best Picture. No movie has won the Best Picture Oscar without a matching Best Director, Best Film Editing, and/or Best Screenplay (Original or Adapted) nomination since Edmund Goulding's Grand Hotel for the period 1931-32. Now, it should be noted that whereas eight movies were up for the Best Picture Academy Award that year, only three directors were nominated, and only seven movies were shortlisted in the writing categories. No movie was nominated for Best Film Editing, as that category was instituted only in 1934. (We should also add that voting procedures were quite different back then as well.) Besides Grand Hotel, only two other movies have won the Best Picture Academy Award without a matching Best Director nomination: William A. Wellman's Wings in the awards' first year, 1927-28, and Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy for the year 1989. Beresford's socially conscious comedy-drama, however, also won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar and was nominated for Best Film Editing. An ensemble piece with a Message, The Help is clearly well-liked among actors: in addition to its Best Cast SAG Award victory, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain were all nominated for Oscars. Yet, the film doesn't seem to have that many enthusiastic fans in the Academy's other branches, as it wasn't nominated in any other non-acting category apart from Best Picture. In fact, considering its blatant lack of support elsewhere, here's wondering if The Help would have made the Best Picture cut had the Academy kept its pre-2009 five-film limit. The Artist, Hugo, The Descendants, and The Help's Best Picture competitors are Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, Steven Spielberg's War Horse, Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, and Bennett Miller's Moneyball. Asa Butterfield/Jude Law/Hugo photo: Jaap Buitendijk / GK Films

Oscar Predictions 2012: Best Picture THE ARTIST

Andre Soares — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 02:18:03 PST

Jean Dujardin, Uggie the dog, The Artist Our prediction for the Best Picture Academy Award: Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. Why The Artist? No, not because of some sociohistorical/psychological significance that various pundits have ascribed to the Hazanavicius' movie and its effect on members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. That's not only total b.s., but a blatant misreading of both the (brilliant) film itself and of the Hollywood period it represents. Not to mention the fact that The Artist isn't even an American production, but a French (or Franco-Belgian) effort that was a hit in Cannes long before it arrived at these shores. The Artist is the top contender for the Best Picture Academy Award because, its SAG Award defeat notwithstanding, it's a feel-good (feel-great, some might say) movie, it's technically impeccable, and it's an upbeat portrayal of moviemaking and moviemakers. Ah, and it's a Harvey Weinstein release in North America. That always helps. (Suffice to remember The King's Speech and Shakespeare in Love.) Additionally, The Artist has already won both the Producers Guild and the Directors Guild awards. Since the PGA Awards were instituted in 1990 (the DGA Awards have been around since the late '40s), only three DGA/PGA winners have failed to win the Best Picture Oscar: Ron Howard's Apollo 13 (1995), Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (1998), and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain. The Best Picture Oscar winners in those years were, respectively, Mel Gibson's Braveheart, John Madden's Shakespeare in Love (a Miramax/Harvey Weinstein release), and Paul Haggis' Crash. Wrapping this up: Director-writer Hazanavicius has been adroitly selling his movie, emphasizing that The Artist is a heartfelt homage to American cinema. In other words, Hazanavicius and producer Thomas Langmann may be French outsiders, but their movie isn't. To the contrary, their offering is the only 2012 Best Picture nominee fully shot in the Los Angeles area. In no small amount due to Harvey Weinstein's ardent, huh, prayers, we believe the Hollywood film industry gods will smile upon Hazanavicius' offering. Jean Dujardin, Uggie the dog/The Artist pic: The Weinstein Company.

Streep, Pitt, Spielberg, Dujardin: Huge Oscar 2012 Group Picture

D. Zhea — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 20:04:45 PST

Oscar 2012 group photo The nominees for the 2012 Academy Awards pose for a (very, very, very large) group photo at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar Nominees Luncheon, held in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Here's the link to the full-size Oscar 2012 group photo. Seated (left to right): Matthew Butler, Julie Anderson, Kira Carstensen Tsunami, Mark Bridges, Demián Bichir, Lon Bender, Michael De Luca, Danfung Dennis, Rebecca Cammisa, Joe Berlinger, Bérénice Bejo, Letty Aronson, Max von Sydow, Kirk Baxter and J.C. Chandor. (Photo: Greg Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.) 2nd row (left to right): Erik Aadahl, Ron Bochar, Deb Adair with guest, Amanda Forbis, Stan Chervin, Glenn Close, Jean Dujardin, George Clooney, Chris Columbus, Marshall Curry, Ludovic Bource, Terry George, Patrick Doyon, Gigi Causey, Erik Nash, Jeff Cronenweth, Viola Davis, Siedah Garrett, Dave Giammarco, Lisy Christl, Nick Dudman, Enrico Casarosa, Sam Cullman, Kenneth Branagh, and Scott Benza. 3rd row (left to right): Peter Devlin, Jim Burke, Brandon Oldenburg, William Joyce, Eugene Gearty, Victor Ray Ennis, Dan Lemmon, Alain Gagnol, Jean-Loup Felicioli, Scott Farrar, John Frazier, Oorlagh George, Sarah Green, Nat Faxon, Brunson Green, Swen Gillberg, Stefan Gieren, Dede Gardner, Robert Gould, Mark Coulier, Robin Fryday, Dante Ferretti, Rick Carter, Laurence Bennett and Michael Barnathan. 4th row (left to right): Daniel Barrett, Emmanuel Lubezki, Daniel Junge, Grant Heslov, Sergio Mendes, Rachael Horovitz, Nick Nolte, Amanda Knight, Alberto Iglesias, Ren Klyce, Thomas Langmann, Michel Hazanavicius, Richard Hymns, Jeffrey Haboush, John Rosengrant, Gary Oldman, Janet McTeer, Matthew Mungle, Dan Lindsay, Lynn Johnston, Peter McDonald, Chris Miller, Alex Henning, Jonah Hill, Bret McKenzie, Ben Grossman and Tom Fleischman. 5th row (left to right): Graham King, Janusz Kaminski, Bill Pohlad, Philip Stockton, Thelma Schoonmaker, Rob Legato, Kathleen Kennedy, John Logan, Mike Lerner, Stephanie McMillan, Jim Rash, David Parker, Anne Seibel, Christopher Tellefsen, Lisa Tomblin, Guillaume Schiffman, Ethan Van der Ryn, Angus Wall, Ed Novick, Andy Nelson, Annie Mumolo, T.J. Martin, Arianne Phillips, Sandy Powell, Eimear O'Kane, Melissa McCarthy, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Andrew Bowler and Greg Butler. Back row (left to right): J. Roy Helland, Richard Middlemas, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Rooney Mara, Fernando Trueba, Wendy Tilby, Jennifer Yuh Nelson, Max Zähle, Michael Semanick, Kevin Tent, James Spione, Beau Willimon, David Vickery, Gore Verbinski, Michelle Williams, Aaron Sorkin, Stephen Tenenbaum, Octavia Spencer, Peter Straughan, Greg Russell, Dan Taylor, Lucy Walker, Jim Taylor, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Hallvar Witzø, R. Christopher White, and Steven Zaillian. Best Animated Short Film nominee The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore's Brandon Oldenburg and William Joyce clearly wanted to be noticed. The problem is that because of the angle at which the group photo was taken, Sergio Mendes was unwittingly made a part of their little joke. In the picture above (the full-size version), it looks like Oldenburg is sticking two fingers up Mendes' nostrils. This year's Best Picture nominees are: Alexander Payne's The Descendants, starring George Clooney and Shailene Woodley; Steven Spielberg's War Horse, with Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, and Tom Hiddleston; Martin Scorsese's Hugo, with Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, and Sacha Baron Cohen; Bennett Miller's Moneyball, with Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Robin Wright; Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, with Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo; Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, with Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn; Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, with Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, and Max von Sydow; Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, with Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Adrien Brody, and Kathy Bates; Tate Taylor's The Help, with Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Bryce Dallas Howard. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Jean Dujardin, Brad Pitt, George Clooney, Demián Bichir

D. Zhea — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 19:00:25 PST

Gary Oldman, Jean Dujardin, Demián Bichir, Brad Pitt, George Clooney Gary Oldman, Jean Dujardin, Demián Bichir, Brad Pitt, and George Clooney, nominees for 2012 Best Actor Academy Award, pose together at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon held in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Oldman is a nominee for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy; Dujardin for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist; Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life; Pitt for Bennett Miller's Moneyball; and Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants. (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Gary Oldman, Jean Dujardin, and Demián Bichir are first-time Oscar nominees. Brad Pitt was a Best Actor nominee for David Fincher's fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), opposite Cate Blanchett, and a Best Supporting Actor nominee for Terry Gilliam's sci-fier/psychological drama Twelve Monkeys (1995), with Bruce Willis and Madeleine Stowe. In the acting categories, Clooney has three previous Oscar nominations: he won as Best Supporting Actor for his performance as a scuzzy American spy in Stephen Gaghan's Syriana (2005), featuring Matt Damon and Christopher Plummer; and was nominated as Best Actor for Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton (2007), opposite Tilda Swinton and Tom Wilkinson, and Jason Reitman's Up in the Air (2009), with Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick. As mentioned elsewhere on this site, Clooney gets shortlisted for an acting Academy Award every other year. If that pattern continues, he will earn his fifth acting nomination for a movie released in 2013. Among the various possibilities are the following projects: The $700 Billion Man, Enron, Human Nature, The Monumental Men, The Boys from Belmont, and Hamdan v. Rumsfeld. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Jim Taylor

D. Zhea — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 18:41:39 PST

Jim Taylor, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg Jim Taylor, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar Nominees Luncheon, which took place in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. The above photo sort of looks like prayer time at the Luncheon. If so, Taylor is thankful for The Descendants' Best Picture nomination. (Taylor is one of the film's producers, along with Jim Burke and director Alexander Payne.) Scorsese is thankful for his Best Director nod for Hugo, starring Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, and Sacha Baron Cohen. Spielberg, for his part, is one of the producers of Best Picture nominee War Horse, which features Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, and Tom Hiddleston. (Photo: Greg Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.) The Descendants and War Horse's Best Picture competitors are the following: Scorsese's Hugo, Bennett Miller's Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Robin Wright; Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, with Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo; Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, with Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn; Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, with Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, and Max von Sydow; Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, with Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and Marion Cotillard; and Tate Taylor's The Help, with Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Octavia Spencer. Martin Scorsese's competition for the Best Director Oscar consists of Alexander Payne for The Descendants, Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life, Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, and Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Chris Hemsworth/THE CABIN IN THE WOODS Picture

Zac Gille — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:46:44 PST

Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison, The Cabin in the Woods Thor's Chris Hemsworth, along with the equally curious (and probably doomed) Fran Kranz (Much Ado About Nothing, Lust for Love) and Anna Hutchison (Blinder, Notting Hill) look for Something inside the basement of a cabin in — one assumes — the woods. It remains to be seen whether they'll find that Something or that Something will find them. I'm hoping for the latter, so Hemsworth will have that college/high-school-dude jacket torn from him. It'll then be revealed he's a man in his late 20s trying to pass for a teen or facsimile. In fact, The Cabin in the Woods is reportedly filled with unexpected twists and turns. Perhaps that'll be one them. The Cabin in the Woods was written by Drew Goddard, who also directs, and Joss Whedon, who directed Hemsworth (and Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Robert Downey Jr, Tom Hiddleston, etc.) in the upcoming The Avengers. The Cabin in the Woods hits theaters on April 13, though its premiere will take place at Austin's SXSW in March. In addition to The Cabin in the Woods and The Avengers, Hemsworth should be seen this year in Rupert Sanders' Snow White and the Huntsman, opposite Kristen Stewart and Charlize Theron, and Dan Bradley's Red Dawn, with Josh Hutcherson and Isabel Lucas. Chris Hemsworth, Fran Kranz, Anna Hutchison, The Cabin in the Woods photo via the Cabin in the Woods Facebook page.

George Cukor/Oscar Actors: Judy Holliday, Ronald Colman

Andre Soares — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:42:22 PST

William Holden, Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday George Cukor: Oscar Actors' Director Pt.2 George Cukor-directed movies: twenty-one acting nominations; five wins. (s) supporting category; (*) Academy Award winner 1930-31 Fredric March, The Royal Family of Broadway (co-directed with Cyril Gardner) 1936 Norma Shearer, Romeo and Juliet Basil Rathbone (s), Romeo and Juliet 1937 Greta Garbo, Camille 1940 * James Stewart, The Philadelphia Story Katharine Hepburn, The Philadelphia Story Ruth Hussey (s), The Philadelphia Story 1944 Charles Boyer, Gaslight * Ingrid Bergman, Gaslight Angela Lansbury (s), Gaslight 1947 * Ronald Colman, A Double Life 1949 Deborah Kerr, Edward, My Son 1950 * Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday 1954 James Mason, A Star Is Born Judy Garland, A Star Is Born 1957 Anthony Quinn, Wild Is the Wind Anna Magnani,Wild Is the Wind 1964 * Rex Harrison, My Fair Lady Stanley Holloway (s), My Fair Lady Gladys Cooper (s), My Fair Lady 1972 Maggie Smith, Travels with My Aunt

George Cukor: Oscar Actors Director

Andre Soares — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:41:49 PST

James Stewart, Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn, The Philadelphia Story George Cukor: Oscar Actors' Director Pt.1 Additionally, the "gay sensibility" nonsense ignores the fact — and that is a fact — that George Cukor was equally adept at directing male actors. Clark Gable may have gotten Cukor fired from the Gone with the Wind set, but the extensive list of Cukor-directed performers nominated for Academy Awards includes Fredric March (The Royal Family of Broadway), Basil Rathbone (Romeo and Juliet), Charles Boyer (Gaslight), James Mason (A Star Is Born), Anthony Quinn (Wild Is the Wind), and no less than three male Oscar winners: James Stewart (The Philadelphia Story), Ronald Colman (A Double Life), and Rex Harrison (My Fair Lady). Cukor also guided numerous other male stars, including Spencer Tracy (five times), Cary Grant (three times), John Barrymore (three times), Melvyn Douglas (twice), Robert Taylor (twice), Joel McCrea (twice), William Holden, David Manners, Laurence Olivier, Jack Lemmon, Aldo Ray, Gene Kelly, and Brian Aherne. In addition to Edmund Lowe, Lionel Barrymore, Edmund Gwenn, Herbert Marshall, Broderick Crawford, Maurice Chevalier, Lew Ayres, W.C. Fields, Freddie Bartholomew, Joseph Cotten, Yves Montand, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Huston, Clive Brook, Douglass Montgomery, and Edmond O'Brien. And more: Anthony Perkins, Wallace Beery, Phillips Holmes, Paul Lukas, Lowell Sherman, Neil Hamilton, Stewart Granger, Robert Mitchum, Ray Milland, Dirk Bogarde, Lon McCallister, Steve Forrest, Robert Morley, Peter Lawford, Scott Brady, Michael York, Robert Forster, and Leslie Howard. Perhaps by having sex with men, Cukor was able to absorb some of the masculine vibes of his partners. Or perhaps it takes a real man to do it with another. No matter. Twenty-one performers — twelve actresses; nine actors — working under Cukor received Oscar nominations, including five winners: two actresses; three actors. Curiously, only one of Katharine Hepburn's 12 Best Actress nominations were for a Cukor-directed performance: the spoiled socialite about to get remarried in The Philadelphia Story. Hepburn lost that year to Ginger Rogers in Sam Wood's Kitty Foyle. Cukor himself received five Best Direction nods: Little Women, 1932-33; The Philadelphia Story, 1940; A Double Life, 1947; Born Yesterday, 1950; and My Fair Lady, 1964. He won for the last film. A Double Life failed to get a Best Picture nomination, but two other Cukor movies — David Copperfield (1935) and Gaslight (1944) — were shortlisted, and so was the Cukor/Ernst Lubitsch collaboration One Hour with You (1932). According to two Cukor friends I interviewed several years ago for my book on Ramon Novarro, Cukor got along with just about every actor he worked with. (Cukor directed Novarro in the 1960 Western Heller in Pink Tights.) The two exceptions were Anouk Aimée in Justine (1969) and Cicely Tyson in The Blue Bird (1976). Additionally, there were a number of reports about trouble with Jacqueline Bisset on the set of Rich and Famous. Born in New York City in July 1899, George Cukor died of heart failure in Los Angeles in January 1983. [Continues on next page. See link below.]

George Cukor: Womens Director?

Andre Soares — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:38:06 PST

Known as a refined "women's director," George Cukor has had his considerable output either relegated to the sidelines or simply dismissed by those who like their directors macho and their films male-centered. Not helping matters is the general perception that Cukor was merely a hired hand for the likes of David O. Selznick at RKO and Louis B. Mayer at MGM, instead of an auteur following a clear professional path. Except, of course, for the (assumed) fact that he was a women's director — and we're back to square one. In truth, George Cukor was one of the most accomplished directors of the studio era. His movies may lack the wide vistas found in John Ford's Westerns, or those personal cinematic/thematic touches that make, say, an Alfred Hitchcock movie recognizably Hitchcockian. But that's because Cukor's camera was set up so audiences would forget it was there and thus be allowed to — or rather, be forced into immersing themselves in the story, the dialogue, and the minds of its characters. As a plus, like Elia Kazan, Cukor served his apprenticeship in the theater, thus developing into an outstanding actors' director. Actors'. Regardless of gender. Because Cukor was gay, some have claimed that his sexual orientation explains his flair for directing actresses and for handling projects revolving around women and their issues. By having sex with guys, he is supposed to have somehow been more attuned to his "feminine" self, and thus able to bring out the best in Katharine Hepburn in 10 movies, including the made-for-television Love Among the Ruins and The Corn Is Green; Joan Crawford in The Women, Susan and God, and A Woman's Face; Greta Garbo in Camille and Two-Faced Woman; Judy Garland in A Star Is Born; Deborah Kerr in Edward, My Son; Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady; Constance Bennett in What Price Hollywood?, Our Betters, and Rockabye; and Marie Dressler, Jean Harlow, and Madge Evans in Dinner at 8. David Manners, Katharine Hepburn, A Bill of Divorcement Also: Norma Shearer in Romeo and Juliet, The Women, and Her Cardboard Lover; Kay Francis in The Virtuous Sin and Girls About Town; Lana Turner in A Life of Her Own; Marilyn Monroe in Let's Make Love and the unfinished Something's Got to Give; Ina Claire in The Royal Family of Broadway (co-directed with Cyril Gardner); Jeanne Crain and Thelma Ritter in The Model and the Marriage Broker; Judy Holliday in Born Yesterday and Adam's Rib; Holliday and Crain in Winged Victory; Tallulah Bankhead in Tarnished Lady; and Claudette Colbert in Zaza. More: Ava Gardner in Bhowani Junction and The Blue Bird; Billie Burke in A Bill of Divorcement and Dinner at 8; Anna Magnani in Wild Is the Wind; Jean Simmons and Teresa Wright in The Actress; Rosalind Russell, Mary Boland, Joan Fontaine, and Paulette Goddard in The Women; Ingrid Bergman, Angela Lansbury, and Dame May Whitty in Gaslight; Maggie Smith in Travels with My Aunt; and Sophia Loren, Eileen Heckart, and Margaret O'Brien in Heller in Pink Tights. And finally, Lilyan Tashman in Girls About Town; Ruth Hussey and Rita Hayworth in Susan and God; Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen in Rich and Famous; Joan Bennett, Frances Dee, and Jean Parker in Little Women; Shelley Winters, Jane Fonda, Glynis Johns, and Claire Bloom in The Chapman Report; Signe Hasso and Winters in A Double Life; Greer Garson in Desire Me, a troubled production released without a director's credit; and Jeanette MacDonald and Genevieve Tobin in One Hour with Your, which an uncredited Cukor co-directed with Ernst Lubitsch. All those, in addition to Gone with the Wind's Vivien Leigh and Olivia de Havilland, whom Cukor reportedly coached (at his home) throughout the production. The list is both very impressive and very long, though one must remember that Cukor worked mostly at RKO and MGM, two studios that, while Cukor was under contract, relied heavily on the star power of their female players. Other RKO and MGM contract directors, regardless of their sexual orientation, also had to handle star vehicles for Garbo and Crawford and Bennett and Shearer and Hepburn and Harlow, and so on. [Continues on next page. See link below.]

Elia Kazan/Oscar Actors: James Dean, Marlon Brando

Andre Soares — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 15:00:37 PST

James Dean, Jo Van Fleet, East of Eden Elia Kazan: Oscar Actors' Director Pt.1 Elia Kazan-directed movies: twenty-four acting nominations; nine wins. (s) supporting category. (*) Academy Award winner 1945 * James Dunn (s), A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (Additionally, Peggy Ann Garner won a Juvenile Oscar for her 1945 performances, including the one in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) 1947 Gregory Peck, Gentleman's Agreement Dorothy McGuire, Gentleman's Agreement * Celeste Holm (s), Gentleman's Agreement Anne Revere (s), Gentleman's Agreement 1949 Jeanne Crain, Pinky (co-directed with John Ford) Ethel Barrymore (s), Pinky Ethel Waters (s), Pinky 1951 Marlon Brando, A Streetcar Named Desire * Vivien Leigh, A Streetcar Named Desire * Karl Malden (s), A Streetcar Named Desire * Kim Hunter (s), A Streetcar Named Desire 1952 Marlon Brando, Viva Zapata * Anthony Quinn (s), Viva Zapata 1954 * Marlon Brando, On the Waterfront Lee J. Cobb (s), On the Waterfront Karl Malden (s), On the Waterfront Rod Steiger (s), On the Waterfront * Eva Marie Saint (s), On the Waterfront 1955 James Dean, East of Eden * Jo Van Fleet (s), East of Eden 1956 Carroll Baker, Baby Doll Mildred Dunnock (s), Baby Doll 1961 Natalie Wood, Splendor in the Grass

Elia Kazan: Oscar Actors Director

Andre Soares — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:58:21 PST

Dorothy McGuire, Gregory Peck, Gentleman's Agreement Elia Kazan is best remembered today for two things: his association with Marlon Brando during the first half of the 1950s, and the fact that he claimed to be unrepentant about naming names — and ruining careers and lives — during the Red-baiting hysteria of the post-World War II years. Kazan's 19 feature films as a director are wildly uneven. For every great A Streetcar Named Desire there is a dreadful America, America, in addition to everything in between. Yet, probably as a result of his Broadway training, Kazan was undeniably an outstanding actors' director. Tough-guy Brando remains the best-remembered Kazan star for his performances in A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront (less so for his Emiliano Zapata in Viva Zapata!). Even so, the director elicited superb performances from a wide range of players, from child actress Peggy Ann Garner, who won a Juvenile Oscar for A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, to Deborah Kerr, who plays a bored housewife in The Arrangement; from thumb-sucking child-woman Carroll Baker in Baby Doll to Jo Van Fleet's no-nonsense broads in both in East of Eden and Wild River. Among the other remarkable performances in Kazan's films are those of Joan Blondell and Dorothy McGuire in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn; McGuire and Gregory Peck in Gentleman's Agreement; Vivien Leigh and Kim Hunter in A Streetcar Named Desire; Ethel Waters in Pinky; and Richard Widmark, Paul Douglas, and Barbara Bel Geddes in Panic in the Streets. Here are a few more: Eva Marie Saint and Lee J. Cobb in On the Waterfront; Mildred Dunnock in Baby Doll; Montgomery Clift and Lee Remick in Wild River; and Natalie Wood and Zorah Lampert in Splendor in the Grass. Kazan's performers were nominated a total of 24 times — including 9 wins — from 1945 to 1961. (Not including Peggy Ann Garner's special Oscar.) That's second only to the 36 nominations/14 wins of William Wyler-directed actors. Marlon Brando appears three times on the Kazan list, for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Viva Zapata! (1952), and On the Waterfront (1954). Karl Malden appears twice, both times in the Best Supporting Actor category, for A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront. Kazan himself was nominated for five Best Director Oscars: Gentleman's Agreement, 1947; A Streetcar Named Desire, 1951; On the Waterfront, 1954; East of Eden, 1955; and America, America, 1963. He won twice: for Gentleman's Agreement and On the Waterfront. Both movies also won the Best Picture Oscar. Additionally, Kazan won a highly controversial Honorary Oscar at the 1999 ceremony. Born in 1909 in what is now Istanbul, Kazan died in September 2003 in Manhattan. [Continues on next page. See link below.]

William Wyler/Oscar Actors: Walter Huston, Bette Davis

Andre Soares — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:55:15 PST

Walter Huston, Ruth Chatterton, Dodsworth William Wyler: Record-Setting Oscar Director for Actors Pt.1 Ah, William Wyler also happens to be the director with the most Academy Award nominations: twelve in all. For the record, those are: Dodsworth, 1936; Wuthering Heights, 1939; The Letter, 1940; The Little Foxes, 1941; Mrs. Miniver, 1942; The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946; The Heiress, 1949; Detective Story, 1951; Roman Holiday, 1953; Friendly Persuasion, 1956; Ben-Hur, 1959; and The Collector, 1965. He won the Best Director Oscar for three films — none of which is among his best: Mrs. Miniver, The Best Years of Our Lives, and Ben-Hur. Considering the changes that have taken place in the American film industry following the demise of the studio system, barring a miracle Wyler will remain the Oscars' top director for actors for as long as there are Oscars. (See full list below.) William Wyler died of a heart attack in July 1981 in Los Angeles. William Wyler-directed movies: thirty-six acting nominations; fourteen wins. (s) supporting category. (* ) Academy Award winner 1936 Walter Huston, Dodsworth * Walter Brennan (s), Come and Get It (Wyler replaced Howard Hawks, who received co-directing credit) Bonita Granville (s), These Three Maria Ouspenskaya (s), Dodsworth 1937 Claire Trevor (s), Dead End 1938 * Bette Davis, Jezebel * Fay Bainter (s), Jezebel 1939 Laurence Olivier, Wuthering Heights Geraldine Fitzgerald (s), Wuthering Heights 1940 Bette Davis, The Letter * Walter Brennan (s), The Westerner James Stephenson (s), The Letter 1941 Bette Davis, The Little Foxes Patricia Collinge (s), The Little Foxes Teresa Wright (s), The Little Foxes 1942 Walter Pidgeon, Mrs. Miniver * Greer Garson, Mrs. Miniver Henry Travers (s), Mrs. Miniver * Teresa Wright (s), Mrs. Miniver Dame May Whitty (s), Mrs. Miniver 1946 * Fredric March, The Best Years of Our Lives * Harold Russell (s), The Best Years of Our Lives 1949 * Olivia de Havilland, The Heiress Ralph Richardson (s), The Heiress 1951 Eleanor Parker, Detective Story Lee Grant (s), Detective Story 1953 * Audrey Hepburn, Roman Holiday Eddie Albert (s), Roman Holiday 1956 Anthony Perkins (s), Friendly Persuasion 1958 * Burl Ives (s), The Big Country 1959 * Charlton Heston Ben-Hur * Hugh Griffith (s), Ben-Hur 1961 Fay Bainter (s), The Children's Hour 1965 Samantha Eggar, The Collector 1968 * Barbra Streisand, Funny Girl (tied with Katharine Hepburn in The Lion in Winter) Kay Medford (s), Funny Girl

William Wyler: Oscar Actors Director

Andre Soares — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 14:53:21 PST

William Wyler was one of the greatest film directors Hollywood — or any other film industry — has ever produced. Today, Wyler lacks the following of Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Frank Capra, or even Howard Hawks most likely because, unlike Hitchcock, Ford, or Capra (and to a lesser extent Hawks), Wyler never focused on a particular genre, while his films were hardly as male-centered as those of the aforementioned four directors. Dumb but true: Films about women and their issues tend to be perceived as inferior to those about men — especially tough men — and their issues. The German-born Wyler (1902, in Alsace, now part of France) immigrated to the United States in his late teens. Following a stint at Universal's New York office, he moved to Hollywood and by the mid-'20s was directing Western shorts. His ascent was quick; by 1929 Wyler was directing Universal's top female star, Laura La Plante in the fluffy but enjoyable comedy The Love Trap. From then on, Wyler became one of Hollywood's most prestigious filmmakers, tackling all sorts of topics — from Quaker family values to closeted homosexuality — while venturing into just about every type of movie genre: Westerns (Hell's Heroes, The Big Country), socially conscious dramas (Dead End, The Best Years of Our Lives, Friendly Persuasion, The Liberation of L.B. Jones), melodramas (A House Divided, Dodsworth, Mrs. Miniver), thrillers (Detective Story, The Desperate Hour), comedies (The Gay Deception, How to Steal a Million), romantic fare (The Good Fairy, Jezebel, Wuthering Heights), kinky fare (The Collector), and prestigious stage adaptations (The Letter, The Heiress, The Children's Hour). All that, in addition to war documentaries (The Memphis Belle, The Fighting Lady), a musical (Funny Girl), and a mammoth epic (Ben-Hur). From the mid-1920s to his last film in 1970, Wyler also directed just about everyone in Hollywood, from the aforementioned Laura La Plante to Barbra Streisand, from John Barrymore to Omar Sharif, plus the likes of Gary Cooper, Merle Oberon, Walter Pidgeon, Joel McCrea, Sylvia Sidney, Henry Fonda, Humphrey Bogart, Eleanor Parker, Kirk Douglas, Montgomery Clift, Frances Farmer, Lupe Velez, Herbert Marshall, Laurence Olivier, Jennifer Jones, Virginia Mayo, Peter O'Toole, Dana Andrews, Bebe Daniels, Francis Lederer, Ruth Chatterton, Audrey Hepburn, Paul Lukas, Constance Cummings, Dorothy McGuire, Doris Kenyon, Myrna Loy, Fredric March, James Garner, Frances Dee, Gregory Peck, and dozens of others. Many of those performers reached career highs — at least from an acting standpoint — in their films for Wyler. I could mention Olivia de Havilland at her very best in The Heiress. Bette Davis, delivering two of her most brilliant characterizations in both The Letter and The Little Foxes. Miriam Hopkins superb in both These Three (as The Children's Hour's lesbian turned heterosexual for the movie version) and its remake, The Children's Hour (as the dotty aunt of the lesbian character, now played by Shirley MacLaine). Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar, beautifully playing off of each other in The Collector. (Though definitely not Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur. But then again, even the most effective actors' director can only do so much.) Apart from a handful of lighthearted characters such as those found in The Westerner and Roman Holiday, dramatic roles (even if at times tinged with comedy) dominate the list of Oscar-nominated performances in films directed by Wyler. There were 36 nominations in all — among them 14 wins — running the gamut from Walter Huston's conflicted husband in Dodsworth to Hugh Griffith's hammy sheik in Ben-Hur; from Claire Trevor's embittered prostitute in Dead End to Greer Garson's nobly suffering Englishwoman in Mrs. Miniver. Bette Davis appears on the list three times, for Jezebel (1938), The Letter (1940), and The Little Foxes (1941). Walter Brennan, Fay Bainter, and Teresa Wright appear twice each in the supporting categories: Brennan for Come and Get It (1936), on which Wyler replaced Howard Hawks, and The Westerner (1940); Bainter for Jezebel and The Children's Hour (1961); and Wright for The Little Foxes and Mrs. Miniver (1942). [Continues on next page. See link below.]

Anna Paquin, Terrence Malick: Cinephile Society Winners

Andre Soares — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:22:04 PST

Asghar Farhadi's A Separation, Margaret's Anna Paquin (photo), Weekend's Tom Cullen, and The Tree of Life's Terrence Malick and Brad Pitt were some of the winners of the 2012 International Cinephile Society Awards. The honors are announced by "an online group made up of approximately 80 accredited journalists, film scholars, historians and other industry professionals who cover film festivals and events on five continents." And cinephiles they clearly are; some of their choices would put the U.S.-based National Society of Film Critics to shame. [Full list of International Cinephile Society winners and runners-up.] Writer-director Farhadi's Iranian family drama A Separation, which is up for the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Original Screenplay Academy Awards, won as Best Picture of 2011, in addition to Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Ensemble (including Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress runners-up Peyman Moaadi and Shahab Hosseini). Farhadi was also the runner-up for Best Director. Paquin was the Best Actress winner for her performance in Kenneth Lonergan's much-praised but little-seen psychological drama Margaret, while Tom Cullen was voted Best Actor for his enamored gay man in Andrew Haigh's Weekend. Terrence Malick was the Best Director for the cosmic family drama The Tree of Life, which also earned citations for Best Supporting Actor Brad Pitt, Best Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), and Best Film Editing (Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber, Mark Yoshikawa). The Best Supporting Actress was Margaret's J. Smith-Cameron. Among the other ICS winners were Mysteries of Lisbon's Carlos Saboga and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy's Bridget O'Connor and Peter Straughan, who tied for the Best Adapted Screenplay Award; Gore Verbinski's animated feature Rango; and Andrei Ujica's The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu. Anna Paquin/Margaret photo: Myles Aronowitz / Fox Searchlight.

A SEPARATION, Tom Cullen: International Cinephile Society Awards

Andre Soares — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:48:15 PST

Chris New, Tom Cullen in Andrew Haigh's Weekend Anna Paquin, Terrence Malick: Cinephile Society Winners BEST PICTURE 01. A Separation 02. The Tree of Life 03. Mysteries of Lisbon 04. Certified Copy 05. Weekend 06. Margaret 07. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives 08. Drive 09. Meek's Cutoff 10. Hugo 11. Melancholia BEST DIRECTOR Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life Runner-up: Asghar Farhadi – A Separation BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 01. A Separation 02. Mysteries of Lisbon 03. Certified Copy 04. Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives 05. The Skin I Live In 06. Poetry 07. House of Pleasures 08. Le Havre 09. Le Quattro Volte 10. Of Gods and Men BEST ACTOR Tom Cullen – Weekend Runner-up: Peyman Moaadi – A Separation BEST ACTRESS Anna Paquin – Margaret Runner-up: Juliette Binoche – Certified Copy BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Brad Pitt – The Tree of Life Runner-up: Shahab Hosseini – A Separation BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS J. Smith-Cameron – Margaret Runner-up: Jessica Chastain – Take Shelter BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY A Separation – Asghar Farhadi Runner-up: Weekend – Andrew Haigh BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY (tie) Mysteries of Lisbon – Carlos Saboga, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan Runner-up: The Skin I Live In – Agustín Almodóvar, Pedro Almodóvar BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY The Tree of Life – Emmanuel Lubezki Runner-up: Mysteries of Lisbon – André Szankowski BEST EDITING The Tree of Life – Hank Corwin, Jay Rabinowitz, Daniel Rezende, Billy Weber, Mark Yoshikawa Runner-up: Drive – Matthew Newman BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN The Mill and the Cross – Marcel Slawinski, Katarzyna Sobanska-Strzalkowska Runner-up: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Maria Djurkovic BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Drive – Cliff Martinez Runners-up: Mysteries of Lisbon – Jorge Arriagada and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias BEST ENSEMBLE A Separation Runner-up: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy BEST ANIMATED FILM Rango by Gore Verbinski Runner-up: Winnie the Pooh BEST DOCUMENTARY The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu directed by Andrei Ujica Runner-up: Nostalgia for the Light BEST BEST PICTURE NOT RELEASED IN 2011 • Alps • Century of Birthing • Declaration of War • The Deep Blue Sea • Elena • Faust • The Kid with a Bike • Once Upon a Time in Anatolia • This Is Not a Film • The Turin Horse Chris New, Tom Cullen/Weekend photo: Glendale Picture Company / Sundance Selects.

Sergio Mendes Upset: Real in Rio/Oscar Show

Anna Robinson — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 11:20:09 PST

Carlos Saldanha's Rio Composer Sergio Mendes is still hoping Oscarcast producers Don Mischer and Brian Grazer will have a last-minute change of heart and include the year's two Best Original Song nominees in their show. "[It's] such a lively song," Mendes told AP about "Real in Rio" from Carlos Saldanha's animated feature Rio. "You've seen the movie, you've heard the song, it's a perfect thing to do live but … it's really up to the television producers. I was just hoping until, you know, till today, I'm still hoping. But I don't think it's gonna happen. Listen, you can't have everything. … I'll be there anyway." Mendes, 71, shared his "Real in Rio" nomination with Carlinhos Brown and Siedah Garrett. In Rio's English-language version, "Real in Rio" is performed by several voice-cast members, including Anne Hathaway and Jesse Eisenberg, in addition to The Rio Singers. The song's only competitor is Bret McKenzie's "Man or Muppet" from James Bobin's The Muppets. Producers of the Oscar ceremony haven't always included live performances of the nominated songs in the show. Two years ago, for instance, the songs were shown in brief clips. At other times, there were Best Original Song medleys. Sergio Mendes is a first-time Academy Award nominee. (As per the IMDb, his only previous movie credit as composer was "Watch What Happens," from Dillon Petrillo's 2008 drama Hearsay.) But back at the 1968 Oscar ceremony, Mendes and Brazil '66 did perform Burt Bacharach and Hal David's Oscar-nominated "The Look of Love" from the James Bond spoof Casino Royale. (Dusty Springfield sings "The Look of Love" in the movie.)

Kevin Kline, Mike Myers: Oscar Video

Andre Soares — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:41:53 PST

Mike Myers, Kevin Kline In the Funny or Die-produced video (please scroll down for a snippet) for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Kevin Kline takes lessons from Mike Myers on how to hold and handle Oscar statuette. At the 1989 Academy Awards ceremony, Sean Connery handed Kline the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance (as one of the leads, really) in Charles Crichton's comedy A Fish Called Wanda. Kline plays himself in the video: an Oscar winner who needs a "refresher course" on how to take proper care of his statuette. Myers plays the (nearly) bald Sir Cecil Worthington, whose British accent comes and goes depending on the word or his intonation. Despite appearances to the contrary, in the above picture Myers is not about to eat the Oscar statuette. In eight decades or so, this Kline-Myers video will be as enjoyable as, say, Jackie Cooper's Christmas Party or The Stolen Jools. For now, it's not what I'd call funny — though some will be surprised at an Academy-sponsored video featuring the following line: "[Hold the Oscar statuette] below the knees! Oscar does like a banana split. But not with crushed nuts."

Demián Bichir, Brad Pitt

D. Zhea — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 19:01:17 PST

Demián Bichir, Brad Pitt Best Actor nominees Demián Bichir and Brad Pitt at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Bichir is in the running for Chris Weitz's A Better Life; Pitt was nominated for Bennett Miller's Moneyball. (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Demián Bichir is a first-time nominee. Previously, Brad Pitt was a Best Actor nominee for David Fincher's fantasy The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), opposite Cate Blanchett, and a Best Supporting Actor nominee for Terry Gilliam's sci-fier/psychological drama Twelve Monkeys (1995), with Bruce Willis. Bichir and Pitt's Oscar 2012 competitors are: Golden Globe (Drama) winner George Clooney for Alexander Payne's family comedy-drama The Descendants; Golden Globe (Comedy/Musical), BAFTA, and SAG Award winner, and César nominee Jean Dujardin for Michel Hazanavicius' black-and-white (mostly) silent comedy-drama The Artist (Dujardin has recently been auditioning for various villainous roles in Hollywood movies); and Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's spy drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Martin Scorsese, Lucy Walker, Jim Taylor

D. Zhea — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 18:49:57 PST

Lucy Walker, Jim Taylor, Martin Scorsese Lucy Walker, Jim Taylor, and Martin Scorsese at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Walker is a nominee for the documentary short The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom. Taylor is one of the producers of Best Picture nominee The Descendants, starring George Clooney and Shailene Woodley. (The other two producers are Jim Burke and Alexander Payne.) Scorsese is a Best Director nominee for Hugo, starring Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, Jude Law, and Sacha Baron Cohen. (Photo: Greg Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.) The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom competitors for Best Documentary Short are God Is the Bigger Elvis, Saving Face, Incident in New Baghdad, and The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement. The Descendants' Best Picture competitors are the following: Scorsese's Hugo, Bennett Miller's Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Robin Wright; Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, with Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo; Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, with Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn; Steven Spielberg's War Horse, with Jeremy Irvine, Tom Hiddleston, and Emily Watson; Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, with Sandra Bullock, Tom Hanks, and Max von Sydow; Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, with Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and Marion Cotillard; and Tate Taylor's The Help, with Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Octavia Spencer. Martin Scorsese's competition for the Best Director Oscar consists of Alexander Payne for The Descendants, Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life, Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, and Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Bill Pohlad

D. Zhea — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 17:50:26 PST

Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad, Meryl Streep Brad Pitt, Bill Pohlad, and Meryl Streep at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Pitt is a Best Actor nominee for Bennett Miller's Moneyball. Pohlad is one of the nominated producers of Terrence Malick's Best Picture nominee The Tree of Life, in which coincidentally Pitt has a key role. (Pohlad's fellow The Tree of Life nominees are Sarah Green, Grant Hill, and Dede Gardner.) Streep is a Best Actress nominee for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady. (Photo: Greg Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.) Brad Pitt, who has said he'll be abstaining from voting in the Best Actor category, is competing with Golden Globe (Drama) winner George Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants; Golden Globe (Comedy/Musical), BAFTA, and SAG Award winner, and César nominee Jean Dujardin for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist (Dujardin has recently been auditioning for various villainous roles in Hollywood movies); Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life; and Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The Tree of Life Best Picture competitors are the following: Moneyball, The Artist, The Descendants, Steven Spielberg's War Horse, Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, Martin Scorsese's Hugo, and Tate Taylor's The Help. Meryl Streep's competitors are Viola Davis for The Help, Michelle Williams (as Marilyn Monroe) for My Week with Marilyn, Rooney Mara for David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Glenn Close for Rodrigo García's Albert Nobbs. Streep has been nominated for a record 17 Academy Awards. Her previous nominations include those for Karel Reisz's The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), with Jeremy Irons; Mike Nichols' Silkwood (1983), with Kurt Russell and Cher; Hector Babenco's Ironweed (1987), with Jack Nicholson; Nichols' Postcards from the Edge (1990), in which she plays a fictionalized version of Star Wars' Carrie Fisher, with Shirley MacLaine as a fictionalized version of Singin' in the Rain's Debbie Reynolds; and, as a fictionalized version of Vogue's Anna Wintour, Daniel Frankel's The Devil Wears Prada, opposite Anne Hathaway as a fictionalized version of Wintour's former assistant Lauren Weisberger. All fiction aside, Streep has won two Oscars: as Best Supporting Actress for Robert Benton's Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), opposite Dustin Hoffman, and as Best Actress for Alan J. Pakula's Sophie's Choice (1982), opposite Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt (Back)

D. Zhea — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:34:48 PST

Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt (back) A smiling Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt applaud someone at the 2012 Screen Actors Guild Awards. (On the far right, Jonah Hill doesn't look all that excited.) The SAG Awards ceremony was held at the Shrine Auditorium on January 29 in Los Angeles. Pitt was a Best Actor contender for Bennett Miller's baseball drama Moneyball, featuring Jonah Hill and Robin Wright. (Photo by Christopher Polk/WireImage.) Brad Pitt's SAG Award competition consisted of Jean Dujardin for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist, George Clooney for Alexander Payne's The Descendants, Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life, and Leonardo DiCaprio for Clint Eastwood's J. Edgar. The winner was Dujardin, who also took home the Best Actor BAFTA and the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy/Musical. Angelina Jolie wasn't in the running for anything at the SAG Awards, though her Bosnian War drama In the Land of Blood and Honey received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Language Film and the Producers Guild of America's Stanley Kramer Award. Jolie's upcoming projects include Robert Stromberg's Maleficent (for a possible 2013 release), in addition to the following possibilities: Cleopatra), Salt 2, Gertrude Bell, and Churchill and Roosevelt.

Kenneth Branagh, Janet McTeer

D. Zhea — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 00:15:59 PST

Kenneth Branagh, Janet McTeer Kenneth Branagh and Janet McTeer have a conversation at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon held in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Branagh is a Best Supporting Actor contender for Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn, in which he plays Laurence Olivier directing/co-starring with Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams) in The Prince and the Showgirl. McTeer is a contender for playing a butch lesbian in Rodrigo García's Albert Nobbs, opposite woman-disguised-as-a-man Glenn Close. (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Kenneth Branagh was previously nominated for Oscars for Henry V (1989) as Best Actor and Best Director, for the live-action short film Swan Song (1992), and for the adapted screenplay of Hamlet (1995), which he also directed/starred in, alongside Julie Christie and Kate Winslet. Laurence Olivier, I should add, was a Best Actor nominee for Henry V (1946) and Hamlet (1948), both of which Olivier also directed. Hamlet was the year's Best Picture winner, while Olivier took home the Best Actor Oscar. Branagh 2012 competitors are SAG Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe winner Christopher Plummer for Mike Mills' Beginners, Ingmar Bergman veteran Max von Sydow for Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonah Hill for Bennett Miller's Moneyball, and Hollywood veteran Nick Nolte for Gavin O'Connor's Warrior. Janet McTeer's 2012 Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nomination is her second Oscar nod. Her previous one, as Best Actress, was for another Gavin O'Connor movie, the mother-daughter comedy-drama Tumbleweeds (1999), featuring Kimberly J. Brown. McTeer's Best Supporting Actress competitors are Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer for Tate Taylor's The Help; Bérénice Bejo for Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist; and Melissa McCarthy for Paul Feig's Bridesmaids. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Martin Scorsese, Max von Sydow

D. Zhea — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:41:48 PST

Martin Scorsese Max von Sydow Martin Scorsese and Max von Sydow at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Scorsese is in the running for Best Director for the period fantasy Hugo, starring Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz, Ben Kingsley, and Sacha Baron Cohen. Von Sydow is a Best Supporting Actor nominee for Stephen Daldry's Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which also features Sandra Bullock and Tom Hanks. (Photo: Greg Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.) Scorsese's competition for the Best Director Academy Award consists of Alexander Payne for The Descendants, starring George Clooney and Shailene Woodley; Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life, starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn; Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris, starring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, and Marion Cotillard; and Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist, starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. Von Sydow's 2012 Best Supporting Actor competitors are Nick Nolte for Gavin O'Connor's Warrior; Kenneth Branagh (as Laurence Olivier) for Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn; SAG Award, BAFTA, and Golden Globe winner Christopher Plummer for Mike Mills' Beginners; and Jonah Hill — whose nomination (in lieu of Drive's Albert Brooks) seriously upset Adolf Hitler — for Moneyball. Max von Sydow has an extensive list of highly prestigious credits: more than 100 movies spread over more than six decades. Among von Sydow's most important efforts are the many films he made with Ingmar Bergman, such as The Seventh Seal, The Magician, The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly, Shame, and The Passion of Anna, opposite Liv Ullmann, Harriet Andersson, and others. Also: George Roy Hill's Hawaii, with Julie Andrews; George Stevens' The Greatest Story Ever Told, with von Sydow as Jesus Christ and Dorothy McGuire as the Virgin Mary; Jan Troell's The Emigrants and The New Land, both opposite Ullmann; and William Friedkin's The Exorcist, with Linda Blair and Ellen Burstyn. More recent credits include Steven Spielberg's Minority Report, starring Tom Cruise, and Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Michelle Williams, Former Academy President Walter Mirisch

D. Zhea — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 23:06:48 PST

Walter Mirisch, Michelle Williams Former Academy president Walter Mirisch, Best Actress Oscar nominee Michelle Williams, and possibly Harvey Weinstein's beard at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Oscar Nominees Luncheon, which took place in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Williams is in the running for her portrayal of Marilyn Monroe during the making of Laurence Olivier's The Prince and the Showgirl in Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn, co-starring Kenneth Branagh and Eddie Redmayne. (Photo: Greg Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.) Williams' Best Actress competitors are six-time nominee Glenn Close in Rodrigo García's Albert Nobbs, seventeen-time nominee Meryl Streep in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady, two-time nominee Viola Davis in Tate Taylor's The Help, and first-timer Rooney Mara in David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Michelle Williams has been nominated for two previous Academy Awards. Her first was for playing gay sheepherder Heath Ledger's wife in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (1995). The second, in the Best Actress category, was last year, for Derek Cianfrance's drama Blue Valentine, opposite Ryan Gosling. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

George Clooney, Brad Pitt: Best Actor Nominees

D. Zhea — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 22:42:46 PST

George Clooney, Brad Pitt (Rooney Mara, Jonah Hill in background) George Clooney and Brad Pitt chat at the Oscar Nominees Luncheon held in Beverly Hills on Monday, February 6, 2012. Both Clooney and Pitt are Best Actor nominees for, respectively, Alexander Payne's The Descendants and Bennett Miller's Moneyball. (In the background are Best Actress nominees Rooney Mara [for David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo] and Best Supporting Actor nominee Jonah Hill [for Moneyball].) (Photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.) Pitt has said that he'll be abstaining from voting in the Best Actor category. His and Clooney's competitors are quite international: The Artist's Golden Globe (Comedy/Musical), BAFTA, and SAG Award winner, and César nominee Jean Dujardin (a Frenchman who has been auditioning for various villainous roles in Hollywood movies); Mexican Demián Bichir for Chris Weitz's A Better Life; and the British Gary Oldman for Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. The 2012 Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the United States, the Oscarcast will be broadcast live by the ABC Television Network.

Jean Dujardin, Bérénice Bejo: César Nominations

Steve Montgomery — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:57:03 PST

Bérénice Bejo, Malcolm McDowell, The Artist THE ARTIST, POLISSE, INTOUCHABLES: César Nominations Pt.1 Best Actor Sami Bouajila, Omar m'a tuer / Omar Killed Me François Cluzet, Intouchables / Untouchable Jean Dujardin, The Artist Olivier Gourmet, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Denis Podalydes, La conquête / The Conquest Omar Sy, Intouchables / Untouchable Philippe Torreton, Présumé coupable / Guilty Best Actress Ariane Asquaride, Les neiges du Kilimanjaro / The Snows of Kilimanjaro Bérénice Bejo, The Artist Leila Bekhti, La Source des femmes / The Source Valérie Donzelli, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War Marina Foïs, Polisse Marie Gilain, Toutes nos envies / All Our Desires Karin Viard, Polisse Best Supporting Actor Michel Blanc, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Nicolas Duvauchelle, Polisse Joey Starr, Polisse Bernard Lecoq, La conquête / The Conquest Frédéric Pierrot, Polisse Best Supporting Actress Zabou Breitman, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Anne Le Ny, Intouchables / Untouchable Noémie Lvovsky, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Carmen Maura, Les femmes du 6e étage Karole Rocher, Polisse Most Promising Actor Nicolas Bridet, Tu seras mon fils / You Will Be My Son Grégory Gadebois, Angèle et Tony / Angèle and Tony Guillaume Bouix, Jimmy Rivière Pierre Minet, J'aime regarder les filles / I Love Watching Girls Dimitri Storoge, Les Lyonnais Most Promising Actress Neyda Yadri, Polisse Adele Haenel, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Céline Salette, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Clotilde Hesme, Angèle et Tony / Angèle and Tony Christa Theret, La brindille / Twiggy Best Original Screenplay Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Valérie Donzelli, Jérémie Elkaïm, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache, Intouchables / Untouchable Maïwenn, Emmanuelle Bercot, Polisse Pierre Schoeller, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Best Adapted Screenplay David Foenkinos, La Délicatesse / Delicacy Vincent Garenq, Présumé coupable / Guilty Olivier Gorce, Roschdy Zem, Rachid Bouchareb, Olivier Lorelle, Omar m'a tuer / Omar Killed Me Mathieu Kassovitz, Pierre Geller, Benoît Jaubert, L'ordre et la morale / Rebellion Yamina Reza, Roman Polanski, Carnage Best Documentary Le Bal des menteurs / The Liars' Ball directed by Daniel Leconte Crazy Horse directed by Frederick Wiseman Ici on noie les algériens / Here We Drown Algerians directed by Yasmina Adi Tous au Larzac / Leader-Sheep directed by Michael Radford Michel Petrucciani directed by Christian Rouaud Best Short Film L'accordeur / The Piano Tuner directed by Olivier Treiner La France qui se lève tôt / Early Rising France directed by Hugo Chesnard J'aurais pu être une pute / I Could've Been a Whore directed by Baya Kasmi Je pourrais être votre grand-mère / I Could Be Your Grandmother directed by Bernard Tanguy Un monde sans femmes / A World Without Women directed by Guillaume Brac Best Animated Feature Le Tableau / The Painting directed by Jean-François Laguionie Le Cirque / The Circus directed by Nicolas Brault Le Chat du rabbin / The Rabbi's Cat directed by Joann Sfar, Antoine Delesvaux Monstre à Paris / A Monster in Paris directed by Bibo Bergeron La Queue de la souris / A Mouse's Tale directed by Benjamin Renner Honorary César Kate Winslet

INTOUCHABLES, THE ARTIST, POLISSE: César Nominations

Steve Montgomery — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 20:56:44 PST

François Cluzet, Intouchables / Untouchable The 2012 César winners will be announced on February 24. The ceremony will be presided by Guillaume Canet; Antoine de Caunes will act as master of ceremonies. Best Film La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War produced by Edouard Weil, directed by Valérie Donzelli Le Havre produced by Fabienne Vonier, directed by Aki Kaurismäki The Artist produced by Thomas Langmann, directed by Michel Hazanavicius Intouchables / Untouchable produced by Denis Freyd, directed by Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache L'exercice de l'État / The Minister produced by Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun, directed by Pierre Schoeller Pater produced by Michel Seydoux, directed by Alain Cavalier Polisse produced by Alain Attal, directed by Maïwenn Best Foreign Film Drive (United States) directed by Nicolas Winding Refn Black Swan (United States) directed by Darren Aronofsky Incendies (Canada) directed by Denis Villeneuve Melancholia (Denmark / Sweden / France / Germany) directed by Lars von Trier A Separation (Iran) directed by Asghar Farhadi The King's Speech (United Kingdom) directed by Tom Hooper Le gamin au vélo / The Kid with a Bike (Belgium) directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne Best Debut My Little Princess directed by Eva Ionesco Le cochon de Gaza / When Pigs Have Wings directed by Sylvain Estibal 17 filles / 17 Girls directed by Delphine Coulin, Muriel Coulin Angèle et Tony / Angèle and Tony directed by Alix Delaporte La Délicatesse / Delicacy directed by David Foenkinos, Stéphane Foenkinos Best Director Alain Cavalier, Pater Valérie Donzelli, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Aki Kaurismäki, Le Havre Maïwenn, Polisse Pierre Scholler, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache, Intouchables / Untouchable Best Cinematography Pierre Aïm, Polisse Josée Deshaies, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Julien Hirsch, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Guillaume Schiffman, The Artist Mathieu Vadepied, Intouchables / Untouchable Best Editing Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist Laurence Briaud, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Pauline Gaillard, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War Laure Gardette, Yann Dedet, Polisse Dorian Rigal Ansous, Intouchables / Untouchable Best Original Score Alex Beaupain, Les bien-aimés Bertand Bonello, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Matthieu Chedid aka -M-, Patrice Renson, Monstre à Paris / A Monster in Paris Ludovic Bource, The Artist Philippe Schoeller, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Best Production Design Laurence Bennett, The Artist Alain Guffroy, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Pierre-François Limbosch, Les femmes du 6ème / The Women on the 6th Floor Jean-Marc Tran Tan Ba, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Wouter Zoon, Le Havre Best Costume Design Catherine Baba, My Little Princess Mark Bridges, The Artist Christian Gasc, Les femmes du 6ème / The Women on the 6th Floor Viorica Petrovici, La Source des femmes / The Source Anaïs Romand, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Best Sound Pascal Armant, Jean Goudier, Jean-Paul Hurier, Intouchables / Untouchable Jean-Pierre Duret, Nicolas Moreau, Jean-Pierre Laforce, L'Apollonide, souvenirs de la maison close / House of Tolerance Olivier Hespel, Julie Brenta, Jean-Pierre Laforce, L'exercice de l'État / The Minister Nicolas Provost, Rym Debbarh-Mounir, Emmanuel Croset, Polisse André Rigaut, Sébastien Savine, Laurent Gabiot, La guerre est déclarée / Declaration of War [Continues on next page. See link below.] François Cluzet photo: T. Valletoux / Gaumont

THE PHANTOM MENACE Plummets, THE ARTIST Oscar Boost: Box Office

Zac Gille — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:58:57 PST

Natalie Portman in George Lucas' Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace Reese Witherspoon/Chris Pine/Tom Hardy's THIS MEANS WAR No.1 Russia, Australia: Box Office At no. 6 this four-day Presidents Day weekend, George Lucas/Ewan McGregor/Liam Neeson/Natalie Portman's Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace 3D drew $10.15 million, according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. The Phantom Menace was down a hefty 55% compared to the previous weekend, which, I should add, was a regular three-day weekend. The film's total to date in North America stands at $36.02 million. Overseas, where in the vast majority of countries the Star Wars saga never quite became the cultural phenomenon it is in the United States, The Phantom Menace 3D rerelease has brought in a respectable $37.1 million. At no. 7, the sleeper hit Chronicle added $9.2 million for a domestic total of $52.67 million. Directed by Josh Trank, and featuring Dane DeHaan, Alex Russell, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Kelly, and Ashley Hinshaw, Chronicle was budgeted at a reported $12 million, though that doesn't give you the whole picture. Surely 20th Century Fox spent a hefty amount marketing their cheap but potentially lucrative offering. Money well spent, obviously. At no 8, the Disney-released Studio Ghibli production The Secret World of Arrietty earned a weak — though better than expected — $8.1m at 1,522 theaters over the four-day weekend. Directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi from a screenplay by filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki and Keiko Niwa, Arrietty features the voices of Amy Poehler, Carol Burnett, and Will Arnett, among others. In Japan, The Secret World of Arrietty grossed $110.01m in 2010. The animated feature has also done decent business in South Korea ($6.85m) and France ($7.01m). Rounding out the top ten in North America were the following: Daniel Radcliffe's The Woman in Black with $7.92m and $46.53m cume. Liam Neeson's The Grey with $3.76m and $48.66m cume. Worldwide $54.86m. Alexander Payne/George Clooney's The Descendants with $3.5m and $75.58m cume. Worldwide: $143.98m. Michel Hazanavicius/Jean Dujardin/Bérénice Bejo's The Artist with $3m and $28.09m cume. Worldwide: $61.97m, including $14.61m in France (the film's country of production, though it was shot in Los Angeles) and $9.24m in the United Kingdom, where The Artist received the British Academy of Film's Best Picture Award last week. Clearly, both The Descendants and The Artist have received an Oscar boost. An additional box-office boost will likely follow when the 2012 Oscar winners are announced next Sunday. Note: International/worldwide figures for The Grey, The Descendants, and The Artist may be off by a week or so.

Chris Pine/Reese Witherspoon/THIS MEANS WAR Tops Russia

Zac Gille — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:56:27 PST

Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, This Means War Josh Hutcherson/Vanessa Hudgens/Dwayne Johnson/JOURNEY 2 Surprises, Nicolas Cage/GHOST RIDER Crashes: Box Office Starring Water for Elephants/Legally Blonde's Reese Witherspoon, Star Trek's Chris Pine, and Inception/The Dark Knight Rises' Tom Hardy, McG's This Means War scored an unexciting — though better than initially estimated — $20.4m at 3,189 North American sites this four-day Presidents Day weekend, according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. This Means War trailed Ryan Reynolds/Denzel Washington's Safe House and Rachel McAdams/Channing Tatum's The Vow, Josh Hutcherson/Dwayne Johnson's Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, and Nicolas Cage's Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. To date, including Tuesday preview screenings, the Witherspoon-Pine-Hardy movie has pulled in $22.01 million domestically. Internationally, including top markets Russia and Australia, the $65m-$70m-budgeted romantic comedy/action flick mix earned $11 million. That's also better than expected, though hardly blockbuster material. The story of two spies fighting for the affections of the same woman, This Means War was widely panned by film reviewers. It has a (quite rotten) 24% approval rating among Rotten Tomatoes' top critics. As I mentioned in a previous post, Reese Witherspoon hasn't had a personal hit in four years: Seth Gordon's Four Christmas, co-starring Vince Vaughn, was her last one (domestically only; overseas it flopped). Things don't look as bad for the Oscar winner (Walk the Line, 2005) when you consider that the animated Monsters vs. Aliens, which featured her voice, earned nearly $200m in the US/Canada, while her pairing with Robert Pattinson in Water for Elephants scored $117m worldwide. Witherspoon's one big recent flop was James L. Brooks' $120m comedy How Do You Know, co-starring Paul Rudd and Owen Wilson, which bombed both domestically and internationally: its worldwide total was a meager $48.66m. It remains to be seen whether the international market will come to the rescue of This Means War, or if the movie will end up as another box-office disappointment — though definitely on a smaller scale than the disastrous How Do You Know. So far, things for This Means War don't look all that promising abroad — but then again, they don't look all that disheartening, either. Number one openings in Australia and Russia (as per The Hollywood Reporter), even if somewhat low key, are nothing to sneer at. I should add that an important reason Witherspoon's Water for Elephants did decent business overseas was the presence of Robert Pattinson, who has a huge following as a result of the Twilight Saga movies co-starring Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. One obstacle This Means War will have to surmount is that neither Chris Pine nor Tom Hardy has Pattinson's following abroad. Reese Witherspoon, Chris Pine, This Means War photo: Kimberley French / 20th Century Fox.

Dwayne Johnson/JOURNEY 2 Surprises, GHOST RIDER Crashes: Box Office

Zac Gille — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 18:54:05 PST

Josh Hutcherson, Luis Guzmán, Vanessa Hudgens, Dwayne Johnson, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island THE VOW to Become Rachel McAdams' Biggest Box-Office Hit At no. 3 this four-day Presidents Day weekend, trailing only Ryan Reynolds/Denzel Washington's Safe House and Rachel McAdams/Channing Tatum's The Vow was Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, which drew $26.4 million according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. In fact, The Mysterious Island is so close to The Vow that the no. 2 and no. 3 spots are a virtual tie. Box-office actuals will come out tomorrow. Directed by Brad Peyton, the $80m-budgeted The Mysterious Island stars The Kids Are All Right's Josh Hutcherson and Fast Five/Tooth Fairy's Dwayne Johnson. After ten days, the adventure movie has collected $59.51 million in North America and an excellent $128 million overseas. Two-time Oscar winner Michael Caine (Hannah and Her Sisters, Cider House Rules) and Vanessa Hudgens are also featured. The latest Nicolas Cage vehicle, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, all but crashed and burned at no. 4. Despite costlier 3D ticket prices, Spirit of Vengeance brought in a dispiriting $25.7 million at 3,174 locations. The Ghost Rider sequel will have trouble matching its $57m budget at the domestic box office — let alone recovering it. That's not good news for Cage, who has starred in a series of flops of late. The last Nicolas Cage movie to gross over $100 million in the US/Canada was National Treasure: Book of Secrets, a blockbuster that took in $219.96 million in late '07/early '08. Apart from Book of Secrets, the only Cage movies to have brought in more than $50 million in North America were Alex Proyas' 2009 paranormal thriller Knowing with $79.95 million and Jon Turteltaub's Disney-released 2010 fantasy The Sorcerer's Apprentice, co-starring Jay Baruchel, with $63.15 million. I should also mention that the original Ghost Rider pulled in $115.8m in North America in early 2007. Spirit of Vengeance will be quite lucky if it reaches half that amount. And that isn't good news for Sony Pictures, which banked with partner Hyde Park Entertainment the sequel's reported $75-$80m production budget — not including marketing/distribution expenses. Directed by Crank/Crank: High Voltage's Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance also features Violante Placido, Idris Elba, Ciarán Hinds, and Johnny Whitworth. Josh Hutcherson, Vanessa Hudges, Luis Guzmán, Dwayne Johnson/Journey 2: The Mysterious Island photo: Ron Phillips / Warner Bros.

THE VOW Rachel McAdams Biggest Box-Office Hit

Zac Gille — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 17:01:08 PST

Rachel McAdams, Channing Tatum, The Vow Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds/SAFE HOUSE Surprise No.1: Box Office Starring Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum, Michael Sucsy's romantic drama The Vow continues to perform quite well at the domestic box office, collecting $26.6 million (slightly less than early estimates indicated) in the US/Canada this extended Presidents Day weekend, as per studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. Though generally dismissed by critics — The Vow has a lowly 26% approval rating among Rotten Tomatoes' top critics — the Tatum-McAdams movie has already collected $88.52 million domestically. Following box-office estimates for Friday, The Vow was expected to top Presidents Day weekend. But after surging on the weekend proper, the Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds action-thriller Safe House turned out to be the weekend's no. 1 movie if studio estimates are correct. Domestically, The Vow may become Rachel McAdams' biggest personal box-office hit (not including Robert Downey Jr's Sherlock Holmes movies). It's clearly ahead of The Time Traveler's Wife (2009) and Red Eye (2005), and without adjusting for inflation, The Vow has already surpassed the total take of both Mean Girls (2004) and The Notebook (2004). In number of ticket of sales, however, the two earlier releases are still ahead. (That's the reason why comparative box-office figures have any value only after they're adjusted for inflation.) Overseas, audiences don't seem all that enthusiastic about love and amnesia stories, as The Vow has pulled in a relatively modest $22.8 million abroad after nearly two weeks, including major territories such as Australia, Germany, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. In fact, The Vow may end up following the pattern of McAdams' previous romantic box-office hit, The Notebook. Nick Cassavetes' melodrama about love and memory loss co-starring Ryan Gosling, James Garner, and Gena Rowlands, generated $81m in grosses in North America — but a mere $34.6m elsewhere. American Horror Story's two-time Oscar winner Jessica Lange (Tootsie, Blue Sky) and The Piano's Sam Neill are also featured in The Vow. Even taking marketing/distribution expenses into account, this early 2012 domestic sleeper hit — budgeted at a relatively modest $30m — is in all likelihood either already in the black or very close to that. In that regard, The Vow has been a much better investment for Sony than the much costlier Safe House for Universal. The Vow photo: Kerry Hayes / Screen Gems

Denzel Washington/SAFE HOUSE Surprise #1: Box Office

Zac Gille — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 16:22:26 PST

Denzel Washington, Ryan Reynolds, Safe House At no. 1, the Denzel Washington-Ryan Reynolds action movie Safe House took in $28.4 million over the four-day Presidents Day weekend, according to studio estimates found at Box Office Mojo. Safe House has grossed nearly $82.6 million after 11 days. That's not bad at all, except for the fact that the Universal release cost a reported $85 million, not including marketing/distribution expenses. In other words, Safe House will turn a profit — at the box office (prior to ancillary sales) — only if it performs just as well overseas. Remember, studios keep about 50-55% of a film's domestic gross and about 40% of international grosses. So far, however, not so good. After ten days, Safe House has pulled in only $19.6m abroad, including top territories such as Russia, Spain, Sweden, and Australia. The film opens in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom later this week. Though considered a major box-office draw in the United States, within the last decade only one Denzel Washington movie has earned more than $100m in North America (including Canada). That was Ridley Scott's American Gangster, co-starring Russell Crowe, which took in $130.16m in late 2007. If inflation is taken into account, Washington has only one more over-$100m hit since 2002: Spike Lee's heist thriller Inside Man (with about $107m), which came out in 2006. Directed by Daniel Espinosa, Safe House also features Vera Farmiga, Brendan Gleeson, Sam Shepard, and Rubén Blades. Denzel Washington/Ryan Reynolds/Safe House picture: Universal Pictures.

Jesus Battling Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger?

Zac Gille — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 14:46:10 PST

"Jesus Christ Himself Will Face Off Against Rambo And The Terminator In The Tomb," blasts a Cinema Blend headline about the upcoming pairing of 1980s all-brawn, no-brain movie heroes Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. If only. Imagine Jesus battling an aged Rambo/Rocky and the former governor of California. What kinds of weapons would be used? Love and compassion? A-bombs and hand grenades? And who would come out on top? Think of the ideological possibilities. Well, unfortunately, it turns out that Mikael Håfström's The Tomb in all likelihood won't be any more intellectually challenging or stimulating than, say, Cobra or Conan the Destroyer. In the actioner (info via JoBlo.com), Stallone and Schwarzenegger will play two inmates bent on escaping from a high-security prison (built by the wrongfully imprisoned Stallone himself) overseen by none other than The Passion of the Christ's Jim Caviezel (photo), whose movie career has stalled despite Terrence Malick's Best Picture Oscar nominee The Thin Red Line and Mel Gibson's aforementioned religious blockbuster. (Caviezel has blamed his career woes on a Passion backlash.) Prior to The Tomb, fans of hot movie action and big-gun-toting older men will surely squeal with delight watching Stallone, Schwarzenegger, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Dolph Lundgren, Jason Statham, Bruce Willis, Jet Li, and Chuck Norris — in addition to The Last Song/The Hunger Games/AWOL's Liam Hemsworth lest things get a little too senior — doing their thing in Simon West's The Expendables 2. [Note: The article initially had Thor and Snow White and the Huntsman as two Liam Hemsworth movies, when those are actually vehicles for his brother, Chris Hemsworth.] Jim Caviezel photo via WENN.

Steven Spielberg Movies Win Sound Editing Awards

Steve Montgomery — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:44:29 PST

Jeremy Irvine in Steven Spielberg's War Horse Following a series of disappointments this awards season, Steven Spielberg has finally had his two 2011 releases come out on top — at the Motion Picture Sound Editors Golden Reel Awards earlier this evening. War Horse won the Golden Reel for sound editing: sound effects and foley in a feature film, while The Adventures of Tintin won for sound editing: sound effects, foley, dialogue and ADR in an animation film. Martin Scorsese also had two of his films winning sound editing awards. George Harrison: Living in the Material World took the Golden Reel for sound editing: sound effects, foley, dialogue, ADR and music in a feature documentary, while Hugo won for sound editing: music in a feature film. The other motion picture winners were Zhang Yimou's The Flowers of War for sound editing: sound effects, foley, dialogue, and ADR in a feature foreign language film; James Bobin's The Muppets for sound editing: music in a musical feature; and J.J. Abrams' Super 8 for sound editing: dialogue and ADR in a feature film. Additionally, producer Gale Anne Hurd (The Terminator, The Abyss, Armageddon, The Incredible Hulk, The Walking Dead), received the 2012 MPSE Filmmaker Award, and sound designer and editor George Watters II (Mommie Dearest, Flashdance, Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides) was given the Career Achievement Award. Jeremy Irvine/War Horse picture: David Appleby / DreamWorks.

Alexander Payne/THE DESCENDANTS Wins Scripter Award

Steve Montgomery — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 00:18:37 PST

Beau Bridges, George Clooney in Alexander Payne's The Descendants The Descendants' writer-director Alexander Payne, co-screenwriters Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, and novelist Kaui Hart Hemmings were the winners of the 2012 USC Scripter Award, which honors the year's best adapted screenplay based on a novel (and the novel's author) according to a panel of judges. Earlier this evening, The Descendants also won the Writers Guild Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The Descendants' competitors were Moneyball, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A Dangerous Method, and Jane Eyre. Neither A Dangerous Method nor Jane Eyre were shortlisted for the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award. In their place, the Academy's Screenwriters Branch chose Hugo and The Ides of March. The USC Scripter Award ceremony was held this past Saturday at the Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library on the USC Campus in downtown Los Angeles. Also at the ceremony, Paul Haggis, among whose credits as a screenwriter are two Best Picture Oscar winners — Crash (which he also directed) and Clint Eastwood's Million Dollar Baby — was given USC Scripter Literary Achievement Award. Beau Bridges/George Clooney/The Descendants photo: Merie Wallace / Fox Searchlight

Martin Scorsese/HUGO Wins Best Sound Mixing Award

Steve Montgomery — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:54:56 PST

Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz in Martin Scorsese's Hugo Martin Scorsese's period fantasy Hugo was the winner at the Cinema Audio Society Awards, which took place Saturday night at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The CAS Award for Outstanding Achievement in Sound Mixing for a Motion Picture went to Hugo's production mixer John Midgley, re-recording mixer Tom Fleischman, and scoring mixer Simon Rhodes. Also at the ceremony, four-time CAS Award winner Scott Millan (Captain America: The First Avenger, Red Dawn, Skyfall) was given the CAS Career Achievement Award, presented by sound department veteran Walter Murch and composer Thomas Newman. Additionally, Chicago/Nine/Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides' Rob Marshall was handed the CAS Filmmaker Award, presented by, among others, Nine/On Stranger Tides' Penélope Cruz. Asa Butterfield, Chloë Grace Moretz/Hugo photo: Jaap Buitendijk / GK Films

MELANCHOLIA/Kirsten Dunst: Bodil Nominations

Steve Montgomery — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:20:08 PST

Kirsten Dunst in Lars von Trier's apocalyptic drama Melancholia The Danish Film Critics Association's Bodil Pris winners will be announced on March 3. Danske film / Best Danish Film En familie / A Family, Pernille Fischer Christensen SuperClásico, Ole Christian Madsen Frit fald / Rebounce, Heidi Maria Faisst Melancholia, Lars von Trier Dirch / A Funny Man, Martin P. Zandvliet Amerikanske film / Best American Film Drive, Nicolas Winding Refn Winter's Bone, Debra Granik Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky True Grit, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick Ikke-amerikanske film / Best Non-American Foreign Film Another Year, Mike Leigh Nader og Simin – en separation / A Separation, Asghar Farhadi Om guder og mænd / Of Gods and Men, Xavier Beauvois Oslo, 31. august, Joachim Trier Kongens store tale / The King's Speech, Tom Hooper Dokumentarfilm / Best Documentary Testamentet, Christian Sønderby Ambassadøren, Mads Brügger Svend, Anne Regitze Wivel ½ Revolution, Karim El Hakim and Omar Shargawi Præsidenten, Christoffer Guldbrandsen Mandlig hovedrolle / Best Actor Nikolaj Lie Kaas (Dirch / A Funny Man) Jesper Christensen (En familie / A Family) Anders W. Bertelsen (SuperClásico) Kvindelig hovedrolle / Best Actress Lena Maria Christensen (En familie / A Family) Frederikke Dahl Hansen (Frit fald / Rebounce) Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia) Emma Sehested Høeg (Magi i luften / Love Is in the Air) Mandlig birolle / Best Supporting Actor Pilou Asbæk (En familie / A Family) Kiefer Sutherland (Melancholia) Lars Ranthe (Dirch / A Funny Man) David Dencik (Værelse 304) John Hurt (Melancholia) Kvindelig birolle / Best Supporting Actress Anne Louise Hassing (En familie / A Family) Paprika Steen (SuperClásico) Anne Sofie Espersen (Frit fald / Rebounce) Charlotte Gainsbourg (Melancholia) Charlotte Rampling (Melancholia) Melancholia picture: Christian Geisnaes / Magnolia Pictures.

Woody Allen, Alexander Payne: WGA Award Winners

Andre Soares — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 20:10:53 PST

Rachel McAdams, Owen Wilson, Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris Woody Allen has been nominated for an astonishing 20 Writers Guild Awards, winning four times, each for Best Original Screenplay: Annie Hall (with Marshall Brickman, 1977), Broadway Danny Rose (1984), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), and Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989). The first movie starred Allen's muse of the '70s, Diane Keaton; the other three featured Allen's muse of the '80s and early '90s, Mia Farrow. Though museless since his three efforts starring Scarlett Johansson, earlier this evening Allen won his fifth WGA Award for Best Original Screenplay: for Midnight in Paris, a comedy-drama fantasy featuring Owen Wilson, Rachel McAdams, Marion Cotillard, Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, and Michael Sheen, among others. Midnight in Paris is perhaps Allen's best-received film since Bullets Over Broadway (1994), and sold more tickets than any other Woody Allen movie since Hannah and Her Sisters 25 years ago. [List of WGA motion picture winners/nominations.] The Best Adapted Screenplay winners were The Descendants' Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, and Jim Rash. Payne has won two previous WGA Awards, both shared with co-writer Jim Taylor: Election, which starred Matthew Broderick and Reese Witherspoon back in 1999, and Sideways, featuring Paul Giamatti and Thomas Haden Church in 2004. Additionally, Payne and Taylor were also nominated for the Jack Nicholson showcase About Schmidt (2002). Starring George Clooney, The Descendants, which also won the ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature Drama last night, is clearly the favorite for the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award. Midnight in Paris, however, will be competing with writer-director Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist — which, much like fellow Oscar nominees A Separation and Margin Call, had been ineligible for the WGA Award. Considering that The Artist is the favorite for both the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars, it could be considered the favorite for Best Original Screenplay as well. Well, except for the fact that the Academy's highly sentimental members may opt to give Woody Allen — also in the running for Best Director — his first Academy Award since Hannah and Her Sisters a quarter of a century ago, when Allen won for his screenplay. In other words, barring a miracle, the Best Original Screenplay Oscar will go to either Hazanavicius or Allen. Allen, by the way, has been nominated for 15 Best Original Screenplay Academy Awards. Besides the aforementioned Hannah and Her Sisters, he also won for Annie Hall (1977). Allen's sole Best Director win was for Annie Hall, which was named Best Picture as well. Back to WGA Awards: Other winners included Katie Galloway and Kelly Duane de la Vega for the documentary feature Better This World, about a couple of childhood friends imprisoned as "domestic terrorists" in the United States; David Seltzer's Cinema Verite, featuring the first American family on reality TV, in the Television – Longform Original category; and Peter Gould's Too Big to Fail, about the financial meltdown of 2008, in the Television – Longform Adapted category. Other TV winners were Modern Family, Breaking Bad, The Simpsons, and Homeland. The Paul Selvin Award, "presented to that member whose script best embodies the spirit of the constitutional and civil rights and liberties," went to The Help's adapter/director Tate Taylor. Rachel McAdams, Owen Wilson, Woody Allen/Midnight in Paris photo: Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics

MIDNIGHT IN PARIS, THE DESCENDANTS: WGA Winners

Andre Soares — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:05:13 PST

Marion Cotillard, Alison Pill, Owen Wilson, Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris Woody Allen, Alexander Payne, Tate Taylor: WGA Award Winners ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY 50/50, Written by Will Reiser; Summit Entertainment Bridesmaids, Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig; Universal Studios * Midnight in Paris, Written by Woody Allen; Sony Pictures Classics Win Win, Screenplay by Tom McCarthy; Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni; Fox Searchlight Young Adult, Written by Diablo Cody; Paramount Pictures ADAPTED SCREENPLAY * The Descendants, Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash; Based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemming; Fox Searchlight The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian; Based on the novel by Stieg Larsson, originally published by Norstedts; Columbia Pictures The Help, Screenplay by Tate Taylor; Based on the novel by Kathryn Stockett; DreamWorks Pictures Hugo, Screenplay by John Logan; Based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick; Paramount Pictures Moneyball, Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin; Based on the book by Michael Lewis; Columbia Pictures DOCUMENTARY SCREENPLAY * Better This World, Written by Katie Galloway & Kelly Duane de la Vega; Loteria Films If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Written by Marshall Curry and Matthew Hamachek; Oscilloscope Pictures Nostalgia for the Light, Written by Patricio Guzmán; Icarus Films Pina, Screenplay by Wim Wenders; Sundance Selects Position Among the Stars, Script by Hetty Naaijkens-Retel Helmrich, Leonard Retel Helmrich; HBO Films Senna, Written by Manish Pandey; Producers Distribution Agency Midnight in Paris picture: Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics

Pedro Almodóvar Empty-Handed (Again): Goya Winners

Andre Soares — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:56:59 PST

José Coronado, No Rest for the Wicked Pedro Almodóvar didn't have much luck at the Spanish Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Goya Awards this evening in Madrid: Almodóvar's The Skin I Live In won a total of four Goyas, but none for its director/writer. Starring Antonio Banderas as a plastic surgeon, Elena Anaya as his captive woman, and Jan Cornet as the good-looking young man whom the doctor blames for the death of his daughter, the sex-bending mystery melodrama won Goyas for Best Actress (Anaya), Best New Actor (Cornet), Best Original Music (Alberto Iglesias, his tenth Goya win), and Best Makeup/Hair. [Full list of Premios Goya winners/nominations.] Instead of the internationally renowned (and BAFTA winner) The Skin I Live In, the 2012 Goyas' big winner was Enrique Urbizu's No habrá paz para los malvados / No Rest for the Wicked, the story of a murderous, corrupt cop. No Rest for the Wicked won Goyas for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (José Coronado), Best Original Screenplay (Urbizu and Michel Gaztambide — instead of Woody Allen for Midnight in Paris), Best Film Editing (Pablo Blanco), and Best Sound (Licio Marcos de Oliveira and Ignacio Royo-Villanova). Other major Goya winners were Ignacio Ferreras' Wrinkles, winner for Best Animated Feature and Best Adapted Screenplay (Ferreras, Ángel de la Cruz, Paco Roca, Rosanna Cecchini) for its story set in a health-care facility for the elderly; the Spanish Civil War drama The Sleeping Voice's Ana Wagener and María León as, respectively, Best Supporting Actress and Best New Actress; and Lluís Homar as Best Supporting Actor for the futuristic psychological drama Eva, which also won Goyas for Best Special Effects and for Best New Director Kike Maíllo. The Best Feature Documentary was Isabel Coixet's filmed interview with judge Baltasar Garzón, Listening to Judge Garzón. Garzón became the target of right-wingers in Spain and elsewhere after issuing an international warrant for the arrest of Chile's former military dictator Augusto Pinochet and for considering pressing charges against former members of the George W. Bush government for condoning and abetting torture at Guantanamo. Additionally, he also declared as "crimes against humanity" the acts of brutality committed during Francisco Franco's military regime. Earlier this month, Garzón was convicted by the Spanish Supreme Court for illegally wire-tapping the conversation of suspects with their lawyers. Filmmaker Josefina Molina, 75, who has made a handful of shorts and feature films in the last four decades, was the Honorary Goya recipient. Molina, sick in bed with the flu, was unable to attend the ceremony. And finally, Michel Hazanavicius' silent comedy-drama The Artist was the Best European Film, while Sebastián Borensztein's Argentinean tale of prejudice and compassion, Un cuento chino / Chinese Take-Away, was the Best Foreign Film in the Spanish Language. As for Pedro Almodóvar, he has had a troubled relationship with the Spanish Academy. As a writer-director, he has been nominated for a total of fifteen Goyas, winning twice as Best Director — for All About My Mother (1999) and Volver (2006) — and once for Best Original Screenplay, for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (1988). Even so, he resigned from the Academy in 2005 following the resounding defeat of Bad Education. At the 2010 Goya Awards ceremony, Almodóvar attended as a surprise Best Picture presenter and was warmly received. He had been reluctant to go, but explained that Academy president Álex de la Iglesia finally convinced him to be a presenter by telling him, "You don't like this [sort of] ceremony, but in about three weeks you'll be in Hollywood presenting the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar." Almodóvar didn't know how to respond to that. "And so, here I am." Presenters at the 2012 Premios Goya ceremony included Victoria Abril, Belén Rueda, Eduardo Noriega, Carlos Saura, and Salma Hayek.

THE SKIN I LIVE IN/Elena Anaya/Jan Cornet: Goya Winners

Steve Montgomery — Sun, 19 Feb 2012 16:29:08 PST

Fernando Tejero, Salma Hayek, As Luck Would Have It NO REST FOR THE WICKED, THE ARTIST, UN CUENTO CHINO: Goya Award Winners Pt.1 Best Actor Daniel Brühl, Eva Antonio Banderas, The Skin I Live In Luis Tosar, Mientras duermes * José Coronado, No Rest for the Wicked Best Actress Verónica Echegui, Katmandu: un espejo en el cielo * Elena Anaya, The Skin I Live In Inma Cuesta, The Sleeping Voice Salma Hayek, La Chispa de la vida / As Luck Would Have It Best Supporting Actor Juan Diego, 23-F: la película * Lluís Homar, Eva Juanjo Artero, No Rest for the Wicked Raúl Arévalo, Cousins Best Supporting Actress Goya Toledo, Maktub Maribel Verdú, De tu ventana a la mía Pilar López de Ayala, Intruders * Ana Wagener, The Sleeping Voice Best New Actor José Mota, As Luck Would Have It * Jan Cornet, The Skin I Live In Adrián Lastra, Cousins Marc Clotet, The Sleeping Voice Best New Actress * María León, The Sleeping Voice Blanca Suárez, The Skin I Live In Michelle Jener, No tengas miedo Alba García, Verbo Best Animated Feature * Arrugas / Wrinkles by Ignacio Ferreras Carthago Nova Papá, soy una zombi The Little Wizard Best Documentary Feature 30 años de oscuridad El cuaderno de barro * Escuchando al juez Garzón / Listening to Judge Garzón by Isabel Coixet Morente Best Spanish Fiction Short * El barco pirata Matar a un niño El premio Meine Liebe Best Animated Short Ella Quién aguanta más * Birdboy Rosa Best Documentary Short Alma Nuevos tempos * Regreso a Viridiana Virgen negra Salma Hayek/José Mota/As Luck Would Have It photo: Double Nickel Entertainment