Sunday 26 February 2012

That special time of year: Oscar predictions

Here we go: After much thought and seeing a couple of movies, but not as many as last year or this guy:

The best actor race is a curious one. I am pretty certain it is in the bag, but I actually would be thrilled by a Gary Oldman upset. If George Clooney wins I will be shocked and annoyed, because it'll be the second time I wished 2 other people got the award ahead of him. Also I would have loved Michael Fassbender to be nominated for Shame.

The women, a nice range of nominated roles both for lead and supporting actress. I have lost an article I wanted to reference on this, which I will post in the comments if I track it down. But are there any more different women than Marilyn Monroe, Maggie Thatcher, Lisbeth Salander and Megan from Bridemaids!

As I haven't seen as many films as usual, my technical category picks are pretty much out and out guesses - whatever I put for these categories I basically thought, well if it's not...then it'll be Hugo.

Screenplay - my most consistently poor prediction record. I went for Tinker Tailor... out of patriotism and because Peter Straughan's bafta acceptance speech, was eloquent and elegant and brought tears to my eyes.

See you on the other side, and we can laugh about how crazy I was thinking Hugo would beat The tree of Life for Cinematography.

Happy viewing.

BEST PICTURE: THE ARTIST
BEST DIRECTOR: Michel Hazanavicius, THE ARTIST
BEST ACTOR: Jean Dujardin, THE ARTIST
BEST ACTRESS: Viola Davis, THE HELP
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Christopher Plummer, BEGINNERS
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Octavia Spencer, THE HELP
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS
BEST ART DIRECTION: HUGO
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: HUGO
BEST COSTUME DESIGN: THE ARTIST
BEST EDITING: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
BEST MAKEUP: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: THE ARTIST
BEST ORIGINAL SONG: “Man or Muppet,” THE MUPPETS
BEST SOUND EDITING: HUGO (this was DRIVE until this morning)
BEST SOUND MIXING: THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: RANGO (I actually want Chico and Rita to win)
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: PINA
BEST FOREIGN FILM: A SEPARATION
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM: TIME FREAK
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM: DIMANCHE/SUNDAY
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM: THE BARBER OF BIRMINGHAM: FOOT SOLDIER OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT (because if a film mentions Birmingham, any Birmingham, it gets my vote!)

Monday 6 February 2012

Birmingham Casting Call

I have been asked to circulate a casting call for several Birmingham based 15-20 year olds and 1 older guy (40-50) for a film about the riots - Broken Society.

Shooting this month in Birmingham. Details to follow.

Directed by Actor/Director Neil Reidman

Contact details on his website: http://neilreidman.com/index.html
Or post below/message me on twitter for info.

*** Unrelated Geek squee - Neil was in a Tennant Doctor Who episode! ****

Related event plug - I have been trying to get a Birmingham screening of highly acclaimed US film The Interuppters and it's happening this month at The Drum. It's about people in Chicago who are proactively trying to stop crime by interrupting perpetrators.

I would be delighted if you can make it - and at £2.50 a ticket, why wouldn't you give it a try? Roger Ebert calls it one of the greatest Oscars snubs EVER (well that's how I read it) in his blog. See if you agree.

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tweeps in this blog: @neilreidman @shegeekmcr @TheInterrupters