PGA Noms: "Ides" Resurfaces, "Tree" & "Drive" Ignored
Tuesday, January 3, 2012 at 2:03PM 20 Days til Oscar nominations!
Every time the Producers Guild of America announces their awards, I have a split second of alternate universe confusion wherein I imagine the golfers on the PGA Tour breaking to vote on their ten favorite movies of the year. I'm pretty sure they'd have found room for DRIVE.
wocka wocka wocka
(I'm sorry! I couldn't resist.)
The other notable exclusion from the PGA's list is Terrence Malick's THE TREE OF LIFE but considering that the two most notable exclusions are auteur movies which didn't exactly light the box office on fire it makes sense that the PGA would embrace bigger and more producer-driven hits in their place. But I don't think this is bad news for The Tree of Life in the best picture race since it's obviously going to get a healthy portion of #1 votes. Enough though? Who knows.
Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures
- THE ARTIST Thomas Langmann
- BRIDESMAIDS Judd Apatow, Barry Mendel, Clayton Townsend
- THE DESCENDANTS Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
- THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Ceán Chaffin, Scott Rudin
- THE HELP Michael Barnathan, Chris Columbus, Brunson Green
- HUGO Graham King, Martin Scorsese
- THE IDES OF MARCH George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Brian Oliver
- MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Letty Aronson, Stephen Tenenbaum
- MONEYBALL Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz, Brad Pitt
- WAR HORSE Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg
The inclusion of Dragon Tattoo is the most interesting because it is neither a big hit nor a critical darling nor a sound Oscar contender (though I suppose the last point is debatable). Was it Scott Rudin directed sympathy for Embargo-Gate? Was it just lazy just-saw-that voting? Did they genuinely love it?
The inclusion of The Ides of March might be the most telling since it also scored with the Golden Globes rather unexpectedly. When I first saw it I thought "my god, everyone is underestimating its Oscar chances" but then everyone quickly shoved it to the side as an also ran and I followed suit. Perhaps my initial instinct was closer to the truth than I knew? Do you think there's Oscar life left in THE IDES OF MARCH?
animation and tv after the jump
Producer of the Year Award in Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures:
- THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN Peter Jackson, Kathleen Kennedy, Steven Spielberg
- CARS 2 Denise Ream
- KUNG FU PANDA 2 Melissa Cobb
- PUSS IN BOOTS Joe M. Aguilar, Latifa Ouaou
- RANGO John B. Carls, Gore Verbinski
Awards bodies are so lazy. Cars 2? Seriously? Let us speak of it no more. Please please please Oscar animation branch: Save face here and ignore it lest you expose the category for the mess that it is. If Oscar's Best Picture category had the same eligible films to nominee proportions as the Animated Category there would literally be 87 Best Picture nominees announced on January 24th! Nobody in their right mind would ever think this was a good idea so why are there so many Animated nominees even in a weak year for cartoons? (Rango notwithstanding)
Disgruntled Reader / Cars enthusiasts: Didn't you just say "let us speak of it no more"? SHUT UP.
The David L. Wolper Producer of the Year Award in Long-Form Television:
- “Cinema Verite” (HBO) Zanne Devine, Karyn McCarthy
- “Downton Abbey” (Masterpiece) (PBS) Julian Fellowes, Nigel Marchant, Gareth Neame
- “The Kennedys” (ReelzChannel) Jon Cassar, Jonathan Koch, Stephen Kronish, Steve Michaels, Michael Prupas, Jamie Paul Rock, Joel Surnow
- “Mildred Pierce” (HBO) Todd Haynes, Pamela Koffler, Ilene S. Landress, Christine Vachon
- “Too Big To Fail” (HBO) Carol Fenelon, Jeffrey Levine, Paula Weinstein
Good morning HBO Executives. None of them have ever had a "nomination morning"?
Reader Comments (20)
We were underestimating Ides of March. Remember that FYC Ad where Dave Karger said Ides of March is the first slam dunk Best Picture nominee? Looks like it’s really happening.
I’m not expecting Ext Loud & Inc Close to win anymore, but will it get nominated? There is no love for this movie except from Critic’s Choice. Is is really that bad or is the case still because not enough people have seen it?
My question re: Ides of March is: what separates it from Globe nominees like Revolutionary Road, The Great Debaters, Little Children, etc. Clumsy sort-of respected dramas that only get a Globe slot because big contenders are showing up in Comedy/Musical. Globes went hard for Clooney, and granted, the Academy did go crazy for Good Night and Good Luck...but 5% seems like an awful high bar for Ides to reach at this point. Adapted Screenplay, sure, but I'm not sure the push for BP is there.
The surprise in the Best Picture, for me at least, isn't Extremely Loud or Drive or Tree of Life-it's that HP7.2 didn't make it-if prestige and a mountain of cash that could fill every hall of Hogwarts wasn't enough to get in at the PGA's, its Oscar chances truly were a Mirror of Erised for fans.
Yes, Ides of March is definitely alive. The film was solid but certainly not groundbreaking, yet I'm amazed how people cast it aside despite the Globes.
The Academy LOVES political drama. Not to mention the allure of Clooney and the crazy good year for Gosling. It has a real good chance of spoiling the party for Tree of Life or Garden Tattoo.
Also, while it obviously won't win, I don't foresee a future where Cars 2 doesn't get the nomination for the Oscars. Even in a three-person race it would have been a possibility-Pixar just contributes to many voters in that category's paychecks.
Oscar life in The Ides of March? Don't know, really.
It's strange, though, that it didn't get a single SAG nod.
I was kind of hoping the guilds/academy would give a big F you to the general movie goers who gave Drive a cinema score of C- (I think) by nominating it :P
Maybe I am just trying to make myself feel better. But a least did Drive have a late start to the campaign party? (ie no screeners to PGA as someone posted)
Ides, Drive, whatever... just as long as they find an excuse to invite Gosling on the Oscar red carpet, I'm good. Maybe as presenter if he nor his films aren't nominated.
Matt -- i love the idea of a "Garden Tattoo" movie. hee. it's like Lisbeth instead of being a sociopathic goth is like a reject from Portlandia. ;)
If Dragon Tattoo is picking up momentum, then Rooney Mara is almost assured to take out Tilda or Glenn.
Did anyone else notice that Mad Men picked up a drama series nomination, even though I'm pretty sure it wasn't eligible? Surely that can't be right?
My thought: Well, as much as the PGA isn't obsessed with choosing 10 films with 90% scores on RT, none of these groups are going to stick by something that gets 50% or less these days. It's at less then 60 percent, and even the positive reviews seem decidedly mixed when read carefully. Chances: Based on this critical reception, we might see a couple technical nominations at best. Von Sydow is dicey, leaning on unlikely (2 critics awards noms only, neither major), director is almost assured to not happen (only happened at one critics award, not a major one), Adapted Screenplay only got nominated once, Score happened a couple times (neither major), Picture a couple times (neither major) and Horn only got Young Actor and Breakthrough. And the thing is: If Daldry really wanted to do an adaptation of a piece of prestigous 9/11 fiction, why couldn't he have chosen Don DeLillo's Falling Man or Spielgelman's In the Shadow of No Towers?
Lisbeth's portrayal in Fincher's version is better than the original. "Garden Tattoo"...your wannabe internet snark is pathetic.
This is a very uninspiring list.
God, I hope Ides doesn't show up too much at the Oscars (maybe Screenplay or something, but even then...). It just wasn't that good. And the actors were all fine, but nothing nomination worthy.
Tony -- agreed that Mara is a better Lisbeth by why the tone about a typo? Must be award season when people get so angry for nothing!
Roark -- agreed.
Nic -- nah, DRIVE didn't make you wait around for its screeners so anyone who wanted to see it got a chance. I love that movie. But I guess i blame the BFCA for making me think it had a slight shot at the BEst Pic nod. I was trying not to hope for it!
I think we have kind of gotten ahead of ourselves in discounting Ides, based only on unresponsive critical groups. Kind of reminds me of Babel or, yes, Crash, which were about serious subjects, had actors you knew and loved, and were respected but not loved by the critics. And you know they love actors behind the camera, and if it's Clooney, well, I'm not sure there's anything more up their alley.
"your wannabe internet snark is pathetic."
Please teach me your ways, master.
Ahahhaa, I lol'd at that.
WHY SO MAD?
You are right Nat. Just a bit disheartening to see it left off from the PGA in a field of 10, though it's been kind of expected.
CARS 2 is smart, funny, intelligent - very good, simply. And I'm glad that it is nominated for Globes and PGA award. I don't know if it would be nominated for Oscars but it surely SHOULD be.