Wednesday, September 29, 2010

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS?





Here is my early list of possible Best Supporting Actress Nominations:

Barbara Hershey -BLACK SWAN

Sissy Spacek-GET LOW

Jullianne Moore-THE KINDS ARE ALL RIGHT

Dianne Wiest-RABBIT HOLE

Helena Bonham Carter-THE KING'S SPEECH

Miranda Richardson-MADE IN DAGENHAM

Rebecca Hall-PLEASE GIVE

I have not seen any of these movies yet so I cannot comment on any predictions yet.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

THE SOCIAL EXPERIMENT



  

  I have never seen so much hype about a movie more than THE SOCIAL NETWORK. It comes out this Friday with some theaters premiering it at 12:01am. The movie is based on a book that tells the story of four guys who helped shape Facebook. There is a lot of backstabbing and cheating. Mark Zuckerberg the real life founder of Facebook claims that it is all fiction and has no plans to see the film. The movie leaves it up to the audience to decide what really happened. 
     I have seen it compared to Citizen Kane as the best movie of all time. Yes really, best movie of all time. Rolling Stone called it "the movie of the decade". It has a Metacritic rating of 98. (Metacritic is the best critics' reviews combined into a simple Metascore. Scores are out of 100). Rottentomatoes has it at the highest score it can have at 100%.  Broadcast Film Critics rate it at 92. Many say Jesse Eisenberg will win or at least be nominated for Best Actor and three Supporting Actor nominations for costars Andrew Garfield, Justin Timberlake, and Armie Hammer, Best Director David Fincher, Best Adapted Screenplay Aaron Sorkin, Editing and Cinematography awards. There is no question that it will get a Best Picture nomination. But can it win over a film like THE KING'S SPEECH which is much more the Academy's style. Most members of the Academy probably don't know what Facebook is, so it will be interesting to see how they vote.

THE SOCIAL NETWORK should be at the top of your must see list before Oscar night.
   

CONVICTION

    





     There has not been much talk about CONVICTION until now. It was just named Best Film at the Boston Film Festival. Sam Rockwell was voted Best Actor and Melissa Leo was awarded Best Supporting Actress.  Sam Rockwell is being pushed for an Oscar nomination for Supporting Actor and Juliette Lewis could very well come away with a Supporting Actress nomination. Add CONVICTION to your list of movies to see before Oscar night. The link for the trailer is below:


LINK TO CONVICTION TRAILER

Monday, September 27, 2010

OLDEST OSCAR NOMINEE EVER DIES

"The Titanic was known as the ship of dreams"



  Gloria Stuart, who became the oldest person nominated for an Academy Award for her role in “Titanic,” the record-breaking box-office hit, has died. She was 100.
     She died yesterday at her home in West Los Angeles, California, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing her family. She was diagnosed with lung cancer five years ago, the newspaper said.
Stuart was 87 when "Titanic,” opened in December 1997. The movie followed Rose and Jack ) as they met, fell in love, navigated the Titanic’s strict class divisions and then tried to survive after the ship struck an iceberg.

BOX OFFICE RESULTS

Here are the results from this weekend.

Possible Oscar contenders from this list are The Town for directing and acting. Inception possible Best Picture, but more likely technical nominations.

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Welcome!!


     Hello and welcome to Matt's Oscar Blog.  For the last few years I have become a real Oscar nerd. I make sure and see all of the nominated movies before Oscar night. There are a lot of shitty movies out there that I have wasted my time with, but all of the nominations usually offer the best in movies. This blog will follow all of the Oscar contenders for 2011. I will always be updating this site with the latest news, possible nominations and my predictions. This will be a great place to check which movies you should see before Oscar night. I will include my personal reviews of all of the movies that I see this season. I will post trailers and clips of all of the films that you need to see. So please join me EVERYDAY for the latest Academy Awards information. Please feel free to comment on this blog about your predictions, reviews and what you think should be an Oscar winner.  Please sign up to follow this blog and get the latest updates!!

WALL STREET WINS THE WEEKEND



Early box office results are in for the weekend and I was wrong. WALL STREET: MONEY NEVER SLEEPS debuted as the No. 1 weekend movie with $19 million. LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS: THE OWLS OF GA'HOOLE (whatever the hell that is) came in second place. No word yet on where THE TOWN placed.  I originally thought that it would stay number one for the second week. This showing lessens the chance that the THE TOWN will be nominated for Best Picture. I will post the final numbers when they come out tomorrow.

BEST DOCUMENTARY?

Here is the link to the trailer for CLIENT 9: THE RISE AND FALL OF ELIOT SPITZER. It will most likely be nominated in the Best Documentary category. In Theaters November 5th.





Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

TOO EARLY TO PREDICT?

    



     Every year in September potential Oscar nominated movies come to light. Often the movies bounced around now never make it all the way to a nomination. Some even say its bad luck to get in on the race in September. Although movies like Titanic and American Beauty were talked about early on and made it all the way. There is plenty of time for dark horses to pop out.  last year the Blind Side came out of nowhere.
     This year could be different. There is so much buzz around THE SOCIAL NETWORK, THE KING'S SPEECH and 127 HOURS that its hard to imagine these films will not be nominated. Some people think the race is already over. There are still many movies to be released this year that could gain some ground. Some films my not even have distribution yet. THE SOCIAL NETWORK will be hard to beat. Right now I can't see another film coming out that will be bigger.  I will keep you updated on any black horses that arise.
Here are a few films still to be released that may surprise us:

-HEREAFTER (October 22)

-SECRETARIAT (October 8)

-FAIR GAME (November 5)

-FOR COLORED GIRLS (November 5)

-HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HOWLS (November 19)

-MADE IN DAGENHAM (November 19)

-LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS ( November 24)

-TRUE GRIT (December 25)

-ANOTHER YEAR (December 31)

There will be many acting and technical awards coming out of these movies.

Friday, September 24, 2010

OPENING TODAY




     Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps opens today. In the early part of the year there was some Oscar buzz regarding this movie. Maybe Micheal Douglas Best Actor, but the reviews have not been very good. It received a Metacritic rating of a 58. The Metacriric rating is the average number critics give a movie. 100 would be the highest.  All Best Picture nominees last year had at least a 76. If you are only interested in seeing potential Academy Award winners this time of year you can skip this one. The prediction is that it will be the number one movie at the box office this weekend. I think The Town will stay at number one due to good word of mouth.

     Save your money for The Social Network which comes out next Friday. (Metacritic rating is 100) This will be nominated in the Best Picture category, but more about that next week.

A FEW NOTES

Here are a few notes from today...

 -Steve Bass will serve as production designer for the 83rd Academy Awards show on February 27, 2011, at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre. This will be Bass’s first Oscar show, though he recently worked on the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards, Obama’s Inaugural Celebration at the Lincoln Memorial, and 2004’s Democratic National Convention. Bass won two Emmy's as director of the Centennial Olympic Games: Opening Ceremonies in 1997, for production design on the 47th Grammy Awards.

-The American Film Institute’s 2010 Festival will open November 4 in Los Angeles with the world premiere of  Love & Other Drugs starring Anne Hathaway who looks good for a nomination and Jake Gyllenhaal. Closing the fest on November 11 is Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman who is sure to nominated in the Best Actress category.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

THE KING'S SPEECH TRAILER JUST RELEASED

Here it is the trailer for The King's Speech. It comes out on November 26th.  It has Best Picture nomination written all over it. My guess Colin Firth Best Actor.


CLICK HERE FOR TRAILER

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

MY THOUGHTS ON THE TOWN

I saw The Town yesterday and rather than give my review I will give my impression on any Oscar consideration.
     There is no doubt that Ben Affleck can direct. The chase scenes are well done (no shaky cam). The pacing is a little slow, but I think it helps to build the tension that Affleck is trying to achieve. His acting is very low key and honestly not that great. I felt like he had a smirk on his face the entire movie. Jeremy Renner is great.  You can feel the tension in every scene that he is in. He could possibly show up on the Best Supporting Actor list.
     This movie does not feel like a Best Picture. It is not an "artsy" movie like most nominations tend to be. Ben Affleck may come away with a Best Director nod, but that also seems unlikely.  It is a very good movie, but not Oscar good.

BEST ACTOR




Here are my Best Actor picks for now:

-James Franco-127 HOURS (Theaters November 5th)

-Colin Firth-THE KINGS SPEECH ( Theaters November 26th)

-Mark Wahlberg-THE FIGHTER (Theaters December 10th)

-Jesse Eisenberg-THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Theaters October 1st)

-Robert Duvall-GET LOW (In Theaters Now)

-Leonardo Dicaprio-INCEPTION or SHUTTER ISLAND (Inception DVD Jan 2011/Shutter Island DVD now)

-Javier Bardem- BIUTIFUL (tba)

My bet is James Franco or Colin Firth. I do not see Ben Affleck making the list for The Town. His acting is very low key in the movie and he does not have any real "Oscar" moments.  Let me know what you think.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

THE TOWN OSCAR CAMPAIGN

After risky campaign, "Town" courts Oscar voters

 
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – Warner Bros. took a risk. Its poster for "The Town," Ben Affleck's new movie about a gang of Boston bank robbers, featured a startling image: gun-wielding, masked nuns in front of an armored van.
If it hadn't beaten expectations and opened as the weekend's No. 1 movie, the Monday-morning quarterbacks probably would have dismissed the marketing move as a misguided effort that looked more like "Nuns on the Run" by way of screaming-man artist Edvard Munch.
But in the wake of "Town's" $23.8 million bow, Warners scored a genuine hit, Affleck buffed up his bona fides as a director, and the debate has begun over whether the movie will develop the momentum that will take it into Oscar season.
Prognosticators last week suggested that the movie would open with about $15 million, coming in at No. 2 behind fellow rookie "Easy A."
But during the past two weeks, "Town" was busy building momentum, which isn't always easy to measure. Affleck accompanied the drama to the Venice International Film Festival, where it had its world premiere September 8; three days later, the director and his cast moved to Toronto where they chatted it up to the North American press; then it had its U.S. premiere September 14 at Boston's Fenway Park, where the movie's climactic heist is set.
Affleck also found time to work the morning TV shows and their late-night counterparts.
"In the past 10 days, you could feel everything coming together," said Sue Kroll, Warners president of worldwide marketing. "It's a movie that's both appreciated by the critics and that audiences like. And the campaign and the cast was everywhere. When the results come together like that, it's all very gratifying. Ben and the cast did everything we asked of them."
Kroll had been a fan of Affleck's first directorial effort, "Gone Baby Gone," which Miramax released in 2007. Another Boston-set crime thriller, the movie earned good reviews -- and an Oscar nomination for Amy Ryan -- but it opened to just $5.5 million, ultimately grossing $20.3 million domestically.
However, when Affleck first showed Kroll an early cut of "Town" on his editing bay in Santa Monica, she sensed that the new movie -- which Warners co-produced with Legendary for slightly less than $35 million -- could reach a wider audience. The trick was to concoct a dual-track campaign, wooing critics on one hand while staging an aggressive consumer campaign on the other.
To attract the latter, Warners went out early with TV spots, with an emphasis on sports programing, hitting NBA games during the summer and then booking the first wave of NFL games closer to release.
It also benefited by attaching the first trailer for "Town" to Christopher Nolan's "Inception." Said Kroll, "I got as many calls about that trailer as I did about 'Inception' itself."
To reach the critics, the studio accepted invites to Venice and Toronto, and held plenty of critics screenings in recent weeks.
"With 'Gone Baby Gone,' there was a sense among the critics that Ben was a terrific new director," Kroll said, "so we wanted to put his second effort out there, to show that he is an interesting director with an interesting point of view. And that the movie was also commercial."
As for that poster, which borrows an image from the movie: Kroll's marketing team mocked up several versions -- some of which took a more conventional route, featuring the stars' head shots -- that she had displayed around her office. But it was the image of the bank-robbing nuns that caught the attention of passersby.
Meanwhile, Warners distribution chief Dan Fellman targeted the movie's September 17 release date. Affleck's film bears a passing similarity to Martin Scorsese's "The Departed" -- same town, similar accents -- which Warners opened on October 6, 2006, and rode to four Oscar wins, including best picture, plus a $132 million domestic gross.
Although there was no avoiding comparisons with "Departed," Fellman opted for a release date a few weeks earlier on the calendar, right on the heels of "Town's" festival bows.
"We knew there would be a lot of upscale films in the fall, a lot of pictures coming out of Toronto, so we wanted to give the movie its own identity at the festivals and then let it open in a noncompetitive atmosphere and give it time to grow," Fellman said. "We also wanted to distance it a little bit from the 'Departed' date."
"Town" isn't expected to achieve the same grosses as "Departed," which used its marquee names of Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg to bow to $26.9 million while hanging in at the box office for weeks on end.
But now the question is whether "Town" can duplicate some of "Departed's" awards glory.
The movie played to Academy members on Saturday night, and one audience member reported that though a few thought the movie was derivative of other crime tales, "it was well received, and Ben got nice applause."
With 10 best picture slots up for grabs, "Town" could prove a contender.
As one rival Oscar consultant said, "Actors are always loony about actors who write and direct a movie, so they could give it up for Ben" -- though when the Academy has honored such actors-turned-directors as Robert Redford, Kevin Costner or Mel Gibson, they were all somewhat older than Affleck, who is a relatively young 38.
Still, "Town" is on the awards-circuit radar. In Toronto, talk focused particularly on Jeremy Renner, last year's best actor nominee for "The Hurt Locker," who could score a supporting nomination for playing an out-of-control member of Affleck's gang.
The Warners team, while celebrating the weekend's win, aren't breaking out the Champagne about the movie's awards potential just yet, though.
"At this stage," Fellman said, "what we have to do is enjoy the weekend, see how it holds in Week 2 and then decide how to go forward."

Monday, September 20, 2010

BEST ACTRESS?





Each day this week I will list possible contenders for other categories on the Oscar Race. So far I have a page for my predictions for Best Picture. Today are possible Actress in a Leading Role nominees:

-Anette Benning-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (DVD November 9th)

-Natalie Portman-BLACK SWAN (Theaters December 1st)

-Nicole Kidman-RABBIT HOLE (tba)

-Jennifer Lawrence-WINTER'S BONE (DVD October 26th)

-Julianne Moore-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (DVD November 9th)

-Lesley Manville-ANOTHER YEAR (Theaters December 31st)

As of right now I say it's a toss up between Annette Benning and Natalie Portman

-

Sunday, September 19, 2010

THE KING'S SPEECH WINS TOP TORONTO AWARD


"The King's Speech" won the top award at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday, giving it more momentum heading into Oscar awards season.
The film, which stars Colin Firth as Britain's reluctant King George VI and Geoffery Rush as his speech therapist, captured the festival's People's Choice award.
American Beauty, Crash and Slumdog Millionaire all have won this award and walked away with Best Picture. In addition to this award The King's Speech has received a lot of other praise from critics.

Critics' awards were also awarded to "Beautiful Boy", directed by Shawn Ku, about a married couple dealing with news that their son was involved in a mass shooting at a college, and Pierre Thoretton's "L'Amour Fou."

The audience award for top documentary went to "Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie," about Canadian environmentalist David Suzuk

MORE NEWS ON "THE TOWN"

  



     The Town is making big headlines this weekend. All of the reviews have been great. Rottentomatoes.com which give a percentage of positive reviews is at a whopping 93%. It opened this weekend with $23.6 million making it the number movie of the weekend.  The fact that Ben Affleck is a previous Academy Award winner is also a good sign for him.  With ten films being in the Best Picture category the Academy tends to look at more mainstream popular movies. The Town could be one of them. Others say NO WAY will this film be on any Oscar list. We will just have to wait and see. If you want to be sure and see all of the Oscar movies this season I would see it just in case it slips in. I personally will not have it on my list of Best Picture predictions...at least not yet.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Friday, September 17, 2010

SOME HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS WEEK

-I completely ruled out Shutter Island for any awards this year, but Paramount sent out invitations this week to academy and guild members to attend screenings in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Orange County and London.  Also every movie that Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio have made together has been nominated for Best Picture. So it might surprise me.

-Biggest movie to come out of the Toronto Film Fest this week was The Social Network. The New York Film Fest. begins on September 24th when even more contention films will come out.

-Before its release a lot of people were looking forward to Caey Affleck's I'm Still Here. It is a documentary which followed Joaquin Phoenix's attempts to start a rap career, do a bunch of drugs and generally fall apart. The reviews have not been good and Affleck announced that the movie was all a hoax. You can probably scratch it off your list. I think that "Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Elliot Spitzer" is a lock for a Best Documentary nomination.

OPENING TODAY



Ben Affleck's The Town opens today. It was screened at the Toronto Film Festival last week.  It received some very good reviews, but it is being released pretty early in the season. It is going to have to do big business to stay in the race. Some people have it on their Best Picture prediction list. If you get a chance to see it please send me your comments.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

TRAILER OF THE DAY!




The trailer for The Fighter was just released.  There is a little bit of Oscar talk surrounding this movie. It could get some nominations especially for Christian Bale (OH GOOD FOR YOU..!!). The trailer seems to give away the entire movie which looks very cliche...I wonder if he will win in the end?? Judge for yourself.
I will now post links to trailers for better quality.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc-BamdweoM&feature=player_embedded

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

CAN TYLER PERRY WIN AN OSCAR??

     No not for Madea's Big Happy Family which is shooting now, but "For Colored Girls". It was originally scheduled to be released in 2011, but the movie company moved it up to be released November 5th for a possible contention. The movie is from a play that is known for its long monologues and the award judges love monologues. The buzz is that it is unlikely, but after watching the trailer I think it might be a possibility. Great cast....

BFCA SCORES


Another indication of a possible nomination is a score from the Broadcast Film Critics Association. A score of 85 or higher seems to be the magic number. All 10 of last years nominations had a score above 85. Of course this isn't always the case. Many movies with scores above 85 were not nominated last year. (Star Trek had a score of 93).  Here is a list of possbile contenders and their scores: This is making me rethink Inception as being a possible Best Picture nomination.

Toy Story 3 – 97
Inception – 94
The Town – 86
The Kids Are All Right – 85
Winter’s Bone – 85

***
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – 84
How to Train Your Dragon – 84
Animal Kingdom – 82
Get Low – 82
The Girl Who Played With Fire – 82
Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps – 82
Flipped – 81
The Ghost Writer – 81
Shutter Island – 81
Mother and Child – 80
Despicable Me – 79
**
Jack Goes Boating – 74
Never Let Me Go – 73
Fish Tank – 72
The American – 71
Greenberg – 67
*
Eat Pray Love – 65
I’m Still Here – 64

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

NICOLE KIDMAN BEST ACTRESS??


The movie Rabbit Hole was screened this week at Toronto and Nicole Kidman looks great in it. She has made some really bad movies lately, but this could be her comeback. The movie is about the life of a happy couple that is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident. Based on a play by David Lindsay-Abaire. The problem is the movie does not have a distributor yet. If it can get one before the end of the year there is a good chance for Nicole and Dianne Wiest. Here is one of the few clips available of the movie...looks interesting...


GOOD NEWS FOR 127 HOURS

127 HOURS received a standing ovation after a screening at the Tornoto Film Festival. That is a good sign of many nominations to come. My predictions for Best Picture nominees coming soon.....

Watch me cut my arm off!!

TRAILER OF THE DAY!

Clint Eastwoods Hearafter is getting mixed reviews so far.  Some people who screened it at the Toronto film Festival felt as though it was slow and the ending was sloppy.  Most Eastwood movies are generally slow, but brilliantly written. It will be interesting to see if it goes anywhere at Oscar time. The trailer has "nomination" writen all over it...

Monday, September 13, 2010

SUMMER MOVIES TO SEE!

Occasionally some summer movies make it to Oscar season. There are a few definites this year.


-TOY STORY 3 (DVD Nov. 2nd) - Guaranteed to be nominated in Best Picture category and WILL win Best Animated Feature.

-WINTER'S BONE (DVD Oct. 26)-Possibility Best Picture nomination, but sure to get nominations in other categories.

-THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT-(In Theaters) This film has had nothing but positive reviews. You will surely see some Best Acting or Screenplay nominations.

-SOLITARY MAN-(Now on DVD) Some buzz about Michael Douglas for Best Actor. I saw the movie over the weekend. Seems unlikely. Look for my review soon.

-INCEPTION- (DVD possibly Dec. 6th) Some are convinced it will be nominated for Best Picture. Some crazies even think it will win Best Picture. I find this highly unlikely. It will probably get a lot of technical nominations.

-SHUTTER ISLAND-( Now on DVD) Read same comments under Inception they apply for Shutter Island also.

Sunday, September 12, 2010

TRAILER OF THE DAY

127 Hours has a pretty good chance of being nominated in several categories like Best Picture, Best Actor James Franco and Best Director Danny Boyle. Looks like a great movie if you can handle watching a guy cut off his own arm to free himself from under a rock.  During screenings of 127 Hours in Telluride 2 people had to be taken out of the theater for medical attention. Some say it was due to the movie being too intense!  Most people believe though that it was just a coincidence or altitude sickness from being in Telluride,Colorado.

Festival Time

September begins all of the big film festivals that help to determine which films will be nominated. Hundreds of films are reviewed and the movies with Oscar buzz are weeded out. So far Venice and Telluride are finished and we are in the middle of the Toronto Film fest.  For many, it is WAY to early to begin to predict nominees yet alone best picture. I will be doing all of the research for you including a checklist of the movies to see and when they will be released. A few films have already come out of these festivals with great potential.  Some of the best reviewed movies are:


     THE KINGS SPEECH (November 26th) 
    


        -127 HOURS (November 5th)
       


 -BLACK SWAN (December 1st) 


-ANOTHER YEAR (December 31st)


-SOMEWHERE-(Won the top award at Venice)(November 11th)


-NEVER LET ME GO(September 15th) Limited


-THE SOCIAL NETWORK (October 1st)

Academy Award Dates

Welcome to the first entry of the 2011 Oscar season.

The Academy Awards will air February 27, 2011.


The Oscars this year took place on the first Sunday in March to avoid going head-to-head with the closing ceremony of the Winter Olympics. This will shorten the awards season by one week. So even less time to see all of the films nominated.

Academy Award nominations will be announced January 25, 2011.

The ceremony will once again take place at the Kodak Theater in Hollywood and be broadcast by ABC.