2014 Oscar Talk

[Ben]

Uh, Rand's still in WordPress title editing mode!

The < and > don't work on the forum...it's a [ and ] here (which is why I don't use them as it's too fiddly to keep remembering the difference!

[ShyViolet]

He already won for Spirited Away. WDAS needs recognition, finally!
Btw Ben, did you see Frozen yet? If so what did you think about it?

[Randall]

Uh, Rand's still in WordPress title editing mode!

[EricJ]

Yes, Frozen's only real competiion, from what I can see, would come from Miyazaki. (I'll cry if Pixar wins for MU.) I've had no chance to see The Wind Rises, but I'd still love to see <i>Frozen</i> win.

That would bring things full circle--Last year we had the Pixar movie taking the award because everyone had too many negative stereotypic ideas to go see the Disney movie before voting, and this year we'll probably have the Disney movie taking the award because everyone had too many negative stereotypic ideas to go see the Pixar movie before voting.

[Dacey]

[ShyViolet]

Hmmmm....

http://www.indiewire.com/article/2014-o ... ed-feature

[James]

Here's the Oscar nomination list!

http://animatedviews.com/2014/oscar-nom ... announced/

BEST PICTURE
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST LEADING ACTOR
Christian Bale, American Hustle
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street

BEST LEADING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Judi Dench, Philomena
Meryl Streep, August: Osage County
Sandra Bullock, Gravity

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi, “Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Croods
Despicable Me 2
Ernest & Celestine
Frozen
The Wind Rises

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Act of Killing
Cutie and the Boxer
Dirty Wars
The Square
20 Feet from Stardom

BEST FOREIGN FILM
The Broken Circle Breakdown – Belgium
The Great Beauty – Italy
The Hunt – Denmark
The Missing Picture – Cambodia
Omar – Palestine

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
American Hustle – written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine – written by Woody Allen
Dallas Buyers Club – written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
Her – written by Spike Jonze
Nebraska – written by Bob Nelson

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Before Midnight – written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Captain Phillips – screenplay by Billy Ray
Philomena – screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
12 Years a Slave – screenplay by John Ridley
The Wolf of Wall Street – screenplay by Terence Winter

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Book Thief – John Williams
Gravity – Steven Price
Her – William Butler and Owen Pallett
Philomena – Alexandre Desplat
Saving Mr. Banks – Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Alone Yet Not Alone – from Alone Yet Not Alone, music by Bruce Broughton; lyric by Dennis Spiegel
Happy – from Despicable Me 2, music and lyric by Pharrell Williams
Let It Go – from Frozen, music and lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
The Moon Song – from Her, music by Karen O; lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze
Ordinary Love – from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; lyric by Paul Hewson

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Grandmaster – Philippe Le Sourd
Gravity – Emmanuel Lubezki
Inside Llewyn Davis – Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska – Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners – Roger A. Deakins

BEST FILM EDITING
American Hustle – Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
Captain Phillips – Christopher Rouse
Dallas Buyers Club – John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
12 Years a Slave – Joe Walker

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
American Hustle – Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
Gravity – Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
The Great Gatsby – Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn
Her – Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
12 Years a Slave – Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Dallas Buyers Club – Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Stephen Prouty
The Lone Ranger – Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
American Hustle – Michael Wilkinson
The Grandmaster – William Chang Suk Ping
The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin
The Invisible Woman – Michael O’Connor
12 Years a Slave – Patricia Norris

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Gravity – Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3 – Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
The Lone Ranger – Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
Star Trek Into Darkness – Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

BEST SOUND MIXING
Captain Phillips – Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
Gravity – Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Inside Llewyn Davis – Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Lone Survivor – Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

BEST SOUND EDITING
All Is Lost – Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
Captain Phillips – Oliver Tarney
Gravity – Glenn Freemantle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Brent Burge
Lone Survivor – Wylie Stateman

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Feral
Get a Horse!
Mr. Hublot
Possessions
Room on the Broom

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
CaveDigger
Facing Fear
Karama Has No Walls
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)
Helium
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)
The Voorman Problem

[ibrmacf]

The biggest disappointing snubs to me were "Monsters University" for Best Animated Feature and Emma Thompson for Best Actress for "Saving Mr. Banks".

[kchishol1970]

The biggest disappointing snubs to me were "Monsters University" for Best Animated Feature.

That was the one of the better displays of artistic appreciation the Academy displayed this year; let Pixar be nominated when it actually deserves it, and whether they do has been a more debatable topic since they betrayed their artistic integrity in 2011.

[James]

Frozen has gotten a lot of press for flouting traditional animation story conventions. But I actually thought Monsters University was an even more impressive example of "subversive" story telling.

Spoilers ahead:

Sully learns that sometimes all the talent in the world isn't enough to succeed.

Mike learns that even if you try your hardest -- even harder than anyone else -- sometimes you will still fail.

Sully doesn't believe in Mike at all. No "we can do this if we do it together", no "just do your best and it will all work out OK". Sully straight up doesn't believe in Mike. And in the end Mike doesn't prove Sully wrong. Sully was right.

Mike's dream does not come true. He has to do something else with his life and be OK with that.

Both of them do the one thing the Dean says they can never do: surprise her. Despite impressing the Dean by doing something incredible they don't get a Hollywood ending with special treatment and reinstatement. They only earn her respect.

Despite being the best and the brightest (literally!) they still have to start at the very bottom of the totem pole. After a long time and a lot of hard work they climb -- not to the top -- but just up to the next step where they have to continue grinding. No fairy godmothers, no magic, no friends in high places, no deus ex machinas. Only hard work and time eventually can get them where they want to be, just not on their timetable.

Think about how unorthodox those messages are in animated movies. (It actually reminded me of The Incredibles and the "everyone's special means no one is" lesson.) And MU makes it work without being depressing at all! In fact it's one of the funniest movies of the year.

And I haven't touched on the rest of the film! It's a vey polished and tight story. Story-wise I think it was actually better than Frozen.

I didn't get all this on my first viewing so I'd urge people who saw it once but had a chip on their shoulders about Pixar and sequels to see it again with a more open mind!

[ShyViolet]

I was very surprised about MU as well. Even though it doesn't deserve the Oscar (IMHO) I still think it should have gotten the nod. Like James said it was very "tight" and had a somewhat unconventional message. Plus, the animation was great.

[EricJ]

Since animators are voting on the nominees, Best Animated tends to be swayed by unique visual style, and while MU had some original visual style, we'd been there before--Compared to the landscapes and crazy critters in The Croods, which were certainly....unique.
After that, it's down to what had more "heart" in the storytelling, and I'd still have rather seen MU edge out Despicable 2, even if we knew the remaining two would be the token arthouse nominees. (And Wind Rises a lock on one of those two.)

And yes, I did think MU was the better/smarter/more sentimental movie than Frozen, since Frozen was so intent on being a Broadway Musical, it felt like it was breaking Chuck Jones's "Why animate it?" rule. Which Tangled never did.

[ibrmacf]

The biggest disappointing snubs to me were "Monsters University" for Best Animated Feature.

That was the one of the better displays of artistic appreciation the Academy displayed this year; let Pixar be nominated when it actually deserves it, and whether they do has been a more debatable topic since they betrayed their artistic integrity in 2011.

I personally feel "Monsters University" was more deserving than "Despicable Me 2" or "The Croods".

[Bill1978]

If I was determining the finalists I would probably swap Despicable Me 2 with either Epic or Monsters University. Otherwise I'm pretty happy with what was chosen.

I absolutely loved Frozen, even though if I was the director there would be a couple of things I would tweak to improve it in my book. The Croods I was a bit apprehensive about but in the end I really found myself caught up in the drama (even though I still don't understand why the moviemakers had to make 'fake' animals for that era it took me out of the 'realism' of the movie), even though I haven't seen them I'm hapy for The Wind Rises to be there (I imagine I will enjoy it) and their has to be a little indie unknown nominee each year so I'll keep Ernest and Celemtine (or whatever there).

If death's not an option I would probably put Epic in. I saw Epic, MU and DM2 all within a space of 3 days at the cinemas. And Epic stood out above them all. Then it was DM2, then MU. However after watching them again on DVD, while Epic still impressed me, DM2 fell very very far, while MU raced up and challenges Epic as the best out of those 3.

Of course, I'm on the Frozen train to win, cause I really do think Disney needs to get that monkey off it back. I really don't fully understand the talk that Miyazaki is retiring and so needs to be recognised. Do these people forget the Academy has actually already acknowledged his efforts in cinema with Spirited Away. That type of thinking implies that if Meryl Streep announces she is retiring from acting then she needs to win for August as the Academy won't be able to recognise her again.