Oscar fashions: Divas and flops on the red carpet

And most of the stars didn’t disappoint Sunday night. They glittered in their borrowed jewelry and sparkled in their swankiest gowns.

Here’s my take on the best and the worst of Hollywood’s prom night.

The best
> Vera Farmiga got it absolutely right with her first Oscar red carpet trip. Nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her turn in “Up in the Air,” Farmiga looked like a rose in her fuchsia Marchesa ruffled, asymmetrical gown.


> Sandra Bullock, dressed in a form-fitting, shimmering champagne Marchesa gown with an embroidered leaf patterned bodice, looked an awful lot like the Best Actress Oscar she won for “The Blind Side.”


> Zoe Saldana, out from under her blue Na’vi “Avatar” makeup, wore a ruffled Givenchy dress that started at top in the palest lavender and deepened to its big, ruffled midnight blue train.


> Carey Mulligan, nominated for Best Actress for “An Education,” took a step back into Audrey Hepburn territory (complete with pixie haircut) in her beaded black Prada strapless dress decorated with tiny scissors, spoons and forks.


> Helen Mirren, nominated for Best Actress for “The Last Station” is always one of my fashion favs and she didn’t disappoint Sunday night in her sparkling lavender Badgley Mischka gown.


> Penelope Cruz was red carpet perfect, as always, in her strapless satin burgundy Donna Karan gown.


> Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar, sparkled in a mocha sheath dress with a bodice decorated in beaded hearts.

The worst
> Diane Kruger’s black and white ruffled Chanel nightmare brings back painful memories of Uma Thurman’s 2004 shepherdess outfit and Bjork’s 2001 swan dress. There has to be one fashion disaster every year, but Kruger deserved better. Time to fire the stylist.


> Charlize, Charlize, Charlize, what were you thinking? Theron, an Academy Award-winner, has a beautiful body, but that Dior Couture gown put all the focus on her breasts and not in a good way.


> Maggie Gyllenhaal wore a blue brush-stroke Diers van Noten dress that looked more tie-dyed garage project than red carpet glam.


> Sigourney Weaver usually is a fashion star, but her red dress with a Christmas ornament shoulder clasp and black tie belt, just didn’t cut it.


> Elizabeth Banks’ Versace dress was beautiful, but the slate gray color didn’t do her any favors. She looked pale and drab.


And a final note, George Clooney was impeccably dressed as always, but he really needed to make a quick stop at the barber for a trim on his shaggy ‘do before he arrived at the Kodak Theater.

Source:coloradoan.com/

Gold Derby nuggets: Pete Hammond: Best actress 'down to the wire' | Oscars leading men

Pete Hammond -- who pegged Sandra Bullock as a contender weeks before anyone else -- surveys the lead actress field and finds it "all over the map." Pete concludes, "EW's annual survey of four academy voters (not the biggest sample exactly) had Streep winning with 3 to Bullock's 1. I think it is likely much much closer and Gabby and Carey are significant factors. Warner Bros. strategists working on Bullock's behalf privately tell me they prefer that. A tighter four-way contest is better for Bullock's ultimate chances of prevailing than going one-on-one with the imposing Streep. This one's going down to the wire." NOTES ON A SEASON




• "Down to the wire" could well describe the last-minute decision-making of Oscar voters. Tuesday at 5 p.m. PT marked the deadline for returning completed ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers -- that well-known "independent accounting firm" -- which will tally the votes. That pesky preferential method for best picture slowed the usual quick rate of return; in previous years, the majority of ballots were returned within 10 days of receipt. The ballot listed nominees in only 19 of the 24 categories. Academy members were required to attend screenings if they wished to vote for foreign-language film, documentary features and shorts, and animated and live-action shorts.

• The P.R. people for the Oscars are busy coming up with cute headlines for their now daily announcements of the latest bold-faced names slated to appear on Sunday's show. Tuesday's release was headlined "The Guys Have It" as it touted first-time appearances by Gerard Butler, Bradley Cooper, Tom Ford, Chris Pine, Ryan Reynolds and Sam Worthington, the third appearance by Jake Gyllenhaal and the fifth appearance for Keanu Reeves. AMPAS



• One guy that certainly has it all is Robert Osborne, who will be returning to the red carpet for the fifth year in a row to welcome Oscar's guests. Per the press release: "'Being on Oscar’s red carpet is unlike any other experience,' said Academy President Tom Sherak. 'Robert is the perfect person to welcome our guests and ease them into a night of spectacular celebration.' His red carpet celebrity chats will be audible to the other arriving guests as well as to the bleacher fans on the opposite side of the carpet." The included bio notes, "In addition to writing a column for The Hollywood Reporter, Osborne is the primetime host of Turner Classic Movies and a frequent host of Academy public events in New York and Los Angeles. He also is the author of the Academy’s '80 Years of the Oscar,' the official history of the Academy Awards, and hosts Robert Osborne’s Classic Film Festival in Athens, Georgia." AMPAS



• As per an AP report, Jeff Bridges crooned the right kind of tunes in "Crazy Heart" to win an Oscar. "With a .500 batting average, country has a better track record than other music genres at the Oscars. Soul has produced a string of Oscar losers, including Eddie Murphy for supporting actor as the fictional James 'Thunder' Early in 2006’s 'Dreamgirls' and Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne in the lead categories as Tina and Ike Turner in 1993’s 'What’s Love Got to Do With It.' Jazz and standards singers also have a spotty Oscar history, the losers including Michelle Pfeiffer for best actress as fictional torch singer Susie Diamond in 1989’s 'The Fabulous Baker Boys' and Diana Ross as Billie Holiday in 1972’s 'Lady Sings the Blues.' As French songbird Edith Piaf, Marion Cotillard won best actress for 2007’s 'La Vie en Rose.' Jamie Foxx could be an honorary winner for the country crowd with his best-actor triumph as Ray Charles in 2004’s 'Ray.' Charles’ music drew on soul, blues, jazz, country and other genres, and he did a two-volume series of albums titled 'Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.' " AP



• As Josh Duboff reports, "New York’s Oscar fans may be in for a surprise Sunday night … and it won’t be because of a major upset. ABC’s New York affiliate, WABC-TV, is threatening to pull the Oscar telecast if it doesn’t receive the payment it is demanding from Cablevision. The TV station and cable provider, who have not had a deal for two years (they’ve been 'granting extensions on a month-to-month basis'), are disputing retransmission fees. As a bargaining tactic, ABC has said it will inform subscribers that they may no longer have access to the station beginning March 7, the day of ABC’s Academy Awards telecast. NEW YORK

Source:goldderby.latimes.com/

5 Oscar Movies You Haven't Seen—but Totally Should

Magnolia Pictures; Summit Entertainment; Oceanic Preservation Society; IFC FIlms; Fox Searchlight

In a bid to recapture the interest of regular folks like you and me, the Academy Awards' Best Picture category has expanded to allow for 10 competing flicks, and so a lot of films you probably missed have been nominated.

So what did you miss?

In a year where Mo'Nique, Quentin Tarantino, the Coen brothers, Sandra Bullock and a naked, 10-foot blue chick in 3D can all be mentioned in the same breath, how do you know which Oscar flicks you really should be catching up on?

Read on for the first five that should be on your list...

1. The Hurt Locker (many nominations, including Best Picture)

Why you didn't see it: It's an Iraq war movie, and let's face it, most of those have been sanctimonious sacks of suckage. Plus, you probably weren't expecting much better from the director of Point Break.

Why you should: Because, awards and critical acclaim and mismanaged marketing aside, this is not some stuffy, important-with-a-capital-I drama.

It is, in fact, a kickass action movie full of explosions, eviscerations and nigh-unbearable tension as bombs are defused (or not) and snipers are picked off.

It's the sort of film that would be more at home running on TNT's "Movies for guys who like movies" than in some out-of-the-way art-house multiplex. And don't forget that that Point Break director also made Near Dark. This is even better.

2. The Cove (Best Documentary Feature)

Why you didn't see it: A documentary about the importance of saving dolphins sounds about as appealing as a week-old tuna salad sandwich.

Why you should: Put aside for a second that you'll learn some useful information about which seafood to be careful of eating. The key here is that The Cove is not just some preachy screed about how dolphins are cute and smart, but a full-on heist movie—like Ocean's 11, but real.

See, a team of experts in different fields arrange the perfect break-in to a secluded cove in Japan, so they can gather crucial evidence of secret mass slaughterings.

If George Clooney were in a story like that, you'd be there, right? This is even better, because chances are you don't already know whether or not they succeeded (do yourself a favor and don't Google it first).

3. Fantastic Mr. Fox (Best Animated Feature)

Why you didn't see it: Because the idea that the director of movies like The Darjeeling Limited could make an unabashedly entertaining stop-motion flick for the whole family was an unlikely proposition indeed.

Why you should: Because it's based on a Roald Dahl children's book, it has a great cast (Michael Gambon! Bill Murray! Meryl Streep!) and Wes Anderson has lightened up a whole lot.

Kids will love the slapstick; adults will appreciate the ironic juxtapositions of human versus animal behavior. Also, George Clooney in full-on self-parody mode, as he is here, beats George Clooney in self-important, introspective mode (we're looking at you, Up in the Air).

4. In the Loop (Best Adapted Screenplay)

Why you didn't see it: The banal title tells you almost nothing about the movie, plus it's a spinoff of an English TV series, In the Thick of It, which isn't even available on DVD over here.

Why you should: Assuming you're not allergic to a variety of different U.K. accents, this is one of the sharpest, funniest satires of government ever made, and you don't have to know anything about the TV show it's based on.

A fast-paced, deadpan study of government idiocy during the buildup to a familiar-yet-nameless war, it'll have you laughing so hard at some of its jokes that you'll need a second viewing to hear the follow-up lines.

Plus Peter Capaldi's foul-mouthed, Scottish damage-control expert makes Rahm Emanuel sound like a choirboy by comparison.

5. Food Inc. (Best Documentary Feature)

Why you didn't see it: Because almost every exposé of the food industry ends up telling you to go vegan, and who needs that? Meat and cheese are delicious!

Why you should: Because this one doesn't. Finally, a truly fair and balanced look at the food industry that yes, dings factory farming for its flaws and overreliance on antibiotics, but also tells you that it's OK to eat meat if you're smart about it, and...praises Walmart? C'mon. You have to see that to believe it.

Source:eonline.com/

LEE DANIELS - DANIELS IMAGINED OSCAR SNUB

Filmmaker LEE DANIELS was convinced his movie had been left out of the Oscar nominations, because he was so tired he forgot the film titles would be announced alphabetically.
The director, who helmed Precious: Based On The Novel Push By Sapphire, got out of bed to watch Anne Hathaway reveal this year's (10) Academy Award nominees with Academy President Tom Sherak at an early morning TV news conference last Tuesday (02Feb10).
Daniels thought the nominations for Best Picture would be read out in order of the directors' names and he was convinced Precious had been left off the list when he heard Quentin Tarantino's nod for Inglourious Basterds.
And the moviemaker had already gone back to bed when his name was called out after Tarantino's.
He says, "When Tarantino was mentioned prior to Daniels, I went, ‘Oh, well, nuts.' And literally as I got back to the pillow I heard ‘Daniels,’ and I bounced back up.”
Daniels is also up for the Best Director award at the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.

Source:contactmusic.com/

Top 10 Best Oscar Dresses

Jennifer Aniston in Valentino

When Jennifer Aniston really needed to pull it out of the bag - and show Brad what he's missing - she absolutely nailed it. The Marley & Me star rocked up to the Oscars 2009 in a stunning strapless beaded Valentino gown. Totally jaw-plummeting.









Penelope Cruz in Versace




Wowser! Penelope Cruz really upped the style stakes in her voluminous Versace gown with a woven bodice and all-over feathered skirt. It certainly got tongues wagging - for all the right reasons!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Michelle Williams in Vera Wang




This might just be our all-time favourite Oscars gown... Well, it's definitely a contender for the title! Michelle Williams made mustard work in a way no other star ever has in 2006. Her Vera Wang dress, with its understated ruching and frills, was simply divine. And the red lippie was an inspired finishing touch.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anne Hathaway in Armani Prive




Anne Hathaway's best look ever? We think so! Anne simply wowed at the Oscars 2009 in her Armani Privé Champagne-coloured gown, featuring hundreds of Swarovski crystals. Cartier jewellery finished the look beautifully.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Sienna Miller in Matthew Williamson




A young Sienna Miller made her Oscars debut in 2004. Wearing a dress by designer pal Matthew Williamson, Sienna showed just why she was the fashionista British girls most wanted to dress like

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Charlize Theron in Gucci




How divine was Charlize Theron in dazzling Champagne-hued Gucci at the Oscars in 2004? We love this dress - and the elegant 30s-style curls.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Marion Cotillard in Jean Paul Gaultier




Public Enemies star Marion Cotillard was on fine form at the Oscars in 2008 in a scalloped Jean Paul Gaultier mermaid gown and Swarovski clutch.

Natalie Portman in Lanvin

Natalie Portman was nominated for her role in Closer in 2005 and looked utterly sublime on the Oscars red carpet. Wearing this pewter-hued Lanvin dress the actress teamed her gown with nude nails and make-up and a discreet Alice band for a look that was pure class.

Renee Zellweger in Carolina Herrera

In 2003, Renee Zellweger successfully worked the red carpet in a colour-popping beaded Carolina Herrera gown.

Cameron Diaz in Valentino

Oh, Cameron, how we love thee! Ms Diaz's fold-detail strapless Valentino gown in 2007 had us practically drooling! Love the silver peep-toes and stunning green drop earrings, too.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Source:instyle.co.uk/

Sandra Bullock Earns Oscar And Razzie Nominations In Same Week

For seven long years, she was the girl in that failed movie/ TV show that you vaguely recognized. In 1994, she took the bus ride from hell with Keanu Reeves and became America's new sweetheart. Now, after a decade and a half as the A-list star of various chick-flick hits, Sandra Bullock has begun a new stage of her career: Oscar nominee.

Oddly enough, Bullock's sweet success was made bitter by another distinction: a Razzie nomination for Worst Actress. Being simultaneously nominated as the best and worst at your job is something truly rare. Yet, for Bullock, such a dichotomy seems oddly appropriate.

"I could not begin to tell you about the plot of the movie, because we'd be here for one hour and 35 minutes. I literally can't. Next question," Bullock said at the premiere for "All About Steve," the film behind her Razzie noms. "It's not complicated, but if you had to summarize your life in one little sentence for the media, could you do it?"

It certainly would be hard to briefly summarize Bullock's life. Born to a German opera singer and her voice coach, Bullock's maternal grandfather was a rocket scientist and the family moved frequently all over Europe and the U.S. A high school cheerleader who quit college only three credits short of graduating, she moved to Manhattan and worked as a coat checker to support herself. After starting out in junk like the TV movie "Bionic Showdown: The Six Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman" and the short-lived TV adaptation of "Working Girl," she broke through in 1994's "Speed." (That's three sentences — we cheated.)

"The worst thing that ever happened [after I became famous] was I was in a toilet stall at a club, and a camera came in underneath," Bullock told us once of the downside of becoming a household name. "[It was] a still camera. I think I got everything covered pretty much, but you just go, 'Oh my God, do you think I won't just swing this stall door open and clock you one?' But first, you have to pull the pants up, and it could get to be messy. That's when you realize there are boundaries that will be crossed.

"Now I'm prepared for [fame], and I don't use stalls anymore," Bullock explained. "I hold it."

That fame is only going to soar further now that, at age 45, she pulled off the back-to-back hits "The Proposal" and "The Blind Side," the latter of which earned her a Best Actress Oscar nomination as outspoken football mom Leigh Anne Tuohy. But despite her hugely successful year, the dichotomy of her Oscar/Razzie noms reminds fans that for every "Blind Side" she has an "All About Steve," for every "Speed" there's been a "Speed 2: Cruise Control," and for every "Miss Congeniality" her fans have had to sit through a "Two if by Sea."

Much like such stars as Bruce Willis, Jim Carrey and Dennis Quaid, all her decades of hits had never translated into an Oscar nomination — until now. There have been some apparent Oscar-bait movies ("28 Days," "Crash," "Infamous"), but according to Bullock, she wasn't even aiming for awards when she relented and agreed to be in "The Blind Side."

"I'd always assumed that the road to Oscar was planned. I thought people chose projects that were considered 'Oscar-worthy,' " Bullock said after learning about her nomination. "No one wanted to make this film. I didn't want to make this film for the better part of the year. Everyone is as blindsided — can I say that? — as I am."

Source:mtv.com/

Battle of the exes

It's been dubbed the battle of the exes. In one corner stands a blowhard moviemaker whose latest project is a visual extravaganza with an eye-popping budget to match. In the other, his former wife, a respected director in her own right who has wooed critics with her unsentimental take on the Iraq war. With Oscar season looming, the question on tinseltown lips is, will the race for the coveted best picture statuette descend into a straightforward tussle between the former spouses?

In a showdown that could only have been scripted in Hollywood, Avatar director James Cameron appears almost certain to be pitted against ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow and her gritty Iraq drama The Hurt Locker.

Both films appear to be a shoo-in for the short list, raising the delicious prospect of Titanic director Cameron being denied another 'King of the World' moment by none other than his former wife. The fact that Cameron beat Bigelow to claim the Golden Globe for best drama has merely added spice to proceedings.

On paper, Avatar and The Hurt Locker couldn't be less alike. Featuring boundary-shattering 3D technology and stunning sci-fi vistas, Avatar is, depending on your opinion, either a tour de force in the tradition of The Ten Commandments and Star Wars or a depressing example of the movie industry at its most bloated. What can't be denied is that it's an epic slab of corn-ball.

Conversely, The Hurt Locker is the little movie that could. Released with no fanfare and with a largely unknown cast, it came in the wake of a series of flop Iraq movies. But Bigelow has proved you can make a decent Iraq film with commercial appeal. Perhaps the most striking thing about The Hurt Locker is its price tag -- $11m (€7.8m), less than one-twentieth of Cameron's $230m (€163m) Avatar.

"Cameron has been divorced more times than he's been nominated, he was bound to come face to face with an ex sooner or later," says Vincent Donnelly of website Movies.ie. "He and Bigelow are still good friends; they've worked together after their split in the early 1990s.

Cameron reportedly advised Bigelow to drop what she was working on to direct The Hurt Locker. So even if she wins the Oscar, he's going to take some of the credit for her success.

"A contest where former husband and wife are the frontrunners for the two big awards certainly adds some spice to the event," says Hollywood insider Steve Pond. "It's Hollywood and people love intrigue and gossip."

Publicly, both parties are playing down the potential for conflict. Since divorcing, Cameron and Bigelow have always insisted they remained on friendly terms.

"I would love to see The Hurt Locker get nominated and see her get the recognition she has deserved for a long time," said the five-times married Cameron. "Nothing would make me happier." Bigelow, for her part, has been tripping over herself to laud her ex, declaring Avatar one of her favourite movies of the year. "I've seen Avatar, and I love it, love it, love it," she told Entertainment Weekly. Perhaps her generosity can be explained by the fact that, if critics are to be believed, and notwithstanding the Golden Globes, the Hurt Locker is in pole position to be named best picture. It has already been given that honour at the Producers' Guild of America, LA Film Critics and American Film Institute awards and won Venice Film Festival Grand Prize (closer to home, it's been nominated for an IFTA).

Bigelow and Cameron were married for two years. Shortly after their split, he began a relationship with his Terminator II star Linda Hamilton, though that relationship eventually flamed out too. Today, Cameron is on wife number five, with actress Suzy Amis, who he met on the set of Titanic.

Joking about his colourful love life, Cameron said: "I've been divorced more times than I've been nominated (for the Globes). I don't really know which one is more awkward."

An Oscar-night triumph for Bigelow would be inevitably hailed as a major step forward for women in cinema. In the 75-year history of the Oscars, only three have even received best director nominations (Lina Wertmuller for Seven Beauties in 1976, Jane Campion for The Piano in 1993 and Sofia Coppola for Lost in Translation in 2003). And yet, in many ways, she makes for a peculiar role-model for female movie makers. Certainly her previous films -- action flicks like K19: The Widowmaker and Point Break -- have been as testosterone splashed as anything her one-time husband has made.

Speaking to reporters last week, Cameron insisted that he wasn't too bothered about winning the approval of the Academy of Motion Pictures (then again with Avatar on course to eclipse the record $1.8bn box take achieved by Titanic, why would he?).

"Do I think we'll get some nominations? Hell, yeah. For visual effects and things like that, I think we should be strongly considered for that," he told the QMI Agency. "The genre of this film isn't typically honoured by Oscar in the acting, directing and best picture categories.

"Not like Titanic, which was a historical drama and costume piece. So the stars don't quite line up in that way."

Some, though, see the impending Oscar face-off as nothing less than a battle for the soul of the movie industry. To such commentators, a victory for The Hurt Locker would prove that, even in this era of $200m budgets and deafening marketing campaigns, it is still possible for intelligent low-budget pictures to sneak into the mainstream.

Writing in the online magazine Slate, esteemed American movie critic Roger Ebert couched the tussle in apocalyptic terms.

"For all I know, James and Kathryn speak on the phone every day and wish each other's movies nothing but good fortune," he said.

"But anyone who's ever watched as a smug ex goes on to enormous success has to place him or herself squarely in Bigelow's camp."

Source:independent.ie/

Oscar Best Foreign Language Film

The best foreign language film category is especially difficult to predict because only a group of about 20 Academy members will decide on the five nominees. Thanks to that set-up, Pedro Almodovar’s Volver — sure to get nominated three years ago — was left out.

The White Ribbon, A Prophet, and The Secret of Her Eyes are about as sure to be included as possible. (But don’t forget Volver.) Winter in Wartime would have been a shoo-in if the Academy’s old set-up were still in place — it’s set during World War II, those foreign-language film voting members’ all-time favorite era. But under the new set-up, three years ago Paul Verhoeven’s Dutch-made World War II-set The Black Book ended up not getting a nomination. So, who knows?

Ajami, last year’s winner of the Israeli Academy Award, is the iffiest one on the list above. Claudia Llosa’s Berlin winner The Milk of Sorrow (Peru) and Warwick Thornton’s Australian Film Institute winner Samson & Delilah (Australia) are two other strong possibilities. But don’t be too shocked if two little-known films, Ermek Tursunov’s Kelin (Kazakhstan) and Stephan Komandarev’s The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner (Bulgaria), end up shortlisted.

Photos: A Prophet (Roger Arpajou / Sony Pictures Classics); The White Ribbon (Films du Losange / Sony Pictures Classics); Winter in Wartime (Isabella Films); Ajami (Inosan / Vertigo); The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks around the Corner (Vertigo / Inforg / Pallas)

Source:altfg.com/

Oscar Best Actor

In the last fifteen years, only four times have the nominees in the Academy Awards’ best actor category matched those up for the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Two of those times took place in the last three years.

There’s a very good chance that this year will be the fifth time the two lists will mirror one another. So, why wasn’t Morgan Freeman listed up above for his stately performance as Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood’s Invictus?

Well, in all honesty, we’ve decided to go out on a limb in the Best Actor category. Apart from his National Board of Review win early in December, Freeman has had his name mentioned here and there, but he’s hardly been a favorite to win anything. A Serious Man fans, on the other hand, have been more enthusiastic; proof of that is the number of awards for best screenplay that this Joel and Ethan Coen dark comedy has received. Stuhlbarg, for his part, has also earned great reviews and even managed to land a Golden Globe nomination — something unusual for an actor who isn’t a stellar attraction.

So, we believe there’s a chance that Michael Stuhlbarg will be an upset nominee. That’s why we have him listed.

Other possible upsetters are: Viggo Mortensen for The Road, Matt Damon for The Informant!, Joseph Gordon-Levitt for (500) Days of Summer, and Robert Downey Jr for Sherlock Holmes. (Downey Jr’s humorous speech at the Golden Globes probably won him some extra votes.)

Hal Holbrook shouldn’t be completely discarded. It all depends on the number of screeners Academy members received. And if they bothered to watch That Evening Sun, which has been mostly ignored by critics and other groups.

If Daniel Day-Lewis gets a nod for Nine, Academy members will be turned into stone.

Photos: Crazy Heart (Lorey Sebastian / 20th Century Fox); Up in the Air (Dale Robinette / Paramount); The Hurt Locker (Jonathan Olley / Summit Entertainment); A Single Man (Eduard Grau/ The Weinstein Company); A Serious Man (Focus Features)

Source:altfg.com/

Oscar Best Director

Four of the directors above were nominated by the Directors Guild of America. European Film Award winner Michael Haneke is the exception. We’re replacing DGA choice Lee Daniels with Haneke because we’ve reached a tentative consensus. Actually, we’ve reached no consensus at all. Haneke is on the list simply because we’ve decided to go out on a limb once again.

Of course, the DGA and the Academy seldom agree 100% on their choice of nominees. Smaller and foreign films usually fare much better with the Academy. Also, Haneke’s The White Ribbon is a director’s film, much like Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds is a director’s film. Lee Daniels’ Precious is less obviously so. One could see it as a screenwriter’s and/or an actor’s film.

Having said that, Daniels has a great chance of landing a nomination — greater, in fact, than Haneke. But every year really unexpected surprises take place when the Oscar nominations are announced, and this may be one of them. Remember, a fair number of Academy members watched the foreign-language film screenings. If they admired The White Ribbon — it’s one of the nine semi-finalists in that category — they surely remembered Michael Haneke when filling out their ballots.

Three other strong possibilities to replace Daniels are Clint Eastwood, less because of Invictus than because he’s Clint Eastwood; Neill Blomkamp of the sleeper hit District 9; and the brothers Joel and Ethan Coen for A Serious Man, a biting comedy that has a number of ardent fans.

Less likely: Lone Scherfig, An Education.

Photos: Up in the Air (Dale Robinette / Paramount);

The Hurt Locker (Jonathan Olley / Summit Entertainment); Avatar (Mark Fellman / 20th Century Fox); Inglourious Basterds (François Duhamel / The Weinstein Co.)

Source:altfg.com/

Oscar Best Documentary

Like in the best foreign language film category, the best documentary feature Academy Award nominations are decided by a relatively small group of people. Like in the best foreign language film category, controversies have plagued the Academy’s documentary branch since its inception decades ago.

Four of the five films above have been widely talked about, especially The Beaches of Agnes, which earned veteran Agnes Varda a Cesar last year, and The Cove, a topical and multiple award-winning documentary about the merciless slaughter of dolphins in the fishing town of Taiji, Japan. Depending on when ballots for this category were due, the Haiti earthquake may have helped Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders. That’s why we’ve included it here. Admittedly, it’s a wild guess.

Other strong possibilities are Greg Barker’s Sergio, about the United Nations representative killed in Iraq; Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey’s Mugabe the White African, a portrait of a white family fighting to keep their land in today’s Zimbabwe; and James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo’s Every Little Step, about auditions for a Chorus Line revival.

But this being the feature documentary category, any of the 15 semi-finalists may land a nomination. And some of the absolute favorites may be left out.

Source:altfg.com/