But the big story to come out of the NBR is, quite scarily, they really fuckin' loved Clint's 1-2 punch of WWII films. Not only did Letters from Iwo Jima win their Best Film prize (a contest I thought it was inneligable in because it's in Japanese and the NBR don't allow foreign language films for Best Picture, like the HFPA). They also rewarded Flags of our Fathers with a spot on their top 10. I was not a fan of that movie, but I suppose the best thing to come out of this is that perhaps voters will get confused and it'll knock each of them out of the ring... or they'll both show up and the awards will be ridiculous.
Anyway. Let's see how I went.
NBR TOP 10
Winner: Letters From Iwo Jima
Babel
Blood Diamond
The Departed
The Devil Wears Prada
Flags of our Fathers
The History Boys
Little Miss Sunshine
Notes on a Scandal
The Painted Veil
I got 4/10 here. LOL! I predicted Babel, The Departed, Notes on a Scandal (the one I predicted to win) and The Painted Veil. The rest of my predicted top 10 were Children of Men, Dreamgirls, Little Children, A Prairie Home Companion, The Queen and United 93. Really surprising there.
BEST DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
I predicted this. He's gonna win the Oscar surely.
BEST ACTOR
Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
I predicted this. Whitaker may very well become the critics' choice. We'll see.
BEST ACTRESS
Helen Mirren, The Queen
I predicted this one too (didn't everybody?)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Again, they really like Ed Zwick's movies for whatever reason (they're usually not good). I predicted Eddie Murphy to take it for Dreamgirls
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration
I keep pondering who will be this year's Amy Adams or Catherine Keener. Two people who weren't serious contenders before the awards season, but who became the power hitters with the critics. Thing is, apparently For Your Consideration is bad so O'Hara has that against her. But... you never know. Maybe critics will fall for O'Hara. I predicted Cate Blanchett for her annual onslaught of films.
BEST FOREIGN FILM
Volver
Yeah, I predicted this. Strangely, I wavered for a bit and thought of predicting The Lives of Others, a film that didn't even show up on their Top 5 Foreign list (Pan's Labyrinth, Curse of Golden Flower, Days of Glory and Water made up the rest). I predicted Volver, Pan's and Zhang Yimou's other film Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles to place alongside The Lives of Others and, er, Letters from Iwo Jima.
BEST DOCUMENTARY
An Inconvenient Truth
Yeah, this seemed sorta predictable. Their top 5 were Truth, Shut Up & Sing, Iraq in Fragments, Word Play and 51 Birch Street. I so wanna see the Dixie Chicks at the Oscars so I hope Shut Up & Sing makes the Oscar list.
BEST ANIMATED FILM
Cars
I predicted Happy Feet.
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
The Departed
I was gonna say this but then I thought they'd spread the wealth more and give it to Bobby.
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
*sigh* how is this even remotely a "breakthrough"? Maybe he's a breakthrough to old fogie voters? I predicted Sasha Baron Cohen.
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls and Rinko Kikuchi, Babel
I predicted Hudson, so I score this point. I still don't know which of the Babel women will be Oscar nommed. Kikuchi or Barraza? Hmm...
BEST DIRECTORIAL DEBUT
Jason Reitman, Thank You For Smoking
Indicative of their "spread the wealth" mentality, the directors of Little Miss Sunshine didn't win this prize despite having a film in their top 10. I predicted, however, Ryan Fleck's directing of Half Nelson (which they gave a Breakthrough prize to, but for Ryan Gosling. Blah)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Zach Helm, Stranger than Fiction
I predicted Almodovar for Volver. I thought this film's screenplay just sounded too good to ignore but the box office was middling and reviews weren't all that so I assumed it'd be thrown under the rug. Hmmm... we'll see where it goes from here.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Ron Nyswaner, The Painted Veil
I keep wanting to think that The Painted Veil will make a big push towards Oscar and get nominated in big categories including Best Picture, but now with Iwo Jima getting "it's a lock" status from several journos, it seems that there is only one spot vacant and that will likely go to Little Miss Sunshine. However, if that doesn't start showing off like a pre-pubescent beauty pageant queen, then it might miss the big boat altogether. For this category, incidentally, I predicted Todd Field for Little Children.
TOP 10 INDEPENDENT FILMS
Akeelah and the Bee
Bobby
Catch a Fire
Copying Beethoven
A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints
Half Nelson
The Illusionist
Lonesome Jim
Sherrybaby
10 Items or Less
Thank You For Smoking
This is their ridiculous list of other movies they decided to "honour" because they like looking as if they reward every studio in town.
Their Career Achievement Award went to Eli Wallach. He's probably best known for roles in the Godfather trilogy and... er... looking at his filmography doesn't really say much. He's in The Holiday, out next week, though!
Their Producer's Award went to Irwin Winkler, quite humourously. The Billy Wilder award went to Jonathan Demme, which is strange cause the only movie he directed this year was Heart of Gold, a Neil Young concert movie.
Lastly the Freedom of Expression award went to Deepa Mehta's Water and Oliver Stone's World Trade Center. I woulda though United 93 would have been a better candidate for this prize over WTC, but... oh well. Dem wacky NBR like to fool around with us.
And... that's all for now cause I'm hungry.
8 comments:
good job on 4/10.
And yes, award season has begun! Hooray!
--RC of strangeculture.blogspot.com
I've certainly got some way to go before the site about Travel Expense meets the standards of your blog.
I also got 4/10 (6/10 if you count my two alternates which I was originally predicting but bailed on later, partially thanks to Glenn's prodding. thanks, Glenn ; )
I think Painted Veil will make it in for screenplay and maybe costumes or score or something, but the major categories (especially actress) are too crowded. To get into actress this year, you need some kind of cool PR hook in addition to giving a great performance (Cruz breaks through with fake ass! Mirren gives career performance! Streep's biggest hit ever, etc.) or else you have to be Judi Dench or another of their favored dames. Naomi is not one.
I think Catherine O'Hara is actually being helped by FYC's unevenness and general not-up-to-snuff-ness. Usually, she's just one of the great ensemble, but this time she's kind of obviously the best thing in it, and I think people will latch onto her and give her the props she's always deserved.
At least from what I've read, Catherine's propping to an awards contender for FYC makes more sense than Eugene Levy for A Mighty Wind, which I never quite understood as an awards contender. I mean... huh? That was odd that he won awards outside of Ensemble.
I love that The History Boys on there. Yes, yes, yes!!!
When I read the list I wanted to cry, the Eastwood nightmare all over again will kill me. But maybe NBR's love for it won't be necessarily enough to raise its mood till the Oscars; as Adam said it probably won't get much from the audience so hopefully it might lose gas.
Besides that all this Oscar-race has made me kind of prejudiceful about films. I know that WWII movies aren't my cup of tea and I dislike Haggis and Spielberg enough to have second thoughts about Flags and Letters; but maybe this year's differences between the lead contenders [once again I think we're saying more than we can actually say, because who knows those old gargoyles decide to trick us all] isn't so uneven like the last Eastwood/Scorcese that we had [M$B had nothing on Aviator].
I was surprised and happy to see Prada on the top 10, I hope it boosts Emily for a nod on the Globes; and sad in not seeing Little Children.
But well, yeah, awards season is on!!!
Eli Wallach was also in The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, The Magnificent Seven, The Misfits and How The West Was Won. Maybe you didn't scroll that far down. :P
i don't think I did, no. Or I did and I just didn't notice them because there was a lot on there that I'd never heard of so they probably all just merged together.
Turns out he was only in the third Godfather too. :/
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