Oscars 2018

visual effects longlist

Alien: Covenant
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
Ghost in the Shell
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle
Justice League
Kong: Skull Island
Life
Logan
Okja
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
The Shape of Water
Spider-Man Homecoming
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Thor: Ragnarok
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
War for the Planet of the Apes
Wonder Woman

Justice League

This the Henry Cavill 'stache coverup job?

Apes ftw. A pretty amazing showcase for how far cgi has come.

This the Henry Cavill 'stache coverup job?

― Fred Klinkenberg (Eric H.),

I thought this was the Henry Cavill sexuality coverup job

also, we neglected the Governors Awards

“It is a big event, very serious,” Varda said, receiving an honorary Oscar for her six-decade filmmaking career as a feminist trailblazer and a French New Wave pioneer. “But if I have to choose between serious and lightness, I choose lightness.” With that, Varda grabbed the hand of presenter Angelina Jolie and began an impromptu dance to the jazz music playing in the ballroom, her distinctive, two-tone pageboy haircut shaking as she shuffled.

http://www.youtube.com/embed/WyiAGbahDwc

https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/11/governors-awards-2017-oscars-harvey-weinstein

while Angelina Jolie's distinctive monochrome ex-husband looked on

I hope Ladybird is up for editing

wonder how many of 2018’s nominations will be accused of sexual harassment between now and then

Or how Casey Affleck is going to handle presenting Best Actress.

imagine being the writer for that segment

hoping he will absent himself

from this mortal coil

I'm picturing the prompter just displaying [good luck pal]

doc feature shortlist

http://www.oscars.org/news/15-documentary-features-advance-2017-oscarr-race

Foreign finalists:

Chile: A Fantastic Woman, Sebastián Lelio
Germany: In the Fade, Fatih Akin
Hungary: On Body and Soul, Ildikó Enyedi
Israel: Foxtrot, Samuel Maoz
Lebanon: The Insult, Ziad Doueiri
Russia: Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev
Senegal: Félicité, Alain Gomis
South Africa: The Wound, John Trengove
Sweden: The Square, Ruben Östlund

Is there still that side committee that rescues one not-horribly-embarrassing film to secure a slot in the rundown? Can't remember how that's worked in the past, but this year's slate looks to be brimming with pap.

Damn, I was really hoping Zama would make it in.

How so more than usual?

In that even the vanguard selections here are things like The Square.

I guess there's the possibility that Loveless is "the one." I haven't seen it yet.

BPM missing, no surprise

I thought it had a shot, but evidently this year's committee was feeling extra antediluvian.

I wondered where Sacred Deer was until I remembered that only the delivery was foreign.

The inclusion of things like On Body and Soul, a Fantastic Woman and Felicité seems a bit more daring than usual imo. Or at least business as usual. I don't think it's worse than it always is. Except that Denmark isn't on there for the first time in a while.

Here we go:

'Florida Project' producer accused of sexual misconduct
By LINDSEY BAHR
AP Film Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- "The Florida Project" producer Andrew Duncan has been accused of sexual misconduct by a dozen anonymous women and is stepping down from his company June Pictures.

Duncan in a statement Friday disputes the allegations, calling them either distorted or demonstrably false. He accuses rivals of "taking advantage of the news climate" and trying to undermine his financial prospects.

The Hollywood Reporter detailed accounts from multiple women alleging various kinds of misconduct on or around film sets ranging from inappropriate suggestions to kissing and groping without consent.

Alex Saks is taking sole control of June Pictures in Duncan's absence.

In addition to "The Florida Project," considered a candidate for best picture at the Oscars, June Pictures produced Paul Dano's directorial debut "Wildlife" and "Book Club," with Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda.

eligible songs, scores

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2017/12/18/70-original-songs-compete-90th-academy-awards/

http://www.awardsdaily.com/2017/12/18/141-original-scores-eligible-best-original-score/

get that song oscar to fuck, jesus.

is there a fee for getting on a longlist?

gotta be Dunkirk for score, no one else should even bother showing up.

I listened to the first 10 songs

"U.N.I"
Ed Sheeran glop. Has a speed rap portion that reminds me of "One Week".

"Love and Lies" - Band Aid
garbage indie pop collaboration. has some fred armisen involvement.

"If I Dare"
too many different sections. sounds like it was created by committee. something vague about girl power.

"Evermore" -- B&tB
Disney formula song, still aiming for that Whitney Houston moment. Lyrics seem to be about the beast being a stalker.

"How Does A Moment Last Forever" -- B&tB
Barely exists in the film. Has a longer Celine Dion version that suuuucks.

"Now or Never" - Bloodline: Now or Never
unrelated to the halsey song with 44M views on youtube. also unrelated to the netflix series. cheesy dance song with a horn hook. no chance.

"She" -- can't find it

“Your Hand I Will Never Let It Go” from “The Book of Henry”
Stevie Nicks! Too bad it sucks. the type of inspirational glop the academy likes.

“Buddy’s Business” from “Brawl in Cell Block 99”
O'Jays. retro but i like it. in the style of those great blaxploitation songs where the lyrics recap the plot.

“The Crown Sleeps” from “The Breadwinner”
a soft song with 'ethnic' touches. not bad actually.

get that song oscar to fuck, jesus

Sad to find that there isn't a song on the longlist called "Fuck, Jesus."

uh oh!

https://www.slantmagazine.com/house/article/2018-oscar-nomination-predictions

(re the intro, as if i need another reason to hate figure skaters)

Have you seen his butt?! Up there with the best inline skaters, it is.

They're just the worst kind of queens imho.

(worse than the ones complaining about Phantom Thread being 'closeted')

They're just the youngest kind of queens, is what you're saying.

so swishy in her satin and tat

idk if this is the place to talk about phantom thread but that movie was fucking incredible

We have a Phantom Thread thread that needs some livening up.

So will Jonny Greenwood sneak into the score category?

http://thefilmexperience.net/blog/2018/1/20/final-oscar-predictions-in-every-single-category.html

is PTA ever going to win an Oscar for writing or directing

Nominations going live as I type

woah at Mudbound's Rachel Morrison being the first female DP to get a nom

lmk if Sean Price Williams gets in

So will Jonny Greenwood sneak into the score category?

Yup!

Baby Driver got in for editing, the only thing it deserves really

god they've divided nomination announcements in half. We gotta await another couple minutes for the big ones.

Leslie Manville! Mary J. Blige!

Octavia Spencer this generation's Thelma Ritter.

Ugh – Christopher Plummer and Three Ebbings dudes in Supporting Actor. Nobody from Call Me By Your Name.

Greenwood in for score

has anyone seen any of the non-Square Foreign Pic nominees?

"The movies," past or present, have lost more than half of their cultural primacy even since the '70s. In the '70s they had at most half of what they had in the early '50s.

Maybe overall, but I don't think there are any single films from the '50s--not Waterfront, Blackboard Jungle, The Defiant Ones, or anything--that had the large-scale impact of The Godfather or The Exorcist in terms of how much they were talked about and how much they were seen. And I'd add at least two or three others to that list.

@clemenza - I would hazard that in daily life, Rocky gets invoked far, far more often than those other films, and not just in terms of like "yo, adrian!" impressions. the resolution/meaning of the final fight and going the distance and all that, the redeemed schmuck, etc., people relate to all that and it's a useful symbol. it launched a franchise because millions of people loved it. dunno if those people were part of "the conversation" but it's a different kind of thing from nobody remembering or wanting to watch Crash/English Patient/etc.

also not sure how conventional/old-fashioned it is. in its overall arc, sure, but it's very much a gritty urban 70s movie and iirc it's not really paced or lit or shot like i expected from an underdog sports movie. its closest peer in terms of palette is probably Midnight Cowboy.

The Sting had an impact too, just less enduringly and less significantly. as i realized in the claustrophobic poster thread, there were a LOT of 20s-era caper films, and/or period heist films, hoping to replicate its return-on-investment. basically all of them are forgotten now of course. also sold a lot of ragtime records. minor, but still more significant to the culture at large than idk Driving Miss Daisy.

but it's very much a gritty urban 70s movie

It did have a director who'd made Joe and Save the Tiger. So that's fair--it wasn't exactly the rah-rah Reagan stuff that came a decade later.

(But I still see it as a much more conventional film than the three runners-up I mentioned.)

Both of you are right.

According to the new Saturday Night Fever Bee Gees bio I just finished, Avildsen was first pick to direct but was fired for already trying to turn every project into a Balboa picture.

Saturday Night Fever is a film that I'd be more inclined to describe the way casino describes Rocky--misremembered as just a big box-office entertainment, but in fact very much aligned with its era, almost as dark and nasty as Taxi Driver at times.

agreed.

it's funny that Rocky won, looking at the rest of the awards which were basically the Network show....

know you balk at these statements, darraghmac, but there are certain films that get talked about and debated much more than others. Do the Right Thing, Thelma & Louise, Get Out--such films are big deals.

I ball, if I do, because you've already admitted this is at best subjective and at worst and a little less generously wilfully....if not elitist call it rather selective....about what counts as "talked about" and, I'd suspect, by whom

I ball baby u better believe it

Rocky is as iconic a film as it gets, imo. Unlike many best picture winners. From theme to several scenes, if only for the training montage.

Agree that Saturday Night Fever is daaaaaark, a gritty '70s films juxtaposed with the least gritty '70s music.

SNF is a tough movie I'd say moreso than taxi driver which at least has an outsider protagonist

Rocky was iconic to Tony Manero, who had the poster up in his bedroom in SNF

Rocky is one of the most popular films the second half of the 20th century, spawned a franchise that earned Stallone an Oscar nod in 2015 fergodsake

Here's a list of Best Picture winners ranked by estimated tickets sold (source here: http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm?adjust_yr=1&p=.htm):

1. Gone with the Wind (1st overall)
2. The Sound of Music (3rd overall)
3. Titanic (5th overall)
4. Ben-Hur (14th overall)
5. The Sting (20th overall)
6. The Godfather (25th overall)
7. Forrest Gump (26th overall)
8. Around the World in 80 Days (50th overall)
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (55th overall)
10. My Fair Lady (61st overall)
11. The Greatest Show on Earth (62nd overall)
12. West Side Story (75th overall)
13. Lawrence of Arabia (79th overall)
14. Rocky (81st overall)
15. The Best Years of Our Lives (83rd overall)

As you can tell, I'm not much of a Rocky. So maybe I'm letting my own opinion interfere too much there.

Oops! "much of a Rocky fan"--the other goes without saying.

(I think I want "As you can tell, I'm not much of Rocky" on my tombstone, though.)

Ha

Rocky still >> Network

Network is sooooo good except for the stuff that's pretty dumb. Or rather, there's a mismatch between the OTT satire stuff and the human drama stuff with Bill Holden (which both are viable in themselves). They collide in his big talking-at-her takedown speech with Faye Dunaway and it suddenly becomes a much meaner-spirited, lecturey movie. A slower build with the craziness of the Beale Show would also work better. I'd be okay with it winning but I also think Rocky is cool.

See: 1976 Oscar Nominees

Rocky owes a considerable debt to every boxing picture ever made (especially the shallow ones) as well as On the Waterfront.

(and Marty)

(haha Paddy Chayefsky, you got played by your own formula)

1969 Oscars: Actresses sound off on lack of roles for women. pic.twitter.com/5Gxilt3CKZ

— izzycc (@lookwhoitiz) March 5, 2018

Network isnt too far off three billboards folks.

otm

That's a great clip from '69, and credit to the five actresses for being 50 years ahead of where we are now, but I'm not sure if 2001 or The Battle of Algiers are the best films to target (or the complaint that a newcomer has the lead in Romeo and Juliet). I know, I know, it's meant to be partly lighthearted.

I mean, they could've at least nominated Polanski for Rosemary's Baby or Cassavetes for Faces to short circuit the argument if only a tad.

Also ...

5. The Sting (20th overall)
6. The Godfather (25th overall)

I know I've seen it spelled out time and again, but I can not fathom The Sting being the culture-swallowing event that by all indications it was.

It had two huge movie stars and there was the whole Scott Joplin revival, I guess. That's it. I was there!

It's a function of a movie sticking around in theaters for 18 months and people saying "let's go see Newman and Redford." I believe there was also a re-release tagline, "The con is better the second time around."

The Sting is - how you say? - a piffle.

xpost Maybe that was the tag for the sequel?

I mean, there are worse simple entertainments. Like The Sting II, I suppose.

I don't think it was for the sequel.

The sting is great fun I wouldn't necessarily defend it as best picture tbf

1973 was a weak Bedt Picture year. Only Cries and Whispers is remotely great.

my god A Touch of Class.

The Sting might be the most movie-as-comfort-food endeavor I've seen

like your average Dozvzhenko?

Is it really any lesser than Butch Cassidy? (Maybe a little.) It just gets dumped on for winning the Oscar.

It's a lot tighter than butch cassidy

well, BC&SK is more languorous, what the kidz call a hangout movie. It has that unforgivable bike/Bacharch scene; George Roy Hill was all about musical anachronisms.

The Sting is a good flick, it aired all the time on TV when i was a kid and i thought it was pretty breezy entertainment. pretty lightweight though i mean some woman gets shot through the head iirc, so it wasn't exactly totally lightweight.

Redford's only Best Actor nod

and James Earl Jones' dad gets killed in the first 15 minutes.

(xpost) Didn't know that. He certainly would have been a better nominee in '72 for The Candidate than the two Sleuth guys (a film I don't mind, but Best Actor nominations?), and I'm kind of amazed neither guy was nominated for All the President's Men. I'd take them over everyone else except De Niro, although I guess I can see why they were passed over (probably had to be both or neither, and stepping back, I'm not sure which two of the five '76 nominees you'd eliminate).

The Shape of Water is going to be a Rain Man BP winner, remembered for one thing: she fucked the fish.

I don't ... remember Dustin Hoffman doing that?

lol

remembered for one thing i mean.

https://youtu.be/_V0VM-cwzBI?t=1m2s