Having fallen behind on the Oscar Challenge, today will be my last ditch effort to see all the films I have yet to see. There are also two films as of today that I cannot find; “Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me” and “The Salt Of The Earth”. There’s still a dead heat between “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)” and “Boyhood”, Alejandro G. … Read More 87th Annual Academy Awards Predictions
ROSAMUND PIKE “Gone Girl” OscarsⓇ Nominated Role: Rosamund Pike plays Amy Dunne, a young wife whose disappearance causes suspicion to fall on her husband. When a particular film finds itself with almost zero support whatsoever, despite many indicators that state that it should have, you can bet that any nomination that comes out of that film will be up against the wall in terms … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [18] Gone Girl – Best Actress In A Leading Role
“LEVIATHAN” Russia Russia is no stranger to the Academy Awards, with plenty of nominations and wins all around. This year, “Leviathan” tells the story of a family, all dealing with their own challenges, yet intertwining in the sense that their actions all effect one another. Kolya (Aleksei Serebryakov), a husband and father, is dealing with a court ruling forcing him to sell his family’s … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [17] Leviathan – Best Foreign Language Feature
“MR. TURNER” Suzie Davies (Production Design); Charlotte Watts (Set Decoration) The elaborate sets and detailed production design are on full display in “Mr. Turner”. One set in particular that comes to mind is Turner’s workspace in his father’s mansion. Tables covered with paint and cups holding brushes, an easel standing next to a giant open window, and actual paintings lining the walls, this imagery … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [16] Mr. Turner – Best Production Design
“MR. TURNER” FROM “MR. TURNER” Gary Yershon The score in “Mr. Turner” is the equivalent of giving a nomination to good elevator music. Not to say Gary Yershon’s score is bad, by any means, in fact it fits the period piece nature of the film perfectly, but that being said, there are multiple composers every year that put out similar original scores, offering to … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [16] Mr. Turner – Best Original Score
JACQUELINE DURRAN “Mr. Turner” Producing the costumes for an entire set during the production of a period piece has to be overwhelming. Not only does everyone have to fit the era, but they also have to be presented in a way that is accepted by the viewing public. The costumes must stand out in some pleasant way that causes one to follow along the … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [16] Mr. Turner – Best Costume Design
DICK POPE “Mr. Turner” Watching the cinematography of Dick Pope in “Mr. Turner” is not that different from viewing the paintings of the title character. The composition of each shot comes off like Turner’s paintings, capturing the nature around the title character with a grandeur that elevates the film as a whole. Along the same lines as Robert Yeoman’s work on “The Grand … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [16] Mr. Turner – Best Cinematography
CRISIS HOTLINE: VETERANS PRESS 1 || The first short shown in the series, the HBO produced “Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1” also set the bar for the shorts to follow. Building suspense with each telephone conversation, the employees at this crisis hotline paint terrifying and sometimes heartbreaking situations, with the veterans on the other line, suffering from PTSD. This being the only crisis hotline … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: Best Documentary Shorts
“DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES” Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett and Erik Winquist Here’s how good the visual effects team on “Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes” is: for two straight films now, critics and audiences alike have been rooting for Andy Serkis to be nominated for an acting award for his motion capture performance as Caesar the ape. Let … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [15] Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes – Best Visual Effects
“X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST” Richard Stammers, Lou Pecora, Tim Crosbie and Cameron Waldbauer Even if it does showcase prominent visual effects, “X-Men: Days Of Future Past” was a surprise nomination in the Best Visual Effects category (I had picked “The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies” or “Transformers: Age Of Extinction” for the fifth spot). The reason for surprise is not because … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [14] X-Men: Days Of Future Past – Best Visual Effects
“The Grand Budapest Hotel” is like your favorite rock band. You probably started off going to their shows at intimate venues with hardly any crowds and the next thing you know, they’re selling out the Staples Center and winning Grammys. Everyone is listening to them now and tickets that used to cost $10-$20 are more like $80-$100 or more. That’s what I feel like … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [12] The Grand Budapest Hotel – Best Picture
WES ANDERSON “The Grand Budapest Hotel” No one in Hollywood is embracing their creativity and individuality more so right now than Wes Anderson. And he always has. Look at any of his previous films and you will notice a style of film that no other director is even trying to touch. And with a record setting limited release box office this year and … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [12] The Grand Budapest Hotel – Best Directing
“MOONSHINE” FROM “THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL” Alexandre Desplat As is the case were Wes Anderson to win Best Directing, if Alexandre Desplat wins Best Original Score, it will be because he is due. Now, whether you agree with the Academy people because they are due and not because of their particular merits on the given nominated film is your own opinion, but Desplat, who … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [12] The Grand Budapest Hotel – Best Original Score
WES ANDERSON & HUGO GUINNESS “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Another year and another Best Original Screenplay nomination for Wes Anderson, this time for his screenplay, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. Nominated for Best Original Screenplay three times now (previously nominated for “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001) and “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012)), some will argue that this year’s entry is his best film yet. It involves a … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [12] The Grand Budapest Hotel – Best Original Screenplay
FRANCIS HANNON & MARK COULIER “The Grand Budapest Hotel” Most of the makeup in “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is subtle. Apart from turning Tilda Swinton into an entirely different person, the rest of the makeup just tends to accent certain features of a character, like Agatha’s birthmark or Edward Norton’s mustache. Or the makeup is used to comedic effect, like making Harvey Keitel bald … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [12] The Grand Budapest Hotel – Best Makeup & Hairstyling
Would “The Grand Budapest Hotel” be as funny if editor Barney Pilling wasn’t willing to hold on certain shots for longer than some normally would? Or as cutting abruptly to a reaction when others might take their time or cut the reaction at a normal pace? For someone that’s never worked with Wes Anderson, Pilling gets it. Take a look at his past editing … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [12] The Grand Budapest Hotel – Best Film Editing
MILENA CANONERO “The Grand Budapest Hotel” The costumes of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” should be catnip for the Oscar voters this year. Not only is it a period piece set in several different eras, including the 1930s and ’60s, but it also has a fantasy style to it, with rich colors and on-the-nose representations of those eras, as ridiculous as they may be. The … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [12] The Grand Budapest Hotel – Best Costume Design
ROBERT YEOMAN “The Grand Budapest Hotel” The magic behind the films of Wes Anderson is how interconnected all the elements are when you really look at them. Of course, any film has interconnected parts. If the visual effects are bad, it makes the cinematography perhaps look less intense. But to make a style all your own, you need everyone on the same team … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [12] The Grand Budapest Hotel – Best Cinematography
Being one of the more successful entries coming out of Dreamworks, it really is no surprise of the success that the sequel, “How To Train Your Dragon 2” has had this year, and rightfully so. In the original film, a young Viking boy named Hiccup finds that he’s not keen to the life of killing dragons that his father and the village has set … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [13] How To Train Your Dragon 2 – Best Animated Feature
“THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL” Adam Stockhausen (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration) “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and Wes Anderson are the definition of Production Design. Every frame of Anderson’s films are like a painting, with rich, extraordinary colors, intricate attention to detail, and a quality so unique it’s impossible not to know you’re watching one of Anderson’s films. Almost all the establishing footage in … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [12] The Grand Budapest Hotel – Best Production Design
PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON “Inherent Vice” Ever year that there is a Paul Thomas Anderson film released, everyone looks to the Oscars to see what he or the film will be nominated for, as this ends up being Anderson’s sixth nomination. “Inherent Vice,” however, slides in with only two nominations including one for Best Adapted Screenplay. Based on the 2009 detective novel of the same … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [11] Inherent Vice – Best Adapted Screenplay
MARK BRIDGES “Inherent Vice” Heading to the ’70s gives “Inherent Vice” all the opportunities to do special things with their costume design and for the most part they do. With an edge of humor throughout the film, the costumes play into that comedy, for example when Joaquin Phoenix’s Doc is called to a meeting at a fancy restaurant and the attire calls for a … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [11] Inherent Vice – Best Costume Design
VIRUNGA Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara, and Jon Drever The question “who gives a fuck about a monkey?” resonated in my mind from the moment I heard it in the Netflix documentary “Virunga” and for days to follow. What an ignorant statement to be made about the endangered mountain gorillas depicted in the film, coming from the mouth of an employee (of some sort) … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [10] Virunga – Best Documentary Feature
I have to laugh just the slightest bit with “Interstellar” getting nominated for Best Sound Mixing, when, after the first few weeks of the film’s release, one of the biggest stories in the Hollywood news was the complaint from several audiences about the film’s sound and bombastic mix. Later approved by director Christopher Nolan, apparently these audience’s ears were a little too sensitive, but … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [9] Interstellar – Best Sound Mixing
Imagine for a second that you are filming the scene from “Interstellar” where the crew of the Endurance lands on the tidal wave planet. Just to state the completely obvious, the tidal wave planet is not a real place. Therefore, if you are filming this scene, you’re likely in a body of water somewhere, where recording sound will not prove fruitful in terms of … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [9] Interstellar – Best Sound Editing
“INTERSTELLAR” Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Ian Hunter and Scott Fisher Dust clouds and robots, the visual effects team behind “Interstellar” literally created other worlds. And not just one, several. From a giant tidal wave planet to a completely ice covered planet with a sky that mirrors the ground, not only did these worlds captivate on the big screen, they also became some of the … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [9] Interstellar – Best Visual Effects
“S.T.A.Y.” FROM “INTERSTELLAR” Hans Zimmer “Interstellar” is an emotionally gripping score, that not only accents the conflicting moments, like lead Matthew McConaughey’s big decision to leave his children for a trip to another galaxy to save the human race or major secrets revealed over the spaceship tape relay, but also adds to the science fiction element that all space odyssey’s must have. That tinge … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [9] Interstellar – Best Original Score
“INTERSTELLAR” Nathan Crowley (Production Design); Gary Fettis (Set Decoration) Production designers immerse not only the audience but the actors and their characters in the sets that they design. Every object in a frame of a major motion picture is thought out. So when a production designer takes on the task of creating a future world as seen in “Interstellar,” the meaning behind their job … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [9] Interstellar – Best Production Design
“Song Of The Sea” could be one of the cutest movies I’ve ever seen. Most of the credit for that goes to the adorable little girl character Saoirse and the coy humor she presents. Along with this incredible character, every frame of the film is gorgeous, with deep, rich colors and a dynamic, hand drawn animations that catch the eye. Telling the story of … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [8] Song Of The Sea – Best Animated Feature
“CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER” Dan DeLeeuw, Russell Earl, Bryan Grill and Dan Sudick Every punch. Every missile. Every helicarrier. These are just a hand full of effects that go into making a superhero film these days. Watch any Marvel film with the visual effects in mind and it will leave you speechless by how much work goes into each and every sequence. There … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [7] Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Best Visual Effects
“EVERYTHING IS AWESOME” FROM THE LEGO MOVIE Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson On the morning of the nomination announcements, everyone was stunned when the Best Animated Feature category came up and “The Lego Movie” was not among the nominees. A film that had garnered huge critical and popular success had been dismissed by the Academy for some reason or another. That left the … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [6] The Lego Movie – Best Original Song
ANNA B. SHEPPARD “Maleficent” Following in the footsteps of “Snow White and the Huntsman” (2011), the Disney film “Maleficent” sets out to turn the animated story of “Sleeping Beauty” into a live action, fantasy adventure film. With that comes not only some wild costumes for title character, Maleficent, but bringing to real life some costumes that were pivotal in the 1959 animated version, including … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [5] Maleficent – Best Costume Design
“GLORY” FROM SELMA Music and Lyrics by John Stephens and Lonnie Lynn John Legend and Common (who also stars in “Selma”) come together to perform the song “Glory,” which plays during the end credits of “Selma”. Under pictures of the cast and their characters, the song’s lyrics hit historical moments from the walk in Selma depicted in the film to the struggles of race … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [4] Selma – Best Original Song
What a funny year when a well-made, socially relevant, historical biopic about Martin Luther King Jr. is passed up almost completely at the Academy Awards. You can site that it was a competitive year all you want, but having now actually seen “Selma,” it is mind-blowing that such a stellar film with such a stake in our national history was completely brushed away. Now, … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [4] Selma – Best Picture
MARION COTILLARD “Two Days, One Night” OscarsⓇ Nominated Role: As Sandra, Marion Cotillard portrays a factory worker who has two days to convince her colleagues to forgo their bonuses so that she can keep her job. Clinching the fifth spot in the Best Actress category, Marion Cotillard beat out the likes of Jennifer Aniston for her dramatic turn in “Cake,” which earned her both … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [3] Two Days, One Night – Best Actress In A Leading Role
CITIZENFOUR Laura Poitras, Mathilde Bonnefoy and Dirk Wilutzky What qualifies a film to be called the Best Documentary Feature of the year? To me, there is a label that I need to be able to put on that documentary to call it the best. That label is “once in a lifetime”. Obviously this label can land on a few documentaries every year, but for … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [2] CitizenFour – Best Documentary Feature
“LOST STARS” FROM BEGIN AGAIN Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois These may be the first Academy Award nominations for songwriters Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois, but director John Carney previously saw his feature “Once” produce a Best Original Song winner in 2006-2007, titled “Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansgard and Markéta Irglová of The Swell Season. So whatever collaborative freedom that … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: [1] Begin Again – Best Original Song
Summer blockbuster season ends and immediately the masses are turning their heads to the Oscars. Of course, five months is a long time to wait for the nominations, but the ride to those nominations becomes half of the fun of this time of year. Instead of audiences racing to their local theater chains to catch the latest major motion picture blockbusters like “Transformers” or … Read More 2015 Oscars Challenge: 6th Annual Oscar Challenge: And So It Begins…
