Round-up: A dry, old, white guy season
Also: The costumes of 'W.E.,' and making excuses for 'Cars 2'
Ernest Borgnine, for many the poster boy for the Academy membership.
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The big topic of Oscar conversation over the weekend wasn't exactly a newsflash: anyone who didn't previously know that the Academy membership is dominated by older white men is presumably still reeling from the shock of "Twilight: Breaking Dawn" not receiving a Best Picture nomination. Even so, the stats revealed in the LA Times's investigation into the AMPAS makeup are pretty stunning: sadly, I'm perhaps less surprised that voters are 94% white than I am by the knowledge that they're 77% male. Add in the fact that only 2% of them are under the age of 40, and you wonder why anyone even entertained the possibility of "Bridesmaids" cracking the top category. Members from Alexander Payne to Alfre Woodard (who's a "Shame" fan, as it happens) weigh in on the matter. A must-read. [Los Angeles Times]
David Poland, self-appointed arbiter of journalistic value, thinks the LAT study is "a waste of time." [Hot Blog]
A back-and-forth between Manohla Dargis and A.O. Scott on the relative merits of the Oscars as a cultural institution. Many good points raised, but... Madonna to host? Really, Manohla? [New York Times]
Tying in neatly with Friday's Oscar Guide piece, Arianne Phillips talks us through her Oscar-nominated costume designs for Madonna's "W.E." [Vanity Fair]
"Cars 2" producer Lindsey Collins thinks anti-Pixar backlash explains the film's absence from the Oscar lineup. Can I politely suggest that the film not being very good may have something to do with it? [Movieline]
David Cox wonders just what it is about "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" that has rubbed so many people the wrong way. [The Guardian]
After slapping them in their fuzzy faces with the Best Original Song fiasco, the Academy has decided it'd be nice to have the Muppets on the show after all. [The Odds]
Daniel Montgomery talks to three-time Oscar nominee Terry George about his nominated short "The Shore." [Gold Derby]
It may have won the BAFTA, but Pedro Almodovar's "The Skin I Live In" was the bridesmaid at Spain's Goya Awards, losing the top prizes to police thriller "No Rest for the Wicked." [Screen Daily]
Geoff Andrew on recurrent topic of critical conversation: the overuse of the word "masterpiece." On the one hand, I agree. On the other, it's just a word. [Sight & Sound]
2012-2013 OSCAR PREDICTIONS
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Production Design
Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Visual Effects
Best Animated Feature Film
Best Documentary Feature
Best Foreign Language Film
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February 20, 2012 at 1:00PM EST Reply to CommentWow. Those stats are jarring. That explains a great deal.
Parrill They might be old and white but it's not like it's a bunch of CEOs. These are creative people...people that have made movies a lot of people love.
February 20, 2012 at 4:26PM ESTIt's not like they're not inviting a more diverse crowd nowadays.
I prefer this to PEOPLE'S CHOICE.
CaptainCanada
February 20, 2012 at 1:19PM EST Reply to CommentI really don't agree with Denzel Washington. If blacks don't make up 12% of elite cinematographers (or cinematographers in general, since "elite" is inherently subjective), I don't see why they should be 12% of the cinematography branch.
I'd certainly agree that there should be more black cinematographers, but that's not really about the Academy, it's about the wider industry.
Frank Lee Bingo.
February 20, 2012 at 2:11PM ESTLiz That's exactly it. When people complain about the lack of minorities as nominees every year, I feel like their anger is justified but misplaced. The Academy does not equal Hollywood (and the industry as a whole). They can really only nominate what's out there.
February 20, 2012 at 6:11PM ESTShould there be more opportunities for actors, craftspeople, etc. of color? Absolutely, positively yes. But it's up to the studios and executives to start creating those opportunities. Pointing at the Oscar nominees and the Academy membership isn't really looking at the bigger picture.
/3rt
February 20, 2012 at 3:04PM EST Reply to CommentWhat a surprise?--White older men prefer younger women. It explains why two child actresses won Oscars in the supporting category over grown women and that would never happen to actors in any of their categories. Only one woman in the history of the Academy has won Best Actress in their 50s (Shirley Booth, Come Back, Little Sheba '52). If Viola Davis wins she'll be only the 14th woman in her 40s to win best actress under the circumstance of one shot/last chance (Sarandon, Maclaine, Cher, Bates, Lange and Bullock).
Glenn Close never won because men don't want to fuck her.
Guy Lodge "Glenn Close never won because men don't want to fuck her."
February 20, 2012 at 6:35PM ESTBut they did want to fuck Linda Hunt and Peggy Ashcroft? That's a vapid argument and you know it.
Voland "Glenn Close never won because men don't want to fuck her."
February 20, 2012 at 8:14PM ESTUh. Such generalizations are so lazy and just plain false.
/3rt Linda Hunt playing a man and not a woman disguised as a man -- Peggy Ashcroft's old -- all make sense as winners beating the unfuckable Close. Yes it's vapid but there's truth to it. May I refer you to a doc you've likely already seen ages ago "Searching for Debra Winger"?
February 21, 2012 at 12:51AM ESTJLPatt It is a horrifically stupid statement. Did they want to have sex with Kathy Bates? Close not winning has absolutely NOTHING to do with the way she looks. That's just nonsense.
February 21, 2012 at 10:17PM EST/3rt Did they want to have sex with Kathy Bates?
February 22, 2012 at 6:33AM ESTYes.
Guy Lodge By the way, describing a perfectly attractive actress, however ironically, as "unfuckable" is a curious way to come her defence. It also doesn't seem to take into account the fact that her first two Best Actress nominations came for playing sexually potent women. If she'd been so very "unfuckable" in Fatal Attraction, there wouldn't have been much of a movie.
February 22, 2012 at 9:14AM EST/3rt Touche!
February 22, 2012 at 10:34AM ESTLukas
February 20, 2012 at 5:45PM EST Reply to CommentIf I remember it correctly, the AMPAS member Ernest Borgnine once said: "If John Wayne was alive and saw "Brokeback Mountain", he would vomit." Well, it is hard to expect bold choices from this type of AMPAS members.
Knative Were Ernest Borgnine's comments indicative of how the whole group thinks? No. I actually think the people of the Academy would tend to be more socially liberal than a lot of people in the US. Incidentally, I went to a talk about Afghanistan last night and there were tons of retirees that were bussed in to hear it, and there was a group of older people talking about somewhere and they were talking about how a place was nice because it was "liberal." Those retirees are mostly from the East Coast and they are probably more liberal than the average person that lives here in Michgan, and Michigan is a "blue state."
February 21, 2012 at 6:47PM ESTInstan
February 20, 2012 at 6:30PM EST Reply to CommentI don't really get how much attention is paid to the make up of the academy. Yes, it would be very nice to see more diveristy there but the ageism is kind of upsetting.
So what if these people got old, they built the thing so they have every right to vote in it. Everyone else is free to make their own Academy. If their's the one with the most prestige than that's to their credit, not their fault. The word "old" is the one that's most overused.
Also, once a filmmaker always a filmmaker.
Guy Lodge I agree that age isn't a concern in and of itself -- though I do think the fact that only 2% of voters are under 40 is problematically disproportionate -- but I think there's an argument to be made for members having to be active artists. Sorry, I just don't see why someone who hasn't worked in film for 30 years should have a vote.
February 20, 2012 at 6:39PM ESTVoland Not only that. At least after the nominations are out, every voter, who wants to participate, should be obliged to actually watch every movie in the specific category.
February 20, 2012 at 8:16PM ESTGuy Lodge Obviously I agree with that idea in principle. But how on earth do you enforce it?
February 20, 2012 at 8:30PM ESTSergiu37
February 21, 2012 at 9:56AM EST Reply to CommentYes, they are mostly white, mostly male, mostly older, mostly liberals, mostly very, very rich.
But the most important is that they are mostly busy with making movies or spending their money and not so much watching the other movies.
But then again there are critics prizes, people choices, gay prizes, latinos prizes, black prizes to satisfy everybody.