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Actor Chris Hemsworth (left) and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the nominees for the 86th Annual Academy Awards in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.
credit: Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Article by Marcus Siu

The Academy Award nominations were announced yesterday morning, and “American Hustle” and “Gravity”, led the pack with ten nominations each, followed closely behind by “12 Years a Slave” with nine.  “Captain Phillips”, “Dallas Buyer’s Club”, and Nebraska each had six nominations, and “Her” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” had five.

Along with Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay,  “American Hustle” was nominated in each of the acting categories, which has only happened 15 times since Oscar’s inception.  Ironically, it happened last year with “Silver Lining’s Playbook”, whose director, David O’Russell, who also directed “American Hustle”.  In his last two years, Russell has directed actors who have gone on to get an astounding eight Academy Award nominations.

For five time nominee, Amy Adams, it was the first time she was ever nominated in a leading role.  Likewise, for three time nominated Oscar winning actress from “Silver Linings Playbook”, Jennifer Lawrence, it was her first nomination in a supporting role. At 23 years old, she also becomes the youngest three time nominee ever.  Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper have been nominated previously, under the direction of David O’Russell’s previous films.

Alfonso Cuaron’s 3-D Science Fiction film masterpiece, “Gravity”, starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, nabbed nominations for Best Picture, Director, and all of the technical categories, which has only happened five times.  James Cameron had quoted that this film was the “best space film ever done”.  To spur interest again to theatergoers, Warner Brothers decided to re-release “Gravity” in IMAX theatres on January 31st.

“12 Years a Slave” nabbed nine nominations, including Best Picture, Director, and two of the Acting categories.  Director Steve McQueen depicts a brutal depiction of slavery like no other film has done in a mainstream feature film.  Chiwetel Ejiofor and newcomer Lupita Nyong’o bravura performances breathed life into their unforgettable characters.  The film just took home the Golden Globe Award for Best Drama for a Motion Picture last Sunday.

It seems that Best Picture will be a tossup this year and can go to any of these three worthy films.  These risk-taking films are made with passion, integrity, and the highest level of artistry by some of the greatest filmmakers around the world.

This has been an excellent year for the small film. “Nebraska”, “The Dallas Buyer’s Club”, and “Her”, were definitely noticed by the Oscar voters.  Unfortunately, there is not enough slots to recognize many of the worthy films not nominated at all.

BEVERLY HILLS, CA — Actor Chris Hemsworth and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the nominations for the 86th Academy Awards yesterday (January 16).

Hemsworth and Boone Isaacs announced the nominees at a 5:38 a.m. PT live news conference attended by more than 400 international media representatives.

Academy members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees in theirrespective categories – actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. In the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominees are selected by a vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.

Official screenings of all motion pictures with one or more nominations will begin for members on Saturday, January 25, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Screenings also will be held at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood and in London, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Active members of the Academy are eligible to vote for the winners in all categories.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2013 will be presented on OscarSunday, March 2, 2014, at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center  and televised live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscars, produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, also will be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide.

NOMINATIONS:

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR

“American Hustle” Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
“Captain Phillips” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca, Producers
“Dallas Buyers Club” Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter, Producers
“Gravity” Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman, Producers
“Her” Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze and Vincent Landay, Producers
“Nebraska” Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, Producers
“Philomena” Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan and Tracey Seaward, Producers
“12 Years a Slave” Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen and Anthony Katagas, Producers
“The Wolf of Wall Street” Nominees to be determined

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Christian Bale in “American Hustle”
Bruce Dern in “Nebraska”
Leonardo DiCaprio in “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Chiwetel Ejiofor in “12 Years a Slave”
Matthew McConaughey in “Dallas Buyers Club”

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Barkhad Abdi in “Captain Phillips”
Bradley Cooper in “American Hustle”
Michael Fassbender in “12 Years a Slave”
Jonah Hill in “The Wolf of Wall Street”
Jared Leto in “Dallas Buyers Club”

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Amy Adams in “American Hustle”
Cate Blanchett in “Blue Jasmine”
Sandra Bullock in “Gravity”
Judi Dench in “Philomena”
Meryl Streep in “August: Osage County”

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Sally Hawkins in “Blue Jasmine”
Jennifer Lawrence in “American Hustle”
Lupita Nyong’o in “12 Years a Slave”
Julia Roberts in “August: Osage County”
June Squibb in “Nebraska”

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR

“The Croods” Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco and Kristine Belson
“Despicable Me 2” Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin and Chris Meledandri
“Ernest & Celestine” Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner
“Frozen” Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho
“The Wind Rises” Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

“The Grandmaster” Philippe Le Sourd
“Gravity” Emmanuel Lubezki
“Inside Llewyn Davis” Bruno Delbonnel
“Nebraska” Phedon Papamichael
“Prisoners” Roger A. Deakins

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

“American Hustle” Michael Wilkinson
“The Grandmaster” William Chang Suk Ping
“The Great Gatsby” Catherine Martin
“The Invisible Woman” Michael O’Connor
“12 Years a Slave” Patricia Norris

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING

“American Hustle” David O. Russell
“Gravity” Alfonso Cuarón
“Nebraska” Alexander Payne
“12 Years a Slave” Steve McQueen
“The Wolf of Wall Street” Martin Scorsese

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

“The Act of Killing”Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
“Cutie and the Boxer” Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
“Dirty Wars” Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
“The Square” Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
“20 Feet from Stardom” Nominees to be determined

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

“CaveDigger” Jeffrey Karoff
“Facing Fear” Jason Cohen
“Karama Has No Walls” Sara Ishaq
“The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life” Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed
“Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall” Edgar Barens

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING

“American Hustle” Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
“Captain Phillips” Christopher Rouse
“Dallas Buyers Club” John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
“Gravity” Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger
“12 Years a Slave” Joe Walker

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR

“The Broken Circle Breakdown” Belgium
“The Great Beauty” Italy
“The Hunt” Denmark
“The Missing Picture” Cambodia
“Omar” Palestine

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

“Dallas Buyers Club” Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
“Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” Stephen Prouty
“The Lone Ranger” Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)

“The Book Thief” John Williams
“Gravity” Steven Price
“Her” William Butler and Owen Pallett
“Philomena” Alexandre Desplat
“Saving Mr. Banks” Thomas Newman

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)

“Alone Yet Not Alone” from “Alone Yet Not Alone”
Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel
“Happy” from “Despicable Me 2”
Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
“Let It Go” from “Frozen”
Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
“The Moon Song” from “Her”
Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze
“Ordinary Love” from “Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom”
Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson

ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION DESIGN

“American Hustle” Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
“Gravity” Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
“The Great Gatsby” Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn
“Her” Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
“12 Years a Slave” Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

“Feral” Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
“Get a Horse!” Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
“Mr. Hublot” Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
“Possessions” Shuhei Morita
“Room on the Broom” Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

“Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)” Esteban Crespo
“Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything)” Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
“Helium” Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson
“Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)” Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
“The Voorman Problem” Mark Gill and Baldwin Li

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

“All Is Lost” Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
“Captain Phillips” Oliver Tarney
“Gravity” Glenn Freemantle
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Brent Burge
“Lone Survivor” Wylie Stateman

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

“Captain Phillips” Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
“Gravity” Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
“Inside Llewyn Davis” Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
“Lone Survivor” Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

“Gravity” Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
“The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
“Iron Man 3” Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
“The Lone Ranger” Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
“Star Trek Into Darkness” Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

“Before Midnight” Written by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
“Captain Phillips” Screenplay by Billy Ray
“Philomena” Screenplay by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
“12 Years a Slave” Screenplay by John Ridley
“The Wolf of Wall Street” Screenplay by Terence Winter

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

“American Hustle” Written by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
“Blue Jasmine” Written by Woody Allen
“Dallas Buyers Club” Written by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
“Her” Written by Spike Jonze
“Nebraska” Written by Bob Nelson

Also included with this announcement is an official video which was posted by The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VlWUkpIJFw

Oscar Isaac plays the title character in “Inside Llewyn Davis” directed by the Coen Brothers.
Photo courtesy of CBS Films.

Musical biopic movies are a tricky proposition for filmmakers.  Depending on how keen the audience’s perceptions are, especially musicians, the movie’s success, depends highly on how credible the actor is.  Actors aren’t usually musicians.  Musicians aren’t usually actors.  When you have someone playing the music directly in front of you without any trick film editing, that film becomes a type of documentary and the character becomes true to life.  The challenge is finding the right actor to play the role.  For example, it took 14 years to wrap up Taylor Hackfords “Ray”, mainly because they couldn’t find the perfect “Ray Charles” that would convince an audience, until Jamie Foxx came into the picture.

Casting an actor who plays a musician can be “uncast able”, as Joel Coen said at a recent screening for his latest movie.

“During the audition process, it was difficult to cast the lead title character.  They would first audition musicians who could not act.  Then they would audition actors who could play, but not to a credible level for the audience to believe the character.  We started interviewing actors who could play, but we thought may have written a part which was uncast able, until Oscar walked in the room.  Without him it was impossible to make the film.”

Enter Oscar Isaac, an actor trained at Julliard, who also played the memorable ex-con who was part of the failed heist with Ryan Gosling in “Drive”, co-starring Carey Mulligan.  Even more importantly, he was also a singer-songwriter and lead guitarist for “The Blinking Underdogs”, which helped prepared his character and musical pacing for the title role of “Inside Llewyn Davis”, collaborating with who he calls, the “Mr. Miyagi of Music”, the legendary producer extradonaire, T-Bone Burnett, reteaming again with the Coen Brothers for the fourth time.

Shot with a documentary feel to it, “Inside Llewyn Davis” is loosely based on the Dave Van Ronk’s memoirs, “The Mayor of MacDougal Street”.   It revolves around the redefining folk scene around New York City’s Village in the late 50’s, and it’s unknown directions of post Eisenhower America; just right before the likes of the trio of Peter, Paul and Mary or individuals, such as Bob Dylan came to existence. This was an era when musicians would try out and perform folk music in front of crowds, hopefully connecting with what they presented to their audience.

Without question, the supporting roles of every Coen Brothers film, seems to produce the memorable characters for the film. “Inside Llewyn Davis” is no exception.  In this case, John Goodman as Roland Turner, may be his zaniest role ever, even with all the insane characters that he has played over the years.  Garret Hedlund, whose last role as Dean Moriarty in Kerouack’s, “On the Road”, where he probably had to learn more lines from a script than any other actor ever on screen, barely had any in this one, but is impressionistic as Goodman’s driver, Johnny Five.  Mulligan and Timberlake make the best of their believable roles as folk musicians rounding off the cast.

Perhaps the best supporting role (uncredited) has to go to Ulysses, the cat.  Unfortunately, there were a few cat doubles, which is probably why the cat‘s name wasn’t headlined on the movie poster.

“Inside Llewyn Davis”, took the Grand Prix at Cannes last May, and deservedly so.

Article by Marcus Siu

Article by Marcus Siu

As it looks right now, “Argo” has become the forerunner for “Best Picture” at this year’s Academy Awards.  The film has taken every single major Best Picture Award, including the Golden Globes, Directors Guild of America, and Producers Guild of America. 

However, it’s director/star, Ben Affleck name was not mentioned when they read the list of nominees for “Best Director” when the Academy Award nominations were announced early last month. 

Showing no bitterness at all, Affleck joked at the Golden Globes that no one felt he was snubbed for an acting nomination on “Argo,” in which he gives one of his finest performances as a CIA agent orchestrating a scheme to disguise the Americans as a Hollywood film crew scouting locations in Iran.

Ben Affleck gets the word that he was snubbed by the Academy at this years Academy Awards for Best Director for “Argo”.

For the Actor categories, Daniel Day-Lewis for “Lincoln” for Best Actor is a no-brainer, as he was the heart and soul of the film directed by Steven Spielberg.  He tranformed light into Tony Kushner’s amazing screenplay that brought all the best character actors in Hollywood into a history in the making ; the passing of the 13th Ammendment into life.  Much of Hollywood’s best character actors showcase themselves, alongside the scene stealing Tommy Lee Jones, who deserves to take the Oscar tonight for Best Supporting Actor. 

For the Actress categories, Jennifer Lawrence has taken every major “Best Actress” award, including SAG, Golden Globes, and just recently, the Spirit Awards.  However, I am predicting that Emmanuelle Riva, the oldest actress to be ever nominated at 85, will surprise everyone and pull an upset.  I feel the Academy wants to honor, the French Film, “Amour” more than just a “Best Foreign Film”, since it had been nominated for six major categories, including Best Picture.  I also feel that the Academy knows that the 22 year old Lawrence has many more chances to win an Oscar, since she has many roles lined up ahead of her then the elderly, Riva. 

Left to Right: Jean-Louis Trintignant as Georges and Emmanuelle Riva as Anne
Photo by Darius Khondji, (c) Films du Losange, Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Anne Hathaway will be the shoo-in winner for Best Supporting Actress for “Les Miserables” as Fantine. 

Since Affleck wasn’t nominated for Best Director, the Academy will probably give it to Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln”.  David O. Russell would be a close runner up for “Silver Linings Playbook”, but I think the Academy will decide on giving him the Best Original Screenplay award instead.

For Best Animated Film, I chose Pixar’s “Brave”, since it has all the elements of a classic film in the Disney tradition.  It’s a little more conservative than Disney’s “Wreck-it Ralph”, about video game characters coming to life, which took home the “Annie’s”, but may not be as suitable to the Academy’s taste.

Quentin Tarentino should pick up another Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for “Django Unchained”, no matter what Spike Lee thinks.

Adele will help celebrate James Bond’s 50th birthday bash to win a few Oscars for Agent 007 tonight, as she it will definitely win for the title song from “Skyfall”.  It should take Best Sound Editing, as well.  I am also hoping for it to win Best Cinematography for the great Roger Deakins (“Fargo”, “Shawshank Redemption”, “No Country for Old Men”), who has been nominated ten times without winning one. He is definitely due.

Ang Lee’s “Life of Pi” will certainly take the Visual Effects Award.  (Who knew that was a CGI Tiger on the boat?)  It should also take Best Music Score, as well.  If they don’t give the cinematography award to “Skyfall”, then they will give it to “Life of Pi”.

Here’s to you, Ben!

Congratulations to Academy Award Ben Affleck who will most likely win Best Picture for “Argo”. He will be only the fourth director in Oscar history to have not been nominated for a Best Picture winner. The last film to win without a director nomination was in 1989 for “Driving Miss Daisy”.

Picture: Argo

Actor : Daniel Day-Lewis

Actress: Emmanuelle Riva

Supporting Actor:  Tommy Lee Jones

Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway

Animated Film: Brave

Cinematography:  Skyfall

Costume: Anna Karenina

Directing: Steven Spielberg

Doc Feature: Searching for Sugar Man

Doc Short: Open Heart

Film Editing: Argo

Foreign Language: Amour

Makeup: Les Miserables

Score: Life of Pi

Song:  Skyfall

Production design: Les Miserables

Short film: Head over heals

Short film: Curfew

Sound Editing: Skyfall

Sound Mixing: Les Miserables

Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Adapted Screenplay:  Silver Linings Playbook

Original Screenplay: Django Unchained