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Best Picture Winner: The King’s Speech

Megan MacKay — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:54:52 +0000

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Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter must be thrilled!

British import The King’s Speech has officially taken home the little golden man for best picture at the 83^rd Annual Academy Awards.

Steven Spielberg presented the film’s cast and crew with the statue, placing emphasis on the true honour of even being nominated in such a prestigious category.

Director Tom Hooper was also honoured in the Best Directing Category, leading man Colin Firth snagged an Oscar in his category, and screenwriter David Seidler managed to nab a win too.

It was a spectacular film, but being die-had Christopher Nolan fans we couldn’t help but root for Inception! Still, the award was absolutely well-deserved and the film was excellent.

Click HERE to check out a full list of big winners!

The 83rd Academy Awards (2011) Results

@coltondaniel — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 05:22:58 +0000

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Melissa Leo in The Fighter

James Franco and Anne Hathaway hosted the 83rd Academy Awards on Sunday, February 27th and the evening dragged on in it’s traditional lengthy fashion as it honoured the best of film in 2011.

The evening was full of predictable results, with some surprises thrown into the mix. Those included Kirk Douglas’ flirtatious shenanigans, Melissa Leo’s heartfelt f-bomb, James Franco in drag, Bob Hope’s brief resurrection, and the ‘In Memory’ tribute that somehow forgot to acknowledge Charlie Sheen’s career.

Franco and Hathaway lured in a younger demographic with their good looks and auto-tuned shorts of Harry Potter and Toy Story, but the awards still targeted the traditional Academy audience. Keep in mind that the average age of those voting in the Academy is 56.

As for the awards, the Best Picture went to The King’s Speech, Best Actor went to Colin Firth for his performance in The King’s Speech and Best Actress went to Natalie Portman in Black Swan. Other contenders that cleaned up were Inception with 4 awards and The Social Network took home 3,

Here is the complete list of winners and nominees:

BEST PICTURE

127 HOURS (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
BLACK SWAN (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
INCEPTION (Warner Bros Pictures)
THE FIGHTER (Relativity Media/Paramount Pictures)
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT (Focus Features)
THE KING’S SPEECH (The Weinstein Co)
THE SOCIAL NETWORK (Sony Pictures)
TOY STORY 3 (Pixar/Walt Disney Studios)
TRUE GRIT (Paramount Pictures)
WINTER’S BONE (Roadside Attractions)

BEST ACTOR

JEFF BRIDGES – TRUE GRIT
JAVIER BARDEM – BIUTIFUL
JESSE EISENBERG – THE SOCIAL NETWORK
COLIN FIRTH – THE KING’S SPEECH
JAMES FRANCO – 127 HOURS

BEST ACTRESS

ANNETTE BENING – THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
NICOLE KIDMAN – RABBIT HOLE
JENNIFER LAWRENCE – WINTER’S BONE
NATALIE PORTMAN – BLACK SWAN
MICHELLE WILLIAMS – BLUE VALENTINE

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

CHRISTIAN BALE – THE FIGHTER
JOHN HAWKES – WINTER’S BONE
JEREMY RENNER – THE TOWN
MARK RUFFALO – THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT
GEOFFREY RUSH – THE KING’S SPEECH

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

AMY ADAMS – THE FIGHTER
HELENA BONHAM CARTER – THE KING’S SPEECH
MELISSA LEO – THE FIGHTER
HAILEE STEINFELD – TRUE GRIT
JACKIE WEAVER – ANIMAL KINGDOM

BEST ANIMATED PICTURE

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON
TOY STORY 3
THE ILLUSIONIST

BEST DIRECTOR

DARREN ARONOFSKY – BLACK SWAN
DAVID FINCHER – THE SOCIAL NETWORK
TOM HOOPER – THE KING’S SPEECH
JOEL AND ETHAN COEN – TRUE GRIT
DAVID O. RUSSELL – THE FIGHTER

ART DIRECTION

ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Robert Stromberg, Karen O’hara
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1, Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
INCEPTION, Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias and Doug Mowat
THE KING’S SPEECH, Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
TRUE GRIT, Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

BLACK SWAN, Matthew Libatique
INCEPTION, Wally Pfister
THE KING’S SPEECH, Danny Cohen
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Jeff Cronenweth
TRUE GRIT, Roger Deakins

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Colleen Atwood
I AM LOVE, Antonella Cannarozzi
THE KING’S SPEECH, Jenny Beavan
THE TEMPEST, Sandy Powell
TRUE GRIT, Mary Zophres

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP, Banksy and Jaimie D’Cruz, A Paranoid Pictures Production
GASLAND, Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic, A Gasland Production
INSIDE JOB, Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs, A Representational Pictures Production
RESTREPO, Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, An Outpost Films Production
WASTE LAND, Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley, An Almega Projects Production

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

KILLING IN THE NAME, A Moxie Firecracker Films Production
POSTER GIRL, A Portrayal Films Production
STRANGERS NO MORE, Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon, A Simon & Goodman Picture Company Production
SUN COME UP, Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger, A Sun Come Up Production
THE WARRIORS OF QIUGANG, Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon, A Thomas Lennon Films Production

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING

BLACK SWAN, Andrew Weisblum
THE FIGHTER, Pamela Martin
THE KING’S SPEECH, Tariq Anwar
127 HOURS, Jon Harris
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

BIUTIFUL, Mexico
DOGTOOTH, Greece
IN A BETTER WORLD, Denmark
INCENDIES, Canada
OUTSIDE THE LAW, Algeria

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP

BARNEY’S VERSION, Adrien Morot
THE WAY BACK, Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
THE WOLFMAN, Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON, John Powell
INCEPTION, Hans Zimmer
THE KING’S SPEECH, Alexandre Desplat
127 HOURS, A.R. Rahman
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Coming Home” from COUNTRY STRONG, Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from TANGLED, Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from 127 HOURS, Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from TOY STORY 3, Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

DAY & NIGHT, A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Teddy Newton
THE GRUFFALO, A Magic Light Pictures Production, Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
LET’S POLLUTE, A Geefwee Boedoe Production, Geefwee Boedoe
THE LOST THING, A Passion Pictures Australia Production, Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
MADAGASCAR, A JOURNEY DIARY, A Sacrebleu Production, Bastien Dubois

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

THE CONFESSION, A National Film and Television School Production, Tanel Toom
THE CRUSH, A Purdy Pictures Production, Michael Creagh
GOD OF LOVE, A Luke Matheny Production, Luke Matheny
NA WEWE, A CUT! Production, Ivan Goldschmidt
WISH 143, A Swing and Shift Films/Union Pictures Production, Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

INCEPTION, Richard King
TOY STORY 3, Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
TRON: LEGACY, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
TRUE GRIT, Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
UNSTOPPABLE, Mark P. Stoeckinger

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

INCEPTION, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
THE KING’S SPEECH, Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
SALT, Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
TRUE GRIT, Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

ALICE IN WONDERLAND, Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1, Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
HEREAFTER, Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
INCEPTION, Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
IRON MAN 2, Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

127 HOURS, Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
TOY STORY 3, Screenplay by Michael Arndt. Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
TRUE GRIT, Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
WINTER’S BONE, Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

ANOTHER YEAR, Written by Mike Leigh
THE FIGHTER, Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
INCEPTION, Written by Christopher Nolan
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
THE KING’S SPEECH, Screenplay by David Seidler

Movie Review: A Single Man

Ilan Mester — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:37:52 +0000

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Tom Ford brings style to his new movie and it’s not just in the wardrobe. The former creative director for Gucci who now fronts his own fashion line makes his directorial debut with “A Single Man”.

Loosely based on the famed novel by Christopher Isherwood, the film follows a single day in the single life of a gay English professor who teaches in L.A. during the ‘60s. After losing his longtime partner Jim (played by Matthew Goode), George Falconer (Colin Firth) plans his suicide in order to end his suffering. However, George has a few things to settle before taking his own life.

The great thing about this film is that audiences can feel the suffering regardless of whether they’ve lost a loved one or not. That’s partly due to Ford’s directing and also to Firth’s impeccable performance.

Whenever George reminisces about his life with Jim, Ford uses black and white, a strong contrast from the vivid, colourful scenes that take place in the present. These colours come to life whenever George meets with his fellow British friend Charley (Julianne Moore) or with Kenny (“About a Boy’s” Nicholas Hoult), a student whose interest in George is more than academic. It’s clear that Ford — who also co-wrote and produced the film — knows how to use light and texture to his advantage.

And it should come to no surprise that he also has an unfailing eye for detail. Everything from the suits to Charley’s accessories (including a pink cigar) hint to his obsession with detail. Whether it be a conscious decision or not, Ford makes many of the scenes resemble advertisements, perhaps due to his fashion background. This could be a turn off to some while others will praise the cinematography.

The production team behind the set of “A Single Man” is that of the hit TV show “Mad Men,” so be sure to count on an equally authentic set. But at the end of the day, a film isn’t complete without a talented cast and this one has an abundance of talented actors.

Firth delivers one of his best performances yet. He’s already won an award related to the movie at the Venice Film Festival and he’ll undoubtedly continue to garner nominations for the role. Moore is radiant as Charley and provides some much needed comic relief. Audiences will be surprised to see “About a Boy’s” Hoult all grown up. And audiences will also be pleasantly surprised at what a fashion-designer-turned-director can bring to a movie.

Movie Review: Easy Virtue

Ilan Mester — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:10:48 +0000

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“Easy Virtue” is easy on the eyes, but is it an amazing film? Not really. The movie, based on the 1920’s play by Noel Coward that was also adapted into a silent film by Alfred Hitchcock in 1928 is definitely viewable — but it won’t bedazzle.

The story goes that a young Englishman, John Whittaker (played by “Narnia’s” Ben Barnes), falls in love with a glamorous American race-car beauty named Larita (Jessica Biel). They elope Vegas-style without telling their families in the roaring twenties. But when John decides to take Larita back home (meaning a humongous mansion in the outskirts of England) John’s mother, Mrs. Whittaker, becomes less than pleased with his selection.

Now, before your alarm bells go off by thinking this movie is anything like J.Lo’s “Monster-in-Law” flick where the mother-in-law vs. daughter-in-law war is there just for laughing purposes don’t worry, “Easy Virtue” isn’t like that at all. Coward was known for presenting comedies in the form of tragedies and this idea transpires into the movie. Also be warned that the film’s opening credits may lead you into thinking you’re in for an hour and a half of cheese but don’t be fooled, it gets much better.

I don’t think there could have been a better casting choice of Larita, a.k.a Biel. This is a character that oozes sex appeal but one that’s also clever and witty, and she more than pulls this off. Barnes also does a good job connecting with Biel’s character and acting like a boy who hasn’t yet turned into a man (which is how the character is supposed to act). This movie also counts with Colin Firth (“Bridget Jones’s Diary,” “Mamma Mia!”) who definitely ups the performance standard in this film. Although his character, Mr. Whittaker, remains quiet and pensive throughout most of the movie, when he decides to open up his mouth you can expect an insightful line or two.

It’s also cool to see the American vs. English rivalry in the film, with a 1920’s twist. A lot of the humour in the movie comes from the culture shocks that both Larita and Mrs. Whittaker go through with each other. And since its not a “good daughter in law” “bad mother-in-law” type of movie, at times you might sympathize with Larita, while other moments you might take Mrs. Whittaker’s side.

Also, this is not a plotless movie with slap stick comedy. “Easy Virtue” has quite a few twists and turns (including character revelations) and isn’t extremely predictable. It’s good to see a movie where most of the laughs and smiles come from the actual dialogue as opposed to the characters tripping and falling.Take Larita’s advice to John’s younger sister, Hilda, for example, “If you want a man’s attention, ignore him.”

So what’s the verdict? “Easy Virtue” is mildly entertaining and interesting. The acting is fine, the setting is beautiful, the sets are authentic and the plot is somewhat refreshing. But if that isn’t enough to get you into the theatres, at least see it for for a 1920’s revamped version of the “Sex Bomb” song.