Any trivia this year?

For the films of 2015
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by Big Magilla »

Mike Kelly points out here, http://www.cinemasight.com/88th-oscars- ... ent-121220, that this was the third time that a film that won Best Actor and Director failed to win Best Picture. The first two were John Ford and Victor McLaglen for The Informer in 1935 (the year Mutiny on the Bounty won Best Picture) and Roman Polanski and Adrien Brody for The Pianist in 2002 (the year Chicago won Best Picture).

In case you're wondering, it happened twice with Best Actress with Frank Borzage and Janet Gaynor for 7th Heaven in 1927/28 (the year Wings won Best Picture) and Bob Fosse and Liza Minnelli for Cabaret in 1972 (the year The Godfather won Best Picture).
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by Greg »

My guess is, since 2004, Gravity is the female-dominated film that came closest to winning.
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by The Original BJ »

Also during this period, it was far more common for Best Picture winners to have dominant female roles -- Driving Miss Daisy, The Silence of the Lambs, The English Patient, Titanic, Shakespeare in Love, American Beauty, Chicago, up to Million Dollar Baby. That's close to half the winners during that time.

But since 2004, the Best Picture winner with the largest female role would have to be The Artist, and even that character was considered so secondary as to be demoted to the supporting category. And nothing else even comes close.

Since the expansion, even most of the female-dominated Best Picture nominees have come from movies that were most likely the "extra" spots -- The Blind Side, An Education, The Kids Are All Right, Winter's Bone, The Help, Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Philomena, and this year's entries, Room and Brooklyn. And a film as acclaimed as Carol couldn't even get one of THOSE spots.

It really does make one wonder what set of circumstances might lead to another Terms of Endearment or Chicago -- films PRIMARILY about women -- ever being a favorite again.
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by inky »

Mister Tee wrote:Interesting thing I saw at another site: Post-1998/Shakespeare in Love, 14 of the 17 best actress winners have been the only award their films received. Two of the exceptions -- La Vie en Rose and the Iron Lady -- had just one second award, in the girly category of make-up. Million Dollar Baby is the only best actress-yielder to have any significant cross-over support.

As you might guess, best actor has nothing close to this. Training Day, Capote, The Last King of Scotland and The Theory of Everything are the only solo best actor winners -- and the group from this 17-year period is associated with 44 overall Oscar wins, as compared to only 22 for the best actresses.

Lest you think it was ever thus: in the decade preceding, there were plenty of lead actresses winning for films of more widespread popularity: As Good As It Gets, Fargo, The Piano, Howards End, Silence of the Lambs, Driving Miss Daisy, in addition to Shakespeare in Love. What happened to turn the industry/Academy so seemingly against films with strong female roles and broad appeal?
Perhaps the mindset "investing on sexy blonde actresses" (either newcomers or coming back ones) has prevailed in most years. This doesn't happen to Best Actor races - instead, Leo took decades to win his first trophy and we don't foresee another 'pretty' guy to repeat the feat in near future.
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by Mister Tee »

Interesting thing I saw at another site: Post-1998/Shakespeare in Love, 14 of the 17 best actress winners have been the only award their films received. Two of the exceptions -- La Vie en Rose and the Iron Lady -- had just one second award, in the girly category of make-up. Million Dollar Baby is the only best actress-yielder to have any significant cross-over support.

As you might guess, best actor has nothing close to this. Training Day, Capote, The Last King of Scotland and The Theory of Everything are the only solo best actor winners -- and the group from this 17-year period is associated with 44 overall Oscar wins, as compared to only 22 for the best actresses.

Lest you think it was ever thus: in the decade preceding, there were plenty of lead actresses winning for films of more widespread popularity: As Good As It Gets, Fargo, The Piano, Howards End, Silence of the Lambs, Driving Miss Daisy, in addition to Shakespeare in Love. What happened to turn the industry/Academy so seemingly against films with strong female roles and broad appeal?
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by OscarGuy »

Unless I'm forgetting some forgettable winner, I believe Ex Machina is the lowest grossing Best Visual Effects winner ever.
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by dws1982 »

Innaritu is the first person to win Best Director for consecutive films. Ford had two films between The Grapes of Wrath and How Green Was My Valley, and Mankiewicz had two between A Letter to Three Wives and All About Eve.
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by CalWilliam »

Heksagon wrote:
CalWilliam wrote:Steven Spielberg gets Oscar for two of his performers in back-to-back films. How often has this happened? (Quentin Tarantino too, though it was the same actor).
Let me think... Elia Kazan (Brando/Saint, Van Fleet), Hal Ashby (Voight/Fonda, Douglas), Jonathan Demme (Hopkins/Foster, Hanks), Clint Eastwood (Penn/Robbins, Swank/Freeman), Tom Hooper (Firth, Hathaway), David Lean (Mills, Ashcroft), Steven Soderbergh (Roberts, Del Toro), Stephen Daldry (Kidman, Winslet), David O. Russell (Bale/Leo, Lawrence), Richard Brooks (Lancaster/Jones, Begley), Woody Allen (Wiest, Sorvino)

William Wyler directed Oscar winning actors in three consecutive dramatic films (Mrs. Miniver, Best Years of Our Lives and The Heiress), excluding documentaries he made in between, and again in two consecutive films (The Big Country, Ben Hur)
Thank you. Actually Tom Hooper joins William Wyler (Firth, Hathaway, Vikander). Three consecutive films. Crazy.
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by Big Magilla »

OscarGuy wrote:It could also be argued that Michael Keaton wasn't the lead of his film since he was campaigned in support.
Who would argue such a thing? Certainly not the New York Film Critics who not only considered him lead but gave him their Best Actor award.
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by OscarGuy »

Big Magilla wrote:
FilmFan720 wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:Michael Keaton is the fourth actor to have starred in films that won back-to-back Oscars. The others were Clark Gable (It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty), Meryl Streep (The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer) and Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind).
Define star in....John Goodman and Guy Pearce both did it this decade
As in played a lead role in. Guy Pearce was in The Hurt Locker and The King's Speech and John Goodman was in The Artist and Argo but they weren't lead roles. If we look hard enough we can find other actors who had minor to major supporting roles in back-to-back winners like Ward Bond in You Can't Take It With You and Gone With the Wind, but back-to-back winners with the same stars are rare.
It could also be argued that Michael Keaton wasn't the lead of his film since he was campaigned in support.
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by Heksagon »

CalWilliam wrote:Steven Spielberg gets Oscar for two of his performers in back-to-back films. How often has this happened? (Quentin Tarantino too, though it was the same actor).
Let me think... Elia Kazan (Brando/Saint, Van Fleet), Hal Ashby (Voight/Fonda, Douglas), Jonathan Demme (Hopkins/Foster, Hanks), Clint Eastwood (Penn/Robbins, Swank/Freeman), Tom Hooper (Firth, Hathaway), David Lean (Mills, Ashcroft), Steven Soderbergh (Roberts, Del Toro), Stephen Daldry (Kidman, Winslet), David O. Russell (Bale/Leo, Lawrence), Richard Brooks (Lancaster/Jones, Begley), Woody Allen (Wiest, Sorvino)

William Wyler directed Oscar winning actors in three consecutive dramatic films (Mrs. Miniver, Best Years of Our Lives and The Heiress), excluding documentaries he made in between, and again in two consecutive films (The Big Country, Ben Hur)
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by CalWilliam »

anonymous1980 wrote:- Mad Max: Fury Road is now the film that have won the most Oscars without winning any of the "major" ones (acting, directing, picture, screenplay),
Mad Max: Fury Road shares that distinction with Star Wars, which won six Oscars too and a Special Achievement Award.

Steven Spielberg gets Oscar for two of his performers in back-to-back films. How often has this happened? (Quentin Tarantino too, though it was the same actor).
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by Big Magilla »

FilmFan720 wrote:
Big Magilla wrote:Michael Keaton is the fourth actor to have starred in films that won back-to-back Oscars. The others were Clark Gable (It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty), Meryl Streep (The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer) and Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind).
Define star in....John Goodman and Guy Pearce both did it this decade
As in played a lead role in. Guy Pearce was in The Hurt Locker and The King's Speech and John Goodman was in The Artist and Argo but they weren't lead roles. If we look hard enough we can find other actors who had minor to major supporting roles in back-to-back winners like Ward Bond in You Can't Take It With You and Gone With the Wind, but back-to-back winners with the same stars are rare.
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by FilmFan720 »

Big Magilla wrote:Michael Keaton is the fourth actor to have starred in films that won back-to-back Oscars. The others were Clark Gable (It Happened One Night, Mutiny on the Bounty), Meryl Streep (The Deer Hunter, Kramer vs. Kramer) and Russell Crowe (Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind).
Define star in....John Goodman and Guy Pearce both did it this decade
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Re: Any trivia this year?

Post by inky »

The Original BJ wrote:
inky wrote:For example, is this the first time (I doubt it anyway, but too tired to check) that Oscars and Independent Spirit Awards reach a consensus in the best picture of the year?
No, it's actually happened a lot lately -- The Artist, 12 Years a Slave, and Birdman all won both prizes.
So Spotlight is the fifth. The first one was Platoon, exactly 20 years back. However, it's three years in a row that the same films won both prizes. Will it become a trend in the future (so ISA is gradually losing its niche and becoming one of the precursor awards that we can take note in predicting eventual Oscar winners?) or is it just a coincidence?
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