Oscar discussion (1 Viewer)

[David Oliver]

Why I Think LOTR Deserves the Best Picture Oscar Despite It Not Even Being in My Top 10
OK, so it is about 11 or 12. But anyway, I think that LOTR was the riskiest, most elaborate movie this year and it almost succeeded 9and in the eyes of many, fully succeeded). While I think memento is the best picture when youa re comparing what is simply up on the screen, I think LOTR deserves the Oscar because it is a very successful epic.
Comparing LOTR to Memento is tantamount to comparing the Normandy invasion to some other highly successful, yet smaller scale operation. D-day was not perfectly executed, but it was far more complicated and bold and truly truned the tide of the war in Western Europe. Memento was "easier" and was highly successful. The product on the screen is absolute masterpiece. It has better character development, better pacing, tighter scope, etc. LOTR is not a masterpiece, but considering what was attempted and how close it came to pulling it off completely, it deserves the industry award, the Oscar. So let's just say on qualtiy of the movie: Memento A, LOTR B+. Scope and quality of the production; MementoB, LOTR A.
As always, this is just my 0.02.

 

[Mike Broadman]

Since they gave Best Picture to Gladiator last year, I'd be surprised if they give it to Rings this year. They like to shuffle it around, and probably don't want to give it to two epic spectacle films.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

I agree that Oscar predictions are fun, but as stated, they are more political than critical. It is certain that Hollywood cares more about them than moviegoers do.
LOTR will get recognized in the technical categories, and I fully expect it to be nominated for Best Picture and Director. It likely will not win, however. That won't change my opinion of it, or of the winner, one iota.
I am more interested in the snubbing of the "made for Oscar" movies we have been bombarded with of late. While The Majestic may be a good movie (I will never know), those horrendous commercials of Jim Carrey talking about how he wanted to make a movie to help the country "feel good" made me ill. Besides being very self-serving, it's an insult as well. Classy
I have no doubt I'll be watching into the wee hours. Hopefully, they'll end it before midnight like they did this year, even with the double standards for popular winners speech times. That would bring an ovation from me
Take care,
Chuck

 

[Chad R]

It all depends on the Academy's mood this year. We'll be better able to tell that once we see the nominations. Are they in the mood for something really creative and flashy, like 'Moulin Rouge?' Or something popular, 'Fellowship,' like they did last year? Or something a little less ambitious but never the less competent like 'Beautiful Mind.'

And if you take politics into it, 'Fellowship' has an upward battle being produced in New Zealand and not with 'Hollywood' crews. Although with the critical acclaim I expect New Line to advertise heavily for Oscars, it'll get nominated but won't win. And I think the academy feels it's more of a snub to nominate then not pick it than it is to just not nominate it.

I hate to make predictions until after the nominations, especially in a wide open year like this, but I'd go with the following picture noms:

A Beautiful Mind

Moulin Rouge

Fellowship of the Ring

In the Bedroom

Gosford Park

And for some reason I think "Pearl Harbor" will get completely snubbed, except for maybe Song or Visual Effects.

 

[Justin_S]

MULHOLLAND DRIVE is the best film of 2001 in my opinion, and I'd love to see it get nominated for Best Picture, but I'm pretty sure that it will unfortunately not happen. The Oscars never seem to pick the real best film of the year for Best Picture. Hopefully Lynch will at least get nominated for Best Director, and hopefully win. I also love MULHOLLAND DRIVE's wonderful score, and would love to see it get nominated for the Best Score category.

Also, I agree with everyone else that the great MEMENTO will probably get majorly overlooked unfortunately. It shouldn't. I really would like to see the gorgeous Jennifer Connelly win Best Supporting Actress for her superb performance in A BEAUTIFUL MIND. She got wrongfully overlooked for her great performance in REQUIEM FOR A DREAM, which in my opinion was also the best film of 2000. I'll probably get a better idea of how things will turn out once the nominees are announced.

 

[Rob Willey]

So which end-of-the-year-release, horribly mediocre film will Miramax buy a Best Picture nom for this year? The Shipping News? Kate and Leopold?
Seriously, I'll be back later with some actual choices when I have a little time.
Rob

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I'm wondering if Final Fantasy will get anything for its technical achievements. I also thought it was a pretty good film, and would like to see it up in the Best Animated category, though I highly doubt it.

 

[Rob Willey]

I've got a lot left to see so these are by no means definitive, but these are the accomplishments that have impressed me so far:

Cinematography: Roger Deakins for The Man Who Wasn't There.

Production Design: Catherine Martin for Moulin Rouge. Honorable mention to Jackson de Govia for The Score (great sets and locations made me wish more moviemakers would set their films in the beautiful city of Montreal).

Costume Design: Catherine Martin for Moulin Rouge.

Original Screenplay: Christopher Nolan for Memento. Honorable mention to Baz Luhrmann and Craig Pearce for Moulin Rouge.

Visual FX: Harry Potter.

Sound FX: Moulin Rouge.

Editing: Jill Bilcock for Moulin Rouge.

Best Actor: Guy Pearce for Memento, Ewan McGregor for Moulin Rouge, Billy Bob Thornton for The Man Who Wasn't There.

Best Actress: Nicole Kidman for Moulin Rouge, Tilda Swinton for The Deep End, Molly Parker for The Center of the World.

Best Supporting Actor: Jim Broadbent for Moulin Rouge, John Leguizamo for Moulin Rouge, Tony Shalhoub for The Man Who Wasn't There, Kurt Russell for Vanilla Sky.

Best Supporting Actress: Carrie-Anne Moss for Memento, Cameron Diaz for Vanilla Sky, Maggie Smith for Harry Potter, Carla Gugino for The Center of the World.

Best Director: Baz Luhrmann for Moulin Rouge, Frank Oz for The Score.

Best Animated Feature: Shrek followed closely by Monsters Inc..

Best Picture: Moulin Rouge and Memento stand head and shoulders above the rest of the pack for me so far.

Rob

 

[Michael Reuben]

Billy Bob Thornton was great in The Man Who Wasn't There, but he's even better in Monster's Ball, which would also grab a best actress nomination for Halle Berry, if there were any justice in the world of Oscar (which there probably isn't).

Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek have to be considered contenders for acting awards for In the Bedroom. And tomorrow brings a possible 11th-hour contender in Cate Blanchett's Charlotte Gray.

M.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Yes, I'm not that sure that Billy Bob's deadpan effort in Man Who... is going to get the proper recognition. I thought his reserved effort showed true craft but the Academy wants loud and mouthy, colorful, or teary-eyed - not that those things mean a bad performance, you can do those well just like any other character types.
I'm hedging toward a trifecta for A Beautiful Mind as Pix, Director, Actor. FOTR cleans up on technicals. Supporting and Actress seem to be really wide open races.
FOTR fans will be outraged. They will scream BS. Many Joe6ers who only went to Rush Hour 2, Pearl Harbor and FOTR will REALLY be pissed.
Why didn't Jackie Chan get nominated?!? The Oscars are BULLSHIT!

 

[Craig S]

Just got back from seeing A Beautiful Mind. I thought it was a moving portrait of a most unusual man. Ron Howard managed to avoid most of the pitfalls & cliches that usually go with this type of film, thanks in no small part to great performances by Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly. I have to agree with many other prognosticators - this one looks & feels like the favorite to snag many of the big awards.
I see 7 nominations: Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay - Adapted (whoever thought we'd be seeing Akiva Goldsman a favorite to win an Oscar?), Score (Horner's best in years), & Makeup (perhaps the most convincing aging makeup I've ever seen).

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Seth,
I am a huge FOTR fan...

FOTR fans will be outraged. They will scream BS.

But I won't scream anything if FOTR doesn't win Best Picture. Who cares? Don't lump me in with average moviegoers please. I may be fairly mainstream, but I am well-read to know what is out there. I just like what I like
Besides, in 15 years, what is 2001 going to be remembered for regarding film/movies? Besides Kubrick's work ???
Take care,
Chuck
P.S. I hope a smaller, DESERVING movie wins it...it'll mean more exposure.

 

[Seth Paxton]

From Jason Seaver in the other thread

Probably, although the eligibility rules for foreign language films are so arcane and bass-ackwards that it can be hard to tell. Still, the one film per country rule means France will probably submit Amélie rather than Brotherhood Of The Wolf. Too bad, because while Amélie is the better movie, Brotherhood is certainly fantastic.

Brotherhood, Yi Yi feels your pain.

 

[Seth Paxton]

Chuck, I am also a FOTR fan. I was not singling anyone out here.
But trust me, come Oscar time when FOTR gets nominated but doesn't win, there will be plenty of people who saw 10 films this year, Tomb Raider, Pearl Harbor, Hannibal, Rush Hour 2, American Pie 2, FOTR, Harry Potter, Fast and the Furious, JP3, Planet of the Apes who won't understand why all the "artsy" crap wins.
"Awards are shit" they will say.
Of course their screams will be countered by the guy who will still be pissed that Memento didn't get nominated over FOTR for Best Pix. Hey, that might be me. Actually, I understand many of the Academy compromises.
Remember this, it's not just the POLITICS, AD MONEY and MAINSTREAM attitude at work. A LOT of it has to do with a LARGE GROUP picking films which have appeal to many different types of people. That's what it should be.
This isn't Bob's awards voted on by Bob. I've pointed out many times that the HTF lists reflected a lot of what the Academy thought last year. Not dead on, some things do get by-passed, but not as much as you think. As a group we leaned toward the Traffic, CTHD, Gladiator "popular" picks.
In that regard there will be one film forgotten that was popular here - Memento.
I could easily put together 2 seperate sets of Best Pix nominees that I would be equally satisfied with this year and I get sick of the backlash from those who hate the norm of a social group. There is a lot of different ways to see film without sacrificing artistic integrity.
The Oscars do NOT represent the EDGIEST films, but they also don't represent the most mainstream either. The fact that extremists to both sides hate the Oscars so much tells me so.
For every Al Brown who will be pissed that Ron Howard's film even gets a single nomination, there is some guy out there pissed that Pearl Harbor didn't get a Best Pix nomination. The Oscars are where these 2 worlds collide, it can be a scary place.

 

[Mark Pfeiffer]

Seth, I've been telling you all for months that Memento would probably have to make do with a screenplay nod alone.
Just to tie up some loose ends:
--Fox Searchlight distributed The Deep End
--Is In the Mood for Love even eligible? I thought its shot had already passed.
--Gosford Park looks like a latecomer that might shake things up.
--In the Bedroom will be the Miramax film of choice. Although people are honked off by their campaigning, this is an awfully good film (and a lot better than The Shipping News, which isn't that good for starters and may suffer Lasse Hallstrom backlash). My thinking is that it could be too dark, though.
Of course, those are all my opinions
I'm hoping The Royal Tenenbaums performs respectably at the box office, and then maybe Hackman and other deserving people associated with the film get recognized.
The lock of the night, of course, is Shrek for Best Animated Film. Waking Life is much, much better--I think Shrek is good but wildly overrated--but too esoteric.
I'm pleased that Moulin Rouge is still considered a reasonable possibility.
And if we want to talk about long shots, why not Charlotte Rampling with a Best Actress nomination for Under the Sand?

 

[Justin_S]

I just saw FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING earlier today, and I don't think it really deserves a nomination for Best Picture. It was great, but there are several better films that were made in 2001. MULHOLLAND DRIVE is the best film of the year in my opinion, but it more than likely won't win knowing how these awards work. It will be an absolute crime if it doesn't even get nominated for Best Picture though. The best film of 2000 was REQUIEM FOR A DREAM in my opinion, and I was extremely bothered that it didn't even get nominated for BP, so hopefully they won't disappoint me again this year by not even nominating MD. If there were any justice in the world, MULHOLLAND DRIVE would win Best Picture!

 

[Lin Weiwen]

I would be pleased if LOTR gets a Best Pic nomination. Its chances of nabbing the Best Pic Oscar itself is quite slim though as I don't think the Academy itself has ever handed out its biggest prize to a fantasy film. But this could be the year where the Academy breaks the rules and conventions and starts surprising us.
I would love to see Ian McKellan winning the Best Supporting Oscar for his fabulous perfomance as Gandalf!! He must win!!!
As for Moulin Rouge, its strengths lie in the Art Direction, Cinematography, Director and Best Actress categories. I believe Kidman herself stands a fairly good chance....her time has come...

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I would love to see Ian McKellan winning the Best Supporting Oscar for his fabulous perfomance as Gandalf!! He must win!!!

I'm not sure if he's in the next 2 films in the series, but what if he won for 3 years in a row?

 

[Scott Weinberg]

Here are my nominees:

PICTURE - Memento, Moulin Rouge, Lord of the Rings, The Royal Tenenbaums, Shrek

DIRECTOR - Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Steven Spielberg (A.I.), Baz Luhrmann (Moulin Rouge), Ron Howard (A Beautful Mind), Christopher Nolan (Memento)

ACTOR - Gene Hackman (The Royal Tenenbaums), Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind), Denzel Washington (Training Day), Guy Pearce (Memento), Johnny Depp (From Hell)

ACTRESS - Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind), Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones's Diary), Thora Birch (Ghost World), Nicole Kidman (The Others), Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge)

SUPPORTING ACTOR - Ian McKellan (Lord of the Rings), Steve Buscemi (Ghost World), Joe Pantoliano (Memento), Tony Shalhoub (The Man Who Wasn't There), Ed Harris (Enemy at the Gates)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS - Brittany Murphy (Riding in Cars with Boys), Scarlett Johansson (Ghost World), Cate Blanchett (Bandits), Gwyneth Paltrow (The Royal Tenenbaums), Cameron Diaz (Vanilla Sky)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY - Frances Walsh, Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson (Lord of the Rings), Daniel Clowes & Terry Zwigoff (Ghost World), Christopher Nolan (Memento), Helen Fielding, Andrew Davies & Richard Curtis (Bridget Jones's Diary), Steven Spielberg (AI: Artificial Intelligence)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY - Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson (The Royal Tenenbaums), David Mamet (Heist), Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko), Alejandro Amenabar (The Others), Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (The Man Who Wasn't There)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM - No Man's Land, Amelie, Fat Girl, Brotherhood of the Wolf

CINEMATOGRAPHY - Donald McAlpine (Moulin Rouge), Janusz Kaminski (AI: Artificial Intelligence), Andrew Lesnie (Lord of the Rings), Robert D. Yeoman (The Royal Tenenbaums), Peter Deming (From Hell)

ORIGINAL SCORE - Craig Armstrong, Maruis De Vries & Steve Hitchcock (Moulin Rouge), Howard Shore (Lord of the Rings), Trevor Jones (From Hell), John Powell & Harry Gregson-Williams (Shrek), John Williams (AI: Artificial Intelligence)

DOCUMENTARY - The Endurance, Startup.com Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal's Tale, Down from the Mountain, Go Tigers!

ANIMATED FEATURE - Shrek, Monsters Inc., Osmosis Jones, Final Fantasy, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

 

[Tom Ryan]

Howard Shore scored LOTR, not James Horner.

-Tom