Posts Tagged ‘Academy Awards’
In the spirit of the recently-passed (and at times unbearable) Academy Awards, this is inspired! Enjoy.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Louie Psihoyos. LOUIE PSIHOYOS KEEPS WATCH ON THE COVE
By
Alex Simon
When Louie Psihoyos’ documentary The Cove was released last July by Roadside Attractions, it had already gained major buzz after nabbing the Best Documentary award at Sundance, and went on to score the Best Doc prize in some of Hollywood’s most coveted arenas: The DGA Award, The PGA Producer of the Year Award, The National Board of Review, The L.A. Film Critics, and the BFCA’s Critics Choice Award. It also won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature—not too shabby for a first-time filmmaker. The Cove was released on DVD by Lionsgate in December.
Psihoyos (rhymes with Sequoias) has been one of the world’s top nature photographers for years, cutting his teeth immediately out of college by shooting for National Geographic, where he landed an 18 year tenure. His passion for diving and underwater photography led him to create, along with Jim Clark, The Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) in 2005. It also led to his acquaintance with another legendary name in the world of the aquatic, Ric O’Barry, a once-legendary animal trainer who captured, and then trained, the five dolphins who, in the 1960s, starred in the hit TV show “Flipper” as the eponymous dolphin. It was the worldwide popularity of “Flipper” that gave rise to aquatic theme parks, such as Sea World, private “swim with the dolphins” organizations, and the popularity of dolphins as pets which people kept in their backyard pools. All of these factors produced one common denominator in the minds of fishermen: dolphins were suddenly a very lucrative business. When O’Barry realized what he’d unintentionally created, and after the death of the primary “Flipper” dolphin, who literally expired in O’Barry’s arms, Ric O’Barry became a committed conservationalist, and animal rights activist, realizing that dolphins (and their first cousins, the whale), are highly-intelligent mammals and not simple fish as many still believe, and are not meant to be put in captivity, or even worse, hunted and killed. It is the latter which brought O’Barry, and Louie Psihoyos, to the small fishing village of Taiji, Japan.
Seemingly built around its love of the creatures of the sea, the dolphin in particular, Taiji also hides a horrific secret: a remote, natural cove which is ominously surrounded by barbed wire and “keep out” signs, where the fishermen of Taiji, driven by the multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an even more scabrous market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen (and highly-taboo) hunt for creatures that are not only among the most advanced on Earth, but also among the most toxic, with their mercury levels topping five thousand times the safety level allotted for legally-sold seafood.
Working with model-makers at George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, Psihoyos and his team of filmmakers and activists made a series of cameras and microphones, disguised to look like the rocks of the cove, hid the equipment under cover of night, and captured some truly horrific footage, and equally chilling conversations from the fishermen, damning not only the fishermen and the community of Taiji, but the highest levels of the Japanese government, as well. One of the most provocative and incendiary documentary films in many years, The Cove combines covert op suspense with ecological and scientific fact. It is a unique work.
Louie Psihoyos sat down with The Interview during a recent L.A. stopover. Here’s what transpired:
Let’s start with how your journey from photographer to filmmaker to activist happened.
Louie Psihoyos: I was a still photographer for many years, then got into filmmaking because I wanted to create awareness of ocean issues. I was trying to really be objective when I went into this film, to tell both sides of the story, because I thought that’s where the magic was. When I realized that the other side didn’t really want their side told, probably because as Ric O’Barry said in the film, if the world found out what was actually happening there, they would be shut down. So I think the dolphin hunters realized that they were in an indefensible position on a couple levels, not just in terms of the humanity and the extinction of these creatures, but the inhumanity to man. These animals are toxic and their mercury levels far exceed the minimum toxicity levels allowed for seafood in Japan, five thousand times more toxic, in fact. I asked some of the scientists about why (the fishermen) continue to do it and they said “The money.”
Former dolphin trainer-turned animal rights activist Ric O'Barry.Economics, plain and simple. And also sociology, it sounds like, because a big part of Japanese culture involves fishing, whaling, and fish in general. So it sounds like there’s also a certain nationalistic pride involved.
Sure, you could argue that, I suppose, but the types of boats they’re using and style of hunting they’re engaging in has only been in practice since 1933. My mother is older than their tradition. So it’s disingenuous to call it a tradition, plus if your tradition is poisoning people, you have to rethink your tradition. We had a tradition back in Colorado, just down the street in Rocky Flats, where they made triggers for plutonium bombs. The argument that the workers had there for continuing to do what they did was “Well, what are we going to do for a living if we don’t make bombs?” Well, they found other ways to make a living. The sons of the dolphin hunters told us that they don’t like doing it, either, that they’d rather be hunting lobster or crabs.
Let me play devil’s advocate for a few questions, if you don’t mind.
No, not at all.
You’re dealing with this very specific subculture of fishermen in this small region of Japan. If you ask an educated, upper-middle class person what they think of dolphin hunting, odds are they’ll agree with your position, because they realize dolphins aren’t so-called “lower creatures,” but actually very sophisticated mammals. But these fishermen are tough, blue-collar guys, most of whom I'm guessing aren’t terribly educated, have been fishermen for generations, probably hundreds of generations, would they really be able to make a living doing something else? Your example of Colorado is bit different. The town of Taiji struck me almost as the Asian equivalent of Appalachia, where people also have a tough time “getting out,” so to speak, and breaking with tradition, even though that tradition might be harmful to themselves, and to others. Is this a fair question?
Yeah, I see what you’re saying. They actually speak a dialect that few Japanese people understand. When we had the covert footage of them talking around the campfire, we had to find a translator who specifically knew this very obscure dialect. So yes, that’s one argument, and a variety of countries, including the U.S., are culpable in terms of the endangerment of whales and dolphins. The bottom line is that all those countries got the word pretty early that the hunting of these creatures continued to go on way after it was sustainable.
And it became illegal to hunt whales in 1986?
As a law it was 1982, and then it was actually implemented in 1986. But the Japanese are still doing it under the aegis of the scientific permit they issued to themselves when, of course, it’s not science. It’s just an excuse to do commercial whale hunting, which is very profitable.
Let’s get back to the original question, which was if you took whaling away from the country in general, and dolphin hunting away from this community in Taiji, would they have a source of income that they could survive on?
Take income away from a couple dozen people? I have to be honest that I don’t really care.
I had the impression that it was more than a couple dozen people, that most of the town depended on the income earned from the fruits of the sea. Taiji struck me as a “company town,” so to speak, just like a lot of the Appalachian communities were literally owned by mining corporations back in the day, and their people exploited.
Well, there’s 26 people in the boats, then the other people work in the slaughterhouse, some are the middlemen, but most of the fishing there is done from other sources. Tuna fishing, for example, is huge there. It has one of the biggest tuna fishing markets in the world. There is a dwindling supply of fish in the ocean, and I know that the top level people I’ve interviewed are keenly aware of it. The Deputy Minister of Fisheries, Akiranakmai, I sat on a plane next to him for ten hours, on a flight from Dallas to Japan. We had had this footage for a couple years that I didn’t want to sit on, because I knew that more of these animals were going to be slaughtered and more children and adults poisoned. So I cut together a P.S.A. from what we’d shot, along with the scientific facts, with the idea of showing it to the Japanese delegate of the I.W.C. So I hop on this plane, one of the last people on board, and there’s this empty seat next to me, and who should sit down next to me, but this man, Akiranakamai! (laughs) I thought, if there is a God, then he has a really good sense of humor. I waited till the plane took off so it would be uncomfortable for him to try and get up to change places with someone on the plane. So I turned to him and asked ‘Do you have any idea who I am?’ He said “No.” I said “Well I know who you are, and I’d like to show you some movies.” And I did. He was furious at the fact that we’d gotten this footage. I said ‘Listen, you’re responsible for five thousand tons of toxic dolphin meat being put on the market every year, a lot of it being sold as fake whale meat. How do you feel about that? You could stop it.’ His response was “Well, I’m in charge of food security, not food safety.”
Louie Psihoyos confers with the model-makers at ILM.You touch on a very important cultural point: Japanese culture is all based on hierarchy. One of the most telling moments that illustrates this point in your film is when you showed the footage to Akiranakamai’s subordinate, his only response was “On whose authority did you film this?” He couldn’t respond any other way, with a real opinion, and neither, obviously, could his boss. So how do you battle something so firmly rooted in a culture that’s completely different from ours?
Well, hopefully this film will cut through, to some level, to the hierarchy, where it will be shut down. There’s two ways to kill a rabbit: you destroy all the grass that it’s eating or you shoot it through the head. With this film, I think we can do both. The Minister of Health, she could shut this down. The minimum amount of mercury allowed in fish to consumed in Japan is .04 parts per million. Dolphin meat has anywhere from 5-5,000 parts per million.
You raise another alarming point in the film, that there are many other very popular types of fish that also have high amounts of toxicity in them: swordfish, tuna, and grouper. What are some of the others you mentioned?
Marlin. Shark. There are advisories for mercury in all 50 states of this country, so it’s available. On the DVD extras for The Cove, we have a 24-minute short that’s on this subject, as well.
Ric O'Barry and friend.Another devil’s advocate question: the ultra-left wing environmentalists who, peacefully, are trying to stop the slaughter of dolphins in this film, it could be argued, are the opposite side of the coin from the extreme right wing who, sometimes violently, in this country picket and in the extreme, bomb abortion clinics or assassinate OBGYNs. In both cases, you have a small group of people trying to keep another group of people from engaging in a way of life that makes their living. I happen to think the extreme right-wingers are naïve if they think that their actions will ever help repeal Roe vs. Wade. Are the left-wingers equally naïve to think that their actions and that of a very talented filmmaker will make a difference here, or are their ideals, and strategy, progressive?
For me, personally, I think it’s progressive, as are most animal rights issues. I personally stopped eating things that walk 25 years ago, however I’m not militant about it. My wife still eats meat, as do my kids. I try to wear vegan shoes. (laughs) But if I was eating fish that was toxic with mercury, I would hope someone would tell me! Some of these fish should have poison labels on them when they reach stores. I’ll give you even more of a left wing point-of-view. At the core of this, we’re not making demons out of the dolphin hunters as much as we are the rest of society for toxifying these animals. It’s such a big issue, but the way we’re getting our energy through the burning of fossil fuels is destroying the planet through acidification. We’re going to lose all the corral reefs by the end of this century. Now do I use energy every day? Sure. When I charged all my electric devices in my hotel room, am I engaging in hypocritical behavior? You bet.
We all do, even the best-intentioned of us, just to survive.
Right, just to survive. Halfway through the making of this film, I realized that we were taking another left turn in the story, in that the film wasn’t just about dolphins and the bad guys who hunt and kill them, but that the real bad guys of the story are us. I did a carbon assessment of what it would take to make the film at that point, and came up with a figure of 646 tons of carbon that would be put into the environment to make the film. Because we were producing the film in Colorado, most of our power there is coal-derived, and coal has a lot of mercury in it. So I realized that one of the dirtiest things you can do to the environment is to make a film about it. (laughs)
A still from the covertly-filmed dolphin hunt inside the cove.So what do you do in your daily life to combat this?
Well, that realization changed the way we used energy from then on. I’m the Executive Director of the Oceanic Preservation Society, and we installed 120 solar panels on our roof, which generates 140% of our electric needs. The electric company gives us a check every month, as opposed to the other way around. We have two electric cars, not the hybrids, but completely electric, that can go 80 miles an hour and 120 miles per charge. The license plate reads “VUS”—Vehicle Using Sun, the opposite of an SUV. Now all our neighbors are installing solar panels on their roofs. We’re trying to do the same thing with this film, to show people what’s possible if you’re committed.
Some of the best filmmaking stories involve fueds, and while the run-up to the Oscars in the press was largely concerned with the constructed narrative of Cameron vs. Bigelow, it was a smaller but far more real conflict that took center stage for a moment.
In an Oscar telecast that was noticeably light on dramatic moments, one odd near-confrontation really stands out. When the Oscar was presented to the creator of Music by Prudence, winner in the documentary short category, director/producer Roger Ross Williams took the stage, only to be forcibly interrupted by producer Elinor Burkett, who wrestled the mic away from Williams to make her own speech. What was that all about? Turns out the duo aren’t exactly copacetic, and that there is some difference of opinion as to who is more important to the film’s genesis.
Salon has a good rundown of the history of the film, with statements from both Williams and Burkett. When Burkett took the stage last night it looked like a Kanye moment, but what was really going on?
She says,
What happened was the director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that resulted in a lawsuit that has settled amicably out of court. But there have been all these events around the Oscars, and I wasn’t invited to any of them. And he’s not speaking to me. So we weren’t even able to discuss ahead of the time who would be the one person allowed to speak if we won. And then, as I’m sure you saw, when we won, he raced up there to accept the award. And his mother took her cane and blocked me.
Williams, meanwhile, explains,
The academy is very clear that only one person can speak. I own the film. She has no claim whatsoever. She has nothing to do with the movie…The truth is that she saw the band perform [in Zimbabwe], and told me about that, and then I opened up a dialogue with the [King George VI School & Centre for Children with Physical Disabilities] school and went on my own – which you would’ve heard about in my speech — and spent $6,000 going to Africa shooting myself. And when people expressed interest in the film, I asked her to come on board. And then I regretted that decision. Then she sued.
What about the thing with the cane? That sounded weird, right? Williams explains, “My mother got up to hug me. And my mother is 87 years old. She was excited.”
Earlier today, Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker Michael Moore sent an e-mail out to his mailing list (a list I belong to) listing his top 20 films of 2009. In the e-mail, Moore hails the best movie he saw in 2009, a film which wasn’t nominated, and wasn’t even shown in the United States — a film titled Troubled Water. Moore writes:
“I’m confident that, if you had had a chance to see it, you would likely agree with me that this is a brilliant film, a rare gem. …. When the film was over, I sat there amazed and wondering, “Why can’t I see movies like this all the time?” What is wrong with filmmaking, with Hollywood? Why are most films just the same old tired assembly line stuff — sequels, remakes, old TV shows turned into movies, predictable plots and storylines… “If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the movie.” But “Troubled Water” was not like that — and therefore its distribution to the theaters of America was, in essence, doomed.”
Moore went on to criticize those who praise the Best Picture/Director winner The Hurt Locker for being unbiased or taking no political sides:
…like that’s an admirable thing! I wonder if there were critics during the Civil War that hailed plays or books for being “balanced” about slavery, or if there were those who praised films during World War II for “not taking sides?” I keep reading that the reason Iraq War films haven’t done well at the box office is because they’ve been partisan (meaning anti-war). The truth is “The Hurt Locker” is very political. It says the war is stupid and senseless and insane. It makes us consider why we have an army where people actually volunteer to do this. That’s why the right wing has attacked the movie. They’re not stupid — they know what Kathryn Bigelow is up to. No one leaves this movie thinking, “Whoopee! Let’s keep these wars going another 7 years!”
You can read Moore’s full e-mail, which includes a defense of James Cameron’s Avatar and his personal list of the top 20 films of 2009, after the jump.
Let’s Watch the Oscars Together — Right Now! …from Michael Moore
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
Friends,
The best movie I saw this year won’t be winning any awards tonight at the Oscars. It wasn’t even nominated for anything. In fact, it wasn’t even shown in the United States. Yet, I’m confident that, if you had had a chance to see it, you would likely agree with me that this is a brilliant film, a rare gem.
It’s called “Troubled Water” (not to be confused with last year’s superb Katrina doc, “Trouble the Water”). “Troubled Water” is from Norway and it is a work of art and great storytelling from the opening frame to its final fade to black. It tells the story of a young man who is paroled after spending time in prison and gets a job as a church organist. He claims to be innocent in the drowning of a child, but the boy’s mother won’t let it go.
When the film was over, I sat there amazed and wondering, “Why can’t I see movies like this all the time?” What is wrong with filmmaking, with Hollywood? Why are most films just the same old tired assembly line stuff — sequels, remakes, old TV shows turned into movies, predictable plots and storylines… “If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve seen the movie.”
But “Troubled Water” was not like that — and therefore its distribution to the theaters of America was, in essence, doomed.
That’s not to say we don’t make great movies anymore. I loved “Avatar,” “District 9,” “Inglourious Basterds,” “Up in the Air,” and “Up” among many others.
Some critics have hailed “The Hurt Locker” because the film “doesn’t take sides” in the Iraq War — like that’s an admirable thing! I wonder if there were critics during the Civil War that hailed plays or books for being “balanced” about slavery, or if there were those who praised films during World War II for “not taking sides?” I keep reading that the reason Iraq War films haven’t done well at the box office is because they’ve been partisan (meaning anti-war).
The truth is “The Hurt Locker” is very political. It says the war is stupid and senseless and insane. It makes us consider why we have an army where people actually volunteer to do this. That’s why the right wing has attacked the movie. They’re not stupid — they know what Kathryn Bigelow is up to. No one leaves this movie thinking, “Whoopee! Let’s keep these wars going another 7 years!”
James Cameron has been targeted by the crazy right, too. Because — and Fox and Rush have this one correct, too — “Avatar” is, in fact, an allegory for America — a land stolen from an indigenous people who were slaughtered, a nation that not only allows corporations to call the shots but let’s them privatize our wars (wars in distant places with the objective of controlling a dwindling energy resource), and a people who seem hell-bent on destroying the environment.
Cameron is a brave and bold filmmaker, a college drop-out who became a truck driver and then one day just decided he was going to make movies. “Avatar” is an idea he’s had in his head since he was a teenager — and somewhere, somehow, his dreams and creativity weren’t snuffed out by the machine. Thank God.
There is so much more I want to say about the state of movies these days, but you’ve got better things to do on this beautiful Sunday. I love this art form, and tonight is the night to celebrate it!
In fact, the Oscars are about to start. I’ll try to “tweet” along with you during the show.
Finally, let me leave you with a list of 20 great movies I saw in 2009 that received little or no recognition or distribution in the U.S. They deserve to be acknowledged on this important night, and I hope you can find them somewhere, someday (a number are already on DVD). They represent the hope I have for the movies being the inspiring force I’ve always believed in.
Be well. And — no extra salt or butter on the popcorn!
Yours,
Michael Moore
MichaelMoore.com
Twitter.com/MMFlint
P.S. Here’s my list of 20 “best pictures” I saw in 2009:
1. “Troubled Water” (see above)
2. “Everlasting Moments” - A wife in the early 20th century wins a camera and it changes her life (from Sweden).
3. “Captain Abu Raed” - This first feature from Jordan tells the story of an airport janitor who the neighborhood kids believe is a pilot.
4. “Che” - A brilliant, unexpected mega-film about Che Guevara by Steven Soderbergh.
5. “Dead Snow” - The scariest film I’ve seen in a while about zombie Nazis abandoned after World War II in desolate Norway.
6. “The Great Buck Howard” - A tender look at the life of an illusionist, based on the life of The Amazing Kreskin starring John Malkovich.
7. “In the Loop” - A rare hilarious satire, this one about the collusion between the Brits and the Americans and their illegal war pursuits.
8. “My One and Only” - Who woulda thought that a biopic based on one year in the life of George Hamilton when he was a teenager would turn out to be one of the year’s most engaging films.
9. “Whatever Works” - This was a VERY good Woody Allen film starring the great Larry David and it was completely overlooked.
10. “Big Fan” - A funny, dark film about an obsessive fan of the New York Giants with a great performance by the comedian Patton Oswalt.
11. “Eden Is West” - The legendary Costa-Gavras’ latest gem, ignored like his last brilliant film 4 years ago, “The Axe”.
12. “Entre Nos” - An mother and child are left to fend for themselves in New York City in this powerful drama.
13. “The Girlfriend Experience” - Steven Soderbergh’s second genius film of the year, this one set in the the post-Wall Street Crash era, a call girl services the men who brought the country down.
14. “Humpday” - Two straight guys dare each other to enter a gay porn contest — but will they go through with it?
15. “Lemon Tree” - A Palestinian woman has her lemon trees cut down by the Israeli army, but she decides that’s the final straw.
16. “Mary and Max” - An Australian girl and and elderly Jewish man in New York become pen pals in this very moving animated film.
17. “O’Horten” - Another Norwegian winner, this one about the final trip made by a retiring train conductor.
18. “Salt of This Sea” - A Palestinian-American returns to her family’s home in the West Bank, only to find herself caught up in the struggles between the two cultures.
19. “Sugar” - A Dominican baseball player gets his one chance to come to America and make it in the big leagues.
20. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” - A smart, adult animated film from Wes Anderson that at least got two nominations from the Academy.
The 82nd Academy Awards have begun. We’ll begin to update our live blog of the award ceremony after the jump. Leave your thoughts, commentary, and predictions in the comments below!
The award show has begun…
Samsung is all over the commercial breaks, pushing their new 3D televisions. All because of Avatar.
The show opened with an on stage introduction of all the Actors and Actors nominated for Best Leading Role. That’s different.
Neil Patrick Harris has the stage for his musical opening number. The stage is full of white and black, and silver shades og gray. At moments it almost looks like an old black and white movie.
Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin were lowered from the rafters.
Baldwin notes that “Then no matter what, they nominate Meryl Streep” Martin calls it the most losses in Oscar history.
First time the word “Spoiler” was used on the Oscar stage?
They put on red/blue 3D glasses while trying to find James Cameron in the audience.
“Who doesn”t love Sandra Bullock?” “Oh, tonight we may find out..”
Winners:
Best Supporting Actor:
- Matt Damon - Invictus
- Woody Harrelson - The Messenger
- Christopher Plummer - The Last Station
- Stanley Tucci - The Lovely Bones
- Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds
Penelope Cruz is presenting. I already had Waltz’s name red/bolded before they even began showing clips. Waltz was able to turn his thank you speech into a story. Bravo!
Ryan Reynolds introduces a video clip montage from one of the ten Best Picture nominees: The Blind Side. One of the downsides of having ten nominees for Best Picture is we’re going to have to sit through ten of these things.
Cameon Diaz and Steve Carell introduced a clip package showing the fictional characters of the Best Animated Feature nominees talking about what being nominated means to them. This is actually pretty cool. I love the Up segment: Carl couldn’t hear the interviewer, and Dug the dog ended up licking the camera.
Best Animated Feature Film:
- Coraline
- Fantastic Mr. Fox
- The Princess and the Frog
- The Secret of the Kells
- Up
Pete Doctor and Pixar won for Up. This is probably the first year I wasn’t die hard set on Pixar taking home this award. So many solid entries in a variety of different animation formats. Doctor is wearing the bottlecap pin from Up (photo below thanks to firstshowing):
Amanda Seyfried and Miley Cyrus introduce the nominees for Best Song. I’m so glad we dont have to sit through live performances this year.
Best Original Song:
- “Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog
- “Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog
- “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36
- “Take It All” from Nine
- “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart
Chris Pine introduced a montage for District 9.
No surprises so far.
Best Original Screenplay:
- Mark Boal - The Hurt Locker
- Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
- Oren Moverman and - The Messenger
- Joel and Ethan Coen - A Serious Man
- Pete Docter and Bob Peterson - Up
Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey present the Award. The first of many award wins for The Hurt Locker tonight, I’m sure…
Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick presented a special tribute to the late writer/director John Hughes, complete with video package. A very respectable tribute video. Now on stage is an ensemble group of actors who have appeared in Hughes’ films over the years. John’s family was shown in the audience.
Samuel L Jackson presents a video package for another Bes Picture nominee Up.
This year they have created a video package with directors explaining why moviegoers should care about the short film nominees/winners. I think this is a very smart move. It’s definitely a better tactic than previous years where they try to push the less interesting awards off the screen as fast possible.
Best Animated Short:
- French Roast
- Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
- The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
- Logorama
- A Matter of Loaf and Death
I’m glad to see Logorama win. I screened the film at Sundance and thought despite not looking photoreal, the film was one of the most entertaining shorts I’ve seen in recent years. The filmmaker of Logorama joked that since the short took him six years to make, he hopes to return with a feature film in something like 36 years.
Best Documentary Short:
- China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
- The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
- The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
- Music by Prudence
- Rabbit à la Berlin
The first filmmakers to be played off stage by music… Can’t say I don’t disagree with this decision.
Best Live-Action Short:
- The Door
- Instead of Abracadabra
- Kavi
- Miracle Fish
- The New Tenants
Ben Stiller is dressed and made-up like a Na’vi from Avatar to present the award for Best Make-up. Stiller joked “the ironic thing is Avatar isn’t nominated” and said that he should have worn Spock ears but commented that a Star Trek get up might have been too nerdy.
Best Make-up:
- Il Divo
- Star Trek
- The Young Victoria
I’m very glad to see Star Trek win at least one Oscar, even if it is for best make-up. This is probably the only chance they had to take home a statue.
Jeff Bridges presents the Best Picture video montage for A Serious Man.
Ben Stiller’s appearance as a Na’vi seems to be getting the same reaction as the movie Avatar: people either loved it or hated it.
Best Adapted Screenplay:
- Neill Blomkamp and - District 9
- Nick Hornby - An Education
- Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche - In the Loop
- Geoffrey Fletcher - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
- Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner - Up in the Air
This is my first “BULLSHIT” of the 2010 Academy Awards. Up in the Air, District 9, In the Loop and An Education were all more deserving of this Oscar. This is also the first big upset/surprise of tonight’s awards.
Best Supporting Actress:
- Penelope Cruz - Nine
- Vera Farmiga - Up in the Air
- Maggie Gyllenhaal - Crazy Heart
- Anna Kendrick - Up in the Air
- Mo’Nique - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Robin Williams presents. Mo’Nique won, as expected… and she deserves it.
Best Art Direction
- Avatar
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
- Nine
- Sherlock Holmes
- The Young Victoria
Sigourney Weaver presents. And why Weaver? Because Avatar wins, of course…
Best Costume Design:
- Bright Star
- Coco Before Chanel
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
- Nine
- The Young Victoria
Tom Ford and Sarah Jessica Parker present. Really don’t have much to say about this one.
Charlize Theron presents the best picture video montage for Precious.
Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin’s Paranormal Activity parody was funny, but a sad “tribute” to the horror genre.
Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart present a video clip tribute to the horror genre, which appears to include a lot of films that were not nominated in previous years.
Zak Efron and Anna Kendrick present the award for Sound editing. Using a clip narrated by Morgan Freeman. the Academy explains how Sound editing and Sound Mixing added to The Dark Knight.
Best Sound Editing:
- Avatar
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglourious Basterds
- Star Trek
- Pixar’s Up
The second win of the night for The Hurt Locker…
Best Sound Mixing:
- Avatar
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglourious Basterds
- Star Trek
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Third win of the night for Hurt Locker. Who would have thought that Hurt Locker would beat Avatar in the two sound awards?
John Travolta presents the Best Picture video package for Inglourious Basterds.
Best Cinematography:
- Maurio Fiore - Avatar
- Bruno Delbonnel - Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Barry Ackroyd - The Hurt Locker
- Robert Richardson - Inglourious Basterds
- Christian Berger - The White Ribbon
Sandra Bullock presents. Second award of the night for Avatar. Is this the first cinematographer to win an Oscar for a mostly virtual performance-capture production?
Demi Moore presents the video package remembering those in the film industry we’ve lost over the post year. James Taylor performs music.
Jennifer Lopez and Sam Worthington present a legion of dancers (The LXD) to dance to the music of the Best Original Score nominees.I think The dance sequences were cool, but I think I would have rather seen the music performed on stage.
Best Original Score:
- James Horner - Avatar
- Alexandre Desplat - Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders - The Hurt Locker
- Hans Zimmer - Sherlock Holmes
- Michael Giacchino - Pixar’s Up
This is the first academy award for Giacchino, and well deserved. Giacchino is also wearing the grape bottle cap pin. Giacchino took a different approach, didn’t go into a list of “thank yous”, and instead encouraged young people to persue their creative urges.
Best Visual Effects:
- Avatar
- District 9
- Star Trek
Third win for Avatar, as expected. The Hurt Locker and Avatar are now officially tied.
Jason Bateman introduces the Best Picture video package for Up in the Air.
Best Documentary Feature:
- Burma VJ
- The Cove
- Food, Inc.
- The Most Dangerous Man in America
- Which Way Home
Matt Damon presents. My biggest regret of this past year is not having seen The Cove…
Best Film Editing:
- Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron - Avatar
- Julian Clarke - District 9
- Bob Murawski and Chris Innis - The Hurt Locker
- Sally Menke - Inglourious Basterds
- Joe Klotz - Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Tyler Perry made a joke about probably never hearing his name announced at the Oscars. I hope so…
Fourth win for The Hurt Locker, which puts Bigelow’s film in the lead.
Keanu Reeves introduces the Best Picture video montage for The Hurt Locker.
Best Foreign Language Film:
- Ajami - Israel
- El Secreto de sus Ojos - Argentina
- The Milk of Sorrow - Peru
- Un Prophéte - France
- The White Ribbon - Germany
Pedro Almodóvar and Quentin Tarantino present. And this is the first huge upset of the Oscars. I think most everyone thought either Un Prophete or The White Ribbon was going to win.
Kathy Bates introduces the Best Picture montage for Avatar. If you haven’t noticed, most of the Best Picture video presentors are in some way connected to the director of the Best Picture nominee. Bates was in Titanic, directed by James Cameron, who directed Avatar. Keanu Reeves was in Point Break, directed by Kathryn Bigelow, director of The Hurt Locker…etc.
Best Actor:
- Jeff Bridges - Crazy Heart
- George Clooney - Up in the Air
- Colin Firth - A Single Man
- Morgan Freeman - Invictus
- Jeremy Renner - The Hurt Locker
Here are the list of presenter mash-ups: Michele Pfeiffer for Bridges, Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air co-star Clooney, Julianne Moore for Single Man co-star Firth, Tim Robbins for Shawshank co-star Freeman, Colin Farrell for SWAT co-star Renner.
Last year’s Best Actress Kate Winslet presents. Bridges wins, and thanked his parents for supporting his show business career, his director, and cast. Does this mean that Disney is going to market TRON: Legacy as starring Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges?
Best Actress:
- Sandra Bullock - The Blind Side
- Helen Mirren - The Last Station
- Carey Mulligan - An Education
- Gabourey Sidibe - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
- Meryl Streep - Julie & Julia
Here are the list of presenter mash-ups: Forest Whitaker for Hope Floats star Bullock, Michael Sheen for Queen co-star Mirren, Peter Sarsgaard for An Education co-star Mulligan, Oprah Winfrey for Sidibe, Stanley Tucci for Devil Wears Prada co-star for Streep.
Sean Penn presents. Bullock thanked the other nominees in the category, and tried to hold back the tears while thanking her mother.
Best Director:
- Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
- James Cameron - Avatar
- Lee Daniels - Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
- Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
- Quentin Tarantino - Inglourious Basterds
As expected, Bigelow won… but did she deserve it or did the Academy want to make history with the first woman as Best Director? And for the record, I think Bigelow deserved the nomination, but Cameron’s direction on Avatar was far more involved, far superior.
Fifth win for The Hurt Locker… only one more to go.
Best Picture:
- Avatar
- The Blind Side
- District 9
- An Education
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglourious Basterds
- Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
- A Serious Man
- Up
- Up in the Air
I’m sure that in 20 years we’ll look back and wonder how Avatar didn’t win either Best Picture or Best Director. The Hurt Locker will be this generation’s How Green Was My Valley. And for those who don’t get the How Green Was My Valley reference, go look up which Oscars Citizen Kane won. I’m not saying Avatar is an incredible film, and no.. I’m not comparing Avatar to Citizen Kane, I’m only saying that Avatar will have much greater significance in years to come over Hurt Locker.
You have to wonder how nobody saw this coming. Last week it was announced that Sacha Baron Cohen would be presenting at the Oscars this Sunday. Yesterday, his name disappeared from the presenters list. The reason for the dismissal, according to Vulture, was that Cohen was collaborating with Ben Stiller for an Avatar sketch that might have offended director James Cameron – someone not exactly known for his sense of humor.
The sketch was dropped by Oscar producer Bill Mechanic, who also dealt with the director as head of Twentieth Century Fox when Cameron was working on Titanic. Mechanic likely gathered a sixth sense towards Cameron’s prickly nature during that film’s shoot, and didn’t want to risk him walking out in the middle of the Oscar ceremony.
According to an Oscar insider speaking to Vulture, the sketch would have played out like so:
Baron Cohen planned to appear onstage as a blue-skinned, female Na’vi, with Stiller translating “her” interplanetary speech. As the skit went on, though, it would become clear that Stiller wasn’t translating properly, because Cohen would grow ever more upset. At its climax, an infuriated Baron Cohen would pull open “her” evening gown to reveal that s/he was pregnant, knocked up with Cameron’s love child, and would go on to confront her baby daddy as if s/he were on Jerry Springer.
We’ve seen the sort of responses Cohen can gather from unsuspecting bystanders in Borat, Bruno, and Da Ali G Show, and it’s a shame that we’re not going to see how James Cameron would react to a mockery of his mega-hit film. I can understand why the Oscar producers would be nervous, but I’m not sure how anyone can bring Cohen onto a project and not expect him to offend someone. This reminds me of how attendees at the recent TED conference were offended when Sarah Silverman was brought on to be Sarah Silverman.
This is the second snub from the upcoming Oscars ceremony for Cohen. According to an interview on NPR’s Fresh Air, Cohen was one of names brought up to host the event, but he was shot down for that as well. “They thought it was too big of a wild card,” said Oscar producer Adam Shankman (Bedtime Stories and Hairspray).
So it’s come to this: Nicolas Chartier, one of The Hurt Locker’s four producers, has been banned from attending the Oscars this year due to remarks he made about his film in an e-mail, which violated Academy rules. If The Hurt Locker wins Best Picture, Chartier will have to collect his Oscar at a later date. Hit the jump for all the details of The Hurt Locker’s sad, unexpected, bump-ridden path towards Oscar gold.
For the past few months, The Hurt Locker has been widely favored to take the Best Picture prize, and also garner Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow. The trouble began in late February, when producer Chartier sent an e-mail out to industry colleagues. Here is the text of the e-mail:
I hope all is well with you. I just wanted to write you and say I hope you liked Hurt Locker and if you did and want us to win, please tell (name deleted) and your friends who vote for the Oscars, tell actors, directors, crew members, art directors, special effects people, if everyone tells one or two of their friends, we will win and not a $500M film, we need independent movies to win like the movies you and I do, so if you believe The Hurt Locker is the best movie of 2010, help us!
I’m sure you know plenty of people you’ve worked with who are academy members whethere a publicist, a writer, a sound engineer, please take 5 minutes and contact them. Please call one or two persons, everything will help!
Not terribly professional, but fairly innocuous. However, Chartier’s remarks about a “$500M film,” clearly aimed at Avatar (though not naming that film), violated Academy rules against “casting a negative or derogatory light on a competing film.” After word of the e-mail reached the press, Chartier recanted almost immediately, issuing a statement that read, in part:
My naivete, ignorance of the rules and plain stupidity as a first time nominee is not an excuse for this behavior and I strongly regret it. Being nominated for an Academy Award is the ultimate honor and I should have taken the time to read the rules.
To be fair, Chartier’s actions are nothing new. Miramax famously got in trouble over its whisper campaign against Saving Private Ryan in 1999 (Shakespeare ended up taking the prize. Side note: Which one of those films do you think has had more of a lasting impact?). This time around, Deadline blogger Nikki Finke responded to news of Chartier’s e-mail with complete nonchalance:
[F]or months now I have been sent so many emails from so many studios and filmmakers and flacks and insiders badmouthing every rival nominee this Oscar season and talking up their own. How the hell am I to tell them apart? Or tattle on them all? This is the down and dirty system which AMPAS hath wrought and doth condone. And no one is surprised by it, least of all the Academy.
Furthermore, by the time Chartier had written his e-mail, most of the ballots were already cast. However, one publicist claimed that some Academy voters went so far as to demand new ballots to change their votes (once a ballot has been cast, it cannot be altered). For the past few weeks, speculation has swirled as to whether or not the Academy would take action, and if so, what that action would be. There was even talk that the Academy might rescind The Hurt Locker’s nomination for Best Picture, a drastic move that would have outraged just about everyone (admittedly, the likelihood that this would have happened was virtually nonexistent).
On Monday, The Daily Beast published an assessment of the situation, with more details about Chartier’s involvement in the film. Chartier raised the $15 million required to finance the film, but his relationship with the film’s crew was so fractious that he was eventually asked to leave the set and not come back. According to Hurt Locker screenwriter and producer Mark Boal:
It was a hard movie to get made…It was a challenging shoot, and it’s the nature of those things that tempers can flare and strong disagreements can arise. And Nic was eventually asked not to come back to the set.
People involved in The Hurt Locker’s production have tried to distance themselves from Chartier’s remarks. After hearing about the e-mail, Bigelow called Avatar producer Jon Landau immediately to express her apologies. Boal recalled, “Kathryn was shocked and appalled and embarrassed by Nick’s poor judgment, and condemned it.” This is a sentiment apparently shared by everyone involved with the movie. “Everyone understands that Nic bears the responsibility for his mistake 100 percent on his own shoulders,” Boal added.
In the meantime, other publicity mishaps have also befallen the film. Specifically, a Newsweek piece written by Army veteran Paul Rieckhoff alleged that The Hurt Locker was laden with inaccuracies. “The Hurt Locker tries to articulate [the experience of modern combat],” Rieckhoff writes, “but those of us who have served in the military couldn’t help but be distracted by a litany of inaccuracies that reveal not only a lack of research, but ultimately respect for the American military.” Moreover, in the past day we’ve learned that, Master Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver, who served in Iraq, is suing the makers of The Hurt Locker for pilfering his story. Sarver was the subject of the Playboy article on which the film’s script was based. A press conference is schedule for later today.
In the end, the Academy has decided to ban Chartier from attending the Oscars. He will be denied attendance and he will not be able to go as anyone’s guest that evening. This is the first time the Academy has ever taken the step as banning one individual specifically. Here’s the Academy’s statement via the LATimes:
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that, should “The Hurt Locker” be announced as the recipient of the Best Picture award at Sunday’s ceremonies, only three of the picture’s producers will be present for the celebration. The fourth of the film’s credited producers, Nicolas Chartier, has been denied attendance at the 82nd Academy Awards as a penalty for violating Academy campaigning standards…
The group stopped short of recommending that the Academy governors rescind Chartier’s nomination. If “The Hurt Locker” were to be selected as Best Picture, Chartier would receive his Oscar statuette at some point subsequent to the March 7 ceremonies.
One thing’s for sure: If The Hurt Locker doesn’t take Best Picture, I do not want to be Nicolas Chartier on Sunday night.
LocateTV has created a wonderful infographic titled “Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About The Oscars”, which is filled with fun facts about the Academy Awards. For example, which person has won the most Oscars? What is the longest acceptance speech in history? Or the box office factoid above that this year’s top two contenders for best picture. Check it out, embedded after the jump.
Source: LocateTV
Business Pundit created a great infographic displaying some of t interesting numerological trivia behind the biggest award show in show-business: The Academy Awards. What is the average age of a best actor or actress? How much does an awards campaign cost a movie studio? What percent of actors have their career plummet after winning the Oscar? How many streakers have interrupted the Oscar ceremony? Find out in the infographic, embedded after the jump.
Source: Business Pundit
via: digg
At awards shows, the death of a filmmaker is usually confined in the video montage celebrating all the big names in the film community that had died during the previous year. But the 2010 Academy Awards will feature a separate and special tribute to screenwriter/director John Hughes. Oscar hosts Steve Martin (Planes Trains & Automobiles) and Alec Baldwin (She’s Having A Baby) both had worked with Hughes in the 1980’s. Not much is known about the tribute, but cast members who have worked with Hughes over the years are rumored to be involved.
Hughes is best known for writing and/or directing some of our favorite films from the 1980’s - National Lampoon’s Vacation, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, European Vacation, Weird Science, Pretty in Pink, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Planes Trains & Automobiles, Uncle Buck, Christmas Vacation, and Home Alone. Hughes dropped out of filmmaking in 1991, retiring from the public eye, and rarely granting or giving interviews to the media. He wrote a couple screenplays and did some rare script and treatment work using his pseudonym, Edmond Dantès (a reference to the protagonist of Alexandre Dumas’ novel The Count of Monte Cristo). Those films include Beethoven, Maid in Manhattan (story) and Drillbit Taylor (story).
source: Finke
