Online Movie Station

Winter is almost over so let's recall some of the movies I have seen during the cold season.

Infancia Clandestina (Clandestine Childhood), Benjamín Ávila, Argentina, Spain and Brazil
Known for his documentary Nietos (Identidad y Memorial) Avila debuts with his first feature film about a similar subject, the children in the troubled Argentinean days of the late 70's. As stated by Avila film story is not autobiographical even when he mixes some of his personal memories with fiction and tells story from a child point of view, which is very safe but becomes a lot less engaging for viewers as at moments becomes a melodrama about puppy love more than how to handle a double identity when you are so young. In this sense while watching story became very familiar for me and not unique as similar stories were told by films like 1988 Sidney Lumet's Running on Empty and 2000 Christian Petzold's Die innere Sicherheit (The State I Am In). The second is also Petzold's feature film debut and for a debut is a very engaging film and story, an opportunity that is lost in Avila's film perhaps because is not easy to objectively direct a film about what happened in your real life.

As we know was Argentina's submission to 2013 Oscar, an honor that perhaps was given more for the story film tells than for film's quality. Still stories like this one need to be told and people need to know them. Watch at your own risk but do not expect much from film specs and perhaps you will enjoy it more than me. Enjoy!  Trailer.


Las Malas Intenciones (The Bad Intentions), Rosario Garcia-Montero, Peru, Argentina and Germany
The debut feature film by Garcia-Montero that also has a story centered in a child and her view of everything that surrounds her in the critical and violent moments in Peru of the early 80's. This time the story is set in a wealthy family where the lonely young girl world collapses as her mother tells her she is going to have a sibling, which is the excuse to lightly explore Peru's conflicts. Not many stories have been told from this specific conflict, so there was a big opportunity for this film to excel at least for the story told, but no it did not as the little girl personal story overshadows everything else that is also told. Then you have the problem of not-so-good acting which makes film very hard to sustain watching.

Peru's submission to 2013 Oscar definitively has not the quality of films by more accomplished Peruvian directors like Claudia Llosa or Vega brothers outstanding films so suggest to watch at your own risk not expecting a great film and maybe you will enjoy it more than what I did. Sigh. Trailer.

Todos Tenemos Un Plan (Everybody Has a Plan), Ana Piterbarg, Argentina, Spain and Germany
Another debut feature film by Ana Piterbarg that unfortunately is not much amazing perhaps due to the lack of developed directorial skills as film starts very well both story wise and tech specs but around the middle film clearly lost direction after setting up some really interesting concepts that are abandoned for stretching a film too long without a clear direction to a much predictable end.

The best film has is that Viggo Mortensen performance looks great thanks to other actors really bad performances. Alright there is something else, Piterbarg style suggests that she will have a good future in filmmaking when her directorial skills improve. Enjoy.  Trailer.

Blancanieves, Pablo Berger, Spain
A very interesting take on classic Snow White tale as film is one of the most clearly Spain's values showcase that I have seen in ages, not only because is about bullfighting, has great music score (mostly Flamenco) but because is set in the 20's and has some great costumes. Also as film is black and white delights us with some very interesting use of light creating some outstanding to watch compositions. The silent film is an homage to German Expressionism which makes film very different to the "other" recent silent film and makes it a very artistic feast to the eyes. That's the good part.

On the not-great side, unfortunately some of the performances doesn't fit what you expect from a silent film nor recreates the fantastic performances in films of the German Expressionism era. For me performances are "too modern" with the occasional exceptions when the necessary silent film dramatic-exaggerated performance is present in scenes by Maribel Verdú. Still and considering modern performances is Macarena García who captured my attention and who I enjoyed most in film.

Spain's submission to 2013 Oscar was surely overshadowed by last year Best Picture Oscar winner but do not let this fool you as this is a movie that I strongly suggest you do not skip especially if you appreciate art in movies but somehow I know that due to the known tale very unconventional adaptation could please wider audiences that never imagined Snow White could be told as is told here. Enjoy!!! Trailer.

Hypnotisören (The Hypnotist), Lasse Hallström, Sweden
A great entertaining film that in my opinion represents well Nordic mainstream films as absolutely has the fantastic cold performances style, blueish/greyish look, slowish pace and a story that can easily capture your attention. But one word of advice, do NOT expect this film to be a Hollywood thriller as thankfully it is NOT.

My best reference is that if you enjoyed 2008 Tomas Alfredson's Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In), 2006 Baltasar Kormákur's Mýrin (Jar City) and/or the original 2009 Niels Arden Oplev's Män som hatar kvinnor (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) then perhaps you will also enjoy this film that was Sweden submission to 2013 Oscar. Enjoy!! Trailer.

Den skaldede frisør (Love Is All You Need), Susanne Bier, Denmark, Sweden, Italy, France and Germany
Was expecting a less mainstream movie but movie is really mainstream cinema and perhaps the most crowd-pleaser/feel-good that Bier has done. Unfortunately and mainly due to casting but also because story, film makes you think about Mamma Mia! -without the songs- which somehow didn't help me to enjoy more film. Still film has some great Nordic style performances by Trine Dyrholm's as Ida and Paprika Steen as very unpleasant Benedikte; the only cast misfortune is Pierce Brosnan even when his performance is not bad, role should have been given to another good actor that hasn't star in a similar story high profile movie.

This romcom is nice to watch but please do not expect a Hollywood romcom as there is nothing American in this film, not the performances, not the storytelling style, not the humor, not the background drama, nor anything else. Film is an enjoyable entertaining moment that could please many that enjoy European cinema. Enjoy!! Trailer.

Cloclo (My Way), Florent-Emilio Siri, France and Belgium
Was more interesting in recalling the life of Claude François than watching film as a film, so you can say that my expectations were very low which was perfect as film as a film is not that good. Assume that this biopic will please many fans of the French pop singer but wonder if those not familiar with him and his brief life could enjoy film that much. Still Jérémie Renier performance is very acceptable as if not has the true looks has most of the mannerisms of Claude François, however is Benoît Magimel transformation what impressed me the most.

For those not familiar with the French singer (he was contemporary of Gilbert Bécaud, Johnny Hallyday and Frances Gall -all are in movie) perhaps knowing that he was the co creator of one of the most famous songs in the world, My Way that Paul Anka bought the rights, created new English lyrics and Frank Sinatra made it an international success. In this sense perhaps what film also has is an interesting take in how songs are translated into other languages to make local singers very popular in that language-speaking countries, sometimes overshadowing locally the success of the "original" song/singer and this story works BOTH ways here, from English to French and from French to English.

It is a very French film with a very French story that I am not sure non-French can enjoy, so my best suggestion is to watch Youtube video clips of the real Claude François before watching movie. Enjoy! Trailer.

The Paperboy, Lee Daniels, USA
With the mostly not positive reviews was expecting a film that I could not enjoy, but surprise, surprise film is truly "trashy" but highly enjoyable with one scene that I know will NOT forget, ever. This particular scene made me jump with a mix of disgust and incredibility as even when during the entire movie I really forgot I was watching Nicole Kidman in the screen, during this scene I couldn't help but seeing her doing a very sexually graphic scene (actually you see not much as almost everything is suggested) that yes, shocked me. Please do not allow me to confuse you, this is one the best Kidman's performances I have seen and one that everyone should see.

Know that film is not for everyone as is very violent, very sexually suggestive (not much is actually shown but it is suggested and makes your imagination flow into only one direction), highly homoerotic (again not much shown but suggested) and story is in one word, bizarre. But somehow Daniels take on the Pete Dexter award winner novel reminds me of Tarantino and bet you all that if Tarantino dared to tell this story, many will praise his work. Then you can't forget that Pedro Almodovar produced film which makes the Daniels-Almodovar collaboration very unconventional and yes, bizarre. Great.

I couldn't watch Daniels previous film as was too much for me, but this one strongly recommend you watch it; however prepare yourself for a sleazy/trashy very unconventional film. Enjoy!!! Trailer.

Have seen many more films but this is it for today. Cheers!

As many do, usually post my predictions before one day or same day as Oscar show and call them "very late predictions"; but this year things got very clear days ahead, so end up doing predictions on the Wednesday before the Sunday or 5 days before show began. My certainty was not that bad as when we compare winners with predictions the score is pretty good: 22 out of 24. The results give me a 92% accuracy rating. If you wish to check my predictions go here.

Production Design and Sound Editing were the categories where predictions and winners did not coincide as Lincoln won first category and second was a tie between Zero Dark Thirty and Skyfall. The second category was the most unexpected result for me as never imagined a tie (has happened only four times) much less that the Academy could honor Zero Dark Thirty in any way. But it happened and yes, I'm SO glad that what I consider the best American movie in 2012 did not went empty handed, no matter what I think about the most "popular" awards in the world.

As predicted the big winner of the night was Life of Pi that got 4 awards (predicted 6) most in tech specs but also in one top category, Best Director. Sharing the second position, Argo with 3 awards, 2 tech and the notorious Best Picture, and Les Miserables that also got 3, 2 tech and Best Supporting Actress. But truth is that this Oscar edition spread the wealth among several movies that obtained at least one award.

It is impossible not to notice that Lincoln almost came empty handed as from being the most nominated film (12 nods) only got two awards, one for a tech spec, Production Design, and the other more visible, Best Actor. The other two timers are Django Unchained winning Best Supporting Actor and best Original Screenplay, and Skyfall which won Best Song and Sound Editing making movie the only multi-award winner that did not had a Best Picture nomination.

From the nominated to Best Picture only one went empty handed, Beasts of the Southern Wild as Amour, Silver Linings Playbook and Zero Dark Thirty won one award each.

2013 Pundittracker

Yesterday Pundittracker publish the list of the 22 pundits they track and TO MY SURPRISE, the highest score was guessing 21 out of 24 categories (88% accuracy rating), an accomplishment that was shared by Anthony Breznican from Entertainment Weekly and Scott Feinberg from Hollywood Reporter. IF they had followed me, I would have ended on top of the list as got one more category than them. To check the list go here.

This year I was quite apathetic about playing the guessing game with prizes and most "serious" world sites were also apathetic, so they didn't play this year. But yes, I have won before and the best award for me was FREE movies at great VOD sites. Maybe next year nominated movies will have more quality and those sites will play again so I can win FREE watching at their sites. Sigh.

2013 Oscar edition broke some records and here are some of them.

Daniel Day-Lewis became the first actor to win three Best Actor awards. The highest achieving actor is Katherine Hepburn who won four Best Actress Oscars. Day-Lewis joins other three timers, Jack Nicholson (2 lead, 1 supporting), Meryl Streep (2 lead, 1 supporting), Walter Brennan (3 supporting) and Ingrid Bergman (2 lead, 1 supporting).

Brenda Chapman is the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Animated Picture, she directed Brave along Mark Andrews.

Quvenzhane Wallis, aged 9-years-old, became the youngest ever Oscar nominated for Best Actress; only two Oscar nominated young male actors, aged 8 and also 9 -but a few days younger than Wallis is- are younger than her, Justin Henry in Kramer vs. Kramer (Supporting Actor) and Jackie Cooper in Skippy (Best Actor).

Contrary to what many think Emmanuelle Riva is not the oldest person/woman to receive an Oscar nomination, the honor belongs to Gloria Stuart in Titanic -she was 87 when nominated- but her nomination was for Supporting Actress which makes Riva the oldest woman nominated for Best Actress. Previous record belonged to Jessica Tandy (80) in Driving Miss Daisy, a record that she still holds as the Oldest Best Actress Award winner.

Documentary Searching for Sugar Man becomes the first Oscar winner that has some scenes filmed with a telephone, well a smart telephone with a US$1.99 app, and the first that was partly edited using a Mac. Facts that made film must be seen for me and after watching was absolutely amazed by the documentary for the extraordinary tech specs, great story, great storytelling and an impressive director that did almost everything in the process.

Documentary Short Film Inocente is the first ever Kickstarter-funded film to win an Oscar. A milestone that is making waves in social media and giving hope to many filmmakers.

With his best pic nomination George Clooney joins Warren Beatty as the only powerhouses to have nominations for best picture, directing, writing and acting. The difference is that as of Sunday night George Clooney has two Oscars, one for Argo and another for supporting role in Syriana, while Beatty has one for directing Reds.

Thomas Newman's nod for original score for Skyfall is his 11th and brings the total for members of the musical Newman family to 87 nods. Second place belongs to Moonrise Kingdom screenplay nod for Roman Coppola's family with a total of 24 nods.

With this post officially close the American award season to continue covering awards with more interesting movies from other countries around the world. Great! Ah! One last thing, did NOT open the champagne bottle as there was NOTHING to celebrate on Sunday night as Amour only won foreign language category.

Last night show did something that hasn't happened in previous years, it did NOT put me to sleep. So there was something new for an Oscar show as the ceremony lasted three hours and thirty-five minutes, making it one of the longest telecasts of the past 20 years.

Without getting into what I think of Seth McFarlane, there was something REALLY new in the show, he REALLY was a host as he never "disappeared" as has happened with many American awards shows where the host does a monologue/introduction, we see him/her a few times, disappears to sometimes show his/her face at the end. McFarlane was the host that also introduced presenters during the entire show, making the ceremony to seamless flow in a normal, common way, like many entertaining variety shows do.

Can't recall where I read it but I was aware that this year instructions for the show called for "an entertainment show that gives awards" instead of "an award ceremony that sometimes has entertaining moments". In this sense I have to admit that the purpose was accomplished as definitively the show was more about entertainment than "giving awards". Was a good purpose? I do not know yet as ratings are not available at this hour; but based only in my own experience it was a good purpose as did not put me to sleep, even when almost everything I predicted will win, won. Update: according to early estimates, rating is up 4%, making the best score since 2007; also, according to Twitter, Oscars generated 8.9 million tweets, 2.1 during red carpet and 6.8 during awards show but BIG winner was the Best Picture moment (thanks to the presenter) with 85,300 tweets per minute (TPM), followed by Adele's Skyfall performance with 82,300 TPM and Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence with 71,600 TPM.  For reference Super Bowl was the subject of 24 million tweets and the Grammys, 14 million; so third place is not really a good place to be on social media (used mostly by the younger generations).

So according to me the show structure worked, but what about substance?

Me for one highly enjoyed some of the musical moments, from gorgeous looking Charlize Theron dancing, to Jennifer Hudson singing the song that gave her an Oscar, Dame Shirley Basset singing Goldfinger (yes, still today I'm humming the song) and Barbra Streisand (looking so young) performing one of her classics, The Way We Were. Sorry but We saw your Boobs song bombed for me, the only thing I liked was the sarcasm behind it as the all male chorus was none other than the Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles (that obviously do not care about seeing any woman boobs).

Did not enjoy out-of-sync Catherine Zeta-Jones Chicago performance (Oscar show producers are also movie producers) nor the awful Les Mis cast singing (who told them that they can sing? - alright, there are two or three that can sing); there was something wrong with Nora Jones (I like her quite a lot) and believe that was the song she was singing that was simply not one that I could like and talking about sound mixing, Adele performance had terrible tech specs, orchestra should have been lowered and/or microphone sound risen.

But what was highly disappointing was James Bond's 50 years anniversary celebration, not even Bond deserved such a lame collection of movie clips that reduced the very successful franchise to a few minutes of nothing much. Of course, Dame Shirley Basset sang Goldfinger and I highly enjoy it, but is that what James Bond means? Only one song? No.

Have a soft spot for crooners, so when crooner Seth McFarlane sang non-stupid lyrics he was alright for me but find his humor highly unfunny, many times offensive and totally deprecating. Please recall that I highly enjoy Ricky Gervais that when compared to McFarlane becomes the King of offensive material as Gervais really has "class" to say the most offensive things in very well-delivered, well-timed way. McFarlane timing and deliverance was truly on the most bad side of the scale. Won't get into analyzing the jokes, many have done that, nor will comment on the use of the future to tell host what he does wrong for him to fix it as for me was most unfortunate use of viewers time. But if you check youth-oriented sites you will find readers polls that name him a "Genius", like in MTV site. Sigh.

Usually gay sites praise the Oscars show but this year to my surprise and as of this moment, not many are praising last night show; most have the news with what seems like editorial describing what happened during the show. That is unusual. Then you have dispatches from what could be the American right press that trash the show as they claim is sold for "Family Viewing" and definitively was not. Morning TV news were mostly polite saying that "is hard to please everyone" but also saying that show was "controversial".

So the second most viewed TV show in the "domestic" market (meaning USA) and the first in the world was again in general, disappointing for many viewers. But no matter what you read or hear people saying, for many show was also not a sleeping pill (I am not alone in this), so there is something new that perhaps the Academy should consider for future shows, keep the structure but change the substance. If they do that then perhaps someday we will have a show that evenly mixes structure and substance, translates into good ratings (like in the "old" days) and pleases many. Sigh.

The Red Carpet

Was very surprised to find so many live streaming of the infamous red carpet which suggests that we are arriving to a "real" starting point of live streaming, which is great as slowly but surely we are reaching the moment when device watching will become a real choice for viewers. This fact allowed me to follow whatever I was interested in watching in many sites, including TV channels, and was most fascinated by being able to follow Charlize Theron all over the place (lol!).

Backstage Pass

Most disappointed by my first experience with (ABC) Oscar app that allowed us to go backstage, not even the six cameras made something worth watching. Today's multiple videos have better backstage entertaining moments than the ones I saw, but then to be honest got so bored that turned off my iPad as was distracting me from watching the show (lol!). Now is time to do the winners post but was more interesting doing this one first.

Closing

I am truly glad the American award season is over, was not one of my favorite seasons at all for all the "changing of opinion" by critics, the mixing of politics and (fictionalized) movies, the mediocrity of many honored movies, performances, etc. and on top, another uneven show. So let's close in a positive note with some spectacular photos (love black and white photos) and one interview I saw on TV this morning and made me laugh hard, Jennifer Lawrence and Jack Nicholson moment. Lawrence is so refreshing in Hollywood mostly "plastic" world. Note: Last photo does not have good quality but is here anyway (lol!)

To keep post clean here are the winners in *BLUE.

Feature Films

Best Picture
Amour (Love), Michael Haneke
*Argo, Ben Affleck
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Les Misérables, Tom Hooper
Life of Pi, Ang Lee
Lincoln, Steven Spielberg
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell
Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow

Animated Feature Film
*Brave, Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
Frankenweenie, Tim Burton
ParaNorman, Sam Fell and Chris Butler
The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Peter Lord
Wreck-It Ralph, Rich Moore

Foreign Language
*Amour (Love), Michael Haneke, Austria
Kon-Tiki, Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, Norway
NO, Pablo Larraín, Chile
En kongelig affære (A Royal Affair), Nikolaj Arcel, Denmark
Rebelle (War Witch), Kim Nguyen, Canada

Directing
Michael Haneke for Amour
Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
*Ang Lee for Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg for Lincoln
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Actress in a Leading Role
Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty
*Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva in Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts in The Impossible

Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in The Master
Sally Field in Lincoln
*Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables
Helen Hunt in The Sessions
Jacki Weaver in Silver Linings Playbook

Actor in a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook
*Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
Hugh Jackman in Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix in The Master
Denzel Washington in Flight

Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin in Argo
Robert De Niro in Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master
Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln
*Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained

Cinematography
Seamus McGarvey for Anna Karenina
Robert Richardson for Django Unchained
*Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi
Janusz Kamiski for Lincoln
Roger Deakins for Skyfall

Original Screenplay
Michael Haneke for Amour
*Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
John Gatins for Flight
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty

Adapted Screenplay
*Chris Terrio for Argo
Lucy Alibar and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
David Magee for Life of Pi
Tony Kushner for Lincoln
David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Film Editing
*William Goldenberg for Argo
Tim Squyres for Life of Pi
Michael Kahn for Lincoln
Jay Cassidy and Crispin Sruthers for Silver Linings Playbook
Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg for Zero Dark Thirty

Production Design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer for Anna Karenina
Dan Hennah, Ra Vincent and Simon Bright for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Eve Stewart and Anna Lynch-Robinson for Les Misérables
David Gropman and Anna Pinnock for Life of Pi
*Rick Carter and Jim Erickson for Lincoln

Visual Effects
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
*Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott for Life of Pi
Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick for Marvel’s The Avengers
Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill for Prometheus
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson for Snow White and the Huntsman

Sound Editing (tie)
Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn for Argo
Wylie Stateman for Django Unchained
Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton for Life of Pi
*Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers for Skyfall
*Paul N.J. Ottosson for Zero Dark Thirty

Sound Mixing
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia for Argo
*Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes for Les Misérables
Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin for Life of Pi
Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkin for Lincoln
Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson for Skyfall

Costume Design
*Jaqueline Durran for Anna Karenina
Paco Delgado for Les Misérables
Joanna Johnston for Lincoln
Eiko Ishioka for Mirror Mirror
Colleen Atwood for Snow White and the Huntsman

Makeup and Hairstyling
Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel for Hitchcock
Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
*Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell for Les Misérables

Music – Original Score
Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina
Alexandre Desplat for Argo
*Mychael Danna for Life of Pi
John Williams for Lincoln
Thomas Newman for Skyfall

Music – Original Song
"Before My Time" from Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
"Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from Ted Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
"Pi's Lullaby" from Life of Pi Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
*"Skyfall" from Skyfall Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
"Suddenly" from Les Misérables Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Documentary
5 Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers, Dror Moreh
How to Survive a Plague, David France
The Invisible War, Kirby Dick
*Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul

Short Films

Live Action
Asad, Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
Buzkashi Boys, Sam French and Ariel Nasr
*Curfew, Shawn Christensen
Dood van een Schaduw (Death of a Shadow), Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
Henry, Yan England

Animated
Adam and Dog, Minkyu Lee
Fresh Guacamole, PES
Head over Heels, Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly
Maggie Simpson in The Longest Daycare, David Silverman
*Paperman, John Kahrs

Documentary
*Inocente, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point, Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine, Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart, Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd
Redemption, Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill

1/10/13
As predicted and expected Lincoln leads the pack with 12 nominations, two short of the record holder Titanic; Life of Pi follows closely with 11, then Silver Linings Playbook with 8 and Les Misérables and Argo with 7 each. Most nominations were expected BUT there are HUGE surprises.

The biggest surprise is the absence of critics most honored directors: Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck but as you can imagine just love that Michael Haneke got a nomination! Not easy for me to understand why Benh Zeitlin can be considered above Bigelow, Affleck and many more, but well is the only indie that got in. So, the Academy softened and nominated Spielberg, that’s news. Notable is that the five directors nominated have also their pictures nominated

Nine films got into the Best Picture category and there are no blockbusters nominated and as expected plus predicted, The Master did not got into the list. For me there are no surprises in this category.

The BEST surprise is in the Foreign Language category as France did NOT got a nomination! Of course now my interest in category is back and just hope Amour wins as honestly the other four nominees are not even close to Amour’s quality. But I’m very glad that NO and Rebelle got nominated.

Other surprises come from supporting actress category as with Jacki Weaver nod is the first time in 31 years that a film scored ALL four acting categories, putting Silver Linings Playbook in a league with Sunset Boulevard and Streetcar Named Desire.  Notable is that Silver Linings Playbook is labelled as a comedy, which probably makes movie the most honored comedy in many years -will confirm-.

The most negative surprise is Marion Cotillard not being nominated as in my opinion the young girl in Beasts of the Southern Wild is good but not as good as Cotillard in Rust and Bone; suspected that Naomi Watts could be nominated because the high buzz, but definitively can’t agree as The Impossible best performance is the older kid, Tom Holland, who absolutely steals the movie. Very glad Emmanuelle Riva got a nod as her performance quality is well-above standards. Won’t be easy to guess who could win in this category.

Another surprise is Joaquin Phoenix getting a nomination, which indeed I’m pleased with; but that meant John Hawkes out of the race and he was great in The Sessions. No surprises in supporting actor for me.

Today we got a preview of the humor the awards ceremony will have and well, definitively is NOT my kind of humor, but imagine that will please many, especially Americans and maybe will rise ratings for ABC network in the younger demo.

Later will do an in-depth analysis with more stats and info; check official press release here.

Thanks to Spain's press, yesterday I learned that Michael Haneke was not going to attend the premiere of his Mozart opera Cosi Fan Tutte on Saturday because he was going to be in Los Angeles to attend the Oscars. What they didn't mention at all is that he was also going to be in the Spirit Awards, but he was there to receive the honors for his film. Great.

As we are about to close the American award season it is not surprising that Silver Linings Playbook was the big winner with four awards but the best news is that The Sessions was honored with two awards for the main actors.

Winners are in *BLUE.

11/27/13
Today actors Anna Kendrick, Zoe Saldana and Common presented the nominees in a press conference at The W Hotel in Hollywood. In these awards only Film Independent members vote to determine the winners.

The live-to-tape Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, February 23 and will premier later that evening on IFC at 10:00 pm ET/PT. So we will have to learn winners on twitter again, just like today we had to learn nominations from organizers live tweets.

It's kind of strange that nowadays a film event does not stream live, as those that could be interested in watching live have to resign to use social media to learn nominations/awards live and we will do it to most likely skip the later TV broadcast.

Moonrise Kingdom and Silver Linings Playbook lead with five nominations each, which is understandable; however, how about Matthew McConaughey getting two nominations, one for Magic Mike (?!) and the other for Killer Joe, not really understandable. Seems that we started with the complications as I wonder if Helen Hunt has a supporting role in The Sessions, for me she is one of the two leads so she should be in the Best Actress category, but being considered here for the supporting role makes me think that she has very little possibilities for an Oscar Best Actress nod.

It is remarkable that three of the five directors nominated for the John Cassavettes award are women, but then is kind of sad that they are in the category that honors films with under US$500,000 budgets; still have to admit that there are more female filmmakers nominated in different categories with the most notable exception, Best Feature were all are male directors.

These are the nominees.

Best Feature
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Keep The Lights On
Moonrise Kingdom
*Silver Linings Playbook

Best Director
Wes Anderson for Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev for The Loneliest Planet
*David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs for Keep the Lights On
Benh Zeitling for Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Screenplay
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan for Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh for Seven Psychopaths
*David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias for Keep The Lights On

Best First Feature
Lemale et ha'halal (Fill the Void), Rama Burshtein, Israel
Gimme The Loot, Adam Leon
Safety Not Guaranteed, Colin Trevorrow
Sound of My Voice, Zal Batmanglij
*The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky

Best First Screenplay
Rama Burshtein for Lemale et ha'halal (Fill the Void), Israel
*Derek Connolly for Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford for Robot and Frank
Rashida Jones and Will McCormack for Celeste and Jesse Forever
Jonathan Lisecki for Gayby

John Cassavetes Award (given to film made for a budget under US$500,000)
Breakfast With Curtis, Laura Colella
*Middle of Nowhere, Ava DuVernay
Mosquita y Mari, Aurora Guerrero
Starlet, Sean Baker
The Color Wheel, Alex Ross Perry

Best Cinematography
Yoni Brook for Valley of Saints
Lol Crawley for Here
*Ben Richardson for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov for End of Watch
Robert Yeoman for Moonrise Kingdom

Best Female Lead
Linda Cardellini in Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi in Middle of Nowhere
*Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild
Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Smashed

Best Supporting Female
Rosemarie DeWitt in Your Sister's Sister
Ann Dowd in Compliance
*Helen Hunt in The Sessions
Brit Marling in Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint in Middle of Nowhere

Best Male Lead
Jack Black in Bernie
Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook
*John Hawkes in The Sessions
Thure Lindhart in Keep the Lights On
Matthew McConaughey in Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce in Four

Best Supporting Male
*Matthew McConaughey in Magic Mike
David Oyelowo in Middle of Nowhere
Michael Pena in End of Watch
Sam Rockwell in 7 Psychopaths
Bruce Willis in Moonrise Kingdom

Best International Film
*Amour, Michael Haneke, France, Austria and Germany
Bir zamanlar Anadolu'da (Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Tukey and Bosnia Herzegovina
De Rouille et d’Os (Rust & Bone), Jacques Audiard, Belgium and France
L'enfant d'en haut (Sister), Ursula Meier, Switzerland and France
Rebelle (War Witch), Kim Nguyen, Canada

Best Documentary
How to Survive a Plage, David France
Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present, Matthew Akers
The Central Park Five, Ken Burns and Sarah Burns
*The Invisible War, Kirby Dick
The Waiting Room, Peter Nicks

Robert Altman Award: Starlet, Sean Baker

16th Piaget Producers Award
Alicia Van Couverign for Nobody Walks
*Mynette Louie for Stones in the Sun
Derrick Tseng for Prince Avalance

19th Someone to Watch Award
David Fenster for Pincus
*Adam Leon for Gimme The Loot
Rebecca Thomas for Electrick Children

18th Stella Artois Truer Than Fiction Award
Lucien Castain-Taylor and Véréna Paravel for Leviathan
*Peter Nicks for The Waiting Room
Jasonyyee Tipet and Elizabeth Mimms for Only The Young

Find Your Audience Award
Sara Lamm and Mary Wigmore for Birth Story
*Laura Colella for Breakfast With Curtis
J. Anderson Mitchell for History of Future Folk

A total of 49 films have nominations and all but 6 films have no distributor yet, with Fox Searchlight topping the ranking with 9 nominated films; but, as always, is The Weinstein Company the one that captures my attention as only has ONE film nominated but is not other than Silver Linings Playbook that collected five nods. If you wish to read the official press release go here and to check stats about the nominees use the link to a pdf file. But if you wish to read about each film go here.

Among all the nominees we have one film that has lesbian-interest, Mosquita y Mari, one with clear gay-interest, Keep the Lights On and another with some gay-interest, Gayby. I was not aware that non-American films can be nominated as is surprising to find an Israel produced film among the nominees.

Nevertheless the most interesting category for me is the International Film as has to be really hard to choose between films by Haneke, Audiard, Ceylan and Meier, all directors that I closely follow as highly enjoy watching their films.

These nominations not necessarily reflect possible Oscar nominations as not many independent films make it to the Oscar, nevertheless believe there is at least one performance that could be considered for Oscar, John Hawkes in The Sessions. Still there is another possibility, Silver Linings Playbook getting some recognition mainly because WHO is behind the film, but also know that Oscar usually does not honor comedies.

To see the video with the nominations announcement go here.

Photos


Michael Haneke interview

As of yesterday at 5pm Pacific Time Oscar voting officially closed. As far as I recall current award season has been perhaps the most unpredictable in recent years at least for some of the top categories; but also has been controversial and if you follow top American critics it was impossible not to notice their passionate arguments against the possibility that Argo could win best picture.

Since the beginning I thought it was time for Ben Affleck to be recognized as a director and with only Oscar winners pending, we can say that Hollywood now accepts Affleck as a director as well as an actor. What I did NOT imagine is that his movie will be the top contender for Best Picture as there are other nominated films that are more rigorous works of accomplished directors. Sigh.

But for me the most unbelievable fact from the season is how Zero Dark Thirty disappeared in the conversations of many, especially those critics that chose film as the best of 2012, after the nominations were announced and how as days passed by Jessica Chastain also disappeared as a frontrunner. Wish could write what I conversed with some friends regarding the massive media coverage of the "controversial" scenes but will not as what you write in the net stays forever and surely will be taken out of context. So, suffice to say that still believe is the Best American movie from 2012 that tells an outstanding story of a tenacious woman.

Last year season was somehow predictable which made it less interesting, besides did not cared much about the odd nominees; but this year the unpredictability, the debates, the arguments pro/against and all the fuzz/buzz plus the quality of the nominated films (with some exceptions) really made me very tired. Tired of movies, films, cinema. So tired that stopped watching good movies but know that after next Sunday the feast of excellent movies that are waiting for me to see them will make me go back to feel my deep love for great cinema.

In less than a year the cycle will start again and perhaps then I could do what I have been thinking so much this year, stop covering/following the American award season! But time is always perfect to make you forget and know that if I'm still doing this blog thing, then surely will go on with the annual tradition of becoming disappointed by Oscar nominations and winners.

After venting let's go to the point, these are my predictions.

Best Picture
Will win: Argo
Could spoil win: Lincoln
Should win: Amour (but if does will be the FIRST time a non USA production or coproduction wins). Thinking only about American productions, then has to be Zero Dark Thirty.

Animated Feature Film
Will Win: Brave
Could spoil win: Wreck-It Ralph
Should win: To be honest, have not seen any of the nominated films.

Foreign Language Film
Will Win: Amour
Should Win: Amour
IF Amour does not win will be Extremely Controversial; but please recall that Weinstein is pushing Kon-Tiki that has a "happy" ending.

Directing
Very hard to predict BUT here goes my best guess.
Will Win: Ang Lee for Life of Pi
Could spoil win: Steven Spielberg for Lincoln AND David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook.
Should win: Michael Haneke for Amour. To not bore you again with my words lets quote someone reliable: "a creation of ultimate rigor and precision by a mature filmmaker who knows exactly what he means to say and how to say it".

Actress in a Leading Role
As Jessica Chastain "disappeared" from conversations, the possibility of splitting votes also did.
Will win: Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Could (still) spoil win: Emmanuelle Riva in Amour
Should win: Emmanuelle Riva in Amour
To be honest if Lawrence, Chastain or Riva win I will be very happy! (lol)

Actress in a Supporting Role
Will win: Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables
Should win: Anne Hathaway in Les Miserables
Good that is one of the first awards in show as is so predictable; but IF she does NOT win will be VERY controversial.

Actor in a Leading Role
Will Win: Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
Should Win: Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
IF he doesn't win will be VERY controversial; this year they should announce this category early as is so predictable that is not worth waiting for the regular spot, in the last 30 minutes of show.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Will win: Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained
Could spoil win: Any of the other nominees, except perhaps Arkin.
Should win: Philip Seymour Hoffman but Hollywood do not like The Master. Truth is that if De Niro, Hoffman, Jones or Waltz win is alright with me.

Original Screenplay
Will win: the writer of a very controversial movie
Could spoil win: the writer of a very controversial movie
Should win: the writer of a classical masterpiece
Okay, I'm not kidding, first is Quentin Tarantino, second is Mark Boal and third is Michael Haneke.

Adapted Screenplay
Another not easy to guess, especially when you have read the material that inspired the script.
Will win: Terrio for Argo
Could spoil win: Russell for Silver Linings Playbook
Should win: Kutcher for Lincoln BUT somehow I don't really care who wins, for me the best is Magee adaptation of a great "unadaptable" novel, Life of Pi

Documentary
Will win: Searching for Sugar Man
Could spoil win: The Gatekeepers
Should Win: Even when ALL five nominees are great documentaries with extraordinary stories very well told and executed, my choice is still Searching for Sugar Man

Film Editing
Will win: Goldenberg for Argo
Could spoil win: Goldenberg and Tichenor for Zero Dark Thirty
Should win: Goldenber and Tichenor for Zero Dark Thirty
One sure bet is that William Goldenberg will win!

Song
Highly predictable.
Will Win: Skyfall from Skyfall
HUGE surprise if it does not.

Categories that Life of Pi will win
Visual Effects
Production Design
Hard for me to admit, but yes, Cinematography
Original Score
Sound Editing (could spoil win Skyfall)

Les Miserables will win
Sound Mixing
Makeup & Hairstyling (could spoil win The Hobbit)

Anna Karerina will win Costume Design (could spoil win Mirror Mirror)

Short Films
Live Action: Curfew
Animated: Paperman (but I highly enjoyed Fresh Guacamole)
Documentary: Will win: Inocente. Could spoil win: Mondays at Racine

So that's it. Next Sunday the Oscar game will be over and can't deny that I'm very glad. The only thing that could change my current feeling is the HUGE surprise when Amour wins EVERYTHING!!!

Cheers!!!

Last night the winners were announced and as expected by many Anna Karenina won an award but also Mirror Mirror, so perhaps Oscar race is not as lock as many think.

Winners are in *BLUE.  To learn winners in all categories go here.

--//--
On January 17 CDG announced the nominations for the current edition that will held the awards ceremony on Tuesday, February 19 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

These are the nominees for Film.

Excellence in Contemporary Film
Stephani Lewis for Beasts of the Southern Wild
Louise Stjernsward for The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Mark Bridges for Silver Linings Playbook
*Jany Termime for Skyfall
George L. Little for Zero Dark Thirty

Excellence in Period Film
*Jaquline Durran for Anna Karenina
Jaqueline West for Argo
Paco Delgado for Les Misérables
Joanna Johnston for Lincoln
Kasia WaLicka-Maimone for Moonrise Kingdom

Excellence in Fantasy Film
Kym Barrett and Pierre-Yves Gayraud for Cloud Atlas
Ann Makrey, Richard Taylor and Bob Buck for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Judianna Makovsky for The Hunger Games
*Eiko Ishioka for Mirror Mirror
Colleen Atwood for Snow White and the Huntsman

To learn nominees in Television and other categories go here.

For your consideration some figures that talk about current race to win Oscars.

Box Office

Most figures you will find in the news, especially today, belong to Domestic Market, meaning only US Box Office results; but as you can see all over the blog I am more interested in Worldwide figures so decide to share with you some findings. All figures source is Box Office Mojo.

As stated in many of today news, as of this past weekend using only Domestic figures there are five (5) movies, out of the 9 nominated for Best Picture that crossed the US$100 million and two (2) more that are very close plus estimates predict will pass the mark before/after the Oscar show. This give us an estimate of seven (7) that could cross the mark, an event that has no precedent and Oscar current edition could end up having the biggest box office ever for a best picture race. But in a very clear way also speaks about the type of films that are nominated as usually big money implies big crowds and mainstream movies.

Let's incorporate Foreign figures to Domestic to see what happens. All are estimates as of Feb 17, 2013, all are expressed in US Dollars and rounded to millions of dollars.The chart at the bottom of post shows the data divided in two groups.

First group of movies ranks movies by Domestic Box Office but you can clearly see that rank changes dramatically when you add foreign box office to make Life of Pi the leader by far, followed by Les Miserables and Django Unchained. But most interesting is to find that seven (7) out of the 9 nominated for Best Picture already passed the US$100 million mark worldwide. These nine films have made up to this moment a whooping US$2.0 Billions worldwide and we have to consider that there is a week-end box office before Oscar show plus those that win awards will likely get an after-Oscar push/bump.

Second group of movies show other movies with nominations but NOT nominated for Best Picture. Please note that some figures are not updated to Feb 17.

We all know that America is a huge money market for the industry but I will not be surprised if some of you didn't imagine that "the rest of the world" (at least the countries that are measured in BOMojo) contribute with those amounts of money. Anyway the second set of nominated movies contributes with another more whooping US$6.8 Billion, to make this year (up-to-this-moment) Oscar nominated movies to have a humongous box office of US$8.8 Billion. The last amount even surprised me and somehow makes me realize the reason why not many talk worldwide and stay talking domestic.

So business is HUGE, but data allows us to see that on a worldwide basis out of the 29 films in list, 20 have already crossed the US$100 million mark, meaning that these films can be considered good money makers and undoubtedly making these movies mainstream. No wonder I'm so tired after watching so many mainstream movies (lol) just to be able to follow current American Awards Season. Of course there are some exceptions and one notorious exception is Amour but also movies like The Master and The Sessions among others.

We can conclude that box office results tell us that in current edition MOST (20 of 29) nominated movies are US$100 million mark breakers and belong to mainstream cinema.

Made in U.S.A.

Out of the 29 movies only 4 are non-American productions, 5 are USA co produced and 20 are 100% American productions. We all know that Oscar is an American award, even if many insist to see it as a World Cinema award that tells us the best in the world. Oscar honors American movies, American Cinema and once in a while magnanimously includes non-American productions with some even winning top awards; like last year when Best Picture winner went to a France, Belgium and USA co production, The Artist. But we have to recall that movie story was honoring American Silent Cinema and not Silent Cinema or any other country cinema like, for example, Blancanieves that honors German Silent Cinema.

In current Oscar edition the four non-American films are Amour and Les Miserables in Best Picture (and others) plus in other categories The Impossible and Anna Karenina. From those four we are sure that Amour will get foreign language, Anna Karenina could get costumes, Les Miserables could get something and maybe the one that will go empty handed is The Impossible. So no chances to repeat last year milestone event, when a French majority production won top award. Most awards will go to USA productions and co productions.

So films are made in U.S.A. and U.S.A. movies will get most awards. Of course the huge surprise could be IF Amour wins top award or other categories and there are chances that could happen, especially in Best Actress category.

Closing

Started trying to do an Oscar Race profile but there are not many elements to consider as if we include gender we already know the norm that speaks about more male than female nominees, just take a look at the Oscar class of 2013 group photos to see what I'm talking about. The same applies to studio versus independent movies, as we already know that most films are not indies. So decided to share some of the info that has been in my head for weeks and surfaced today when news started to talk about the many Best Picture nominated movies (5, possibly 7) that have crossed the US$100 million mark, domestic of course.  Actual figure says that 20 movies have already crossed the milestone mark, worldwide of course.

Sigh.

In Millions of US Dollars
Movie	Domestic	Foreign	Worldwide	%Domestic	%Foreign
Lincoln	176.2	58.8	235.0	75	25
Django Unchained	157.0	208.6	365.6	43	57
Les Miserables	145.5	233.3	378.8	38	62
Argo	126.9	77.1	204.0	62	38
Life of Pi	110.8	465.1	575.9	19	81
Silver Linings Playbook	98.4	40.4	138.8	71	29
Zero Dark Thirty	88.0	13.0	101.0	87	13
Beasts of the Southern Wild	12.1	0.0	12.1	100	0
Amour	3.9	13.1	17.0	23	77
Nominated for Best Picture Total	918.8	1,109.4	2,028.2	45	55
The Avengers	623.4	888.4	1,511.8	41	59
Skyfall	303.4	797.3	1,100.7	28	72
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey	299.8	659.6	959.4	31	69
Brave	237.3	298.1	535.4	44	56
Ted	218.8	316.6	535.4	41	59
Wreck-It Ralph	185.5	225.6	411.1	45	55
Snow White and the Huntsman	155.3	241.3	396.6	39	61
Prometheus	126.4	276.9	403.3	31	69
Mirror Mirror	64.9	101.2	166.1	39	61
ParaNorman	56.0	51.1	107.1	52	48
Flight	93.8	45.4	139.2	67	33
Moonrise Kingdom	45.5	21.5	67.0	68	32
Frankenweenie	25.2	31.8	57.0	44	56
The Pirates! Bands of Misfits	31.0	90.6	121.6	25	75
The Impossible	17.5	143.0	160.5	11	89
The Master	16.3	9.4	25.7	63	37
Anna Karenina	12.7	40.9	53.6	24	76
The Sessions	5.9	3.1	9.0	66	34
Hitchcock	5.9	8.1	14.0	42	58
Chasing Ice	1.2	0.0	1.2	100	0
With 1 or more Nominations Total	2,525.8	4,249.9	6,775.7	37	63
Grand TOTAL	3,444.6	5,359.3	8,803.9	39	61