Best Picture and Director 2009

What are your choice for Best Picture and Director of 2009

Avatar
2
3%
The Blind Side
0
No votes
District 9
2
3%
An Education
2
3%
The Hurt Locker
9
14%
Inglorious Basterds
6
9%
Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
1
2%
A Serious Man
5
8%
Up
1
2%
Up in the Air
5
8%
Kathryn Bigelow - The Hurt Locker
16
24%
James Cameron - Avatar
1
2%
Lee Daniels - Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
2
3%
Jason Reitman - Up in the Air
5
8%
Quentin Tarantino - Inglorious Basterds
9
14%
 
Total votes: 66

ITALIANO
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by ITALIANO »

ksrymy wrote:. I'd also appreciate if my age weren't held against me for any given thing, Italiano.


Mmm... No, I'm afraid it will be held against you any time you act like someone of your age. Sorry. :)
Reza
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by Reza »

Pity we aren't, instead, doing cinematography or even costume design. The song category is, well, yuck!
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by ksrymy »

ITALIANO wrote:
FilmFan720 wrote:
ITALIANO wrote:Well, songs shouldn't be considered out of the context of the movie they belong too...
Exactly, you really shouldn't discuss who should or shouldn't win out if the context of the film. This award isn't supposed to be best piece of music, but best use of a piece of music used in a film.

Yes, this idea that one can just find the songs on Youtube and vote for the one he likes best is, well, very typical of the internet generation and in this sense understandable - but it doesn't have anything to do with cinema.
I would find the links that incorporate the cinema as much as possible and post them here for you all. I'd also appreciate if my age weren't held against me for any given thing, Italiano.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by Big Magilla »

Sometimes it's the way the song is used in the film; sometimes it's the song itself; sometimes it's both. I would cite some examples of each but the discussion is better saved for the polls themselves.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by ITALIANO »

FilmFan720 wrote:
ITALIANO wrote:Well, songs shouldn't be considered out of the context of the movie they belong too...
Exactly, you really shouldn't discuss who should or shouldn't win out if the context of the film. This award isn't supposed to be best piece of music, but best use of a piece of music used in a film.

Yes, this idea that one can just find the songs on Youtube and vote for the one he likes best is, well, very typical of the internet generation and in this sense understandable - but it doesn't have anything to do with cinema.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by FilmFan720 »

ITALIANO wrote:Well, songs shouldn't be considered out of the context of the movie they belong too...
Exactly, you really shouldn't discuss who should or shouldn't win out if the context of the film. This award isn't supposed to be best piece of music, but best use of a piece of music used in a film.

I'm most curious to hear people's thoughts on alternative nominees.
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ITALIANO
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by ITALIANO »

Well, songs shouldn't be considered out of the context of the movie they belong too...

But yes, do Best Song. I'm curious to see the kind of discussions it can lead to :)
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by ksrymy »

Another reason to do Song is that nearly every single one of the nominees can be found online, so everybody has easy access to them all and can vote fairly on them.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by Okri »

I think best song is popular simply because it's so easy to get acquainted with the nominees without watching said film. I haven't seen "Despicable Me 2" or "Frozen" but I've heard both their songs. Nor the Mandela movie, but I'm listening to the song right now. There isn't much to discuss in the category, though.

I think at this point any category is going to have those land mine years where most won't have seen all and some films won't have been seen by any.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by dws1982 »

Mister Tee wrote:I believe the premise for going with best song next was that screenplay would overlap substantially with film/director, which we were just finishing up; song would serve as palate-cleanser for wherever we went next.
Screenplay will have overlap, and I understand that, but there are plenty of years where my picks won't necessarily line up with what I liked best in Picture/Director. This year, for example, I would put American Hustle fairly high in my Picture and Director rankings, but it wouldn't get any Screenplay consideration from me. I think it's a problematic and sometimes incoherent screenplay redeemed by a solid directing job from Russell and a very good cast.

I can understand wanting to do Song (or some minor category) as a palate cleanser of sorts, but when it takes so long to get through the categories, and when it's October and we're trying to scrounge together a couple of sentences about whether "Evergreen" was better than "Gonna Fly Now" or "Ave Satani", I don't know how we'll feel about the palate cleanser. One caveat behind this is that I really do hate the song category. I find it boring but I resent it for a couple of other reasons as well: Not only is it responsible for some of the worst nominated films in Oscar history, it's only because of this category that someone like Dianne Warren can call herself a six-time Oscar nominee. Given a choice between eliminating the Song category and the Animated Film category, there's no question which one I'd choose. None at all.

Went with The Hurt Locker and Bigelow.

My top ten of 2009 (based on US release date--none of these had original World Premieres in 2009):
1. Summer Hours (Olivier Assayas)
2. Everlasting Moments (Jan Troell)
3. The Baader Meinhof Complex (Uli Edel)
4. Still Walking (Hirokazu Kore-Eda)
5. Two Lovers (James Gray)
6. Flame and Citron (Ole Christian Madsen)
7. Katyn (Andrzej Wajda)
8. The Hurt Locker (Katherine Bigelow)
9. 24 City (Jia Zhangke)
10. 35 Shots of Rum (Clair Denis)
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by ksrymy »

Best Picture
01. Mother
02. A Single Man
03. Inglourious Basterds
04. Up
05. The White Ribbon
06. Up in the Air
07. An Education
08. The Hurt Locker
09. District 9
10. In the Loop

Best Director
01. Michael Haneke, The White Ribbon
02. Tom Ford, A Single Man
03. Bong Joon-ho, Mother
04. Quentin Tarantino, Inglourirous Basterds
05. 05. Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

06. Lone Scherfig, An Education
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Mister Tee
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by Mister Tee »

I believe the premise for going with best song next was that screenplay would overlap substantially with film/director, which we were just finishing up; song would serve as palate-cleanser for wherever we went next. I didn't remember score being part of it; indeed, those years in the 40s with what seems 100 nominees will be very difficult to manage (I'd say cinematography won't be a snap, either).

And let me echo BJ with "slow down". I haven't posted on one of these threads past 2005; there's just been too much else to do (don't any of the rest of you have parties to shop for?). The rest of the year is great for retrospective polls; right now is for us, like tax accountants, busy season, and we don't need the distraction.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by Precious Doll »

Nothing from my own top ten may the Academy's list.

I voted for An Education & Kathryn Bigelow.

My choices:

1. A Single Man (Tom Ford)
2. Mother (Joon-ho Bong)
3. City of Life and Death (Chuan Lu)
4. The Queen and I (Nahid Persson)
5. To Die Like a Man (Joao Pedro Rodrigues)
6. The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke)
7. A Prophet (Jacaues Audiard)
8. Wild Grass (Alain Resnais)
9. The Hedgehog (Mona Achache)
10. The Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector (Vikram Jayanti)
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The Original BJ
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by The Original BJ »

I don't especially care which category we choose -- I find all the categories interesting in some way -- but my one pitch would be to wait a few weeks after we finish the Picture/Director to start that up. I'm behind in commenting a few years on those (and I'm not alone, cause, you know, Oscar season!) and it also would be nice to catch up on some nominees for whatever category we pick, so more people could comment more, especially on those early years, where I'm sure more of us are more deficient.
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Re: Best Picture and Director 2009

Post by Reza »

Didn't particularly like any of the films nominated.

Voted for The Hurt Locker and Bigelow.

My best of 2009:

Best Picture
1. Summer Hours
2. The White Ribbon
3. Broken Embraces
4. A Single Man
5. Up in the Air

The 6th Spot: The Stoning of Soraya M

Best Director
1. Michael Haneke, The White Ribbon
2. Pedro Almodovar, Broken Embraces
3. Olivier Assayas, Summer Hours
4. Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
5. Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

The 6th Spot: Tom Ford, A Single Man
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