The Screening Room

Star power doesn't hurt when it comes to getting people out to a film festival, and the crew over at AFI-Dallas has certainly recognized that. The festival announced this morning that it will present its Star Award to festival attendees Helen Hunt, Mickey Rooney, Todd Wagner and Charlize Theron. Jack Lemmon will also receive the award, accepted by his widow, Felicia Farr.

Last week we broke down the best actor and actress categories, throwing our weight behind Daniel Day-Lewis and Julie Christie. And now it's on to the last two major categories: best director and picture. In the interest of saving our dessert for last, let's discuss the best director race first. Typically, the favorite in this category is whoever directed the best-picture favorite, leading me to believe that the Coen Bros. have the inside track. But I think there is a ligit wild card in this field: Julian Schnabel. The Diving Bell in the Butterfly is a film where you see the director's artistic fingerprints all over it. And I think the reason Schnabel scored the nomination over Joe Wright is Wright took a very heavy-handed approach to directing Atonement. The result is that the viewer feels as if Wright is constantly tapping him on the shoulder saying, "Hey, don't forget who put all of this together!" Schanbel took a lighter approach, and the result is a film that feels effortless.

Last week we looked at the supporting categories, placing our bets on Javier Bardem and Cate Blanchett to win their respective categories. Today it's time to break down the lead acting categories. Let's start with the men, and what seems to be the obvious question: Daniel Day-Lewis seems to be the heavy favorite here -- is there any reason to think that he won't take the stage and accept the award next Sunday?

It's that time again -- time for the DMN Oscar watchers (aka, Chris Vognar, Tom Maurstad and me) to break down the big races leading up to the Feb. 24 Academy Awards. Today, we'll discuss the supporting categories, beginning with supporting actor. I want to proclaim this race as all but over, with Javier Bardem putting the finishing touches on his acceptance speech. He's already claimed the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award in this category and was installed as the favorite well before then. So my question is: Is there any way one of the other nominees reaches up and grabs this one?

Among last year’s 20 acting nominees, there were five black actors (Eddie Murphy, Will Smith Djimon Hounsou and winners Forest Whitaker and Jennifer Hudston), two Latin nominees (Penélope Cruz and Adriana Barraza) and one Asian (Rinko Kikuchi). But this year, the diversity trend seems to have reversed itself: Ruby Dee and Javier Bardem are the only non-white actors nominated this year.

Every Oscar race has its showdowns, those one-on-one match-ups that transcend the field of five. Wanna know which ones we find most intriguing? Keep reading, oh loyal blog peruser.

I'm going to try to address some of the many snub comments/questions in one bulk posting. Here goes:

American Gangster: I think a lot of people just don't know what to make or do with it. It's a big, fairly mainstream entertainment with a morally ambiguous antihero, and it's a bit on the slick side. Denzel has had his Oscar glory recently (and has two awards), and his performance might have reminded some too much of Training Day. I will still steadfastly defend it, and him. The guy's got charisma and screen presence to burn.

Eddie Vedder: He got caught up in the surprising indifference to Into the Wild. His songs were the highlight of the film for me. I wonder if there's some Sean Penn hating afoot....

Ryan Gosling: I wasn't a big Lars fan; I could never get over the nagging feeling that everyone in it was slightly daft. I liked Half Nelson a lot more. In any case, he's going to be around for years, and he'll he part of the Oscar conversation for as long as he wants to be.

Here's a look at the nomination leaders, how much they've made at the box office and where you can see them:
Noms. Title Box office Where to see?
8 No Country for Old Men $48.6 mil. In theaters
There Will be Blood $8.7 mil. In theaters
7 Atonement $31.8 mil. In theaters
Michael Clayton $39.3 mil. In theaters
5 Ratatouille $206 mil. On DVD
4 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly $2.6 mil. In theaters
Juno $85.3 mil. In theaters

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again And again. And again. And again.

Sound mixer Kevin O'Connell picked up his 20th Oscar nomination, for Transformers. He has yet to win. Somewhere, Susan Lucci is smiling ear to ear.

It's now official: Juno is this year's Little Miss Sunshine, the boutique studio (Fox Searchlight) crossover that slayed the box office and scored nods aplenty. It has now made $87 million domestically on fewer screens than a lot of major releases. Jason Reitman, Ellen Page and Diablo Cody earned nominations to go with the best picture nod. I was especially happy to see Reitman get his - Cody has gotten endless, well-earned buzz for her screenplay, but Reitman has such a deft comic touch, as he showed with Thank You for Smoking. At 30, he's got plenty of plaudits ahead.

Looks like Sicko, Michale Moore's deconstruction of the American healthcare system, is one of the five nominees in the documentary category. Oddly enough, he may be rooting for another nominee in the field, No End in Sight. It's a lot more critical of Moore's favorite punching bag, Pres. Bush, than Sicko.

Cate Blanchett manages the rare double nomination, one in the lead category for Elizabeth: The Golden Age and one in the supporting category for I'm Not There. Many prognosticators felt that her frontrunner status in the supporting category meant that she'd be left off the lead actress list, but apparently Oscar voters can't get enough Cate. The last person to score two acting nominations in the same year was Terrell's own Jamie Foxx in 2004, for Collateral (supporting) and Ray (lead, which he won). The last time an actress turned the trick was 2002, when Julianne Moore scored for Far From Heaven (lead) and The Hours (supporting). She walked away with neither.

I can't say American Gangster's solo nod (for supporting actress Ruby Dee) is a shock; I think the movie was under-appreciated from the start, and I think time will treat it very well. (Nice to see it's still getting love over at IMDB).

Once again we see the value (not much) of a Golden Globe win in the musical/comedy category. Dreamgirls didn't get nominated, and neither did Sweeney Todd. It's hard out there for a demon barber.

And what about Into the Wild? Some experts predicted nods for Sean Penn, Emile Hirsch and Catherine Keener. Zip, zip and zip.

As some of you know, I've been tracking the possible nominees week by week since October, so today is the I was going to finally get to show the world how smart I am. Instead, I would say this is the day I showed the world how sorta smart I am. Of the 30 nominees in the major categories, I correctly predicted 22, giving me a batting average of 73 percent. If you're curious about my exact misses, read on...

So this is what life looks like before 8 a.m. Fascinating.

Tommy Lee Jones and Laura Linney are both considered surprises, but to me both are no-brainers. I said TLJ's Elah performance was the best of his career when the film came out, and I still think so. So much of his acting is in his face, very appropriate for a character who can't admit to himself that he's in a lot of pain. It's a luminous portrait of stifled grief. As for Linney, she can do no wrong in my book (her other great performance of the year, in Breach, has been all but forgotten by now). She makes deeply flawed people appealing and human.

Here are the nominees in the major categories:
Best Picture: “Atonement,” “Juno,” “Michael Clayton,” “No Country for Old Men,” “There Will Be Blood.”
Actor: George Clooney, “Michael Clayton”; Daniel Day-Lewis, “There Will Be Blood”; Johnny Depp, “Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street”; Tommy Lee Jones, “In the Valley of Elah”; Viggo Mortensen, “Eastern Promises.”
Actress: Cate Blanchett, “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”; Julie Christie, “Away From Her”; Marion Cotillard, “La Vie en Rose”; Laura Linney, “The Savages”; Ellen Page, “Juno.”
Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”; Javier Bardem, “No Country for Old Men”; Hal Holbrook, “Into the Wild”; Philip Seymour Hoffman, “Charlie Wilson’s War”; Tom Wilkinson, “Michael Clayton.”
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, “I’m Not There”; Ruby Dee, “American Gangster”; Saoirse Ronan, “Atonement”; Amy Ryan, “Gone Baby Gone”; Tilda Swinton, “Michael Clayton.”
Director: Julian Schnabel, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”; Jason Reitman, “Juno”; Tony Gilroy, “Michael Clayton”; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, “No Country for Old Men”; Paul Thomas Anderson, “There Will Be Blood.”

Should be getting the nominees any minute. Interesting that ABC decided it would be a good idea to show an ad for the Oscars, without knowing that they're definitely even having a show.

Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences

Do you agree? Disagree? Share your thoughts and your picks.

Yeah, your lives are tragic. But cheer up, Oscar's on the way (Focus Features)

I think the Oscars are looking like a best picture/director split between Atonement and the Coens. I just don't think Schnabel has enough skins on the wall to win the big one, though I'm sure he'll be nominated, and Joe Wright doesn't have the rep. I also think Bardem, Christie and Day-Lewis can give their victory speeches now. Blanchett? Not as sure.

Ok, so they're not anti-American in the traditional sense. But this year further proves that the Golden Globes cannot be taken seriously as a predictor of the Academy Awards for one simple reason: the Hollywood Foreign Press Association seeminly picks a foreigner whenever possible. A quick rundown: Drama actor Daniel Day-Lewis (British), drama actress Julie Christie (British), comedy or musical actress Marion Cotillard (French), supporting actor Javier Bardem (Spanish) and supporting actress Cate Blanchett (Australian). In fact, the only American to win a major acting award was Johnny Depp -- and he lives in France. The best drama winner was Atonement (made in England), the comedy or musical winner was Sweeney Todd (ditto) and the directing award went to Julian Schnabel, whose film is in French.
All of these winners are perfectly deserving on a case-by-case basis. But collectively, it sure seems as if the HFPA prefers the import.

It should be noted that, although the Writers Guild did not picket the new conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, about a dozen entertainment industry workers gathered outside to beg the writers and producers to return to the bargaining table. With many productions shutdown because they are out of scripts, the worker bees on those shows have found themselves out of jobs. Howard Keys, a set medic with the ABC show Private Practice, told the Associated Press, “We're the workers, the grunts of the industry. A grip, a camera operator, a set lighting technician — they can't work elsewhere. These are our full-time jobs, our careers.”

NBC has got to be royally furious. It's 8:38 and E! and the Golden Globes Web Site have already announced all the winners (congratulations Atonement, btw). Meanwhile, NBC plots along to the finish, announcing winners to an audience that can potentially see into the future. If there was a way for this news conference to be botched any further, this is it.

Bardem wins. Meanwhile, the Cowboys blog has 381 comments posted since the end of the game.

Strangely, the AP already seems to have the winners list. I'll refrain from posting it here, but note that the time is 8:21 and I am predicting Javier Bardem as the winner in the supporting actor category.

And the first winner announced, for Best Supporting Actress, movies, announced by Billy Bush was "Cate Blanchett for I'm Not There. And, sure enough, she wasn't there. Coming soon, the sequel, "I'm Not Here, Either."

How sweet would it be if all awards shows moved this fast? I think these striking writers are onto something here.

It's been a tough day (unless you are a Cowboys hater like Vognar), but we will try to muster up the strength to blog tonight on the Golden Globes following the life-force-sucking loss of the Cowboys today.
So far, none of NBC's prepackaged junk has inspired me much to forget the game. Dated interviews with nominees and 15 minutes of Kathy Griffin being snarky have me wishing the network would just move up tonight's episode of American Gladiators. I'm sure things will pick up once the new conference gets here. (Has that sentence ever been written in the English language before?)