Posts Tagged ‘Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’

Metro Goldwyn-Mayer is drowning in debt, but its survival behooves its investors

In order to play catch-up with the latest news that has happened over the past few days, here are some of the more notable headlines aside from Despicable Me‘s opening weekend box-office numbers (which reportedly exceeded $60 million).

Metro Goldwyn-Mayer Requests 6th Debt Extention

The longstanding Hollywood studios is reportedly almost $4 billion in debt. More than 100 lenders who will assume control of the company soon (due to this debt) are in the process of phasing in new management, but in the meantime the company still owes the lenders a $250 million payment with a $200 million interest tag, which must be paid by July 15th. However, MGM will have more time to come up with these funds if the lenders grant the company a sixth extension, which they have until July 13th to do.

Disney to Finally Sell Miramax?

Disney has made an agreement (but not an official deal) with a group headed by construction executive Ronald Tutor and joined by Colony Capital that will sell the latter Miramax studios, along with its 611 film library, for $650 million. Only $300 million is available in equity to Disney at the moment with more to be raised in the near future, and so a $200 million debt is to be expected for Tudor and Colony Capitol if the deal goes through. Disney appears to have confidence that the buyers will be able to raise the money.

The Weinstein Co. still claims to have interest in buying Miramax, but their 2005 exit agreement happened because they felt Disney’s asking price of $650 million was too high. If the Tudor/Capitol talks fall through, Weinstein will reportedly consider making another bid. If the current deal does become official, it will raise questions about the rights to certain films that Weinstein still owns due to their exit agreement. Miramax will not be able to make sequels or remakes for any films Weinstein owns without their approval.

Academy Changes Rules for Animated Films

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ board of governors has released new rules about which animated films can be nominated for the Best Animated Feature category. The original cutoff for animated shorts was a 40 minute maximum, and animated features had to be at least 70 minutes. The gap has been corrected to include animated films over 40 mins in the feature-length category.

Also, the board has decreed that motion-capture animation does not qualify as true animation, which is the traditional “frame-by-frame technique”. So, mo-cap animated films will not be eligible for Best Animated Short or Feature Oscar categories. The new rule regarding animated films is as follows: “An animated feature film is defined as a motion picture with a running time of greater than 40 minutes, in which movement and characters’ performances are created using a frame-by-frame technique. Motion capture by itself is not an animation technique. In addition, a significant number of the major characters must be animated, and animation must figure in no less than 75% of the picture’s running time.”

It's neck and neck between Sandra Bullock and Helen Mirren for the Best Leading Actress Oscar, but Bullock slightly leads thanks to awards by Critic's Choice, Golden Globes, and SAG

It’s almost time! Going through the final few categories will hopefully help you get in the mood for tomorrow night’s festivities, which are sure to be as exciting as ever. Enjoy our newest analysis!

Also See: Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Leading Actor, Best Original Screenplay

Best Actress in a Leading Role

This year’s Best Leading Actress pool is filled to the brim with deserving talent and performances, arguably more so than usual. What isn’t unusual is that it’s a tight race for who is actually going to win the gold statuette. The competition is stiff, but it would appear that the two leaders are Sandra Bullock and Helen Mirren, followed closely by Meryl Streep. Bringing up the rear is, of course, the younger two of the nominees, Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe, respectfully. Helen Mirren’s performance is said to be the most powerful, however Bullock has earned the majority of the Leading Actress awards leading up to the Academy Awards. Read the rest of this entry »

The Coen Brothers are likely to earn another writing Oscar for their film "A Serious Man," but have stiff competition with Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" and Mark Boal's "The Hurt Locker"

Continuing our breakdown of the major categories for this year’s 82nd annual Academy Awards, here is our analysis of the nominees eligible to receive the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.

Also See: Best Supporting Actor, Best Leading Actor, Best Supporting Actress

Best Original Screenplay

The Golden Globes are often a useful bellwether, but since the Hollywood Foreign Press doesn’t separate Original and Adapted Screenplays, Up in the Air’s win there only suggests the outcome of the Adapted Screenplay category at the Oscars.  Quentin Tarantino won the Critic’s Choice for his Inglourious Basterds screenplay so he has a good chance of winning.  However, Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, who have two previous screenplay Oscars for No Country for Old Men and Fargo, have just as strong a chance for A Serious Man.  Moreover, they won with the National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics so they may edge out Tarantino for the win.  Mark Boal’s powerful screenplay for The Hurt Locker could pull a surprise win since it beat the Coens at the Writers Guild and the winners there typically win the Oscar as well.  Less likely would be a win for Up which, though emotionally touching, may not be able to compete with the more serious fare offered by the other screenplays.  The least likely winner would be Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon’s screenplay for The Messenger, which, though powerful, is the nominee that has received the least nominations from other prestigious bodies.
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Christopher Plummer is this year's frontrunner for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar.

Continuing our Countdown to The Oscars, we are pleased to present our analysis of the Best Supporting Actor category. Like with this column’s previous entries, we examine each nominee’s chances for earning the esteemed Academy Award so that you the reader will have an idea of what to expect come time for the ceremony on March 7th. We here at Movie-Thoughts like to spur debate, so let us know what you think! Tell us if you agree, disagree, and why. In the end, it’s all for fun anyways, right?

Also see: Best Supporting Actress, Best Actor

Best Supporting Actor

We find that this year Christopher Plummer is the most likely to win because of the combination of his age/long tenure as an actor, the quality of his performance, the weight of his performance, the novelty that this is his first Oscar nomination, and the fact that the only thing he has decreasing his odds are the strong suites of the other nominees. Meanwhile, all the other candidates have various issues that could anchor their dreams of delivering a teary-eyed acceptance speech. Critical and/or press momentum haven’t been playing much of a role with this particular category, with the exception that The Lovely Bones (for which Stanley Tucci is nominated) is the only film relevant to this category that has received overwhelmingly negative reviews. With all of this said, let’s get to it! Read the rest of this entry »

With "500 Days of Summer" (above) and "The Hangover" both being critically acclaimed comedies, which film received the bigger Oscar snub?

A recent Variety article by Glenn Whipp takes a (very) light jab at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by pointing out, as many have done, that comedies have yet again stayed out of the Oscars’ list of Best Picture nominations. Two pics he mentions specifically are 500 Days of Summer and The Hangover. The latter made the American Film Institute’s Top 10 of the year, and the former even made the Movie-Thoughts Top 10. Both films were critically acclaimed, with The Hangover earning 78% on RottenTomatoes.com and 500 Days of Summer earning 86%.

Whipp notes in his article that it is not the concept of comedy that the Academy has excluded, being that A Serious Man has black comedy, Up in the Air has spurts of humor, Up is debatably an action/comedy, and Inglourious Basterds is peppered with tongue-in-cheek fantasy.

So what’s keeping The Hangover away? Crudeness is no doubt the answer, but that’s only an explanation for its brand of humor. In other matters that the Academy judges, which include artistic quality and technical prowess, the film can be said to fall short. The topic of human interest (which couldn’t be a broader label) is another favorite of the voters, so if Judd Apatow’s 40 Year Old Virgin didn’t have a chance, then certainly The Hangover wouldn’t. But what about 500 Days of Summer? A smart, funny film about how to get over what you thought was a great relationship surely satisfies the Academy’s criteria, right? Apparently not. We are left to only guess, which is really all we can do.

This all begs the question of, if we were to consider these two films’ omission by the Academy a snub, which was the bigger snub? Leave your vote in the comments section of this post or via this site’s Contact page. Tell the world what you think!

Disney has two songs nominated from "The Princess and the Frog", either of which they would have certainly been proud to perform. But alas.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences  has announced that this year’s nominees for Best Original Song will not be performed during the Academy Awards ceremony on March 7th. Instead, each song will be shortened and showcased with an accompanying clip from their respective films.

Best Song nominees are -

“Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog, Randy Newman
“Loin de Paname” from Paris 36, Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
“Take It All” from Nine, Maury Yeston
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart, Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Quick Opinion: I wonder what the impetus was for breaking with tradition? Usually the Best Song performances are some of the more glamorous, theatrical, and overall entertaining parts of the entire show. Hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will surely provide musical moments of their own that were created specifically for the show, but why not give the actual nominees the same spotlight? The Academy has not released a reason for this move, which naturally prompts negative speculation. My best guess is that the aim is to shorten the lengthy ceremony. Many have complained just as much about how long the awards show is as they did that certain films got “snubbed” for Best Picture nominations. If the goal is to shorten the show and appease audience interests, why then would they scrap the Best Song performances instead of electing to not televise categories most people don’t care about (e.g., Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Documentary Short, Best Live-Action Short and, depending on who you talk to, Best Foreign Language Film as well)? Personally, I’d just be happy if they reduced the amount of those extended commercial breaks.

Jeff Bridges, who has four nominations under his belt, is this year's front-runner for Best Lead Actor for his powerful performance in "Crazy Heart"

Continuing our analyses of the top categories for the upcoming Academy Awards, here is an in-depth look at the nominees up for Best Actor in a Leading Role by our own Marisa Carpico. Tell us what you think!

Also see Best Supporting Actress

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges already won the Screen Actor’s Guild Award and the Golden Globe for his role in Crazy Heart, so he’s expected to win the Oscar as well.  However, he faces some strong competition from Jeremy Renner, who won an award from the National Board of Review, for his role in The Hurt Locker.  If Bridges and Renner don’t win, the next most likely candidate is George Clooney for his charismatic performance in Up in the Air.  Surprisingly, Colin Firth’s powerful performance in A Single Man gives him an advantage over Oscar-veteran Morgan Freeman, whose portrayal as Nelson Mandela is impressive, but his nomination wasn’t exactly a considered a sure thing so he is the least likely to win.
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This is only Mo'Nique's first nomination, but her wins with the Golden Globes, National Society of Film Critics, and SAG gives her the most momentum

Here at Movie-Thoughts we’re taking it upon ourselves to analyze the nominees for this year’s Academy Awards, figuring out who has the best chance to win their category. We’ll be examining major categories like Best Picture and Best Director, but leading up to these we’ll also examine categories like Best Screenplay and Best Actor. Our Marisa Carpico starts us off with the following evaluation.

Best Supporting Actress

Considering she’s won a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Critic’s Choice Award, Mo’Nique is the most likely candidate to win.  If by some shocking turn of events Mo’Nique loses, there’s no telling who could win.  Vera Farmiga’s beguiling performance in Up in the Air is a likely front-runner.  Penélope Cruz is an Oscar favorite, but her role in Nine is far too similar to her Vicky Christina Barcelona character, for which she won the award last year.  Maggie Gyllenhaal gave an interesting performance in Crazy Heart, but it’s the weakest of the group.  The dark horse in this category is Anna Kendrick.  Despite a show-stealing performance in Up in the Air, Kendrick’s youth acts against her and she has plenty of time for another nomination.
Read the rest of this entry »

Kathryn Bigelow accepting the DGA's award for Best Director for "The Hurt Locker"

Kathryn Bigelow, director of The Hurt Locker, won the Director’s Guild of America’s award for Best Director, beating out ex-husband James Cameron (Avatar), Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds), Jason Reitman (Up in the Air), and Lee Daniels (Precious).

She is the first woman to ever receive the award.

The DGA’s decision is seldom challenged by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as the winner of the first has won the second with only 6 exceptions since 1948 (the most recent being the DGA awarding Rob Marshall for Chicago and the Oscars awarding Roman Polanski for The Pianist).

Bigelow’s win continues The Hurt Locker‘s momentum, as it also won the Producer’s Guild of America award for Best Producing, and the National Society of Film Critic’s award for Best Picture. Mark Boal, the film’s screenwriter, is also nominated for the WGA’s Screenwriting Award (the winners will be announced Feb. 20th). The American Film Institute also listed the film among its Top 10 films of the year.

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Quick Opinion: Kathryn Bigelow deserves a loud congratulations from the filming community indeed, as with any woman who breaks down a barrier in Hollywood. But even though the DGA’s pick is usually a reliable bet for the Academy Awards, I don’t think her winning the Best Director Oscar is a sure thing. James Cameron’s Avatar will surely be nominated for Best Picture, and his technical innovation for the film still makes him the front runner for the award in my opinion. Bigelow broke down social barriers, and Cameron broke down artistic and technological ones. It all depends on what the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences believes is more impressive.

According to Variety.com’s Todd McCarthy, this year’s apparent running theme of the Sundance Film Festival is to rebel. This theme, he expresses, spans across many of its meanings and hidden meanings (from the social, to the political, to the philosophical, etc.), however an irony presents itself when he finds a film that he believes truly does rebel against many norms but hasn’t garnered much praise for it. From the program booklet to festival director John Cooper, everyone and everything at the festival is calling for rebellion. It’s a shame then, insinuates McCarthy, that what is really rebellious isn’t credited much for being so.

McCarthy seems to look upon the Sundance Film Festival as a place where liberalism pats itself on the back and preaches continuously for better environmental care, better treatment of “different” people, etc. No one is really against such things. McCarthy suggests, however, that what would really be daring and rebellious is if a film were to challenge the festival’s liberal partiality. This is just one suggestion.

Two films that McCarthy mentions stuck out to him actually seemed rather non-partisan: A documentary titled Waiting for Superman (which is about the failing American school system and how both democrats and republicans have both failed to improve it over the years) and Obselidia (which takes place in the 1930s and is about a young female movie projectionist and her male companion sharing intellectual conversations, many of which orbit topics about life). He claims that Obselidia stood out not so much because he thought it was “great art,” but simply because it was so different from everything else at the festival. Its differences, apparently, are not so much in its content but its conveyance. To sum up his words, the visual details in the film say just as much as its explicit messages, and shares a temperamentality similar to the French New Wave and Robert Bresson. These elements, McCarthy claims, make Obselidia one of the more truly rebellious films at Sundance this year.

Read the full feature article here.

In Other News…

In another Variety.com feature article, this one by Timothy M. Gray, the topic of awards and award snubs is introduced yet again. Gray makes a case that some films like, say comedies, don’t get the recognition they deserve by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and other such organizations, and that actors like Paul Rudd (for I Love You, Man) aren’t getting the credit they deserve for contributing complex and layered character portrayals, and in Rudd’s particular case it might be because such a performance is within the parentheses of humor and farce.

Quick Opinion: Concerning the Sundance Film Festival, I’ve heard many similar opinions floating around places like film school classrooms and other film-related publications. McCarthy makes a solid point, however in relation to the United States subjects like the environment and homosexuality are still volatile issues that continue to polarize a number of people. Because these issues are volatile, institutions like Hollywood like to more or less steer clear from them – if for no other reason than because the U.S. recession is still ongoing and studios aren’t convinced that controversy will sell better than formulas and franchises. So in a sense, because films that tackle “important” issues are still far more rare than special effects extravaganzas, they can still easily be considered “rebellious” (regarding the U.S. that is). Personally, I find torture films to be far more “rebellious” than documentaries warning us that we’re destroying our planet.

Concerning awards and award snubs and the people who continue to bicker about who or what isn’t getting the credit it deserves, I’m loosing my patience. People need to realize that there are only so many awards to give out. There are only a few of them, which is why winning one is supposed to be an honor. If every notable job or performance was given an award, there would be so many given out that receiving such awards would cease to mean much except to those who might profit from including such an accomplishment on their résumés. Audiences appear to be caring less and less about awards in general, relenting to the already known fact that artistic awards, in the grand scheme of things, don’t mean much – if anything. There are plenty of great movies throughout history, many of which were not “recognized” for their quality at the time of their release. Citizen Kane is considered by an overwhelming number of critics and film historians to be the greatest movie ever made, yet it did not win 1941′s Best Picture Oscar. Orson Welles is considered by almost all critics and historians to be one of the best film directors ever, yet he never won one directing award throughout his career. Awards don’t make careers, and they certainly don’t guarantee memories. Being fondly remembered is the highest award/reward that a work of art and/or an artist can receive, and audiences need to realize that one award snub here and there isn’t going to prevent such an honor from occurring.