DGA Award... Well, Duh

Over the weekend the Directors Guild of America gave their award to Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire. Another trophy for the Slumdog. God, this awards season is boring!

SAG Awards - "I Didn't Even Buy a Dress!"

Oh Meryl, you make everything more entertaining! By far the best thing about last night's Screen Actors Guild Awards was Meryl Streep's acceptance speech. Wit, sarcasm, over-the-top enthusiasm - it was all there. I particularly loved her shout out to co-star Viola Davis. "My God, would someone giver he a movie!" You gotta love Streep. The rest of the winners were predictable Heath Ledger wins Supporting Actor, Kate Winslet wins Supporting Actress, and Sean Penn wins Lead Actor. The big award of the night, Best Ensemble, went to... Slumdog Millionaire? Really? Ok seriously, no one should refer to this movie as an underdog ever again. It's a giant awards juggernaut! It will win the Oscar for Best Picture and probably have a decent sized sweep of the other categories. This awards season has become quite boring. Although I suppose the acting categories still have some excitement. With Kate Winslet out of the picture, who will win Supporting Actress? I really could see either Davis, Cruz, or Tomei winning the prize. Will they give the Best Actress to Winslet, or will Streep be the upset? Is Best Actor going to Rourke or Penn, or as I think Langella? Supporting Actor is the one acting category that seems like a complete lock, with Ledger winning, but if there's one awards group that would snub his performance, it's the Academy. If that happens, I'll feel really bad for the actor who does win it.

Guild Noms: Visual Effects

The Visual Effects Society (VES) announced their nominations today, and Iron Man was in the lead with 5 nominations. Now, there are a number of categories at the VES awards, but the one that is probably most representative of the Oscar Best Visual Effects category is Outstanding Visual Effects in an F/X Driven Movie. The five nominees are The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Cloverfield, Hellboy 2: The Golden Army, and Iron Man. Of those films, Iron Man and Benjamin Button seem like locks for Oscar nods, but what about the third nomination? Neither Prince Caspian or Cloverfield qualified in the bake-offs, so that leaves Hellboy 2. But will that really get a nomination? Australia, Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Dark Knight also qualified in the Oscar bake-offs, and The Dark Knight could receive the third nomination. The VES distinguishes between CGI/digital effects (Visual Effects) and in-camera effects (Special Effects), and Dark Knight was nominated in the Special Effects category. So, I don't know? I'm going to go with Hellboy 2, just because the Academy seems to really like their CGI, but watch The Dark Knight get the nod. If it did receive the nomination, though, it would be worthy.

Guild Noms: Costume Designers

The Costume Designers Guild handed out their noms earlier today, and somehow Slumdog Millionaire got a nomination. Really? Okay, yes i get it! You love the movie, but just because you love a film, does not mean it deserves to be nominated in every category. At this rate, come nomination morning, it'll rack up 14 nods. Well, not really; I don't see how it could get more than nine. The Academy will probably ignore it in the Costume and Art Direction categories. Anyway...... Australia is snubbed again. It's like the plague, no one wants to go near it. Even though Australia was a critical and box-office disappointment, I thought it would manage to pick up some nods. Memoirs of a Geisha anyone? I still believe it will show up somewhere at the Oscars - Cinematography, Costume, and Art Direction are all possible. The Golden Compass, was in the same place last year, and received two nominations, going on to win Best Visual Effects. So for the crew of Australia, keep hope alive. I also think the Academy will go for The Other Boleyn Girl, even though the CDG didn't. The Academy loves them some Sandy Powell, and really, who doesn't? Velvet Goldmine for life! Oh, and one last comment - How is Iron Man a Contemporary film, but The Dark Knight a Fantasy film? Eh.......?

Nominations:

Contemporary:
Iron Man - Laura Jean Shannon & Rebecca Bentjen
Mamma Mia! - Ann Roth
Sex and the City - Patricia Field
Slumdog Millionaire - Suttirat Larlarb
The Wrestler - Amy Westcott

Period:
Changeling - Deborah Hopper
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Jaqueline West
The Duchess - Michael O'Connor
Milk - Danny Glicker
Revolutionary Road - Albert Wolsky

Fantasy:
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian - Isis Mussenden
The Dark Knight - Lindy Hemming
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor - Sanja Milkovic Hays

Guild Nominations: Editors

The American Cinema Editors announced their nominations announced their nominations yesterday, and, well, the five pictures nominated in the drama category are the same five films nominated by every other group. It's really becoming redundant. Have some imagination, people! Oy. I expect four of these five making it to an Oscar nomination, and the fifth slot going to a film that wasn't nominated here at all. My guess, Iron Man. Let me just add, how the hell did Mamma Mia! get a nomination in the comedy category? It's editing was horrible. Shouldn't editors know good editing. I mean really.

The Nominees:

Drama:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Angus Wall & Kirk Baxter
The Dark Knight - Lee Smith
Frost/Nixon - Mike Hill & Dan Stanley
Milk - Elliot Graham
Slumdog Millionaire - Chris Dickens

Comedy:
In Bruges - Jon Gregory
Mamma Mia! - Leslie Walker
Tropic Thunder - Greg Hayden
Vicky Cristina Barcelona - Alisa Lepselter
WALL-E - Stephen Schaffer

Guild Noms: Art Directors Guild

Those wacky production designers gave us a couple of surprises. No love for either of the Kate Winslet period pieces (The Reader, Revolutionary Road), nor was their love for Baz Luhrmann's spectacle (Australia), but the guild did find room to honor the Eastwood, with nods to Changeling and...Gran Turino? Really? Eh. Anyway, I do love that they nominated WALL-E. Though the Oscars will never do so, the ADG does actually recognize the work of art directors/production designers within animated films. Art direction/production design isn't just about building sets. It's about conceptualizing and designing the world that exists within the film, and WALL-E deserves some recognition for the designs of the space cruise ship, the desolate, future Earth and WALL-E himself. Good job ADG! Looking ahead at the Oscars, I still think at least one film, which didn't receive an ADG nom, could make the Oscar short-list, even though the ADG recognized 15 films in total. Don't count out Australia and The Reader just yet, one of them could still make it.

The Nominees:

Period Films:
Changeling - James J. Murakami
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Donald Graham Burt
Doubt - David Gropman
Frost/Nixon - Michael Corenblith
Milk - Bill Groom

Fantasy Films:
The Dark Knight - Nathan Crowley
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Crap - Guy Hendrix Dyax
Iron Man - J. Michael Riva
The Spiderwick Chronicles - James Bissell
WALL-E - Ralph Eggleston

Contemporary Films:
Burn After Reading - Jess Gonchor
Gran Turino - James J. Murakami
Quantum of Solace - Dennis Gassner
Slumdog Millionaire - Mark Digby
The Wrestler - Timothy Grimes

Guild Noms: DGA

The Directors Guild announced their nominations yesterday and...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....huh, what? I'm sorry; I just fell asleep from reading the nominations. It's the same list as the PGA, and about every other group. No excitement. The DGA is often a better indication of the Best Picture lineup than of the Best Director lineup come Oscar time, so expect these five films to be the Best Picture nominees. I doubt, however, that all five of these directors will receive a nod. One of them will probably be left off, and while Ron Howard would make the most sense for a snub, I'm fearing it might be Gus Van Sant. If one of them is left off you can expect the fifth slot to go to either Mike Leigh for Happy-Go-Lucky or Darren Aronofsky for The Wrestler. I can't decide. Then again, this could be a year where the Best Picture and Director categories match up, or it could be like the past few years where a film, which is nominated by all the precursors and guilds, gets snubbed for Best Picture by the Academy, like Into the Wild and Dreamgirls. I'm hoping this is the case.

Guild Noms: Cinema Audio Society

The Cinema Audio Society, which represents the sound designers, released their noms today, and Slumdog Millionaire got a surprising nomination. The film has become something of a juggernaut, with every guild group bestowing it a nomination. I don't think it will translate into a nomination with the Academy, but I could be wrong. If Finding Neverland and Shakespeare in Love managed to receive nods, so could Slumdog. I also think Quantum of Solace could miss out on a nomination, since the Academy completely ignored Casino Royale, even though it was completely worthy of a few nominations...Daniel Craig, Best Actor nod, should have been. I expect The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to take its place come Oscar time, and if Slumdog doesn't show up, Indiana Jones will fill its seat. Although, with the new Indy movie missing a nod from the sound guild, and not making the cut for the Visual Effects bake-off, maybe the industry realizes what a crap movie Crystal Skulls was, and it won't receive any nominations, save for the inevitable John Williams score nod. Take that Lucas and Spielberg!!!

The Noms:
The Dark Knight - Ed Novick, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo
Iron Man - Mark Ulano, Christopher Boyes, Lora Hirschberg
Quantum of Solace - Chris Munro, Mike Prestwood Smith, Mark Taylor
Slumdog Millionaire - Resul Pookutty, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke
WALL-E - Tom Meyers, Michael Semanick

Guild Nominations: Writers and Cinematographers

The Writers Guild and the American Society of Cinematographers announced their nominees today, with each group continuing the love-fests for Slumdog Millionaire, The Dark Knight and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. There were no real surprises with the ASC noms, but the Writers Guild shook things up within the Original Screenplay category. Rachel Getting Married, WALL-E, and Happy-Go-Lucky all failed to make an appearance. One could overlook the WALL-E snub, since it's an animated film with little dialogue, and the Happy-Go-Lucky snub, since its a British film and might not have qualified - I'm not exactly sure. There both probably safe for an Oscar nom, as Pixar has a good track record in the category, and I doubt the Academy would overlook a Mike Leigh film. The snub for Rachel Getting Married, however, indicates some trouble for the film's screenplay chances. Perhaps there is a growing support for The Wrestler, and that will take the fifth spot over Rachel. Although the Academy's writing branch does like dramadies, so maybe it still has a good shot, and WALL-E will be the film left off the final list. Who's to know; who's to know?

WGA:
Adapted Screenplay:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Doubt
Frost/Nixon
Slumdog Millionaire

Original Screenplay:
Burn After Reading
Milk
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
The Visitor
The Wrestler

ASC:
The Curious Case of Bejamin Button - Claudio Miranda
The Dark Knight - Wally Pfister
The Reader - Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
Revolutionary Road - Roger Deakins
Slumdog Millionaire - Anthony Dod Mantle

PGA Nominations - YAWN!!!

So begins the onslaught of the guilds handing out their nominations, with the Producers Guild starting us off today. Their nominees are, well, lacking any sort of excitement. I mean really! It's the same five films being recognized everytime. I thought their might have been some excitement added to the race, with WALL-E getting a nod from the guild, or maybe a bigger surprise with Revolutionary Road, The Wrestler, or Happy-Go-Lucky getting mentioned. Nope. None of that. No excitement here. Expect the same five films to be nominated for the Directors Guild Award, at which point we can be almost certain of the Oscar Best Picture line up.

Nominees:
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Cean Chaffin, Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall
The Dark Knight - Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas
Frost/Nixon - Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
Milk - Bruce Cohen, Dan Jinks, Michael London
Slumdog Millionaire - Christian Colson, Paul Ritchie