2014 Spirit Awards

The rain in California did not slow down the Spirit Awards. It was not clear if the silver buckets on stage were actually collecting water from the tent the ceremony was held in or if they were purely a quirky, ornamental touch. I feel for the crew that must be working into the wee hours of the night to clear the rainwater that collected outside of the Dolby Theater for tomorrow's Oscar red carpet. Which brings me to the fashions at the Film Independent Spirit Awards. The attire has become more formal at the event in the last few years. However, more fashion risks are often taken, whether it be a print, a bold color or a geometric shape. Lupita Nyong'o has become a stunning red carpet rock star in one short awards season. Not only does she consistently pull together a complete and amazing look, she also makes the bold choices of a seasoned veteran, as exhibited by the gold playsuit Stella McCartney that she wore to the Spirit Awards. The full list of Spirit Award winners is listed below the red, or rather blue, carpet photos. 

Host Patton Oswald started the show with commentary about the year's movies and by poking fun at Bruce Dern for being old. The obvious remark can be made at this type of event that it was a great year for independent film. There must be a way to communicate that this truly was one of the strongest years for movies in recent memory that is not trite. Perhaps that so many of the Spirit nominees are also nominated for Oscars is a substantial indication. All four of the acting awards went to the presumptive winners at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. 12 Years a Slave took home Best Feature, Best Director and Lupita Nyong'o won Best Supporting Actress on her birthday. Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto won for Dallas Buyers Club and Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine. 

BEST FEATURE 12 Years a Slave
BEST DIRECTOR Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
BEST SCREENPLAY 12 Years a Slave
BEST FIRST FEATURE Fruitvale Station
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY Nebraska
JOHN CASSAVETES AWARD This Is Martin Bonner
BEST FEMALE LEAD Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
BEST MALE LEAD Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
BEST SUPPORTING FEMALE Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
BEST SUPPORTING MALE Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY 12 Years a Slave
BEST EDITING Short Term 12
BEST DOCUMENTARY 20 Feet From Stardom
BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM Blue is the Warmest Color
ROBERT ALTMAN AWARD Mud

My Official 2014 Oscar Predictions

I am going with 12 Years A Slave taking the statue for Best Picture, that will be one of its three total Oscars, the other two for Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress to Lupita Nyong'o.
Gravity will win seven Oscars, all in technical categories, plus most notably, Alfonso Cuarón for Best Director. There is a very good chance that Gravity could basically sweep and snap up Best Picture as well. The Best Picture race is almost too close to call.
Dallas Buyers Club will also earn three Academy Awards, two for Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto's acting and for Best Makeup. Frozen will get two, The Great Gatsby two, and Cate Blanchett will be Best Actress. I have also landed on 20 Feet From Freedom for Best Documentary Feature and Her for Best Original Screenplay.

What follows are images of my full Oscar ballot of predictions for the 86th Annual Academy Awards, how I would vote if I were a member of the Academy and my viewing ballots. Filling out a ballot of how I would vote as opposed to predictions is a highly rewarding activity after seeing so many of the nominated films. The viewing ballot is the one I print the morning the Oscar nominations are announced and excitedly check off as I see the nominated films. I also write notes of DVD release dates and available formats to assist me in my homework. I do reserve the right to make changes to my paper ballot of predictions up until the first envelope is opened on March 2nd. The same rule applies for party guests.

Every Best Actress Academy Award Dress 1929-2013

Nebraska

A stodgy old man with a questionable state of mind believes that he has won a million dollars by way of junk mail and insists that he collect it in person. The old man, Woody Grant, is played by Bruce Dern and he is nominated for Best Actor for the role. Will Forte portrays his son David. It would be obvious to say that the role is a surprising dramatic turn for Forte. It is true, however, statements like that seem to say more about the lack of respect granted to comedic acting than to standout performances. Acting mainstay with all the buzz of newcomer, June Squibb is the mother of David and wife of Woody. Squibb will appear on the next episode of Girls, ironically airing during the Oscar telecast. Bob Odenkirk, or Saul for the Breaking Bad fans, has a similar dramatic turn as Ross, the other son and brother in the Grant family. It was nice seeing Odenkirk as a realistic character. Buzz from Home Alone has a small role in the film. David decides to drive his father from Montana to Nebraska to collect the million dollars. The film is directed by Alexander Payne (the Descendants, Sideways, Election and About Schmidt). The black and white cinematography never seemed to be for an artistic or symbolic reason to me. Payne has said that he made that choice because the modest story seemed to lend itself well to the austere characters and that the artistic decision to not film in black and white is often driven by commercial reasons, not artistic. The movie is categorized as a drama and certainly has a sad tone but it is full of quirky humor.

Seeing Bruce Dern on Inside the Actors Studio as well as his posture at the Oscar Nominee Luncheon, his demeanor was a little off putting. Maybe he is too old to care but it seems he had an overconfident attitude that is nothing new. Reading that Dern liked Forte so much that he wanted him to date his daughter Laura Dern was pretty cute though. Nebraska is nominated for six Oscars and six Spirit Awards. The film was also nominated for three BAFTAs and five Golden Globes. The film received nominations from the Academy for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay. It is not anticipated that it will win any Oscars. Regardless, 84 year old Best Supporting Actress nominee June Squibb has been making the talk show rounds and done hilarious bits on Jimmy Kimmel and Ellen about her nomination. The movie's Spirit Award nominations are similar for Best Feature, Best Director, Best First Screenplay for Bob Nelson, Best Male Lead, Best Supporting Female and Best Supporting Male for Forte. Nelson is expected to win Best First Screenplay (though I had really hoped that Lake Bell would win for the In a World... script). Nebraska is available for home viewing.


Now Playing...
Frozen
I had not intended to see Frozen but the thought that I had not seen a movie expected to win two Oscars got me to the theater, as did seeing the animated short Get a Horse!, another expected winner. Frozen is the highest grossing animated Disney film of all time. It has been playing in theaters since November and is still in the top ten at the box office, nearing one billion globally. Frozen is the likely winner of Best Animated Feature and Best Song for "Let It Go." The animation is very good and it is deserving of the feature win. The plot of Frozen was your typical fairy tale, though it was based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, as lesser known story. The little snowman guy is pretty cool. The effort to be sure to see Get a Horse! was unwarranted, the other Best Animated Short nominees are much more deserving. Now I know.

The Monuments Men

The cast of men in the movie is fantastic. An opening scene when George Clooney's character is hatching his plan with Matt Damon's character is reminiscent of an Ocean's scheme. Except now they will be assembling a crew to recover and preserve art from Nazis. A much more admirable and serious feat. George Clooney wrote and directed the movie. I love that George cast Jean Dujardin; Dujardin beat Clooney for Best Actor two years ago. Bill Murray is at his best and partners off with Bob Balaban humorously and heartwarmingly. John Goodman continues to have a very busy career, appearing in award winning fare like Argo, Flight and Inside Llewyn Davis as well as comedies like the Hangover III over the last two years. Goodman's exchanges with Dujardin have a similar feel to the Murray-Balaban banter.

Hopefully we will be hearing about the Monuments Men again during next year's award season. Maybe I would just like that to be the case. It is historical and the Academy tends to like that. The remarkable story was also unknown prior to the film. The box office has been decent but it had little chance against the Lego Movie. It debuted in second place and was fifth this past weekend at the box office. The film will recoup its 70 million dollar budget and make modest profits. It may not be enough to keep the movie visible ten months down the line. The movie's Rotten Tomatoes and imdb ratings are also not very promising. Movies released in February and March rarely make it into awards season and it may need more popularity to be memorable enough without soaring critical acclaim. Here's hoping because it is a very good flick.

Oscar Ballots Due and Show Preparations

Six more days to go! Final Oscar ballots are due Tuesday February 25th at five pm Pacific Standard time.
While PricewaterhouseCooper prepares to count the ballots, let's take a look at what we know about this year's show.

If 12 Years A Slave does not win Best Picture, it would be due to the preferential voting system that the Academy uses for the Best Picture category. All nine nominees are ranked from 1st to 9th by the voter. The film to receive the most number 1 votes must also have been voted number 1 by a majority of the Academy. If it does not, then the counting moves on to the number 2 picks and so on. The buzz is that the Academy thinks it should select 12 Years A Slave as Best Picture but loves Gravity; they usually vote for what they like not what they should. However, I am sticking with 12 Years A Slave.

Two weeks ago I thought this could be my year to get more than 19 categories correct. After Jennifer Lawrence won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, I began to wonder. Ultimately I did not change any of my picks. The BAFTAs did show us that the acting categories were a lot closer than previously thought. Jared Leto and Matthew McConaughey were not nominated at the BAFTAs and their leads remain strong, especially Leto's. Lawrence has all but disappeared from the awards circuit in the last couple of weeks. Film journalists have started referring to this as her "anti-campaign" campaign. I think Lupita still has Best Supporting Actress. Cate Blanchett has had zero competition for Best Actress.

Some of the closest races are in four categories: Original Screenplay, Production Design, Foreign Film, and Documentary Feature. I'm going with narrow leads respectively for American Hustle, The Great Gatsby, The Great Beauty and 20 Feet From Stardom. There are always shockers and that keeps the show fresh and interesting. It would not be any fun to predict all 24 categories without any surprises.

Jennifer Lawrence will present Best Actor, as is tradition. The winner of the previous year presents to the opposite gendered actor in their category. Anne Hathaway in turn will present Best Supporting Actor, Daniel Day-Lewis Best Actress and Christoph Waltz to Best Supporting Actress (hopefully to Lupita). The Oscars like to have some surprise presenters for big categories, particularly Best Picture. Good Morning America anchors Robin Roberts and Lara Spencer and Editorial Director of People and Entertainment Weekly Jess Cagle will host the pre-Oscar Red Carpet coverage which begins at 4pm Pacific, 7pm Eastern. The Oscars are advertising those times as the start of the show, but the ceremony will start at 5:30pm Pacific time, 8:30pm Eastern.

All of the artists who performed the songs in movies nominated for Best Song will sing them live on the Oscar stage. U2 will perform their nominated song from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, "Ordinary Love." Pharrell Williams will be singing "Happy" from Despicable Me 2. Will he be wearing his signature hat? It is a formal event and that hat is hideous so hopefully not. Karen O will sing "Moon Song" from Her and Idina Menzel will be there to sing "Let It Go" from Frozen. Sometimes different artists perform the nominated songs. I prefer when the performers from the movies sing their songs at the ceremony. It has been announced that Bette Midler will perform for the first time on the Oscar stage.

The Academy will present the first ever live "Oscar Concert" celebrating the year’s nominated scores and songs on Thursday, February 27 in Los Angeles. An 80-piece orchestra will perform pieces from each of the nominated original scores. They include: William Butler and Owen Pallett for Her, Alexandre Desplat for Philomena, Thomas Newman for Saving Mr Banks, Steven Price for Gravity and John Williams for The Book Thief. Nominated songs will be performed by other artists. "Let It Go" from Frozen will be sung by its writers Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez, and "Happy" from Despicable Me 2 by Jill Scott.

The Oscars will celebrate movie heroes and will honor big-screen real-life heroes, super heroes, popular heroes and animated heroes, both past and present, as well as the filmmakers that brought them to life. The 75th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz will also be featured. Perhaps Bette Midler will be involved with music from the Wizard of Oz. 1939 is often known to be one of the greatest years in film history. The Oscars will be held Sunday, March 2nd at the Dolby Theater at Hollywood and Highland Center and televised live on ABC. The show is produced by Craig Zadan and Neil Meron, hosted by Ellen Degeneres and will also be televised live in more than 225 countries and territories worldwide. If you are antsy for the awards show to arrive like me, check out the Oscar countdown on ABC Thursday, February 27th at 8pm.

Next Year's Oscar Movies

These could be way off, but I want to take a stab at predicting which films will be prominent in next year's awards season. Some of these I am really excited to check out. Some I hope that I am wrong about just so that I do not have to watch them. Goes to show how spoiled I was this year. I wanted to see the movies on the ballot and there were none I had to force myself to see. This should be an interesting exercise and I will be interested to know which ones we'll be hearing about at the end of 2014. Release dates are subject to change. The 87th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015.

• Unbroken Directed by Angelina Jolie, the biopic of Olympic track star and World War II vet Louis Zamperini. The kicker, the Coen Brothers wrote the script. In theaters Dec 25 
• Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson's latest and looks to be greatest. At the very least, this one will get a Best Original Screenplay nod. In theaters March 7   
• Rosewater Jon Stewart took time off the Daily Show to direct this film based on the non-fiction book about a journalist being mistreated in an Iranian prison. He also produced and wrote the adapted screenplay. TBD 
• Gone Girl Directed by David Fincher. Starring Ben Affleck, looks like a movie Affleck would direct. In theaters Oct 3
• The Monuments Men May get lost being released so many months before awards season but it has some Oscar hallmarks, it's about World War II and has a strong cast. Written and directed by George Clooney. Now playing
• Inherent Vice Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. This one actually sounds ok but after his last picture, the Master, my stomach still churns at the thought. It does reunite Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. TBD 
• Interstellar Directed by Christopher Nolan. In theaters Nov 7 
• Foxcatcher Bennett Miller's Moneyball follow-up. TBD 
• Into the Woods Fairytales with a twist, it's a musical and Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp are among the cast. In theaters Dec 25 

Stewart directing his first project.

Animated:

Big Hero 6 

Little is known about this project but it is Marvel's first fully animated film after being acquired by Disney and is based on an obscure title in the Marvel archives. In theaters Nov 7
How To Train Your Dragon 2 Sequel to the Oscar nominated original. In theaters June 13

Big Hero 6

Technical:

X-Men: Days of Future Past
The first trailer for this gave me chills. I loved the first three (original) X-Men and have recently enjoyed First Class. Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men flicks, returns. It should get some technical category love. In theaters May 23
Dawn of the Planet of Apes Likely to receive a technical nomination or two much like the first in the revamped series. In theaters July 11

Iffy:

Noah
Looks cheesy to me but Darren Aronofsky of Black Swan and The Wrestler acclaim directed. And Hollywood does not usually stop bestowing its accolades all of the sudden (see Paul Thomas Anderson). Or it could blow up like the Matrix when they started making sequels. In theaters March 28 Which brings me to...

Jupiter Ascending 

The Wachowski Brothers return. This one looks cheesy to me too but it could land in the technical categories. In theaters July 18
Cesar Chavez 
Biopics can go either way, they can be Ray or J Edgar. Even the so-called bad ones are usually pretty decent, it is most often decided in their reception. In theaters March 18