Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

One interesting thing is that if a Nobel Prize involves famous people/work, it is generally in the Literature and/or Peace categories, rather than the science categories. This time, the most famous work, if not necessarily individuals, is in the Chemistry category.

Heksagon wrote:I have never heard of that film. Trying to look it up from Wikipedia, I suppose it was intended as an experimental film?

It didn't occur to me to check if Bob Dylan had directed any films, because I kind of presumed that if he had, I would've heard about it. Oh well.

If you saw the Scorsese documentary this summer, it uses a lot of footage from it.

It's a concert film co-written by Sam Shepard and Dylan that was given limited runs in theatres in 1978, debuted in Finland on TV in 1982. The theatrical version was two hours, the TV version was four.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078151/reference

I have never heard of that film. Trying to look it up from Wikipedia, I suppose it was intended as an experimental film?

It didn't occur to me to check if Bob Dylan had directed any films, because I kind of presumed that if he had, I would've heard about it. Oh well.

Heksagon wrote: Peter Handke has not only written screenplays for Wim Wenders, but he has also directed feature films by himself. To my knowledge he is the only Nobel Prize winner who has done that.

Bob Dylan - Renaldo and Clara.

Well, I was way off with my predictions. I guess Greta Thunberg will have to wait for her Nobel Prize (unless her popularity runs out before that), Raoni Metuktire may be getting a bit too old to win.

Abiy Ahmed is not an undeserving choice, but considering he has only been in office for a relatively short time, and, let's say, he still has a lot to do, it does feel a bit premature giving him the Prize so soon.

Peter Handke has not only written screenplays for Wim Wenders, but he has also directed feature films by himself. To my knowledge he is the only Nobel Prize winner who has done that. I haven't seen either one of the films, but The Left-Handed Woman was shown in-competition in Cannes in 1978 and The Absence at Venice in 1992.

Greg wrote:"The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 is awarded to the Polish author
Olga Tokarczuk
'for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.'

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019 is awarded to the Austrian author
Peter Handke
'for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.'"

The Nobel Committee was unable to present the 2018 award in 2018 as it was dealing with a sex scandal, so, it presented both the 2018 and 2019 awards today. Handke co-wrote the screenplay with Wim Wenders for his film Wings Of Desire.

I am also not familiar with any of them, but they were surely in some prediction lists:

https://lithub.com/here-are-the-bookies ... iterature/

Out of the list, I am familiar only with Murakami and obviously Kundera. Anne Carson seems like an author to check.

I've read some things about Tocarkzuc and I am most intrigued by her novel "Flights". I think I am going to look for it.

The Peter Handke choice proved to be quite controversial.

"The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2019 was awarded jointly to Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo and Michael Kremer 'for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.'"

"The Nobel Peace Prize 2019 was awarded to Abiy Ahmed Ali 'for his efforts to achieve peace and international cooperation, and in particular for his decisive initiative to resolve the border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea.'"

Not familiar with either of these writers, but every year I hope for my personal favorite, Wendell Berry, to win the Literature Prize.

"The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 is awarded to the Polish author
Olga Tokarczuk
'for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life.'

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019 is awarded to the Austrian author
Peter Handke
'for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.'"

The Nobel Committee was unable to present the 2018 award in 2018 as it was dealing with a sex scandal, so, it presented both the 2018 and 2019 awards today. Handke co-wrote the screenplay with Wim Wenders for his film Wings Of Desire.

"The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2019 was awarded jointly to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino 'for the development of lithium-ion batteries.'"

"The Nobel Prize in Physics 2019 was awarded 'for contributions to our understanding of the evolution of the universe and Earth's place in the cosmos' with one half to James Peebles 'for theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology', the other half jointly to Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz 'for the discovery of an exoplanet orbiting a solar-type star.'"

I'm guessing they'll give the Peace Prize to environmental causes, since they've been trendy on media this year.

Raoni Metuktire and Greta Thunberg would be the obvious choices there - in fact they feel even too obvious for the Peace Prize Committee, especially Thunberg.

This is Nobel Prize week. First up is Physiology And Medicine today.

"The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2019 was awarded jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza 'for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.' "

https://www.nobelprize.org