Oscars Rewind: War and Peace, Academy Awards Style
February, 18, 2013 5:19 pm | Comments On #Academy Awards, ampas, Awards, Bowling for Columbine, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Chicago, Gangs of New York, Gil Cates, Harvey Weinstein, Martin Scorsese, Michael Moore, moulin rouge, Movies, Nicole Kidman, oscars, Steve Martin, Steve PondSteve Martin adjusted his jokes. Gil Cates and the Academy depopulated the red carpet. Will Smith and Angelina Jolie pulled out, but Halle Berry and Susan Sarandon showed up. A musical won Best Picture, Michael Moore mouthed off, Harvey Weinstein stirred up controversy, and the final award was announced before midnight on the East Coast for only the second time in 20 years.
The Oscars of 10 years ago was a rough, troubled production, a pretty good Oscar show undertaken even as rumors swirled that it was going to be postponed or canceled. No Academy Awards since then has faced quite so many obstacles, and only one has drawn such low ratings.
Also read: The Oscars Endgame: An Expensive Way to Make a Last Impression
The show was...
Read MoreWhat Surprises Wait in 'Argo' Oscars? And What's Behind the Big Ad Spend? (Video)
February, 18, 2013 4:20 pm | Comments On #argo, Awards, Ben Affleck, oscars, Sharon Waxman, Steve Pond, Steven Spielberg, videoAs the Oscar voting draws to a close, there has been a frenzy of last-minute campaigning around an Oscar race that is supposed to be a done deal for "Argo." What do the movie studios know that the Oscar pundits don't?
In this week's video, I discuss the flurry of movie advertising with Sharon Waxman, as we question whether there are any surprises in store at the Academy Awards next week. In addition, we take a look at all the box-office success for this year's Best Picture nominees.
Also read: The Oscars Endgame: An Expensive Way to Make a Last Impression
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Read MoreThe Oscars Endgame: An Expensive Way to Make a Last Impression
February, 18, 2013 6:11 am | Comments On #Academy Awards, argo, Awards, Life of Pi, Lincoln, oscars, Silver Linings Playbook, zero dark thirtyAs one of the most expensive Oscar races ever comes to a close, the Hollywood trade papers and a handful of consumer publications ought to be sending thank-you notes to the 371 members of the Academy's Directors Branch.
If those voters had gone the expected route and given a Best Director nomination to Ben Affleck for "Argo," this Oscar season would look a lot like last year, when "The Artist" romped to what appeared to be an easy victory, or 2011, when "The King's Speech" did the same thing.
In both of those years, one film won most or all of the guild awards and breezed to Oscar gold – and both times, the film's biggest rivals saw the writing on the wall long before the Academy Awards rolled around.
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Read More'Skyfall,' 'Life of Pi' Are Tops with Motion Picture Sound Editors
February, 17, 2013 11:28 pm | Comments On #Ang Lee, Awards, Life of Pi, Motion Picture Sound Editors, MPSE Golden Reel AwardsOn a night when director Ang Lee was honored with the Motion Picture Sound Editors' honorary Filmmaker Award, his film "Life of Pi" won big at the MPSE's Golden Reel Awards.
But the award that most closely aligns with the Oscar sound editing category, Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film category, went not to "Pi" but to the James Bond film "Skyfall."
Four of the five Oscar nominees were also nominated in that category: "Skyfall," "Pi," "Django Unchained" and "Argo." The last of those films suffered a rare shutout at an awards ceremony.
"Life of Pi" was the only film to win more than one award, taking home the Music...
Read MoreWriters Guild Makes it a Guild Sweep for 'Argo,' Also Honors 'Zero Dark Thirty'
February, 17, 2013 7:45 pm | Comments On #Awards, WGA Awards, writers guild, Writers Guild of America"Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" have been named the top film scripts of 2012 by the Writers Guild of America.
The results should be good news for "Argo," the strong Best Picture favorite that appeared locked in a close battle with "Lincoln" and "Silver Linings Playbook" for the Adapted Screenplay Oscar.
And it should provide a smaller boost to "Zero Dark Thirty," because that screenplay's two biggest rivals at the Oscars, "Django Unchained" and "Amour," were ineligible for the WGA's Original Screenplay Award.
Rules that restrict WGA Awards eligibility to films produced under the guild's Minimum...
Read More'Les Miz' Is Music to the Ears of the Cinema Audio Society
February, 16, 2013 10:41 pm | Comments On #Awards, Brave, CAS Awards, Cinema Audio Society, Hatfields & McCoys, Homeland, Les Miserables, Lincoln, Modern Family, Skyfall, sound mixing, The Hobbit, zero dark thirty"Les Miserables" has been named the best work of 2012 by the Cinema Audio Society, a non-profit organization that honors the art of sound mixing in film and television.
The film, for which director Tom Hooper recorded his actors singing live on the set, was considered the favorite for the CAS Award and for the sound-mixing Oscar. In addition to working with vocal tracks recorded in difficult circumstances, its mixers had to contend with prominent orchestral music throughout the film's near three-hour running time.
Also read: For...
Cinema Editors Cut to the Chase: It's 'Argo,' Again - and 'Silver Linings Playbook,' Too
February, 16, 2013 10:01 pm | Comments On #ACE Eddie Awards, American Cinema Editors, argo, Awards, Brave, Breaking Bad, Hemingway & Gellhorn, Nurse Jackie, The Newsroom"Argo" racked up yet another guild victory on Saturday night, taking home the American Cinema Editors' ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature (Dramatic).
"Silver Linings Playbook" won the award for Best Edited Feature (Comedy or Musical).
The award is an unusually reliable predictor of the film-editing Oscar, and adds to a substantial guild-awards haul for "Argo" that also includes honors from the Producers Guild, Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild. The Writers Guild announces its winners on Sunday.
"Silver Linings Playbook" has less overall success this awards season, but has dominated at shows that...
Read More'Silver Linings' Oscar Nominee Jennifer Lawrence Shares Her Acting Secret: Never Sweat
February, 15, 2013 2:01 pm | Comments On #Awards, David O. Russell, Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook, Steve Pond, The Hunger Games, Woody Harrelson, X-MenThe worries began on “The Hunger Games,” where Jennifer Lawrence came to the set each day with her usual approach: lines unmemorized, attitude casual. Woody Harrelson watched his gifted co-star work, and the famously laid-back actor gave her what he figured was a real compliment: “You make me feel like I work too hard.”
But Woody’s line started to eat at Lawrence. Maybe acting wasn’t supposed to be this easy; maybe she should be poring over her lines at night, working harder, obsessing like some of her peers. “I was worried, so I brought it up to my dad,” she told TheWrap. “I said, ‘Is this bad? Do I need to be memorizing more, or saying my lines out loud?’
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Read MoreWhat Does Seth MacFarlane's Twitter Account Tell Us About How He'll Host the Oscars?
February, 15, 2013 11:32 am | Comments On #Academy Awards, Awards, oscars, Seth MacFarlaneSeth MacFarlane has a promise to viewers who'll tune in to see him host the Academy Awards on Feb. 24: Despite the occasionally crude humor he displays on his show "Family Guy" -- and the fact that he tossed in a Hitler joke when he announced the Oscar nominations -- he won't be telling cheap penis jokes on the Oscars.
Actually, he put it this way on Twitter this week: "My promise for the Oscars: no cheap wiener jokes. Only expensive wiener jokes."
If MacFarlane's jokey way of announcing the Oscar nominations and a string of Oscar video promos aren't enough to suggest what kind of host he'll be, there's always his Twitter page --...
Read MoreOscars Rewind: Memories of Barbra Streisand's Many Encounters With Academy Awards
February, 14, 2013 3:53 pm | Comments On #Academy Awards, Awards, Barbara Striesand, Oscar, performance, Steve PondThe exceptionally robust roster of performances that Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have lined up for the 85th Academy Awards includes a tribute to movie musicals, Adele, Norah Jones … and Barbra Streisand, returning to the Oscars for her first performance in 36 years. It will, no doubt, be an electric moment, but Zadan and Meron had better be prepared for some drama before she walks on stage -- as always from stage left, because that‘s her good side.
A few examples from the supreme pop diva‘s fascinating and occasionally stormy Oscar history may give some idea why one crew member watched the elaborate precautions that were undertaken before Bart the Bear appeared on the show in 1998 --...
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Description
Steve Pond, author of the L.A. Times bestseller The Big Show, has been covering entertainment for more than two decades. He also writes on the awards circuit for TheWrap, in his column "The Odds."
