Announcement

LOL. I totally make it sound like it's even remotely interesting. It's about my "annual" awards, The UMAs. Let it be known I am only going to see two more 2006 films theatrically - Inland Empire and Curse of the Golden Flower because I want to see them for myself, not because I think I should just so I can add one person to the Best Actor category (that means you Ryan Gosling). I figure, by April that I just have to cut them off unless I really want to see them (such as those two films I mentioned). So that means there will be no Half Nelson, Running with Scissors, The Painted Veil (I really did want to see this but it has no release date. If it suddenly gets released within the next month I'll totally see it though), Sherrybaby, Fur (YES, even though it's Nicole), Three Times, The Science of Sleep, The Dead Girl (I did really want to see it but the time has passed) or a few others.

There's a few more that I just won't get to see such as Venus, Letters From Iwo Jima (ugh, I really wanted to see this one too), Blood Diamond, etc. You can blame bad distribution for some and disinterest for others. I can't see everything! I'll choose to see some of these on DVD and adjust the awards when I do, but... yeah. Don't expect them to be getting any prizes this time around despite high praise from places (and Oscar nominations for some). I blame the distributors for not releasing stuff like Half Nelson when it had Oscar buzz. They've lost my $12 now. And I only have illegal DVDs (thanks Par! thanks Georgie!) for being able to see Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing and Factory Girl. At least that's something. I wish they'd just release movies like Fur or The Dead Girl as direct-to-DVD. At least we'd get to see them.

I still have some 2006 films to see on DVD that are in my QuickFlix queue, stuff like The Wind that Shakes the Barley, Spellbound 2 Wordplay, BoyTown, Art School Confidential (I know it's supposedly shithouse, but it's Zwigoff!) and some others.

But. Yeah. Hopefully when Inland Empire finally gets here I'll be able to do my awards, because that's probably the only movie left that even has a hope to disrupting the major categories (Picture, Director, Actress specifically). By the way, I have finally decided on a concrete final five for my Best Picture category should Inland Empire not make it. I was umming and aahing over what the last slot should go to, but I decided and it's delightfully off-centre (no, not The Black Dahlia) so I'm happy now. Although that final spot in the director category is up for grabs still. Best Actress is still tricky but I think I've got it, although as mentioned, Laura Dern could throw a wrench into the works. Supporting Actor is, typically, a big fat mess with only one performance that I just wanna surround myself in, but I think there's a surprise or two in there (rock stars! mutes! non-performers! but that could still change).

edit: So, I'm scrapping Inland Empire from the awards. Reasoning? Well, turns out the movie has a new Aussie release date. It makes me wanna throw up (JUNE 21!!) So, I think when I see Golden Flower (out in 2 weeks I think) I'm just gonna go ahead with the UMAs because I'm not waiting until bloody JUNE! Ugh. I tellsya. The lineup is still pretty good though and there's good films represented throughout so the omission of Inland Empire won't be felt that badly. But still. I totally expected it to play a somewhat major part. Oh well.

NBR - WTF?

I haven't read anybody else's opinions on the NBR yet, so sorry if this is repetition to all you Oscar prognasticators. The National Board of Review are sort of notorious for going off on their own weird tangents. It's something that always makes them at least interesting and this year was no different. No Dreamgirls or The Queen (two films that seem like Oscar sure bets), yet there is The Devil Wears Prada (thankfully, at least one awards body has recognised it, next up HFPA). They continue to adore Edward Zwick. They awarded him Best Director for his culture clash slash history vulture film The Last Samurai and now placed his Blood Diamond (a movie whose buzz has died about so quickly it was as if it was a character in a Texas Chainsaw Massacre film). They also liked History Boys, but not Little Children.

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.

THE AWARDS SEASON HAS BEGUN!!!

National Board of Review Predix

I don't really care that much, but I thought I'd throw my own seriously misjudged predictions into the ring alongside people like Adam and Kris and, ya know, all the rest. Did I say I was gonna be seriously misjudged?

[edit - I just realised that I didn't predict them to award Little Miss Sunshine anything. Probably quite ridiculous, but atm I'll keep it that way - except for the young performer awards which they may or may not award]

BEST PICTURE
Notes on a Scandal

TOP 10
Babel, Children of Men, The Departed, Dreamgirls, Little Children, Notes on a Scandal, The Painted Veil, A Prairie Home Companion, The Queen, United 93

BEST DIRECTOR
Martin Scorsese, The Departed

BEST ACTRESS
Helen Mirren, The Queen

BEST ACTOR
Forest Whitake, The Last King of Scotland

(What a royal acting duo!?)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal, Babel, The Good German (??)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Pedro Almodovar, Volver

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Todd Field, Little Children

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR
Sasha Baron Cohen, Borat!

BREAKTHROUGH ACTRESS
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

BEST DIRECTORIAL DEBUT
Ryan Fleck, Half Nelson

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Happy Feet

BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
Bobby

BEST DOCUMENTARY
An Inconvenient Truth

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Volver
(although I really wanna say The Lives of Others just cause they like to mess around with us, ya know?)

TOP 5 FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILMS
Letters from Iwo Jima
The Lives of Others
Pan's Labyrinth
Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles
Volver

BILLY WILDER AWARD
Clint Eastwood for directing Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima

SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Guillermo del Toro for Writing/Directing/Producing Pan's Labyrinth
or
David Lynch for Writing/Directing/Producing/Distributing Inland Empire

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARD
Sasha Baron Cohen, Borat!

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT
Judi Dench - for acting
John Williams - film film composing

and I think they might throw the next category in for this year (they've done it before)

BEST PERFORMANCE BY A YOUNG ACTOR
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine

And they've sorta stopped doing the tech categories so I won't predict them. And... I'm done.