By ALEX
FUNG
Last updated: 2002/03/20
| 2001 results "Big Six": 25 out of 30 (83%) Overall: 66 out of 91 (73%) |
A Note From The Editor
Sorry I haven't written much as of late -- I've been otherwise occupied in dealing with some heavy personal issues. While the prudent and obvious thing to do would probably be to take some time for myself and work through this matter ("Gettin' healthy," as Dave Nelson would say), in typical Alex fashion I'm going to plunge down the unhealthy route and bury myself in work over this Oscar home stretch. Thanks, of course, to all those who wrote in over the past few weeks with variations of "Where the fuck are you, you bastard?" (though needless to say that most were more charmingly-phrased). I'm grateful for the letters of inquiry and concern; to be missed is of some comfort, particularly at a time like this.
(Yeah yeah, Critical Consensus 2001 is coming, gimme a break.)
Oscar Nominee Reactions
The nominees for the 74th annaul Academy Awards were revealed on Tuesday, February 12th, 2002 at 5:38 am Pacific Time (or 8:38 am over here -- I've begun waking up at an earlier hour this year, and am actually now petulantly rooting for them to bump up the announcement time a few more hours) by new AMPAS president Frank Piersen and Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden (Pollock). The Oscar races leading into the nomination announcements had been extremely turbulent and I'd braced myself for a veritable slew of surprises in the nominee listings. While the volume of eye-opening omissions or inclusions was far less than expected, Tuesday nevertheless saw some curious developments occur:
Noteworthy "surprises":
- Rick Baker fails to score a Makeup nomination for Planet Of The Apes
- Amélie gets a Sound nomination
- Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius knocks off Waking Life for the final Animated Film of the Year nomination slot
- "Academy Award nominee Ethan Hawke"
- Monsters, Inc. beats out fare like Black Hawk Down and The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring to nail down a Sound Editing nomination
- John Williams' critically-derided Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone score managed to eek out an Academy Award nomination
- Amélie nails down five Oscar nominations; the much-maligned A.I. Artificial Intelligence picks up only two, The Others gets shut out altogether
The big winners in this year's Oscar sweepstakes are Miramax, who led the way with fifteen nominations in total across five different pictures -- five each for In The Bedroom and Amélie, a trio for drama Iris, and singles for romantic comedies Bridget Jones's Diary and Kate & Leopold -- and New Line, which snared fourteen Oscar nominations between The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring and I Am Sam. While Miramax has become a veritable mainstay in the annual Oscar races, this year's tallies cap off a huge comeback by New Line in the wake of their poor showing last year; they only picked up one AMPAS nomination in total, and their pricey primary Oscar gun Thirteen Days was shutout altogether.
To nobody's surprise, the three-hour epic fantasy The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring led all pictures with thirteen nominations, falling just short of the all-time AMPAS record of fourteen shared by All About Eve and Titanic. Given the vast amount of technical work on display in the picture, Peter Jackson's film went into the Oscar race as a legitimate nomination threat in virtually every single technical category, and very nearly ran the board there, missing only a Sound Editing nomination to pull off a clean sweep. While The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring was the year's key Oscar player, scoring Best Picture and Best Director nominations amongst its baker's dozen of AMPAS picks, that the film was a technical triumph more than an acting showcase was underlined by its single acting nomination for Ian McKellen in the Supporting Actor category. With a towering 13-to-8 nomination lead over its closest competition, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring is the first film since Titanic to have a five-nomination margin over the secondmost-nominated picture.
A Beautiful Mind and Moulin Rouge tied for the runner-up position in terms of total nominations with eight apiece, including coveted Best Picture selections. Mind scored two acting nominations for stars Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly and nabbed a first directing Oscar nomination for filmmaker Ron Howard, while Rouge's nominations leaned towards acknowledging the lavish production in picking up Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing and Sound nominations. In an interesting development, Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann, the film's driving force and a very active and visible participant during the Oscar campaign, failed to score an Oscar nomination for his helming of the production.
In a surprisingly strong performance, USA Films' Gosford Park followed closely in tallying up seven Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director selections. Lauded for its remarkable ensemble cast, the film was expected to perform strongly in terms of acting nominations -- it did reap two Supporting Actress cites for Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith -- and the period picture also managed to score Art Direction and Costume Design nominations to go along with an Original Screenplay nomination for Julian Fellowes' script.
The final Best Picture nominee was Todd Field's debut film In The Bedroom, which totalled five Oscar nominations including cites for performers Tom Wilkinson, Sissy Spacek and Marisa Tomei. While Field failed to score a Direction nomination, he was acknowledged along with co-writer Rob Festinger in the Adapted Screenplay category.
One of the most strongly-performing films was Miramax's French-language romantic comedy Amélie. Initially angled to be a major player for Team Weinstein, with high-profile possibilities including Actress (Audrey Tautou), director (Jean-Pierre Jeunet) and Best Picture, the film had appeared to be progressively losing steam and even failed to win the Golden Globe award in what was considered its slam-dunk category of Foreign Language Film. Nevertheless, it rebounded strongly with the AMPAS nominations, netting not only its requisite Foreign Language Film nomination but four others, including Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Cinematography and Sound. As such, this "charming" foreign production managed to score more Oscar nominations than many major high-profile Hollywood Oscar contenders, including Steven Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, Ridley Scott's Black Hawk Down and Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor.
While Miramax conjured up nominations with Amélie, their highly-touted adaptation of The Shipping News sank like a stone, failing to score any Oscar nominations despite such Oscar-friendly talents as Lasse Hallström, Kevin Spacey, Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett and Julianne Moore (previous AMPAS nominees and winners all) attached to the production. At the outset of awards season, The Shipping News appeared to be Miramax's primary Oscar gun; subsequent reshuffling smartly focused attention towards In The Bedroom.
One of the most heavily-commented aspects of this year's slate of Oscar nominees were the nominations of Denzel Washington for Training Day and Will Smith for Ali in the Best Actor category, and Halle Berry for Monster's Ball in the Best Actress category. This marks the first time that two African-American actors have competed against each other in the Actor category, and the first time since 1973 in which a trio of African-American performers have been recognized with Oscar nominations. Much discussion has ensued regarding the signifcance (cultural and otherwise) of this development.
As with last year, six films were represented with multiple acting nominations, with only In The Bedroom scoring matching Actor/Actress nominations. Training Day and Ali saw both their leading and supporting actors receive nominations, while Gosford Park nabbed twin Supporting Actress nominations. (Last year's Supporting Actress category also had two performers from the same film in direct head-to-head competition in Almost Famous' Kate Hudson and Frances McDormand.) While no film managed to get nominations in all four acting categories, In The Bedroom and Iris came the closest in racking up AMPAS cites in three of the four quadrants -- the latter saw Judi Dench, Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet acknowledged for their performances.
In terms of my predictions, given the volatility of this year's Oscar races, I approached February 12th with a huge degree of apprehension -- dread, really. So convinced was I that a horrible performance was looming that the relief felt upon the revelation of the actual nomination list in conjunction with my largely sound predictions was palpable; I scored 25 out of 30 in the "Big Six" categories for a decent 83%, and went 66 for 91 overall, both actually slightly higher than my historical averages. Granted, given that the expected wholesale shockers failed to materialize, my numbers aren't remarkably good -- better than most in the mainstream media, roughly around the same ballpark as most online pundits (my perception is that the top Internet Oscar-watchers generally do seem to have a better grasp on the races than most print film critics, particularly over the past two or three years) -- but given that I was braced for a laughable 15-for-30ish showing, I was pretty thrilled. (I was particularly relieved that my Best Picture nominee predictions with which I went on the record in a nice Toronto Star profile back in January 2002 were a perfect 5-for-5; would've been mortifying to have screwed the pooch on that after being soaked with glowing praise in my hometown paper -- dodged a bullet there, whew. I can eat lunch in this town again!)
Gee, re-reading the "Odds and Ends" section of my January 1st, 2002 Oscar Column #4, methinketh I done all right.
Some brief comments on the nominees in each of the categories:
Best Picture Of The Year [ 5 out of 5 ]
My Predictions A Beautiful Mind
Gosford Park
In The Bedroom
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Moulin RougeAMPAS Nominees A Beautiful Mind
Gosford Park
In The Bedroom
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Moulin RougeHeading into the Oscar nomination announcement date of February 12th, A Beautiful Mind and The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring were the general consensus locks for Best Picture Oscar nominations, in part on the basis of their respective wins at the Golden Globes and AFI Awards, and in part due to the nature of the films in question. The remaining three slots were more-or-less up for grabs, with Fox's lavish musical Moulin Rouge, Miramax's domestic drama In The Bedroom, and USA Films' ironic Gosford Park completing the category. (Moulin Rouge is the first live-action musical to be up for Best Picture since All That Jazz in 1979.) The Somalia war drama Black Hawk Down was widely considered to be a probable finalist on the basis of its strong marketplace performance and the patriotic fervor currently in place, but failed to make the cut, as did DreamWorks' smash animated hit Shrek, which had been strongly promoted as a serious Best Picture candidate.
Given that in recent years, the film which receives the most Oscar nominations wins the Best Picture Academy Award -- the last nine consecutive Best Picture winners have led or co-led their respective years in terms of total Oscar nominations, this would seem to position The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring as the picture to beat. (That it leads this year's pack by such a commanding margin only adds to its lustre.) On the other hand, the epic film is a fantasy picture, and there's no precedent for a picture of its type winning over the Academy to the extent of winning the Best Picture statuette. (The last full-fledged fantasy movie of its ilk to even receive a Best Picture nomination was Star Wars.) Fitting the mold of a traditional Oscar-winning picture to a much greater degree (deliberately so, many jaded Oscar-watchers might say) would be Ron Howard's uplifting inspirational drama A Beautiful Mind, which has been a commercial hit and generally scored kind comments from critics. As a mainstream entertainment with a top-flight cast, a familiar trajectory and a real-world setting, the film may be perceived by AMPAS members as more award-ready, pertinent and relevant than a picture with orcs and elfs and little fellas with hairy feet scampering about.
Given that Moulin Rouge director Baz Luhrmann failed to receive a Best Director nomination, many pundits immediately eliminated the film as a viable possibility for the Best Picture Oscar by operating under the premise that a nominated film whose director failed to receive a nomination stands virtually no chance at winning the award. I feel this reasoning does not stand up -- Moulin Rouge is, I believe, a legitimate player in this year's Best Picture race. Not only is it essentially a reflexive picture in its portrayal of a musical production, which is something that may appeal to a group of artists (see Shakespeare In Love, for example), but there's clearly no other film in the quintet of Best Picture nominees which has a more passionate base of support than Moulin Rouge. In The Bedroom, Gosford Park, A Beautiful Mind and The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring surely all have their fans, but Moulin Rouge has inspired tremendous advocacy through its risk-taking and wildly romantic worldview. I feel it's premature to rule out Moulin Rouge as a possibility simply because Luhrmann didn't get a Director nomination. Of course, when it comes to winning the grand prize, it isn't how much people love a given film as much as it is how many people love said picture...
This year's Best Picture category again depicts the industry tendency to backload the calendar with award-calibre productions; among the five nominated films, only Moulin Rouge was theatrically released before November 2002.
Best Performance By An Actor In A Leading Role [ 4 out of 5 ]
My Predictions Russell Crowe, A Beautiful Mind
Sean Penn, I Am Sam
Billy Bob Thornton, The Man Who Wasn't There
Denzel Washington, Training Day
Tom Wilkinson, In The BedroomAMPAS Nominees Russell Crowe, A Beautiful Mind
Sean Penn, I Am Sam
Will Smith, Ali
Denzel Washington, Training Day
Tom Wilkinson, In The BedroomThe Best Actor Oscar shortlist was decidedly more conventional than expected, with sure things Russell Crowe of A Beautiful Mind and Training Day mentor Denzel Washington predictably netting nominations. (This marks Crowe's third consecutive Oscar nomination in as many years, and the second time Crowe and Washington will face off against each other in the Best Actor race; in 2000, Crowe was nominated for The Insider while Washington was a candidate for his performance as Ruben Carter in The Hurricane.) In The Bedroom's Tom Wilkinson, though not a lock, was considered a probable finalist and was successful in his Oscar bid, scoring his first Academy Award nomination for his strong, stabilizing performance in Todd Field's directorial debut.
After a Screen Actors Guild nomination which implied his candidacy should not be overlooked, Sean Penn scored his third Oscar nomination for his performance in the most unlikely I Am Sam, while Will Smith is now the first rapper-turned-actor to score an Oscar nomination for his performance in Ali. Prior to February 12th, opinion was decidedly mixed on Smith's Academy Awards prospects -- some considered him a lock for a nomination while others had diminished his chances based on the film's quick drop-off upon release to the theatrical marketplace. (I didn't predict Smith to receive an Oscar nomination -- I thought Billy Bob Thornton would complete the field for his pitch-perfect performance in The Man Who Wasn't There -- based primarily on the calibre of his performance proper. Obviously this did not turn out to be the case for the popular young star.)
In the wake of an AFI Award and a Golden Globe victory, many have opined that Gene Hackman was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his performance in The Royal Tenenbaums. I don't share in the collective sense of outrage -- I was not particularly impressed with the veteran actor's work and am not unhappy to see him off the Best Actor short list for his performance in the Wes Anderson film -- but I'm of a mind that increasingly believes that Ewan McGregor ought to have made the cut for his enormously charismatic performance in Moulin Rouge.
Best Performance By An Actress In A Leading Role [ 3 out of 5 ]
My Predictions Halle Berry, Monster's Ball
Judi Dench, Iris
Nicole Kidman, The Others
Sissy Spacek, In The Bedroom
Tilda Swinton, The Deep EndAMPAS Nominees Halle Berry, Monster's Ball
Judi Dench, Iris
Nicole Kidman, Moulin Rouge
Sissy Spacek, In The Bedroom
Renée Zellweger, Bridget Jones's DiaryWell, that didn't work. With twin award-calibre performances to her name in 2001, I defied common wisdom by picking Nicole Kidman to receive a Best Actress nomination for her dramatic performance in the sleeper hit The Others rather than her song-and-dance turn in Moulin Rouge; as it turns out, the Aussie actress scored her career first nomination for her work in the Baz Luhrmann film as most had predicted. So ends my streak of perfect predictions in this category at three years -- drat.
Three of the nominees in this category were locks or near-locks -- Sissy Spacek, who had been scooping up critics' awards left and right for her performance as an anguished mother in In The Bedroom, Halle Berry for her career-changing dramatic performance in Monster's Ball, and Oscar-bait Judi Dench's portrayal of Alzheimer's-afflicted author Iris Murdoch in the biodrama Iris. (Dench's nomination is her fourth in five years.) While I predicted Tilda Swinton would complete the category for her performance in the summer arthouse hit The Deep End, the Oscar nomination instead went to SAG nominee Renée Zellweger for her comic performance of the titular character in the spring romantic comedy Bridget Jones's Diary. While lead actress Oscar nominations derived from mainstream, mass-appeal romantic comedies are far and few between -- Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman comes to mind as an obvious example -- Zellweger's game physical transformation and adoptation of an English accent may have aided her chances, and her preceding Screen Actors Guild nomination clearly signalled her as a possibility.
Miramax dominated the Best Actress category, capturing three of the five nomination spots -- Sissy Spacek for In The Bedroom, Judi Dench for Iris and Zellweger for Bridget Jones's Diary. This ultimately may have ramifications on Spacek and Dench's chances at walking away with the statuette, as the distributor is forced to decide which candidate to throw its campaigning resources behind. (Zellweger is an obvious filler and stands no legitimate chance at winning the Oscar.)
In a curious twist of fate, Jim Broadbent acted opposite three of the five nominees in the category, having played impressario Harold Zidler opposite Kidman in Moulin Rouge, Bridget's daddy to Zellweger in Bridget Jones's Diary, and devoted husband John Bayley to Judi Dench's Iris.
Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role [ 4 out of 5 ]
My Predictions Jim Broadbent, Iris
Steve Buscemi, Ghost World
Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast
Ian McKellen, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Jon Voight, AliAMPAS Nominees Jim Broadbent, Iris
Ethan Hawke, Training Day
Ben Kingsley, Sexy Beast
Ian McKellen, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Jon Voight, AliNo Oscar nomination exclusion appears to have irked film critics more than that of Ghost World's Steve Buscemi. Widely considered to be a probable finalist for his critic award-winning performance as a sad-sack record collector in the Terry Zwigoff picture, the veteran character actor failed to nab a career first Oscar nomination on February 12th, and the news was greeted by howls of outrage by various movie writers. ("Robbed!" cried Toronto Sun critic Bruce Kirkland. "Ridiculous," charged Jack Mathews of the New York Daily News. "Buscemi's performance ... may have been the best work done on any level last year.") This opinion will certainly win me no fans in the critical community, but while I did predict Buscemi to score an Oscar nomination, his exclusion from the Academy Award Supporting Actor shortlist doesn't bother me in the slightest -- I didn't find him to be particularly remarkable in the film and do not share the specific niche enthusiasm behind both his performance and Ghost World in general. Buscemi's a fine actor, and he could've deservedly received a handful of Oscar nominations by now in an ideal world for films ranging from Fargo to Reservoir Dogs, but I just don't follow the passion for his Ghost World work. (Without meaning to be pejorative, is it that his Seymour is perceived as a surrogate character for a specific audience?)
On the other hand, unlike most, I have absolutely no problem with the idea of Ethan Hawke receiving a Supporting Actor nomination for his work in Training Day. I fully didn't expect him to appear on the Oscar nomination list -- I thought that his Screen Actors Guild nomination was a total anomaly -- but don't take an issue with his inclusion; I thought he was just fine in the Antoine Fuqua film and his interplay with Denzel Washington helped elevate the actor's performance. Frankly, his nomination prompted an involuntary grin -- among the five nominated performances in this year's slate of AMPAS Supporting Actors, Hawke's is the only one for which I can muster up a smidget of enthusiasm -- Ali's Jon Voight left me cold, I was ambivalent about Jim Broadbent in Iris and Ian McKellen in The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, and Ben Kingsley was fine in Sexy Beast but nothing to be particularly excited about. Hawke won't win the Oscar, to be sure, but I'm grateful that his surprise nomination gives me an entrance to at least have some interest in the results of this category.
While many greet the concept of Hawke earning the label "Oscar-nominated actor" with incredulity, I don't consider it to be overly remarkable (far less so, in any case, than hearing that label now being applicable to Will Smith, Halle Berry and Jennifer Connelly, among others), and with wife Uma Thurman having scored an Oscar nomination for Pulp Fiction back in 1995, Hawke and Thurman now join a very exclusive club of married couples with Academy Award acting nominations to their names.
Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role [ 5 out of 5 ]
My Predictions Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind
Helen Mirren, Gosford Park
Maggie Smith, Gosford Park
Marisa Tomei, In The Bedroom
Kate Winslet, IrisAMPAS Nominees Jennifer Connelly, A Beautiful Mind
Helen Mirren, Gosford Park
Maggie Smith, Gosford Park
Marisa Tomei, In The Bedroom
Kate Winslet, IrisIn my Oscar column #08 on the Golden Globes, I commented on the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's six nominees for Best Supporting Actress -- A Beautiful Mind's Jennifer Connelly, Vanilla Sky's Cameron Diaz, Helen Mirren and Maggie Smith of Gosford Park, Marisa Tomei of In The Bedroom, and Iris' Kate Winslet -- and mused that the Oscar Supporting Actress race would likely consist of five of these six performers, with Diaz being the prefered exclusion. Such turned out to be the case, with five of Golden Globe-nominated actresses going on to nab Oscar nominations for their performances and Vanilla Sky femme fatale Diaz being excluded from the Academy Award luncheon. (I would've been frankly stunned if I Am Sam tyke Dakota Fanning had somehow managed to convert her surprise Screen Actors Guild Supporting Actress nomination to an Academy Award cite.)
Some had suggested that either (or both) of the Gosford Park actresses might fail to make the cut due to having their support split across multiple female performances in the large ensemble cast, but I was reasonably confident that Smith's scene-stealing turn would net her an Oscar nomination. Mirren's critically-acclaimed performance also seemed to be high on everyone's radar screen and appeared unlikely to be overlooked.
This year's slate of Best Supporting Actress candidates is a largely veteran affair, with only Golden Globe- and AFI-winner Jennifer Connelly (the prohibitive favourite, at this point) being an Oscar newcomer; both Tomei and Smith have Oscars to their name, with Mirren and Winslet tying down multiple Academy Award nominations during their respective careers.
Harold Wexler pointed out that there have now been three instances in which two performers have been nominated in the same year for playing the same character -- twice within the same film (Kate Winslet and Gloria Stuart as Rose DeWitt in 1997's Titanic, and Judi Dench and Kate Winslet as Iris Murdoch Iris), and once in two different films (Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench as Queen Elizabeth I in 1998's Elizabeth and Shakespeare In Love.)
Best Achievement In Directing [ 4 out of 5 ]
My Predictions Robert Altman, Gosford Park
Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind
Peter Jackson, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Baz Luhrmann, Moulin Rouge
Ridley Scott, Black Hawk DownAMPAS Nominees Robert Altman, Gosford Park
Ron Howard, A Beautiful Mind
Peter Jackson, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
David Lynch, Mulholland Dr.
Ridley Scott, Black Hawk DownWith two of the Best Picture nominations going to films which did not net reciprocating Best Director nominations, I immediately began to dread the inevitable trotting-out of that hoary and facile addage about "films which must've directed themselves" by lazy media pundits. Honestly, this sort of trite interpretation which casts the discrepancy as some grand, nonsensical conspiracy by the Academy irritates me to no end. For one thing, the fact that the nominees in the Director and Best Picture category are selected by different Academy constituencies -- the former are voted on by the AMPAS Directors branch, while the latter are selected by the entire Academy at large -- more than sufficiently explains why there wouldn't necessarily be a one-to-one match between the Director and Picture categories. But more importantly, is there anyone halfway serious about film that genuinely believes that the best pictures are inherently the best directed, and vice-versa? (And if there's such an overwhelming fundamental correspondence between the two, why even bother having, say, a Best Director category?) It seems perfectly obvious that there are instances where strong direction can overcome poor writing or weak acting to produce a memorable picture, or where an good picture can result in spite of mediocre, uninspired or bland direction, so to suggest that the two are inextricably tied seems fairly moronic. I personally find it very difficult to take anyone seriously who would trot out this silly thesis with any semblance of sincerity.
Baz Luhrmann's omission in this category for his (Best Picture-nominated) film Moulin Rouge was certainly the most striking characteristic of this year's Best Director listing, particularly considering his inclusion in a number of precursor nominee lists -- among others, the Aussie iconoclast was a candidate with the Directors Guild of America and a Golden Globe nominee. While many are appalled by the exclusion given that Moulin Rouge was clearly a product of his distinct, go-for-broke directorial vision far more than the norm (and easily more than any of the other films up for Best Picture), the Luhrmann omission, though unexpected, isn't a total shocker -- I considered his chances to score a Director nomination decidedly more uncertain than cinches Peter Jackson (The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring), Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind) and Robert Altman (Gosford Park), all of whom did go on to make the finals. The divisive nature of the film -- it's most definitely a love-it/hate-it picture, and Luhrmann really chose to stack the deck by frontloading the film's potentially-alienating zany madcap portion, essentially daring viewers to give up on the movie -- may have affected his chances with the notoriously tough AMPAS Directors Branch, and it's well worth noting that in recent years this group has turned a cold shoulder towards several acclaimed films with distinctive, visually pronounced styles (including, say, Darren Aronofsky's Requiem For A Dream or any of the Paul Thomas Anderson oeuvre); Moulin Rouge would seem to fall into this category.
David Lynch's nomination for Mulholland Dr. seemed to catch many in the media off-guard to almost the same degree as the Luhrmann exclusion, but despite the film's comparatively low-profile and niche appeal, it was clear that the highly-admired filmmaker stood a reasonably good chance to crack the final five. With his nomination for his failed pilot-turned-feature film, Lynch has the unique distinction of having twice received Best Director Oscar nominations for productions which failed to receive AMPAS acknowledgement in any other category -- 1986's Blue Velvet received its sole Oscar nomination for Lynch's direction. [The last time this occured was with Robert Altman's nomination for Short Cuts. Thanks to Harold Wexler, Randy Moss and Sterling Hedgpeth for catching my careless error.]
Despite failing to receive a Directors Guild of America nomination, Robert Altman scored his fifth Oscar nomination (and third in ten years, following The Player and Short Cuts) for his examination of the class system in Gosford Park. Although many considered his DGA exclusion to be a bad omen, I was very confident that the veteran filmmaker would make the cut and his AMPAS selection comes as little surprise. (Many conservative columnists suggested that Altman's leftist politics and criticism of President Bush would impair his ability to score a nomination, but I read this more as wishful thinking on their part.) The remaining three Director nominees -- Howard, Jackson and Black Hawk Down's Ridley Scott, making his second appearance in the category in as many years -- were all DGA nominees.
Best Animated Film Of The Year [ 2 out of 3 ]
My Predictions Monsters, Inc.
Shrek
Waking LifeAMPAS Nominees Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Monsters, Inc.
ShrekThe exclusion of Richard Linklater's critically-acclaimed Waking Life in the fledgling Animated Picture category was largely considered one of the major surprises among this year's list of Oscar nominations. While the picture was considered the top contender to complete the field of three -- DreamWorks' Shrek and Disney's Monsters, Inc. were completely obvious mortal locks for the first two positions -- that Paramount's Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius managed to sneak in and grab the final nomination, while decidedly unexpected, isn't a total shocker; I too had predicted Waking Life to score an Academy Award cite but had commented in my Oscar prediction column that "Only Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius poses a threat, mostly because its very strong commercial performance (closing in on $80 million domestic) makes it a viable player." That Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius' animation was also more conventional in style than Waking Life's decidedly impressionistic, jazzy work might've also theoretically been a factor in its displacement of the heavy favourite, and one should also consider that Paramount was able to pay a good amount of attention to the Davis film's campaign given its paucity of strong Oscar contenders in other categories. (Also -- let's face it, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius is a far more accessible and mainstream picture than Waking Life, as their disparate domestic grosses indicate.)
This is all somewhat moot, of course, since it goes without saying that Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius will not win the Oscar -- it's definitely a deathmatch between the Green Ogre and the tag team of the Blue Furball and The Eye Of Doom -- but the fact that Neutron will be able to plaster a "Oscar nominee!" slug on its video and DVD covers will definitely help its post-theatrical revenue streams.
Best Achievement In Art Direction [ 3 out of 5 ]
My Predictions A.I. Artificial Intelligence: Rick Carter
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone: Stuart Craig
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: Grant Major
Moulin Rouge: Catherine Martin
The Man Who Wasn't There: Dennis GassnerAMPAS Nominees Amélie: Aline Bonetto
Gosford Park: Stephen Altman
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone: Stuart Craig
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: Grant Major
Moulin Rouge: Catherine MartinA pretty mediocre showing on my part; my predictions unintentionally aped the slate of Art Directors Guild nominees in their subcategory for "Period Or Fantasy Films" and managed to score three of the five eventual Academy picks -- former The English Patient Oscar winner Stuart Craig's production design on mega-production Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone, Grant Major's much-lauded work on The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, and Catherine Martin's splashy sets for Moulin Rouge.
The two other Oscar nominations went to Stephen Altman's lovingly-detailed creation of the English manor at the heart of Gosford Park, and Aline Bonetto for the fanciful and spritely art direction in Amélie. While I would've really liked to have seen Rick Carter make the cut for A.I. Artificial Intelligence -- given the amount of first-rate and ambitious work in this picture's sets , it's pretty remarkable and reflective on the collective cold shoulder the film received from the Academy that it didn't nab a nomination -- I can't really quibble with the Gosford Park or Amélie cites.
Best Achievement In Cinematography [ 3 out of 5 ]
My Predictions Roger Deakins, The Man Who Wasn't There
Janusz Kaminski, A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Andrew Lesnie, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Don McAlpine, Moulin Rouge
John Schwartzman, Pearl HarborAMPAS Nominees Roger Deakins, The Man Who Wasn't There
Bruno Delbonnel, Amélie
Slawomir Idziak, Black Hawk Down
Andrew Lesnie, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Don McAlpine, Moulin RougeThis year's slate of nominees in the Best Cinematography AMPAS category line-up nicely with the American Society of Cinematographers' choice of candidates, with four names common on both lists. The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring's Andrew Lesnie, Moulin Rouge d.p. Don McAlpine, Amélie shooter Bruno Delbonnel, and ASC-winner Roger Deakins for The Man Who Wasn't There both received ASC and corresponding Oscar nominations, with the sole discrepancy involving cinematographers for two 2001 war films -- the American Society of Cinematographers went with John Schwartzman as their fifth candidate for his work on the Michael Bay picture Pearl Harbor, while the Academy topped up their field of five with Black Hawk Down d.p. Slawomir Idziak. All of them did fine work, and although I though A.I. Artificial Intelligence looked terrific in no small part due to Janusz Kaminski's ever-reliable camerawork and would've been deserving of a nomination, I've no major qualms with this year's AMPAS nominees.
Best Achievement In Costume Design [ 4 out of 5 ]
My Predictions Gosford Park: Jenny Beavan
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone: Judianna Makovsky
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: Ngila Dickson
Moulin Rouge: Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie
Planet Of The Apes: Colleen AtwoodAMPAS Nominees The Affair Of The Necklace: Milena Canonero
Gosford Park: Jenny Beavan
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone: Judianna Makovsky
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: Ngila Dickson
Moulin Rouge: Catherine Martin and Angus StrathieWhen the official Academy Award nominee list initially went online, I was shocked and aghast by the apparent absence of Catherine Martin and Angus Strathie's work in Moulin Rouge in the Costume Design category. Even though they failed to nab a Costume Designer Guild nomination for some reasion -- I presume it was a matter of CDG non-membership rather than a reflection on the quality of their work in the Fox picture -- I fully expected them to make the finals with the Academy. As it turns out, this was some sort of error on AMPAS' side which was quickly rectified -- they temporarily listed only four nominees in the category -- but I was gratified to see that I was not alone in my momentary incredulity; within the fifteen-odd minute window in which a truncated list of candidates appeared as Costume Design nominees I received a handful of incredulous e-mails remarking upon the conspicuous exclusion.
At this point, one would probably have to consider the Moulin Rouge costume designers to be the favourite in this category for their glamorous and glitzy work (the vast amount of attention that Nicole Kidman has reaped will also help Martin and Strathie's cause), but a number of the other nominees are possibilities. This year's slate of Oscar nominees diverged considerably from the Costume Designer Guild's nominees -- only one of the AMPAS picks was also selected by the CDG -- but in largely predictable fashion: voters once again turned to period fare such as Jenny Beavan's prim work in Gosford Park, or epic productions like The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring, which featured Ngila Dickson's designs in support of the elaborate fantasy world conjured up by J.R.R. Tolkein. The solitary CDG-nominated achievement was Judianna Makovsky's work in the year's other major fantasy film, Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone. I was rather ambivalent about the costumes in the Chris Columbus picture but generally like Makovksy's work and acknowledge that films of its ilk lend themselves to Oscar consideration, so its nomination comes as little surprise.
While I correctly predicted Oscar nominations for the aforementioned quartet of achievements in costume design, I was rather stumped to come up with a fifth nominee prediction for the category. After groping through a field of possibilities, CDG-nominated and otherwise -- I felt pretty confident that Legally Blonde and Blow would get little attention from AMPAS voters, and freely admit that my consideration of Iris (which drew gentle chuckles from one fellow in the know) was based solely on it being Ruth Myers' work -- and finally resorted to the well-regarded Colleen Atwood for her work on Tim Burton's Planet Of The Apes. The AMPAS nomination instead went to two-time Oscar winner Milena Canonero for her period work in ill-fated Hilary Swank-starrer The Affair Of The Necklace, which was a more appropriate selection; given the film's DOA performance upon its domestic theatrical roll-out, I incorrectly considered it essentially a non-player in all categories. (I mentally nixed period fare The Golden Bowl for the same reason.)
Best Achievement In Film Editing [ 5 out of 5 ]
My Predictions A Beautiful Mind: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley
Black Hawk Down: Pietro Scalia
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: John Gilbert
Memento: Dody Dorn
Moulin Rouge: Jill BilcockAMPAS Nominees A Beautiful Mind: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley
Black Hawk Down: Pietro Scalia
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: John Gilbert
Memento: Dody Dorn
Moulin Rouge: Jill BilcockThis was one of four categories which I nailed this year. All five of the Oscar nominees were also Eddie nominees; in fact, the AMPAS list is effectively a mirror image of the American Cinema Editors nominee field in the Best Edited Dramatic Feature Film category save for the replacement of Richard Francis-Bruce's work on Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone with Jill Bilcock's AFI Award-winning editing in service of Moulin Rouge. (For what it's worth, subsequent re-viewings of Baz Luhrmann's film have really sold me on the calibre of Bilcock's work -- there's some terrific stuff there, particularly in the "Come What May" and "El Tango de Roxanne" montages.)
A Beautiful Mind's editing team of Dan Hanley and Mike Hill already has an Oscar to their name with their victory on Ron Howard's Apollo 13, while Black Hawk Down's Pietro Scalia marks his third editing Academy Award nomination in five years with his cite for the Ridley Scott film; a previous winner for JFK, he was also in competition last year for Gladiator. The remaining three nominees are all first-timers in the Oscar game, with The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring's John Gilbert's previous filmography being especially modest. That Dody Dorn successfully scored a nomination for Memento is particularly impressive given the film's independent roots and limited campaigning resources, and I perceive it to be as much an embrace for the picture itself as it is for Dorn's achievement.
Best Foreign Language Film Of The Year [ 2 out of 5 ]
My Predictions Amélie
Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)
Italian For Beginners
No Man's Land
The Son's RoomAMPAS Nominees Amélie
Elling
Lagaan
No Man's Land
Son Of The BrideNot exactly a great showing for me in the Foreign Language Film category -- while all five of the eventual Oscar-nominated pictures were listed in my top eight contenders as per my prediction column, three of them were in slots #6 through 8, thereby leaving me with a predictably anemic two-for-five accuracy rate, with the correct pair being the most obvious leaders -- France's Amélie (which has recently toppled La Cage Aux Folles to become North America's highest-grossing French-language film of all-time) and Bosnia and Herzegovina's Golden Globe-winner No Man's Land.
The other three films which completed the Foreign Language Film picture included Norway's Elling (First Look has picked this up), India's four-hour cricket odyssey Lagaan (which Sony Pictures Classics will domestically reissue later this spring after a 2001 theatrical run), and Argentina's #1 film for 2001, the comic family drama Son Of The Bride (another SPC pickup). All three of these films (obviously) played well to the AMPAS Foreign Language Film committee -- the Academy Lagaan screening was purportedly a mitigating factor in the Sony Pictures Classics acquisition -- and their appearances on the final shortlist should not be considered shockers.
Despite receiving multiple ovations at the AMPAS screening, the Canadian Inuit picture Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) (this year's Camera d'Or winner at Cannes) failed to make the cut, and I'm mildly perplexed that an accessible crowdpleaser like Lone Scherfig's Dogma 95 film Italian For Beginners was unable to win over this normally-sentimental crowd. (At least there's a dearth of cute-kid-related nominees this year.) Additionally, given the recent success of films addressing grief through the device of the death of one's child, I was braced for Nanni Moretti's Palme d'Or-winning The Son's Room (a.k.a. In The Italian Bedroom) cracking the final five; that it failed to do so has reportedly been greeted with mixed emotions in his home country -- critics of the notoriously-leftist filmmaker and activist have publicly cheered his exclusion, with Franco Zefferelli gloating "Moretti made a bad movie that has nothing to say to America," and politician Vittorio Sgarbi chiming in, "It was inevitable. They realized that Moretti is worthless as an artist." Wow, tough crowd. Both Italian For Beginners and The Son's Room were both distributed by Miramax in North America, but it appears that their focus on pushing Amélie in this category (which feasibly would've redoubled after it was upset by No Man's Land at the Globes) might have impacted the Oscar prospects of Moretti and Scherfig's respective pictures.
Rats, nobody took me up on my "The 2001 Foreign Language Film Oscar field will be a Godard-free zone" wager. Oh well.
After the Oscar nominations were announced, I finally had the time to take a little breather and poke through some of the various other nomination prediction lists that had been forwarded my way and/or posted on various bulletin boards and web sites, and was truly startled by the number of people who felt that Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher was not only a legitimate contender, but would actually score a Foreign Language Film nomination. With all due respect, those who predicted it would receive Academy Award attention must've been solely going on its strong performance at Cannes 2001, because if they'd actually seen the film, they would've most certainly realized that that it's hardly the sort of picture that'd be embraced by the Academy. (Note that this bears no reflection on the quality of the film -- thematically speaking, it's just clearly not their cup of tea.)
As an aside, I'd like to note that although the director of the Academy Award-winning Foreign Language Film receives the statuette, for whatever reason none of the directors of the nominated films are actually listed as Oscar nominees; the films and their respective submitting countries are cited as the official Academy Award nominees. I'd like to move that the foreign directors be given their due and be henceforth listed as actual Oscar nominees along with their films and the country of origin; I see no reason why this ought not to be the case. (This not necessarily be read as an implicit endorsement of the auteur theory insofar as the trophy is already being bestowed upon the director.)
Best Achievement In Makeup [ 1 out of 3 ]
My Predictions Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Planet Of The ApesAMPAS Nominees A Beautiful Mind
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Moulin RougeIn a pre-Oscar nomination interview with the Orlando Sentinel, I was asked if there were any candidates that were certain to not only score Academy Award nominations, but clearly bound to take home the trophy. My response was automatic: Rick Baker would take the Best Makeup Academy Award for his work on Planet Of The Apes. After all, it seemed like a no-brainer -- Baker, the most-honoured makeup designer in the history of the Academy Awards, doing -- well, it's Planet Of The Apes, for crying out loud; you can't get much more of a makeup-intensive or showy gig than that. The equation seemed so obvious that those reading my Oscar columns from March of last year will note that I'd already pegged him, work unseen, to get an Oscar nomination for the Tim Burton film. (Now that's confidence.) As you can imagine, then, I am stunned -- completely, utterly, unequivocably stunned -- that makeup work that made Jennifer Connelly appear somewhat ragged outballoted the Baker tour-de-force work on Apes. (Thankfully, the Sentinel did not quote me on this. Web exclusive!)
On a logical basis, I can't begin to even fathom how this could've happened -- yes, Planet Of The Apes was largely considered to be a major disappointment (I myself was mostly bored silly by the obviousness and pandering of the picture, though at least it did pick up during the final half-hour), but I'd be surprised if ill-feeling towards the film bled into perception of Baker's work in any significant fashion. I've no idea what went on amongst the AMPAS Makeup Branch voters that would prompt such a shunning -- not only is this by far the biggest Oscar shocker of this year (not that the majority of the mainstream media took notice, given their tunnel-vision fixation on the 'glamour' categories), but I think it's one of the most inexplicable Academy Award exclusions of the past few years. (Baker's Oscar nomination streak, the longest active one going into this year, has now been halted at five years.)
I've no significant qualms about the other two nominees -- The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring was a sure-thing Academy Award nominee, and I'm actually pleased that the voters sided with the extensive hair and makeup work on Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh et al on flashy Moulin Rouge rather than my predicted makeup achievement in Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone (I actually found the work there to be surprisingly shoddy relative to the film's budget and profile, but feared these latter two factors would play a role in the Oscar race). I do consider the A Beautiful Mind makeup nomination to be rather suspect, though -- Crowe's aging work looks fine, but Connelly's is pretty unconvincing. (To be honest, during the fictional valentinesque Nobel Prize sequence in the film, Connelly inadvertantly reminded me of the lycanthropic Katharine Isabelle from Ginger Snaps. Come to think of it, it would've been pretty cool if Alicia spontaneously went all Trouble Every Day on John Nash.)
Best Achievement In Music in connection with Motion Pictures (Original Score) [ 3 out of 5 ]
My Predictions A.I. Artificial Intelligence: John Williams
A Beautiful Mind: James Horner
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: Howard Shore
Mulholland Dr.: Angelo Badalamenti
Pearl Harbor: Hans ZimmerAMPAS Nominees A.I. Artificial Intelligence: John Williams
A Beautiful Mind: James Horner
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone: John Williams
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: Howard Shore
Monsters, Inc.: Randy NewmanI was mildly surprised with the final slate of nominees selected for this year's Best Original Score category. Three of the nominees -- that is, the ones for which my predictions were fulfilled -- were fairly obvious (John Williams' much-lauded A.I. Artificial Intelligence score, Howard Shore's award-winning The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring music, and the vaguely New Age-ish James Horner score for A Beautiful Mind), but I hadn't counted on Randy Newman receiving attention for his Monsters, Inc. musical backing (forgettably, in my opinion), and that Williams received a second nomination in the category for his blaring Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone score was wholly unexpected; in critical circles, it may well have been the most derided film score of 2001. To wit:
"The bombastic score...smothers the action with inappropriate grandiosity. It’s selling the movie, not supporting it." - David Ansen, Newsweek"Overreaching" - Jami Bernard, New York Daily News
"A great clanging, banging music box that simply will not shut up" - Kirk Honeycutt, The Hollywood Reporter
"Saccharine, derivative" - Noel Murray, The Nashville Scene
"The overly insistent score lacks subtlety and bludgeons us with crescendos" - Claudia Puig, USA Today
"Relentless" - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
"Infernally busy ... Williams' hyperactive musical score, which thunders over everything, never takes a rest and is completely uninterested in developing any emotional themes to evoke Harry's inner life of parental longing. Half as much music would have been more than enough, at half the volume." - Todd McCarthy, Variety
Given such widespread barbs as these (as well as my own negative reaction to Williams' Harry Potter contribution), I hadn't remotely counted on the much-feted veteran composer factoring into the Best Score a second time; I can't recall the last time a musical achievement with such a negative reception managed to walk away with an Oscar nomination. Williams becomes, of course, the first person to be in direct competition with himself in an Oscar category since Steven Soderbergh racked up twin Best Director nominations last year for his work in Traffic and Erin Brockovich.
That Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone nailed down an AMPAS cite is additionally disappointing considering that it locked up a spot which might've been destined for a deserving Angelo Badalamenti for his supportive Mulholland Dr. score; I'd thought that he stood a reasonably good shot at a career first Oscar nomination, but apparently it again was not to be. Hans Zimmer would've also been a reasonable selection were he to be nominated for his Pearl Harbor music. On the other hand, I feared that Yann Tiersen might sneak in an Oscar nomination for his work on Amélie, so I'm relieved that he didn't make the cut; when the Toronto Film Festival guide described Jeunet's picture as 'undeniably French', I could only imagine this was a reference to all that bad accordion music that represents its score. (To be fair, I do like Tiersen's "Rue des Cascades", for the same obvious reasons [for those who know me well] that I like his "La Parapluie". Et j'adore France.)
Best Achievement In Music in connection with Motion Pictures (Original Song) [ 4 out of 5 ]
My Predictions "All Love Can Be", A Beautiful Mind
"May It Be", The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
"There You'll Be", Pearl Harbor
"Until...", Kate & Leopold
"Vanilla Sky", Vanilla SkyAMPAS Nominees "If I Didn't Have You", Monsters, Inc.
"May It Be", The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
"There You'll Be", Pearl Harbor
"Until...", Kate & Leopold
"Vanilla Sky", Vanilla SkyAs prothesized in Oscar Column #4, this year's slate of Academy Award nominees in the Best Original Song category did indeed share an uncanny resemblance with this year's Golden Globe nominees -- save for the replacement of Oscar-ineligible Moulin Rouge ballad "Come What May" with the Monsters, Inc. buddy tune "If I Didn't Have You", the lists are identical.
Paul McCartney scored his first Oscar nomination since penning the title track for 1973's James Bond film Live And Let Die for writing the title track for the Cameron Crowe drama Vanilla Sky, while Enya, Nicky Ryan and Roma Ryan picked up their first collective career Oscar nomination for their collaboration on The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring's ethereal melody "May It Be". After being nominated last year for the cringeworthy "My Funny Friend And Me" from the slapstick animated feature The Emperor's New Groove, Sting returns with his second AMPAS acknowledgement in as many years for his Golden Globe-winning "Until..." from the Miramax romantic comedy Kate & Leopold, while perennial Oscar magnet Diane Warren returns after a one-year absence from the category with her fifth nomination in six years for the Pearl Harbor ballad "There You'll Be".
(Curiously, while only one of the five nominated songs appears in a film up for the Best Picture Oscar ["May It Be" from The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring], three other nominated composers have music featured in a Best Picture nominee -- Sting's "Roxanne", Diane Warren's "Rhythm Of The Night", and the McCartney/Lennon collaboration "All You Need Is Love" all appear in Moulin Rouge. If only Baz Luhrmann, Marius De Vries and company could've worked in Randy Newman's "Short People" as a theme for Toulouse-Lautrec, all of this year's nominated composers would be represented in the 2001 Best Picture nominees.)
Newman, who's also up for his Monsters, Inc. score, extends his run in the Best Original Song category to four consecutive Oscar nominations; this is the longest currently active individual AMPAS nomination streak in any category. Should he fail to capitalize on either of his Oscar chances this year, Newman would also capture the new record for most career AMPAS nominations without a win: composer Alex North and art director Roland Anderson went 0-for-15 lifetime, while the statuette-challenged Newman is now up for his 15th and 16th bids.
While commenting on Moulin Rouge's ineligibility in both of the AMPAS music categories in Oscar Column #9, I skeptically mused that upon the announcement of this year's nominees, many in the media would fail to have registered that neither "Come What May" nor Craig Armstrong's score were not up for Academy consideration and hence would publicly question how they failed to make the cut. Time's Richard Corliss didn't let me down, opining in his February 12th column that it was "bizarre" that "the year's one prominent musical snagged a nomination for Best Sound but not for Best Score or Best Song (and there were only four, not the usual five, cited in that category)." Sigh. (I have no idea where Corliss got that last part from -- there are five Song nominees, unless you, like I, refuse to classify something as dire as "If I Didn't Have You" as a song per se on general principles.)
Man. Looking at this year's thoroughly turgid list of song nominees, I am really not looking forward to taking in the musical performances during this year's ceremony. The thought of three hours of Whoopi Goldberg and sitting through these musical numbers -- O cruel fate! If only "Backdoor Lover" from Josie And The Pussycats was nominated -- I would totally mark out if Dujour were to perform at the Oscars.
Best Achievement In Sound [ 4 out of 5 ]
My Predictions A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Black Hawk Down
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Moulin Rouge
Pearl HarborAMPAS Nominees Amélie
Black Hawk Down
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Moulin Rouge
Pearl HarborThe Sound nominations for sonically-inclined Black Hawk Down, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring and Pearl Harbor all make perfect sense, particularly for their respective battle sequences, and Moulin Rouge's sound work was splendidly rendered (particularly during the hyperactive "Lady Marmalade"/"Smells Like Teen Spirit" medley during the club introduction), but the nomination for Amélie struck me as a bit of a stunner -- I had absolutely no expectation that the team of Vincent Arnardi, Guillaume Leriche and Jean Umansky could possibly topple more obvious sound-oriented candidates like The Fast And The Furious, A.I. Artificial Intelligence and Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone for their work in the French-language romantic comedy. (Amélie becomes the first foreign-language film to receive a Sound nomination since Wolfgang Petersen's submarine classic Das Boot.) Honestly, I'd have to see the film again -- and I really don't want to do that -- but I have absolutely no idea how Amélie received a Sound nomination. The Others was robbed, says I.
Best Achievement In Sound Editing [ 0 out of 2 ]
My Predictions Black Hawk Down
The Fast And The Furious
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The RingAMPAS Nominees Monsters, Inc.
Pearl HarborWow, I've now been shut out for two consecutive years in the Sound Editing category, going a cumulative 0-for-4 during this period. (For whatever reason, AMPAS has only cited two nominees in each of the past two years; they are free to nominate up to three achievements per year at their discretion.) By all rights, reader(s) of my future 2003 Oscar Columns ought to take note of this streak of futility and accordingly ignore my predictions in this category.
I've no issues with the Pearl Harbor nomination -- it was my first alternate pick, and clearly seems like a reasonable selection given the film's obvious sonic abundance -- but the nomination for Monsters, Inc. was an eyebrow-raiser. (It's the first animated film to receive a Sound Editing Oscar nomination since Aladdin received a Sound Effects Editing nomination; thanks to Sterling Hedgpath for the correction.) As a CGI-based picture, the entire sound scheme of Monsters, Inc. naturally had to be generated from scratch; while the slew of doorslamming sounds, rattling conveyer belt sequence and whizzing 'snowsledding' stint were solid, I'm still rather surprised that the film's sound editing work was able to outpoint such strong contenders as Black Hawk Down, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring and The Fast And The Furious, none of which were deemed to be worthy for even a third nominee position in the category. At this point the explosion-riddled Pearl Harbor would seem to be the probable Oscar winner, although the fact that Monsters, Inc. is a substantially more respected and better-liked picture should be taken into consideration.
Best Achievement In Visual Effects [ 3 out of 3 ]
My Predictions A.I. Artificial Intelligence
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Pearl HarborAMPAS Nominees A.I. Artificial Intelligence
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring
Pearl HarborI was fortunate enough to nail this category, going a perfect 3-for-3 here for the third consecutive year, and objectively feel that the AMPAS Visual Effects Nominating Committee selected the appropriate trio this time around -- The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring featured a significant amount of visual effects work, all professionally done, while Pearl Harbor's signature bomb POV shot is one of the film's few distinguishing moments. While A.I. Artificial Intelligence was largely shunned by the Academy as a whole, ending up with only two nominations in total, it's hard to argue with its Visual Effects cite given the volume of first-rate work in the film; the balloon sequence in particular is one of my personal favourites. I'm relieved that the lackluster work in Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone didn't displace any of the nominated trio to snap up a nomination, and sequels such as Jurassic Park III generally seem to lose out on the innovation criterion and rarely score follow-up technical nominations.
Best Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen [ 3 out of 5 ]
My Predictions Gosford Park: Julian Fellowes
The Man Who Wasn’t There: Joel & Ethan Coen
Memento: Christopher Nolan
Monster's Ball: Milo Addica & Will Rokos
The Others: Alejandro AmenábarAMPAS Nominees Amélie: Guillaume Laurant & Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Gosford Park: Julian Fellowes
Memento: Christopher Nolan
Monster's Ball: Milo Addica & Will Rokos
The Royal Tenenbaums: Wes Anderson & Owen WilsonTo my complete surprise, it wasn't my (ultimately fruitless) prediction of Nicole Kidman receiving an Oscar nomination for The Others rather than Moulin Rouge which elicited the most incredulous feedback from my reader(s) -- it was my (similarly inaccurate, ahem) prediction that Alejandro Amenábar's The Others would score a Best Original Screenplay nomination over Wes Anderson & Owen Wilson's The Royal Tenenbaums script. I felt (and continue to feel) that, save for a few minor lapses, The Others had a very strong and tight script, and Amenábar's handling of expository material was terrific; I was also operating under the presumption that if the AMPAS Writers Guild hadn't awarded an Anderson and Wilson an Oscar nomination for their fascinating and thoroughly entertaining Rushmore script, they probably wouldn't acknowledge The Royally Inferior Tenenbaums either. Obviously this did not come to pass, as the surprisingly successful film (relatively speaking) netted its sole AMPAS recognition in this category.
The question on whether the Memento screenplay written by Christopher Nolan would be considered an Original or Adapted script was conclusively determined with its AMPAS nomination here; as concluded in several previous Oscar columns, its classification in the Original Screenplay category despite being based on Jonathan Nolan's unpublished short story logically follows based on a careful parsing of the Academy rulebook. While some may consider Memento's inclusion as an Oscar nomination to be a minor surprise given its omission (on technical grounds) with the Writers Guild of America nominees, its attention-grabbing narrative structure and strong word-of-mouth have put Nolan's work in a position where I feel it would've been remarkable had it not received an Oscar nomination; this was a very probable finalist.
Julian Fellowes, winner of several critics awards to date, scored an Oscar nomination for Gosford Park's script, as did Milo Addica & Will Rokos for their Monster's Ball screenplay. In both cases, their first produced scripts scored them AMPAS nominations; a heady start for any screenwriter's career. (I'm not very big on the Monster's Ball script.)
Completing the field was the quirky Amélie screenplay by Guillaume Laurant & Jean-Pierre Jeunet, whose inclusion in the quintet of finalists was greeted with some minor surprise given that it failed to receive prior acknowledgement from the WGA. (I doubt it was even eligible for consideration there.) I thought its standing was much stronger in this category than most pundits, it seems -- aside from the obvious Foreign Language Film category, I felt that one of Amélie's best chances at Oscar consideration would be for its script, and actually agree that it deserved its received AMPAS attention over the WGA-nominated Moulin Rouge script; whatever one may think of Luhrmann's film, one'd be hardpressed to describe its fundamental story as particularly original.
Best Screenplay Based On Material Previously Produced Or Published [ 4 out of 5 ]
My Predictions A Beautiful Mind: Akiva Goldsman
Black Hawk Down: Ken Nolan
Ghost World: Daniel Clowes & Terry Zwigoff
In The Bedroom: Rob Festinger & Todd Field
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter JacksonAMPAS Nominees A Beautiful Mind: Akiva Goldsman
Ghost World: Daniel Clowes & Terry Zwigoff
In The Bedroom: Rob Festinger & Todd Field
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring: Fran Walsh & Philippa Boyens & Peter Jackson
Shrek: Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio and Joe Stillman and Roger S.H. SchulmanWhile only three of the five AMPAS picks were previously selected by the Writers Guild of America, there were no real surprises in this year's slate of Adapted Screenplay nominees. Akiva Goldsman's adaptation of A Beautiful Mind was a certain nominee, as was The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring's script by the Wingnut team of Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyen and Peter Jackson. While In The Bedroom did not receive a WGA nomination based on not being produced by signatories to a WGA contract or any of their international affiliate guilds, Todd Field and Rob Festinger's script had received a lot of attention (and the National Board of Review's Screenplay award) and I felt it was far more likely than not to receive an Oscar nomination; its inclusion in the final five was fully expected.
Although the adaptation of Daniel Clowes' graphic novel Ghost World scored a WGA nomination, whether or not it would translate to a reciprocating Oscar nomination was reasonably uncertain; as has been the case with many independent critical darlings, the Clowes/Terry Zwigoff did manage to score the film's only Oscar representation courtesy of the AMPAS Writers Guild for its simultaneously melancholic and acerbic script. The screenplay adaptation for the smash DreamWorks animated comedy Shrek completed the category, marking the first time an animated film has received a screenplay nomination since the writers involved with Toy Story pulled down an Original Screenplay nomination in 1996. As I wrote in Oscar Column #09, "Shrek is a genuine possibility for an Adapted Screenplay nomination" -- the popular film's inclusion shouldn't be considered a surprise despite its failure to score a WGA nomination (which again resulted from a technicality -- DreamWorks hasn't signed the guild contract for feature animation).
Memo To Laura Ziskin
Okay, resorting to Whoopi Goldberg host the ceremony again was bad enough -- but Cirque du Soleil? What on Earth are you thinking?
Next: More stuff -- probably comments on Russell Crowe's awards rage, this whole A Beautiful Mind debacle, and various guild awards.
Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca)
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