You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2009.
Airdate: 5:30-9 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 22 (ABC)
Production: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences
Producers: Bill Condon, Laurence Mark
Supervising producer: Michael B. Seligman
Coordinating producer: Danette Herman
Associate producer: Joanne Dillon
Writers: Jon Macks, Jenny Bicks, Bill Condon, John Hoffman, Phil Alden Robinson, Bruce Vilanch
Special material written by: Don Harmon, Rob Schrab, Ben Schwartz, Joel Stein.
Director: Roger Goodman
Production designer: David Rockwell
Music director: Michael Giacchino
Lighting designer: Robert A. Dickinson
Host: Hugh Jackman
Quelque 36,3 millions de télespectateurs américains ont suivi dimanche soir la 81e cérémonie des Oscars, soit quatre millions de plus que l’année dernière, qui avait marqué la plus faible audience télévisée de l’histoire des Academy Awards.
Aux États-Unis Si la chaîne ABC était rassurée par ces résultats, en particulier chez les jeunes, seules deux autres cérémonies ont été moins suivies que cette année, selon les chiffres de l’institut Nielsen Media Research. L’an dernier, quand “No Country For Old Men” avait remporté l’Oscar du meilleur film, seuls 32 millions de télespectateurs avaient regardé la cérémonie. Ils étaient 33 millions en 2003, année de la victoire de “Chicago”.
ABC notait toutefois que l’audience de dimanche était la plus forte pour un programme en prime time depuis deux ans. Le record d’audience des Oscars remonte à 1998, l’année du triomphe de “Titanic”, avec 55,2 millions d’Américains. AP
List of winners at the 81st Academy Awards, which have been held in Los Angeles.
Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Frost/Nixon; Milk; The Reader
Best director: Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: Stephen Daldry – The Reader; David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon; Gus Van Sant – Milk
Best actor: Sean Penn – Milk
Also nominated: Richard Jenkins – The Visitor; Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon; Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler
Best actress: Kate Winslet – The Reader
Also nominated: Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married; Angelina Jolie – Changeling; Melissa Leo – Frozen River; Meryl Streep – Doubt
Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Also nominated: Josh Brolin – Milk; Robert Downey Jr – Tropic Thunder; Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt; Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road
Best supporting actress: Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Also nominated: Amy Adams – Doubt; Viola Davis – Doubt; Taraji P Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler
Best original screenplay: Milk
Also nominated: Happy-Go-Lucky; Wall-E; In Bruges; Frozen River
Best adapted screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Doubt; Frost/Nixon; The Reader
Best animated feature film: Wall-E
Also nominated: Bolt; Kung Fu Panda
Best animated short film: La Maison en Petits Cubes
Also nominated: Lavatory – Lovestory; Oktapodi; Presto; This Way Up
Best foreign language film: Departures – Japan
Also nominated: Revanche – Austria; The Class – France; The Baader Meinhof Complex – Germany; Waltz With Bashir – Israel
Best documentary feature: Man on Wire
Also nominated: The Betrayal; Encounters at the End of the World; The Garden; Trouble The Water
Best documentary short subject: Smile Pinki
Also nominated: The Conscience of Nhem En; The Final Inch; The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306
Art direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: Changeling; The Dark Knight; The Duchess; Revolutionary Road
Costume design: The Duchess
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Australia; Milk; Revolutionary Road
Make-up: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: The Dark Knight; Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Changeling; The Dark Knight; The Reader
Best live action short film: Spielzeugland (Toyland)
Also nominated: Auf der Strecke (On The Line); Manon on the Asphalt; New Boy; The Pig
Visual effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Also nominated: The Dark Knight; Iron Man
Sound editing: The Dark Knight
Also nominated: Iron Man; Wanted; Slumdog Millionaire; Wall-E
Sound mixing: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Wanted; Wall-E
Film editing:Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; The Dark Knight; Frost/Nixon; Milk
Best original score: Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button; Defiance; Milk; Slumdog Millionaire; Wall-E
Best original song: Jai Ho – Slumdog Millionaire
Also nominated: Down To Earth – Wall-E; O Saya – Slumdog Millionaire
Sean Penn
MILK
NOMINATED ROLE
Sean Penn plays Harvey Milk, the camera store owner whose decision to campaign for a place on San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors becomes a landmark event within the gay rights movement.
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Thank you. Thank you. You commie, homo-loving sons-of-guns. I did not expect this, but I, and I want it to be very clear, that I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me often. But I am touched by the appreciation and I hoped for it enough that I did want to scribble down, so I had the names in case you were commie, homo-loving sons-of-guns, and so I want to thank my best friend, Sata Matsuzawa. My circle of long-time support, Mara, Brian, Barry and Bob. The great Cleve Jones. Our wonderful writer, Lance Black. Producers Bruce Cohen and Dan Jinks.
And particularly, as all, as actors know, our director either has the patience, talent and restraint to grant us a voice or they don’t, and it goes from the beginning of the meeting, through the cutting room. And there is no finer hands to be in than Gus Van Sant. And finally, for those, two last finallies, for those who saw the signs of hatred as our cars drove in tonight, I think that it is a good time for those who voted for the ban against gay marriage to sit and reflect and anticipate their great shame and the shame in their grandchildren’s eyes if they continue that way of support. We’ve got to have equal rights for everyone. And there are, and there are, these last two things. I’m very, very proud to live in a country that is willing to elect an elegant man president and a country who, for all its toughness, creates courageous artists. And this is in great due respect to all the nominees, but courageous artists, who despite a sensitivity that sometimes has brought enormous challenge, Mickey Rourke rises again and he is my brother. Thank you all very much.
ACADEMY AWARDS HISTORY
This is the fifth Academy Award nomination for Sean Penn. He was previously nominated for:
- MYSTIC RIVER (2003) Winner, Actor in a Leading Role
- I AM SAM (2001) Nominee, Actor in a Leading Role
- SWEET AND LOWDOWN (1999) Nominee, Actor in a Leading Role
- DEAD MAN WALKING (1995) Nominee, Actor in a Leading Role
Kate Winslet
THE READER
NOMINATED ROLE
Kate Winslet plays Hanna Schmitz, a German woman in her thirties whose teenage lover is unaware of the dark secret in her past.
ACCEPTANCE SPEECH
Okay, that fainting thing, Penelope. I’d be lying if I hadn’t made a version of this speech before, I think I was probably eight years old and staring into the bathroom mirror. And this (holding up her statuette) would’ve been a shampoo bottle. Well, it’s not a shampoo bottle now!
I feel very fortunate to have made it all the way from there to here. And I’d like to thank some of the people along the way who had faith in me, my friends and my family, especially my mum and dad, who are in this room somewhere. Dad, whistle or something, ’cause then I’ll know where you are. (He whistles.) Yeah! (Waving to him.) I love you.
I’d also like to thank Hylda Queally, Dallas Smith and the late, much loved, much missed Robert Garlock. And from Peter Jackson and Emma Thompson to my very own Sam and Stephen Daldry. I’m very lucky to have been given Hanna Schmitz by Bernhard Schlink and David Hare and Stephen and working with you is an experience I will never forget. There was no division between the cast and the crew on this film, and that’s what made it so special. So, to have been surrounded by a remarkable group of people who provided an unbroken chain of support from David Kross to Ralph Fiennes, Bruno Ganz, Lena Olin, from hair and makeup to cinematography, from the art department to the ADs, and from New York to Berlin. And I am so lucky to have a wonderful husband and two beautiful children who let me do what I love and who love me just the way that I am.
Anthony and Sydney, this is for you. This is for both of you. And I want to acknowledge my fellow nominees, these goddesses. I think we all can’t believe we’re in a category with Meryl Streep at all. I’m sorry, Meryl, but you have to just suck that up! And, just to the Academy, thank you so much, my God! Thank you!
ACADEMY AWARDS HISTORY
This is the sixth Academy Award nomination for Kate Winslet. She was previously nominated for:
- LITTLE CHILDREN (2006) — Nominee, Actress in a Leading Role
- ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND (2004) — Nominee, Actress in a Leading Role
- IRIS (2001) — Nominee, Actress in a Supporting Role
- TITANIC (1997) — Nominee, Actress in a Leading Role
- SENSE AND SENSIBILITY (1995) — Nominee, Actress in a Supporting Role
Most Oscars experts are betting that the award for best foreign-language film will go one of two flicks: “Waltz with Bashir” (France), which won best picture from the National Society of Film Critics and best foreign film from the Golden Globes and Critics Choice; or “The Class” (France), winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
But don’t go gambling your ranch on either Oscars outcome. For starters, “Waltz with Bashir” is animated and there’s such a strong bias against such fare among Oscar voters that the academy had to create a separate category for best animated feature seven years ago. Sometimes voters include art-house foreign-language hits in that category — like 2002 champ “Spirited Away” (Japan) — but they didn’t pick “Bashir” among the nominees this year. It got bumped by the superhero doggie, “Bolt.”
The Oscars’ foreign-film race is one of those select categories where only academy members who attend screenings may vote, so merely a few hundred people choose the champ. One of them told Gold Derby that he and some other voters thought “The Class” was rather boring and revealed that he voted for Japan’s “Departures.”
A few days ago Gold Derby reported exclusively that “The Class” got nominated thanks to the new procedure that permits the academy’s internal foreign-film committee to overrule voters and add as many as three titles to the five in the category. The new rule was instituted to dispel the kind of outcry that followed last year’s omission of previous Cannes winner “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days” (Romania).
Now Gold Derby can tattle a bit more. An excellent source tells us that the committee used its prerogative fully, bumping three films nominated by normal procedure in order to add their own choices. What were the other two? We don’t know for sure, but it seems logical to assume that they were other art-house darlings beloved by film critics who’d probably raise a ruckus if they were overlooked. Of the four remaining nominees, two fit that bill: “Waltz with Bashir” (Israel) and “The Baader-Meinhof Complex” (Germany). It’s doubtful that there’d be much fussing and screaming if lesser-known “Revanche” (Austria) or “Departures” got skunked.
Voters who decide the winner are mostly the same ones who shrugged off “Waltz with Bashir,” “The Class” and “The Baader-Meinhoff Complex” initially. So why should Oscar prophets believe that they’ll suddenly vote for one of them as winner now?
I’m betting on “Departures” based upon the reax of two actual voters. Only one told me which film he voted for, but the other praised “Departures” the most among the five nominees when we chitchatted casually.
Kris Tapley of InContention.com has seen all five entries and is betting on “Bashir,” but acknowledges that “Departures” poses a serious threat: “It’s a beautiful film in a lot of ways, certainly not a more artistic achievement than ‘Waltz’ but the kind of soft, safe, solid work that tends to take out the front-runner in this category time and again. It deals with death in a really affecting way, at once eerie, humorous and, ultimately, moving. When it threatens to pass into trite territory, it finds a way to stay fresh and alive, very human and absolutely satisfying.”
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Confounding expectations that SAG was nearing a deal, the majors and the Screen Actors Guild broke off three days of talks late Thursday with the congloms issuing a take-it-or-leave-it “last, best and final” offer.The talks fell apart over SAG’s insistence that a new feature-primetime deal had to expire on June 30, 2011 – meaning that the deal would last only two years and three months.
For its part, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers insisted that the new deal has to last a full three years. And the congloms also announced their new offer could be withdrawn in 60 days.
“The terms in the offer are the best we can offer or will offer in light of the other five major labor industry deals negotiated over the past year and the extraordinary economic crisis gripping the world economy,” the AMPTP said.
The harball moves by both sides throw even more uncertainty into Hollywood’s outlook, which has been muddied since SAG’s master contract expired eight months ago on June 30.
SAG had no immediate response but the key issue separating the two sides – with the companies’ demanding a three-year deal from the date of ratification, rather three years from the expiration date of the last contract — turned out to be insurmountable.
The companies have insisted that they need the full three years to provide stability amid a volatile outlook for the industry. But such a term would push SAG’s expiration to at least March 2012 and de-couple the end of the SAG contract faw away from the WGA’s in May 2011 and the DGA’s and AFTRA’s in June 2011 – thus diminishing SAG’s bargaining clout since there would be much smaller chance of SAG being on strike at the same time as another Hollywood union.
The AMPTP also said it would be willing to start negotiations on the successor contract no later than November, 2010, which would allow SAG to get back into synch with the other unions in 2014 – as long as SAG and AFTRA ratified the successor agreements by June 30, 2011.
That proposal wasn’t enough to persuade SAG’s leaders to accept the “last, best and final” offer, which included half a dozen “concessions” by the AMPTP:
- Withdrawal of the proposal on “French Hours,” which covers meal penalties
- Modification the “union security” clause for new media productions
- Withdrawal of its proposal to eliminate force majeure protection and present a revised clause for series contract performers impacted by an unforseen event such as the WGA strike
- Increased covered background performers in features from two to five.
- Recognition that dancing on hard and slippery surfaces may qualify as hazardous activity
- Agreement with SAG’s proposal to allow TV stunt coordinators to participate in revenue-based residual payments
The congloms made the “last, best and final offer” eight months after issuing a “final” offer to SAG on June 30 as the guild’s feature-primetime contract expired.
The three days of talks represented only the second round of talks for SAG and the AMPTP since last July. Two days of talks in November, supervised by a federal mediator, also cratered when SAG demanded increases in DVD residuals, product placement protections and retroactivity….
By Dave Mcnary
Akshay Kumar with co-stars Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan and the film’s director Nikhil Advani at the premiere of ‘Chandni Chowk to China.’
U.S. film stars and studio bosses are singing Bollywood’s praises, perhaps unsurprisingly, given that the Mumbai-based film industry churns out over 1,000 motion pictures a year and controls nearly 95 percent of the Indian market, leaving foreign films with only a thin slice of the pie.
Will Smith is amongst the U.S. stars with the closest ties to Bollywood. Smith has a production deal with one of India’s leading studios and aims to marry the two industries. At the London premiere of his latest film “Seven Pounds” earlier this week, Smith confessed his fondness for Bollywood films: “I love the flavour, I love the energy,” Smith told CNN. “It’s bright, it’s colourful. It speaks to my spirit! That’s how I see life.”
Hollywood studios have been equally keen to get in on the action. Today, Warner Brothers Pictures give their first Bollywood production “Chandni Chowk to China,” the biggest U.S. release of any Indian film to date, hoping it will emulate the success of Danny Boyle’s Mumbai-based hit “Slumdog Millionaire.”
“I think we have something to take from them and we have something to give back,” said Nikhil Advani the director of “Chandni Chowk” at the film’s London premiere. “What we can take from them is the template to get a little more organized, and as far as they are concerned, they have a huge market they can cater to.”
A market of 1.2 billion to be exact, not to mention the enormous Indian diaspora spread across the globe — another potential goldmine. “It’s a huge fan-base,” Indian superstar and “Chandni Chowk” protagonist Akshay Kumar said, “Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, and Afghans all over the world; they all enjoy Bollywood.”
Judging by the turnout at Monday night’s London premiere of the film, they’re dedicated too — in spite of very poor early reviews for the movie. For hours, hundreds of expat Bollywood fans endured sub-zero temperatures merely to get a glimpse of their tartan-trousered hero Akshay Kumar. Given this sort of dedication, Hollywood’s new friendship is bound to be a lucrative one… isn’t it?
The Oscar shorts offer a more accurate, more complete glimpse of the state of cinema than the features. The shorts did not enter the world on a cushion of prestige or a vapor trail of hype, and they offer concentrated doses of visual ingenuity and narrative discipline. Not all are masterworks, by any means, but each at least rewards the modest investment of attention it demands.
The most interesting live-action candidates — “New Boy” and “The Pig,” from Denmark — are concise, witty excursions into complicated contemporary realities. Both deal with the growing pains of multicultural Europe, and they do so with more wryness than didacticism. Rather than teaching lessons in tolerance, they show how tricky such lessons can be, to teach or to learn.
If the live-action shorts are characterized by realism and local knowledge — each offering a few moments of immersion in the particulars of individual or family life — their animated siblings explore the universality of film language. The five (“This Way Up,” from England, and the French jeu d’esprit “Oktapodi” complete the field) employ various visual techniques, traditional and newfangled, but what they have in common is an almost complete lack of dialogue. They provide a reminder of how expressive, how moving, pictures can be. “Lavatory Lovestory,” an arrangement of black lines on a white screen with a few judicious touches of bright color, is a charming little romantic poem, perfect in its small proportions.
A program of short films. The animated “Lavatory Lovestory” by Konstantin Bronzit, Russia; “La Maison en Petits Cubes (House of Small Cubes)” by Kunio Kato, Japan; “Oktapodi” from Gobelins, l’École de l’Image, France; “Presto” by Doug Sweetland, United States; and “This Way Up” by Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes, Britain. The live-action “Auf der Strecke (On the Line)” by Reto Caffi, Switzerland and Germany; “Grisen (The Pig)” by Dorthe Warno Hogh, Denmark; “Manon Sur le Bitumen (Manon on the Asphalt)” by Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont, France; “New Boy” by Steph Green, Ireland; and “Spielzeugland (Toyland)” by Jochen Alexander Freydank, Germany. Released by Shorts International and Magnolia Pictures. Total running time: 2 hours 11 minutes. These films are not rated.
