2011 Oscars
I guess even offscreen Nazis are Oscar-bait.
Another embarrasing year for the Oscars. It will be remembered as the year the actual best picture, The Social Network, lost to the middle-brow Oscar-bait product The King’s Speech.
Let’s be fair and remember that Carlos and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives weren’t even nominated.
I’m surprised that Greenberg didn’t even get a nomination for screenplay. I mean, it was at least better than some of the other nominees.
In other years, the best films get at least a nomination. Not so much this year.
But they’re leagues better than the films that won.
Really? Considering all those films are decent to mediocre at best, King’s Speech somehow stands above those 4, hahaha.
but they are definitely the best movies that were nominated for Best Picture by the Oscar’s in their respective years.
Capote and Winter’s Bone….
…and I’m hardly a fan of Capote, which is in the same league as King’s Speech.
It’s interesting to see that Winter’s Bone for most Americans was possibly the least favourite of the nominees knowing that this film spits America’s face multiple times…
Winter’s Bone was essentially the ONLY worthy nominee out of the 10.
Blue Valentine should have won everything.
Even though The King’s Speech was a good film it is forgettable.
Blue and Dimitris, what’s wrong with Social Network?
16/24, wow. Guess I’ll be enjoying 3 months of Mubi screening, righteous.
Fincher is imposing his totalitarian, pseudo-high definition picture in my face without asking me whether I’m OK with orange lights and chiaroscuro hues all the freaking time. I liked Seven but synthetic experiments have gotten pretty repetitive in the next string of films.
Blue Valentine is second after Winter’s Bone in terms of Academy nominations….or should have been….
For the record, my two favourite David Fincher films:
15/24 while only having seen one nominated film (Harry Potter, because my wife makes me see them all). How predictable . . .
…I know it’s not incredibly controversial, how did Eric Rohmer, Satoshi Kon, and Maria Schneider not merit a mention in the “In Memoriam” section?
Dimitris, the narrative in The Social Network was also synthetic and abrasive so in fact the lighting matched the film quite well, imo. Seven and Zodiac are both great and is clearly one of the best American directors working in Hollywood today. But I have a feeling his “pseudo-high def” imagery will be used again in his Dragon Tattoo series…
well, at least in the case of Maria Schneider, she died in 2011.
but you’ve got to be a VERY big name if you’re going to make it in if you die in the first 8 weeks of the year (I think Heath Ledger is the only instance where this happened). she’ll have next year, no doubt.
also, I was really hoping to see Banksy accept that award, damn it. it would at least have been interesting to see how he disguised himself.
Pete Postlethwaite was included
how did Eric Rohmer, Satoshi Kon, and Maria Schneider not merit a mention in the “In Memoriam” section?
Hideko Takamine was omitted too…and Eric Rohmer even if they showed Claude Chabrol and Mario Monicelli.
Fincher for a Hollywood director is not that awful compared to several “controversial” James Cameron examples working today like experienced “masters” but he should have stayed in the music video business. It’s not that bad to be honest, Gondry made quite an artistic and profitable life there before he directed cutesy little films like Eternal Sunshine.
well, Pete Postlethwaite had an 8.5 inch penis, so he’s a special exception.
Rich, that’s what i was thinking. It would have also been interesting to see Joaquin Phoenix accept an award along with Casey Affleck.
I think I beat Ebert. Is there a way to accept the 3 months or do they just show up?
Also, there is a reason that so many of the films mentioned here didn’t get nominated for Academy Awards. A simple reason: it’s the Academy Awards. I always find it odd that the same people who go out of their way to make sure that everyone knows that they hate the Oscars, don’t seem to realize why they hate them. The Oscars won’t nominate foreign films, (truly) independent films, artistic films, etc. Get used to it. I mean, of course Dogtooth and Incendies lost, it’s the fucking Oscars. There is no artistic merit involved. You need to get used to it, because the Oscars won’t change, especially now that they are reaching for a young audience.
In conclusion, 3 points:
1) With all the hate beforehand, I didn’t expect everyone here to watch the Oscars.
2) The Social Network was awful. The story was interesting enough, but it was boring filmmaking at its worst. The King’s Speech wasn’t a great film, but it was still better than TSN.
3) Winter’s Bone was even worse than TSN.
3) Winter’s Bone was even worse than TSN.
Hardly. Granik has talent unlike Fincher.
Had Winter’s Bone been French or Japanese, you’d all be discussing how great it was.
Monicelli was mentioned… I can’t remember if Chabrol was (this is horrible if he weren’t)… I guess that WOULD be a reason to include Pete
My favorite portion of the awards was cut out a few years ago… I used to enjoy the mini career overviews of the lifetime achievement winners, and for the last two years, they were swept under the table in a one minute segment making us aware they gave awards to Kevin Brownlow, Eli Wallach, Jean-Luc Godard (I can’t imagine anyone more disinterested in winning an Oscar), and Francis Ford Coppola on an earlier night. There was no real explanation as to why they earned their awards…
Coppola’s was a Thalberg though, no? I mean…Thalberg isn’t a big deal to everyone, huh? :P
Fincher clearly has talent. His films may grate on you, but to say he’s devoid of talent is just provoking. But then again, so was the comment that ’Winter’s Bone’ was even worse (possibly aiming directly AT you, Dimitris)
I admit Fincher has a certain kind of “talent” but not in the feature films field. Cinema is just not the art for Fincher. Yes, I’m serious about the Madonna and Abdul videos above.
This Nine Inch Nails video he directed overshadows all of his 2000’s films:
It’s OK Fincher my boy, you’ll win your Oscar with a remake, Scorsese won this way, why should you be left out?
My friend was tallying up my votes against Ebert’s and said that I was beating Ebert for a while. I managed to get 9 correct, compared to Ebert’s 13. Somebody mentioned Hans Zimmer. I don’t know if I thought Inception was the greatest, but I thought the score was quite good. I like a lot of Hans Zimmer’s scores. I think he is one of the best composers working these days. Toy Story 3 winning Best Animated Film. As I mentioned on a thread on Toy Story 3 before, I did not think that 3 was as good as most of the rest of Pixar’s films are, included the two previous Toy Storys. However, I forgot that there was one part of 3 that I really liked and that was the beginning with the train on the tracks going onto a bridge. The rest of the film was just recycled parts of 2 such as the repetition of places with toys, 2 with a toy store and Wayne Knight’s characters collectibles’s and the conveyor belt at the junkyard which just reminded me of the conveyor belt in 2 at the airport. I don’t know if the other two animated films are good or not, but I wonder if they are better than Toy Story 3.
If that “Fincher clearly has talent” was at me, I never said he doesn’t. I thought Zodiac was one of the best films of its year, but TSN was a step down.
Also, I kind of buried my own question up there. How do I get my three months?
EDIT: @ Hal: I’m pretty sure that people hate Toy Story 3 here, as I have come to familiarize myself with the common prejudices in this community. I can say that I loved Toy Story 3. I do think that it was the best in that category. (In fact, I think it was the second best of the 10 BP nominees). However, L’illusioniste was magical. I would have been just as happy if that had won. I don’t care for Dreamworks, so I can’t tell you if the Dragon film was good. I should also note that I am a small child at heart and I thought that Despicable Me should have been nominated. Okay, everyone, grab your pitchforks.
well, if anyone else has now gotten the Oscars out of their system, feel free to get the discussion of God’s Country started.
@RUS
Pete Postlethwaite did not have an 8.5" penis, but he was missing a testicle. Surely that affords him some gratitude and recognition, haha!
I think he also had a stutter.
I am tallying up the official total and I see 14 for Ebert. Is one of these wrong?
and I thought that Despicable Me should have been nominated.
I was always wondering why limit it to 3 nominees in that animation category? Why not make it 5?
But then again, sorry Shakha but with the inclusion of Despicable Me….too much Americana man….American feature film animation is just not really worthwhile nowadays…
@Johnny Duibel Yeah, I mentioned on an earlier post today on this thread that they don’t present those special awards such as a Lifetime Achievement Award or a Thalberg. How can you not have Coppola give a speech? Like Corman, he was a mentor and a launching pad for other filmmaker’s careers as well such as George Lucas and I think I can say people like Walter Murch, John Milius and I think Hal Barwood and Carol Ballard who I believe directed the Black Stallion.
@Dimitris Yeah, Coppola won the Thalberg. I don’t see the reason why he couldn’t give a speech. Other directors have such as Spielberg. Why not Coppola?
If you look over his list in the article “Outguess Ebert: It’s not over till the king speaks”, he doesn’t have a pick for Achievement in costume design.
@Shakha, the Fincher has talent comment was at Dimitris, who intimated he didn’t. In my estimation, he’s made one truly great film (‘Zodiac’), a couple of very good entertainments (‘Se7en’ and ‘Fight Club’), and a couple of middling awards fodder films (‘CCOBB’ and ‘TSN’). He only has two major disasters (‘Alien 3’ and ‘Panic Room’) on his resume, but he has a strong grip on the technical aspect of filmmaking, and he clearly has a definite effective method (for better sometimes and worse others) of pushing his vision across using that craft
Westley
They (Brokeback Mountain; The Social Network) might not be the best movies if one was to consider all the movies of the year, but they are definitely the best movies that were nominated for Best Picture by the Oscar’s in their respective years.