Kathryn Bigelow makes Oscar history
History has been made. For the first time, a woman has won an Oscar for best director.
Kathryn Bigelow received the award for the gritty war drama "The Hurt Locker." "There's no other way to describe this, it's the moment of a lifetime," she said.
Moments earlier, a standing ovation greeted Sandra Bullock as she clutched her first best actress Oscar, for "The Blind Side."
A few years back, Bullock decided to take a breather and, tired of all the frothy roles coming her way, decided to rexamine her career. It was the best move she ever made.
"Did I really earn this or did I just wear you all down?" said Bullock, who won for playing a Southern wife and mother who took in a homeless African American teen-age boy and changes his life forever. She said she dedicated the Oscar to "Mom, who take care of all the babies no matter where they come from." She broke into tears as she honored her late mother for guiding on her way.
Earlier, after having been nominated for an Academy Award five times -- twice for best actor, three times for supporting actor -- Jeff Bridges won his first Oscar, as best actor for playing a boozy country singer in "Crazy Heart."
The win was all but guaranteed: Bridges has nearly swept every honor that came his way this awards season. The son of the late veteran actor Lloyd Bridges, thanked his father and his late mother, Dorothy, who urged him to join the family business. "Thank you, Mom and Dad, for turning me on to such a groovy profession."
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences expanded the best picture roster from five nominees to 10 this years to try to make things more interesting, but the majority of the Oscars doled out have gone to just a handful of the nominees, including "The Hurt Locker," "Avatar," "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire," "Up" and "Crazy Heart."
The five films are the only ones to win at least two honors this evening.
"The Hurt Locker" is leading with five.
The war drama won for film editing for Bob Murawski and his wife, Chris Innis. It also won for sound editing for Paul N.J. Ottosson, who had barely left the stage when he was called back to receive the sound mixing award for the low-budget indie along with Ray Beckett. Earlier, the film won original screenplay for Mark Boal.
"Avatar" has three trophies, in technical categories. It won for visual effects for Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones. Art direction went to Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg and set decorator Kim Sinclair for the James Cameron blockbuster, which also won cinematography for Mauro Fiore.
Meanwhile, "Precious" and "Up" have two wins apiece.
Mo'Nique, considered the shoo-in for for supporting actress as the vile, abusive mother of a pregnant teen in "Precious," took home the honor as expected. The comic talk-show host, who opted out of doing extensive campaigning this awards season, thanked the academy and said it proves that a win "can be about the performance and not the politics." Moments earlier, Geoffrey Fletcher won for adapted screenplay for "Precious." Holding back the tears, Fletcher said: "I don't know what to say. This is for everybody who works on a dream every day." His win was a surprise: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner were the favorites for "Up in the Air."
"Up" won animated film and original score for Michael Giacchino.
Other honors handed out at the 82nd annual Academy Awards: Argentina's "The Secret in their Eyes" won foreign language film. "The Cove," about the secret slaughter of dolphins in Japan, won documentary. One activist involved in the film held up a sign urging audiences to text their support, but that is a no-no: The cameras quickly pulled away. Original song went to Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett for "The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)." Animated feature film went to "Up," which is also nominated for best film. And as expected, Austrian actor Christoph Waltz danced away with supporting actor for playing a brutal Nazi Jew hunter in "Inglourious Basterds." All three have dominated this awards season, winning practically every available honor.
Awards in the short-film categories were "Logorama" for animated, "Music by Prudence" for documentary and "The New Tenants" for live action. Costume design went to Sandy Powell for "The Young Victoria."
Ben Stiller, decked out in "Avatar" Navi blue, complete with tail and braid, presented the makeup award to "Star Trek."
The show kicked off with Neil Patrick Harris, who got rave reviews for hosting the Tonys and the Emmys last year, performing a musical number -- "No One Wants to Do It Alone." It was a reference to the hosts of the show, the wild and crazy Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, or, as Harris called them, "the biggest pair since Dolly Parton."
And with that, the hosts came down from the heavens at the Kodak Theatre, holding hands.
The witty, salty banter that ensued included putting on 3-D glasses to spot "Avatar" director James Cameron in the audience and joking that Meryl Streep, with whom the two starred in "It's Complicated," is the most nominated performer in academy history. Or, as Martin said, the performer with the most losses. (Then they joked about having a threesome with Streep on the set.)
Here Is The List of winners at the 82nd annual Academy Awards:
• Motion Picture: "The Hurt Locker."
• Actor: Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart."
• Actress: Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side."
• Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds."
• Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire."
• Director: Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker."
• Foreign Film: "El Secreto de Sus Ojos," Argentina.
• Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher, "Precious: Based on the Novel `Push' by Sapphire."
• Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, "The Hurt Locker."
• Animated Feature Film: "Up."
• Art Direction: "Avatar."
• Cinematography: "Avatar."
• Sound Mixing: "The Hurt Locker."
• Sound Editing: "The Hurt Locker."
• Original Score: "Up," Michael Giacchino.
• Original Song: "The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)" from "Crazy Heart," Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.
• Costume: "The Young Victoria."
• Documentary Feature: "The Cove."
• Documentary (short subject): "Music by Prudence."
• Film Editing: "The Hurt Locker."
• Makeup: "Star Trek."
• Animated Short Film: "Logorama."
• Live Action Short Film: "The New Tenants."
• Visual Effects: "Avatar."
Simon & Garfunkel to tour Canada
Simon and Garfunkel are apparently feelin' groovy enough to tour Canada this spring.
The reunited ’60s folk icons will hit eight Canadian cities between late April and mid-May, the pair announced Friday on their website.
Singer-guitarist Paul Simon and vocalist Art Garfunkel will kick off their Old Friends in Concert tour at the New Orleans Jazz Festival on April 24, before heading north to Vancouver and swinging east to Montreal over the next few weeks. See the full list of dates below.
Tickets for most of the Canadian shows will go on sale Friday, March
12 at 10 a.m., according to the duo's website (tickets for the Montreal show are slated to go on sale Saturday, March 13). Prices, opening acts and other details have not been released, but tickets for U.S. shows in Fargo and Minneapolis are currently going for between $225 and $50 at Ticketmaster.
Although they broke up in the early ’70s, Simon and Garfunkel have periodically reunited, mostly for live performances. Their hits include The Sounds of Silence, Mrs. Robinson, Bridge Over Troubled Water and The 59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy).
Simon & Garfunkel Canadian tour dates
April 29 | Vancouver | GM Place
May 1 | Edmonton | Rexall Place
May 2 | Calgary | Saddledome
May 4 | Saskatoon | Credit Union Centre
May 5 | Winnipeg | MTS Centre
May 12 | Toronto | Air Canada Centre
May 14 | Ottawa | Scotiabank Place
May 15 | Montreal | Bell Centre
Record number of Cdns up for Oscars
LOS ANGELES - The biggest cliche in awards show circles is simple and stress-free: “It was great just to be nominated!” That is how most of the record number of Canadians up for Oscars this year have to deal with being at the Academy Awards today.
“We are interested spectators - and I don’t expect to win,” Vancouver’s Neill Blomkamp (of District 9 fame) says cheerily about his prospects.
Blomkamp is one of 13 Canadians involved and they have generated a total of 17 nominations bearing their names. Unlike at the triumphant Winter Olympics in Vancouver, most of the Canadian contenders are going to lose, according to most predictions. The only front-runners are Montreal-born filmmaker Jason Reitman (Up in the Air) and Kapuskasing-born James Cameron (Avatar), both of whom are involved in all-American productions.
For that matter, none of the Canadians in the Oscar race is involved in an all-Canadian film. But that does not diminish the talent of the individual and the prestige of the nomination.
“Filmmaking is an international artform - it is not exclusive to any one country,” legendary Canadian filmmaker Norman Jewison told me this week as he surveyed the list of nominees from his homeland. “It is really exciting. I think we are producing more and more talent and that (the nominations list) is the result. But there are no borders in art. We should just celebrate talent and accomplishment.”
There is plenty of that among the Canadians nominated this year. For example, while Blomkamp’s best picture contender District 9 is officially an American-New Zealand co-production, Canadians command most of the key credits on the filmmaking side.
“Do you sense there is a bit of a wagon train going on here?” says the playful David Fransen, consul general of Canada in Los Angeles. As he had a month before for the 14 Grammy Award nominees from Canada, Fransen hosted a luncheon this week honouring some of the 13 Oscar nominees (Cameron was a no-show because of prior commitments). Fransen noted that the giddy highs of the Grammy Awards and then the Winter Olympics have carried over into the Oscar celebrations. “This has been an extraordinary year for Canada!”
As for the nominees, Reitman is nominated in three categories as best director, as co-author of the best adapted screenplay and as co-producer of one of the best picture contenders. His Oscar should come in the writing category. Reitman will share that with an American, screenwriter Shelton Turner. Together, they adapted the book Up in the Air by American novelist Walter Kirn into a screenplay.
Meanwhile, one of Jason Reitman’s co-producers is his Slovakian-born, Canadian-raised father, Ivan Reitman, who is famous for directing films such as Ghost Busters. This is Ivan Reitman’s first nomination in a career stretching back four decades.
Like Jason Reitman - and like he was himself a dozen years ago with Titanic - Cameron is also nominated in three categories. In his case, he is contending as best director, as best film editor and as co-producer of a best picture contender. Cameron’s best chance is for best picture, with Avatar going head-to-head with The Hurt Locker.
The other Canadians, all with one nomination each, are:
- Christopher Plummer (The Last Station): Shockingly perhaps, the Toronto-born Plummer had to wait until he was 80 years old to be nominated for an Oscar - as best supporting actor for playing Russian author Leo Tolstoy in Michael Hoffman’s drama. Plummer was born just two years after Hollywood launched talkies, ending the silent film era. While he has also established himself as a star of the stage, Plummer made his television debut in 1953 and his feature film debut in 1958 (in Sidney Lumet’s Stage Struck with Henry Fonda). Despite dozens of movies since, he never got Oscar consideration before The Last Station.
- Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell (District 9): They are up against Reitman in the best adapted screenplay category after turning Blomkamp’s electrifying 2005 short, Alive in Joburg, into a feature film under the tutelage of producer Peter Jackson (of The Lord of the Rings fame). Alive in Joburg was a Canadian production, made after the Johannesburg-born Blomkamp emigrated to Vancouver at 18 and went to the Vancouver Film School. Tatchell is Toronto-born and also Vancouver-based. She also attended the Vancouver Film School.
- Julian Clarke (District 9): Blomkamp says Clarke, who is nominated for best film editing, stands the best chance of winning anything for District 9, even though he is up against Cameron in this category. Most predictions in this category, however, lean towards the team of Bob Murawski and Chris Innis for The Hurt Locker.
- Peter Muyzers and Robert Habros (District 9): These guys, part of a four-man team credited in the nominations, helped create the dazzling special effects for Blomkamp’s hit movie. They are contending in the best visual effects category with Avatar and Star Trek. But District 9 is expected to lose this craft category to Avatar.
- Anastasia Masaro (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus): She was nominated for her art direction on mad genius Terry Gilliam’s latest fantasy. But Avatar is expected to take this category, too, in a sweep of most of the craft categories.
- Monique Prudhomme (The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus): She was nominated for costume design for Gilliam’s film, demonstrating how much he likes to employ Canadians in key creative jobs after making an earlier film on Canadian soil.
- Gordon Sim (Nine): Sim was nominated, along with John Myhre, for best art direction, a category which also includes set decoration (which is Sim’s part of the nomination). The Sim-Myhre team won the Oscar in this category for their work on Chicago. But don’t expect a repeat for the musical Nine. This category will produce another Oscar for Avatar.
- Patrice Vermette (The Young Victoria): This creative Quebecer is up against Sim and Myhre in the art direction category. In Vermette’s case, he shares the nomination with set decorator Maggie Gray. In his earlier Quebec career, Vermette worked with Jean-Marc Vallee (who directed The Young Victoria) on Vallee’s masterpiece, C.R.A.Z.Y.
At the Consulate luncheon for the Canadian nominees, a number of those honoured fired off brief, spontaneous speeches. Here is a sampling:
- Jason Reitman: “I grew up here in Los Angeles. And it really wasn’t until I met my wife (Michele Lee) that I realized how Canadian I was. My wife’s from Vancouver and she really wouldn’t date me, much less fall in love with me, until I started playing hockey, following hockey ... She taught me the national anthem. She oddly made me a Canadian re-born. And I never feel so Canadian as I do when my films play the Toronto film festival. I take a lot of pride in the fact that each one of my films has shown for the first time there.”
- Ivan Reitman: “I’m just really proud and happy and feel really privileged to be here. I’m proud as a Canadian; I’m proud certainly as a filmmaker; and I’m very proud as a father. This was a wonderful experience for me.”
- Neill Blomkamp: “If you had told me when I was standing in a slum in Johannesburg with seven pig heads next to us (for use in a shot of an exploding human), while we were making a genre film about aliens, that I would be honoured essentially by the Consul General of Canada ... I would have said that was kind of insane. So I feel very honoured and I want to thank Canada for this.” The wry Blomkamp also thanked the consul for lending him a pair of sunglasses for the outdoor event.
- Terri Tatchell: “I’m as Canadian as it gets. This means the world to me! Because, every year I watched the Oscars since I was six years old, I always found out who was Canadian and was cheering for them and was so excited. I don’t think, until the nomination came, that it ever even occurred to me that I might one day be one of those Canadians!”
- Patrice Vermette: “That was surreal enough,” Vermette said about being offered the art direction assignment on “a period piece about Queen Victoria.” But it was even more surreal to find himself as an Oscar nominee, he added.
- Monique Prudhomme: “I always thought that working in film was a privilege, and also an adventure. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus was an odyssey. We travelled a lot, we lost an actor (Heath Ledger died during production), we shut down, we started again, we madly finished the movie. And I have a great, great privilege to be part of the art of filmmaking, which to me is an art of creation ... So, for me to be here today as a Canadian, as a French-Canadian, as part of this fantastic industry, I am really proud, I am really honoured.”
Exclusive: 'Fringe' picked up for a third season
Sci-fi fans who may be concerned about the state of the genre on network TV have at least one reason to rejoice: Entertainment Weekly is reporting that Fox has picked up Fringe for a third season.
Though the show isn’t exactly blowing the roof off of Nielsen — it’s been averaging just 7.6 million viewers and is ranked No. 50 in the all-important adults 18-49 demographic this season — it managed to survive in a tough new time period on Thursdays.
The show returns with new episodes — and the promise of more visits from Leonard Nimoy and to the parallel universe — on April 1.
'Alice' opens with $116.3 million, a 3-D record
NEW YORK – Tim Burton and Johnny Depp's trip down the rabbit hole drew huge crowds, as "Alice in Wonderland" earned a whopping $116.3 million in its opening weekend — a record for a 3-D film.
The surprisingly huge total easily surpassed all other films in release and gave Walt Disney Studios an even bigger opening than that of the hugely popular 3-D film "Avatar." It also marked the biggest opening weekend for a non-sequel.
"This is just one of those cultural phenomenons that has caught everybody's interest," said Chuck Viane, Disney's president of distribution. "They don't come like this very often."
The film beat forecasts that ranged between $65-$75 million, and the surprising results added some intrigue to Oscar Sunday. Before the weekend, Disney and 20th Century Fox competed over the available 3-D ready screens; screens outfitted for 3-D are rapidly rising, but still amount to fewer than 4,000 in the U.S. and Canada.
Before "Alice," many of those screens were still dedicated to Fox's box-office behemoth, "Avatar," which is up for nine Academy Awards on Sunday, including best picture.
In its 12th week of release, "Avatar" earned $7.7 million over the weekend, bringing its cumulative domestic total to $720.2 million.
Asked whether fewer 3-D and IMAX screens hurt "Avatar," Chris Aronson, head of distribution for Fox, said, "No question."
"Are we disappointed? Sure," said Aronson. "But there are certain market forces that are beyond anything we can do. To have an 11-week window is pretty much unheard of. It certainly allowed this movie to be discovered and witnessed by so many people."
"Avatar" isn't disappearing, though, and it can be expected to regain 3-D and IMAX screens, especially if it wins best picture.
"We'll have that negotiation tomorrow morning with exhibition, without a doubt," said Aronson.
It also seemed likely that "Alice" benefited from the "Avatar"-effect in galvanizing audiences for 3-D movies. "Alice in Wonderland" is the first film released in 3-D since James Cameron's epic. "Alice" was shot in 2-D, but transferred to 3-D in post-production.
"In the wake of the impact of `Avatar,' there's a whole new audience that's been indoctrinated to 3-D," said Paul Dergarabedian, box-office analyst for Hollywood.com. "That paid off big for `Alice in Wonderland.'"
The weekend's second best performer at the box-office was Overture's "Brooklyn's Finest," Antoine Fuqua's gritty police thriller, which earned $13.5 million in its first weekend, according to studio estimates.
Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" for Paramount followed closely with $13.3 million in its third week of release, bringing its cumulative total to $95.8 million. Warner Bros.'s comedy "Cop Out" came in fourth, adding $9.1 million for a two-week total of $32.4 million.
But "Alice" thoroughly dominated the weekend, surprising even Disney. The film was expected to open closer to $65-75 million. Worldwide, it took in $210.3 million.
It was a record release for the first quarter of the year, typically a time of lower box-office expectations and critically acclaimed Oscar contenders. The previous first quarter record was Mel Gibson's "Passion of the Christ," which opened with $83.8 million in Feb. 2004.
"We went into Friday thinking that we really had a big hit with us, and then all of a sudden the numbers started to roll in," said Viane. "Alice" went on to make $41 million on Friday alone.
"We said, `Oh my gosh. This is bigger than any of us could have anticipated," said Viane.
Though reviews were mostly respectfully negative, much of the film's draw was surely in teaming director Burton and his frequent collaborator, Depp, who plays the Mad Hatter. It also presented moviegoers with a 3-D updating of Lewis Carroll's beloved classic. Though at times dark, it gained a PG rating from the MPAA (for, among other things, "a smoking caterpillar"), which meant a large number of kids could attend.
But it proved once again how significant the draw of 3-D is to moviegoers. The technology repeatedly has inflated box-office grosses for everything from "Avatar" to "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."
"Alice" also played across 188 IMAX screens in North America and gave IMAX its best opening ever, with $11.9 million domestically. That beat the previous record of $9.5 million set by "Avatar."
IMAX chairman and president Greg Foster said the huge success of "Alice" was unexpected, but that "Avatar" would regain some of those IMAX screens, whether or not it wins best picture.
"The momentum on 3-D is so massive right now," said Foster. "They were ready for a new movie. They were ready for a new, cool 3-D experience."
Though most of the Oscar contenders weren't a big factor at the box-office Sunday, the boffo performance of "Alice" proved the good health of Hollywood, said Dergarabedian.
Here are the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Final figures will be released Monday.
1. "Alice in Wonderland," $116.3 million.
2. "Brookyn's Finest," $13.5 million.
3. "Shutter Island," $13.3 million.
4. "Cop Out," $9.1 million.
5. "Avatar," $7.7 million.
6. "The Crazies," $7 million.
7. "Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief," $5.1 million.
8. "Valentine's Day," $4.3 million.
9. "Crazy Heart," $3.4 million.
10. "Dear John," $2.9 million.
Academy Award Predictions
I am truly hoping that I am wrong, and that the Oscars offer up some surprises, but here is what I expect will happen: Best Actor: Jeff Bridges; Best Actress: Sandra Bullock; Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz; Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique; Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow; and Best Picture: "The Hurt Locker", but "Inglourious Basterds" may win and be the surprise of the night!!
Enjoy!!!!
'Transformers,' Bullock make Razzies worst list
LOS ANGELES – "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" was picked as last year's worst picture at Saturday's Razzies, and Sandra Bullock won worst actress for "All About Steve" — on the eve of her expected Academy Awards triumph for another film.
Voters at the Razzies, which poke fun at the Oscars by giving out prizes for Hollywood's critical misfires, chose Bullock for her romantic comedy flop. "All About Steve" came and quickly vanished at theaters in between her 2009 hits, "The Proposal" and "The Blind Side," the latter expected to win Bullock the best-actress Oscar on Sunday.
If Bullock takes best-actress for "The Blind Side," she will be the first person ever to win an Oscar and a Razzie over the same weekend.
"She's in the unprecedented position, Saturday she's the worst, and the very next night, she's back on her feet, and she's the best," said Razzies founder John Wilson. "We certainly don't wish her ill at that other awards show."
Throughout awards season, Bullock has been good-natured about it, joking about the Razzies attention she has gotten along with the Oscar esteem.
Bullock and "All About Steve" co-star Bradley Cooper also shared the Razzie for worst screen couple.
The "Transformers" sequel won two other Razzies, worst director for Michael Bay and worst screenplay for Ehren Kruger, Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman.
Bay and his team probably will not lose any asleep over it, though. Though reviled by critics, "Transformers" took in $402.1 million domestically, No. 2 on the 2009 box-office chart behind "Avatar."
The worst-actor Razzie went to siblings Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas for "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience."
The Jonas' pal Miley Cyrus, star of "Hannah Montana: The Movie," lost the worst-actress category to Bullock. But her dad, Billy Ray Cyrus, was named worst supporting actor for the big-screen "Hannah Montana."
Sienna Miller received the worst supporting-actress Razzie for the action tale "G.I. Joe."
Will Ferrell's action comedy flop "Land of the Lost" had come in tied with "Transformers" for the Razzies lead with seven nominations, but it was nearly shut out in every category.
Once ballots had been counted from the roughly 650 Razzies voters, "Land of the Lost" was tied for the group's worst remake, rip-off or sequel prize. Razzies founder Wilson, who always votes last, gave the tie-breaking vote to "Land of the Lost."
"It really did stink and I thought, well, it ought to get something, because it is a very bad movie," Wilson said.
Razzie voters also made worst-of-the-decade picks, with John Travolta's science-fiction debacle "Battlefield Earth" winning worst picture.
Among all-time Hollywood dreck, "Battlefield Earth" is "like the 800-pound mongrel gorilla in the room," Wilson said. "It's one of my favorite type of bad movies. It's so bad, it's entertaining, in ways that the people who made it had no idea it would be."
Paris Hilton was chosen as the decade's worst actress for movies such as "The Hottie and the Nottie" and "Repo: The Genetic Opera." Eddie Murphy, a 2009 Razzie nominee for "Imagine That," was named the decade's worst actor for such bombs as "The Adventures of Pluto Nash," "I Spy" and "Meet Dave."