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Posted: Wed Mar 10, 2010 12:04 pm
by rolotomasi99
I know it is pretty early to discuss the next Oscar Best Picture winner, but I definitely think we should keep an eye on this film, followed by speculation of whether it is too Oscar-baity or indy to win, then moving on to declaring it the frontrunner, eventually declaring it has peaked and there is now a backlash against it, and ending with it being the underdog film which might pull-off a comeback win due to vote splitting from the other nominees.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nFicqklGuB0

:D

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:44 pm
by ITALIANO
Ah, so the fact that she "looks" happy means that she "is", in Big Magilla's version, "happy and grateful". As if looking and being is the same. This is really another universe, I'm sorry (one where Sandra Bullock is a believable actress)... Aliens, to me.

And by the way, she doesn't look THAT happy honestly... I've seen Americans with wider smiles when they LOST an award.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:33 pm
by Big Magilla
She sure s hell looks happy and grateful in this photo:

http://www.zimbio.com/picture....Bigelow

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 6:13 pm
by ITALIANO
Ah well, VERY important awards! (And how do you know that she was "happy and grateful"? Do you know her personally?)

The movie didn't win any official prize at Venice.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:54 pm
by Big Magilla
The Hurt Locker lost the Golden Lion to The Wrestler, yes, but it won five awards at the 2008 Venice Film Festival inclouding the Gucci Award to Mark Boal, the Human Rights Film Network Award, the SIGNIS Award, the Sergio Trasatti Award and the Young Cinema Award, all of which were awarded to Kathryn Bigelow who was extremely happy and grateful to receive them.

Sister Rose, pre-Oscar from her blog:

Out of the ten films nominated, I think this may come down to The Hurt Locker or Avatar. In the interest of full disclosure I admit that I have been a fan of The Hurt Locker since September 2008 when I was president of the Catholic Jury at the Venice Film Festival and we gave it the SIGNIS Award. It was the best film in competition at Venice that year. My vote goes to The Hurt Locker, but anything can happen.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:32 pm
by ITALIANO
And, of course, as if Italy didn't have enough problems, now these Oscars are becoming a source of embarassment for one of my country's main cultural institutions (and one almost as ancient as the Academy), the Venice Film Festival. You must know - well, probably you must have guessed from my involvement in this board - that Italy must be the only country in the world - US included - where the Oscars are still taken EXTREMELY seriously. We like them, we respect them, maybe because years ago we were often part of them. So even this year's verdict has been received with the usual respect - too much respect, as it's turning out.

The problem? In 2008 (yes, 2008, not 2009) The Hurt Locker was shown - in competition - at the Festival. Italian distributor Sandro Parenzo convinced Bigelow to send her - yet unseen - movie here; she accepted and she came with her actors. And while it's becoming fashionable now to say that it was generally panned by Italian critics (which, post-Oscars, is seen as a major crime), this isn't true. There were some negative or mixed reviews, true - including those from the two most influential and widely read newspapers, Il Corriere della Sera and La Repubblica - but there were others very positive (even, from my point of view, too positive), and interestingly the biggest praise came from our leading (former) Communist newspaper, L'Unità.
But the real point, and the main (absurd) accusation - from Parenzo, but from part of the national press, too - is that the movie didn't get any award from the jury, leading Bigelow, it seems, to leave Venice in a fury, swearing she would never come back again. The names of the jurors - the most famous being Valeria Golino, John Landis and president of the jury Wim Wenders - are often repeated, and, as always in Italy, there are rumors of corruption or at least of undue influence and personal connections; not anti-Americanism for once though, as the Golden Lion went to the movie The Wrestler. Which, unfortunately, didn't get to win any Oscar.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 1:35 pm
by rain Bard
I assumed it was an intentional ploy to throw longtime Oscar watchers off-balance. A way to ensure that, whether or not the title in the envelope was a surprise, the naming of it would feel like one to everyone. And if this was the intention, I thought it worked very well. Probably the only time all night I thought to myself, "good one, Shankman."

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 10:24 am
by Mister Tee
Hustler wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:Tom Hanks said he was doing as he was told, that it was the plan all along to just open the envelope and announce the winner.
Laurence Olivier did the same thing 25 years ago when he announced Amadeus winning for best picture and rumor has it was his fault.
It was clearly a senior moment for Olivier -- which winner Saul Zaentz attempted to rectify by naming all the other nominees at the start of his acceptance speech.

So, what -- ten films isn't too many for a nomination slate, but it's too many to read aloud?

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 7:23 am
by Hustler
Big Magilla wrote:Tom Hanks said he was doing as he was told, that it was the plan all along to just open the envelope and announce the winner.
Laurence Olivier did the same thing 25 years ago when he announced Amadeus winning for best picture and rumor has it was his fault.

Posted: Tue Mar 09, 2010 4:01 am
by Big Magilla
Tom Hanks said he was doing as he was told, that it was the plan all along to just open the envelope and announce the winner.

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 3:37 am
by Franz Ferdinand
The enjoyment was definitely cut off by such an abrupt announcement (my party of 12 people were considerably stunned and the result was a mediocre pleasure at Hurt Locker's win), but I can only imagine the sting if it went "thewinnerisavatar"... Very disappointing end for a great winner.

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 1:40 am
by Sonic Youth
This may be the first Best Picture in history that will see a surge in theatrical box office, DVD sales and rentals, and VOD viewership. Even disregarding the gender angle, this is objectively an historic win.

I guess I should see it now.

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 12:21 am
by Zahveed
Andthewinneristhehurtlocker

cheer

speech

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 12:19 am
by Sonic Youth
bettestreep2008 wrote:I thought the producers should have allowed Tom to read the 10 nominees again - would have only taken another 30 seconds or so.
Among other things, it was having 10 Best Picture noms that made the show run long in the first place.

That kind of pissed me off. I let my guard down because I was expecting a reading of the noms one last time. And when I looked up, the winner was announced. No matter how predetermined the winner was at this point, I still like to feign excitement for the final award. Denied.

Posted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 12:15 am
by OscarGuy
What I really miss and want back: The drumroll. The most tense and exciting moments in my personal recollection of Oscar is that steadily increasing drumroll behind the reading of the Best Picture nominees...