'Basterds' for Best Picture? The Sound of 'Transformers' and the Awards Schedule
We've got a few things to discuss
It's been a nice week. Thanks to the lack of news I was able to focus on my top 25 movies of 2009, but it won't be slow for long.
This past Monday ballots for the 2010 Oscars were mailed to the 5,777 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and one day later ballots for the 2010 Screen Actors Guild Awards were sent out to nearly 100,000 actors. Oscar ballots must be returned to PricewaterhouseCoopers by 5 p.m. on Saturday, January 23, 2010 and SAG ballots are due two days earlier, by noon PST on Thursday, January 21, 2010.
Speaking of ballots, Steve Pond at The Wrap posted a brain-bender of an article concerning the Oscar balloting system, which includes 11 different ballots in 11 different colors covering 15 of the 24 Oscar categories. He then proceeds to explain a couple of the peculiarities regarding each of them. It all sounded like a hot mess if you ask me. To get the low down for yourself click here.
While the ballots make the rounds, we are just over two weeks away from the 2010 Golden Globe Awards, which will be held on January 17, 2010 from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California. The show will be hosted by Ricky Gervais, and will be broadcast live coast to coast (which I believe is a first) on NBC (5 to 8 pm PT, 8 to 11 pm ET).
The SAG Awards will be held on Saturday, January 23, 2010 followed by the 2010 Oscars a couple weeks later on Sunday, March 7, 2010.
If those three shows won't satiate your awards fix the Critics' Choice Movie Awards will be revealed at the 15th annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards ceremony on January 15, 2009 and broadcast live on VH1 Television Network. I've never actually watched this broadcast, but seeing how this is the third year the gala has been televised I may want to finally give it a watch.
Speaking of awards shows, have you boned up on the nominees? If not here's a list of the announced nominees so far with Oscar nominations set to be announced on Tuesday, February 2, 2010, at 5:30 a.m. PT.
Moving beyond ballots and calendars, Kris Tapley at In Contention came across a fantastic video feature focusing on the sound mixing work done by Gary Summers and Greg P. Russell on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. No matter what you thought of the film, the magic behind the making of it presented in this six-minute video piece is sure to interest you. Give it a watch.
For some reason I always enjoy seeing the practical methods used to make some of those sounds. Transformers has got to be considered a major contender for sound and I would add Star Trek, Avatar and The Hurt Locker to that list as well. Beyond those three (which are pretty much the obvious choices) I guess I would add something like District 9 or maybe 2012. If we're talking editing I would definitely go with Hurt Locker, Transformers and Star Trek. With mixing I would take those three again and add Avatar and 2012. So there's a little something to chew on.
As for my top line predictions, I haven't updated those since December 23, but I feel an update is just around the corner as the likes of Avatar and Inglourious Basterds have me scratching my head. Can either of these films take home Best Picture?
Tom O'Neil at Gold Derby is convinced Basterds is the Best Picture front-runner. His reasons:
- Film critics loved it
- It was hugely successful ($311 million worldwide)
- It's got a high "cool factor" with Pitt and Tarantino
- Harvey Weinstein
- It took home the most Critics' Choice Award nominations
- Was nominated in ALL of the top Golden Globe races
- It's got a great title
Any of these reasons convincing you? Personally I would love to see Basterds in the driver's seat with Tarantino holding the Oscar high above his head in March, and Lord knows it would bring in the ratings as it's definitely a fan favorite. I've already penciled in Christoph Waltz for a Supporting Actor win, Tarantino is likely to nab a director nom, and his original screenplay should do the same. O'Neil points out several other possibilities including Diane Kruger or Melaine Laurent for supporting actress, film editing, cinematography, art direction, costumes, sound editing and sound mixing.
As for Avatar, it's dominating the box-office after most recently scoring $19.4 million on Monday and another $18.2 million on Tuesday bringing its domestic total to $250.4 million and a worldwide total of $726 million already. I mean, great reviews, Best Picture buzz and now its on its way to a quick $300 million in two weeks. As a film that's been reported to have cost up to a half-billion dollars to make, the fact it could very soon double that figure in worldwide box-office receipts isn't too shabby. Do dollars translate to awards? The $1 billion worth of worldwide tickets sold by The Dark Knight didn't, and it too received great reviews and Best Picture buzz. What makes Avatar any different?
Nope, I don't think Avatar has the legs for a win (a nomination is assured), and I think the backlash against Precious is just enough to keep it out of the discussion. This leaves me with my current two front-runners — The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air — and O'Neil's whispers of Basterds in my ear. The race is undoubtedly down to these five films and I have pretty much convinced myself Up in the Air lost its legs as The Hurt Locker began dominating the critics' kudos. Does this mean I'm contemplating an Inglourious Basterds vs. The Hurt Locker Oscar showdown? Perhaps, but I'm not going to move too hasty. Let's just leave it open-ended for now and get your thoughts in the comments.
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Thought I hope it wins, I dont see Basterds becoming a front-runner. I feel it will always be a dark-horse.
i prefer my basterds as dark horses i think, front runner status is never received kindly, i even started to dislike slumdog during its sweep last year. Precious seems dead in the water at this point besdies its performances, as it should be imo. The other 4 are all very possible at this point. Though something about Up In The Airs mainstream and unchallenging nature makes it a hard win for me.
Brad, AVATAR is going to do much more international box office then the dark knight ever hoped, so i think thats why its got a better chance as well as the break through in technology
Inglorious Basterds was incredible! Best movie I saw all year and I've seen Up in the Air, Avatar, Brothers, Precious, and all the front-runners. Basterds was the most entertaining and in my eyes that's what counts.
From what I remember hearing the foriegn press wasn't to impressed by The Hurt Locker, however they apparently loved both Basterds and Avatar, and I wouldn't be surprised to see either film win the best picture drama category. If either film won the best pic globe that will obviously boost its chances for success with the academey. I honestly think that Up in the Air, a film that I found to be incredibly overrated will get the award. As for musical comedy, that's a big if right now. Nine dissapointed completley and is an official flop in the states, which, coupled with its bad reviews, may push it out of the best picture race completley.
I see it unfolding like this:
1. The Hurt Locker
2. Avatar
3. Inglorious Basterds
4. Up in the Air
5. Precious
I love that Weinstein gets his own bulletpoint.
I do not want Hurt Locker to win Best Picture.
I WANT… either
-Inglorious Basterds
-Avatar
OR
-Up in the Air
to win it. Those are much more deserving than Hurt Locker.
AND I LOVED NINE! I hope it gets nominated. It should!
again, i see nothing but this geeky, fanboy fascination with a geeky, subpar, talky picture. Inglorious Basterds, trust me, will not win the Best Pic oscar.
If Basterds wins BP I will be overwhelmed with happiness, but Best Director has to go to Kathryn Bigelow under any circumstances.
Hurt Locker will probably go down as this year's The Pianist. Back in 2002, though it was a dark horse, it managed to sneak away with Best Director, Best Actor & Best Original Score statuettes. I believe The Hurt Locker will claim Best Director (we've got a Black President, it's time for a woman to win Best Director – an Academy first) and Best Original Screenplay.
The war for Best Picture will take place between three frontrunners:
1. Up In The Air
2. Inglorious Basterds
3. Avatar
NOTE:
Besides fighting for Best Picture, Up In the Air will gain Oscars for Best Actor & Adapted Screenplay, Inglorious Basterds will take home Best Supporting Actor and Avatar will claim around 4-5 technical awards (Film Editing, Sound Mixing, Cinematography, Art Direction, etc.)
Inglorious was entertaining, but not a great movie. Christoph Waltz was brilliant in every scene, but the overall story was okay. Kill Bill vol1 was much better.
Hurt Locker was an amazing film. It would be a deserved win. That movie floored me.
Up in the Air (haven't seen) seems like an entertaining film and I like Clooney a lot, but nah.
Avatar? Really? Great special effects, but an average story at best. Up! was animated too and had a great story. I'd pick that over Avatar, I don't care if he's the "King of the World."
I think Nick and The Jackal are right on about Kathryn Bigelow winning Best Director (a woman finally!), and I agree with the Jackal on all his predictions except one. Do you really think George will beat Jeff Bridges? I figured the Academy would finally award Jeff with his long-deserved Oscar. Like everybody else I love George, but Jeff really deserves it this year.
I would love Basterds to win; I know it probably won't, but at least it'll most likely get a nomination.
Hurt Locker. I'd rather it not win. I obviously didn't see the great movie everyone else did, because I found it very fragmented and nowhere near as intense as I heard it was. But I won't begrudge it the win if it does. At least it'll mean the Academy has a memory that extends before November. Last year they didn't seem to possess that memory in the slightest.
All the movies that would make me mad if they were nominated (think: "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen") have no chance in hell of getting nominated for BP.
Avatar. Yes, it'll get a BP nom. And it had BETTER win Special Effects. It'll get nominated; likely TF2 will get nominated as well (goddamn it), and some other movie. I hope Star Trek, but who knows? The Academy seems to have especially poor taste in who they nominate for Special Effects, choosing instead to choose the film that looks like it required the most CGI manpower instead of the films that use the CGI best. They also seem to make poor choices for the winner, or WTF choices like "The Golden Compass" over "Transformers" and POTC3. Out of those nominations, TF obviously deserved to win; here's hoping the Academy won't try to make up for that by giving TF2 the award this year. Because Avatar REALLY REALLY REALLY deserves Best Special Effects in a way that no other movie has ever deserved that award. I also think Avatar could go for Best Original Song ("I See You"–and shut up, haters) and Best Musical Score.
Anything involving effects and music should go straight to Revenge Of The Fallen. The Linkin Park song was excellent and used greatly throughout the soundtrack. The special effects were phenomenal.
It should get best picture too actually; Quentin Tarantino sucks…
@Seiko: Thanks for the laugh.
@Nick: Your welcome. I actually don't think Revenge Of The Fallen was that great. However pretty much every movie of the year was either dissapointing or just downright sucked. Including pretty much all of the ones supposedly up for the awards. It would never win best picture no matter what.
It should still get the award for everything music though. Most movies, quite honestly, use the crappiest garbage of music they can come up with. Either that or all of the music sounds pretty much the same. In ROTF they took one song and used the background music throughout the movie and it sounded really good. Not that I think Linkin Park is so great but it fit well.
@Seiko: I don't know how you can say every other movie this year was disappointing or downright sucked. This was definitely not a year of the blockbusters but there were several other small films that were extremely good. TF2 deserves no place with those other films as it had a terrible plot and crappy acting.
Avatar may steal the victory, and if it does it's gonna have a chance to make $600M! I've already guessed it would beat Dark Knight, so a little more Oscar Buzz will take skeptics back to the screens by March.
Anyway, if it's not Avatar, I'm taking The Hurt Locker, though with little box office returns I doubt if it could have a better shot than Basterds. Even so, Avatar has already beaten Titanic's record in India and treats James Cameron like a God. So, I guess I'll be rooting Avatar for the buzz.
If Avatar does win, then basically Fox will have beaten Weinstein at their own game.
While Tranformers 2 was not a well written movie, I still love it from a purely technical stand point. Very pretty to watch, great to listen to. It's one of the best "demo discs" for any good blu-ray home theater setup.
■Avatar
■The Hurt Locker
■Inglourious Basterds
■Up In the Air
■Precious
I see it being these 5 being nominated for best pic for oscars. who will win.. i dunno about that one.. People are going back and forth between Basterds and avatar but it could end up Precious and throw everyone for a loop..
It would be nice for Brad Pitt to win For Inglorious Basterds. Himself nor his movies have had much luck at the oscars.. it would be nice to see him win, Best actor or best picture. You have to admit. He is a terrific actor, and this was a great movie.
"Do dollars translate to awards? The $1 billion worth of worldwide tickets sold by The Dark Knight didn't, and it too received great reviews and Best Picture buzz. What makes Avatar any different?"
Um… Avatar has a Golden Globe nomination for best picture. That's what makes it different. And now they're nominating 10 films for best picture.
@JJ Abrams: A nomination is not a win.
I think it's certainly down to these five films, but I wouldn't count Up in the Air out quite yet. It's won a fair number of localized film critics associations awards and got the most Best Picture hype in early December. I'm not saying it *will* win, but I do think it'll be either that or The Hurt Locker.
Hey Brad, you mentioned that O'Neil suggested Melanie Laurent as a possible nomination in supporting actress for Inglourious. Are you going to end up putting her in the Contenders, or do you not think she has even a chance. I think she's better than a bunch of the choices in either Lead or Supporting Actress. After rewatching Inglourious today, I still think she isn't getting the consideration she deserves. I am afraid she might be one of the big snubs this year.
AVATAR has a traditional story that so many other movies and stories has. But it has GREAT entertainment value (which is what we looked from movies).
I found it waay enjoyable than the "much praised" The Dark Knight (which I think got all the attention just because Heath Ledger/ The international box office shows it, the international audience didn't like as much as US audience).
As for Basterds, I like this movie, but it's not GREAT as some people saying. (It has great peformances from all the stars, esp Christopher Waltz and Diane Kreuger, yes, Diane Kreuger!)
I haven't seen Up In The Air yet (it's not release in Indonesia yet/but I never been a George Clooney fans, he's just playing himself all the time in all his movies) so I couldn't give my vote to this movies.
As well as The Hurt Locker (I missed it when it was released)
So MY FAVORITE CONTENDER for best picture from the movies that I actually saw is:
- AVATAR (no doubts)
- Up
- Inglorius Basterds (I'm not a fan but I see this movies at least being a nominee)
I do hope AVATAR wins, it crowd pleaser (like Titanic and Return of the King), and I know it pleases you to………
Regards from Indonesia
I dunno if this has been discussed at length on this site–and if it has, linkage would be nice–but is it worth discussing Zoe Saldana as a dark horse for Best Actress? She is ranked 12 on the Best Actress list here…does she deserve to be higher, lower or even on it?
I haven't chosen my best movie pics yet for the simple reason that very few films have really impressed me this year. Up in the Air is okay, but I certainly wouldn't recommend anyone see it. Avatar looks great, but the story is so-so, what a waste. Hurt Locker was very good, but it's not something that lasts in your mind or that you have the need to talk about with others. Quite honestly I'm pretty disappointed this year, the pickings are rather slim. My WGA screener of Lovely Bones awaits me, but knowing that Peter Jackson changed the entire focus of the story by omitting the rape I'm in no hurry to watch.
Up In the Air was horrible. I hated it. I see no reason why that film should win Best Picture, despite all the buzz. The gold should go to Basterds. By far the best film I have ever seen.