FINAL 84th Academy Award Predictions are up in the Blog.
Our first ever GRAMMY AWARDS nomination predictions HERE!
October 30, 2011 - New Oscar predictions up here!
FINAL EMMY PREDICTIONS
Over at the Predictions page: EMMY AWARDS.
The Oscar Winners: King's Speech is Best Picture
The FINAL Countdown - 2011 Oscar Prediction and Analysis
The time is here; Oscar weekend. It's been a topsy-turvy awards period this year, with The King's Speech and The Social Network volleying for #1 status. One just wants to overcome adversity, one just wants to be liked. With a whopping 12 nominations, The King's Speech could devour the competition and come into the Kodak Theater with a giant broom. Or, the wealth could be spread among it, The Social Network and Inception (or even Alice in Wonderland, perish that thought). Our FINAL predictions (with rankings) are up on the homepage sidebar but here is our more detailed analysis as to why. Read the rest in the AP blog!
Social Network and Inception win MPSE awards
The Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE) have given their yearly honors to The Social Network and Inception. With the wins for The Social Network and True Grit yesterday, the Sound awards at the Oscars will be a heated battle between these three films.
A quick note on the differences and definitions of the Sound Mixing and Sound Editing awards; Sound Mixing is the art of combining recorded sound/dialogue, ADR (assisted dialogue recording, or dubbing), special sound effects and music into one complete track. Sound Editing is when the existing sound and/or effects needs to be tweaked or added before the final mix is done by the Sound Mixer. Read more here...
Social Network, True Grit pick up guild wins
The Association of Cinema Editors (ACE) and the Cinema Audio Society (CAS) awarded The Social Network and True Grit, respectively. Read more here...
Wally Pfister wins ASC for Inception
Oscar-nominated lenser Wally Pfister won the American Society of Cinematographers' top award last night, held Sunday night at the Hollywood and Highland Grand Ballroom, for his work on Inception. This was his third nomination, he is also nominated for an Oscar for his work here (his fourth).
Also nominated were Matthew Libatique for Black Swan, Danny Cohen for The King's Speech, Jeff Cronenweth for The Social Network and Roger Deakins for True Grit. Deakins, who received the lifetime achievement award from the ASC and is heavily favored to win his first Oscar joked, "a little premature. ... I'm not about to retire. I love cinematography as much as I ever have."
This year, all five nominees in the ASC feature competition mirror the list of Oscar nominees for cinematography, rarity.
Several honorary awards were also handed out during the ceremony. Julia Roberts received the Board of Governors Award, which was presented by Tom Hanks.
"Thank god (for cinematographers)," Roberts said in accepting her award. "I know what I look like at a 5:30 rehearsal and what I look like at a matinee."
John Seale was presented the International Award by Michael Apted. Michael O'Shea was awarded for Career Achievement in TV, presented by John C. Flinn III. And Douglas Kirkland was handed the Presidents Award by Ellen Kuras.
BAFTA - The King Has Spoken
The King's Speech, which has made a remarkable 11th hour run at every awards stop in the last few weeks added another today, as well as made history, with its BAFTA win for Best Film. The King's Speech won 7 of its 14 nominations, including Outstanding British Film. No film in BAFTA history has ever won both Best Film and Outstanding British Film, until now. It's also worth noting that the film won every award it could that is voted on by the entire academy.
Helena Bonham Carter won Best Supporting Actress in the film and, in a bit of an upset, Geoffrey Rush won over Christian Bale, who had up to this point dominated this category at BFCA, Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild.
Natalie Portman continued her streak, winning Best Actress for Black Swan and securing her Oscar win in two weeks. As did Colin Firth, winning his second BAFTA in a row (he won last year for A Single Man, lost the Oscar to Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart) and making his path to Oscar clear.
Inception and Alice in Wonderland ruled the technical categories with the mind-bending box office smash picking up Production Design, Sound and Visual Effect while the Tim Burton megahit snagged Costume and Makeup & Hair. These are very likely to roll over to the Academy Awards as well. Roger Deakins won Cinematography for True Grit (its only win), inching closer to that elusive Oscar (he's been nominated 9 times and never won).
The Social Network though made out with three of its six nominations, in Director, Adapted Screenplay and Editing. It's beginning to feel a lot like 2000 right now with The Social Network playing the role of Traffic and winning those same awards at the Oscars.
Full list of winners:
BEST FILM
THE KING’S SPEECH Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
THE KING’S SPEECH Tom Hooper, David Seidler, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
FOUR LIONS Chris Morris (Director/Writer)
DIRECTOR
THE SOCIAL NETWORK David Fincher
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE KING’S SPEECH David Seidler
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE SOCIAL NETWORK Aaron Sorkin
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev
ANIMATED FILM
TOY STORY 3 Lee Unkrich
LEADING ACTOR
COLIN FIRTH The King’s Speech
LEADING ACTRESS
NATALIE PORTMAN Black Swan
SUPPORTING ACTOR
GEOFFREY RUSH The King’s Speech
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
HELENA BONHAM CARTER The King’s Speech
ORIGINAL MUSIC
THE KING’S SPEECH Alexandre Desplat
CINEMATOGRAPHY
TRUE GRIT Roger Deakins
EDITING
THE SOCIAL NETWORK Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter
PRODUCTION DESIGN
INCEPTION Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
COSTUME DESIGN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Colleen Atwood
SOUND
INCEPTION Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
INCEPTION Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb
MAKE UP & HAIR
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Nominees TBC
BAFTA Preview
Roman Polanski. Tilda Swinton. Marion Cotillard.
What do those names have in common? After a full season of critics and guild awards in their respective years in which they were rarely mentioned and/or hadn’t won, they each won at BAFTA and turned the tide against their more favored rivals and ultimately won the Oscar.
The King’s Speech still seems like a safe bet to win the lion’s share of awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a few places where we could see upsets and a signal of things to come in the next two weeks. Right now the Oscar meme seems to be The King’s Speech, Tom Hooper, Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo for that show’s top honors.
Read more here...
WGA goes for The Social Network and Inception
As expected, The Social Network picked up its second writing award in as many days, after picking up the USC Scripter yesterday. But, in a bit of a surprise, Inception bested The Kids Are All Right for Best Original Screenplay. Due largely in part, presumably, to the fact that The King's Speech was ineligible here (oh, the WGA and its super strict guild rules), Inception will enjoy a nice little boost for the weekend. Same goes for The Social Network, who, since The King's Speech pulled a coup d'état, winning every guild award in sight.
But, was this a win out of empathy for Nolan and his director snub at the Oscars? Does his win here give him a leg up over The King's Speech when they go head to head at the Oscars? With the exception of Bowling for Columbine in 2002, every Original Screenplay winner at the WGA since 2001 has gone on to win the Original Screenplay Oscar. If something like The Kids Are All Right had won (which, considering the WGA's past with winners like Juno and Little Miss Sunshine, it's surprising it lost) we wouldn't be thinking twice about Inception attempting a little palace coup of its own and toppling The King's Sweep.
The winners and nominees:
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
• Black Swan, Screenplay by Mark Heyman and Andres Heinz and John McLaughlin; Story by Andres Heinz; Fox Searchlight
• The Fighter, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Paramount Pictures
• Inception, Written by Christopher Nolan; Warner Bros.
• The Kids Are All Right, Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg; Focus Features
• Please Give, Written by Nicole Holofcener; Sony Pictures Classics
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
• 127 Hours, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy; Based on the book Between a Rock and a Hard Place by Aron Ralston; Fox Searchlight
• I Love You Phillip Morris, Written by John Requa & Glenn Ficarra; Based on the book by Steven McVicker; Roadside Attractions
• The Social Network, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin; Based on the book The Accidental Billionaires by Ben Mezrich; Sony Pictures
• The Town, Screenplay by Peter Craig and Ben Affleck & Aaron Stockard; Based on the novel Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan; Warner Bros.
• True Grit, Screenplay by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen; Based on the novel by Charles Portis; Paramount Pictures
Visual Effects Society Picks Inception - Will Oscar Agree?
Check out all of this year's VES winners and see how well their top pick matches with Oscar.
Screen Actors Guild - The Usual Suspects
As expected, SAG followed the recent weeks and awarded its acting trophies to Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale and Melissa Leo. We are definitely looking at our Oscar winners in this group. SAG is a mixed bag of Best Picture predictions, sometimes giving us our winner (Crash, Slumdog Millionaire) and other times definitely not (The Birdcage, Inglourious Basterds). After its recent PGA and DGA wins, The King's Speech, now with the SAG ensemble is now going to be an unstoppable force for Best Picture. Put a fork in it, it's done.
To put a bit of history and perspective on it, let's take a look at the last fifteen years of SAG, DGA and PGA, respectively.
2010 - The King's Speech / The King's Speech / The King's Speech
2009 - Inglourious Basterds / The Hurt Locker / The Hurt Locker
2008 - Slumdog Millionaire / Slumdog Millionaire / Slumdog Millionaire
2007 - No Country for Old Men / No Country for Old Men / No Country for Old Men
2006 - Little Miss Sunshine / The Departed / Little Miss Sunshine
2005 - Crash / Brokeback Mountain / Brokeback Mountain
2004 - Sideways / Million Dollar Baby / The Aviator
2003 - The Return of the King / The Return of the King / The Return of the King
2002 - Chicago / Chicago / Chicago
2001 - Gosford Park / A Beautiful Mind / Moulin! Rouge
2000 - Traffic / Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon / Gladiator
1999 - American Beauty / American Beauty / American Beauty
1998 - Shakespeare in Love / Saving Private Ryan / Saving Private Ryan
1997 - The Full Monty / Titanic / Titanic
1996 - The Birdcage / The English Patient / The English Patient
1995 - Apollo 13 / Apollo 13 / Apollo 13
The only time a film has won the trifecta of SAG, DGA and PGA and not gone on to win the Oscar was Apollo 13 in 1995 (interestingly, the first year of the SAG awards). There is virtually no doubt that The King's Speech won't enter the ranks of the films listed above.
Director's Guild awards King's Speech
The Social Network took a huge hit tonight. Between the PGA and DGA, The King's Speech is now a heavy frontrunner. Best Director for Tom Hooper is now a very realistic possibility. Will it win the SAG Ensemble award tonight too?
The King's Speech nets a field-best 12 Oscar nominations
Recent Producers Guild winner The King's Speech bested everyone else by earning 12 Oscar nominations this morning including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush) and Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter).
Also up for Best Picture are: 127 Hours, Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit and Winter's Bone.
The King's Speech wins the Producers Guild Award - What Does it Mean?
Other winners: Toy Story 3 (Animated), Waiting for Superman (Documentary)
Awards Prophets FINAL Oscar Predictions
Best Actress, Precursors and Oscar: A Look Back at 2000-2010
It's an incredibly contentious year for Best Actress this season, ripe for upsets and surprises come the morning of January 25th. All of the history and precursors in the world don't always lock in a nomination and in some cases there are some very sure bets but never count out on a few shockers.
This year has given us a surprisingly (and thankfully) abundant year for Best Actress, especially when some years are awfully thin. 2010 brought us previous Oscar winners and nominees plus a handful of exceptional debuts from young ingenues. But, in the end there are only five spots and at this point only two are really solid. The remaining three are up for grabs, ready to set precedents or to rely on history to assure their nomination.
Foreign Language Film Narrowed to Nine. View the shortlist here.
Also check out our updated predictions in the sidebar. Final predictions will be posted later this week.
2011 BAFTA nominations are in: Check 'em out here!
'The Social Network' Wins Big at the Globes. See our Reactions.
2011 GOLDEN GLOBE PREDICTION/PREVIEW
The Golden Globe Awards are tonight, live on NBC at 5pm PST/ 8pm EST. Check are our predictions for the awards. Make sure to check back for winner reactions!
A few fun facts about this year's nominees:
Best Supporting Actress
The winner of this category has gone on to at least an Oscar nomination in all 30 of the most recent years. And 15 of the past 30 Globe champs have prevailed at the Academy Awards as well. This year's contenders are:
Amy Adams, "The Fighter (3rd nomination)
Helena Bonham Carter, "The King's Speech" (5 nomination)
Mila Kunis, "Black Swan" (1st nomination)
Melissa Leo, "The Fighter" (1st nomination)
Jacki Weaver, "Animal Kingdom" (1st nomination)
Best Supporting Actor
The winner of this category has gone on to at least an Oscar nomination in all 30 of the most recent years. And 19 of the past 30 Globe champs have prevailed at the Academy Awards as well. This year's contenders are:
Christian Bale, "The Fighter" (1st nomination)
Michael Douglas, "Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps" (6th nomination; 1 wins -- Best Drama Actor, "Wall Street," 1987)
Andrew Garfield, "The Social Network" (1st nomination)
Jeremy Renner, "The Town" (1st nomination)
Geoffrey Rush, "The King's Speech" (5th nomination; 2 wins -- Best Drama Actor, "Shine," 1996; Best TV Movie or Mini-Series Actor, "The Life and Death of Peter Sellers," 2004)
Best Comedy/Musical Actress
The winner of this category has gone on to at least an Oscar nomination in 22 of the past 30 years. And 7 of the past 30 Globe champs have prevailed at the Academy Awards as well. This year's contenders are:
Annette Bening, "The Kids Are All RIght" (7th nomination; 1 win -- Best Comedy/Musical Actress for "Being Julia," 2004)
Anne Hathaway, "Love and Other Drugs" (2nd nomination)
Angelina Jolie, "The Tourist" (6th nomination; 3 wins -- Best Supporting Actress, "Girl, Interrupted," 2000; Best TV Movie or Mini-Series Actress, "Gia," 1999; Best TV Supporting Actress, "George Wallace," 1998)
Julianne Moore, "The Kids Are All RIght" (6th nomination)
Emma Stone, "Easy A" (1st nomination)
Best Comedy/Musical Actor
The winner of this category has gone on to at least an Oscar nomination in 13 of the past 30 years. Only 2 of the past 30 Globe champs have prevailed at the Academy Awards as well -- Jack Nicholson ("As Good As It Gets," 1997) and Jamie Foxx ("Ray," 2004). This year's contenders are:
Johnny Depp, "Alice in Wonderland," "The Tourist"'s (9th & 10th nominations; 1 win -- Best Comedy Musical/Actor: "Sweeney Todd," 2007 )
Paul Giamatti, "Barney's Version" (4th nomination; 1 win for Best TV Movie or Mini-Series Actor for "John Adams," 2008)
Jake Gyllenhall, "Love and Other Drugs" (1st nomination)
Kevin Spacey, "Casino Jack" (6th nomination)
Best Drama Actress
The winner of this category has gone on to at least an Oscar nomination in 29 of the past 30 years; the exception was Kate Winslet for "Revolutionary Road" in 2008. And 17 of the past 30 Globe champs have prevailed at the Academy Awards as well. This year's contenders are:
Halle Berry, "Frankie and Alice" (4th nomination; 1 win for Best TV Movie or Mini-Series Actress for "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge," 2000)
Nicole Kidman, "Rabbit Hole" (8th nomination; 3 wins -- Best Musical Comedy/Actress: "To Die For," 1995; "Moulin Rouge," 2001; Best Drama Actress: "The Hours," 2002)
Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone" (1st nomination)
Natalie Portman, "Black Swan" (3rd nomination; 1 win -- Best Supporting Actress: "Closer," 2005)
Michelle Williams, "Blue Valentine" (2nd nomination)
Best Drama Actor
The winner of this category has gone on to at least an Oscar nomination in 29 of the past 30 years; the exception was Jim Carrey for "The Truman Show" in 1998. And 18 of the past 30 Globe champs have prevailed at the Academy Awards as well. This year's contenders are:
Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network" (1st nomination)
James Franco, "127 Hours" (2nd nomination; 1 win for Best TV Movie or Mini-Series Actor for "James Dean," 2001)
Colin Firth, "The King's Speech" (2nd nomination)
Ryan Gosling, "Blue Valentine" (2nd nomination)
Mark Wahlberg,"The Fighter" (2nd nomination)
Can a Boxer Bring Down a Network, Again?
Now I know the Rocky theme is probably the most overused analogy for a come-from-behind victory in nearly all aspects of life but it started here first, at the movies, with a boxer and a Network...Read more here
Check this out!
Nate over at The Film Experience has devised a Golden Globe drinking game that we think is rather intoxicating. Check it out at Towleroad.
Can Oscar's Foreign Language Film Problems Ever Be Fixed? Steve Pond from The Wrap takes a crack at it.
Sasha Stone at Awards Daily on Oscar 2010's breakout stars.