Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

OscarGuy wrote:Why the hell is this even a story? Who cares if Gary from Chicago was an ex-con? Everyone gets a chance to start a new life regardless of their past.

Besides, since this was a planned thing, but not planned for who would be on the bus, I hardly think it fair to blame the Academy for not vetting the people. How precisely were they supposed to do that?

Forget it, Jake. It's the New York Post.

Why the hell is this even a story? Who cares if Gary from Chicago was an ex-con? Everyone gets a chance to start a new life regardless of their past.

Besides, since this was a planned thing, but not planned for who would be on the bus, I hardly think it fair to blame the Academy for not vetting the people. How precisely were they supposed to do that?

Big Magilla wrote:You can't make this stuff up. It just keeps coming.

http://pagesix.com/2017/02/28/gary-from ... 1473370799

"It was unclear if Academy Award organizers — who already have egg on their faces due to the riotous Best Picture flub — were aware that Coe..." etc. Well, New York Post, what do YOU think? What's your best guess?

Must everything be exposed and reported on?

You can't make this stuff up. It just keeps coming.

http://pagesix.com/2017/02/28/gary-from ... 1473370799

Susan Wloszczyna, former film critic of USA Today, is reporting that this was not the first time there was a mistake made by the Best Picture presenter. It was kept quiet because the elderly, albeit prestigious, presenter, who didn't open the envelope, read the first listed nominee which turned out to be the actual winner.


http://www.newsfromme.com/2015/03/20/an ... necdote-2/

You are correct.

Sabin wrote:Interesting trend: winning Best Picture does not mean you win the most Oscars. It means another film takes home more trophies (Hugo, Life of Pi, Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road, La La Land) or you tie with another film at four total (The King's Speech & Inception and Birdman & The Grand Budapest Hotel).

Actually, Hugo won about as many trophies as The Artist with 5.

The Original BJ wrote: Benj Pasek and Justin Paul -- the La La Land lyricists -- seem destined to pick up a Tony this year for composing Dear Evan Hansen. And one can only assume that they'll be in serious contention for multiple Grammy Awards for both Hansen and La La Land in the musical theater and movie soundtrack categories. It's possible they get 3/4 of the way to an EGOT in one year.

As I said in the Original Song thread, Pasek and Paul also wrote a song for a special musical episode of the TV series The Flash to be aired around next month. So they could also win an Emmy. They could conceivably EGOT in a span of a year.

Some other scattered thoughts, upon further reflection:

This year seemed like it might have finally ended the decade-plus disconnect between Best Picture and Best Actress, although La La Land came shy of winning both. In fact, not only is Million Dollar Baby still the last Best Picture winner to also win Best Actress, it's also the last Best Picture winner to even be NOMINATED for Best Actress.

In Warren and Faye's defense, the category names on those envelopes are REALLY tiny. You have to imagine that in future years, they will very clearly read things like BEST PICTURE: THE WINNER, instead of a movie name and then the category title in tiny print at the bottom.

One also wonders what kind of protocol measures will be taken in future years to prevent another such debacle. It's tough to imagine anyone wanting to ruin the spontaneity of envelopes being opened in front of the crowd, with presenters learning the winner right before the audience does. But it sure seems like the Academy will want some kind of stopgap somewhere in the process to avoid another embarrassment like this.

I didn't catch this on first viewing, but that last La La Land producer clearly is giving a speech knowing his movie already lost, before saying "We lost, by the way," the moment I first realized something was really off. Once you actually know what happened, it comes off as totally obnoxious.

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul -- the La La Land lyricists -- seem destined to pick up a Tony this year for composing Dear Evan Hansen. And one can only assume that they'll be in serious contention for multiple Grammy Awards for both Hansen and La La Land in the musical theater and movie soundtrack categories. It's possible they get 3/4 of the way to an EGOT in one year.

Speaking of EGOTs, around November, before La La Land's release, Lin-Manuel Miranda had been pretty heavily tipped to complete his. Once La La emerged as a Best Picture frontrunner with original songs, it became likely that this would be a year that the Disney musical would just have to take a backseat in the Original Song category. Had Miranda been nominated LAST year, I think he surely would have won, though you have to assume he'll have plenty of songwriting offers in the future, and may well get that Oscar soon enough.

There were a lot of pretty young winners this year -- Damien Chazelle, Barry Jenkins, Tarell Alvin McCraney, Justin Hurwitz, Pasek & Paul. (Of course, Emma Stone was the youngest of all, but obviously the female acting categories often skew younger than those others.)

I actually had to check to see if Moonlight was the lowest-grossing Best Picture winner in memory, but nope, it still managed to top The Hurt Locker. (And Moonlight still has room to get some kind of Best Picture box office bump.)

Sonic Youth wrote:

Mister Tee wrote: Yes, but you must answer! Which one was the greater upset?

I was more fully shocked by Fosse, but I was also a lot younger then.

Speaking of that '72 race: Mike Kelly at one point referenced it in pointing out that some of the biggest Oscar film/director upsets have involved musicals. We know from history that An American in Paris was a jaw-dropper over expected A Place in the Sun or A Streetcar Named Desire. Oliver! became the first movie ever to win film/director after losing the DGA Award. Fosse, too, had lost at DGA. And then, 30 years later, when a musical was finally again the front-runner/DGA winner, Rob Marshall lost to Roman Polanski. So La La Land follows in a long tradition.

Another late thought: someone noted last year that we'd had the first case of film/director/editing going to separate films since 1981. Well, bingo: we had the exact same this year. What's going on?

dws1982 wrote:

Sonic Youth wrote:But lets not forget Barry Jenkins? He was just as much the gentleman, equally classy and generous, both on the broadcast and during the backstage interview. And he came across as a really nice person to me. I wish he received more attention.

Jenkins has been a class-act all Oscar season. I've followed him on Twitter recently, and he always goes out of his way to bring attention to other films and other filmmakers--both obscure and mainstream. And you don't get the sense of him doing it out of obligation, or just to be a good sport--those tweets show genuine affection for whatever film he's talking about.

I believe it. Congratulations to him, and I hope he has a long and successful career.

Interesting trend: winning Best Picture does not mean you win the most Oscars. It means another film takes home more trophies (Hugo, Life of Pi, Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road, La La Land) or you tie with another film at four total (The King's Speech & Inception and Birdman & The Grand Budapest Hotel).

Sonic Youth wrote:But lets not forget Barry Jenkins? He was just as much the gentleman, equally classy and generous, both on the broadcast and during the backstage interview. And he came across as a really nice person to me. I wish he received more attention.

Jenkins has been a class-act all Oscar season. I've followed him on Twitter recently, and he always goes out of his way to bring attention to other films and other filmmakers--both obscure and mainstream. And you don't get the sense of him doing it out of obligation, or just to be a good sport--those tweets show genuine affection for whatever film he's talking about.

Mister Tee wrote:
So: the Moonlight upset (as apart from the fuck-up heard round the world). Sabin asked below if it was the greatest upset ever. I’ve always thought the Bob Fosse win in 1972 was the single greatest upset I’ve ever encountered – The Godfather had become the all-time box-office champ (which then often led to Oscars), had been massively critically-acclaimed, had won the Globe and DGA, then the reigning precursors. There seemed no reason in the world to doubt the film would win picture/director with ease – Fosse even said all his friends were consoling him pre-presentations for picking the one year when it was impossible for him to win. But that was a night a bit like this: though The Godfather was seen as the heavy favorite, it wasn’t picking up important awards along the way: Cabaret already had 6 prizes to The Godfather’s zero by the time best director came along. So, kind of like last night, the Fosse win that had seemed impossible at the night’s start got to feel more probable as the hours passed.

Yes, but you must answer! Which one was the greater upset?

ADDED: The class act of the night award has to go to the producer of La La Land, who handled a moment where he must have felt like he'd died inside with Hemingway-would-approve grace under pressure.

This is true but I think people are getting carried away with all the fawning. The Washington Post's headline reads "‘La La Land’ producer Jordan Horowitz is the truth-teller we need right now". The Boston Globe tweeted "Every generation needs a hero, and 36-year-old 'La La Land' producer Jordan Horowitz might just be ours." Overboard much? He was just being a grown-up, a gentleman (although that's rare enough in this day and age). He handled a very tough situation with great poise, and good for him. I liked how he handled it. But lets not forget Barry Jenkins? He was just as much the gentleman, equally classy and generous, both on the broadcast and during the backstage interview. And he came across as a really nice person to me. I wish he received more attention.

And Jimmy Kimmel deserves praise, too. Other hosts might have awkwardly bumbled not knowing what to do, but he did a great job keeping the situation under control. He didn't try to gloss over the situation, he found the appropriate humor, etc. In other words, he was a true host, and that's the reason why he succeeded last night. I don't always like Kimmel. When a joke doesn't quite work, he comes across as too mean-spirited to me, and that happened several times last night. But there's something about the Academy Awards format that utterly pulverizes most hosts, takes control of them instead of the other way around. They often seem to be in over their heads. But Kimmel was clearly in command all night. He didn't mug, he didn't show any nervousness, and I was impressed with what a quick thinker he was. When something wasn't succeeding, he knew how to talk his way past it. I really hope the network looks more at the good reviews than at the poor ratings, because he's earned another chance.

It also helped that the producers trimmed a lot of the fat from the program as well. This was as well-paced a broadcast as I've ever seen. Yes, it had its dry patches, but what Oscar broadcast doesn't have them? I'll go further: is it possible this was the best Academy Awards show in the past 20 years?

It appears, at least so far this decade, that the biggest predictor of what wins Best Picture is what films win the Screenplay Oscars.