Oscar nominations: Fascinating facts, figures and milestones

With invaluable assistance from our many forum posters, here are interesting stats about this year's nominations for the Oscars.

Nine not so fine: "Avatar" and "The Hurt Locker" lead this year's derby with nine nominations each; "Nine" managed just four nominations. However, beginning with "The Life of Emile Zola" in 1937, there have been 77 films that have landed 10 or more Oscar nominations. Last year's big champ "Slumdog Millionaire" won eight of its 10 races, while "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" managed just three wins from 13 nominations.

Money matters: On nomination day, "Avatar" broke the domestic box office record of 1997 best picture champ "Titanic" when it reached $601 million in receipts. The foreign title -- also held by "Titanic" -- fell to "Avatar" last week. While "Avatar" would thus be the highest-grossing best picture champ, "The Hurt Locker" -- with domestic receipts of $12.6 million -- would be the lowest when adjusted for inflation.

Take five: With double the number of entries in the best picture race, it is not so surprising that all five directing nominees helmed a contender. In the eight years from 1936 to 1943 when there were also 10 best picture nominees, the five directing nominees each year had a hand in one of those contenders save for 1936 and 1938. In 1936 Gregory LaCava ("My Man Godfrey") was the spoiler, while in 1938 it was Michael Curtiz ("Angels With Dirty Faces") who was the odd man out. Frank Capra took home the directing award in both those years, while Curtiz won his only Oscar in 1943 for helming "Casablanca" -- the last best picture champ to win over nine rivals.

All in the family: Father and son Ivan and Jason Reitman are nominated for producing "Up in the Air." Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen are double nominees for writing and producing "A Serious Man." Onetime married couple Kathryn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker") and James Cameron ("Avatar") are each nominated for best director.

Something old, something new: Supporting actor nominee Christopher Plummer is a first-time contender at age 80 for his 86th movie, "The Last Station," while Gabourey Sidibe landed a lead actress nomination for her film debut in "Precious." Plummer also lends his voice to best picture nominee "Up."

Batting 1.000: Animated short nominee Nick Park ("Wallace & Gromit in A Matter of Loaf and Death") has won all four of his previous Oscar races -- animated short (1990, 1993, 1996) and animated feature (2005). In 1990 he was a double nominee, winning for "Creature Comforts" over "A Grand Day Out with Wallace & Gromit." In 1993 he won for "Wallace & Gromit in the Wrong Trousers," in 1996 for "Wallace & Gromit in A Close Shave" and in 2005 for "Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit."


Animated features: "Up" is the second animated feature after "Beauty and the Beast" to contend for best picture. While "Beauty" had five other nominations in 1991, including three song bids, score and sound, "Up" is contending in four other categories -- screenplay, score, sound editing and animated feature. That last category wasn't created till 2001, and this is only the second year -- after 2002, when "Spirited Away" won -- that there have been five rather than three nominees.

Only the lonely: The nominations for lead actor Colin Firth ("A Single Man"), lead actress Meryl Streep ("Julie & Julia") and supporting actor Stanley Tucci ("The Lovely Bones") are the only Oscar nods for those films.

Return engagement: Only two of last year's acting nominees are back in the Oscar race this year -- lead actress nominee Meryl Streep and supporting actress nominee Penelope Cruz ("Nine"). Cruz -- who won that same award last year for "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" -- follows in the footsteps of supporting actress champs Estelle Parsons ("Bonnie & Clyde," 1967) and Lee Grant ("Shampoo," 1975), who both contended again the year after their victory; neither won. Bette Davis and Greer Garson share the record of most consecutive years nominated at five apiece in the lead actress category. Davis kicking off her reign in 1938 with a win for "Jezebel" while Garson began her run in 1941 with a nod for "Blossoms in the Dust."

Source:goldderby.latimes.com/

A Few Random Thoughts on the 2010 Oscar Nominations

A Few Random Thoughts on the 2010 Oscar Nominations
First posted Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010

The 82nd Academy Award nominations have been announced, with Disney/Pixar's Up getting a nod for Best Picture in addition to the expected Best Animated Feature nomination. I have to admit that as much as I liked the movie, I don't think it's the one I would have picked among Pixar's total output to get the nod for Best Picture. However, it was a pretty good if not great year for movies, it seems, and to paraphrase the parable about life on the African veldt, the Best Picture of the year only has to be better than all the other movies released in the same year, not the Best Picture ever.

In any event, I think the question of whether Up will become the first animated feature to win the Best Picture Oscar is moot once you look at its competition. The good news about animation being seated at the big kids' table is that it's another acknowledgment, however small, that animation is a serious medium capable of making great art and not just the kiddie stuff that a good portion of America (or at least a good portion of Hollywood) seems to think it is. The bad news is that this year's animated film has to stand toe-to-toe with the work of Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, as well as with the very highly acclaimed The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, and Precious. This would be tough competition for any movie, regardless of medium, and to be honest I'd eliminate District 9 and Avatar as possible winners in this category as well. Science fiction and fantasy fare about as well as comedies in the Best Picture race, with barely a dozen movies from those genres getting nominated in the past 40 years and only The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King's winning in 2003.

Avatar also happens to sit right in the crux of a few different issues I've been grappling with for the News. As our readers will have noticed, the headlines Avatar has been grabbing in the mainstream press are not reflected on our News Ticker. Like King Kong, the later Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and modern video games in general, I think Avatar uses similar techniques to more traditionally animated features, but that doesn't make it an animated movie in my view. At best, I'd call Avatar a hybrid film (at least from the clips I've seen -- I have not watched the movie and judging by the movie's phenomenal box office success, I may be the only person who was never that interested in it). I don't think many people would call Who Framed Roger Rabbit? or Mary Poppins "animated" movies, either, despite their heavy reliance on animation. In this, I'm afraid I break with our friends over at Cartoon Brew, who are congratulating Avatar for being the second animated movie in the Best Picture race. In any event, Cameron himself insists that Avatar is not animation, with an attitude that I think is merely another variation on the, "Cartoons are just for kids" mentality, so I'm happy to lock him out of the clubhouse. He will just have to find solace from my peevish snit in the billions of dollars he's made on the movie so far.

The second issue that Avatar brings up relates to the lack of recognition of actors in animation. Cameron himself has complained over perceived snubs at the acting of his Avatar performers in the SAG awards, and the movie's acting was bypassed by year's Oscars as well. I would point out the notable absence of acting award nominations for Cameron's films in general and humbly suggest that perhaps the technology is not to blame for the snubbing of the acting in Avatar, but he can gripe much more loudly about a point that animation fans have felt for some time: voice actors are routinely treated as second-class citizens to their on-camera equivalents. The shoddy treatment of the cast of Space Jam at the movie's premiere is a visible example, as is Cameron's own brusque dismissal of Meryl Streep's performance in Fantastic Mr. Fox. There is also the issue that the animators themselves are as responsible for the "acting" of a character as the voice actors, which begs the question of who exactly should get the credit for a particularly good performance. I would like to see wider recognition of a good performance in animation, but I must admit I don't really know how to get there. However, such nuances are probably well beyond the Academy members, and this is why we have the Annie Awards anyway.

I don't have any serious complaints about the nominees for Best Animated Feature. I think it was a very good year for animated movies in general, and I think swapping in a different movie released last year would shortchange one of the other nominees. I can say little or nothing meaningful about the Best Animated Short category.

In any event, no ruminations on the Oscars would be complete without predictions, although I openly admit mine are blissfully unencumbered by any biases that might arise from actually seeing many of the movies nominated. But hey, I'm just a guy on the Internet exercising his right to spout off about things he knows nothing about. As I mentioned, I don't think Up has even a long-shot chance at winning the Best Picture Oscar. Unfortunately, it will probably have to settle for the honor of being nominated, because I also suspect that Fantastic Mr. Fox will be the winner for the Best Animated Feature due to the Academy's general adoration for the works of Wes Anderson. It would be something of a shame if Pete Docter walked away from the ceremonies empty-handed, especially since I still believe he was robbed of an Oscar in 2003, but it looks like it might happen again this year. At least he won't be losing out to such a vastly inferior movie like Shrek. I don't hold out hope that the Academy will recognize the movie in the Best Original Screenplay category. This marks the 6th time an animated movie has been nominated for a writing Oscar (the other 5 being Toy Story, Shrek, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, and WALL-E; the number goes to 6 if you want to call Mary Poppins animated), but none of them have ever won and again, Up faces some very stiff competition.

In any event, I would still like to congratulate all the nominees and wish them the best of luck. We'll see you all on Oscar night.

Source:toonzone.net/

Oscar Nominations: Hitler's pissed off about Star Trek

Star Trek, Director J.J. Abrams widely acclaimed "reboot" of the popular television and movie science fiction series, was widely expected to be one of ten Oscar "Best Picture" nominees. Instead it was snubbed for the competition, causing a loud, Worldwide outcry from Star Trek fans. The movie was marketed as "Best Picture Material."

Still, it didn't win. Avatar, Hurt Locker, District 9, and the surprise entry, The Blind Side, were named to compete for Oscar, Best Picture.

What happened and why Star Trek didn't get a nominations is anyone's best guess. But one thing is clear: Hitler's not happy. Just as he was unhappy about a number of life's happenings, lets just say he was more than a little worked up about Star Trek's miscue:


Stay tuned.
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Source:sfgate.com/

Oscar nom for 'Hangover'?

PARK CITY, Utah — Does Oscar want a Hangover?

With 10 best picture nominees to be announced Tuesday, that means there’s double the chance of a surprise.

Among the possibilities: The inclusion of The Hangover, one of 2009’s most popular movies, the highest-grossing R-rated comedy in history and a Golden Globe winner.

Justin Bartha, who played groom-to-be Doug, says no one in The Hangover camp is ruling it out.

“I think there’s a definite possibility, I do,” he says optimistically. “It’s not a usual thing. We’re not expecting it. But I think it deserves it, personally.”

Source:torontosun.com/