85TH OSCAR RATINGS AND WINNERS

BEST PICTURE 2013

The 2013 Oscar broadcast hosted by Seth MacFarlane scored 40.3 million viewers, up from 2012's 39.3 million, hosted by Billy Chrystal. Before this year the broadcast has not exceeded 40 million viewers since Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosted in 2010.

Seth MacFarlane

FULL WINNER LIST
  1. Best Picture: "Argo."
  2. Actor in Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln."
  3. Actress in Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook."
  4. Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained."
  5. Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, "Les Miserables."
  6. Directing: Ang Lee, "Life of Pi."
  7. Foreign Language Film: "Amour." Austria.
  8. Adapted Screenplay: Chris Terrio, "Argo."
  9. Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, "Django Unchained."
10. Animated Feature Film: "Brave."
11. Production Design: "Lincoln."
12. Cinematography: "Life of Pi."
13. Sound Mixing: "Les Miserables."
14. Sound Editing (tie): "Skyfall," ''Zero Dark Thirty."
15. Original Score: "Life of Pi," Mychael Danna.
16. Original Song: "Skyfall" from "Skyfall," Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth.
17. Costume: "Anna Karenina."
18. Documentary Feature: "Searching for Sugar Man."
19. Documentary Short Subject): "Inocente."
20. Film Editing: "Argo."
21. Makeup and Hairstyling: "Les Miserables."
22. Animated Short: "Paperman."
23. Live Action Short: "Curfew."
24. Visual Effects: "Life of Pi."

The Oscars for outstanding film achievements of 2012 were presented on Oscar® Sunday, February 24, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and were hosted by Seth MacFarlane. The Oscar presentation was televised live on the ABC Television Network and in more than 225 countries worldwide.

More detailed information: http://tinyurl.com/alxjy26

Academy Hosts Luncheon for Oscar Nominees

Quvenzahané Wallis in "Beasts of the Southern Wild"

Monday, February 4, 17 of the 20 nominees in the acting categories will be among more than 160 Oscar nominees who will gather at noon at the Beverly Hilton, Beverly Hills, Ca, when the Academy honors this year's Oscar contenders during its annual Nominees Luncheon. Wallis, pictured above, a nine-year-old is the youngest person ever to be nominated for best performance by a lead actress.

From the Lead Actress and Actor categories, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Quvenzahané Wallis, Naomi Watts, Bradley Cooper, Daniel Day-Lewis, Hugh Jackman, Joaquin Phoenix and Denzel Washington are expected to attend.

Four of the five nominees in the Directing category – Ang Lee, David O. Russell, Steven Spielberg and Benh Zeitlin – also are expected to attend. Three of the Academy's four 2012 Governors Awards recipients, Jeffrey Katzenberg, Hal Needham and George Stevens, Jr., will join this year's nominees.

Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones, Christoph Waltz, Amy Adams, Sally Field, Anne Hathaway, Helen Hunt and Jacki Weaver will represent the Supporting Actor and Actress categories.

Oscars® for outstanding film achievements of 2012 will be presented on Oscar Sunday, February 24, 2013, at the Dolby Theatre™ at Hollywood and Highland Center®, and will be hosted by Seth MacFarlane live on the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

Israeli Film Wins Lion at Venice

LEBANON

The 66th Venice International Film Festival (Le Biennale di Venezia)(VIFF), which ran from 2 - 12 September, wrapped yesterday evening with a somewhat surprising list of winners, and only two for the USA. The awards ceremony in the Sala Darsena was followed by the screenings of LOVE YOU (Chengdu, wo ai ni, China) by Fruit Chan and Jian Cui, and RAMBO (Director's Cut) by Sylvester Stallone.

Director Ang Lee, two-time Golden Lion (Leone d'Oro) winner, served as head of the Jury that selected the top prizes, and he personally awarded the Golden Lion for Best Film. He first won the Golden Lion in 2005 for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN, and again for the World War II drama LUST, CAUTION in 2007. His latest movie, TAKING WOODSTOCK, screened out of competition at Venice.

The festival top prize, the Golden Lion for Best Film went to LEBANON (Levanone, Israel), a debut feature film for director Samuel Maoz. Set in June, 1982, the start of the Israel-Lebanon War, four young Israeli soldiers operate a tank that is assigned to go into a Lebanese village to clear it of PLO terrorists, the first tank to cross the border in what was supposed to be a one-day mission. It turns into much more than that.

Director Maoz was only 22 when he fought in the Israel-Lebanon War. He spent years in after-combat distress, suffering outbursts of anger and extended episodes of depression. After 25 years, he decided that creating a fictionalized version of his experiences might help him, and others.

The buzz started early at the Festival for this film as a contender for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar® for Israel, and it will now kick into high gear. That remains to be seen, as much will depend upon what it does at Toronto, and what distributor picks it up for the U.S. Market.

Shirin Neshat was awarded the Silver Lion (Leone d'Argento) for Best Director for WOMEN WITHOUT MEN (Zanan Bedone Mardan, Germany), and another coveted award, the Special Jury Prize was awarded to SOUL KITCHEN by Fatih Akin (Germany). Note to myself: Films about cooking are coming out of the woodworks this year from a variety of countries on the heels of the Julia Child take-off, JULIE AND JULIA.

The Volpi Cup (Coppa Volpi) for Best Actor / Actress went to British actor Colin Firth for his role in Tom Ford's debut film, A SINGLE MAN (USA), and Russian actress Ksenia Rappoport for her role in the film THE DOUBLE HOUR (La doppia ora, Italy) by Giuseppe Capotondi. A SINGLE MAN is based on the novel by Christopher Isherwood, and the buzz is that this could be Firth's Oscar year. This role is, after all, a strait man who portrays a gay. Again, a lot depends on what happens at Toronto and with the film's yet-to-acquire distributor.

Todd Solondz is bringing home to the USA the "Osella" for Best Screenplay for LIFE DURING WARTIME (USA). Joe Dante will do the same with a Persol 3-D Award for the Best 3-D Stereoscopic Film of the Year (Prize awarded on 11th September 2009) for THE HOLE, a film described as a, "Kiddie horror film." The prize is given to a film that best explores (the) new cinematic frontier” of 3-D. These were the only two Venice Festival awards for the USA.

The Horizon's Award (Orizzonti) went to ENGKWENTRO by Pepe Diokno (Philippines). China's Du Haibin received the Horizon Best Documentary award for 1428. THE MAN'S OTHER WOMAN AND OTHER STORIES (Aadmi ki aurat aur anya kahaniya, India) by Amit Dutta received a special mention.

For list of all awards, click title of this post.

San Sebastián IFF Sets Competition

The 57th San Sebastián International Film Festival (SIFF) film competition for the Golden Shell will open 18 September with Canadian director Atom Egoyan's CHLOE, starring Liam Neeson, Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried. This is first time Egoyan will have a film in competition at the SSIFF.

Columbian born writer and director Rodrigo García, son of Colombian writer Gabriel Garcia Márquez, will close the Festival with his North American film MOTHER and CHILD, starring Naomi Watts, Annette Bening and Samuel L. Jackson. One of Garcia's best known films is NINE LIVES, 2005, and he has extensive credits in television.

American Aaron Schneider, Academy Award winner for Best Short Film, TWO SOLDIERS, 2003, will bring his directorial feature debut, GET LOW, which stars the Donostia Award recipient Robert Duvall, alongside Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek. GET LOW will also compete for the Kutxa-New Directors Award along with 17 others.

From Turkey comes the winner of the SSIFF's Zabaltegi-New Directors in 2005.Turkish director Pelin Esmer, who won with her directorial feature debut OYUN (The Play), will compete for the first time in the Official Selection with 10 to 11 (11’e 10 kala), a co-production between Turkey, France and Germany.

Three of France’s most prestigious directors will enter the competition. Bruno Dumont, having bagged the Cannes Grand Jury Prize twice with L’Humanité (1999) and FLANDERS (2006), will bring HADEWIJCH. François Ozon will present REFUGE (Le refuge). Christophe Honoré returns to the Official Selection for the second consecutive year with MAKING PLANS FOR LENA, starring Chiara Mastroianni, Marie-Christine Barrault and Jean-Marc Barr.

German cinema will be represented by Matthias Glasner with THIS IS LOVE. From Argentina, Juan José Campanella adds THE SECRET OF YOUR EYES (El secreto de sus ojos).

Three Spanish films will participate in the competitive Official Selection: THE DAMNED (Los condenados), THE WOMAN WITHOUT A PIANO (La mujer sin piano), and ME, TOO (Yo, también). In additioin, Fernando Trueba will present THE DANCER AND THE THIEF (El baile de la Victoria) out of competition.

From Iran there is THE WHITE MEADOWS (Keshtzarhaye sepid) by Mohammad Rasoulof. Asia will be represented by South Korean Jeon Soo-il's I CAME FROM BUSAN, and Chinese director Lu Chuan's THE CITY OF LIFE AND DEATH. Lu Chuan is also known as Chuan Lu.

Zabaltegi-Pearls, the showcase for movies feted at the big international festivals but not yet released in Spain, with open with Quentin Tarantino's INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (Tarantino's spelling). This film, winner of the Best Actor Award for Christoph Waltz at Cannes, will be screened on the first day of the 57th edition on Friday, 18 September.

Also in this showcase are new films by Woody Allen (WHATEVER WORKS), Ang Lee (TAKING WOODSTOCK), Jim Jarmusch (THE LIMITS OF CONTROL, filmed in Madrid), Bahman Ghobadi (NO ONE KNOWS ABOUT PERSIAN CATS), Bong Joon-ho (MOTHER) and Johnnie To (VENGEANCE).

PRECIOUS, the big hit at Sundance Festival, winner of the Special Jury Prize, Best Actress for Mo’Nique and Audience Award, will also be screened in Zabaltegi-Pearls. This movie, initially presented at Sundance and Cannes with the title of PUSH, directed by Lee Daniels, is based on the novel by Sapphire.

Overall, 18 films will compete in competition (Official Selection), 13 Latin American films will compete for the Horizons Award, 17 in the Kutxa-New Directors, plus other sections, and more are yet to be announced. See previous posts for previously announced events, etc. Click title of this post to go to Web site for much more info.

THE CANNES AFTERGLOW

The Cannes Film Festival (CFF) wrapped 23 May. Scroll down for my post of the top winners, 24 May. Since then, there have been further discussions about them.

The world-wide economic slowdown impacted Cannes this year. There were far fewer yachts, stars, press, and attendees. In the U.S., film critics are considered a luxury, and many newspapers have cut then from their staff. That is not true in Europe. For example, a newspaper in France, even though it may be experiencing a financial slowdown, will not ever think of cutting its film critic.

Biggest disappointment among the films in competition was Ang Lee's, TAKING WOODSTOCK. John Powers says the movie is “dinky”. Others made comments such as, “. . . highly anticipated, yet underwhelming.” Powers feels it is not very good cinematically, and probably should not have been in the Festival. He says it is fun to watch, and thinks Cannes accepted it because the Festival turned down BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN (2006). Judging by the Jury picks, this could have been the Festival for Lee’s LUST, CAUTION (2007).

The biggest surprise about a film that did not get an award at the Festival is Jane Campion's BRIGHT STAR. It received great reviews by critics viewing the film at the Festival. Apparently, it did not impress the Jury. Powers dubbed this years Cannes Festival, a Festival of Violence and Extremes.

The most deliberately provocative movie is Lars von Trier’s ANTICHRIST. Entertainment Weekly’s critic pulled no punches when he wrote, “Scenes of sexual mutilation in this gruesome story of a couple in [marital] hell elicited involuntary groans and then boos.” Most of the other critics left out “involuntary,” adding jeers, foot pounding, and many leaving the theater.

It has been widely reported that Trier suffered a bout of deep depression before embarking on this film. Despite the huge outcry against the film, Austrian Charlotte Gainsbourg won Best Actress for her role.

There was much buzz about Heath Ledger’s final performance in Terry Gilliam’s THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS, which screened out of competition. As usual, the critics didn’t get the film at all. They seldom get a Gilliam movie, but many die-hard fans do. When Ledger died about halfway through the filming, the role was recast to have Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell portray "physically transformed versions" of Tony.

No one else has speculated on this but I am going to. Could the Joker role followed by the mysterious stranger Tony in this “the Devil will have his due, if I don’t undo my mistakes” movie, coupled with Ledger’s recent divorce, and drug use, all have united to seal Ledger’s fate? It is the Doctor’s daughter, Valentina, who is in peril because of what her father has done, and Ledger had a young daughter. Just speculating.

Most critics were kind to Pedro Almodóvar’s latest with Penélope Cruz, BROKEN EMBRACES, praising her performance, but lukewarm to the movie. Poor Penélope had a bad cold, or flu, and missed most of the festivities.

Almodóvar and Lee are losing their mojo, according to the majority of the critics. Perhaps, both need to take a break to unwind and recharge.

On the other hand, critics and viewers generally praised Quentin Tarantino’s INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, which is the name of a gang slaughtering Nazis. Powers calls it an amazing film because it takes us back to the 1960s WW II Nazi movies, with glimpses reminding one of the TV show, Hogan’s Heroes, but BASTERDS is 100 times more violent. Brad Pitt stars, but Australian Christopher Waltz as a "Jew hunter" in Nazi Germany, won Best Actor for the role, stealing Pitt’s thunder.


Michael Haneke ***** Christopher Waltz ***** Charlotte Gainsbourg

As to the winner, award-winning Austrian writer/director Michael Haneke's black and white drama, THE WHITE RIBBON (Das Weisse Band, Austria), basically little negative has been written about this stark film, which won both the FIPRESCI Prize and the Golden Palm. In an over-baring patriarchal society, strange and brutal things happen at a rural school in northern 1913 Germany just prior to WW I, which seem to be ritual punishments. How will this affect the school system, and will what happens at school and in the community sew the seeds for fascism?

Haneke's THE PIANO TEACHER (La pianiste, 2001) vaulted him onto the world cinema scene. That award-winner was followed by another critically acclaimed movie, HIDDEN (Caché, 2005), winning the FIPRESCI Prize, and a Best Director for Haneke.

At the Munich Film Festival on 3 July, Haneke will be honored by his peers with the CineMerit Award. Munich Festival kicks off on 26 June and runs until 4 July. I look for THE WHITE RIBBON to do extremely well in Munich, the beautiful city with a sinister past.

To help you wrap the afterglow of Cannes, here are some great links:
1. John Powers, "On the Ground at Cannes, " Part I - Fresh Air, PBS, Tuesday, 26 May.
2. John Powers, "On the Ground at Cannes, " Part II - Fresh Air, PBS, Wednesday, 27 May.
3. “Violence Reaps Rewards at Cannes Festival,” Manohla Dargis, The New York Times, 25 May.
4. ”The Ballyhooed, the Magical and All that Mutilation: Cannes ‘09 Winds Down,“ Eric Kohn, Indiwire, 24 May [The link is wrong, but works as 06].

I can hardly wait for next year.

Here Comes Cannes

The world-renown Cannes Film Festival will open in Cannes, France, 13 May, and run through 24 May 2009, 16 days away at the time of this post. This year is the 62nd edition. Gilles Jacob is president.

Significant Festival history will be made beginning on opening day with the computer-generated animated movie UP (Disney-Pixar, directed by Peter Docter), opening the Festival with its international premiere. This is the first time an animated movie has opened the Cannes Festival, and UP is not just any animated movie, it is in digital 3-D. The top prize is the Golden Palm (Palm d'Or). It could make more Festival history if UP won it, but UP is screening out of competition. The movie is scheduled to release in the U.S. 29 May.

French actress Isabelle Huppert is the jury president at this year's Festival. Only three other women have helmed the panel in the six decades of the Festival. The other women so honored: Liv Ullmann, Jeanne Moreau and Françoise Sagan.

The director lineup in the main competition of 20 strong films will include directors Quentin Tarantino (INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS), Ang Lee (TALKING WOODSTOCK), Pedro Almodovar (BROKEN EMBRACES), Jane Campion (BRIGHT STAR) [won as director of THE PIANO, the first woman to win the Golden Palm for directing], Ken Loach (LOOKING FOR ERIC), and Lars von Trier (ANTICHRIST).

Asian films are strong this year. Chinese movies joining Ang Lee's, are Hong Kong director Johnny To's VENGENCE, Park Chan-wook's (THIRST), and Ye Lou's and SPRING FEVER.

One of the Festivals' special screenings will be for HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR by French director Alain Resnais, one of the outstanding French New Wave directors. This year, the Festival commemorates the 50-year anniversary of the film's first screening at Cannes, and Resnais (86) brings his latest film, WILD GRASSES, to Cannes. Two of his fellow countrymen will join him to represent France, Jacques Audiard (A PROPHET) and Xavier Giannoli (IN THE BEGINNING).

Another showcase will be the last film performance of Heath Ledger in the Terry Gilliam fantasy THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS. Ledger died mid-shoot last year and his part was completed by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Ledger was awarded a posthumous Oscar® this year for his supporting-actor performance as The Joker in THE DARK KNIGHT.

One of the biggest galas associated with the festival, is actually a benefit gala held outside the main Festival, but in conjunction with it - - the annual European fundraiser sponsored by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR). American actress Sharon Stone will host it again on 21 May. Former U.S. President Bill Clinton and the likes of Harvey Weinstein, Carine Roitfeld, Michelle Yeoh and Donatella Versace will be among 800 personalities attending.

This year for the first time, the benefit gala will be held at a Riviera palace, the Eden Roc, at Cap d'Antibes. Singer Annie Lennox will give a special performance. Last year's event raised $10 million.

The closing night film is Dutch-born, now French director, Jan Kounen's COCO CHANEL & IGOR STRAVINSKY, screening out of competition. I shall be following the Festival from now until it closes 24 May.

China's Olympic Opening Directed by Zhang Yimou

Zhang Yimou at press conference the day after the opening.

Okay. You read the title of this post and asked, Zhang Yimou, who? He was the chief director for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics in Beijing, China, yesterday. Zhang Yimou (pronounced Yee-Mo), is one of China's best filmmakers in the so-called "fifth generation." He is my favorite, and he does not make films in English, only in Mandarin, unlike Taiwan's Ang Lee (BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN), my second favorite Chinese director.

Hint: In China the last names are first. So, Zhang Yimou's given name, Yimou, is written last while his sir name, Zhang, is first. Articles in Chinese newspapers write it that way, and the IMDb often does too, but the name is generally reversed for English speakers, e.g. Yimou Zhang. In China, Ang Lee's name is written Lee Ang. So check both ways when searching on the Web.

Did you see the Olympic opening ceremony yesterday? If you didn't you will have to wait for the DVD to enjoy the synchronized performances of hundreds of people in the high tech extravaganza, that was an amazing live performance. In every Olympiad the opening ceremony grows more spectacular.

I wish to salute Zhang for his own conceived and fantastically directed production. Unfortunately, no one did at the opening. Perhaps, someone will at the closing. He will be directing that also, as he will the ceremonies for the Paralympics that follow these games, also in Beijing. As he said at a press conference today, "Yesterday was only the beginning."

Have you seen any of Zhang Yimou's movies? The first one I saw was RED SORGHUM with his favorite leading lady - - in his movies as she used to be in his real life, gorgeous Gong Li. Then, I saw RAISE THE RED LANTERN, and I was hooked.

Yesterday, in the opening ceremony Zhang included a giant yellow ball that morphed into a red Chinese lantern and, in turn, into the globe of the world. The red lantern = China, the globe = one world, only two of the symbols in the ceremony that represented the slogan for this year's Olympiad: One World, One Dream.

On top of that revolving globe Sarah Brightman, and China's current favorite male pop singer Liu Huan, sang "You and Me," the official song of this year's Olympics. Theirs was only one of many beautiful musical moments accompanied by the Beijing Ceremony Symphony. I hear the CD is in stores now.

Three of Zhang's movies have received Best Foreign Language Film Oscar nominations, JU DOU, RAISE THE RED LANTERN, and HERO, but he has never taken home the statuette. I think it is because his movies are iconic Chinese, and Americans just don't know enough about China to understand them as well as they do the movies of "westernized" Taiwanese director Ang Lee.

Don't get me wrong. I like Ang Lee's movies, too. CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON is spectacular and won the Best Foreign Language Oscar, but it isn't as folk-centered as Zhang's HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS. Ang Lee's BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN won a best picture Oscar and one for Lee's directing.

On the other hand, when Lee tried sex as a subject in LUST, CAUTION, he failed. His approach was a bit too raw for most Americans. Zang's earlier movie, SHANGHAI TRIAD, is less raw with more subtlety, and is sexier, but he doesn't have the "name recognition" in the U.S. that Lee has.

Lee is Taiwanese and Zhang is mainland China. The latter's geographic location doesn't cut as much favor in Hollywood as Taiwan. Lee is definitely a more commercial (box office-favored) director than Zhang, but if you, like me, fell in love with the China of Pearl Buck in her book The Good Earth, get that sensation again each time you view a Zang Yimou movie.

I have seen all the movies mentioned above, plus Zhang's THE STORY OF QIU JU, and CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER. My favorite Ang Lee Chinese movie is CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DRAGON. I simply can't pick a favorite Zhang movie. They are that good! Zhang's filmography on Fandango.

The numbers are in and the Olympic opening night ceremony on NBC averaged 34.2 million households in the U.S., the biggest audience ever for an Olympic opening ceremony not held in the U.S., Nielsen Media Research reported. It eclipsed this year's Academy Awards, and the finale of "American Idol," making it the biggest television event since this year's Super Bowl. The summer Olympics in Athens four years ago averaged 25.4 million households for its first night. Sydney in 2000 had 27.3 million.

The Web site NBCOlympics.com registered 70 million page views on Friday, its heaviest traffic ever. The site did not post videos, but did post still pictures. The estimated statistics for world-wide television (Internet) viewership of the opening have not yet been announced, but the count is expected to approach one billion viewers.