80th Annual Academy Awards

[FilmFan720]

I liked David Letterman, but that is besides the point...

[OscarGuy]

Of course, these insensitive comments from you guys have NOTHING to do with the fact that you didn't like her as host.

She's part of the history of the Academy Awards whether you like it or not. She is rightfully upset. First solo female host. First solo black host. First competitive Oscar winner to host. And she's hosted more often than anyone other than Billy Crystal in the last twenty years. That's not an insignificant feat and they showed David Letterman who had butchered the job (we can all agree) for heaven's sake.

[Precious Doll]

Thanks for clarifying that Paperboy.

Given that her motion picture career is in the toilet you'd think she have more important things to worry about that making herself look foolish.

[paperboy]

I didn't watch the show but surely Whoopi Goldberg wasn't the only living actor who has won an Oscar who didn't have a clip shown!

They did show her winning in the Supporting Actress montage; she was miffed they didn't show a clip of her hosting.

She's being a little oversensitive, methinks.

[Precious Doll]

I didn't watch the show but surely Whoopi Goldberg wasn't the only living actor who has won an Oscar who didn't have a clip shown!

[Damien]

I think it's worse to have been forgotten about rather than intentionally slighted. If it was on purpose then you know you did something cool to piss them off; the alternative means you didn't make much of an impression.

[OscarGuy]

Academy Awards producer Gil Cates has personally apologized for omitting Whoopi Goldberg from a Oscars montage of magical moments that aired during the telecast of Sunday's 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. The actress, who has twice hosted the Oscars and is a previous Best Supporting Actress winner for Ghost, fought back tears as she spoke of her disappointment during her morning TV show The View on Monday. And her upset has prompted producer Gil Cates to say sorry. He tells America's People magazine, "No harm was intended, and I feel very, very badly that she was left out. I'm going to call her and tell her that... It was an absolute oversight."

Yeah. That article is incorrect on the number of times she's hosted...four times, not two.

[Hustler]

Academy Awards producer Gil Cates has personally apologized for omitting Whoopi Goldberg from a Oscars montage of magical moments that aired during the telecast of Sunday's 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony. The actress, who has twice hosted the Oscars and is a previous Best Supporting Actress winner for Ghost, fought back tears as she spoke of her disappointment during her morning TV show The View on Monday. And her upset has prompted producer Gil Cates to say sorry. He tells America's People magazine, "No harm was intended, and I feel very, very badly that she was left out. I'm going to call her and tell her that... It was an absolute oversight."

[Hustler]

Why are all the news sources reporting that Cotillard's the only French actress to win an Oscar? Last time I checked Juliette Binoche was French as well.

And so was Simone Signoret, and Claudette Colbert was born in France. Perhaps they're confusing the fact that Cotillard is the first to win Best Actress for a French-language film.

Simone Signoret won the Oscar in 1960 (32nd annual) for Room at the Top in the lead category.
Binoche´s case is more recent. She displaced Bacall, the favorite in the supporting category in 1997 ( 69th annual)

[Mister Tee]

Nathaniel's article is about 90% right, but on one element I vehemently disagree -- and it's been a bit of a hobby-horse for him: this notion that the studios release their prestige pictures too slowly. I think the opposite is mostly the case. The prestige pictures come without the huge pre-sell of most Hollywood behemoths, and thus need what used to be called word-of-mouth. Word-of-mouth now tends to be discussed in terms of what word passes bwetween Friday and Saturday nights; it used to take place over MONTHS. And, in fact, many of the films Nathaniel points to -- Chatriots of Fire, Amadeus, Platoon, The English Patient -- would have disappeared quickly had they been rushed out into mass release.

The problem Oscar films have now -- particularly the Christmas releases -- is the shortness of the window in which they can sell themselves. Consider: just a few years back, Traffic and Crouching Tiger -- no easier to sell than Atonement -- did over $100 million apiece because first they had their prestige Christmas runs, then they expanded with the nominations and had six or seven additional weeks of award hype selling them. Now, the whole process is over in two months, only four weeks of which is post-nominations. That's alot of money taken out of the pot -- when you're judging the potency of the nominated films by total gross, you ought to take that into account.

[Big Magilla]

Best Picture -Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Shrek 3, Spider-Man 3 and Transformers.
13 year old boys might believe those are the five best pictures of the year but do you?

Actually, if you peruse the best of the year lists of some of the people on this board, you'd see a few of these horrible films. One person even gave that damn Harry Potter film a PERFECT rating, as if Fellini or Antonioni had made it! And another one thought 300 was a masterpiece!

I thought the Harry Potter film was the best of the group even if I wouldn't personally give it four stars. I'm sure whoever did, liked a lot of other films as well. Some people are more generous with their star ratings than others.

The jist of the article was about how it's movie going habits, rather than Academy tastes, have changed. Kramer vs. Kramer, for example, made almost $300 million at the box office adjusted for inflation. Today, it would probably be a flop.

Had Away From Her, Atonement or There Will Be Blood been made in the 70s they would probably have been seen, and appreciated, by large audiences not jaded by years of ever more spectacular special effects.

[Zahveed]

Art divides. Some like Picasso, some can't stand him. Some like Dali, some say his work is just too weird. Then you have Warhol, simple images - pop art. Commericals and tabloids on a canvas. Individuals once uninterested in art find appeal in his work and the few with true talent and innovation are only admired by their peers and those that aspire to be as much. Such is that case in any medium. I might not have the correct understanding of my own example, but that's how I see it.

[flipp525]

And another one thought 300 was a masterpiece!

Well, it's a masterpiece of masturbation. That shit's better than porn.



Edited By flipp525 on 1204142718

[Steph2]

Best Picture -Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Shrek 3, Spider-Man 3 and Transformers.
13 year old boys might believe those are the five best pictures of the year but do you?

Actually, if you peruse the best of the year lists of some of the people on this board, you'd see a few of these horrible films. One person even gave that damn Harry Potter film a PERFECT rating, as if Fellini or Antonioni had made it! And another one thought 300 was a masterpiece!

[Big Magilla]

The article anonymous referenced really does put the whole thing in perspective. You should read the whole article, but for those of you with short attention spans, her's one part I especially got a kick out of:

On the subway to midtown I see the big splashy headlines on the NY Post or the daily news or one of those trashy cheap papers everyone reads. "Dull Show to Honor Movies No One Sees" and I feel a little thumpy again. Now obviously these dailies are slow working gray matter poison for New Yorkers but sadly this attitude is widespread. There is never any context to these arguments about Oscar honoring "unpopular" movies. It's just knee-jerk bitching. Is it really Oscars fault that the studios won't even release half of these movies until after Oscar is honoring them? No. Do we really want the Oscars to be based on box office. If we did last night ceremony would have contained the following nominees.

Best Picture -Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Shrek 3, Spider-Man 3 and Transformers.
13 year old boys might believe those are the five best pictures of the year but do you? And do you think they're better than No Country For Old Men?

Best Director -Michael Bay (Transformers)... he'd be a three time winner by now or something. I don't even need to mention the rest. That's a terrifying prospect and the top five still doesn't make room for someone really talented who made a popular movie like Paul Greengrass's The Bourne Ultimatum

Best Actress -Amy Adams (Enchanted), Nikki Blonsky (Hairspray), Katharine Heigl (Knocked Up), Ellen Page (Juno) and Keira Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean at world's end)

Best Actor -Tobey Maguire (Spider-Man 3), Matt Damon (Bourne Ultimatum), Will Smith (I am Legend) Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

Best Supporting Actor -Thomas Haden Church (Spider-Man 3), Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean) , Rodrigo Santoro (300), Stellan Skarsgaard (Pirates of the Caribbean) David Straithairn (The Bourne Ultimatum)

Best Supporting Actress -Joan Allen (The Bourne Ultimatum), Lena Headey (300), Lesley Mann (Knocked Up), Imelda Staunton (Harry Potter) and Julia Stiles (The Bourne Ultimatum)