Have
you voted? Have you seen them all? If not, you better hurry. The gold statue
will reign supreme this Sunday night at 8:30 as ABC telecasts the 85th
Academy Awards live from Hollywood's Dolby Theatre. This will be preceded by
red carpet specials galore [Kristin Chenoweth and Lara Spencer are among the
hosts for ABC's from 7-8:30]. There'll be plenty to gossip about at the office
water coolers on Monday. Seth MacFarlane (Ted;
creator, TV's Family Guy) will host
the three hour special, to be seen in over 225 countries.
Nine films were nominated for Best Picture: France's Amour
(5), Argo (7), Beasts of the
Southern Wild (4), Django Unchained (5), Les Miserables(8), Life of Pi (11), Lincoln (12),, Silver Linings Playbook (8), and Zero Dark Thirty (5). Other films with multiple nominations
are Anna Karenina and Skyfall.
Frontrunner Lincoln's nods include Picture, Director (Steven Spielberg), Actor
(Daniel Day-Lewis), Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones), Supporting Actress
(Sally Field), Adapted Screenplay (Tony Kushner, from Doris Kearns Goodwin book);
and Score (veteran Spielberg collaborator and multiple Oscar winner John
Williams).
Oscar-winning director Ang Lee's visually stunning adaptation of
the novel by Yann Martel (that was thought to be unfilmable), Life
of Pi was runner up with; however none of its nominations were
in acting fields [the growling tiger really got shorted!]
Silver Linings Playbook is the first film in over 30 years to land nods in all
four acting categories: Actor (Bradley
Cooper), Actress (Jennifer
Lawrence), Supporting Actor (Robert
De Niro), and Supporting Actress (Jacki Weaver). With nominations also for Picture, Director, Adapted
Screenplay, and Editing, it could be a deal breaker. Argo could be in the same category since it's scored big in other
competitions, including the Golden Globes.
Though their films won acclaim Argo's
Ben Affleck and Zero Dark Thirty's Kathryn Bigelow (Oscar winner, The Hurt Locker) didn't make the Director
cut. First-time nominees Michael Haneke (Amour) and Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the
Southern Wild) will be in race off with Spielberg, Lee, and David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook).
An actor, who seems to be in about 85% of films made, Samuel L. Jackson, really
got dissed. His performance in Django
Unchained is one to remember for years to come. One also has to wonder
about placing Oscar winner Helen Hunt in the supporting category for her lead
performance as the sex surrogate in The
Sessions. Anyone who saw the film knows she wasn't supporting anything [and
nothing was supporting her] in 85% of
her scenes!
Oscar
producers Craig Zadan and Neal Meron (Chicago)
are predicting that MacFarlane and everybody's li'l darlin' Chenoweth will blow
audiences away in something new: a closing musical number. Musically, with the likes of Adele, the
legendary Dame Shirley Bassey [in a James Bond salute that will feature pass
actors in the Bond role], and Norah Jones performing it will be some night.
Along with, it's assumed, the majority of
nominees, Hollywood's A-List stars [among them a slew of Oscar winners] appearing
and/or presenting will be Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Helena
Bonham Carter, Russell Crowe, Michael Douglas, Jean Dujardin, Jane Fonda, Jennifer Garner, Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
Salma Hayek, Jennifer Hudson, Nicole Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Liam Neeson, Christopher
Plummer, Daniel Radcliffe, Eddie Redmayne, Paul Rudd, Octavia Spencer, Kristen Stewart, Meryl Streep, Channing Tatum,
Charlize Theron, John Travolta, Aaron Tveit, Mark Wahlberg, Kerry Washington, and Reese Witherspoon.
Special guests will First Lady Michele Obama
in a live video segment from the White House; 2011 Oscar winner for Picture, Chicago: Catherine Zeta-Jones and
nominees Queen Latifah and Renée Zellweger; along with Richard Gere; and from the
year's highest-grossing hit (only one nomination), Marvel's
The Avengers: Chris Evans, Robert
Downey Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner, and Mark Ruffalo.
Barbra Streisand will make a rare appearance
to sing "The Way We Were" for the annual memorial tribute. Her last time on the
Oscars was in 2002 when she presented Robert Redford, her The Way We Were co-star, as well as producer, director,a nd
founder of The Sundance Institute.
Former
Disney chair and co-founder of Dreamworks with Spielberg and David Geffen received
an honorary Oscar at ceremonies in November for his humanitarian work [raising
more than $200-million for the Motion Picture and Television Fund, which
provides financial assistance and health and social services to the
entertainment community].
Stuntman Hal Needham, documentary film-maker
DA Pennebaker, and American Film Institute founding director George Stevens Jr.
also received honors.
For a complete list of 2012 Academy
Award Nominations, visit www.oscar.com, where you will also find My Picks (a printable ballot so you
can vote), Oscar buzz, trailers, costume sketches, photos galore, behind-the-scenes
at rehearsals, and tons of information on the history of the Academy Awards.
Oscar-Nominated
Films Arriving on DVD
The powerful, Oscar-nominated Zero Dark
Thirty (Sony
Pictures Home Entertainment), the story of the elite team of intelligence
operatives who tracked and ultimately located Osama bin Laden in a Navy Seals operation
in a suburban Pakistani compound, arrives on Blu-ray combo pack with DVD, and digital
copy on March 19. The much-acclaimed
film, recognized
as one of the best of 2012, was
produced and directed by Kathryn
Bigelow (Oscar-winner, The Hurt Locker).
Cast:
Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Jennifer Ehle, and
Kyle Chandler,
The critically acclaimed,
Oscar-nominated musical extravaganza Les Misérables (Universal
Studios Home Entertainment) arrives on Blu-ray combo pack (DVD, digital copy,
and Ultra Violet) and On Demand March 22, with more than an hour of bonus features
including cast interviews and 45 minutes of behind-the-scenes content.
Director: Oscar-winner Tom Hooper (The King's Speech). Cast: Hugh
Jackman, Russell Crowe, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Helena
Bonham Carter, and Sasha Baron Cohen.
Oscar-Nominated
Actors on DVD
Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) can be seen on DVD in Disney's acclaimed,
Oscar-nominated The Help. She and
Hugh Bonneville, Downton Abbey's Earl
of Grantham, can be found among the numerous guest stars in
Agatha Christie's Poirot & Marple Fan Favorites
Collection (Acorn; six discs, 16 hours) DVD set, which features 11 of the best-selling
and mega-watched detectives' most popular mysteries. These include such
classics as Poirot (David Suchet) in Murder
on the Orient Express and The
Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb; and Miss Marple (Geraldine McEwan and Julia
Mckenzie) in The Murder at the Vicarage and
The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side.
