THE AWARDS EDITION 2011-2012

A.M.P.A.S. ® Oscar ® Statuette ®THE AWARDS EDITION 2011-2012

“The Helpis this year’s mostoutstanding andsocially relevantmotion picture.It reminds us thatwhen we speak –if only in awhisper – momentousthings can happen.”MYRLIE EVERS-WILLIAMS______________________Former chairwoman of the NAACP andwidow of civil-rights activist Medgar Evers4BEST PICTURE OF THE YEARBEST ACTRESSViola DavisACADEMY AWARD ®NOMINATIONSProduced by Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael BarnathanBEST SUPPORTING ACTRESSJessica ChastainBEST SUPPORTING ACTRESSOctavia SpencerFOR YOUR CONSIDERATIONwww.DreamWorksPicturesAwards.com©2012 DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC

The Awards Edition 2011-2012Issue 07Editorial TeamDEADLINE AWARDS COLUMNIST & CONTRIBUTORPete HammondDEADLINE FILM EDITOR & CONTRIBUTORMike FlemingDEADLINE TV EDITOR & CONTRIBUTORNellie AndreevaDEADLINE EXECUTIVE EDITOR & CONTRIBUTORDavid LiebermanDEADLINE MANAGING EDITORPatrick HipesAWARDS|LINE MANAGING EDITOR & CONTRIBUTORAnthony D’AlessandroAWARDS|LINE CONTRIBUTORSTim AdlerSharon BernsteinMonica Corcoran Joe DonnellyDiane Haithman Ari KarpelCari LynnCraig ModdernoRay Richmond Scott TimbergDesign, Production, & MarketingDEADLINE MARKETING CONSULTANTMadelyn HammondSR. DIRECTOR, MARKETINGMica CampbellSR. DIRECTOR, ADVERTISING OPERATIONSCham KimADVERTISING OPERATIONS COORDINATORDavid LetchworthDESIGN & ART DIRECTION | VERSION-X DESIGNKeith KnopfJason CampbellFOUNDER, CHAIRMAN & CEOJay PenskePRESIDENTAlyson RacerEXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENTPaul WoolnoughV.P. ENTERTAINMENT SALESNic PaulV.P. PARTNERSHIPS & PRODUCTCraig Perreault04 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07V.P. STRATEGYWill LeeSR. ENTERTAINMENT SALES DIRECTORCathy GoepfertCONSUMER SALES DIRECTORDebbie GoldbergENTERTAINMENT SALES MANAGERBeau LeMireACCOUNT MANAGERSCarra FentonShannon LeonADVERTISING INQUIRIESNic Paul 310.484.2517 / npaul@pmc.comIS THE PARENT COMPANY AND OWNER OF:

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O NACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEESBEST PICTUREBEST SUPPORTING ACTORMAX VON SYDOW“EXQUISITE.ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF THE YEAR.”BETSY SHARKEY,“INCREDIBLY TOUCHING.NUANCE AND BEAUTY ARE EVER PRESENT. A BOLD HONORABLE FILM,BEAUTIFULLY MADE, AND SENSITIVELY ACTED.”REX REED,“MAX VON SYDOW IS MAGNIFICENT.”MARY POLS,SCREENING DATE TIME SCREENING ROOMLOS ANGELES RSVP: 818.954.2066 or awardsoffice@warnerbros.comFriday, February 10 7:00pm Warner Bros. Screening Room #12 – 4000 Warner Blvd., BurbankSunday, February 12* 3:50pm Linwood Dunn Theater – 1313 N. Vine St., HollywoodNEW YORK RSVP: 212.636.5094 or nyrsvp@warnerbros.comThursday, February 9 6:00pm Warner Bros. Screening Room – 1325 Avenue of the Americas, New York*OFFICIAL AMPAS SCREENING,NO RSVP NECESSARY.www.warnerbros2011.com

Who’s Winning at theOscars ® ? HammondPredictionsBy PeteHammond© A.M.P.A.S.Predicting Oscars ® is a fools folly and at this writing in late January, the ballotshadn’t even been mailed. But you do what you gotta do.Take this forecast with a grain a salt, built as it is on buzz,precursors, Oscar ® history, nominee pedigrees, educatedguesses, instinctive hunches and conversations with voters.Still it is a race of momentum and where it will be by the timeballots are due back in on Feb. 21 is anybody’s guess. Therecould be changes in the online version of this document closerto Feb. 26 but for now, this looks like the direction the Oscar ®winds are blowing. Enter your office pool with confidence butdon’t blame me if you lose to some grandmother who hasn’tbeen to a movie since Gone With the Wind.| Predictions |06 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07BEST PICTUREThe clear front runner is The Artist with strong precursorwins at the very predictive DGA and PGA awards, not tomention a slew of others that tip this race in the directionof the first black and white silent film to seriously competefor best picture since the very first winner, Wings, in 1927-28. Hugo, the nominations leader with 11, will probablyhave to settle for a handful of technical wins even thoughit is widely admired. The Descendants and Midnightin Paris are likely to win consolation prizes for theirscripts with only the real dark horse, The Help, having ashot at an upset thanks to its support from the all-powerfulactors’ branch. But without nominations for writing,directing or editing, it would be a shocker as no best picsince Grand Hotel in 1930 has pulled that off. It’s not likelyto happen, but this has been a weird year.The winner: The ArtistThe competition: The Descendants, Extremely Loud & IncrediblyClose, The Help, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball,The Tree of Life, and War Horse.BEST ACTORThis has turned into a real barnburner of a contest andis difficult to read. Brad Pitt started strong, winning theNY Film Critics and National Society of Film Critics,but good buddy George Clooney eclipsed him atthe Critics’ Choice Movie Awards, National Board ofReview and Golden Globes ® . It looked like a two manrace until Jean Dujardin broke his vow of silenceand beat them both at the most important predictor ofall, the SAG ® awards adding to his Golden Globe ® forcomedy or musical actor. Now it’s a brawl as all threeare in best picture nominees which is another advantagepast winners have had. There’s no clear-cut choice but ahunch tells me Dujardin is peaking at just the right timewith France’s ‘sexiest man alive’ trumping his Americancounterparts. It pays to work with a cute dog.The winner: Jean Dujardin, The Artist.The competition: Demián Bichir, A Better Life; GeorgeClooney, The Descendants; Gary Oldman, TinkerTailor Soldier Spy, and Brad Pitt, Moneyball.the artistBEST ACTRESSOne of the tightest races this year has turned into a seesawbattle between 17-time nominee and two-time winnerMeryl Streep vs. her Doubt co-star Viola Davis. Streepwon at the New York Critics and the Globes ® while Davisracked up the Critics’ Choice and the SAG ® awards. Onewould guess Streep is the front runner at the BAFTAsContinued on p10

for your★ ★ ★ ★CONSIDERATIONSTEPHENAs of tomorrow morning thereísgoing to be some changes in yourcampaign. Paul is out. I will beyour senior campaign manager.Iíll draft a statement, ìweíreat a point in the campaign wheresome changes have to be madeetc.î You can put your own wordsin there, you do it better thanmost.®ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEEBEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY2 BAFTA NOMINATIONSBEST SUPPORTING ACTORPHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMANBEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAYGOV. MORRISAnd why would I do that?Beat.STEPHENBecause you want to win.Because you broke the only rulein politics. You want to bePresident, you can start a war,you can lie, you can cheat, youcan bankrupt the country, butyou canít fuck the interns...theyíll get you for that.

ONE OF THE BEST PICTURES OF THE YEARAmerican Film Institute - National Board of Review - New York Film Critics Online - Houston Film Critics SocietyThe San Francisco Examiner - BBC America - Southeastern Film Critics - Us WeeklyThe New York TimesA.O. ScottNew York MagazineDavid EdelsteinNew York PostKyle SmithRolling Stone MagazinePeter TraversTime MagazineRichard CorlissBAFtA NOMINATIONS5Best ORIGINAL MUsIC • Best PRODUCtION DesIGN • Best sOUNDBest CINeMAtOGRAPHY • Best sPeCIAL VIsUAL eFFeCtsACADeBEST PICRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDWINNERBest CINeMAtOGRAPHYACE EDDIE AWARDNOMINEEBest FILM eDItING: DramaticMOTION PICTURE SOUND EDITORSNOMINEEBest sound editing: Dialogue and ADRBest sound editing: sound effects and Foley

MY AWARD® NOMINATIONSCTURE OF THE YEARProduced bySTEVEN SPIELBERG,KATHLEEN KENNEDYBEST CINEMATOGRAPHYJanusz KaminskiBEST ORIGINAL SCOREJohn WilliamsBEST ART DIRECTIONProduction Designer:Rick CarterSet Decorator:Lee SandalesBEST SOUND MIXINGProduction Sound Mixer:Stuart WilsonRe-Recording Mixers:Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson,Tom JohnsonBEST SOUND EDITINGSupervising Sound Editors:Gary Rydstrom,Richard HymnsFOR YOUR CONSIDERATIONwww.DreamWorksPicturesAwards.com©2012 DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC

10 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07Continued from p6making the ultimate Oscar ® winner a real question markuntil that envelope is opened. Could the two frontrunnerssplit the vote and let the very deserving MichelleWilliams sneak in for her impeccable Marilyn? My guessis Davis’ SAG ® win and emotional acceptance speecheswill tip the scales in her favor making her only the secondAfrican American winner ever here.The winner: Viola Davis, The HelpThe competition: Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs; RooneyMara, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo; MerylStreep, The Iron Lady, and Michelle Williams, MyWeek With Marilyn.BEST SUPPORTINGACTORRule out Hill for being too young, Nolte for being in alittle-seen movie and Branagh whose brilliant LaurenceOlivier for being unlucky enough to face two wayoverdue 82-year-old acting legends going for their firstOscar ® . Max von Sydow hadn’t figured in any previousmatchups against Christopher Plummer this year butthe actors’ branch of the Academy reveres him, althoughopinions about his film are mixed. Still it is a best picturenominee and that gives him a slight advantage overPlummer who is single-handedly carrying the flag forthe small indie, Beginners. But with a string of greatspeeches at the Globes, CCMAs, SAG ® and others,Plummer’s got the Oscar ® mojo. Anyone else winning is amajor upset. Again, it pays to work with a cute dog.The winner: Christopher Plummer, BeginnersThe competition: Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn;Jonah Hill, Moneyball; Nick Nolte, Warrior, and Max vonSydow, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.BEST SUPPORTINGACTRESSIt has been a long, long time since Hattie McDanielbecame the first African-American Oscar ® winner, takingthe supporting actress award for playing a southernmaid, Mammy, in Gone With the Wind in 1939. OctaviaSpencer’s turn as southern maid Minny in The Helpshould be able to pull off the same feat, especially sinceshe’s been on a roll winning a number of key supportingroles whenever and wherever her nominated co-starJessica Chastain hasn’t heard her name called.Chastain may be the supporting actress of the year innumber of roles and Bérénice Bejo may have done itwithout saying a word but they will probably have to settlefor just the nomination this time around.The winner: Octavia Spencer, The HelpThe competition: Bérénice Bejo, The Artist; Jessica Chastain,The Help; Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids, andJanet McTeer, Albert Nobbs.a separationBEST DIRECTOROnly six times since its inception in 1949 has the winnerof the DGA award for best director failed to go on andcollect the Oscar ® . The last time was nearly a decade ago.It is one of Oscar’s ® most reliable indicators and the factthat it went to Michel Hazanavicius, director of frontrunner The Artist, only goes to show he may be invincible.However, voters wanting to spread the wealth may decideone career Oscar ® is simply not enough for MartinScorsese, whose Hugo is much-loved and let him sneakin. But for the safe bet….The winner: Michel Hazanavicius, The ArtistThe competition: Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris; TerrenceMalick, The Tree of Life; Alexander Payne, TheDescendants, and Martin Scorsese, Hugo.BEST ADAPTEDSCREENPLAYThe three best picture nominees in the category arethe only ones with a realistic chance of winning here.Of those, Hugo is thought more to be a director’striumph than writer’s. The final contest probablycomes down to a knock down-drag out betweenThe Descendants and Moneyball. The latter boasts twoheavyweight writers in Steve Zaillian and AaronSorkin, both past winners in this category, but theygo up against another past winner, Alexander Payne,who with his co-writers Nat Faxon & Jim Rashhave pulled off a strong humanist comedy drama.Moneyball was almost an impossible job of adaptationbut it was turned into a masterful script. Toss a coin.The winner: The Descendants, Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon &Jim Rash.The competition: Hugo, John Logan; The Ides of March,Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon; Moneyball,Aaron Sorkin and Steve Zaillian, and Tinker Tailor SoldierSpy, Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan.BEST ORIGINALSCREENPLAYAlthough The Artist is likely to win best picture, even itswriter (and director) Michel Hazanavicius told me hethinks voters will probably not even realize the silent,dialogue-challenged masterpiece was written (of courseit was). He thinks Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris has thisone in the bag. In fact Woody’s most successful film ever,a best picture nominee, is the solid front runner to takethe consolation prize and win for its magical script. This isone of the surest bets in any category.The winner: Midnight in Paris, Woody AllenThe competition: The Artist, Hazanavicius; Bridesmaids, AnnieMumolo and Kristen Wiig; Margin Call, J.C.Chandor, and A Separation, Asghar Farhadi.BEST FOREIGNLANGUAGE FILMThe category has some of its strongest entries in years butfor a number of reasons, including its strong run at earlierawards ceremonies, Iran’s A Separation, which tries to puta universally relatable human face on that country and itspeople, should easily pull out a victory.The winner: A Separation (Iran)The competition: Bullhead (Belgium), Footnote (Israel),In Darkness (Poland) and Monsieur Lazhar (Canada).BEST ANIMATEDFEATUREWith Pixar completely out of it for the first time in a yearwhen it competed (Cars 2 ran into a speed bump) anddisdain for Motion Capture sinking Steven Spielberg’sPGA and Globe ® winner The Adventures of Tintin, the fieldopened up and a couple of obscure entries from a tinydistributor, A Cat In Paris and Chico and Rita, madethe cut along with a trio of films distributed by Paramountincluding two DreamWorks Animation entries, Puss inBoots and Kung Fu Panda 2. Yet Gore Verbinski’sRango looks to be the one to beat. Puss could prevail butit’s probably not got enough juice to get by the front runner.The winner: RangoThe competition: A Cat in Paris, Chico & Rita, Kung Fu Panda 2,Puss in Boots.BEST DOCUMENTARYFEATUREThe rules are changing next year in order to open thiscontroversial category up to more deserving entries. Thisyear the branch managed to fill it with a number of lesserknownentries and in the process probably has turned itinto a race between HBO’s much-talked about ParadiseLost 3: Purgatory and The Weinstein Company’sremarkable high school football doc, Undefeated. WimWenders dance film, Pina is a documentary told almostsolely in terms of actual performance and might havebeen better off in the Foreign Language contest where itwas also short-listed. It seems a bit out of place here butis so different from the rest it just might have a shot. StillI have a hunch voters will mark their ballots based on thefilm with the biggest heart and best told story.The winner: UndefeatedThe competition: Hell and Back Again, If a Tree Falls:A Story of the Earth Liberation Front, Paradise Lost3: Purgatory and Pina.BEST ART DIRECTIONThe two films about the early days of Hollywood shouldrule the day here. With its true Hollywood flavor and thefact it was a homemade product, The Artist is certainlya contender, but Dante Ferretti and Francesca LoSchiavo’s stunning production design and set decorationfor Hugo is in a class with the past winners when movieswere made on much larger scales.The winner: Hugo, Dante Ferretti (production design),Francesca Lo Schiavo (set decoration)The competition: The Artist, Laurence Bennett (design),Robert Gould (set); Harry Potter and the DeathlyHallows: Part 2, Stuart Craig (design), StephenieMcMillan (set); Midnight in Paris, Anne Seibel (design),Hélène Dubreuil (set); War Horse, Rick Carter(design), Lee Sandales (set).BESTCINEMATOGRAPHYThis one is wide open. The critics' favorite is The Treeof Life but it is a polarizing film in the Academy andthat could cost it votes among some branches. JanuszKaminski’s wide screen vistas and work with horses inWar Horse inexplicably failed to receive an ASC nod butthankfully was recognized here, representing the kind ofwork that Oscar ® voters usually reward. And once againthere is a showdown between The Artist and Hugo, bothhaving reasons to win. The former’s perfectly pitchedblack and white photography caught in the 1:33 ratioContinued on p12

ACADEMY AWARD ®NOMINATIONSINCLUDING5BEST ACTRESS ROONEY MARA“ROONEY MARA GIVES A CONTROLLEDDETONATION OF A PERFORMANCE.SHE’S THE BREAKOUT STAR OF THE YEAR. A STARK AND ENTHRALLING ADAPTATION.”XDAVID GERMAIN“AN ELECTRIFYING MOVIE.ROONEY MARA IS A REVELATION.SHE WEARS HER PIERCINGS LIKE SCARS AND ACTS WITH A QUIETPOWER – A RAGE CHILLED INTO SILENCE – THAT IS ALMOST GHOSTLY.ONE OF THE BEST FILMS OF 2011. ”Xowen gleiberman

12 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07Continued from p10of the old silents vs. Robert Richardson’s challengingwork on Hugo, which also required him to match andrecreate images of some of the earliest movies in existence.Wow. This is tough.The winner: Hugo, Robert RichardsonThe competition: The Artist, Guillaume Schiffman; TheGirl With the Dragon Tattoo, Jeff Cronenweth; The Treeof Life, Emmanuel Lubezki, and War Horse, JanuszKaminski.BEST COSTUMEDESIGNAnother sterling collection of worthy nominees but thistime in the battle between Hugo and The Artist, give the edgeto Mark Bridges’ cheeky recreations of the silent movieera, a wonder in black and white. Anonymous is exactlythe kind of period piece that almost always wins herebut did anyone actually see it? Madonna’s combinationperiod and modern film, W.E., gave designer AriannePhillips some real challenges and is probably the mostfashion-conscious film in the bunch. Still…..The winner: The Artist, Mark BridgesThe competition: Anonymous, Lisy Christl, Hugo, SandyPowell, Jane Eyre, Michael O’Connor, and W.E.,Arrianne Phillips.BEST FILM EDITINGThis category also seems to come down to a battle betweenThe Artist and Hugo but the unique challenges that MartinScorsese threw at his longtime collaborator ThelmaSchoonmaker, particularly in piecing together newversions of Georges Méliès early films, dictate the prizeshall go to her as she made the director’s first foray into3D pure cinema gold.The winner: Hugo, Thelma SchoonmakerThe competition: The Artist, Hazanavicius and Anne-SophieBion; The Descendants, Kevin Tent; The Girl With theDragon Tattoo, Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, andMoneyball, Christopher Tellefsen.BEST MAKEUPThis usually goes to the most obvious. Last year’s winner,The Wolfman, over more subtle entries, is proof of that.The seamless work on both Glenn Close and JanetMcTeer in Albert Nobbs and Meryl Streep miraculouslyturned into Margaret Thatcher, younger and older, inThe Iron Lady could split the vote giving the prize to themore pronounced makeup wonders of the final HarryPotter, earning that phenomenon its first Oscar ® ever.The winner: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk andYolanda ToussiengThe competition: Albert Nobbs, Martial Corneville, LynnJohnston and Matthew W. Mungle; The Iron Lady,Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland.BEST ORIGINALMUSIC SCOREIt is a given that if John Williams has done a score itwill likely get nominated. He is revered by his peers inthe music branch and this year he did two scores, WarHorse and The Adventures of Tintin, and both areup. Hell, if he had scored Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Starthat would have gotten nominated too. However, the lovefor Williams will stop with the nominations (his 46th and47th). Howard Shore’s Hugo might have a shot but in itscontinuing battle with The Artist it seems highly likely thislively score for the silent homage by Ludovic Bourcewill prevail. Take that, Kim Novak!The winner: The Artist, Ludovic BourceThe competition: The Adventures of Tintin, John Williams; Hugo,Howard Shore; Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Alberto Iglesias,and War Horse, John Williams.BEST SONGIn a really good year for movie songs, the music branch inits infinite wisdom saw fit to nominate only two of them(the lowest total of nominees ever in the category thanksto a complicated scoring system that seems destined todestroy the best song competition altogether). With MaryJ. Blige, Madonna, Elton John, Sinead O’Connor andother high profile singers not being invited to perform theirnon-nominated tunes on the Oscars ® this year, you have a50 percent chance of getting this one right in your officepool. I’m going with Kermit.The winner: “Man or Muppet,” The Muppets (Music andlyrics by Bret McKenzie)The competition: “Real in Rio,” Rio (Music by SergioMendes, Carlinhos Brown, Lyrics by SiedahGarrett)BEST SOUNDEDITINGSince the entire Academy votes on sound awards eventhough most of them don’t have a clue what goes intosound design, the winners are often war films or musicalsfor whatever reason. This category has no discerniblefavorite so it’s possible they will go with an overall favorite,Hugo. But this could be a category where some love isfinally delivered to the unfairly neglected War Horse, asterling sound achievement if ever there was one.The winner: War Horse, Richard Hymns and GaryRydstromThe competition: Drive, Lou Bender and Victor RayEnnis; The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Ren Klyce;Hugo, Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty, andTransformers: Dark of the Moon, Ethan Van derRyn and Erik Aadahl.BEST SOUND MIXINGSince we aren’t sure of the difference ourselves and thenominees are virtually the same why change it up?The winner: War Horse, Rydstrom, Tom Johnson, AndyNelson, Stuart WilsonThe competition: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo,David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyceand Bo Persson; Hugo, Tom Fleischman and JohnMidgley; Moneyball, Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, DaveGiammarco and Ed Novick, and Transformers: Dark ofthe Moon, Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J.Haboush and Peter J. Devlin.BEST VISUALEFFECTSWith the category now expanded to five nominees, itbecomes a little more competitive, but it is likely to comedown to a photo finish between Harry Potter and the Apes.Both were critically acclaimed and used effects to tell thestory, not be overwhelmed by them as fellow nomineeTransformers: Dark of the Moon did in a 40 minute finalassault on our senses. Hugo’s re-creation of early cinemaas well as a thrilling train crash deserves the prize too.the muppetsThe winner: Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Joe Letteri, DanLemmon, R. Christopher White and DanielBarrett.The competition: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2,Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and JohnRichardson; Hugo, Rob Legato, Joss Williams, BenGrossman and Alex Hanning; Real Steel, ErikNash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and SwenGillberg; Transformers: Dark of the Moon, Scott Farrar,Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier.BEST DOCUMENTARYSHORT SUBJECTAt press time we had seen none of these, so it’s just aguess, but Lucy Walker is a rather well-known name indoc circles so her entry, The Tsunami and the CherryBlossom, certainly could be considered a contender andnot just for the nifty name. But with The Help making sucha splash in the grown up best picture race this year, thetime may be right for The Barber of Birmingham.But it is just a hunch at this point.The winner: The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the CivilRights Movement.The competition: God Is the Bigger Elvis, Incident inNew Baghdad, Saving Face, and The Tsunami andthe Cherry Blossom.BEST ANIMATEDSHORT FILMThe National Film Board of Canada has won a boatload ofOscars ® and they have two entries here with Dimanche/Sunday and Wild Life. But with Pixar’s first-ever shutoutin the big animated feature category, voters may want tothrow them a bone and go for the beautiful La Luna.The winner: La LunaThe competition: Dimanche/Sunday, The Fantastic FlyingBooks of Mr. Morris Lessmore, A Morning Strolland Wild Life.BEST LIVE ACTIONSHORT FILMFeature filmmaker Terry George, a past two-timewriting nominee for Hotel Rwanda and In The Name of theFather, is slumming in the short category this year with TheShore, but the material set around the Northern Irelandconflict is familiar turf. He’s the biggest name here but Ihave a hunch the winner might be the nutty and cleverTime Freak, about a guy who invents a time machine andgets stuck travelling around yesterday.The winner: Time Freak.The competition: Pentecost, Raju, The Shore and TubaAtlantic. •

BAFTA Voters Pick Rising Stars ofActing and Directing, and HollywoodBy Tim AdlerIs Paying Close AttentionIt was an overcast morning in London last October, when, in the magisterialheadquarters of BAFTA, upstairs at 195 Piccadilly, 11 people were seated aroundthe heavy wooden boardroom table, getting ready to make a decision that could havea profound impact on some young actors’ future.Black and white photographs of previous BAFTA awardsceremonies – Britain’s closest equivalent to the Oscars ® –hung on the high-ceilinged walls. Sienna Miller, SimonPegg and Harry Potter director David Yates were amongthose deciding who should make it onto the shortlistof eight names being proposed for this year’s OrangeWednesdays Rising Star award. (It would be down tocustomers of UK telco Orange to decide on the final fiveyoung stars being groomed for stardom.) The public getsto vote for the winner, which will be announced with allBritish Academy of Film and Television Arts winners onFeb. 12, 2012 in London.The jurors spent the morning debating the merits of eachof the 20 young actors and actresses put forward. Manyof them had only appeared in a couple of movies, andthe jurors had spent the previous month watching theirperformances – sometimes at special screenings.James McAvoy, Tom Hardy and Noel Clarke have all wonthe Orange Rising Star in the past. That’s why the awardis important: It acts as a kind of early warning system forHollywood about talent coming its way. Hardy is now costarringin The Dark Knight Rises, while McAvoy was thelead in X-Men: First Class. Clarke will appear in the nextinstallment of Star Trek.“The Rising Star award is very useful in terms ofshining a light on actors who have done a couple ofroles but aren’t stars yet,” jury chairman Pippa Harris,producing partner of Sam Mendes, says. “Becauseit’s a public vote, it’s fantastic in terms of giving thema platform. The award is definitely something thatHollywood looks at for fresh talent.”Clarke is a case in point. WME picked him up, a multihyphenatewho got his first break in Doctor Who, for U.S.representation after he won the Rising Star in 2009.Kingsley, left, and sharpeconsidine, left, and olivia colemanOnly one of this year’s five Rising Star contenders,Adam Deacon, doesn’t already have U.S. representation.Deacon, who starred in urban dramas Adulthood andKidulthood, is repped by Troika in Britain. All the others –Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids),Eddie Redmayne (My Week With Marilyn) and TomHiddleston (War Horse) – have agents in the States. Theymay not be household names yet but Wilshire Boulevardknows who they are. Indeed, given that Hemsworth is costarringin Snow White and the Huntsman opposite KristenStewart before swinging his hammer again in Thor 2 --while Hiddleston co-stars with him in The Avengers -- andRedmayne starts filming Les Misérables opposite RussellCrowe and Hugh Jackman in March, you do wonderwhether any of them needs a push.It’s not only the Rising Star that is designed to promotenew talent. The Best Outstanding British Debut awardis also there to spotlight up-and-coming directors – andthis is the award whose previous contestants have includedwriter/director Steve McQueen (Shame), Duncan Jones(Source Code) and last year’s nominee Gareth Edwards(Monsters), now directing Godzilla for Warner Bros. Severalof those who have previously been up for this award suchas Sam Taylor-Wood (Nowhere Boy) and Lynne Ramsay(We Need to Talk About Kevin) have also been nominated forshort films. So there is a sense that BAFTA tracks talentright from the faintest blip on the radar. “For us, that’sincredibly satisfying,” Harris says.Again, out of this year’s five Outstanding BritishDebut nominees – Richard Ayoade (Submarine), PaddyConsidine (Tyrannosaur), Joe Cornish (Attack the Block),Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus) and Will Sharpe/TomKingsley (Black Pond) – only one isn’t already repped byone of the big U.S. agencies.So, what are this year’s Outstanding British Debutcontenders working on next that will ping them onHollywood’s radar? Cornish, whose sci-fi comedy Attackthe Block won an audience award at SXSW, is decidingon a number of projects. Ayoade, star of cult UK TVsitcom The IT Crowd, plans to direct Jesse Eisenberg in anadaptation of Dostoyevsky’s The Double – a dark comedyabout a man whose life is taken over by his doppelganger.Fiennes is acting in the new James Bond movie Skyfall,after which he hopes to direct The Invisible Woman – thestory of Charles Dickens’ secret teenage mistress – in thespring. Abi Morgan is polishing the script while financingis still being closed. Felicity Jones (Like Crazy), one of threewomen who didn’t make it through to the final five for thisyear’s Rising Star, will play the lead.Considine is debating what to direct next. In the meantime,he recently wrapped starring in Honour, a thriller about thecontroversial issue of Muslim honour killings, currentlyin post. Its producer, CinemaNX, will show the film tointernational distributors in the spring while also releasingthe film in the UK. The dark horse here is the directingteam of Sharpe and Kingsley who, along with producerSarah Brocklehurst, have been nominated for Black Pond,a deadpan no-budget comedy about a family accusedof murder. Kingsley and Sharpe are now developing amodern-day version of the classic French novel Candide.To paraphrase Voltaire, Candide’s author, for Sharpe andKingsley winning outstanding debut really would be thebest of all possible worlds. •

Oscar ® Voters Unplugged:Letting Their Voices RoarOn Campaigns, Bloggers,Q&A’s and WhateverHappened to Margaret?By AnthonyD'AlessandromargaretOf all the penal offenses that could be committed by an Academy voter during thepost-nomination phase, exercising their rights to free speech about any contenderis grounds for getting expelled – more or less.14 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07While speaking positively about a nominee is frowned upon, anyOscar ® voter who publically criticizes a competitor’s campaignor film risks losing their Academy membership or at the very least,their voting rights. Rules notwithstanding, people in the middle ofthe awards game have opinions, and given the opportunity to sharethem anonymously, they will. Luckily we talked to these Oscar ®members – all of whom have personal experience with the awardsmarathon, one way or another – before noms were announced in themost subterranean of all parking garages (actually, we just spoke withthem over the phone). In essence, we asked them: What are you reallythinking this season? The prestigious participants on this panel –polled from the actors, producers, writers and public relations Academybranches – are fully protected, and their identities are completelyconfidential. The other ground rule was they could not campaign fortheir own projects. What they had to say might surprise you … ormight just confirm what you long suspected about the idiosyncraticgroup that makes up the Oscar ® voters.AWARDSLINE: Which contender or individual has had the most impressivecampaign?Producer 1: Bridesmaids. Clearly it refashioned itself intoa worthy comedy, which always gets disregarded.Publicist: You could say The Artist. It has been all overthe place. But I don’t think the movie is that great. TheWeinsteins got the support of the critics because they understandthe film.Actress: I loved the Q&A for Carnage with John C. Reillyand Christoph Waltz. I enjoyed the movie tremendously.Publicist 2: I loved what Paramount was doing with Rango.I went to one of their Q&A’s and they’re not overdoingit. The whole concept of Gore Verbinski doing a nonhumanmovie was fascinating.A|l: Which contender has waged the most ridiculouscounterproductive campaign?war horse

Producer 1: The War Horse campaign was too smug. ExtremelyLoud & Incredibly Close was overconfidentin its co-mingling of tones.Publicist 2: The opposition against Midnight in Paristried to go after Woody Allen with an article about hispersonal life in the New York Post. But then the ill word ofmouth stopped. However, when it comes to scuttlebucket,Academy rules forbid such foul word of mouth from happeninganymore. In the end, these are people’s lives we’retalking about! This type of stuff doesn’t happen anymore.The publicists who used to spread such acidic whisperingcampaigns are either gone or retired!Writer: I’m dodging the ludicrous spots for Sherlock Holmes:A Game of Shadows. They’re so annoying and it’s such a terriblemovie. The same two TV ads keep flashing the samequote, but in different phrases. I know it’s not a contender,but it’s the same principle when it comes to pushing filmsfor Oscars. ® Essentially the studio’s attitude is ‘We’ll buyyour attention, we’ll buy your vote, we’ll buy your ticketand buy your ballot.’ By spending so much money, the notionis that we’ll cave in. The Descendants is a perfectlynice movie, but it’s being overhyped as if it’s something,which it is not…The whole [awards campaign] conceptjust strikes me as something that isn’t in the spirit of creativefilmmaking … With the possible exception of TheArtist, there isn’t a single Oscar ® contender that’s going tobe remembered 20 years from now.Producer 2: I don’t like in-your-face campaigning. Harvey(Weinstein) does a good job at in-your-face campaigningand quite frankly for me, it’s counterproductive. Andthat’s not a personal thing…I’m bothered that it becomes abeauty contest and that the studios are selling me on what Ilike or don’t like. If I don’t see the movies up for Oscar ® thisyear, the likelihood is that I won’t vote for them.Publicist: What’s counterproductive isn’t so much onecampaign, but the Academy’s new rules during the postnomination period limiting distributors to two Q&A’s pernominee. A film like Hugo can have 22 post-screeningQ&A’s (two per each of its 11 nominees), but a film likeAlbert Nobbs can only have six post-screening Q&A’s (2per each of its three nominees).A|l: How impactful are Q&A’s?Producer 1: Very impactful. I personally go to a number ofscreenings and to see Michel Hazanavicius and JeanDujardin speaking about where they were coming from[with The Artist] is helpful. I went to an early screening ofYoung Adult and obtained a better sense of the film followingthe Q&A.Writer: On this type of promotion, I’m a bit of a hypocrite.With Q&A’s, there are certain things that allow [me as awriter to get my] film written up intelligently. Ideally, afilmmaker shouldn’t have to talk about the film that theyhave made.Producer 2: I’m sure they’re impactful. If a voter goes toa movie and looks up to the Q&A, it means that they’rethinking about the movie. With Young Adult it took me aday to think about that movie and to let it sink in before Irealized how smart it was.A|l: How much are you influenced by other guild awards and Oscar ®bloggers when deciding how to vote on your Oscar ® ballot?Producer 1: I thought Fox Searchlight’s Margaret by KennethLonergan was one of the best films of the year. Thoughit had no shot, when it came to questioning whether Ishould put it on my ballot or not, a blogger’s word neverinfluenced me. Reading New Yorker critic Anthony Lanehas a bigger effect on me than Gold Derby. In regards to awork of art or music, my relationship to it changes overtime. At times, the bloggers turn me off if someone is toohigh on a movie; it makes me dislike it more.Writer: I am influenced by my own mind. I’m negativelyinfluenced by people trying to influence me to believesomething that I know is a crock of shit. Yeah, go aheadand tell me to see Sherlock Holmes 2 6,000 more times…I am shocked when Meryl Streep [after her GoldenGlobe ® best dramatic actress win for The Iron Lady]says she’s “shocked” by the win. She’s shocked after thestudio spent some $30 million to promote the movie?You mean that paid off ?! She acts as though nobody everheard of her movie. You mean there’s a connection betweenthe amount that is spent and the reward?!Publicist: No! The Oscars ® bloggers are like a gaggle of chattywomen in a beauty salon, getting their nails done. Thepeople who read them are studio executives and agents. Myjob as a publicist is to get the film to speak for itself.sherlock holmes: game of shadowsProducer 2: No, I don’t read the bloggers. As far as guildawards, nobody remembers who even won the previousyear. It’s always yesterday’s news.A|l: What film or contender surprised you the most this year?Actress: Michael Fassbender in Shame. Where did this hunkcome from? I never heard of him before. Now he’s my favoriteactor. I thought Angelina Jolie’s In the Land of Blood andHoney was touching and extraordinary and Glenn Closein Albert Nobbs was courageous in doing her part.Producer 1: Margaret had some challenging editing. But I didsee the first screening of The Artist and I thought, ‘This isgoing to win best picture.’Writer: Like this year in politics and the Republican candidates,there really isn’t any film to get excited about.Nothing really elevated occurred. You watch the GoldenGlobes ® and the Oscars ® and it’s just a bunch of old peoplegetting excited about themselves.Producer 2: The Artist. It’s a black and white silent film thatpays homage. I prefer watching old silent comedies andall of us grew up on the films of the ’40s, ’50s and ’70s.The silent film is like an anomaly, like watching yesterday’snews reels.A|l: What is your least favorite film or contender of the year?Producer 1: I didn’t react to Iron Lady. I thought The Tree ofLife was super-ambitious and super-flawed. Hugo isn’t anemotional movie, but just wows you with its shots. Overallthere was a lack of well-written satisfying entertainment.I also didn’t enjoy the [indie] film Bellflower – I thought itwas too aggressive and too inhumane.Actress: Leonardo DiCaprio really stretched this year inJ. Edgar. Also, I had a tough time understanding thatGary Oldman film [Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy].Producer 2: I wasn’t blown away by War Horse or Hugo. BothSteven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese are greatwhen it comes to capturing old movies. It’s always workedfor them before, but neither film did it. I can’t walk awayfrom these movies feeling that new ground is covered. It’sthe movies that I want to remember forever; those are theones I want to walk away from.A|l: If you ran the Academy, what would your first edict be?Producer 1: Five films, not 10.Actress: I love going to the Academy screenings and I don’tlike watching the screeners.Writer: It would be the same edict as the political world:Put a cap on awards campaign spending. Spendingpollutes the movie atmosphere … It’s perverse and Iresent the absurd amount of money that is spent on afew pre-determined contenders. My initial reaction isto turn them off in my brain as one [campaign] overshadowsthe other. … That some small group of promotershave access to huge amounts of money so theycan hype their piggies for their piggy banking is unethicalto any type of serious filmmaking. It’s not thatthese films [contenders] are bad or better than 50 otherfilms…this is analogous to how much a movie grosses.It’s inadequate to ask how much a film made at the boxoffice. That question needs to be preceded by the question:How much was spent marketing it?Producer 2: The Academy is all about ratings and theamount of money that the [Oscar ® ] show generates.I’m not sure if the institution is about anything else. TheAcademy has the library, but the night of the awardsis what it’s all about. Getting 1 billion people to watch:That’s what the Academy Awards ® are all about ratherthan the excellence of making movies. •

Actor, Producer, Star – and Now,Multiple Oscar ® Nominee – PittBy PeteHammondPonders an Accomplished CareerBrad Pitt is on a roll, even for Brad Pitt. Arguably the world’s No. 1 male moviestar, he is at the top of his game enjoying widespread critical acclaim for his 2011output, Moneyball and The Tree of Life in which he both starred in and producedthrough his Plan B production company.Both eventually would nab best picture Oscar ®nominations but were troubled projects that likelywould not have seen the light of a camera if not forPitt’s dogged determination and ability to make themhappen. Pitt has already won New York Film CriticsCircle and National Society of Film Critics’ best actorawards for both films, however, it's his role as OaklandA’s General Manager Billy Beane in Moneyball that isbeing recognized by the Oscars ® and BAFTA.He has smartly created a lasting career by workingwith some of the best directors around, beginning withRidley Scott, Robert Redford, David Fincher, TerryGilliam and Quentin Tarantino to Steven Soderbergh,the Coen Brothers, Bennett Miller and TerrenceMalick among many others. In fact he calls himselfa “director whore.” On top of choosing his helmerswell he has become a first class producer. In fact hisfirst project ever, The Departed, went on to win the bestpicture Oscar ® (although only Graham King got theactual statuette). He’s got great instincts and talentsboth on screen and behind the scenes as I discovered ina wide-ranging conversation that took place a few daysafter he learned of his multiple Oscar ® nominations.MONEYBALL – ITAIN’T OVER, TILL IT’SOVERAwardsline: What was it about Moneyball that you knew; youjust had to make this movie?Brad Pitt: These guys [The Oakland A’s] are tryingto survive in an unfair game, going up againstconventional wisdom, starting from scratch and askingthe questions ‘Why do we do what we do? Does it stillmake sense to us? Because we thought it made sense100 years ago.’ It’s a story of value, our own self-worthand this individual’s [Billy Beane] search for his ownvalue in the process. It was such a relevant story forour time. I really hooked into it. Unconventional,difficult and unique and yet at the same time it hadthese undertones of what I loved in ’70s films. I puttwo years into this project and it went away and thenput another year into it and it went away and I justcouldn’t stand to see that happen on this one again.And Amy [Pascal, co-chairmen of Sony Pictures Ent.]16 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07Pitt, left, with hill in moneyball

the tree of lifestuck with this: She is our patron saint at the end of theday. ’Cause she doubled down at a big risk.A|l: How did Bennett Miller come in as director after SteveSoderbergh dropped out?pitt: I had been talking to him about this other film andCatherine Keener, who is a good friend of ours, said‘You got to get him.’ Bennett seemed like the perfectbalance for the material; the shape it was in, certainly, atthat time. He’s got an elegant touch. He’s quite literaryminded, he has experience with documentaries and he’spainfully picky. And when we sat down we were speakingthe same language and that’s always the best sign.A|l: When I heard that this project went south and that Soderberghand Sony parted ways, I thought you would follow suit.pitt: I still can’t tell you what makes a great film or anyformula. They are all as individual as your children andare in constant movement and it takes a lot of peopleto come together and bring their ‘A’ game for a film toreally work. But, yes, I wanted to stick with it. Stevenis a friend of mine and that was certainly a tough weekbut, you know, we’ve all been through it and it’s all fine.CLIMBING THETREE OF LIFEA|l: Why did you want to hook up with Terrence Malick and thisparticular material, knowing how difficult this was going to be? Let’sface it, there are some audiences that love it, and some that hate it.pitt: I feel like we have done well if we receive thatkind of distinct, polarizing views. Terry and I weredeveloping something else and he invited me toproduce. And there was a great mysticism behind thisone. This was the one that Terry has been trying tomake for two-and-half-plus decades. This is the onethat he was dwelling on when he took his leave ofabsence. I was curious to see what this film would be.In reading the script, there was a familiarity for me,particularly in regards to my upbringing – and I wasn’tcast in it at that point. And then our lead actor [HeathLedger] fell out and the whole movie was going to goaway because it was independently financed. So, I said‘Fuck It [laughter] I’ll do it,’ just to work with Terry. Ihad a great experience with Terry, great conversationswith Terry. He’s a kind, competitive, deep thinkingman. And the whole style of the way he approachedfilmmaking was unlike anything I had done before.A|l: How did you develop the character of Mr. O’Brien?pitt: My friend said I was an absolute dick during themaking of this. [laughter] I don’t remember that at all,but apparently I was. I found it to be a heartbreakingstory of a man who doesn’t know how to get abovethose things he feels oppressed by. Instead he does theexact opposite of what he wants to do, he passes thatbitterness and oppression on to his kids and then feelsquite guilty about it, and tries to make up for it andthen the cycle starts all over again. A man caught inthis whirlpool, I found it quite heartbreaking.A|l: As a producer, is it hard to find good material now?pitt: I imagine that it’s cyclical. I actually found it waseasier to get material in the first few years when I startedthan now, when it’s very competitive, but also, that’s thestuff that’s on everybody’s radar. Our mandate was totake on stories that might have a difficult time beingmade, or back filmmakers that we believed neededsome extra muscle. And that’s where we started from. Iam a bit of a director whore. [laughter] It is a director’smedium and I have so much respect for what they do.A|l: Do you want to direct yourself?Pitt: No!A|l: That’s a fast answer. No interest in it, really?pitt: Nope!A|l: Well that’s interesting, ok, you’re a born producer!pitt: I like it and there’s something humble and pureabout getting to be on that side of things, the other sideof the camera.GLORY DAYSA|l: I just went to the 20th anniversary screening of Thelma &Louise at the Academy. You popped off the screen 20 years agoand you still pop off the screen.pitt: Well thank you. I haven’t seen it since. I justremember Michael Madsen was fantastic. The perfectvillain. There was a moment when I was getting beatover the head by Harvey Keitel on the first day on theset! With my own hat and I thought this is great man.A|l: And then you worked with [Robert] Redford for the first timewith A River Runs Through It. Was that a good experiencefor you working with somebody like Redford, an actor-turneddirector?pitt: It was an incredible experience. I remember afriend and I, we put ourselves on tape and sent it inand somehow we snuck through and got in there. Itwas a big deal for me. A big coming-of-age kind oftime. I remember [Redford] telling me, ‘Stop sighing,stop sighing, you’re letting energy out of the scene.’A|l: Interview with a Vampire that was a huge movie. You andTom Cruise got to work in New Orleans, which you have a real kinshipwith now as well. What was that for you?pitt: I was miscast in that actually. I think I didn’t havethat one figured out.A|l: Do you ever go back and look at these movies again andwonder?pitt: No, I figure I will when they don’t let me workanymore and I’ll be this sad guy watching his glorydays [laughter], only kidding. No, I’m not really onefor going back. Maybe I should, maybe it’s the smartthing to do. But it’s like I’ll see me and start picking upmy ticks, but I think about it because it’s all a momentin time for me. Seeing these films – I don’t just seethe film. I see the people and where we were and theexperiences and what was going on at the time.A|l: David Fincher, obviously you have a real relationship in termsof working with him several times now: Se7en, Fight Cluband Benjamin Button.pitt: He could teach a class. He is so knowledgeable aboutmaking films, story, the actual film itself and now, withdigital for him, the technology and where it’s going andwhat you can do with it. I have come to this conclusion thatI just wanted to work with friends and people I respect, andpeople I can have a laugh with and learn from.A|l: Do you have a favorite role that you’ve done?pitt: Well, I mean, my favorite ones are those I’ve justfinished [Cogan’s Trade and World War Z]. Cogan’s Tradeis pretty strong, it’s unconventional as well [Editor’snote: directed by Pitt’s Assassination of Jesse James helmerAndrew Dominik]. Jesse is one of my all time favorites Imust say. I think [Warner Bros.] is a little ashamed bythat one because financially it didn’t do too well for them[$15 million worldwide box office]. I don’t know whatit’s done in the long run though, but I think that is a filmthat just gets better and better.A|l: With World War Z, you’re back and that’s an unusualconcept – zombies.pitt: [laughter] I know, I know…what the hell?A|l: This whole awards season thing: The campaigning,everything that goes on – Woody Allen has said ‘I don’twant an award that you have to campaign for.’pitt: I understand that and I certainly was wrestling withthe whole notion of a campaign. But that’s how it’s beingframed. And it doesn’t have to be that. A lot of peoplebroke their backs to make these films. These films havehad a great response. It’s nice to talk about them, the Q &A’s, people who are interested in film and the process, likeI am. It doesn’t have to be shilling for a vote. I think it’show you approach it and how you look at it. •a river runs through itCogan's Trade

Viola Davis: With A Little ‘Help’There’s No ‘Doubt’ About HerOscar ® ChancesBy PeteHammondA two-time Tony® winner, most recently for her searing lead performance in Fencesopposite Denzel Washington in 2010, Viola Davis landed her first major leading filmrole in The Help and has already won the Critics’ Choice Movie Award and SAG ® awardfor best actress as well as Oscar® and BAFTA nominations in a fiercely competitive year,one in which she finds herself vying in the same category against her Doubt co-star MerylStreep among others (the pair were also Oscar ® nominated for that film).But no matter what happens, Davis is proud of her film,which is based on the bestselling book that she originallytried to option herself before learning that director TateTaylor was already one step ahead of her. Fortunately,things worked out in the end for Davis, Taylor andespecially moviegoers.18 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07Revolutionizing the Craft in the Wake of her Role Models: Cicely Tyson[her Help co-star] was an inspiration because beforethat time the only images of African Americans on screenwere in sitcoms. I can name 15 sitcoms and no dramasthat were on TV: What’s Happening?, Good Times, That’sMy Momma, Baby I’m Back and Sanford and Son…ThenMiss Jane Pitman’s autobiography came along and I sawsomething different. I saw a craft and I saw magic, andtransformation. For me, that’s what I wanted to do. I sawthe difference between the gimmick, and the actor whowas creating a human being; and I still always seek that inthe work. And especially with people who look like me.You know, I found with a lot of the images that were playingout there were the Jimmy ‘J.J.’ Walker, the Re-run, theGeorge Jefferson, the George Sanford, they were alwayscaricatures, larger than life entertainers. And when I setabout becoming an actress I didn’t know the lonely pathof the black artist. That the black artist is usually reduced,as Isabel Sanford was, as was the role John Amos played.If you didn’t kind of reduce what you do and take a roleopposite a Jimmy ‘J.J.’ Walker or a Re-run, then you probablywouldn’t work. I often wondered what those actorsfelt like – being trapped in those sitcoms trying to makethat material work for them. But I didn’t want to do that;I wanted to be an actor. Not an entertainer and CicelyTyson was it for me.Competing with Doubt co-star Meryl Streep: She sends me personalthreats [laughter]. No, I really don’t believe in competitionbetween actors...Everybody comes to the race with a differentset of tools. We all have different narratives; all of ournarratives are at different stages of development. I havebeen a professional actor for 23 years, I have been doingit for over 30 years, and my hard is not the same as TildaSwinton’s hard or Meryl Streep’s hard. I know actors whocan play the fool in King Lear and Malvolio. They can playseemingly difficult characters, but if they were to play kindasomeone who was close to who they were, like in a DavidRabe play, they couldn’t do it. Now you could find someactors who can do that real easy, but if they were to play acharacter in a Shakespeare play they couldn’t pull it off. Evvioladavis backstage at the sag awardserybody has their same level. You can’t say she should havewon that role because that character was more difficult – bywhose standards? There is no best. Everybody checks offthat box for different reasons: Someone was overdue, someoneturned me on or they didn’t like what someone said ina Q & A in Santa Monica.Nothing to Squander Historically: I played several maids in mycareer. I was tired of the maid after Far From Heaven. Isaid, no more maids. Until I realized how difficult it wasto get a role other than a maid, sometimes, in Hollywood,and sometimes you have to choose your battles for lack ofa better term. I made peace with Aibileen. I liked her. Igot her. There’s something about her in that book for methat’s so real. And it’s like Uta Hagen said ‘your job as anactor is to create a three dimensional human being, completelydifferent from yourself, with vulnerabilities, withheart,’ and to me, I saw it as an opportunity to do that.And she was a maid. So I said, ‘I’m just going to focuson the person.’And I find so much, I really have to find my voice as anactress in the promoting of this movie, but I find so muchthat we keep silent about, so much of our past. We eitherrevise it or erase it. We very seldom face it as individualsand as a race of people. This is our dirty little secret. Ourdirty little secret is race, our dirty little secret is sexism, butour dirty little secret is also that we as African Americans,we never want to show the people who weren’t, who didn’tmake it in the history books. [We don’t want to showpeople] who weren’t pretty, who weren’t the winners; whowere wonderfully, terrifically ordinary. August Wilsoncreated a cycle of 10 plays and every character he createdwas beautifully, richly ordinary. Not one noble person interms of status amongst them, just people who dreamedbig dreams. I think they are the keepers of history. •

Bichir Revels in Oscar ® Nom, forHimself, His Film and for theInvisible People it SpotlightsBy PeteHammondSummit Entertainment got a head start on awards season the day after LaborDay, Sept. 6, by sending out DVD screeners of its box office-challenged A BetterLife. Because this Oscar ® hopeful is a small human drama they opened June 24, thecompany knew they would have to define it in different ways. It became the firstmovie of the season to set up Q&A’s in June with star Demián Bichir for SAG’s ®then-newly formed nominating committee.A version of this story originally ran onDeadline.com on Dec. 28, 2011.Bichir and director Chris Weitz have since been doingreceptions for press and awards voters, lots of interviewsand generally beating the drum for their “little moviethat could.” Both appeared at Deadline’s The Contendersevent December 10 at the Landmark Theatre in WestLA. Weitz was blunt about the importance of achievingrecognition for the film even though it has been out oncommercial DVD since October. “We lost the first roundat the boxoffice but we’re going to keep fighting,” he said.The movie about an undocumented immigrant gardenerCarlos Galindo (Bichir) who tries to create a better lifefor his U.S. born son — while also trying to stay andwork in the country himself — has been a long shot. Itpulled off a major coup Dec. 14 when the SAG Awards ®announced its five nominees for best actor and leading thelist was none other than Bichir.20 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07Being on the same list with George Clooney, Brad Pittand Leonardo DiCaprio did not seem possible for theactor — a big star in Mexico. He’s best known to Americanaudiences for his supporting role on Showtime’s Weeds andfor portraying Fidel Castro in Steven Soderbergh’s Che.“It is surreal. Growing up in Mexico City and playingsoccer in the streets and trying to make a living as anactor in the Mexican theatre, I just never thought anyof this could happen,” he says. “I mean not only didwe come out six months ago, but we don’t have theinfrastructure to be as powerful as the other majorstudios, so we only rely on whatever anybody who hasseen the film can do to spread the word.”Initially Bichir went to meet with Weitz about a role inthe director’s The Twilight Saga: New Moon but wasn’t reallyexcited”about doing vampire movies.” Then Weitz startedtalking to him about this other project. “I fell in love with itright away because it was so full of life. You can have a rolelike this directed by somebody else and not have the sameresults and that is why I give Chris all the credit,” he says.Bichir said he did a lot of research, meeting gardenerslike his character Carlos and learning about theirlives. It was especially gratifying for him to play thekind of role actors at his level are rarely offered. “It allcomes down to narrow stereotypes or clichés of beinggangsters or drug lords or this or that. There are manyDemián Bichirstories you can tell and every one should be different.If there’s a chance to make the new role a different onethat’s when I say ‘let me in.’”Although A Better Life earned less than $2 million duringits domestic theatrical run, it recently grabbed someunexpected publicity from GOP presidential contenderswho kept (negatively) bringing up the status of illegalimmigrants in their debates. Bichir hopes it will perhapsmotivate people to seek out his film. “If we are lucky,maybe we can open their minds and change the way theythink about this issue which is not political, it’s human.”Bichir says the film has not done nearly as well as theyhoped in Mexico, and he believes he knows why. “This isthe problem with immigration. No one cares in Mexico.Everyone benefits from undocumented workers becausethey send a lot of money, billions a year, to Mexico sothe Mexican government needs those immigrants in theU.S. They don’t give a fuck about them or their fate.And in the U.S. it serves employers to hire someone whois not gonna join a union and go on strike or demandbetter conditions and salaries because they don’t havedocuments. So everyone benefits from these humanbeings, this community, but them. So I am hoping thiscan be solved,” he says.Somehow, that cause is so much bigger than his hopesfor the award season. Yet Bichir is reveling in his SAG ®nomination (he lost to Jean Dujardin of The Artist,of course) and his Oscar ® nomination.“I’m overwhelmed for having my name among thoseincredible actors,” he told Deadline just after hearing hewas an Oscar ® nominee. “Hopefully more and morepeople will jump into iTunes and Netflix to see our film.That will be the biggest reward we could get. I dedicatethis nomination to those 11 million human beings whomake our lives easier and better in the U.S.” •

C O N S I D E R . . .ACADEMY AWARD ®NOMINEESBEST ART DIRECTION • BEST MAKEUP • BEST VISUAL EFFECTS“Production designer STUART CRAIG EXCITES OUR COLLECTIVE TACTILE SENSESWITH A FINALE-SIZE WEALTH OF EVOCATIVE OBJECTS.”LISA SCHWARZBAUM,“THE DIRECTOR AND HIS TEAM OF DESIGN ARTISTS AND VISUAL EFFECTS WIZARDS DELIVER FANTASTICALLYINVENTIVE SIGHTS AND SETPIECES. THE BELOW-THE-LINE WORK IS OF AN IMMACULATE STANDARD.THE visual effects are so deftly and artfully handled.”JUSTIN CHANG,“NICK DUDMAN’S MAKEUP EFFECTS ARE SENSATIONAL.”TODD McCARTHY,BEST ART DIRECTIONPRODUCTION DESIGNERSTUART CRAIGSET DECORATORSTEPHENIE McMILLANBEST MAKEUPSPECIAL MAKEUP EFFECTSNICK DUDMANMAKEUP DESIGNERAMANDA KNIGHTBEST VISUAL EFFECTSTIM BURKEJOHN RICHARDSONGREG BUTLERDAVID VICKERYSPECIAL AWARDONE OF THE BESTPICTURES OF THE YEARNATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEWBEST MAKEUPCRITICS’ CHOICE AWARDSWINNERART DIRECTORS GUILDEXCELLENCE INPRODUCTION DESIGNNOMINEEOUTSTANDINGVISUAL EFFECTSVISUAL EFFECTS SOCIETYNOMINEEWWW.WARNERBROS2011.COMHarry Potter Publishing Rights © J.K.R.

ACADEMY AWARD® NOMINEEBEST ANIMATED FEATURELover. Fighter. Outlaw. Nominee.® A.M.P.A.S.dwaawards.com

“This is the story of a cat who became a hero.An outlaw dedicated to justice and a lover of beautiful women.A great, great lover. Really. It is crazy.I am Puss in Boots.And my name would become legend.”

Best Actor Nominee DujardinEnjoying Life in the Gardenof Oscar ® DelightsBy AnthonyD'AlessandroIt’s easy to pass off Jean Dujardin’s swath through awards season as the stuffthat’s made by Weinstein machines.Hardly so. When the Screen Actors Guild ® lauded its bestacting prize to the unknown French actor stateside overHollywood fave George Clooney, it was clear that thestatus quo voted with their hearts and not for their friends.Furthermore, Dujardin’s limited English proficiencyhasn’t held him back in advancing during awards season(this interview was conducted with the help of a translator).While Clooney flawlessly morphs his dramatic essencefrom Michael Clayton through The Descendants, Dujardin – aClooney-type in his homeland – trumps with his bygoneset of dancing and mime skills, talents that appeared tobe channeled from the Gallic forefather Marcel Marceau.Dujardin admits that he was daunted by the challengesof portraying Hollywood silent film actor GeorgeValentin – a composite of Douglas Fairbanks and GeneKelly, topped off by the French actor’s uncanny ClarkGable mug, however, he’s just being modest. Checkout his previous collaboration with The Artist helmerMichel Hazanavicius, the 0SS 117 franchise, andit’s obvious that the actor’s physical talents were alreadythere; the local comedy being a mere warm-up before hisgraduation to silent black and white shtick.Awardsline: I understand you were hesitant before committing to TheArtist because it was a silent movie. What worried you about this project?JEAN DUJARDIN: The unknown. I didn’t now King Vidor’smovies and I was worried that Michel would ask me touphold the entire film. I didn’t want to do a sub-categoryof Chaplin. Chaplin is unique, but there’s only one. Michelsaid ‘No, I want to make a love story.’ And he toldthat with the camera. But there was a short week of doubtof ‘What am I getting myself into?!’ Then I regretted everthinking like that because I never think of the completedfilm, rather the adventure of what I’m about to live.A|l: 0SS 117 is another Hollywood homage, but to 1960 spycinema like the 007 films. Did you feel pressure to uphold that film?DUJARDIN: No because I was chosen before Michelcommitted. I had a huge hit with the producers prior, andthey offered me the part from the script and then theypresented me with lots of different directors and I metMichel.A|l: You’re one of the highest paid actors in France [Dujardin’ssalary per film is estimated at $3 million]…DUJARDIN: I don’t think so [laughing], but I make a good living.A|l: Was there any concern that if The Artist tanked at the boxoffice, it would tarnish your possibilities of securing future roles? Wasthere a risk career wise of taking this film on?DUJARDIN: No, I never think in those terms, otherwise Icouldn’t be doing this as a profession. As an actor anddirector, you have to take risks, even though I don’t likesaying that word. You can make a mistake. In manycases for an actor it’s a comfortable position to be in.But it’s harder to fail as a director. Nonetheless, Michelis condemned to only making masterpieces because itwould have been very arrogant to make a movie like thisif it hadn’t been a success. But you can’t think of thesethings before you commit. You have to remain fresh andhave the desire to make something.Dujardin at the SAG ® AwardsA|l: Harvey Weinstein is known for taking actors and directorsunder his wing. Has he been a godfather to you in your career? Hashe made suggestions to you as far as what genres or projects youshould tackle as an actor?DUJARDIN: At the moment Harvey is doing what he doesbest – we made the movie and now he’s selling it. WithoutHarvey it would be hard to reach the audiences here.24 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07Dujardin in the artistA|l: Is campaigning for the César Awards similar to the Oscars ® ?DUJARDIN: [laughing] Not at all in any way, shape or form!Let me tell you how it [the Césars] works: They sendout the screeners to the Academy, voters watch the filmat their house, they fill out their ballots and there’s oneceremony and that’s it. No Q&A’s. You just look at themovie, you watch and then vote.A|l: Since getting awards traction, have you received any interestingfilm offers, now that you’re signed to a major Hollywood agency?DUJARDIN: Nothing concrete in Hollywood for the moment,but I’m in no rush. I’m living this adventure now becauseI don’t like having too many projects in the pipeline. I liketo focus on what’s at hand. I don’t like to shoot too manymovies since I like to do them well. Next up for me is a spythriller, Möbius, which starts shooting in April.A|l: Given how global you’ve become as a star, are they changing thatscript around to sell you to wider audience outside of France?DUJARDIN: That’s not my style at all. I give myself overto another director and as an actor I make myself fullyavailable. I don’t represent myself as a star, but an actorwho wants to make movies. •

His Fiction Career May Be Fading,But Wenders Is Revived throughBy Tim AdlerFeature Docs: Witness PinaWatching Pina, Wim Wenders’ 3D documentary about the abrasive-tender,jaunty-tormented work of choreographer Pina Bausch, it is ironic that theOscars ® has only ever recognized this master German filmmaker for his documentaries.Buena Vista Social Club was nominated for an Oscar ® in2000. And now Pina is up for another feature documentaryAcademy Award ® on Feb. 26.Of course, there has been a non-fiction line throughoutWenders’ career. He started taking documentaryphotographs at the age of seven, and has made featurelengthdocumentaries since 1980. Wenders himself saysthat his fiction films have a documentary feel, while hisdocumentaries always have a fairytale aspect to them –the Cinderella story of Cuban street musicians working asshoeshine boys elevated to playing Carnegie Hall in BuenaVista Social Club being a case in point.Actually, there’s a double irony here: Not only isWenders, director of such seminal European arthousemovies as Wings of Desire and Paris Texas, most feted thesedays for documentaries but they are documentariesabout other artists, arguably those with an even strongerartistic drive than his own: Willie Nelson, Ry Cooderand Japanese director Yasujirô Ozu are some of theartists he has made films about. There is a sense amongpeople who have worked with him that his days as anauteur filmmaker ranking alongside such greats asIngmar Bergman or Michelangelo Antonioni may bebehind him, and that he has settled into the seconddivision. His last fiction film, Palermo Shooting, was booedwhen it played in competition at Cannes in 2008. Criticsdescribed it as “excruciating” and “inconsequential” andan on-screen dedication to “Ingmar and Michelangelo”only fuelled catcalls in the Grand Palais.If Wenders’ fiction career has sputtered, there is nodenying how Pina has rejuvenated him. The documentaryhas grossed $12 million worldwide to date. He has talkedabout only making films in 3D from now. For too long,PINAhe says, 3D has been the preserve of cynical Hollywoodblockbusters. All movie documentaries will be filmedthree-dimensionally, he has predicted, and he is developinganother 3D docu about architecture. Deepak Nayar, whohas produced three of Wenders’ movies, says: “He’s trueto what he wants to do rather than sell out. That’s whatmakes him an auteur.”Building design is just one of Wenders’ interests: Hehas also been an engraver, philosopher and painter– and is currently writing a novel. “He’s a truepolymath, a director who’s interested in music, dance,performance and fine art,” one admirer says. And hislong association with the music scene, directing videosfor U2 and Taking Heads, means he is that rarest ofcreatures: a rock’n’roll intellectual.Opinion is divided as to what he is like personally.“Pleasant in a slightly cool way,” sums up one friend. “He’svery funny. He cracks me up,” Nayar says. Unlike someEuropean masters of his generation, he is not snobbishor unapproachable “although he is conscious of his ownposition,” says one distributor. Vain, self-indulgent and inlove with himself, carps another colleague. Whatever thetruth of this is, Wenders is certainly loved by those whowork with him. Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael,in demand for Hollywood blockbusters (Knight and Day),has turned down better-paying gigs to work with him.And, in a world which is so often what-can-you-do-forme-today,Wenders remains loyal to past collaborators.When he throws parties, he often invites people he hasn’tworked with for more than a decade. “That defines aperson,” Nayar says. “Even at his budget level of auteurfilmmaking, he works democratically.” There is nodoubting his popularity on the film festival circuit. “Whenwendersyou’re with Wim, suddenly you can get in everywhere,”laughs producer Nigel Thomas, who produced theportmanteau film Ten Minutes Older.Although his longevity is appreciated in his homeland, heis not regarded as a national treasure. He has been keptaway from the levers of power distributing state fundingto other filmmakers. And he has found it increasinglydifficult to raise money out of Germany itself. Partly, it’sbecause the market for the kind of films Wenders makeshas shrunk: the days when he could raise $23 million tomake Until the End of the World (1991) ($830,000 domesticB.O.) are long gone. Today Wenders can only hope toraise $3-4 million out of Europe’s subsidy system. Hemade Land of Plenty ($20,000 domestic B.O.) in 2004 withMichelle Williams for just $500,000.Also, his slightly cool, dispassionate films have madehim – and his refusal to please an audience – go out offashion. Once the Berlin Wall came down, Germanybusied itself with construction and reunification; thespace for public intellectuals like Wenders got smaller.He is not part of the zeitgeist anymore. Wenders says:“A track record doesn’t really count for anything. It’seasier to get a film funded as a first-time director thanif you’re an old hand like me.”Anyone would agree that Wings of Desire and Paris, Texaswere groundbreaking in their time, but these have beenexceptions rather than the rule. Critics say his films arepretentious. There is a nagging sense among those whohave followed his career that at times this particularEmperor – and Wenders is noted for his flamboyantfashion sense – may not be wearing any clothes at all.“People had written Wim off,” Nayar says, “but withPina he’s come back strongly.” •

J.C. Chandor Moves From Film’s‘Margin’ Into Oscar ® Contention ByStaying True to His VisionBy Cari LynnEarly this past autumn, as the Occupy Wall Street movement heated up, writer/director J.C. Chandor was getting nervous. Really nervous.26 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07It was only days before the release of his writing anddirectorial debut, Margin Call, set in 2008 about afictitious investment bank discovering it’s the linchpin ofthe financial crisis. “My fear was that the OWS movementwould turn into the World Trade Organization riots inSeattle, where they were breaking windows and burningcars,” Chandor says. “And there’s the old adage aboutfilms, that when it’s that too close, no one wants to see it.”Of course, Chandor and his ensemble cast, includingKevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, ZacharyQuinto, Stanley Tucci and Demi Moore, were relievedthat things went “in a Gandhian way,” which, Chandorsays, kept the national dialogue open. “This film, to me,was always a tragedy. It’s about misused potential. Peoplewho should, could, and would’ve been doing other thingswith their lives but had been roped into this world throughextreme compensation packages. … To have had that gutfeeling about what I was writing [three years earlier] endup being what people decided to protest at the time thefilm was coming out was lucky, but really exciting.”Now, with an Oscar ® nom for best original screenplay,Chandor is marveling at the trajectory of his project,which was a linchpin of its own sort: Lionsgate andRoadside Attractions' experiment in the simultaneoustheatrical and VOD release. “We had to overcome thestigma of what in the old days would be called a straightto-videorelease,” Chandor says of the propitious butunchartered route. “Obviously the world is changing.Penn badgley, left, zachary quinto and paul bettany in margin callI had an amazing lunch with Bingham Ray … and hetold me his belief was that, 10 years from now, there willbe a circuit of 200 to 300 local, non-for-profit art theaterhouses that will also have a strong VOD component,where most of the revenue will come from.”Would Chandor opt for the same theatrical/VOD pathwith subsequent films? He rattles off cautions, such as: noadvertising for VOD; the potential need to do a four-wallcontract with theaters; and theaters acting on fear of toomuch competition from too many angles (according toChandor, despite an expansion plan, Margin Call, whichhad a better-than-anticipated opening at approximately$10,000 per screen, never moved beyond the initialnumber of 55 screens due to theater owners’ opposition).Chandor, who previously made his living in commercials,says his interest in finance stemmed from his father, aMerrill Lynch lifer — and readily applies his avocation tofilm financing, frequently circling back to what he calls thesound business model upon which Margin Call was built.“I came about this with a background in trying to putfilms together, mainly failures, but still, I learned a lot inthe process,” Chandor says of his struggling for 15 yearsto get an independent film off the ground. “I don’t everwant the project to not make sense financially.” He’s notjust talking the talk; according to Box Office Mojo, MarginCall has grossed $11.5 million worldwide, and Chandorclaims first-run VOD adds another $5.5 to $6 million.Not bad against a $3.5 million budget.Chandor, centerUncompromising in his vision of the project, Chandordeclined to expand the eventual budget, which he says hefeasibly could have. Rather, the film was shot in 17 days,using offices of a freshly abandoned hedge fund that hadoccupied the 42nd floor of Manhattan’s 1 Penn Plaza.“When I walked off the elevator, I had a tear come to myeye,” he recalls. “You had an open view of the city — asif the rest of the world is looming over the characters’shoulders … and then I came around a corner and therewas a 150-person trading floor.”He tried to capitalize on the tight shooting schedule,viewing it as a strength not only in recruiting A-list talentwho could more easily commit to a brief timeframe, butalso in creating an intensified atmosphere. “We’re tryingto convey the panic the characters are feeling, only thesecharacters are Type-A, hyper-smart, trained to neverpanic; likewise, these are hyper-trained, hyper-successful,veteran actors and it’s hard to rattle them, but with thepace we were shooting, there were moments where, ifthey made an error, you’d see a twitch, and I started tozero in on these things that you’d never have gotten if youhad four days to shoot a scene.”Chandor also acknowledges the brazenness of enteringthe niche of finance-themed films, one that’s long beenviewed as filled by the evergreen classics of 1983’sTrading Places and 1987’s Wall Street still cornering themarket (Chandor says, he was a huge fan of both).Previous films that dared dip in a toe, like the UK’s 1999Rogue Trader and 2000’s Boiler Room quickly bottomedout. Contrast this with the reception Chandor found atthe Berlin International Film Festival in 2011: “The firstquestion I got when I landed in Berlin was, ‘Why haven’tthe U.S. arts looked more in depth into this issue thatessentially blew up the world? Why are there not morefilms coming out about this?” •

This May Be a Man’s World, But it’sNothing for Nominee McTeer, WhoBrings Humanity to HubertBy DianeHaithmanOn the morning of Oscar ® nominations, most actors wait nervously to hear their ownname announced. But Janet McTeer, best supporting actress nominee for AlbertNobbs, was hoping to hear another name first: Glenn Close, who stars as Nobbs and hasspent 30 years trying to bring this unusual tale to the big screen.28 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07The British actress, who plays Hubert, got her wish: Closewas nominated for best actress, so the two can enjoy themoment together.AWARDSLINE: Both you and Glenn Close were nominated for GoldenGlobes ® for portraying women living as men in 19th CenturyScotland. You are also in the cast of Close’s FX series Damages.You must have breathed a sigh of relief when both of youmade the cut for the Oscars ® .JANET McTEER: If she hadn’t been nominated I would havecut my wrists. Oh, yeah. That would have been horrible.I wouldn’t have wanted it either. I was watching theannouncements on the sofa in the green room at theToday Show, and I was just sort of holding my breath tosee whether Glenn was nominated, and she was. ThenI was very excited.A|l: I guess for a film like this, awards mean more than they do for,say, a hit film like The Help. Are the nominations alone enoughto spur box office for Albert Nobbs?McTEER: Absolutely. All it needs is for people to be madeaware of it. They’ll say, ‘Ooh, gosh, if it’s got nominations,it must be really good.’ We’ve already won.A|l: We talked to Close before the Oscar ® nominations, and shespoke about the challenge of promoting the film but still maintainingsome elements of surprise, particularly in the case of your character.mcteer, left, with closeMcTEER: These days we’re on the Internet – you can’tkeep things secret in a film anymore. Once you realizethe secret’s out, you might as well go with it and notpretend that it’s not there.A|l: Glenn described the scene where you reveal yourself as a womanto Nobbs as the surprise appearance of your “incredible breasts.” It’sa very bold move, so opposite of the way the timid Mr. Nobbs wouldbehave. Did you have any hesitation in doing that scene?McTEER: No, not at all. I pushed for it to be as funny aswe could make it, like smoking the cigarette, so thatthe whole thing was funny instead of, ‘Oh, my God!’ –hitting you over the head with a hammer. And it wasn’tfor cheap thrills. The audience has to understandAlbert, the idea that Albert might be exposed bysomebody, and how scary that was for him.A|l: You have said that in creating the character of Hubert youtried to appear as large as possible, to take up as much space aspossible. Were there any costuming or camera tricks employed toplay up the contrast of your stature and Glenn Close’s Albert?McTEER: The thing is, she actually is just really little, andI’m really tall. I’m 6 foot and a half-inch and she’s4-foot-1 – no, but she’s 5-foot-4 if she’s lucky. And shewas wearing flat shoes, which she normally never does.But because she’s so powerful, you think of her as beingMcTEERbigger than she actually is. I also bought quite big boots,with quite big heels. And I used quite a lot of padding.A|l: In interviews, Glenn always seems to refer to Albert Nobbs as“he.” Do you refer to your character, Hubert, as he or she?McTEER: He. Really. Yeah. I think Hubert just thinksof Hubert as Hubert. I mean, if she had a choice shewould still live as a man, so I think Hubert thinks ofherself as more male than female. What I wantedto create was somebody who was a little bit the bestof both worlds, who had all the great qualities ofmanliness, you know, that freedom and the confidenceand the Alpha maleness, but also the great qualities offemaleness, the nurturing and kindness.A|l: Your character is so much less tragic than poor Mr. Nobbs.McTEER: My character isn’t tragic at all. He suffers atragedy, but isn’t a tragic character by definition. Ithink Hubert is upbeat.A|l: Even though now we’ve seen you at the Golden Globes ® andother awards shows, people will surely be more curious to see youin your evening gown than they will the other actresses. The “whoare you wearing” thing will be elevated to a whole new level.McTEER: Yeah, because the difference will be extraordinary.A|l: Have you written a speech?McTEER: I haven’t even found a dress. Just let me get overthis week. •

VOTE WITH YOUR HEART!ACADEMY AWARD ® NOMINEE - BEST ANIMATED FEATUREffffTIME OUT LONDONffffTHE GUARDIANffffEMPIREffffTHE TELEGRAPHffffMETROffffTHE INDEPENDENTffffTHE OBSERVERffffSUNDAY MIRROR“BEAUTIFUL!A SWAYING SEXY DREAMOF A MOVIE!”–THE OBSERVER“A SEXY SOULFUL ANIMATIONFOR GROWN-UPS!All buzz, color, and sublime jazz, ‘Chico & Rita’ is an instant classic!”–TOTAL FILM“A LOVESTORY FOR THEAGES!”–THE INDEPENDENT“A PASSIONATE GLOBE-HOPPING LOVE STORY!An animated gem!”–TIME OUT LONDON“EXUBERANT!BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL!A visually hypnotic, musically electric film!”–THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTERFROM OSCAR ® WINNING DIRECTOR FERNANDO TRUEBAAND LEGENDARY ILLUSTRATOR JAVIER MARISCALFeaturing themusic ofCHARLIE PARKER,DIZZY GILLESPIE,THELONIOUS MONK,and many more!LOS ANGELESOfficial AMPAS screeningMonday, February 6 • 2:00 PMLINWOOD DUNN THEATER1313 Vine StreetHollywood, CA 90028Official AMPAS screeningMonday, February 13 • 9:20 PMSAMUEL GOLDWYN THEATER8949 Wilshire BoulevardBeverly Hills, CA 90211Private screeningWednesday, February 8 • 4:00 PMSOHO HOUSE WEST HOLLYWOOD9200 Sunset Boulevard West HollywoodRSVP: joshua@joshuajasonpr.comor call (323) 933-5716Private screeningWednesday, February 15 • 5:00 PMSOHO HOUSE WEST HOLLYWOOD9200 Sunset Boulevard West HollywoodRSVP: joshua@joshuajasonpr.comor call (323) 933-5716NEW YORKFriday, February 10-1611:00 AM, 1:10, 3:20, 5:30, 7:40 PMANGELIKA FILM CENTER18 W. Houston Street, New York 212-995-2570Seating is subject to availability.AMPAS card will admit you and a date

Insights on Oscar ®Campaigning as OnlyStudio and Indie MogulsWould Know, at Deadline’s‘The Contenders’© A.m.p.a.s.Over a weekend late last year, 10 experienced, informed and outspoken seniorexecutives from major studios and key independent companies shared theirwisdom on the strategies and particular challenges of campaigning for an Oscar®, atDeadline Hollywood’s The Contenders event.30 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07What follows on the next five pages is the secondpart (the coverage began in Awardsline Issue 6) ofedited highlights from conversations on Saturday,Dec. 10, 2011 – featuring Jeffrey Katzenberg(CEO, DreamWorks Animation), Rob Moore (Vice-Chairman, Paramount Pictures), Jeff Robinov(President, Warner Bros.), Tom Rothman (Chairmanand CEO, Fox Filmed Entertainment), Stacey Snider(Partner, Co-Chairman and CEO, DreamWorks) andHarvey Weinstein (Co-Chairman, The WeinsteinCompany) – and on Sunday Dec. 11, with RoadsideAttractions’ Co-President Howard Cohen, SummitEntertainment Co-Chairman and CEO RobFriedman, Relativity Media CEO Ryan Kavanaughand Open Road CEO Tom Ortenberg. Awardsline/Deadline columnist Pete Hammond and Deadline filmeditor Mike Fleming moderated both sessions.snider, left, MONEyBALL PRODUCER Rachael horovitzfrom left to right, robinov, katzenberg, friedman and weinsteinphotos by lysa nalin

Strategies for Securing Oscar ® Nomsand Wins Begin With Getting theFilms Seen … Then it Gets ComplicatedFor all the talk about the scope and expense of the annual awards campaigns(yes, we at Awardsline obsess over it too), executives at major studios andindependent companies alike share a belief that the most fundamental step is simplygetting people to actually see the movies.After that, though, there’s really nothing simple about it. Preciselywhat it takes to secure a nomination is one studio officials wrestlewith routinely, especially at a time of tight budgets and close scrutiny.It was certainly a subject of wide-ranging discussion at DeadlineHollywood’s The Contenders gatherings Dec. 10 and 11.TOM ROTHMAN: The whole notion of a race and spending ishugely exaggerated. I think that voters know what theywant to vote for once they’ve seen the movie and our jobis to get them to see the movies. We are a group of smartand, in contrast to what is often said, forward thinkingvoters. I know that the media likes to talk about campaignsand spending, but ultimately I think it comes downto the movies, as it should.HARVEY WEINSTEIN: I’ve said that a thousand times, that themost important job is getting voters to see the movie; ifthey don’t see the movie, they won’t vote, and they can’t.Most campaigners send out screeners – and just recently, the Academybegan serious discussions about introducing online screeners on securenetworks. Even so, filmmakers and their distributors do that only withreluctance, preferring that films be seen to their best advantage: intheaters … and at the right time.ROTHMAN: Obviously the screeners for a movie like Rise ofthe Planet of the Apes is not as good as it is on a bigscreen, I’m sure a movie that I absolutely adore, HarryPotter, is not as good on a screener. Another thing I thinkis hard is the crush of films that all come in the end; youtry to be responsible, see all the movies, you are sometimesseeing multiple ones in one day. It’s just not the best environment.I happen to believe the thing to do is get peopleto see your films in a space where they are able to see themthe descendantsproperly. A movie like The Descendants, which is a filmabout conflicting emotions, you need to see that film in aplace and a time when you are able to absorb it. It’s not justgetting them to see it, but how they get to see it, too.JEFFREY KATZENBERG: Yeah, just to sort of cut to the chase on it,we spend four years and $150 million on trying to makean exceptional experience in the movie theater, and use allthe different tools that we can put in the hands of our animators,one of which is 3-D, and that is the optimal wayto see the movie. So we must settle for the fact that many,many, many people will never see it that way. And that’sa shame. [DreamWorks Animation campaigned for KungFu Panda 2 and Puss in Boots; both were released in 3-D andare nominated for best animated feature.]DreamWorks has two films in the best picture finals – War Horseand The Help. The company employed slightly different releasestrategies for the two films.STACEY SNIDER: We do love both movies, and I think there aresome similarities to both of them in the sense that, whatwe really focused on, primarily, as the panel has emphasized,getting audiences to see both of them. In the caseof The Help we endeavored to create an extensive wordof mouth campaign all summer, and to build excitementaround the movie and to build emotion around the movie.We left it to audiences to remark on the fact that these performanceswere extraordinary, and their acknowledgmentcreates a patina. For War Horse, we endeavored to do thesame thing, which is to get audiences to see the movie, andespecially to see it [in the best possible condition: on a bigscreen]. To see it on the big screen is a treat.war horseAt Paramount, the challenge was convincing audiences – and awardvoters – to pay attention to a challenging film with a complicated story.ROB MOORE: I think what you find during this time of year is,the challenge is getting people to pay attention to moviesthat you may not be able to sell in 30 second TV spots.They may have great performances and incredibly dynamicwriting, and you hope that as you start to get attentionfrom the Academy, audiences will start to say, ‘That’sa movie that I should see.’ It’s easy when you have Transformersand Planet of the Apes and Harry Potter. When youhave spent 10s of millions of dollars on special effects, it’seasy to sell that on television. But when you have somethinglike Young Adult, a film about a girl going back to steal hermarried ex-boyfriend from his wife who just had a baby,that’s harder to describe in 30 seconds.But when you start to see the reviews, and you startto have people experience the performances of thatmovie, then people start to see Charlize Theron andthe amazing, transformative performance that she gives,suddenly they’re like, oh, that’s a movie I should see, thatat another time of year, they might not get to it. Whatyou do have at the end of the year is people puttingout Top 10 lists, and you start to feel the movies thatare going to be nominated. It really does acknowledgegreat performances and works that are more about greatfilmmaking than movies that are spectacular.Having a big star, and former Oscar ® -winner, in the lead rolemight’ve helped, but Theron’s acclaimed performance wasn’t enoughto secure her, or the film, even one nomination.Getting films seen, at the right time, is just as much an issue for independentcompanies. The former Summit Entertainment had the challenge ofreleasing a contender, and keepings its award chances alive, in the heart ofthe year-end deluge. Whatever they did seemed to work, since two years agoThe Hurt Locker opened in June of 2010, then hung on in the racethrough the fall and Christmas and ultimately won best picture.ROB FRIEDMAN: I think it’s what everybody has been saying; it’svital to get the movie seen. [In this case] having the filmout in June gave more time to build critical and audienceContinued on p34

Studio and Indie Moguls DiscussMerits of Best Picture Oscars ® forTentpoles vs. Indie FilmsFor years, one of the main debates regarding the Oscars ® , especially for the bestpicture, has been the divide over tentpole crowd pleasers from the major studiosand more specialized films with their roots in art houses.32 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07The Academy leans to the former sometimes – think top prizesfor Forrest Gump, Titanic or The Lord of the Rings:Return of the King – and other times in the direction of suchsmaller films as No Country for Old Men, Crash or, morerecently, The Hurt Locker.That film performed particularly well at the Oscars ® that year,winning six statuettes in total, including best director for KathrynBigelow, whose victory over her ex-husband James Cameron gavethe contest an extra level of resonance. For Fox and its chairman-CEO, whose hopes were riding on Avatar, the highest-grossingfilm of all time, the loss was bitter, but Tom Rothman found away to find comfort in defeat.TOM ROTHMAN: Robbie [Hurt Locker’s distributor, Summit EntertainmentCo-Chairman Rob Friedman] and I foundourselves waiting for our cars by the heater that nightafterwards, and I congratulated him mightily becauseThe Hurt Locker had won, but I made my career beinghonest, and if I said I wasn’t brutally disappointed, itwould be an understatement. I think it is a commonproblem that that happens, David and Goliath is a verygood narrative, and like anyone else, it is easy to root forthe little guy, I understand that emotionally. I’m actuallyglad overall of the good that comes to a movie like TheHurt Locker, because I think it was the year before thatFox Searchlight had the good fortune to win with SlumdogMillionaire. The Academy giveth, and the Academytaketh away. I will say we had good fortune with BlackSwan for best actress, so those things happen.But, I do think the craftsmanship and artistry that’sinvolved in what is thought of as commercial cinema is notgiven its proper place in the Academy. So at the end ofthe day, I think [deciding that] Hurt Locker was the ultimatebetter picture of the year, over Avatar – I can understandthat. But when you look down categories of sound, thingslike that, I was surprised and also disappointed, that a lotof the people who were working on crafts for Avatar, solong and so hard, were not recognized.At Warner Bros., too, there is a feeling that tentpole pictures areunfairly overlooked, a fate the studio’s president anticipated in earlyDecember, at The Contenders event.JEFF ROBINOV: I think the quality of Harry Potter, for thelast few pictures, has been somewhat discounted. And todeliver the movie that we delivered for the final movie,the quality of the last one, the visuals, I really feel that itdeserves a fair chance, the reviews that it received wereconsiderable. It feels like the kind of movie that traditionallywould receive some Oscar ® attention [the final film inthe series was nominated for three Oscars: achievement in makeup,visual effects and art direction]. And for me there is also theBatman franchise. Obviously Heath Ledger won an awardposthumously, but I think what Chris [Nolan] has donewith Batman, and in a way with Inception – that was a verybold movie for a studio to make, I don’t think the studiowas necessarily rewarded for risk taking, particularly onthe scale that was needed. I do think there is some biasagainst Hollywood and the resources that it has, the scaleon which it delivers, and I think it’s nice when a movie likeTitanic actually gets the recognition it deserves and deliversfor being such a groundbreaking, risk-taking movie.HARVEY WEINSTEIN: Harry Potter is a seminal movie, a seminalfranchise, I’m going to go see that because I think so manykids, my own included, loved those books and were incrediblyentertained by the movie, and I agree with Jeff,that franchise is not getting the respect that it should, especiallysince an entire generation grew on with those films.For my kids, and me, the last movie was a seminal experiencein saying goodbye.ROBINOV: I do think that quality is ultimately the key. Youhave to see the movies, people have to recognize it andunderstand it, but there are a lot of movies coming outof the studios that are really quality films, and really risktakingfilms. They are inspired by the type of movies thatHarvey makes, and they are inspired by the studios’ realthe hurt lockerbelief in filmmakers and good quality and a real desire toput out exciting, different movies.ROTHMAN: I happen to believe that audiences just don’t carewhat a movie costs, they care how it makes them feel. Butthey do respond to how it’s presented to them. So big traditionalcommercial movies, like Harry Potter, The Rise ofthe Planet of the Apes[the film was nominated for achievementin visual effects], that make a splash, they go out high,wide and handsome with millions in TV advertising, thatis one entire system of distribution. Then there is a wholeother set of movies, Coriolanus, Shame, Win/Win, moviesthat are challenging, that don’t submit easily to a 30-secondtelevision spot. Those films need to be nurtured, theyneed to be distributed with true patience and commitmentfor the long haul. We’ve got something happeningnow that is very fortunate with The Descendants.STACEY SNIDER: I agree that smaller films do have to be nurtured,but I do think that the little/big, independent/studio is a thing of the past. At the end of the day [thatdoesn’t mean] studios can’t also bring love of storytelling,attention to quality but not be penalized becausefor the fact that they are availing themselves [of bigmarketing budgets].

Best Pic Oscars ® : Is 10 Too many? Are5 Too Few… And is the Season TooLong? Studio Chiefs DisagreeGet studio honchos together to talk about what’s best for the Oscar ® season andthe conversation about the wisdom of expanding the best picture category to10 films can sound like Goldilocks in the home of the three bears: for some, 10 is toomany, for others five is not enough (this year, of course, nine is just right).The moguls at Deadline Hollywood’s The Contenders event onDec. 10 and 11 scarfed down the topic. And DreamWorks AnimationCEO Jeffrey Katzenberg had an even more radical – albeit tonguein-cheek- idea about how to restructure the whole awards season.TOM ROTHMAN: I think it was a big mistake to increase thenumber of nominees to 10. It used to be “Live, from theDorothy Chandler Pavilion,” and there were five bestfilms, and let me tell you, in retrospect, when [Fox's] Castawaywasn’t one of the five best films of that year, it wasone of the best films I ever worked on, but it didn’t makeit. That was valuable precisely because it was rare, preciselybecause it was large, precisely because sometimesinjustices happen. So I wish we could go back to it beingincredibly valuable. I also think that would help to distinguishit from all the other awards ceremonies because itwas smaller, it was harder. Lots of them had 10, NationalBoard of Review. It’s meant to be rare, and the highest ofthe high, we should stop worrying about the ratings andstart worrying about what the awards mean.JEFF ROBINOV: [The category was expanded for] movies likeBatman [specifically, The Dark Knight] that missed the cut.The film was, from an audience perspective, not just acritical perspective, an extraordinary film. And it didn’thave the opportunity to be one of the selected films.Structurally, there is a difference in the methodology inContinued on p34the dark knight rises

Continued from p33the way the votes are counted so that the votes are actuallymuch more meaningful than they used to be I think whatthe 10 pictures has actually allowed them to do is bringin more genres and styles. Yes, it’s confusing, yes, maybeit diminishes the value, but [it’s worth it] to allow a movielike The Dark Knight to enter into that category.[Then Robinov looked back to 1996, before there was a separateaward for best animated feature] To have a movie like Toy Story,which is animation, not be able to be considered … youcould argue it had some of the greatest storytelling ever. Ithink by broadening that number of pictures, it allows for abroadening of the number of great stories to be recognized.RYAN KAVANAUGH: Part of what Oscar ® is looking for is the ultimatedetermination of the best work, not necessarily the bestbox office or the person who spends the most on the awardscampaign. And adding the extra pictures gives a real shot tofilms that before just got lost. With The Fighter, we had a verysmall Oscar ® campaign; there was just no chance we wouldhave gotten nominated if there weren’t 10 slots.JEFFREY KATZENBERG: I’d like to make a proposal here that,starting next year, on MLK weekend, whatever that Sundayis, on that night should be the Golden Globes ® , thenext night the WGA, the next night PGA, next night theDGA, all the way through the week. Everybody gets theirnight, on Sunday night we have the Academy Awards ® ,and the entire awards season will be nine days long. •Continued from p31response for Academy voters to sample. Academy voters[can only vote on what they sample]. We had a long climbin to build the reputation of Hurt Locker.Even though Theron’s participation wasn’t enough to secure anomination for Young Adult, the willingness of a big star tocampaign for the film is considered crucial, and even more so forindependent companies operating on smaller budgets.Sometimes, the company can delay the release of a film to fit thestar’s schedule, as Open Road did with its well-reviewed actionfilm The Grey, which opened just a couple weeks ago, becauseLiam Neeson wasn’t available in the fall to lead a box office orOscar ® campaign effort.TOM ORTENBERG: The movie is terrific; it’s gotten very strongreviews. It’s a smart action thriller and to launch it very latein the season, I didn’t think we had time to do a campaign.Liam’s in Turkey filming Taken 2 as we speak, so all signspointed toward next year, to do a strong campaign then.Other times, that kind of delay is impossible, so Roadside Attractionshad to be creative with the stars of its contender, Margin Call,which scored an original screenplay nomination for writer/directorJ.C. Chandor. And, proving rules are meant to be broken,sometimes having only limited time from your star isn’t fatal, whichRoadside Attractions also learned with Albert Nobbs.HOWARD COHEN: We have two actors in Margin Call whomight’ve helped the film, and been nominated, but theyjust weren’t available. Kevin Spacey is around the world[starring in an Old Vic production of Shakespeare’s RichardIII]. Jeremy Irons is in Budapest. They are not here,they couldn’t even come here. Kevin Spacey came to usfor 24 hours to do the premiere in October, so we don’thave the actors. That informs the decision of how muchof an effort to put in a campaign.Glenn Close [who was subsequently nominated for bestactress for her performance in Albert Nobbs] negotiatedwith the Damages production people at FX so that shehas enough time from that show to be able to do it, butit’s difficult. The actors have to be in LA for an Oscar ®campaign to happen. It’s not always possible. •

Scandal! Rumors! Innuendo! It’s NotBy RayRichmondWhat’s on Screen, it’s WhatCompetitors Use to Win Oscars ®On Jan. 9, Academy Award ® voters and the world awoke to some unsettling news.The legendary actress Kim Novak had taken out a full-page ad in Daily Varietyspelling out how she felt “violated” because the Weinstein Company feature TheArtist used Bernard Herrmann’s score from the Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo,in which the 79-year-old Novak had starred some 53 years before.“I want to report a rape,” the ad began. “I feel as if mybody – or, at least my body of work – has been violated bythe movie, The Artist.” A press release reiterating Novak’sdispleasure soon would follow.Even the proverbial cave dweller wouldn’t need to checkthe calendar to guess that Oscar ® Season had officiallyarrived with this tossing out of the ceremonial firstsmack. It’s grown to become a time-honored traditionthat Academy members offer up their opinions to bothchampion and denigrate potential and heavily buzzednominees for Oscar ® . Often, there are studio/publicitypuppeteers manipulating things from behind the curtain.But only rarely are the telltale fingerprints left behind.For instance, the day before Novak’s assault on thegood name of The Artist and filmmaker MichelHazanavicius, a story ran in the New York Postwhose primary focus seemed to be reminding readersthat Woody Allen took up with Mia Farrow’s adopteddaughter Soon-Yi some 20 years before when thewoman was a mere 21. Given the timing, one couldimagine without too much cynicism that the piece wasplanted to help shame the writer and director of theOscar ® -touted Midnight in Paris.In what can be karmic payback or just a sign of acompetitve race, The Artist was recently the subject ofminor scandal as well, when suggestive posters of starJean Dujardin’s new film started showning up in Paris,eliciting accusations of sexism. Some Artist naysayerswere reportedly trying to fan those flames in the U.S. inhopes of derailing his Oscar ® chances.Attempts to discredit Oscar ® contenders are commonplace to one longtime Oscar ® consultant, who like mostin his field chooses not to be identified talking about thisdelicate topic. “There’s so much status and money andego on the line with the Oscars ® ,” he believes, “that it’sreally kind of like a political campaign that way. Thestakes are high. Dirty tricks are pretty much inevitable.”Those tricks have in the past involved enlisting publiciststo represent the purported opinions of industry veteransas well as planting negative stories about a rival nomineewith journalists and bloggers. One fairly recent exampleof the former was an op-ed letter “written” by formerAMPAS ® president Robert Wise. It ran on March 6,2003 in a pair of Southland newspapers and found Wiselavishing praise onto director Martin Scorsese and hisfeature Gangs of New York.Gangs of new yorkWithin days, Miramax had taken out ads in the L.A.Times and N.Y. Times as well as a pair of trades reprisingWise’s op-ed piece. But it soon came to light that aPR consultant had penned the piece. “The rise of theblogosphere has put the whole issue on steroids,” theconsultant believes. “A lot of people will happily carrythe water for a favored producer or publicist or studiohead who gives them access and information.”Scorsese wound up losing that year to Roman Polanskias best director for The Pianist, despite the best efforts ofWise (or whomever). Chicago would go on to take bestpicture. And while the Academy likes to think that itsrules changes restricting members’ opinions on fellownominees has curbed the practice, the truth is that it’sonly grown tougher to definitively trace such rumorsback to their sources.Smear campaigns targeting Oscar ® frontrunners havebeen aimed in recent years at A Beautiful Mind (2003),Million Dollar Baby (2005), Slumdog Millionaire 2009) andThe Hurt Locker (2010). For A Beautiful Mind, the uglywhispers suggested that protagonist John Nash wasnot only a closeted gay man but an anti-Semitic one aswell. Baby was excoriated by disabled rights activists forits euthanasia-themed climax. For Slumdog, the chargewas that the young Indian child performers appearingin the film were paid the equivalent of slave wages.And in the case of Hurt Locker, the portrayal of militarybomb defusers was said to be laughably misleading.Despite rivals’ best efforts to dishonor them, all fourfilms wound up winning best picture Oscars ® andmore. “As soon as a frontrunner is identified, you canbet that the smear will begin,” the consultant finds.“As we’ve seen, the reality is that this stuff rarelysticks. But that doesn’t mean competitors aren’t goingto continue to try.”Back in the late 1990s, the reputation-damagingcampaigns were far more overt, recalls anotherOscar ® consultant. “We’d all get emails from this onepublicist who would be just openly trashing the filmshis client was competing against,” she recalls. “You’vegot to realize that studios will go to almost any lengthsto win an Oscar ® .”So how does a film guard against these kinds oftactics? The consultant recommends simply takingthe high road to her clients. “There’s rarely a downside to keeping it classy,” she believes, “and that’sespecially true when the temptation is to go tabloid.You respond quickly and forcefully, but graciously –and without actually returning fire. Then you remindyour people that voters are hopefully smart enough tosee through this kind of crap.” •

Harvey Weinstein Is Forthcoming onThird Oscars ® (for Ms. Streep!), SecondChances and Front RunnersBy MikeFlemingHarvey Weinstein and Deadline Hollywood Film Editor Mike Fleming sat down inPark City, a day before The Weinstein Co. racked up 16 Oscar ® noms.A version of this story originally ran onDeadline.com on Jan. 30, 2012.The two talked about everything from the Oscar ®race – including how Weinstein feels about hisuncharacteristic position of being the frontrunner forthe best picture with The Artist – to how he’s changedover the years. The full interview is online at DeadlineHollywood; select highlights are below.Awardsline: The Artist certainly was a prototypical Oscar ® film –in 1929. Why does a black and white silent film deserve best picturein this era of cutting edge VFX and 3D?This was a movie made in Los Angeles, a love letter toAmerican filmmaking. The President says, this is our bestexport, and this is a love letter to what we do. And it wasfilmed in the places where the Pickfords, the Fairbanksand the Chaplins lived.A|l: The Artist won the Golden Globe ® and the ProducersGuild Award and has been the frontrunner. What do youdo differently, when you are favored and trying to keep thatmomentum until the Oscars ® ?weinstein: It’s the most boring answer in the world. You’vejust got to make sure people see the movie. There are6,066 people who vote for the Academy; 100,000 voteopposite. Today, the more removed you are the betteroff you are. We are respectful of the rules. I don’t thinkanybody can say in the last five or seven years that ourcampaigns have been aggressive at all. They’ve beenabsolutely respectful of the Academy. We don’t make amove without checking; we don’t spend as much moneyas everybody else does, on purpose. Because of earlyskirmishes which were all blown out of proportion, wehave to lay back more than anybody else.A|l: Why?WEINSTEIN: Because the movies win the Oscars ® , not thecampaigns. It’s the filmmakers who win, not me. I don’twith Streep at australian academy of cinema and tv36 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07weinstein, left, with williams at weinstein-audi partyHarvey WEINSTEIN: There is that great line in the song inCasablanca, “the fundamental things apply, as time goesby.” We can always relate to the story of a man who isup and then falls and then gets replaced by new technology.It’s how I feel every day; I still can’t even operate myBlackberry and my kids laugh at me. This story dealswith what’s happening to all of us, facing a world that ischanging too fast, as his world is changing too fast. Andit’s deeply emotional and a love story, and you feel fabulousat the end of it. Great stories never go away. …© getty imagesfor SAG ® . These people are busy, who knows what theycan see? … Say you’re a premier sound mixer and you’reworking 18, 20 hours a day? How are you gonna watch 20movies? I know plenty of people who have not seen TheArtist. That’s my job; to get them to see it.A|l: These 6,066 Oscar ® voters, are you on a first name basiswith all of them?WEINSTEIN: Of course not. Legend would have itotherwise, but it’s just people saying stuff. It’s just theat globes ® after partywith riseborough and madonnawant people to say, ‘Well, it won because the campaignwas good, the campaign was aggressive.’ …A|l: What was your reaction to Kim Novak taking out a trade ad tocomplain that the use of Bernard Herrmann’s Vertigo score was a rape?WEINSTEIN: You know, I’ve always loved Kim Novak movies.Ironically, she had a box of five movies come out and Itold my 16-year-old daughter who just went throughAudrey Hepburn’s films that Kim Novak’s movies weregreat. … But I’m sorry; Bernard Herrmann’s music from

Vertigo has been used in many other movies. Terry Gilliamused it in 12 Monkeys. Ludovic Bource composed 80minutes of original music. Most of my other movies have40, 50 minutes of original music. He won the EuropeanFilm Award; he’s won awards everywhere for this and Iwould hate to think that that could hurt him. …A|l: You mentioned The Artist being about a guy who is on top andfalls. You had some rough years after leaving Disney, and there you arewith the best picture winner The King’s Speech and now TheArtist. How are you different this time around?WEINSTEIN: People always say mogul. I don’t feel that way.I read books, I read scripts, I’m involved in politics.The description always falls into, two-fisted mogul, butreally, what happens the second time around is, you justappreciate all of it. I asked Cameron Diaz how she wasfeeling at the Golden Globes ® and she said, ‘blessed,we are blessed to be able to do this for as long as wecan.’ Steven Spielberg also talked to me about beingable to do this for as long as he can. I feel that in thesecond incarnation, I’m blessed too. I’m mellower;I laugh more. Meryl Streep [said in her GoldenGlobes ® acceptance speech that] I’m God; three of mydaughters sent me simultaneous emails and they eachwrote, “Ha!” And hours later, the cast of The Artist,who had been incredibly punctual and done anythingI asked, celebrated and they were a little too inebriatedto do the Today Show at 4:30 in the morning. They hadalready built this set for The Artist and said, ‘we’ll takeHarvey and the dog.’ I think it was the dog and Harvey,actually. So, between worrying about the dog wanting topoop, and my kids making fun of me, I did not feel likea deity of any sort.A|l: What do you see as The Artist’s strongest competition for bestpicture and what 2011 movies did you love?WEINSTEIN: I don’t look at it as a competition on the moviesbut I can tell you which 2011 movies I loved. I lovedSteven Spielberg’s War Horse. The second to last shotof the movie, with the horse going up the hill, cominghome? That’s Lawrence of Arabia and The Searchers, the spiritof David Lean or John Ford. Nobody does that anymore,and it took my breath away. Steven’s skill-set with theactors and the command of his visuals are incredible. Iloved Hugo, my kids all read the book and when I tookthem, they loved it too. I loved The Descendants. Anyfather of teenage girls that doesn’t like the ending ofthat movie is nuts. Alexander Payne and I have fourdaughters. Tintin I saw in London and that was incrediblyenjoyable and better to see it there because the characteris so popular it was like watching a Bruce Lee movie. Ithought Puss in Boots was just classic animation.My second job is politics, and Clooney’s movie, TheIdes of March, that movie was so realistic, it’s almosta documentary. I never expected The Girl With Thew.e.from left to right, langmann, dujardin, bejo, weinstein at bfi london film festivalDragon Tattoo to be so romantic. The original Swedishmovie was good, but this was better because RooneyMara’s Lisbeth Salander broke my heart. To me, thekey is how great Daniel Craig is. If you don’t love him,Salander doesn’t work at all. He’s so much more powerfulthan the Swedish actor and he’s the center strength andselflessness of the movie, so when he walks off with RobinWright, I’m thinking, why am I welling up at DragonTattoo? That’s Fincher’s great skill. I loved Moneyball.Brad Pitt’s out of this world, and Jonah Hill and PhilipSeymour Hoffman. Ridiculously good.A|l: W.E. won best song at the Globes ® , but critics have been harsh[It received one Oscar ® nomination, for costume design.]. Yourrelationship with Madonna goes back to Truth or Dare. What didyou see in the film when you acquired it at Cannes?WEINSTEIN: Of all the movies this year that have gottena bad shake from the critics, this is the one. And Ithink it’s Madonna. I think they see the personalitybehind the film. You have extraordinary performancesin the movie. Nobody can say Andrea Riseboroughisn’t absolutely brilliant and one of our emerginggreat actresses. And the rest of the cast is great. Thesetting, the lighting, the costumes, all of which isMadonna’s vision. And the music, the ballsiness toput The Sex Pistols into a period piece. I wanted to© getty imagestake the adventure with her. She did a damn good joband she’s getting a bad shake from people. The greatthing about sending out the DVDs is, you get audiencereaction, unfiltered and with no critics in front of themovie. People call me all the time and go, 'Wow, Ireally enjoyed it'. So, if it wasn’t Madonna, if it wasJoe Smith this movie would be getting three stars andas far as the director we would be saying 'Wow, this is atalent to watch and a movie you should see'. Of course,Madonna’s line is, ‘I don’t want to be Joe Smith.’A|l: When you have rival performers like Meryl Streep for TheIron Lady and Michelle Williams for My Week WithMarilyn, how do you balance it so you don’t appear to be servingone over the other?WEINSTEIN: You just do your job. These are two elegantwomen. And Michelle’s so excited to hang out withMeryl Streep in the first place. I’ve done a bunch ofmovies with Michelle. She hates when I talk about it, butmy brother actually did a Halloween movie, and she wasactually good in H20 with Jamie Lee Curtis. I picked upThe Station Agent, and then Blue Valentine. Now, she just wonthe Golden Globe ® and 10 critics’ awards. She’s prettyhappy. As for Meryl, she’s not a campaigner at all; andLord knows I’ve tried. What blows my mind is that shehasn’t won the Oscar ® in 29 years. She won in 1982 forSophie’s Choice and in ’79 for Kramer vs. Kramer. So, she’s onlywon a supporting actor and she won an actress awardand has been nominated a lot of times. People think she’sup for her sixth Oscar ® , and you remind them there arepeople with more Oscars ® than Meryl Streep. I’ve donefive movies with Meryl; I’ve never seen her prouder of amovie than this and she had a great deal to do with thismovie, too, behind the scenes.A|l: You were rough and tumble the first time around as you built yourcompany. How about now?WEINSTEIN: I would say this. I think it’s important that thereis strength across the independent film sector. You talkedabout the problems these movies have being seen. I thinkwe should help each other more. I’m happy to go througha list of movies and talk about great films that I saw thisyear. If I was a threat at Miramax, I guarantee I’m nothreat now. I’m Harvey without the bow and arrow.There are no more arrows in my quiver. •

By MikeFlemingAwards Honors Are Great, FoxSearchlight Execs Say, But FilmsThat Matter Are Their Real RewardOf all the major studio-affiliated indie-focused divisions to start up in the last 20years, Fox Searchlight has arguably been the most successful, both at the boxoffice(Slumdog Millionaire) and during awards season (Slumdog Millionaire, again, plusBlack Swan, Crazy Heart).38 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07Under the guidance of Co-Presidents Stephen Gilula and NancyUtley, Fox Searchlight is in the Oscar ® hunt again this year, with twobest picture finalists – director-writer Alexander Payne’s TheDescendants and acclaimed, inscrutable filmmer TerrenceMalick’s The Tree of Life. In a wide-ranging interviewwith Awardsline/Deadline Hollywood Film Editor MikeFleming, excerpted here, the two executives explore their approach topicking films, their approach to the awards season, and why they thinkthey have two films deserving of best picture honors.AWARDSLINE: Fox Searchlight got eight nominations, two of them inthe best picture category. Make a case why Alexander Payne’s TheDescendants makes a worthy best picture winner.UTLEY: Well I think that The Descendants is a remarkablybeautiful and accomplished film that is in the sort ofvein of some of the other Oscar movies from a little bitfurther back, like Kramer vs. Kramer, Ordinary People, Terms ofEndearment, even On Golden Pond or To Kill a Mockingbird. It isin the sort of subtle character based, humanistic, realisticstory-telling tradition. Sometimes it’s a little frustratingbecause our movie isn’t flashy, it doesn’t have a lot ofshowy or bling elements in it. It’s highly naturalistic. ButI think those kind of movies are important to movie goersbecause they show a reflection of their lives and theirissues, and I think this is a movie that is going to standthe test of time. People will be watching this movie in 10years, 20 years, in 30 years.GILULA: It’s also a film that has really resonated all the wayfrom the rarefied world of the film critics and journalistsout to the mainstream: the public. I think that the publicin this case has really connected with the film across thecountry in a very deep way. Because the simple elegancethat Alexander was able to do with George [Clooney],and the way he built the extraordinary ensemble aroundhim … these are very, very empathetic and relatablepeople. I don’t think that everyone relates with having todeal with inherited land and the wife, but the fathers andchildren around America, you know, they are so real, andas Nancy said, the subtlety of it, you know, harkens to thegreatest American acting and directing through time.The major studios are making almost none of those kindsof films anymore and it’s not easy for us either. But thefact is that the material is so good, and you have one of thevery best directors and some of the best actors in the worldtoday combining to tell this story, which on paper is a verysimple story. But it’s achieved at the highest level of the art.A|l: What do you think George Clooney did to get outside his owncomfort zone and turn in a performance that really has him as afrontrunner for The Descendants?Alexander Payne, left, with nancy utley and stephen gilulaUTLEY: I think that just by his amazing good looks and charmand outward appearance, George still can represent anEveryman in the movies, in the way of a Paul Newmanor a Jimmy Stewart, to Jack Lemmon, Gregory Peck, aswell as Cary Grant. The honesty of his work and theseriousness with which he goes about doing it, and thecraft that he has developed over the years, put him in thispantheon of the very finest of American actors.GILULA: In spite of his extraordinary public and celebritypersona, the public has really embraced him as an actor’sactor. He’s not afraid of challenging his own image.A|l: Well now, I saw The Tree of Life at Cannes and I just feltlike I was immersed in this wonderful dream almost. Give me a senseas to how that film stacks up as a best picture candidate here.UTLEY: Tree of Life has a developed a group of verypassionate advocates. This film is daring in a sense thatit’s not a traditional three-act narrative. And not everyoneappreciates the movie. But those who do, and we areclearly strongly among them, are absolutely evangelicalabout it, highly passionate about it. I’ve talked to peoplewho have seen the movie 10 times because the movieunfolds in a way that every time you watch it you findsomething different in it. And I think its originality and,in a way, sort of audacity, is really sort of rattling people,getting attention and gaining fans.GILULA: In the context of it being one of nine filmsbeing nominated for best picture, I think that there is asignificant and important voice of those, in particularthe Academy, which places a high priority on originalityof vision. There’s an incredible appreciation for TerryMalick, who after all these years, can put a film togetherthat challenges convention and that is so original andthat is extraordinarily moving. He’s not pandering andhe’s not willing to compromise his vision to fit within theconventional film expectations.Froma Searchlight point of view, it’s a source oftremendous pride for us to take on a film like this. It’sincredibly challenging. But we do feel that it is part of ourrole in terms of maintaining a significant support for abreadth of voices in film. It’s very important that we havediversity of creative vision, and I think that it’s energizingfor the whole art, and craft, and business of movies thatthese films can be madeA|l: When you got a chance to look at this film, did you see this asthe Palme d’Or winner? With all these Oscar ® nominations? Whatwas your visceral reaction at first?

the tree of lifeUTLEY: We saw the movie and thought we have to be a partof this in some way. We have to, you know, if someoneis offering a chance to have a hand in getting this movieout there, we just have to do it, because this is what we do.We work with artists, we work with visionaries. We viewawards as gravy. So we try to figure out what we are goingto do in the marketplace, how we’re going to generatesome box office, and because the awards business is sounpredictable both with jury prizes such as at Cannes andin other voting bodies, it’s almost impossible to predictsuccess or failure in that.GILULA: When we are deciding to make a movie like thisor to pick up a film like Tree of Life, [possible awards]are never in the forefront because we can’t control whatgoes on in the rest of the world around us. We have noidea what the competitive environment is going to be …Focusing primarily on awards can be a fool’s errand. It’sjust the wrong thing.A|l: This best picture race is really interesting. The Artist has beensomething of a steamroller in terms of garnering awards up to thispoint. Is there anything you can do to better your chances for TheDescendants, to turn around that momentum?UTLEY: Sometimes it’s good to be the underdog! Becausepeople take another look and think, ‘Boy, I loved that film.I need to support that one.’ But, there is no exact science ormagic of how to do it. We’re just trying to keep our filmvisible and remind them about what they loved abut it.GILULA: I think that in this contest, popular success does havea strong correlation. We are going into our 12th week.And we have expanded again, so we are going to be at ourwidest point in our 12th week, which is incredible. Froma competitive point of view we passed Hugo last night, sowe’re No. 4 among the nine movies in terms of box officesuccess. And there’s a very strong possibility that we willalso pass War Horse and Moneyball. So the visibilityof this film and the public acclaim for the film, you know,gives it a very strong position in a sort of a tortoise and thehair sort of manner. It’s been very good for us.A|l: Well now, one award season turn that I didn’t expect wasMichael Fassbender not getting a best actor nomination for Shame.I wonder how much of your release plan for the film rested upon thatfilm kind of getting some Oscar ® nomination love?UTLEY: We released it to an art house audience that wasintensely interested in seeing it … to a small group ofcinephiles who were following the festival news andfollowing the incredible press that it got right out of thosefirst few festivals. So, we kind of scooped up that moneyearly on, and then the idea was, can we cross this over toa broader audience by getting some awards recognition?And it’s very disappointing that that didn’t happen. … Ithink probably at the end of the day the NC-17 rating,despite out best effort, put some voters off. We never bat1000 and it’s up to us to take risks and swing for the fencesand sometimes it works.A|l: Do you prefer to be involved in a film at an early, let’s say scriptstage, which was the case with The Descendants? Or pick up afinished film like The Tree of Life or Shame? … Those twoexamples, you can’t change a frame of the film and you probablywouldn’t want to. What do you prefer?UTLEY: I mean, we really chase material. If the materialhappens to be a screenplay, and there’s a director we wantto work with we’ll chase that, if some material happens tobe a completed film, we’ll chase that. We’re just lookingfor good stories, well told.GILULA: I think that there’s absolutely no specific preference.I think that the challenge that we face, every year, is howdo we create a release schedule of movies that peoplewould want to see in theatres? We don’t have sequels,we don’t have tentpoles, we don’t have pre-organized titlesevery year. We’re trying to put together a strong releaseslate of 10 movies a year. And that’s very hard.A|l: Since this is an Oscar ® thing, what’s been the most gratifying forboth of you: winning all those Oscars ® and best picture for SlumdogMillionaire, watching Natalie Portman win, or?UTLEY: There’s the relief and joy of knowing that you’veaccomplished a goal that’s really difficult. But there’salso the sense that you’re in a situation that can changepeople’s lives. You know, after people win an Oscar ®different doors open for them. Different opportunities areavailable. So, you’re sort of standing there with someonein a moment where their life is changing forever. Andafter that moment they’re always going to be known asAcademy Award ® winner or Academy Award ® nominee.And there’s intense gratification to that.GILULA: I think, when I step back and pause there are avery few quiet moments where I think the path we’vebeen on is actually mind blowing. The smaller momentsthat I think of are sources of minimalist pride, likewhen we won the best song award for Once, or when JeffBridges won best actor for Crazy Heart, again a film thatmight not have been released. And then Slumdog, or BlackSwan, I mean, there’s no singular moment. We’ve beenincredibly privileged to have the opportunity to workwith some of the very best filmmakers and most talentedperformers in the industry.You can’t go into every movie thinking you are goingto have Juno or Slumdog Millionaire, because you woulddrive yourself crazy. I mean, we are incredibly proud of127 Hours last year and [director Danny] Boyle made theunmakeable movie. James Franco gave an extraordinaryperformance. And we knew that was a very difficultstory. But, it’s part of our library; it’s a piece of filmmaking and performance that will live forever. And so,we get involved with all kinds of movies and support filmmakers with a difficult vision. You know, when it works itbecomes Black Swan or Slumdog, or smaller successes likethese other movies. •THe descendants

Sun, Sand, Surf and(Indie) Spirits: How a OnceLaid-Back Awards ShowHas Become High FashionBy MonicaCorcoran HarelFinding the perfect gown for the Academy Awards® is tough enough. But for aclutch of fashionable young ingénues, there is now the day before to fret over too.Indeed, what are you wearing to the Indies?40 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07In the past few years, the once-casual FilmIndependent Spirit Awards — which take place onthe afternoon before the Oscars, ® beachside in SantaMonica — have become the tousle-haired but veryglamorous little sister to bigger award shows. Theunofficial dress code may be “casual beach chic,” butthe limos are sleeker, the dresses are sexier and theheels are higher than ever.Why the shinier attire? One major impetus is theexpanding economics of the red carpet. (Incidentally, theIndies now asserts its rebelliousness with a blue carpet.)“If you’re a celebrity, you can’t afford to make a misstepon any red carpet — whether it be an award show ora store opening,” says Los Angeles Times fashion criticBooth Moore. “These fashion statements can lead tobusiness opportunities with designer contracts or evenmagazine covers.”Not to mention that fashion magazine websites andbloggers alike now critique the fashion at the awardshow. Last year, everyone from the unforgiving FugGirls to InStyle.com to British Vogue reported on thedresses. Elle magazine, a premier sponsor of the showsince 2007, gets the most access to the event anddevotes a spread to it in its issue.Such scrutiny would have been silly back in 1996,when Sandra Bullock showed up in a tee shirt andnondescript navy blue suit, carrying a big, brownknapsack. Or two years later, with Cameron Diazwearing a simple black top and pants (right) over asheer dress. Reese Witherspoon’s black turtleneck andcamel leather pants combination in 2000 wouldn’thave garnered ink in InStyle either. On the male front,Tobey Maguire wins the least dressed award for hisbaggy jeans, sneakers and oversized plaid shirt in 1993.But it’s refreshing to stroll down carpets of yore and seeHollywood unzipped and unshaven at the Indies. Theshow, now in its 26th year, felt a bit more carefree whenJennifer Connelly wore white Bermuda shorts in 2001and Naomi Watts donned jeans and a gauzy blouse incameron diaz, 1998 2009

2002. (In all fairness, certain actresses like Jennifer Lopezand Salma Hayek have never dressed down for the show.)Still, there’s something off about seeing stars wearingsequins or four-inch stilettos just a few yards from sand.“We’re at the beach and it’s daytime. It’s very L.A.,” saysFilm Independent co-president Sean McManus, who hasbeen with the organization since 1998. “But we certainlyhave media outlets from around the world now. Our redcarpet is bursting at the seams and we can’t accommodateall the requests we get for coverage.”Last year, photos of Zoe Saldana (bottom right) on thered carpet wearing a Dolce & Gabbana leopard minidressfrom the spring runway with Brian Atwood platformpumps ricocheted across the fashion stratosphere. JustGoogle “Zoe Saldana and Dolce & Gabbana andIndependent Spirit Awards” and you get 697,000 results.Jennifer Lawrence also wore a dress from the Italiandesigners’ spring collection. A pregnant Natalie Portmantrumped them all in a custom-made silk-chiffon GivenchyCouture dress. Couture at the beach? Mon Dieu!Yet another driving force for the high fashion is thatthe award show is televised on the IFC channel, whichis getting more exposure and eyes with its new originalshows like Portlandia. With Seth Rogen hosting this year,the broadcast should attract more viewers.This year, the best female lead and best female supportingcategories include Michelle Williams, ElizabethOlsen, Shailene Woodley and Jessica Chastain.These fashionplates won’t disappoint either. Woodleywore edgy stylist-designer L’Wren Scott to the SAGAwards ® , while Williams opted for opulent Valentino.Chastain chose fashion forward Balenciaga for the Critics’Choice Media Awards.Luxury watchmaker and jeweler Piaget, which signedon as a Premier Sponsor in 2008, sees the show as anicole kidman, 2002 2011perfect venue for debuting its latest collection. It set upa VIP lounge, where celebrities are gifted baubles. “It’sbecome a very chic event and one of the hottest tickets intown,” Piaget CEO Phillipe Leopold-Metzger says. “Butit still feels like a community of people coming together tosupport each other and celebrate.”So, how do you manage to look both casual and aucourant on an oceanfront red carpet? Moore suggests asundress, sandals and a pair of fun sunglasses. “There’s away to do it that conforms to the dictates of the event,”she says. “It just requires a little more creativity.”In my opinion, Wendy and Lucy nominee Williams (bottomleft) nailed it in 2009 wearing a simple, sleeveless stripedChloe sheath and a swath of red lipstick. She lost toMelissa Leo that year, but could have taken a consolationstroll on the beach without looking ridiculous. •michelle williams, 2009 angelina jolie and brad pitt, 2008zoe saldana, 2011

When it’s Mom With the Nom, There’sNo Way to Stay Calm – But There’sAlways Room for HopeBy Carrie FisherHaving come from a show business family, I was aware of the Academy Awards®from a very early age. What age I happened to be is outside the grasp of myunenviable, limited powers of recollection.42 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07That having been said, if age can, in part, be determinedby someone’s height, I was very, very short, so in alllikelihood I was about six or seven years old when Ilearned about this coveted, golden, (nude?!!!!) man. Aman even shorter than I was, but unlike me, he had theability to make someone in nice clothes unimaginablyconspicuous, frequently giddy, surprised, tongue tied, andin a very short time, able to disconcert!But perhaps unlike other short people, the Oscars ®snuck into my awareness because my mother had beennominated!, for best actress for her performance in the 1964film, The Unsinkable Molly Brown. It was her first – and only– nomination. Of course, at the time, all she knew wasthat it was her first nomination.So, the night came. She got all dressed up – and when Isay dressed up, I mean way dressed up. You know, jewelrysurrounding and dangling from every imaginable place.And make-up – big make up. And on top of the makeup–literally on top – hair. Blonde hair even! More thanblonde, it was vertical! It had the quality of attempting tokeep company with the ceiling! And if that wasn’t enough– like an invisible escort – she was lovingly encased insomething I came to call a gown, which is a dress to thepower of lots and lots of powers of some number thathardly matters. What mattered was that she shimmered. Iassume that something in the nature of fur was drapeddevotedly over one shoulder and shyly in the crook of theother, bare shouldered arm.Also, teetering on high heels – heels designed to helpher hair scale its nose-bleed high trek to the top ofher dressing room, and in an invisible cloud of secretcelebrity perfume, she nervously clutched her teeny,totally impractical “purse,” able to contain a bit ofKleenex, a bright tube of lipstick, a tip for the woman inthe crowded washroom, and, yes, a secret little cache of… don’t tell … please … hope.Of course, she assured everyone – like most everyone doeswho possesses an ounce of apparent humility – of course,she knew she wouldn’t win. That’s when you shake yourhead and smile shyly and say something like, “It’s anhonor just to have been nominated. That’s more than I evercould’ve dreamed of expecting. Just to be named in the samelittle list of lucky honorees was more than enough.”Which was true, in a way.More than that, she – and in all likelihood most of herco-considered companions – told this to anyone who’dlisten. And, c’mon! Lots of people listened to you whileyou waited to see if it would be you who clutched thegolden, nude man holding his sword greedily, grinningas the cameras flashed and the people – both strangersand known, even strangely known – called out your name:“Over here! Look at me! See me!” Because if you – one ofthe most seen persons on the scene saw and even smiledat them, it made them part of the winners’ lucky charm.Would it be you? Please! Don’t tell anyone, but please let mebe the one who the most people agreed was the best atwhat she had done and would – with any on-going luck –continue to do. But also, please let me seem fine if I don’twin. The choices seem to come down to being lauded asthe best at what a few really good people did, or if I failon the lauded front, please let me be the finest of the mostgallant of sports. Good sport or great star.There she was, on that night of nights, waving bye-bye toher short, nervous offspring who wondered, “Would shecome back? Would she be different? Would the love thatwas offered be of a higher quality than the littler love thather two little shimmers were able to give her to take withher?” And come on, how much love would she be able tocram into that bejeweled excuse for a purse?????!!!!!Off she went, seated stiffly in the back of that longlimousine. Steering down palm tree-lined streets, thereshe glides – or goes – you can’t really do both. Streamsof long cars flow to the big building. Rivers of the wellknownare invisibly drawn to where the prizes are linedup on some undeserving table, waiting to be distributed tothe soon-to-be even-more-visible-than-before stars. Carshauling the super human to the place where the popularconvene in their expensive clothing and Cinderella-esqueborrowed jewelry – jewelry that will magically turn intopublicists and commentators and fans, oh my!But it’s not midnight yet. There are still hours remaining– stretches of time left to hope, to wave gaily, to not falloff your tall shoes on the red carpet, or make your wayto the green room – “Wait! Check it out! Red and green!The colors of Christmas! Of stars sparkling from everysparkable spot that can be shined from! Will there besomething under the tree for me on this flashbulb-fillednight disguised as a kind of Christmas morning?” Thewondering is done as they wander through this waterhole, this hot spot, this birthplace of the conspicuous.There she is – see her?My mother makes her way: her way; for now it’s hers andno one else’s. Eventually she survives the throng – thisgaggle of the thrilled and the thrilling. See? That’s her onthe aisle in case she wins. She’s right next to three othernames over the title and five and a half seat fillers. Finally,the evening so many have waited for. Not knowing whatto expect. Hoping against hope – or is it hope againsthoping? Anyway, hope is a factor.And now it’s time; the telecast is beginning. The lightscarrie fisherdim, the music swells, it’s just a matter of time until thelittle gold men will begin to be distributed. It will be manyhours until we arrive at the best actress category. Allnominees will have to call upon every last ounce of stoic,straight-backed patience available to them. But we’re notconcerned with them right now, are we? Right now, it’smy mother who we’re rooting for. Well, I am anyway.The names are read, the clips are shown, hearts arepounding, breath held …“And the winner is … Julie Andrews!”What??????? That couldn’t have been for herperformance as Mary Poppins, could it? It could.Wearing an expression of shocked and thrilled, thrilledexcitement, Ms. Andrews kisses a husband-type personand bounds up the stage to the podium to collect hercoveted statue and express her gratitude and humility.And my mom? Sure, she’s happy for Julie, whoshould’ve won for The Sound of Music – or was it sheshould’ve gotten the role in My Fair Lady? – so she gotthis instead. My mother is happy-ish, she applauds,

demonstrating beaming expressions of good sportednessand whatever else you can manage to summon tosurvive the rest of the night.In the car on the way home, she stares out the windowwithout seeing. Things she would and wouldn’t say arerunning like riderless horses around an otherwise silenttrack. Her lower back throbs from sitting so long, her facefinally still, having spent so many hours stretched in anassortment of almost genuine, outsized smiles. How manytimes would she have to say how happy she was for Julie?How great she’d been as Mary Poppins? And how couldyou compare Mary Poppins to Molly Brown? Certainly, therewould be experiences in her life that would weigh on hermore heavily, and not winning wasn’t the same as losing,was it? No. That’s the truth at the end of this long day,right? And that’s the thought that travels from one side tothe other that enables her to sigh.She shuts her eyes and lays her head back on the cool, darkleather. Her husband reaches across the seat and squeezesher hand till she has to smile. “You look beautiful,”” he tellsher, or some such … “I love you” … (or my favorite) …you were ROBBED.” One of those silly things they say toyou to make it all better. The thing you say that’s designedto ease you into the next part of your life. If your life werethat silly and star spangled, then this was when everythingwould lead away to the next time you dressed up and hopedyou’d be able to thank all those thankless loved ones andthat management team … “and I’d like to thank …” and“I’d be remiss if I didn’t say …” and “none of this would bepossible without …” and “Mom, look at me now!”She reaches over and pulls one of Harry’s [Karl] Kentcigarettes out of the pack, he lights it with his solid goldHK diamond monogrammed lighter, she pulls the smokeinto her tired, Oscar ® -free lungs. She longs to live in aworld where none of this matters. Or stay in this one andstick around until it happens. The truth was, the more yougot, the more you had to lose. Or, if this was the best timein her life, and she sure hoped it wasn’t, then at least let herlearn to kid herself about not wanting things she neverthought she’d have to live without.She pushed the button that eased down the windowand let in the cool breeze encased in dark night. Lots offolks lived in an Oscar ® -free world and did all right, shethought, flicking ash into the ashtray and stubbing thecigarette out in the middle of Harry’s lying, gamblingforehead. At least this is what she ought to have done. Thatwould’ve been better than any Oscar ® anywhere.The driver turns up the radio and Etta James’ voicepours into the air around her. “At last, my love has comealong.” Debbie curls up in the safe arms of the song andwaits for the rest of her life to fill her with a hearty mix ofsafety and pleasure.“And the winner is …” All of us at some point. If wewait long enough or look at it from that seat infused withcynical laughter: Goodnight, everyone! Hope you enjoyedthe show! See you next year! May the equivalent of ablow job fill your hopeful heart!” •CARRIE FISHER IS THE EMMY ®NOMINATED ACTRESS/WRITER … OH,AS IF YOU DIDN’T ALREADY KNOWWHO SHE IS.from left to right, andrÉ previn, debbie reynolds, robert b. sherman. richard m. sherman©A.m.p.a.s.

50 Years Ago: Oscar’s ® BestPictures of 1961 Live on:Will the Class of 2011 Havethe Same Longevity?By PeteHammondthe hustlerHollywood has been busy lately celebrating the Academy Award ® nominees for bestpicture. Of 1961. Of course there has been lots of attention paid toward the ninenominees for best picture of 2011 too but how many of them will we be talking aboutand still watching on big or little screens 50 years from now?44 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 07Will they manage to have the same staying power andinfluence that Oscar ® ’s crop of best picture nomineesfrom the Academy’s 34th year?Consider the nominees.West Side Story, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Hustler, The Gunsof Navarone, Fanny.And if there were nine nominees as there are this year,the list almost certainly would have included Breakfast atTiffany’s, Splendor in the Grass, El Cid and La Dolce Vita.In 2062 what will we be saying about this year’s choices?Will there be the 2062 equivalents of major restorations,elaborate boxed home entertainment sets, hand andfootprint ceremonies at Grauman’s Chinese, specialevenings at the Academy, new books devoted to theirdissection, Broadway adaptations? Because that’s how theOscar ® -laden class of ’61 is now being celebrated.West Side Story was the year’s big winner, earning 11nominations and winning 10 including best picture,a major sweep for the musical that recently enjoyed asuccessful Broadway revival and has been chronicled indetail in a recent book, Something’s Coming, Something Good:West Side Story and the American Imagination by Misha Berson.The film grossed an estimated $43 million (equivalentto $300 million today) and according to the book israted by the American Film Institute as one of the twogreatest musicals ever made, second only to Singin’ in theRain. MGM has released an elaborate four-disc 50thanniversary Blu-Ray package to celebrate the film. Andlast November, 50 years after the film’s opening, RussTamblyn (Riff), as well as supporting Oscar ® winnersGeorge Chakiris (Bernardo) and Rita Moreno (Anita), gottheir hand and footprints in the forecourt of Grauman’sChinese Theatre, where the film originally premiered.But the longevity of the class of ’61 doesn’t stop there.Consider Judgment at Nuremberg, Stanley Kramer’s powerfullook at the Holocaust as seen through the prism of thefamed Nuremberg Nazi trials. It too received 11 Oscar ®nominations, winning for Abby Mann’s adaptation of hisPlayhouse 90 TV play and best actor Maximilian Schell.The film co-starred Spencer Tracy, Burt Lancaster,Montgomery Clift, Judy Garland, Richard Widmark,Marlene Dietrich and others. In October, the Academy ofMotion Picture Arts & Sciences ® honored it with a special50th anniversary evening for which Schell flew in fromSwitzerland. At that screening Rabbi Marvin Heir calledthe movie “a trailblazer” and Schell told stories of itsmaking. Tom Brokaw, Alec Baldwin and co-star WilliamShatner contributed taped remembrance.Consider The Guns of Navarone. Ask any kid who grew upcirca '61 and this probably tops the list of favorite adventuremovies – ever. Gregory Peck, David Niven and AnthonyQuinn starred in the sensational World War II-set epic thathas been painstakingly digitally restored by Columbia andjust released on Blu-Ray in honor of its 50th. AmericanCinematheque hosted a world premiere screening ofthe restoration on Oct. 21 at the Egyptian Theatre inHollywood. It received seven Oscar ® nominations includingbest picture and won for special effects.Consider The Hustler. In her new autobiography, co-starPiper Laurie writes of her disappointment with the film.She is probably the only one. It remains a classic, earnednine nominations including best picture, Laurie for bestactress, Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason and George C.Scott (which he declined) and won for black & white artdirection and cinematography. It even sparked a sequel 25years later, The Color of Money that finally did win Newmanan Oscar ® . Fox released The Hustler recently in a pristineBlu-Ray edition and Warrior director Gavin O’Connorhas co-written a stage adaptation to take to Broadwaylater this year co-starring Renée Zellweger.The fifth nominee, Fanny (five nominations), was anattempt by director Joshua Logan to recapture the magicof 1958’s big Oscar ® winner, Gigi, by reteaming its starsLeslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier along with best actornominee Charles Boyer. It is the only one of the ’61 cropwest side storyto be largely neglected. A small distributor finally has putthe original Warner Bros. release out on DVD and Carontold me it remains a personal favorite but what film printsexist are not in good shape. It would be great to see 1961’sforgotten treasure restored.Ironically, perhaps the most beloved movie of 1961,Breakfast at Tiffany’s, was not a best picture nominee butdid manage five nominations, including a best actressnod for Audrey Hepburn and won for Henry Mancini’soriginal score and iconic song, "Moon River". The styleand fashions in the film have been endlessly copied,it’s constantly selling out revival house screenings andParamount just issued it on Blu-Ray and recentlypremiered a major restoration at the Academy and TCMClassic Film Festival. Several recent books have beenwritten recently on its making. It has even been the subjectof a ’90s rock hit, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by the bandDeep Blue Something.Will any 2011’s lineup get this kind of tender loving careand attention a half-century from now? I will be writing afollow-up to this article in 2062. So stay tuned. •