Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

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This is Alexander Payne’s third nomination for Best Director and each time he’s been nominated he’s been up against Martin Scorsese.

This reminds me of Bob Fosse, also nominated three times, and each time against Francis Ford Coppola.

Alfred Hitchcock was nominated five times, four times against Billy Wilder.

George Stevens was nominated five times, four times against William Wyler.

Jefforey Smith wrote:I'm surprised by the Redford oversight. Yet he only has ONE line of dialogue. I read he's blaming the distributor for not campaigning/promoting his film. Perhaps the distributor assumed he'd sail to a nomination based on his pedigree/reputation/everyone-assumed-he'd-be-nominated?

He is correct in that the film was poorly distributed outside of the big cities, but that's only part of the reason. The film is said to have turned off most SAG and Academy members who were supplied with screeners which they found boring and pretty much gave up on after the first twenty minutes or so. Add to that Redford's own perceived lack of enthusiasm for promoting the film against fellow late 70s actor Bruce Dern who was everywhere promoting his film.

rolotomasi99 wrote:

Big Magilla wrote:Music of the Heart - undeserved, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) or Renée Zellweger (Nurse Betty) should have gotten her slot

Adaptation - somewhat deserved but Michelle Pfeiffer (White Oleander) was better

Streep's performance in ADAPTATION is one of my favorite of her's, and she was the best of the nominees in that particularly line-up.

I have a hard time thinking about that movie without reliving my experience at the suburban art-house where I saw it in 2002. The projectionist screened the film open matte which was at its most annoying in Streep's first scene where the overhead microphone is perched so close to her head it's almost touching it. It made me think she had a problem projecting and needed to have the mic as close as humanly possible to be heard at the same decibel level as the other actors. I actually liked her better that year in The Hours.

ksrymy wrote:

Big Magilla wrote:Music of the Heart - undeserved, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

That's 1999 vs. 2000.

OK, 1999 in which Cecilia Roth (All About My Mother); Sigourney Weaver (A Map of the Heart) and Reese Witherspoon (Election) were all much better.

I'm surprised by the Redford oversight. Yet he only has ONE line of dialogue. I read he's blaming the distributor for not campaigning/promoting his film. Perhaps the distributor assumed he'd sail to a nomination based on his pedigree/reputation/everyone-assumed-he'd-be-nominated?

flipp525 wrote:

rolotomasi99 wrote:

Mister Tee wrote:I recognize it's a matter of high profile/low profile, but, since everybody bitches and moans about Meryl Streep getting automatic nominations, howcome no one says boo about John Williams getting cited every time he tunes up? The music score category is tried-blood almost all around, in fact -- I admire Thomas Newman and Alexander Desplat, but do they have to turn up every time?

Since complaining about Meryl Streep seems to be popular around here, I thought I would post this link about how worthy each of her Oscar nominations were.

I really don't get the bitching and moaning about Meryl's nomination this year (and, honestly, I haven't really seen it on this board. Who is railing against it here? No one is even talking about August: Osage County). I thought it was a very deserved nomination, not at all at the level of Music of the Heart (although, those two performances do happen to share a similar hairdo.)

Well, it seems to be less a complaint specifically about her performance (since most here acknowledging not having seen the film yet), and more a general "Streep gets nominated for everything" dismissal.

I agree with Mister Tee, John Williams obligatory nominations (sometimes two in one year) are far more annoying.

Precious Doll wrote:

rolotomasi99 wrote:

Precious Doll wrote:However, the Foreign Language Film line up is one of the best ever. Whatever one may think of the individual films, the fact is that all of these films are highly regarded in their own right and any of them would make a respectable winner.

I just wish WADJDA had been included.

Whilst I enjoyed Wadjda myself I found it very slight and derivate of far better Iranian films from the late 1990's like The White Balloon and Children of Heaven.

In many respects Wadjda was a novelty piece as it was the first film (that we know of) to be made in Saudi Arabia and directed by a woman. It should be noted that Haifaa al-Mansour studied filmmaking at the University of Sydney, which goes a great deal to explain the very Western feel of her film.

THE WHITE BALLOON is a great movie, and I think CHILDREN OF HEAVEN is a masterpiece (and I do not throw that word around freely). Perhaps that particular type of story keeps being told because it is so relevant to the experience of young people in the Middle East. Throughout film history (and literature) children have been used to help deliver to general audiences revolutionary social ideas. I think this type of story needs to be told as many times as need be until it is no longer relevant (meaning the social problems have disappeared).

Big Magilla wrote:Music of the Heart - undeserved, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) or Renée Zellweger (Nurse Betty) should have gotten her slot

Adaptation - somewhat deserved but Michelle Pfeiffer (White Oleander) was better

MUSIC OF THE HEART was released in 1999, so Streep was in no way responsible for pushing out Yeoh and Zellweger. I agree they both deserved to be nominated, and both deserved to win (and be nominated) over Julia Roberts in ERIN BROCKOVICH. Juliette Binoche in CHOCOLAT was the other weak offender in that year's lineup. Coincidentally, Harvey Weinstein was responsible for those particular nominations for Streep and Binoche. As many great films as he ushered into Oscar glory, he really is responsible for some pretty horrible nominations.

Streep's performance in ADAPTATION is one of my favorite of her's, and she was the best of the nominees in that particularly line-up.

Big Magilla wrote:Music of the Heart - undeserved, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon)

That's 1999 vs. 2000.

Katharine Hepburn made 18 films that I could watch over and over. Streep, none more than two or three times, but it's all in the timing. Hepburn's competition was firce, especially in the 1930s and 40s, whereas Streep's competition has often been pretty lame.

The Deer Hunter - deserved
Kramer vs. Kramer- deserved the nomination and the win
The French Lieutenant's Woman - deserved in a weak year
Sophie's Choice - deserved the nomination and the win
Silkwood - deserved due lack of strong competition
Out of Africa - somewhat deserved although a case could be made for Coral Browne (Dreamchild), Cher (Mask) or Norma Aleandro (The Oficial Story) taking either her or Jessica Lange's (Sweet Dreams) spot or both
Ironweed - somewhat deserved although a case could be made for Maggie Smith (The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne) and Lillian Gish (The Whales of August) replacing her and Sally Kirkland (Anna)
A Cry in the Dark - deserved
Postcards from the Edge - undeserved, Jessica Lange (Men Don't Leave) or Susan Sarandon (White Palace) should have gotten her slot
The Bridges of Madison County - deserved more than Sharon Stone (Casino) - but it was Kathy Bates (Dolores Claiborne), not Nicole Kidman (To Die For) who was robbed
One True Thing - somewhat deserved in a weak year
Music of the Heart - undeserved, Michelle Yeoh (Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) or Renée Zellweger (Nurse Betty) should have gotten her slot
Adaptation - somewhat deserved but Michelle Pfeiffer (White Oleander) was better
The Devil Wears Prada - deserved
Doubt - deserved, would have won if they listened to Harvey and nominated Kate Winslet in The Reader in support
Julie & Julia - deserved
The Iron Lady - marginally deserved for a good performance in a terrible film, but they should have thought outside the box and nominated and awarded Jeong-hie Yun, the Korean Sophia Loren, for Poetry
August: Osage County - undeserved, they should have nominated Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks) and Adele Exarchoupolos (Blue Is the Warmest Color) instead of her and Amy Adams (American Hustle)

I haven't seen August Osage County yet. But I'd say that of those I've seen - and I've seen all before this one - the worst is Postcards from the Edge, where she is ridiculously miscast (and the movie is unwatchable).

As for Judi Dench winning the BAFTA, it can certainly happen. Without Blanchett in the race, she could have won the Oscar, too.

Sonic Youth wrote:As for sound mixing, I'll probably be mocked for saying this, but here goes... I won't pretend to know why it wasn't nominated, and maybe it is a sign that it doesn't have enough support. But considering what the sound mix was primarily utilized for, which was recreating the snap of the whip against naked flesh throughout much of the film, would you even have wanted to nominate it? I wouldn't.

Would not that be Sound Editing, not Sound Mixing?

The least worthy Streep nomination since Y2K is with absolutely zero doubt the one for which she actually won the award.

Well, of her 18 nominations this is the least deserving since The French Lt's Woman as far as I'm concerned.

But there is a long list of undeserved nominations by numerous people across the full range of categories.

And they clearly love Streep. She can do no wrong in the Academy's eyes and that's that. Whinging about it by anyone isn't going to change that fact. All of us who predicted she would miss out on a nomination for AOC should really have had more sense.

In the future I will be predicting her for anything she does that receives even a whisper of praise as the number of nominations she has received speak for themselves as far as the Academy selections.

It's worth noting the Judi Dench is the Meryl Streep of the BFTAs - watch her beat Blanchett.

rolotomasi99 wrote:

Mister Tee wrote:I recognize it's a matter of high profile/low profile, but, since everybody bitches and moans about Meryl Streep getting automatic nominations, howcome no one says boo about John Williams getting cited every time he tunes up? The music score category is tried-blood almost all around, in fact -- I admire Thomas Newman and Alexander Desplat, but do they have to turn up every time?

Since complaining about Meryl Streep seems to be popular around here, I thought I would post this link about how worthy each of her Oscar nominations were.

http://www.vulture.com/2014/01/meryl-st ... tions.html

As far as I am concerned, Meryl Streep has never given a bad performance -- even in bad movies like She-Devil. I also think her only Oscar nomination she did not deserve was for MUSIC OF THE HEART, and for the same reason as the link says -- Reese Witherspoon should have been nominated (and maybe even won) instead.

I really don't get the bitching and moaning about Meryl's nomination this year (and, honestly, I haven't really seen it on this board. Who is railing against it here? No one is even talking about August: Osage County). I thought it was a very deserved nomination, not at all at the level of Music of the Heart (although, those two performances do happen to share a similar hairdo.)