Good Morning Oscar, February 3: The Social Director

David Fincher talks … but is he ready to campaign?

David Fincher talks … but is he ready to campaign?

Back when the critics had made him a prohibitive frontrunner, David Fincher was notable on the awards circuit mostly for his absence – off in Sweden filming "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," he didn't do interviews and even begged off some awards shows. (Golden Globes, yes; Critics Choice, no thanks.) But now that his film has got some catching up to do, Fincher is suddenly more visible – though it'd be a mistake to attribute this week's interviews with the Hollywood Reporter and the Guardian to any "King's Speech" victories, since they were no doubt conducted before the race took its abrupt swing.

David FincherAt any rate, Fincher sits with Catherine Shoard to talk about the DVD release of "The Social Network" – which, she mentions, was recently slammed by one critic as a film "about 2.0 people made by 1.0 people." Fincher's response: "I have a healthy disdain for the hypocrisy of the notion of this interconnected world. But I don't think that makes me some old f___ with an axe to grind." He also calls the film "a pretty good meatloaf of good old dramatic values," though he admits that when he first saw it, he thought it was too slight and too glib. (The Guardian)

Fincher's admissions probably wouldn't pass muster with S.T. VanAirsdale's prescription of the five ways "The Social Network" can "reclaim its Oscar mojo." He think Fincher should actually show that he cares about winning the Oscar by, for instance, doing a "60 Minutes" segment or something; that Sony and the film's producers don't panic, that they treat the guild losses as "a wake-up call," and that they start explaining why their movie deserves to win. "If the Academy does in fact need to feel good about its Best Picture, then go out and make it feel good about 'The Social Network,'" he says – the same day that a new Sony ad sums up the film with the phrase, "One movie connects us all." Take that, you feel-goody "King's Speech" you. (Movieline)

In the aftermath of the three victories by "How to Train Your Dragon" at Sunday's Visual Effects Society Awards, Carolyn Giardina asks if that film can top "Toy Story 3" in the Oscar Best Animated Feature race. But she doesn't really even try to answer the question, so I will: no, it can't. The VES Awards were for visual effects, which are much showier in "Dragon" than in "Toy Story." But if you're looking for the Oscar winner, it's kind of a no-brainer to bet on the film that also has a Best Picture nomination, since that’s a pretty good indication of which film the entire Academy – which is to say, the folks who do the final voting – thinks is the better of the two. And that'll be the case regardless of what happens at Saturday's Annie Awards – where, as Giardina points out, Disney and Pixar have withdrawn their participation while DreamWorks plays an active, major role. (Remember, these are the awards at which "Kung Fu Panda" beat "WALL-E" in every conceivable category a few years back.) (The Race)

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