Amph Award Season Discussion!

I liked Moonrise Kingdom, but I've got to be honest, I think it's incredibly overrated. I wanted to see Beasts of the Southern Wild when it was in theatres but never did, so I guess catching it on Blu Ray is now the plan. I'm seeing Zero Dark Thirty tomorrow. The only other major nominees I have left to see are Life of Pi , Silver Linings Playbook, and Amour. At nomination time this year, I've probably seen more nominees already than any other year in the last 10. This was a pretty good year for movies.

I have to say, I am absolutely shocked that Bigelow and Affleck were snubbed for Best Director. Like, jaw on the floor, I have never seen a snub that surprised me that much, and here we have two in just one category. As I said, I haven't seen Zero Dark Thirty yet, but I have seen Argo and Affleck seriously really deserved a nomination.

Other points of interest: here's hoping Roger Deakins can finally bring home an Oscar for his cinematography of Skyfall (though I'm not sure what his chances are), we have the oldest and youngest ever actress nominees in one night, DiCaprio should have been nominated instead of Waltz (mostly because Waltz isn't a supporting actor, he's a co-lead), and in spite of a couple noms that not a lot of people have seen (Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild) this year has a shocking number of nominated films that at least a decent number of regular people actually have an interest in!

For ease of reading, here's the list of nominees:

Best picture:
"Amour" Nominees to be determined
"Argo" Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers
"Django Unchained" Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers
"Les Misérables" Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers
"Life of Pi" Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers
"Lincoln" Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
"Silver Linings Playbook" Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
"Zero Dark Thirty" Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers

Achievement in directing
"Amour" Michael Haneke
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" Benh Zeitlin
"Life of Pi" Ang Lee
"Lincoln" Steven Spielberg
"Silver Linings Playbook" David O. Russell
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Bradley Cooper in "Silver Linings Playbook"
Daniel Day-Lewis in "Lincoln"
Hugh Jackman in "Les Misérables"
Joaquin Phoenix in "The Master"
Denzel Washington in "Flight"

Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Alan Arkin in "Argo"
Robert De Niro in "Silver Linings Playbook"
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "The Master"
Tommy Lee Jones in "Lincoln"
Christoph Waltz in "Django Unchained"


Performance by an actress in a leading role
Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty"
Jennifer Lawrence in "Silver Linings Playbook"
Emmanuelle Riva in "Amour"
Quvenzhané Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild"
Naomi Watts in "The Impossible"

Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams in "The Master"
Sally Field in "Lincoln"
Anne Hathaway in "Les Misérables"
Helen Hunt in "The Sessions"
Jacki Weaver in "Silver Linings Playbook"

Best animated feature film of the year
"Brave" Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
"Frankenweenie" Tim Burton
"ParaNorman" Sam Fell and Chris Butler
"The Pirates! Band of Misfits" Peter Lord
"Wreck-It Ralph" Rich Moore

Achievement in cinematography
"Anna Karenina" Seamus McGarvey
"Django Unchained" Robert Richardson
"Life of Pi" Claudio Miranda
"Lincoln" Janusz Kaminski
"Skyfall" Roger Deakins

Achievement in costume design
"Anna Karenina" Jacqueline Durran
"Les Misérables" Paco Delgado
"Lincoln" Joanna Johnston
"Mirror Mirror" Eiko Ishioka
"Snow White and the Huntsman" Colleen Atwood

Best documentary feature
"5 Broken Cameras"
Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
"The Gatekeepers"
Nominees to be determined
"How to Survive a Plague"
Nominees to be determined
"The Invisible War"
Nominees to be determined
"Searching for Sugar Man"
Nominees to be determined

Best documentary short subject
"Inocente"
Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
"Kings Point"
Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
"Mondays at Racine"
Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
"Open Heart"
Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
"Redemption"
Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill

Achievement in film editing
"Argo" William Goldenberg
"Life of Pi" Tim Squyres
"Lincoln" Michael Kahn
"Silver Linings Playbook" Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
"Zero Dark Thirty" Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg


Best foreign language film of the year
"Amour" Austria
"Kon-Tiki" Norway
"No" Chile
"A Royal Affair" Denmark
"War Witch" Canada

Achievement in makeup and hairstyling
"Hitchcock"
Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
"Les Misérables"
Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
"Anna Karenina" Dario Marianelli
"Argo" Alexandre Desplat
"Life of Pi" Mychael Danna
"Lincoln" John Williams
"Skyfall" Thomas Newman

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
"Before My Time" from "Chasing Ice"
Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
"Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from "Ted"
Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
"Pi's Lullaby" from "Life of Pi"
Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
"Skyfall" from "Skyfall"
Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
"Suddenly" from "Les Misérables"
Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil

Achievement in production design
"Anna Karenina"
Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
"Les Misérables"
Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
"Life of Pi"
Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
"Lincoln"
Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson

Best animated short film
"Adam and Dog" Minkyu Lee
"Fresh Guacamole" PES
"Head over Heels" Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly
"Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare"" David Silverman
"Paperman" John Kahrs

Best live action short film
"Asad" Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
"Buzkashi Boys" Sam French and Ariel Nasr
"Curfew" Shawn Christensen
"Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw)" Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
"Henry" Yan England

​

Achievement in sound editing
"Argo" Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
"Django Unchained" Wylie Stateman
"Life of Pi" Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
"Skyfall" Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
"Zero Dark Thirty" Paul N.J. Ottosson

Achievement in sound mixing
"Argo"
John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
"Les Misérables"
Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
"Life of Pi"
Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
"Lincoln"
Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
"Skyfall"
Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

Achievement in visual effects
"The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey"
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
"Life of Pi"
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
"Marvel's The Avengers"
Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
"Prometheus"
Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
"Snow White and the Huntsman"
Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson

Adapted screenplay
"Argo" Screenplay by Chris Terrio
"Beasts of the Southern Wild" Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
"Life of Pi" Screenplay by David Magee
"Lincoln" Screenplay by Tony Kushner
"Silver Linings Playbook" Screenplay by David O. Russell

Original screenplay
"Amour" Written by Michael Haneke
"Django Unchained" Written by Quentin Tarantino
"Flight" Written by John Gatins
"Moonrise Kingdom" Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola
"Zero Dark Thirty" Written by Mark Boal

 

I don't know if Beasts of the Southern Wild is a good movie, per se, unless its sole point was to aim a camera at Quvenzhané Wallis and watch her dominate every frame of the movie with her charisma. If that's the case, then it may be the best film I've ever seen. The movie is an unrivaled masterpiece of watching Wallis do whatever it is she is doing on camera, which is sublime. I have never seen anything else like her performance. Acknowledging it with something as pedestrian as an Oscar nomination seems beyond trite.

 

Hobbit better win vis effects.

 

How do nominations for best picture work? I noticed that there are only 9 nominations and I thought it had been changed to 10? Also, I might be in the minority on this, but as good as Argo was--I thought Skyfall was better. I'm kind of sad Skyfall was not nominated for best picture.

EDIT: Also I saw Life of Pi yesterday and would not be sad if it won best visual effects.

 

I think the most pleasant surprise is that Christoph Waltz is nominated for Best Supporting instead of DiCaprio. DiCaprio was really great, but it was by far the showier role, while Waltz actually had to take his character on a real, somewhat interior journey and make us believe in that deep change. DiCaprio was good and showy; Waltz was better and less showy. For once, the Oscars went for the less showy part. Good for them.

 

Haha no love at all in any category for The Dark Knight Rises. Not even a sound nomination or something. I do wish Looper had gotten some Oscar love such as Original Screenplay.

 

You will just have to imagine the Oscar.

 

The backlash against TDKR is completely and utterly ridiculous. It doesn't even get any technical nominations? Really, Wally Pfister's IMAX work wasn't just as good if not better than what he was nominated for on TDK? Really?

I guess on the plus side, it really makes this cinematography award Roger Deakins' to lose. I have never so strongly wanted over and over again for someone to win and have them come away empty handed every time. He's probably the most respected and IMHO the best DP working today and he still hasn't ever won.

They changed it this year so that it's no longer 10 guaranteed. It's 5 minimum, but then up to 10. In order to qualify, a film must get at least 5% of first place votes. So there can be anywhere from 5-10 nominees.

 

We're going to snub the film...with no nominations!

 

At least this means a chance of seeing Adelle perform on the Oscar stage.

 

Or you could just go to your local aquarium and watch a manatee moan.

 

that sounds way more fun tbh.

 

Mary Elizabeth Winstead in Smashed. That was an Oscar-worthy performance. But I guess alcoholism recovery movies are considered too humdrum. Smashed is among the very best of that subgrenre.

On the other hand, appearing in Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter has probably disqualified her from ever being nominated for any kind of acting award, ever again.

 

Disclaimer: I haven't seen any of these movies, so they may well surpass The Impossible, the only one I did see, but - any thoughts on why The Impossible was all but overlooked? Apparently there was some early buzz that Ewan McGregory and/or Tom Holland might have been nominated. (Yes, Naomi Watts was nominated, I see, but that appears to be the only nom for this movie.)

 

I wish Ewan would've been nominated, so he could finally become a freaking Oscar nominee already.

 

Adelephant

 

Interesting, I've seen 8 of the Best Picture noms! The only ones I haven't seen yet are Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild.

I'm very disappointed that Affleck and Bigelow weren't nominated as well. Come to think of it, I'm also disappointed that Tarantion wasn't nominated. I also wish that Marion Cotillard had been nominated for Rust and Bone.

I would love to see Django win Best Picture, but since the Academy usually plays it safe and self-indulgent, I'm betting that Lincoln is going to win Best Picture.

 

To be fair, if Lincoln swept the board I wouldn't complain. It's absolutely superb and Spielberg's best work in ages (though I haven't seen Munich).

 

If Wallis doesn't win an award it's only because what she did in Beasts of the Southern Wild probably doesn't actually qualify as acting. It's something unique and better and probably accessible only to certain very young children who have never been taught anything whatsoever about stage or screen acting.

 

I won't complain if any of those films win BP. The ones that I've seen are top-notch, and the other nominees look very good.

 

didn't see this thread...

anyway, I'm not shocked Les Mis didn't get a cinematography nod, but am in that it didn't get an original score

 

Beasts of the Southern Wild is one of those artsy-fartsy type of Oscar bait films for which I cannot understand the critical acclaim. The kid was okay, but otherwise it's nothing but pretty cinematography and an attempt to be "deep." Felt like Malick with a plot. Blech.

I liked Lincoln and Les Mis fine. No interest in Tarantino. Will see Amour and Life of Pi when they're out on Blu-ray. I feel Bert Macklin, Navy SEAL won't be enough to mitigate my annoyance at Zero Dark Thirty, though I will probably rent the BD anyway. I have screeners for Argo and Silver Linings Playbook, the latter of which I heard was a "by the numbers" romance but I'll watch anyway because of Jennifer Lawrence (what?) and hey, it's free.

 

You are shocked that Les Mis didn't get an original score?