Friday, November 14, 2014

2014 Hollywood Film Awards

The Hollywood Film Awards were televised for the first time Friday, November 14th. A little known precursor to awards season, nominees were not announced, only winners presented. All the winners knew ahead of time. This was the 18th annual ceremony for the Hollywood Film Awards and it has previously been a private Hollywood event.

Awards season's opening ceremony, self proclaimed Official Launch of the Award Season -- trademark -- it is the first stomp on the campaign trail to the Oscars. The number of A List actors in attendance and presenting awards seemed confusing for an event with little prestige. Almost as confusing was when the "winners" would say what an honor it was to receive the award. There does seem to be plenty of easily googled photographic evidence of previous awards seasons' top winners appearing at the Hollywood Film Awards first.

Angelina Jolie was a combination of sincere and stern as she described casting Jack O'Donnell in the film Unbroken, which she directed. Johnny Depp was completely wasted when he presented the best documentary winner to Shep Gordon.

A bright spot was Geena Davis' introduction to Michael Keaton's career achievement award and the accompanying montage. The minimum of three shots of Ben Affleck seeming to worry if he'd be a good enough Batman the whole time was also quite amusing. Keaton's performance in Birdman looks to have strong traction for an Academy nod.
All the films and roles honored have good early buzz for awards season. The event seemed like the epitome of Hollywood's self congratulating and endless award shows that many criticize. Great movie montages though. It looks to be as strong of a season as any.

A list of the winners follows the red carpet looks. Best Dressed goes to Reese Witherspoon in J Mendel.

HOLLYWOOD FILM Gone Girl
HOLLYWOOD ACTOR Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER Guardians of the Galaxy
HOLLYWOOD DOCUMENTARY Mike Myers, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon
HOLLYWOOD ACTRESS Julianne Moore, Still Alice
CAREER ACHIEVEMENT Michael Keaton 
HOLLYWOOD ANIMATION How to Train Your Dragon 2
HOLLYWOOD COMEDY FILM Chris Rock, Top Five
NEW HOLLYWOOD Jack O'Connell, Unbroken
HOLLYWOOD ENSEMBLE Foxcatcher
HOLLYWOOD DIRECTOR Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game
HOLLYWOOD SONG Janelle Monae, "What is Love?" Rio 2
HOLLYWOOD SCREENWRITER Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
HOLLYWOOD BREAKOUT PERFORMANCE ACTOR Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
HOLLYWOOD BREAKTHROUGH DIRECTOR Jean-Marc Vallee, Wild
HOLLYWOOD Supporting Actress: Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
HOLLYWOOD BREAKOUT PERFORMANCE ACTRESS Shailene Woodley, The Fault in Our Stars
HOLLYWOOD SUPPORTING ACTOR Robert Duvall, The Judge
HOLLYWOOD CINEMATOGRAPHY AWARD Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
HOLLYWOOD INTERNATIONAL AWARD Jing Tian
HOLLYWOOD VISUAL EFFECTS AWARD Scott Farrar, Transformers: Age of Extinction
HOLLYWOOD FILM COMPOSER AWARD Alexandre Desplat, The Imitation Game
HOLLYWOOD COSTUME DESIGN AWARD Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel
HOLLYWOOD EDITING AWARD Jay Cassidy and Dody Dorn, Fury
HOLLYWOOD PRODUCTION DESIGN AWARD Dylan Cole and Gary Freeman, Maleficent
HOLLYWOOD SOUND AWARD Ren Klyce, Gone Girl
HOLLYWOOD MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING David White (Special Makeup Effects) and Elizabeth Yanni-Georgiou (Hair Designer and Makeup Designer), Guardians of the Galaxy

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Jimmy Fallon hosts 160th Tonight Show and Great Lip Syncs

The 160th Tonight Show hosted by Jimmy Fallon is currently airing in the Pacific time zone. That's fourteen more shows than Conan hosted during his brief tenure as host of the Tonight Show. Conan lives on well on tbs.

This makes me think of some of the best lip synced movie scenes and the best time transitional scene ever. That of course is Hugh Grant in Notting Hill as Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine" plays along his walk through a year's worth of seasons.



The dark comedy It's Kind of a Funny Story features a fantasy lip sync to Queen and David Bowie's "Under Pressure" with Zach Galifianakis, Keir Gilchrist, and Emma Roberts.



The only clip available of the awesome Starship "Nothing is Going to Stop Us Now" lip sync between Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig in Skeleton Twins is in the movie's trailer. I will find the full clip when the movie is released on DVD and to streaming.