The Globes wrapped up a few hours ago, in what can be described as a historical night. Or at least we all hope that it will be. Seth Meyers kicked off with the phrase "Good evening ladies and -remaining- gentlemen" which pretty much summarizes the tone of the night. The monologue was non-apologetic and to the bone, in a way that only Meyers can deliver, with references about Weinstein, Spacey, Allen and of course Trump and he did deliver a prophecy that Oprah will be running for President with Tom Hanks as Vice President. Well... Winfrey-Hanks 2020? Too soon? Well, now we wait and see.... The evening was dominant with the support of the whole room towards the Time's Up and the #MeToo initiative, with almost all winners and presenters making a reference towards the issue. Either in a funny way, with Amy Poehler reclamining her wine, or in a badass way, like Natalie Portman who straight up called out the HFPA when introducing the Best Director category with the phrase "And here are the all-male nominees". Of course Oprah's speech when receiving the Cecil B. de Mille award, was the best summary of the issues being faced in all industries, not only Hollywood and once again she gave us hope on what the future may bring. Other highlights of the night were Aziz Ansari being the first man of Asian descent to win Best Actor in a TV comedy, Sterling K. Brown becoming the first African-American Actor to win in the Best Actor-TV Drama category and Oprah being the first African-American woman to win the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri being the ultimate winner with 4 out of 6 awards and Lady Bird got the recognition that the HFPA failed to give to Greta Gerwig for her directorial work by winning Best Comedy. One of the funniest moments came from none other than Tommy Wiseau, who hillariously tried to snatch the mic off James Franco during his acceptance speech for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy in The Disaster Artist! To be honest I was waiting for a "You're tearing me apart Lisa" moment, but I will settle for this. And here is the complete list of this year's winners:
Best Picture — Drama Call Me by Your Name Dunkirk The Post The Shape of Water Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Best Picture — Comedy or Musical The Disaster Artist Get Out The Greatest Showman I, Tonya Lady Bird Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name Daniel Day Lewis, Phantom Thread Tom Hanks, The Post Gary Oldman, The Darkest Hour Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq. Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama Jessica Chastain, Molly’s Game Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Meryl Streep, The Post Michelle Williams, All the Money in the World Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy Steve Carrell, Battle of the Sexes Ansel Elgort, Baby Driver James Franco, The Disaster Artist Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul Margot Robbie, I, Tonya Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird Emma Stone, Battle of the Sexes Helen Mirren, The Leisure Seeker Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture Willem DaFoe, The Florida Project Armie Hammer, Call Me by Your Name Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water Christopher Plummer, All The Money in the World Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture Mary J. Blige, Mudbound Hong Chau, Downsizing Alison Janney, I, Tonya Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water Best Director — Motion Picture Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk Ridley Scott, All the Money in the World Steven Spielberg, The Post Best Screenplay — Motion Picture Guillermo Del Toro and Vanessa Taylor, The Shape of Water Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird Liz Hannah and Josh Singer, The Post Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri Aaron Sorkin, Molly’s Game Best Motion Picture — Animated The Boss Baby The Breadwinner Coco Ferdinand Loving Vincent Best Picture — Foreign Language A Fantastic Woman (Chile) First They Killed My Father (Cambodia) In the Fade (Germany/France) Loveless (Russia) The Square (Sweden, Germany, France) Best Original Score — Motion Picture Carter Burwell, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water Jonny Greenwood, Phantom Thread John Williams, The Post Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk Best Original Song — Motion Picture “Home,” Ferdinand “Mighty River,” Mudbound “Remember Me,” Coco “The Star,” The Star “This Is Me,” The Greatest Showman Best Television Series — Drama The Crown, Netflix Game of Thrones, HBO The Handmaid’s Tale, Hulu Stranger Things, Netflix This Is Us, NBC Best Television Series — Comedy Black-ish, ABC The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Amazon Master of None, Netflix SMILF, Showtime Will & Grace, NBC Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Big Little Lies, HBO Fargo, FX Feud: Bette and Joan, FX The Sinner, USA Top of the Lake: China Girl, Sundance TV Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama Jason Bateman, Ozark Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us Freddie Highmore, The Good Doctor Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul Liev Schreiber, Ray Donovan Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Drama Caitriona Balfe, Outlander Claire Foy, The Crown Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Deuce Katherine Langford, 13 Reasons Why Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Comedy Anthony Anderson, Black-ish Aziz Ansari, Master of None Kevin Bacon, I Love Dick William H. Macy, Shameless Eric McCormack, Will & Grace Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Comedy Pamela Adlon, Better Things Alison Brie, GLOW Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel Issa Rae, Insecure Frankie Shaw, SMILF Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Jessica Biel, The Sinner Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies Jessica Lange, Feud: Bette and Joan Susan Sarandon, Feud: Bette and Joan Reese Witherspoon, Big Little Lies Best Performance By an Actor in a Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Robert De Niro, The Wizard of Lies Jude Law, The Young Pope Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks Ewan McGregor, Fargo Geoffrey Rush, Genius Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television David Harbour, Stranger Things Alfred Molina, Feud: Bette and Joan Christian Slater, Mr. Robot Alexander Skarsgaard, Big Little Lies David Thewlis, Fargo Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Limited Series, or Motion Picture Made for Television Laura Dern, Big Little Lies Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale Chrissy Metz, This Is Us Michelle Pfeiffer, The Wizard of Lies Shailene Woodley, Big Little Lies There you have it! This year's Golden Globe winners can certainly give us a sense of what to expect on January 23rd when the Academy Awards nominations will be announced. So, stay tuned, because awards season is just starting...
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Tonight the 2014 Athens International Film Festival, aka Opening Nights comes to an end. 11 Days with tons of films for all tastes! This year I managed to see 4 films: The Drop, Palo Alto, When Animals Dream and What If. Before getting into the films, let me say that this year the festival seemed more alive than ever before, despite the 20 years that have passed. The selection of films was amazing, with many Greek productions, including Xenia by Panos Koutras, the crowd was amazing and the organization was almost impeccable, except from the problems in the Nick Cave screening (perhaps that was jinxed by all of us who did not find a ticket). The film ‘71 (Yann Demange’s tale of a British soldier accidentally abandoned by his unit at the riots in Belfast in 1971) won the ultimate prize, the Golden Athena award. Now, regarding the films that I did get to see. Palo Alto, is the first film by Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter, Gia Coppola, based on the short stories by James Franco. Starring Emma Roberts and the man himself (James Franco), Palo Alto is the tale of April, a shy virgin teenager (Emma Roberts), who while trying to connect with a sweet classmate (Jack Kilmer) has to deal also with her soccer coach (James Franco) hitting on her. Through April and her friends’ tales, we get to see the anxiety and issues that teenagers deal with, the mistakes that they make and how they deal with it. Coppola’s exquisite cinematography showed us that it must be in the genes (seriously, can this family ever get it wrong?) and reminded me a bit of good old Auntie Sofia’s debut film “The Virgin Suicides”. Overall a great debut film! When Animals Dream, is a Danish film by Jonas Alexander Arnby, about a 16 year old girl living in an isolated Danish town, with her sick mother and her father, who will discover that something weird is happening to her body, making her transform little by little to something not human… I will not reveal too much about this film as the element of surprise plays a very important part. What I can say, is that the direction and photography were amazing, adding to the whole mystery of the story and that the newcomer Sonia Suhl, is breathtaking in her film debut. The final film that I saw was my favorite! What If, is a Canadian-Irish co-production, directed by Michael Dowse and starring Daniel Radcliffe and Zoe Kazan (Elias Kazan’s granddaughter). The story is quite simple: boy meets girl, boy likes girl, girl likes boy, but girl has a boyfriend, boy decides to be friends with girl but of course falls for her. Despite that it is considered a romantic comedy, to my opinion it was an anti-romantic comedy that made fun in a way of many genre clichés. A fresh, well written comedy, with talented protagonists that share great chemistry! Daniel Radcliffe shows that his Harry Potter days are far behind him and the lovely Miss Kazan, who we had already noticed in the film Ruby Sparks that she had also written, proves that she has inherited her fair share of her grandfather’s talent. Well, that was for this year’s festival! Let’s focus now, on the very busy cinema & TV Fall that has already started!!
That’s a wrap! The 86th Academy awards just ended with 12 years a slave winning Best Picture. But it was Gravity the one that was the big winner with 7 Oscars! This year’s awards might have been long and without any impressive dance routines or video edits, but it was one of the most fun Academy Awards I’ve watched in years! I guess Ellen had a lot to do with it! She nailed it and took the awards to a completely different level, involving social media, breaking twitter and ordering pizza for everyone! Lupita’s touching speech, Jared’s inspiring words and the references to the lates Sarah Jones and Harold Ramis, were some of the highlights of this evening. Such an interactive show! How awesome as Lupita, Meryl & Amy Adams dancing to Pharrell’s Happy? And Brad serving Pizza? Other highlights: Cate Blanchett telling Julia Roberts to suck it, Ellen selfies (again) and Kevin Spacey photobombing them! Here is the full list of winners
BEST PICTURE 12 Years a Slave BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón CINEMATOGRAPHY Gravity - Emmanuel Lubezki COSTUME DESIGN The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin DOCUMENTARY FEATURE 20 Feet from Stardom-Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life - Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed FILM EDITING Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM The Great Beauty - Italy MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING Dallas Buyers Club - Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews MUSIC Original Score Gravity - Steven Price MUSIC "Let It Go" from FROZEN Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez PRODUCTION DESIGN The Great Gatsby - Catherine Martin (Production Design); Beverley Dunn (Set Decoration) SHORT FILM Animated Mr. Hublot - Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares SHORT FILM Live Action Helium-Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson SOUND EDITING Gravity-Glenn Freemantle SOUND MIXING Gravity-Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro VISUAL EFFECTS Gravity-Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk and Neil Corbould WRITING Adapted Screenplay 12 Years a Slave Screenplay by John Ridley WRITING Original Screenplay Her Written by Spike Jonze ANIMATED FEATURE FILM Frozen Tonight’s the big night and hours before we find out together (I will be live posting at Her Dudeness Facebook page) who this year’s big winnesr will be, let’s see again the nominations and my predictions/hopes/fears: BEST PICTURE American Hustle Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club Gravity Her Nebraska Philomena 12 Years a Slave The Wolf of Wall Street Well, all the signs show that 12 Years a Slave is going to be the big winner. The film has already gained lots of awards, including Golden Globe, BAFTA & the Independent Spirit Award for Best Film. If it was up to me, I would award Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, but unfortunately, the competition is really hard, and if 12 years a slave will not get the award, I think American Hustle, Dallas Buyers Club or Gravity will get it. In that order. BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Christian Bale (American Hustle) Bruce Dern (Nebraska) Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave) Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club) Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street) Well, do I really need to say it? I bet that the first thing we are going to hear in this acceptance speech is: “Alright, alright..” McConaughey has a certain win, unless the Academy finally acknowledges the magnitude that is Leonardo DiCaprio. Yes, my mind says McConaughey but my heart screams DiCaprio, not only for his amazing word in The Wolf of Wall Street, but for Gatsby, Aviator, The Blood Diamond, Inception, The Departed, The Gangs of New York… well, every single movie he has played in. BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Amy Adams (American Hustle) Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine) Sandra Bullock (Gravity) Judi Dench (Philomena) Meryl Streep (August: Osage County) Seriously they need to rename this category to: the one that Meryl Streep is in. I have seriously lost count of her nominations! Hasn’t she? Anyway, this is not Meryl’s year, although I am pretty sure that Cate Blanchett is going to mention her in her acceptance speech (this award seems as certain as McConaughey’s) along with Phillip Seymour Hoffman. The only one that’s a threat to her, is Amy Adams for her brilliant work at the American Hustle, but to my opinion Blanchett’s role in Blue Jasmine screamed OSCAR and she totally nailed it, so sorry Amy, better luck next year. BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips) Bradley Cooper (American Hustle) Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) Jonah Hill (The Wolf of Wall Street) Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club) Again, do I really need to say it? Jared Leto, end of story. The best performance in this category by far. I rest my case. BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine) Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle) Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave) Julia Roberts (August: Osage County) June Squibb (Nebraska) Well, everyone is saying Jennifer Lawrence, but I have a feeling that Lupita Nyong’o is going to win this one. And frankly I would like her to win it, just for Lawrence to lose something for a change… BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING American Hustle - David O. Russell Gravity - Alfonso Cuarón Nebraska - Alexander Payne The Wolf of Wall Street - Martin Scorsese 12 Years a Slave - Steve McQueen Finally as regards who’s the Best Director this year, well, let’s put it this way: it is highly unlikely that David O. Russell will get it, Alfonso Cuarón seems to be a threat the last weeks, but will not get it, Alexander Payne should get it (to my opinion), Martin Scorsese is not likely to get it this year (with this competition and with the editing he did for the Wolf…) and as you guessed it, Steve McQueen is the front runner. About the rest of the categories, the best original screenplay, will be either Dallas Buyers Club or The American Hustle (although I think that Her should win this one) and the Adapted Screenplay will go to 12 years a Slave (I am not sure who else would beat that), the Best Animated Film will be awarded 99% to Disney’s Frozen, Best Foreign Film to La Grande Bellezza and Best Original Song, most likely to U2, although I have a feeling that Pharrell might be a surprise…
Well, in a couple of hours we will know the winners! Enjoy the awards everybody! The story behind the film One flew over the cuckoo’s nest is based on a Broadway play, which is based on the same titled book. The story about making this film starts 12 years before it was shot, in 1963 when Kirk Douglas was starring at the Broadway play. Douglas bought the film rights and intended to also star in the film. While touring in Eastern European countries on behalf of the state department, he met Milos Forman who he found ideal to direct the film. He gained Forman’s attention to the project and promised to send him the book, once returning to the States, which he did. But the director never received the novel. Ten years passed and the two men met again. Meanwhile, Forman had become famous worldwide with films such as “Black Peter”, “Loves of a Blonde” and “The Firemen’s Ball” and Douglas had continued his efforts to produce the film, but with no luck. As Douglas was no longer young enough to play the part, in 1971 he turned over the project to his eldest son, Michael. Without Michael knowing that his father had shown interest to Milos Forman directing the film, he later on approached him to take over the job. So, the project was back on and one of the greatest American films went into production. The cast Apart from Nicholson, who had already made a name in Hollywood and had already gained an Academy Award nomination and William Redfield who had already an active career, most of the cast are actors first appearing on the screen. Also, many of the extras are actual mental patients. In this film, we get to see Danny DeVito in his first major feature role, Christopher Lloyd and Brad Dourif in their first ever feature roles. Louise Fletcher might have had a series of roles before this film, but it was One flew over the cuckoo’s nest that built her career. The plot The film follows the admittance of R.P. McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a small time criminal to a mental institution, and his influence to the patients’ daily life, as well as the relationship with the oppressive head nurse (Louise Fletcher). One flew over the cuckoo’s nest deals with issues such as mental health, the health system, power and authority and human relationships. The actors’ magnificent performances and the director’s focus on detail make this film a historical treasure worthy of being studied in film schools. Things you might not know Things were not so great though during shooting. Legend has it that Nicholson and Forman had completely opposite opinions on how the narrative should play out and during production, they spoke to each other through the cinematographer, but faked a friendly relationship when the media and studio personnel would show up to the set. Author Ken Kesey was so bitter about the way the filmmakers were "butchering" his story that he vowed never to watch the completed film and even sued the movie's producers because it wasn't shown from Chief Bromden's perspective (as the novel is). Years later, he claimed to be lying in bed flipping through TV channels when he settled onto a late-night movie that looked sort of interesting, only to realize after a few minutes that it was this film. He then changed channels. Awards The film won 5 Academy Awards in all 5 major categories: Best Film, Best Direction, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adopted Screenplay. It broke a record that Capra’s film “It Happened one night” was holding since 1934. It also received 6 Golden Globes, 6 BAFTAs and another 13 awards. My Film Club
Next week we will look into a film by one of the greatest directors: Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966) Sources: IMDb, Universal (DVD extras) & HerDudeness-pedia ![]() The Academy can (and does) make mistakes sometimes… Especially when they have failed to award the best film of all times: Citizen Kane. And the list goes on and on… Biggest Losers in Oscar History Films
Actors/Actresses
As for directors, well, let's say that everytime that Hitchcock, Scorsese, Kubrick or Tarantino lost, well.. the Academy must have been blind! Finally, there have been times that brilliant films, actors or directors were not even nominated. Here's a video that sums up the Academy's snubby choices over the years..... Only 2 days left to day 0 and today we take a look at last year's winner: Argo! Ben Affleck's adaptation of Tony Mendez's book, earned 3 Oscars: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. Affleck lost (surprisingly) the Best Direction award to Ang Lee for the life of Pi, he was acknowledged though at the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs. So, we still have another 2 days till the big night, and we are out of Oscar winning films! Well, not exactly.. Tomorrow we are going to take a look at some losers that deserved a better fate and on Sunday, well, it's betting time! Who will win this year? Who should win this year? Who I want to win this year?? Frontrunners and underdogs: they all have a chance to win an (uncle) Oscar!
Today we take a look at the picture that dominated the 84th Academy Awards: The Artist. Although released in 2011, this is a silent, black and white film. The innovative film by Michel Hazanavicious, won also Best Direction, Best Actor in a leading role (Jean Dujardin) , Best Costume Design and Best Original Score. The competition in the Best Picture category was hard, with Alexander Payne's The Descendants, The Help, Midnight in Paris and Moneyball being some of the other nominated films, The Artist's old school Hollywood glow though, did the trick for the Academy and earned the title of the best film in 2011. The 83rd Academy Awards, were filled with great performances nominations. So no wonder, a film based on great performances by both main and supporting roles, won the Best Picture award. The King's Speech, the true story of King George VI and his speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of his rise to the throne, gave Colin Firth his first Academy Award (with his second consecutive nomination, after A Single Man) and won another two awards: Best Directing & Best Original Screenplay. With 5 days to go until day 0, today we take a look back at the 82nd Academy Awards. In a year that 10 (!) films were competing for Best Picture, it was an even bigger win for The Hurt Locker, especially, since it was competing with the innovative Avatar. Another big win for the film, was that Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to ever win the Best Direction Award. Fun fact: Bigelow's ex husband (James Cameron) was also nominated that year for Best Direction (Avatar)... The film took home another 4 awards: Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing. |
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