Official Academy Awards Nominations 2010 Thread (Announced) - Page 9

Yeah, there was no "This movie must win!" for me this year. Although if I was an Academy voter, my vote would have definitely gone to Inglourious Basterds. I'm not really bothered that The Hurt Locker won but, to me, I thought there were alot of movies (nominated and not nominated) that were better.

Really?  If that's the case, I have to wonder why it took them 10 years to add the animated category.  

I think more of a case can be made for [b]Wall-E[/b] and [b]Ratatouille[/b] which got better reviews.  [b]Wall-E[/b] was actually the 2nd best-reviewed film of 2008., [b]Ratatouille[/b] was the best-reviewed film of 2007.  


http://www.metacritic.com/film/awards/

Here's a Time article on why Avatar lost:

http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1970502,00.html?cnn=yes&hpt=C2

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I agree about IB and THL.  I made my peace that IB wasn't going to win, and since an Avatar win wasn't really any better, I started the night knowing that Best Picture was just going to elicit a shrug.

A little upset about the screenplay award, however.

According to that  Time article SAVING PRIVATE RYAN should have won and THE LORD OF THE RINGS should have lost.  Not too much put into that article except a weak conspiracy theory.

Best ratings in 5 years:

http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/wireStory?id=10044174

Actually, they did do a tribute to Kubrick the year after he died.  I'm not sure about length, but they did single him out.  I felt the John Hughes tribute was nice, but it should have ended after the video; bringing out all the actors might have been a little much.

Overall, I thought it was a really awkward show, and not very well-produced.  Martin & Baldwin were surprisingly very unfunny (except for the Paranormal Activity bit, which I did laugh at), a far cry from Hugh Jackman's spirited turn last year.

I'm conflicted over the Original Score dance number.  I'm glad they did something to highlight the score nominees (something they haven't done in a while) and some of the dancing was pretty impressive, but it certainly wasn't the best marriage of music and dance I've seen.

As for the extended Actor/Actress introductions, at least they didn't also do it for the supporting categories, like they did two years ago.  I agree, though, they've got to get rid of that; I know they're trying to make things actor-centric to pull in more ratings, but just show us a good clip and move on.

Something else they must stop doing is using a featured artist for the memorial segment; with all due respect to James Taylor, it takes the focus off the people they're supposedly honoring.

As for the awards themselves, my favorite movie of the year was A Serious Man, but that didn't have a chance, so I was glad Hurt Locker won for Best Picture and Director.

Also, I know that they were trying to hurry up at the end, but it would have been nice for them to re-name all the Best Pic nominees.  I think that would have been a better use of the time than the history lesson about the last time there were 10 films nominated.

Next year, 50 Best Picture Nominees!

 I find it extremely disrespectful to Bea Arthur, Farrah Fawcett, and Ricardo Montalban that they couldn't spare 5 seconds on each actor to honor them. Somebody really screwed up.

And Martin and Baldwin will be joined by all three Jonas Brothers as co-hosts!

Because they never had to worry about an animated film being nominated for Best Picture or coming so close to winning it before? Funny how Best Animated Picture shows up as a category shortly after Disney's "Beauty and The Beast" gets nominated. In the case of "UP", the only reason it got nominated was due to the expansion of the roster of nominations from five to ten films.

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Hooray!  Best Picture nom for Cop Out after all!

That reminds me of the SNL sketch from the Ashton Kutcher episode.

I didn't much like Up.  The opening scene was nice, but the rest of the movie was tedious.  Like Fitzcarraldo with talking dogs minus the riveting insanity of Klaus Kinski.
 

Every year this happens. Every damn year. Many more people pass away than can possibly be included, and everyone complains about the selection. This year, they selected 30 names from over 100.

BTW, the only possible disrespect to Ricardo Montalban would be forgetting the very fine tribute paid to him in last year's In Memoriam segment, just over a month after his passing on Jan. 14, 2009.

I had the same problem. I am going to get with Mibbit and find out what caused that to happen.

SIL was a comedy set around screenwriting and acting; SPR is best appreciated on the big screen with an awesome sound system. Gandalf is slightly older than the average Academy member.

Not that there's much there, but the article is mostly right -- except that those are not really "U.S. soldiers" in Avatar.

If the writer is going to say THL won because of politics then a movie that pays tribute to the greatest generation should have walked away without any problem.  If the older group doesn't like something ground breaking then they wouldn't have liked the LOTR trilogy.  At least that's how I personally look at the article and his opinions.  Could it be that Cameron is hated?  I would certainly buy that argument over the others.  I'm not sure if he's hated but I'm sure people are jealous.

If it took 10 years to add the category, that doesn't strike me as shortly.  As far as coming "so close to winning", the actual vote count is never released.  For all we know, BatB finished a distant 5th in the voting.  Considering the reluctance to vote for an animated film, it wouldn't surprise me if BatB finished 5th.

I would think that the increased popularity of animated films is the main inspiration for adding the category.  I think they added the category not because they were afraid an animated film would win best picture, they added it so they could vote for an animated film.  Without the animated category, there's still be no animated film winning best pic.

If you were to put the academy membership into two categories: those who create animated films and those who don't, wouldn't it work out to say 10% to 90%, or something like that?  Just no way an animated films gets the top award.

Well, I didn't complain last year, so maybe you could take the vitriol down a notch or two? Yikes!

I don't recall the omissions being so egregious in previous years. I understand that they can't mention the name of every makeup artist, writer, costume designer, producer, camera operator, grip, etc., etc. But three of the most recognizable actors in show business? It's almost as if they deliberately skipped these people because they were so well known for their TV shows, as if they weren't up to Academy snuff.

Plus- the fact that Farrah died on the same day as MJ, and they deliberately mentioned him but not her....? If it wasn't meant as a snub, it sure as heck seemed like one.
Edited by MielR - 3/8/10 at 9:50pm

Once again: Ricardo Montalban received a tribute. It happened last year.

41.3 million watched Hurt Locker win Best Picture.  Unless tickets cost less than 50 cents apiece, that's more people than actually watched Hurt Locker itself (gross around $21 M?)  How bizarre.

I haven't watched THL yet myself, so can't really comment on its win.  But much as I enjoyed Avatar, I can't say that it was truly "Best Picture" worthy.  Then again, I didn't think Titanic was either.  (And yes, I'm one of those appalled that SIL beat SPR.)  Come to think of it, of BP nominees I've only watched Avatar, Up, District 9 and IB, so I have a long way to go

Was it just overseas feeds (or our feed in SG), or was Dougie Howser's singing just drowned out by the orchestra?  I could barely ever make out his lyrics.  And in the initial duologue, Baldwin's clapping would 'fup fup fup' into his mic, which was incredibly annoying.  Whoever is setting up the mics and mixing the sound should take some lessons from hippie Swedish guy. Speaking of sound, I note Ben Burtt wasn't nominated.  Has he been inactive or something?  It must have been a while since he wasn't.

I thought Baldwin and Martin did a reasonable job; not as good as Billy Crystal, but who has ever been that good?  As for the pre-show stuff, ugh, as observed previously Kathy Ireland was dreadful.  And she looked odd too, she must already be visiting Dr 90210 or something.  Or her hairdresser botched up badly.

I too also thought it was rather a shame that the 'other' winners get drowned out so quickly.  Is it in fact a rule that only one of a group of winners gets to speak?  That seems a shame for those winners; I noticed at least one pair where the first speaker kept his remarks very short, obviously to allow the other a chance to say something personally, but the orchestra ruthlessly blared when the first ended, and the mic was off too since the second wasn't just drowned out, he wasn't heard at all.  As an aside, based on the one-speaker rule, shouldn't the "Kanye-incident" have been drowned out as well?  I don't know anything about the dispute other than that reported in the Telegraph article whose link was posted earlier, but hey, if that's the rule...

Not to knock her but I can see not acknowledging Farrah Fawcett because she was a TV star and not a movie star. Although the same basic thing could or should be said about Michael Jackson too.

Watching some of the media shows over the past couple years has pretty much made me decide to not even bother watching next year.  I find it rather sad about the complaints being level against the show as countless writers (from U.S., Entertainment Weekly) seem to think that the Oscars are out of touch with reality and they feel that this award show should be a popularity contest.  They all pretty much agreed that it's dumb to give Oscars to films like THL and PRECIOUS because no one cares about the films. 

Various shows kept asking if the Oscars are out of touch with moviegoers but I think it has more to do with moviegoers being out of touch with quality movies.

The other obvious reason an animated film won't win: it doesn't "showcase" acting at all, just voice-acting, so the whole acting wing of the Academy would NEVER admit an animated film was better. (Avatar had a little of this problem too - it is too close to having CGI replacing acting.)

I mostly got "small screen appeal" (because they're old, don't go out, and don't like new stuff) from the article, so that explains SIL. As for LOTR, I did the Gandalf joke to cover; but you also have to consider that although the first two were nominated only the last of the trilogy won, and that's partly to cover the trilogy as a whole, a sort of "make up" award that the Academy is known for. And some Academy members are old enough to remember when orcs roamed the earth.

Didn't Disney's own animated BEAUTY AND THE BEAST win Best Picture back in the 90s?

No, Peter.  Just nominated (deservedly so, in my mind).  Silence of the Lambs won Best Picture in 1991.  B&tB did win the Golden Globe for Best Picture--Comemdy or Musical, however.

Thanks! Now I do remember that. I think B&B was the first animated film ever to be nominated for BP (Oscar), wasn't it? My favorite animated Disney movie ever!

Walt Disney won a special Academy Award for Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs more than 70 years ago when the film was "recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field".

Snow White, sneered at as "Disney's Folly" before release, became the highest grossing film of the 1930's until Gone With the Wind was released in late 1939.

Oh and Avatar, sneered at as "Cameron's Folly" before release, became the highest grossing film[STOP IT STEVE!]

I confess: I do watch the Oscars for the dresses. And the hair. And the funky thank-you's and odd moments that inevitably occur. Call me shallow - it's an industry media promo donacha know.

I say it every year but the Oscars are about film business and not film art. AS long as I remember that, I'm fine for most of the evening.

I saw THL when it came out in theaters. I think it's a very good (not great) movie and Kathryn Bigelow is an excellent director. I was delighted she won BD and wasn't terribly invested in which movie took BP. I saw all the films nominated in this category and although I was happy to see THL, IB and An Education all receive noms, I think the BP winner is mainly irrevlevant to the actual best film of any given year (there's no such thing IMO and the BP winner often mediocre or overblown or both). THL was a worthy winner of the editing and sound awards, although my fave soundscape design was the one created for Star trek.

On the plus side...

Jeff Bridges FINALLY won an Oscar. This alone made my week.

Michael Giacchino won for Up. I've liked his film music for several years - the scores for Pixar have been wonderful and witty. His music for UP was very good, as was his score for Star Trek.

Star Trek won an Oscar. That just seems totally cool. Irrelevant, but cool.

I was disappointed neither The White Ribbon nor A Prophet won BFL...no surprise there, AMPAS typically fails in this category.


PS: I will see THL again, although I doubt I will see Avatar again.