Give the Academy some credit: They made awards season fun for a little bit longer. At least my mind was blown this morning as AMPAS president Tom Sherak and Jennifer Lawrence announced The Tree of Life, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Demián Bichir and a few other shocks among the 2012 Oscar nominations.
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We're a little more than half a day away from learning who and what will compete for the 84th annual Academy Awards -- an elite class through which Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics had combed for four months in its fail-safe, fool-proof and bracingly handsome Oscar Index. This calls for one last sweep through each of the Academy's categories (with the exception of live-action, animated and documentary short, about which even our pointiest-headed Oscar wonk cannot speak yet with authority); check our team's work against your own, and drop back by Movieline tomorrow morning at 8:30 a.m. ET/5:30 a.m. PT as we deliver nominations, reactions, analysis and more.
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Let's not belabor this: The Artist claimed Best Picture at Saturday's Producers Guild Awards, all but affirming its eventual Best Picture win at the Academy Awards. Other winners included The Adventures of Tintin in the animated category and Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest in docs. Congrats to all! Is it March yet?
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Here is a video featuring Artist wonder dog and awards-season gadabout Uggie telling viewers what movie made him cry and offering some insights on his Oscar chances. Some guy named George Clooney is in it, too. Did I mention that it's Friday? [W Magazine via PeoplePets]
If Kim Novak sincerely thought that hearing music cues from Vertigo in The Artist was tantamount to artistic "rape," then wait until she gets a look at the expropriation binge underway at Press Play. The site, known for its terrific video essays on all things film, is in the waning hours of a "Vertigoed" contest that has found Bernard Herrmann's celebrated "Scene D'Amour" theme applied to everything from Star Wars to Freddy Got Fingered to -- praise God -- Jackass 2.
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And/or be able to tell time: "Odeon Liverpool One can confirm it has issued a small number of refunds to guests who were unaware that The Artist was a silent film. The cinema is happy to offer guests a refund on their film choice is they raise concern with a member of staff within 10 minutes of the film starting." [The Telegraph]
Smack in the middle of a two-week frame yielding two awards shows and a pair of nomination announcements that will culminate in this year's Oscar nods, the researchers at Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics have gained minimal insight into where the Academy may take the 2011-12 awards race in next Tuesday's final nominations. Or maybe they're all just sleeping. It's been that kind of year. Let's check their work in this week's Oscar Index.
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Seeing Uggie, the Artist's celebrated Jack Russell terrier, onstage Sunday night at the Golden Globes might have been enough to placate some observers who've demonstrated an interest in the wonder dog's awards-season recognition. But for most who've joined the "Consider Uggie" chorus -- 6,218 fans and counting -- our mission is only getting started.
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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts came out this morning with its 2012 Orange British Academy Film Awards nominations, which -- wait for it -- look suspiciously like the rest of the worlds 2012 film awards nominations. In fairness, for every nod thrown in the direction of The Artist, we witnessed some refreshing recognition for the likes of Drive, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, We Need to Talk About Kevin and a few select others. But hoo boy -- another Albert Brooks snub? This is getting a little weird. More analysis forthcoming Wednesday in Movieline's Oscar Index; congrats to all the nominees, listed below.
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You might have heard there was a big awards show last night? And as usual, the 69th Golden Globes delivered their standard array of highlights, lowlights and headscratching curios over three hours at the Beverly Hilton. Let's revisit the ups and downs in words and pictures, shall we?
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So much for The Artist's fade: Michel Hazanavicius's silent black-and-white throwback won both Best Picture and Best Director at Thursday night's Critics Choice Movie Awards, a nice bit of prime-time validation shared in part by George Clooney and the ladies of The Help. Read on for the full list of winners (and a few takeaways).
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"Weak." "Lackluster." "Underwhelming." "Less-than-stellar." Such are the general characterizations of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo's box-office earnings to date from observers, insiders and pundits around the Web. And now for an equally appropriate one-word response to those perceptions: "Huh?"
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What a week at Movieline's Institute for the Advanced Study of Kudos Forensics, where the pundits' hustle harmonized with the guilds' bustle to create a heavy-duty wake-up call for some otherwise dormant awards-season underdogs. They also telegraphed danger for a few juggernauts once thought unassailable. What does it all mean as we head into the Critics Choice and Golden Globe Awards weekend? To the Index!
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"I’ve done nothing wrong," director Michel Hazanavicius told CNN when asked his reaction to Kim Novak's recent comments lambasting The Artist for using the Vertigo love theme. "I used music from another movie, but it’s not illegal. We paid for that, we asked for that and we had the permission to do it. For me there is no real controversy...I feel sorry for her, but there’s a lot of movies with music from other movies, directors do that all the time and I’m not sure it’s a big deal." [CNN]
The American Society of Cinematographers recognized a typically diverse, eclectic gang of shooters this morning, singling out cinematographers from four countries -- including two first-time nominees -- in revealing its 2012 awards nominations.
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