Tag: Academy Awards

‘Roma’ wins BAFTA best picture honor

It is less than a week before the U.S. Academy Award winners are announced, but the British EE British Academy Film Awards were issued last month. Frequently, these honors are a clue as to which films might win the Oscars, which will be handed out Feb. 24.

Some of the winners of the British awards:

BEST FILM

Roma was the winner of the BAFTA 2018 best picture winner
  • BLACKkKLANSMAN Jason Blum, Spike Lee, Raymond Mansfield, Sean McKittrick, Jordan Peele
  • THE FAVOURITE Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos, Lee Magiday
  • GREEN BOOK Jim Burke, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga, Charles B. Wessler
  • Winner – ROMA Alfonso Cuarón, Gabriela Rodríguez
  • A STAR IS BORN Bradley Cooper, Bill Gerber, Lynette Howell Taylor

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Olivia Colman in ‘The Favourite.’
  • BEAST Michael Pearce, Kristian Brodie, LaureBEAST Michael Pearce, Kristian Brodie, Lauren Dark, Ivana MacKinnon
  • BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Graham King, Anthony McCarten
  • Winner – THE FAVOURITE Yorgos Lanthimos, Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday, Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
  • McQUEEN Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui, Andee Ryder, Nick Taussig
  • STAN & OLLIE Jon S. Baird, Faye Ward, Jeff Pope
  • YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE Lynne Ramsay, Rosa Attab, Pascal Caucheteux, James Wilson

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

  • APOSTASY Daniel Kokotajlo (Writer/Director)
  • Winner – BEAST Michael Pearce (Writer/Director), Lauren Dark (Producer)
  • A CAMBODIAN SPRING Chris Kelly (Writer/Director/Producer)
  • PILI Leanne Welham (Writer/Director), Sophie Harman (Producer)
  • RAY & LIZ Richard Billingham (Writer/Director), Jacqui Davies (Producer)

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

  • CAPERNAUM Nadine Labaki, Khaled Mouzanar
  • COLD WAR Paweł Pawlikowski, Tanya Seghatchian, Ewa Puszczyńska
  • DOGMAN Matteo Garrone
  • Winner – ROMA Alfonso Cuarón, Gabriela Rodríguez
  • SHOPLIFTERS Hirokazu Kore-eda, Kaoru Matsuzaki

DOCUMENTARY

  • Winner – FREE SOLO Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, Shannon Dill, Evan Hayes
  • McQUEEN Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui
  • RBG Julie Cohen, Betsy West
  • THEY SHALL NOT GROW OLD Peter Jackson, Clare Olssen
  • THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS Tim Wardle, Grace Hughes-Hallett, Becky Read

ANIMATED FILM

  • INCREDIBLES 2 Brad Bird, John Walker
  • ISLE OF DOGS Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson
  • Winner – SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman, Phil Lord

DIRECTOR

  • BLACKkKLANSMAN Spike Lee
  • COLD WAR Paweł Pawlikowski
  • THE FAVOURITE Yorgos Lanthimos
  • Winner – ROMA Alfonso Cuarón
  • A STAR IS BORN Bradley Cooper

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • COLD WAR Janusz Głowacki, Paweł Pawlikowski
  • Winner – THE FAVOURITE Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
  • GREEN BOOK Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly, Nick Vallelonga
  • ROMA Alfonso Cuarón
  • VICE Adam McKay

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  • Winner – BLACKkKLANSMAN Spike Lee, David Rabinowitz, Charlie Wachtel, Kevin Willmott
  • CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? Nicole Holofcener, Jeff Whitty
  • FIRST MAN Josh Singer
  • IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK Barry Jenkins
  • A STAR IS BORN Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters, Eric Roth

LEADING ACTRESS

  • GLENN CLOSE The Wife
  • LADY GAGA A Star Is Born
  • MELISSA McCARTHY Can You Ever Forgive Me?
  • Winner – OLIVIA COLMAN The Favourite
  • VIOLA DAVIS Widows

LEADING ACTOR

  • BRADLEY COOPER A Star Is Born
  • CHRISTIAN BALE Vice
  • Winner – RAMI MALEK Bohemian Rhapsody
  • STEVE COOGAN Stan & Ollie
  • VIGGO MORTENSEN Green Book

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • AMY ADAMS Vice
  • CLAIRE FOY First Man
  • EMMA STONE The Favourite
  • MARGOT ROBBIE Mary Queen of Scots
  • Winner – RACHEL WEISZ The Favourite

SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • ADAM DRIVER BlacKkKlansman
  • Winner – MAHERSHALA ALI Green Book
  • RICHARD E. GRANT Can You Ever Forgive Me?
  • SAM ROCKWELL Vice
  • TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET Beautiful Boy

ORIGINAL MUSIC

  • BLACKkKLANSMAN Terence Blanchard
  • IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK Nicholas Britell
  • ISLE OF DOGS Alexandre Desplat
  • MARY POPPINS RETURNS Marc Shaiman
  • Winner – A STAR IS BORN Bradley Cooper, Lady Gaga, Lukas Nelson

CINEMATOGRAPHY

  • BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY Newton Thomas Sigel
  • COLD WAR Łukasz Żal
  • THE FAVOURITE Robbie Ryan
  • FIRST MAN Linus Sandgren
  • Winner – ROMA Alfonso Cuarón

And the nominees this year are …

It’s only a few hours before the winners of the 2017 Academy Awards are announced.

The nominees for Best Picture include:

  • Call Me By Your Name
  • Darkest Hour
  • Dunkirk
  • Get Out
  • Lady Bird
  • Phantom Thread
  • The Post
  • The Shape of Water
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

 

In the Best Actor in a Leading Role Category: 

  • Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
  • Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
  • Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
  • Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
  • Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

In the Best Actress category:

  • Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
  • Frances McDormand, Three Billboards
    outside Ebbing, Missouri
  • Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
  •  Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
  • Meryl Streep, The Post

Best Directing:

  • Dunkirk
  • Get Out
  • Lady Bird
  • Phantom Thread
  • The Shape of Water

Foreign Language Picture:

  • A Fantastic Woman
  • The Insult
  • Loveless
  • On Body and Soul
  • The Square

 

The early Oscar years of Capra, Gable and more

This is the second part of a multi-part series on the Academy Award best picture winners, reviewed chronologically.

 

“Cavalcade,” 1932-1933, directed by Frank Lloyd

Before this writer first watched “Cavalcade,” he had no idea what a great film this is. When it was released, it was regarded as a highly innovative film. In the late 20th century, a critic called it, “A truly remarkable film.” Adapted from Noel Coward’s London stage play, the film is richly textured with nostalgic and atmospheric elements along with an anti-war message. The movie is a story of two families from the eve of the 20th century until the 1930s and how their way of life changes.

Cavalcade

 

“It Happened One Night,” 1934, directed by Frank Capra

This comedy was the first of Frank Capra’s films to win the Oscar for best film. It also features the first of several movies starring Clark Gable that won the best picture. What really makes this film work is the chemistry between Claudette Colbert, starring as an heiress running away to avoid a marriage, and Gable, a newspaper reporter running after a story.

Claudette Colbert shows Clark Gable in “It Happened One Night” her successful hitch-hiking technique.

“Mutiny on the Bounty,” 1935, directed by Frank Lloyd

This was director Frank Lloyd’s second best picture Oscar honor and the second consecutive movie starring Clark Gable that won the honor.The story regards a mutiny against tyrannical Capt.Bligh, played by Charles Laughton, and a mutiny led by Fletcher Christian, Gable’s role. It is the best of the multiple version of the story.

Capt. Bligh and Fletcher Christian confer.

“Great Ziegfeld,” 1936, directed by Robert Z. Leonard

This bio-pic about the colorful showman Florenz Ziegfeld is an immensely entertaining movie despite the downturn Ziegfeld faces. The outstanding cast includes William Powell, Myrna Loy, Fannie Brice, Luise Rainer, Frank Morgan and Ray Bolger.

“The Life of Emile Zola,” 1936, directed by William Dieterle

You could call this powerful film a bio-pic, but it’s much more than that. The New York Times critic in 1937 wrote, “Rich, dignified, honest and strong, it is at once the finest historical film ever made and the greatest screen biography.” The movie focuses on French writer Emile Zola’s crying out against the injustice that caused Capt. Dreyfus to be exiled. Paul Muni stars as Zola.

 

Emile Zola, played by Paul Muni, takes the stand in a French courtroom.

And in the beginning: First Academy Award best picture winners

This is the first part of a multi-part series on the Academy Award best picture winners, reviewed chronologically beginning with “Wings,” the first winner.

“Wings,” 1927, directed by  William Wellman

Unlike some later best picture winners, “Wings” was truly deserving. It was the only silent picture to win the honor until 2011 when “The Artist” (except for a single scene of dialog and a dream sequence with sound effects in the  2011 film) won the Oscar. “Wings” aerial scenes are still impressive 90 years later. Stars Charles “Buddy” Rogers, who would marry Mary Pickford a decade later, and Clara Bow, the “it” girl, were part of cast. In a brief appearance as a doomed pilot,  future star Gary Cooper had one of his first significant roles. What helped make all of this work was a  director who had been a pilot and was a wing-walking stunt pilot before his movie career took off.

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“Wings”

“The Broadway Melody,” 1929, directed by Harry Beaumont

It was a surprise to at least some later day critics that this film won the best picture trophy. Referred to as the prototype of backstage musicals, “Broadway Melody” was described by one critic as suffering from “stolid acting and awkward sound techniques.” Film aficionados will note, however, that this was the first MGM movie featuring a “Singin’ in the Rain” number.

“All Quiet on the Western Front,” 1930, directed by Lewis Milestone

This drama is listed in the “New York Times Guide to the Best Movies Ever Made.” Based on a book by Erich Maria Remarque, “All Quiet on the Western Front” drew praise from the opening night reviewer for The Times who wrote, “Truth comes to the fore when the young soldiers are elated at the idea of joining up, when they are disillusioned, when they are hungry, when they are killing rats in a dugout, when they are shaken by fear, and when they, or one of them, becomes fed up with the conception of war held by the elderly man back home. …Often the scenes are of such excellence that if they were not audible one might believe that they were actual motion pictures of activities behind the lines, in the trenches and in No Man’s Land.”

“Cimarron,” 1931, directed by Wesley Ruggles

EPSON MFP image

This is the worst movie to win the best picture honor, in this writer’s opinion. It’s a well intentioned movie with an interesting story based on the novel by Edna Farber. The story is about a newspaper editor who moves to a booming town in 1889 with his wife and what happens over the next 40 years. It is a western/soap opera that suffers from awful acting, huge plot holes and racist overtones. It also tells us how much our tastes have changed over the years.  The movie does star popular actors Richard Dix and Irene Dunne.

“Grand Hotel.” 1932, directed by Edmund Goulding

Originally a stage play, this is a truly great movie featuring such stars as Greta Garbo, John and Lionel Barrymore, Joan Crawford and Wallace Berry. This is a tale regarding strangers whose lives cross during their stay at the Grand Hotel in Berlin.

The Grand Hotel is supposedly a place where nothing ever happens but by the time the guests have checked out, the audience will see manslaughter, gambling, a baron seeking to steal pearls, love affairs, business dealings and more.

Garbo Grand Hotel
Greta Garbo and John Barrymore