My favorite Oscar nomination reaction (thus far)

Martin Scorcese:

"I am deeply honored to have been nominated by the Academy for my work on Hugo. Every picture is a challenge, and this one – where I was working with 3D, HD and Sacha Baron Cohen for the first time – was no exception. It’s a wonderful feeling to know that you’ve been recognized by the people in your industry. I congratulate my fellow nominees. It’s an impressive list, and I’m in excellent company."

REALLY strong point about Borat, sir.

Oscar Nominations!

Raise your hand if you were up at 5:30 this morning to see the live announcement of the Oscar nominations! (why am I always the only one with my hand raised?)

The field is now set for our favorite holiday of the year. The official countdown can now begin! Just a little over a month until Oscar Day. So what happened this morning? Let's get into it...

How about we start with the awesome: Melissa McCarthy got nominated for Bridesmaids! That seemed like a surefire Golden Globe nomination, and then she was snubbed so I was a little worried. While Oscar almost always goes serious in the lead actor categories, it does have a bit of a soft spot for comedic performances in the supporting categories (see Marisa Tomei for My Cousin Vinny). If nothing else, it's just nice to see her actually get the attention of a nomination. Let's go ahead and pull out that picture again, shall we?

In other awesome news, one of my favorite movies of the year (and thus far pretty overlooked in awards season) got some love in the form of a Supporting Actor nod for Nick Nolte for Warrior. Seriously, if you haven't seen that movie yet, take the time to do so. It's not just for inspirational sports movie lovers, I promise. Of course, it doesn't really matter, because Christopher Plummer is as close to a sure thing as you can get (and rightfully so), but I'm glad that movie got some appreciation.

Now, of course, there were some terrible things too, most notably the snubbing of Michael Fassbender. The man turned in 4 strong performances (in 3 of my favorite movies of the year), and is just stupid good in Shame. There's no other way to describe it. Leaving him off is just wrong. I love Gary Oldman about 10x more than the next girl, and I hate that he's never been nominated for an Oscar, but Fassbender deserves it way more. I can't speak to the other surprise nominee, Demian Bichir, having not yet seen his movie, but I would also throw out Pitt in a second for Fassbender to be nominated. One thing's for sure, this category will not approach the heretofore unseen levels of hotness of its corresponding Golden Globes category (Clooney, Pitt, DiCaprio, Fassbender, and Gosling. just wow.)

I did not create this assortment, that picture of Pitt would definitely be the last one I would choose to enlarge, but oh well.

In smaller disappointments, Melancholia continued to be completely snubbed, Drive was absolutely ignored (most notably Albert Brooks), Jessica Chastain got a nod for her least interesting performance of the year (and there were a lot to choose from), and we probably don't get to see what Tilda Swinton would wear to the Oscars. Sigh.

One of the biggest surprises of the day was all the love for a movie currently sitting with 48% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. We here at 3pies4rolls haven't seen it yet, but it seems like a bit of an "F you" from Oscar to critics. We'll let you know what we think once we've seen it, it's hard to get up in arms about an unknown (unless its name is War Horse). With the new nominating rules, most people were expecting 7 nominees (there are now between 5 and 10 best picture nominees and a movie has to pass a certain threshold of number one votes in order to get nominated), so having 9 make it in was a surprise. And while I kind of want to give Tree of Life the middle finger, I know there were enough people who loved it that its inclusion doesn't really surprise me.

Now just keep your fingers crossed in the hopes that with only two nominees for Best Song, we'll get a chance to see Jason Segel perform "Man or Muppet" live, and that The Artist continues its quest to charm the socks off every single person in the world. And if you're still bummed about the Michael Fassbender snub (as I am) I find it really helps to just look at pictures of Michael Fassbender:

feeling better...

almost there...

and we're good!

another amazing version of the best picture nominees

Yesterday we gave you the incredible re-interpretations of 5 of the best pic nominees by adorable children. Today your present is all ten in lego format...

127 hours


Inception


Black Swan


check out the rest of them here!

tip of the hat to bruns for the link!!

finally, a twist!

Last night's Screen Actors Guild Awards finally inserted the slightest bit of drama into the Oscar race! No, it didn't mix up the acting races at all - Firth (sorry, Franco :( ), Portman, Bale, and Leo pretty much solidified their chances of holding the little golden man with wins across the board. No, the aforementioned twist was thrown right in the pathway of The Social Network's march to Best Picture. It had emerged as the undeniable favorite, winning all the major critics' awards as well as the Golden Globe (you've already heard me rant about this). But last night The King's Speech picked up the big award of the evening- Best Ensemble:



While the cast was hoisting the little (green) men, Tom Hooper was taking the top award at the Directors Guild of America, also decided over the weekend. Many considered the trophy to already have the Social Network's David Fincher's name engraved on it. Only 6 times in history has the DGA winner not gone on to win the Oscar for directing.

Do we now have a horserace? Or is The King's Speech suddenly the legitimate favorite to win? Hard to say for sure. Vanity Fair has a good piece about this, and rightfully points out that not only does The King's Speech's win put the might of the Screen Actors Guild behind it (which is pretty important), but the actors' branch is the largest voting block in the Academy. Throw in the recognition in the DGA and that's a pretty powerful argument. Of course, the crazy voting rules for the expanded field of ten nominations (here's our explanation from last year) could throw a wrench in the whole thing.

Frankly, I'm just excited that there could be some level of suspense come Oscar Day!

Things to consider when filling out your Oscar ballot...

which you'll all clearly be doing, right? Either way, this is good info for making your Oscar predictions.



The increase in Best Picture nominations from 5 to 10 has gotten a lot of coverage and critique. I'm withholding judgment until I see how it plays out, mostly because of the big change that gets overlooked- not only has the number of nominees increased, but the rules for how they will be chosen have changed as well. In the old system, you simply voted for which film you thought should win, and the movie that got the most votes won Best Picture. However, they (rightly, in my opinion) realized this wouldn't work for 10 nominations, because a movie could win with as little as 11% of the vote. Now, let's face it, it's not going to be that close (anyone out there think The Blind Side or District 9 are going to get almost as many votes as The Hurt Locker or Avatar?). But the rules still had to be changed. So here's what happens, courtesy of the BBC:

"Instead of choosing a single winner, Academy members have been asked to rank the 10 titles on their ballot form from 1 to 10.

Their ballots will then be sorted into 10 piles, based on which films they have placed in pole position.

If no movie wins more than 50% of the vote - a statistical unlikelihood - the film with the least number of first-choice votes will be knocked out of contention.

Its ballots will then be redistributed among the remaining candidates, based on which movies their owners have ranked in second place.

If there is still no movie with a 51% majority, the procedure will be repeated with the movie ranked ninth. Then eighth. Then seventh.

Eventually one movie will have an unassailable lead - even if it takes second, third or even fourth choices to achieve it."

Yup, that's how they're deciding the Best Picture this year. Meaning a movie could theoretically win without having the largest number of first place votes. So the real question is, whose favor does it work in? Is a voter who put one of the movies that's eliminated first, say The Blind Side, more likely to have voted for Avatar or The Hurt Locker in second place? Is a District 9 supporter a sci-fi person in general, thus making them more likely to have Avatar as number 2? Is this how Inglourious Basterds is going to sneak through and be the surprise of the night?

Personally, I think it helps Avatar the most, because it's the type of movie that people loved but might not want to put first, although it seems I'm in the minority on that opinion. I guess we'll see. 6 days to Oscar Day!!!

How can you not be rooting for these guys??

The first 15 seconds of this (right after Jeremy Renner heard his nomination) are about the most charming thing I've seen...

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Nanc covered the most important things from the announcements, and I totally agree that it was a bit yawnsville (especially at 5:30 in the morning, thanks a lot Oscars). I mean, as nanc said, we all know who is going to win the supporting actor categories, could we get a few interesting nominations?? I liked that Maggie Gyllenhaal made it in, but what about Melanie Laurent?? Anthony Mackie? We know they're not going to win (Christoph Waltz is preparing his "I attended the 'Academy' of Quentin Tarantino" speech right now), but it could have spiced things up a bit.

UPDATE: There are a lot of other very charming reactions out there as well. My favorite? Mr. Colin Firth: "I thought I was managing my expectations, but on hearing the news I discovered new and unfamiliar vocal tones. Perhaps I should do another musical."

a bit yawnsville right?

i mean don't get me wrong...i'm SUPER excited for oscar day (duh)...but alls i'm sayin is that the academy continued in the yawny tradition of this year's awards shows by providing only two surprises this morning when they announced their noms.

the two shocking (!!!) surprises:

1. so maggie gyllenhaal (in crazy heart) beat out juliane moore (in a single man) for best supporting actress. good for her. i mean personally i liked single man better than crazy heart but maggie was actually undeniably good in that movie where she held her own against the mighty jeff bridges. the thing is, who gives a crap? i mean is anybody gonna beat mo'nique? um, no.

2. in other news disctrict 9 got nominated for a best picture award which totally RULES cause that movie is super awesome and not your typical academy flare so i guess i have to stop bitchin and give em the deserved props for that one. also, the ten noms for best picture (check out below!) thing makes this the only category where it's really anybody's guess (tho i'm still probably going to put my money on watching james cameron speak na'vi.) frankly, while that would annoy the crap outta me, i'll pretty much be happy as long as that crapbucket up in the air doesn't win. get a job reitman!

Best Picture

• “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
• “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
• “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
• “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
• “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
• “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
• “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Staying up to date on the Oscar race...

We love us some Awards Circuit for staying on top of the Oscar race (despite their terrible layout, please, hire a webpage designer) (oh yeah, and you still have Nine getting a best picture nod despite the critical bashing? come on), but this new chart (linked to because of the awesome interactive quality of it) from Entertainment Weekly is a pretty fantastic visual representation of what's happened so far. It will be changing a lot as of tomorrow! Yay Oscar noms!



and, on that note, congratulations to Kathryn Bigelow on her DGA win! This definitely helps put her back in front in the Best Director category (only 6 directors in the last 61 years have not gone on to repeat at the Oscars after winning at the DGAs), thus trying to save us from Cameron speaking Na'vi (well, at least preventing it from happening in two different speeches). She also became the first woman to ever win the award.

15 hours until Oscar nominations...

but to hold you over until that we have the Razzies!! The official presentation of the winners for worst "achievements" in film will take place the day before Oscar day (March 6th), so it's only appropriate the nominations are released the day before the only event that could get me, Nancy, and Kim all up before 6 am.



While the Razzie noms contain the standard recognition of Eddie Murphy and John Travolta, we at 3pies4rolls are in an uproar over the "snubbing" of The Lovely Bones. Seriously, we see A LOT of movies in a year (including several that show up for Razzie nods), and there is no doubt in our minds what the worst film of the year is (although, in all fairness, we did not see Old Dogs).

Two important things to watch for:

• Can Sandra Bullock pull off a year in which she wins Worst Actress for one film (All About Steve) at the Razzies and Best Actress for another (The Blind Side) at the Oscars? We're pulling for you, Sandy!
• In the very special worst of the decade categories, who will be "victorious" in the aforementioned Travolta vs. Murphy battle??? Or will Rob Schneider pull out the upset?

34 days till Oscar Day!!!

on whatever day of awards show season the SAGs gave to us...

...their nominations (which line up pretty neatly with the Globes).
(this joke's not old yet, right?)

Only a couple of notable differences here- Jeremy Renner getting a best actor nod instead of Tobey Maguire, Emily Blunt getting left out (and Meryl Streep making it in for Julie and Julia) in the Best Actress category, and Diane Kruger replacing Julianne Moore for supporting actress (but seriously, where the hell is Melanie Laurent? She and Christoph Waltz are the best part about Inglorious Basterds). I'm really liking the Cast nominations as well (although I haven't seen Nine, and the reviewers have not been kind). TV awards are separated somewhat differently, so you can analyze them for yourself (thank god we got Charlie Sheen in there, I was worried. Come on SAGs, seriously?). And, yes, we will be seeing Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore hold hands again. Oh, in case you're wondering, I did just make a gagging gesture of putting my finger down my throat. Good times.

Finally, the marvelous Betty White will be getting the Lifetime Achievement Award, so that makes it worth watching by itself.

keep 'em coming!

82 days until the most wonderful day of the year: Oscar Day. Of course, second to Oscar Day in awards show season are the Golden Globes, which, have we mentioned are hosted this year by Ricky Gervais??? We had? just thought I'd check.

Anyhoo, the Golden Globe nominations were announced today! The Globes bring us the chance for TV and movie stars to hang out together. With booze!

Up in the Air leads in number of nominations, but there's our friend The Hurt Locker again. Unless Precious can regain its momentum from earlier in the season with a couple wins (and given that people apparently hate Nine [making it the 3rd best movie with the number 9 in it this year (see District 9 and 9)]), it looks like it's going to come down to those two movies at the Oscars. Although, who knows with this crazy new 10 nomination format.

Other thoughts:

• Tobey Maguire? Really?
• Carey Mulligan is sooooo good in An Education. I really hope she takes that one. The Best Actress categories are actually seeming a little thin to me, not that these aren't good performances (the ones I've seen), but there's just no clear frontrunner. Which, in my opinion, makes it Mulligan. Especially since Meryl Streep is competing against herself.
  
• I love that (500) Days of Summer got nominations for both Best Picture (Musical or Comedy) and for Joseph Gordon-Levitt (3pies4rolls dreamboat). Plus, no nomination for Zooey Deschanel, who is the weak link there.
  
• Awesome that The Hangover got nominated, but, really, if we're honoring that genre, where was I Love You, Man?
• Christoph Waltz, Woody Harrelson, and Stanley Tucci have all won so far this season for supporting actor. I've only seen Waltz at this point (he's the absolute best part of that movie), but the other two are supposed to be great as well.
• REALLY strong year for Animated Features.
  
• TrueBlood!
• We're totally going to have to watch Jessica Lange and Drew Barrymore hold hands again.
• Probably no way that NPH takes the award, especially since they combine series, mini-series, and TV movie for the supporting awards (I know you're trying to save time, GGs, but WTF?), but I'm happy he'll be there.
• I heart Glee. Jane Lynch winning would be the best thing ever. And on that note, here's a little end of the year love on Glee:

Last year's Globes brought us the finest moment in red carpet history, what will this year's bring??

UPDATE: I can't believe I left this storyline off my list... this has gotta be the first time that ex-spouses have competed against each other, right??? Kathryn Bigelow used to be married to James Cameron!

why hello there, awards show season

The nominations for the Independent Spirit Awards were announced today. No gigantic shockers with Precious, Amreeka, (500) Days of Summer, The Last Station, and Sin Nombre making up the best feature category (although somehow Anvil got nominated for best documentary and The Cove didn't). And I love Flight of the Conchords as much as the next girl, but really? Jemaine Clement for Best Supporting Actor in Gentlemen Broncos? Seriously?



I mean, I might think that was awesome, if not for this

Emmy Nominations Announced

First of all, to answer what I am sure is everyone's most pressing question, yes, we will get to find out what happens if NPH wins a best supporting actor emmy while hosting. the only other thing you really need to know is that the emmys love 30 Rock (22 nominations) and Mad Men (16).

This might be my favorite line-up for an award (Outstanding Original Music and Lyrics):

• 81st Annual Academy Awards- Hugh Jackman Opening Number
• A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All- Much Worse Things
• A Muppets Christmas: Letters to Santa- I Wish I Could Be Santa
• Flight of the Conchords: Unnatural Love- Carol Brown
• SNL Host: Justin Timberlake- Motherlover
• The 2008 ESPYs- I Love Sports (Justin Timberlake)

In snubbing news, BSG was left out of every major category and True Blood was almost non-existent. 3pies4rolls favorite Dr. Horrible did sneak in with a very long titled award nomination (Outstanding Special Class- Short-format Live-Action Entertainment Programs). And I don't hate the inclusion of Simon Baker for Outstanding Lead Actor- Drama.

Find the complete list or search by award, etc. here. Or look at the more user friendly version here