So, all in all, just another year at the Oscars - complete with plenty of obvious choices, surprising snubs, and a handful of unexpected nominations. Whether or not the actual winners list will be quite so predictable - or, perhaps, mix things up a bit - that remains to be s
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and Oscar-nominated actress Jennifer Lawrence ( Winter's Bone , The Hunger Games ) jointly announced the nominations for the 84th Academy Awards this morning, on Tuesday January 24th. The actual 2012 Oscar ceremony will take place next month, on February 26th at the Kodak theater - with Billy Crystal serving as host, for the ninth time in his car
The Academy Awards telecast, seen by most as Hollywood's biggest night, has been enjoying slight upticks in the ratings over the past couple of years. Whether that is due to the producers' choices of popular hosts (Seth MacFarlane and Ellen DeGeneres) or the nominated films posting very healthy box office numbers is up for debate. What matters to the Academy is that people were tuning in to their s
It remains to be seen if this is something that will plague the Oscars for the next handful of years or is merely a blip on the radar. Looking ahead to 2015's award season (I know, bear with me...), there are offerings from filmmakers including Steven Spielberg, Quentin Tarantino, and David O. Russell among others that could prove to be more lucrative endeavors than the crop we just got. The Academy will spend the next 12 months figuring out how to retool their telecast, but the odds of a ratings boost are in their fa
There were also many very funny moments in the film including one scene where Farrell decks a guy he thinks is an American and right afterwards says: "That's for John Lennon." But then part way through the movie the tone changes abruptly into a much darker and tragic mode. Humor is still sprinkled throughout after this turn, moviefestivalhub.com but when you laugh at this point it's almost more like nervous laughter, just to release the tension of what you're watch
The viewer is left to draw their own conclusion and although I liked that the film did that, another part of me would have liked a definitive conclusion. Having said that, it's probably better that it was left open-ended because too many documentaries have an obvious agenda meant to convince the viewer of some particular point of v
Jennifer Lawrence and Maggie Smith have both won multiple Golden Globes already, but most seem to agree that their latest performances (while solid enough in their own right) aren't their best. McCarthy landed her first Golden Globe this year too though as mentioned before, Schumer shown brighter in 2015 than the rest here and chances are good that the HFPA will recognize her for
Things are zooming along like an out of control freight train with first national and then international fame. The paintings sell for between $5,000 to $10,000 each and a waiting list forms for future paintings. We see that Marla's mom is much more reserved about the whole thing and wouldn't be unhappy if everything stopped tomorrow. She harbors concerns about the effect it is having on her family and her daughter in particular. Marla's dad on the other hand doesn't see any downside at all, and at one point his wife states that he really enjoys being the center of attent
Back in November I posted the trailer to In Bruges and commented that it looked like a movie that would not be a hit with mainstream audiences but those that like indie movies would probably love it. Well I just watched it and I'm more certain than ever that my first reaction will turn out to be accur
The other issue that some will raise is the bloated nature of the telecast. Beginning at 8:30 p.m. EST, Sean Penn didn't announce that Birdman had won Best Picture until 11:48 p.m. In between all the awards being handed out, viewers were expected to slog their way through comedy bits that arguably fell flat, musical performances, and several commercial breaks. In this day and age, fans can find out who wins in real time via social media and see any speeches they're interested in watching online shortly after the original telecast. The need to see the show live has decrea
Steven Spielberg's War Horse managed to land six nods, but the bulk of its nominations were for technical achievements; by comparison, Alexander Payne's The Descendants raked in five, including (as expected) one for George Clooney as an actor, and others in areas like adapted screenplay and direction. Similar to War Horse , David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo landed mostly technical category nods - though, Rooney Mara was recognized for her performance in the f
Surprisingly, neither Steven Spielberg's The Adventures of Tintin nor Disney's 2D animated critical darling, Winnie the Pooh , is a contender for Best Animated Feature. However, despite Stephen Daldry's critic-dividing Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close landing a Best Pic nod over a more universally-beloved title like, say, Warrior , that selection was (unfortunately) expec