Recent Stories with tag oscars

Yes, awards season is finally over--blah blah blah boringest Oscars ever, blah blah blah.  But all in all, the films nominated this year weren't so bad (even if the wrong film won Best Picture), so now's your chance to catch up with some of the recent Oscar losers. Let's take a look at recent DVD releases, care of our good friends at Scarecrow Video. In terms of the big releases of late, 127 Hours is out this week, and if ninety minutes in a cramped space with James Franco isn't enough for you, Danny Boyle's film is also bundled with the Oscar winner for Best Live Action Short (and probably the best Oscar speech of the night), Luke Matheny's God of Love. 

Also out now is Love and Other Drugs, which didn't get Anne Hathaway a Best Actress Oscar nomination, even though she was naked and dying (which usually does the trick). Same goes for Get Low, starring Bill Murray as Bill Murray and Robert Duvall as a crotchety old hermit who wants to throw his funeral party before he's dead. Sorry Duvall, any other year you'd get an Oscar nom, but this year his slot (Old Dude) went to Jeff Bridges instead, not that anyone had a shot at beating Colin Firth. From the creators of The Triplets of Belleville, very French full-length cartoon The Illusionist lost Best Animated Feature to Toy Story 3. You'd think that the Christina Aguilera/Cher musical Burlesque would've at least gotten a Best Song nomination, since that category was so weak this year.

Last Friday marked the release of the one- and two-disc version of Megamind, a computer-animated hero/villain story with the voices of Will Ferrell, Brad Pitt, and Tina Fey. The other big release from last week was Due Date, aka Planes, Trains, and Automobiles 2. The odd couple buddy road trip is uneven and overly long, but it has its moments, and if you like Robert Downey Jr. and Zach Galifianakis, then you'll like the movie well enough too. No comment on The Rock and Billy Bob Thorton in Faster.... (more)

You've still got about an hour to find a spot to watch the Oscars before the 5 p.m. telecast begins on ABC.  (And girl, the red carpet has been on E! all day, doncha know.) 

The Mayor's Office of Film and Music has provided a list of notable Oscars events, including the Washington Filmworks benefit for local filmmakers at the Spitfire, Three Dollar Cinema's party at SoDo Park, and TheFilmSchool's auction at the Triple Door. On the Central District tip, as previously mentioned, the Bottleneck is hosting a viewing party tonight, and Central Cinema is of course hosting the Reel Grrls' second annual Oscars party.  And don't forget the 20/20 Awards coming at Central Cinema up next Monday the 15th, in which a select group of the Seattle filmmaking community rights the wrongs of the 1990 Academy Awards. 

As for tonight, let's hope for a couple pretty dresses and any film but Avatar winning Best Picture.

After you watch the other film award show this weekend, take your sense of outrage and "we wuz robbed" to the 20/20 Awards, held next weekend, March 15th at Central Cinema (1411 21st Ave). It features a little less red-carpet treatment, and more brutal honesty.

The organizers explain it like this: "We're going back 20 years to 'correct' the Academy Awards with the advantage of time, perspective, and history." They're doing 15 categories; things start at 7 p.m. Unsuccessful Oscar-defenders will be forever sullied, "new" faces will be rewarded with a Felix.

But of course, just holding an awards show is honor enough. They've managed to placate the lawyers for AMPAS (the cease-and-desist letter was "surprisingly friendly, breezy, and showed a sense of humor"). Some film industry folks were all set to become part of the 20/20 Voting Syndicate body, then reconsidered going on record.

This year, it's the 1990 Academy Awards put under the scrutiny of hindsight. Of the six 20/20 nods for Best Picture, none were noticed by the original Academy back in 1990. Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing is up for seven 20/20 Awards, despite its poor showing with Oscar voters. And up for Best Doc is Michael Moore’s vastly influential Roger & Me, which didn’t even get a nomination.

The cavalcade of 20/20 stars includes Tyrone Brown (BrownBox Theater); Michael Seiwaerath (former NW Film Forum honcho); Curtiss Marlowe (Geek #1 in Heathers); Brendan Kiley, Lindy West, David Schmader (the Stranger); Andrew Chapman (cinematographer); dj Riz Rollins (KEXP); Jennifer Zeyl (scenic designer); Josh Feit (Publicola); Paul Mullin (gadfly/playwright); Gavin Borchert (Seattle Weekly); Sue Corcoran (writer/director), Brian McDonald (writer/bon vivant) and Sean Nelson (man about town).

SIFF Cinema is hosting three benefit screenings that just happen to be of films hoping to garner some bigtime buzz this season (and perhaps take home an award or two).  The first up Sunday is A Single Man, the debut feature from Tom Ford, which got high praise at Toronto and Venice for Colin Firth's touching portrayal of a gay man dealing with his partner's death, along with luminous fag hag Julianne Moore.  Not bad for a director previously best known for ads featuring him naked.

Coming up Wednesday, December 2nd is Me and Orson Welles, Richard Linklater's take on the early life of the auteur.  I like Linklater, but I've got a hard time buying Zac Efron as a teenage actor who's lucked into working with Welles.  And come Sunday, December 13th, the series rounds out with Emily Blunt as The Young Victoria, which is, yes, a period piece about the Queen of England.

 

• Award-Buzz Benefit Screenings at SIFF Cinema: A Single Man, November 22nd at 2 p.m., Me and Orson Welles, December 2nd at 7 p.m., The Young...