The American Film Institute has announced its list of top 10 features of the year, which reads like a tally of leading Oscar contenders: Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, 127 Hours, The Social Network, The Town, Toy Story 3, True Grit, and Winter’s Bone. The AFI jury (which included my EW colleague Lisa Schwarzbaum) also gave special awards to two films that were not eligible for the top 10: The King’s Speech (ineligible because it’s British) and Waiting for “Superman” (which couldn’t be considered because it’s a documentary). The AFI top 10 didn’t include any surprises; rather, dark horse entries like Get Low, Rabbit Hole, and How to Train Your Dragon all weren’t able to break in. Last year only five of the AFI’s top 10 films (The Hurt Locker, Precious, Up in the Air, Up, and A Serious Man) ended up scoring Best Picture nominations (An Education and District 9 weren’t eligible, while Avatar, Inglourious Basterds, and The Blind Side were just plain snubbed). This year I’d say they’re going to line up 9 for 10.
Oscars to have only three Best Animated Film nominees
DreamWorks Animation
In a substantial blow to the animated film community, the Academy announced today that only 15 films have been accepted for consideration for the Best Animated Feature prize this year, meaning that only three films may be nominated for that Oscar. Had there been one more film accepted, the category would have increased to five slots. The 15 semi-finalists are: Alpha and Omega, Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, Despicable Me, The Dreams of Jinsha, How to Train Your Dragon, Idiots and Angels, The Illusionist, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, Megamind, My Dog Tulip, Shrek Forever After, Summer Wars, Tangled, Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue, and Toy Story 3.
At first glance, it seems to me that Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon, both big hits that also scored fantastic reviews, are the best bets, while Disney’s upcoming Tangled and Sylvain Chomet’s The Illusionist might battle it out for that coveted third slot. It’s a shame that in such a fabulous year for animation, so many worthy films now won’t make the cut. But if you look at it mathematically, it’s not so bad: 20 percent of the eligible movies will end up getting an Oscar nomination.
Follow me on Twitter (@davekarger) for more Oscar updates.
Halle Berry: Another Oscar nod for 'Frankie'?
Last week I had a chance to see Frankie & Alice, the Halle Berry drama that’s making a late entrance into the awards season. The former Best Actress winner for Monster’s Ball gives another strong, gutsy performance as a stripper with multiple-personality disorder (her other two personas are a racist white woman and, most arrestingly, a small child). Whether or not the film will be well-received enough for Berry to be able to challenge The Kids Are All Right‘s Annette Bening and Black Swan‘s Natalie Portman remains to be seen. But I’d certainly put her on the list of eight women (along with Bening, Portman, Kids‘ Julianne Moore, Winter’s Bone‘s Jennifer Lawrence, Another Year‘s Lesley Manville, Rabbit Hole‘s Nicole Kidman, and Blue Valentine‘s Michelle Williams) that have the best shot at filling out the five Best Actress slots this year.
The movie opens Dec. 10; in the meantime, here’s a first look at the film’s poster. Click the image above to see it full-size.
'Rabbit Hole': Exclusive clip of Oscar winners Nicole Kidman and Dianne Wiest
They’ve got five Oscar nominations and three wins between them. And now Nicole Kidman and Dianne Wiest are firmly in the running for nods this year for their performances as mother and daughter in John Cameron Mitchell’s adaptation of David Lindsay-Abaire’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Rabbit Hole (out Dec. 17). Although they both play women who have lost children, the two of them actually provide some of the intense film’s lighter moments. In this clip provided by Lionsgate, Wiest’s character, Nat, tells Kidman’s Becca about a friend who got on her nerves after her son died of a drug overdose. This scene had the crowd howling at the Rabbit Hole premiere in Toronto.
Check back here in the coming weeks for more exclusive clips from this season's top Oscar contenders.
Oscar host? How about someone new?
Image Credit: Tommaso Boddi/PR Photos; Solarpix/PR Photos; Albert L. Ortega/PR Photos
Last year, we learned on Nov. 3 that Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were going to host the Oscars together. Right now we don’t know who’ll spearhead the next telecast, even though it takes place a week earlier than this year’s did. Mike Fleming at Deadline.com reported over the weekend that Hugh Jackman, who hosted in 2009, was asked to do so again but turned it down. I’d imagine telecast producers Bruce Cohen and Don Mischer are considering some other old standbys — Billy Crystal, maybe, or Whoopi Goldberg — for the gig. But wouldn’t it be cool if they went with someone who’s never hosted the Oscars before? We all admire Neil Patrick Harris’ MC skills; why not let him tackle the biggest show there is? I’ll never forget Oprah Winfrey’s moving speech at the telecast a few years back; wouldn’t she be fantastic as host? And of course Ricky Gervais brings down the house whenever he does an awards-show bit.
Which Oscar newbie would you most like to see host next year’s show? Or do you think someone tried and true should take it on? Cast your vote below.
Roman Polanski: Dark horse Best Director contender?
Image credit: Guy Farrandis
Over the weekend, the nominees for the European Film Awards were announced, and the film receiving the most nominations, in a surprise, was Roman Polanski’s The Ghost Writer, starring Ewan McGregor and Pierce Brosnan. Meanwhile, Mike Leigh’s highly-touted upcoming drama Another Year received only two nominations, while the acclaimed Italian film I Am Love (starring Tilda Swinton) was completely shut out. But it’s the seven nods for The Ghost Writer that are making me wonder if Polanski (who shocked many when he beat Gangs of New York‘s Martin Scorsese and Chicago‘s Rob Marshall for Best Director in 2003 for The Pianist) could be a dark horse contender this year as well. Oftentimes the directors branch does reserve one slot for a left-field, often non-American candidate (like Fernando Meirelles for City of God, or Mike Leigh for Vera Drake) whose film isn’t exactly a front-runner for Best Picture. This year’s there’s also Leigh and The Way Back‘s Peter Weir, but if the directors think outside the box, they could feasibly go for Polanski.
While The Pianist was a December release, however, The Ghost Writer came out all the way back in March, so many voters may have forgotten about it already (if they even saw it in the first place). Awards DVDs will help the film’s case—but it remains to be seen if the Academy will want to open the Pandora’s box of recognizing perhaps today’s most controversial filmmaker yet again.
Michelle Williams talks 'Blue Valentine' and its NC-17 rating
Image credit: Solarpix/PR Photos
On the eve of Blue Valentine‘s Los Angeles premiere at the AFI Film Festival tomorrow night, I had the opportunity to talk to its star Michelle Williams, who’s currently in London filming the lead role of Marilyn Monroe in My Week with Marilyn. As I’ve said ad nauseam already, if this woman doesn’t get a Best Actress nomination for this performance, it will be very sad. Here Williams and I discuss her emotionally raw film (directed by Derek Cianfrance), its NC-17 rating, and what she plans to do after wrapping Marilyn.
Entertainment Weekly: Do you wish you could be here in Los Angeles for the AFI screening tomorrow, or are you happy not to see the film with what could easily be a jaded industry crowd?
Michelle Williams: I hadn’t really thought about it. I guess at this point there’s been so many premieres all over the globe, that I don’t feel like I’m really missing out on anything. Is that a bad thing to say? People are going to examine what you’ve done, so I guess in that sense I’m happy to not suffer through that experience, because it is obviously such an exposed piece of work. So maybe I’m lucky to be hiding out in London.
You and Ryan Gosling must share such a strong bond after making this movie together. You’ll occasionally see each other at a premiere or a photo shoot, but do you otherwise stay in close touch?
I haven’t really talked to him about this, but that movie went so deep, that for a while when we would see each other, we were kind of where our characters left off for a few moments in time. And it’s been kind of like a re-getting to know you. I don’t know what his feeling would be. But he’s the master of YouTube, so every so often I just get this flurry of videos. Things that only have, like, 312 views on them. I can’t even begin to describe them.
I’ve had people say to me, “There’s no way I can see Blue Valentine—it just sounds way too depressing.” What would you say to them?
I wish I was John Cassavetes right now. For some reason I was on YouTube last night, and I was watching this John Cassavetes interview. Have you seen how John Cassavetes would promote a film? Oh. My. God. You’ve got to see it. There’s this incredible interview, it’s like eight minutes. It’s all him talking. Gena Rowlands is sitting next to him, Ben Gazzara is there. And it’s eight minutes of him selling Opening Night. I wish that I was as ballsy and maybe born a man to answer that question. Okay, you don’t have to put that in the article.
But I will! I’ll link to it.
You should totally link to it! It is so insane how he loves his own movie but doesn’t come off as being full of it or obnoxious in any way. I feel like I’m not really here to sell anything. It’s not my talent or my interest. I wouldn’t know how to convince people other than the fact that I believe in happy endings, and I believe that where the movie ends is not where the story ends. And as dark and as dangerous as the movie can feel, there is a balance in the movie. You can’t have that much dark without that much light. It’s not all a suicide watch.
The main reason why the movie is sometimes so hard to watch is that there are so many moments where you two seem like the perfect couple, but then you’re in danger of letting it all slip away. Were there times during filming where you had a hard time rationalizing your character’s behavior?
Have you seen the new cut? Some of the answers may be in the new cut. But from the moment I said yes to the film, my next sentence was, “How am I going to leave him?” Because in my experience of the world, women don’t leave men who are essentially good fathers. Despite the fact that they might have a whole litany of other problems, you don’t leave somebody who’s a good dad. I might have driven Derek a little crazy—every time I would see him I would say, “How do I leave this guy? What’s so awful about him? At the end of the day he loves me and he loves our daughter.” What I finally came to is, it’s not him, it’s me.
A lot has been written about the MPAA’s decision to give the movie an NC-17. Harvey Weinstein is appealing the ruling, but the MPAA is known for being very stubborn. Would you rather the film be edited a little bit to get an R rating, or stay how it is but have far fewer people see it because it’s NC-17?
I’m happy for it to stay just like it is. Genuinely, I am. Movies get to have long lives and it’ll be judged and rejudged in 10 or 20 or 30 years, and I’ll be curious to see how it stands. It seems like such a condemnation. It feels like such a slap on the hand, like you’ve been a bad kid or something.
Right now you’re playing Marilyn Monroe, who went through so much turmoil in her life. How are you holding up?
Um…um…ummmm…It’s hard to talk about. I’ve never really had the experience of talking about something while I’ve been in the middle of making it. I don’t know what to say that is honest and not like, “Oh, fine, great.” I don’t know how to have an honest answer that’s not going to give away what I’m still working on. But after this movie, I’m taking some time off. I’m not working for another year. Talk to me in three weeks and then I’ll be able to summarize it better.
Please follow me on Twitter (@davekarger) for Oscar updates.
'The King's Speech' tops British Independent Film Award nominees
The upcoming Colin Firth comedic drama The King’s Speech scored eight nominations from the British Independent Film Awards, with Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley’s Never Let Me Go tied for second place with six. Most interesting in today’s announcement was the placement of Another Year‘s Lesley Manville in supporting actress while her costars Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen were nominated in the lead categories. That’s the opposite of how their campaigns are expected to go. Also, although Another Year‘s Mike Leigh earned a Best Director nod, the film itself was left out in favor of the jihadist drama Four Lions. And I also find it very intriguing that the same film (The Arbor) could be nominated for both Best Actress and Best Documentary. The full list of nominees is after the jump.
'Alice in Wonderland' ad kicks off the 'For Your Consideration' season
Awards screeners for movies like Solitary Man, City Island, Animal Kingdom, and Mother and Child have been in voters’ hands for a few weeks now, and this week I saw the first For Your Consideration trade ad that listed possible contenders by category. The distinction goes to Disney’s Alice in Wonderland, which is being touted for Best Picture, Best Director (Tim Burton), Best Actor (Johnny Depp), and Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter and Anne Hathaway), along with 13 other categories.
Will Alice be a top contender in the Oscar race? Probably not, of course. I’m told the studio’s major goal is a nomination in the Best Picture, Comedy or Musical category at the Golden Globes. (Though the eye-popping film could end up factoring into some of the Academy’s technical races.) Nonetheless, I find it interesting that the FYC-ad season kicked off not with a tiny indie flick like Winter’s Bone or Get Low but with the No. 2 top grosser of the year so far. We’ll see if the move pays off.
Halle Berry's 'Frankie & Alice' enters the Oscar race
Photo credit: Sergei Bachlakov
In a development reminiscent of Jeff Bridges’ last-minute entrance into the awards season with Crazy Heart last year, Halle Berry is now poised to try to shake up this season’s Best Actress race. As Pete Hammond over at Deadline.com first reported, Berry’s drama Frankie & Alice will get an Oscar-qualifying release on December 17 courtesy of Freestyle Releasing. In the film, costarring Stellan Skarsgard, Berry plays a woman with multiple personality disorder. I’m told by people who’ve seen the film that one of her character’s personas, fascinatingly, is a racist white woman. The movie showed at the Cannes film market back in May but has only now announced distribution.
At this point, Berry isn’t as much of a slam dunk as Bridges was. Crazy Heart had undeniable buzz and the power of Fox Searchlight in its corner. Freestyle, on the other hand, is a much smaller distributor without the resources of a company like Searchlight. Despite strong reviews for Christian McKay’s performance in Me and Orson Welles last year, the outfit wasn’t able to score him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination. But in the right role, Berry is certainly a force to be reckoned with, so I’m not counting her out.
Follow me on Twitter (@davekarger) for more Oscar news.
