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Academy Awards

By Drew Grant 2/24 10:59am

Academy Awards

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oscar predictions

Leo and Tigers and Ben Affleck, (Arg)O My!: Who Will Be the Sorest Loser at Tonight’s Academy Awards?

Tonight is the 85th Academy Awards, and for all intents and purposes it should be a good one. Look at all those serious films, and the one movie by Quentin Tarantino! And with big snubs for Best Director for both Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, does that mean one of them will be be sweeping up the Best Picture Award as a consolation prize? And most importantly, is it too late to write in a ballot for Javier Bardem in Skyfall? Because he was great. Read More

By Drew Grant 2/21 8:22am

Academy Awards

Video

West Side Story won Best Picture. Remember??

How Many of These Best Picture Oscar Winners Can You Name? (Video)

With the Academy Awards looming in front of us this weekend like some long-awaited episode of Family Guy, it’s difficult to figure out what movie should win Best Picture. Will it be Lincoln, which is very long and serious and obviously a top contender for those very reasons? Or Silver Linings Playbook, which has Bradley Cooper (People‘s Sexiest Man, 2012) falling in love with Katniss? How about Argo, which is Affleck’s second best directorial effort of all time? Or Zero Dark Thirty? Life of Pi? Amour? (Follow-up question: Did anyone see Amour?) It’d be awesome if Best Picture went to Beasts of the Southern Wild, but can it win the Academy’s love over Django Unchained? (Please do not let it go to Django Unchained.)

When putting down money for your Oscar predictions, it’s always good to look at the past history of winners to see how the vote-makers will lean. Luckily, Nelson Carvajal has made a supercut of 84 years of Best Picture Winners. From Wings to On the Waterfront to The English Patient all the way up to last year’s winner, The Artist, see how many of these brilliant films you can name. Read More

By Drew Grant 2/12 2:26pm

Academy Awards

Video

Zach Galifianakis and not-Daniel Day-Lewis (Funny or Die)

Zach Galifianakis Continues Oscar-Baiting in Between Two Ferns Sequel (Video)

Yesterday Zach Galifianakis and Scott Aukerman began their campaign to make the comedian next year’s Academy Awards host — at least, that’s what we hoped they were doing– with a celebrity-studded edition of the Funny or Die series, Between Two Ferns. Today, they released a follow-up with Bradley Cooper (who co-stars with Galifianakis in The Hangover franchise), Jessica Chastain, Sally Field, and Emmanuel Lewis. From Lincoln, remember? Read More

By Drew Grant 1/10 11:40am

Academy Awards

Lincoln leads the pack for the Oscars with 12 nominations

2012′s Academy Award Nominees: Yep, Django Unchained Is Up for Best Picture

There are a lot firsts in the nominations for the 85th annual Academy Award nominations. They include the youngest AND oldest Best Actress nominees (Emmanuelle Riva, 85, and Quvenzhané Wallis, 9), no trace of former dream team member Ben Affleck, and the first snub for Kathryn Bigelow.

On the other hand, there is no way Anne Hathaway is NOT singing this year, so get ready for some Franco-style flashbacks. And with 12 nominations for Lincoln, Daniel Day-Lewis will (unsurprisingly) definitely be going home with something gold this year.

A partial list below: Read More

By Drew Grant 1/09/12 1:45pm

Academy Awards

New York, LA Times Now Decides What Documentaries Nominated For Academy Awards

Adding to the already long list of confusing and nonsensical plans for handing out the little statues from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, it was announced today that documentaries would be considered for Oscar nomination only if they had been reviewed in The New York Times or The LA Times beforehand.

This may not be as terribly insane as it seems. (Though it does seem pretty random, not to mention biased: giving an outside organization the power to wield a nomination verdict conclusively is actually unheard of.) Despite the rise of DIY film making and festival showcases, it’s true that both Times do an admirable job reviewing most documentaries of note–one could make an argument that The New York Times actually skews towards the more esoteric form of film-making because traditionally documentaries have been considered “high-brow” films.

So this shouldn’t be a problem, right? Read More

By Drew Grant 1/06/12 1:27pm

Academy Awards

Keep it classy, Oscars

No Joke: Funny or Die Presents the Academy Awards (Video)

It’s been a rocky year for the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Not only did Brett Ratner resign from producing the show, but the ballots were so confusing! Plus, no more appealing to the youngsters with hotties James Franco and Anne Hathaway; this year the Academy is going with their old hosting standby, Billy Crystal. (That’s after Eddie Murphy and a bunch of others turned down the duty.)

So how will the awards show get that critical 18-35 demo to tune in? By marketing “funny” commercials for the most venerable and respected film event of the year, obviously. And having said commercials directed by a viral comedy site. Your parents are not going to understand this Oscar commercial (or why there is a commercial for the Oscars this year), so get ready to explain the Internet to them again. Read More