Tuesday
Jan292013
Golden Questions
Tuesday, January 29, 2013 at 11:33AM 
Which Oscar related questions are currently haunting you? Perhaps we can answer them? We'll answer at least one of them daily all week long.
tagged Oscars (12)
Oscars (12)
Reader Comments (55)
Will we ever see Elisabeth Shue or Sharon Stone nominated for an Oscar again?
What a great Best Actress lineup that year!!
The question that is haunting me is the only important question right now: Who will Nicole Kidman vote for - Watts or Riva??????
is it possible that ARGO won't win Best Picture?
What's the likelihood that next year's Best Actress lineup will be full of previous winners, a la this year's Best Supporting Actor race?
What about a Top 10 Best Picture winners with the least amount of victories in the other categories? Yeah, we cannot stop talking about Argo.
Have you ever heard any rumors that an Oscar winner has used the statuette as a sex toy?
Can Amour win 3 of its 5 nominations? Foreign film, screenplay and actress. It seems possible. Are AMPAS members watching the screener? Because if they are, how can they not vote for it.
Who the hell is going to win director?
Who else thinks Adele will eventually be an EGOT winner?
Why SUBMARINE songs were not elligible last year? They are all real gems.
I'm beginning to think that Jessica and Jennifer will split votes and Emmanuelle Riva will emerge as the winner. ON HER BIRTHDAY! Am I nuts?
Is Lincoln's failure to congeal the awards masses a sign of something more about Spielberg? His films regularly are nominated, yet he never wins. Even this year, where he has made a film that even many of his detractors have praised, seems to be falling by the wayside.
who will be part of category fraud once again nexyt year,this is something the academy needs to address now,i mean come on waltz supporting,hoffman supporting,hunt supporting,nonsense..
Is your glorious Turner reaction shot ever coming back?
Isn't Adapted Screenplay the tell-tale category this year? Going by the stats, Argo has to win at least three awards if it's going to win Best Picture (including Best Picture) and no film since Rebecca in 1940 has won Best Picture without winning at least one other major award (Directing/Writing/Acting). So, assuming Arkin isn't winning, Argo pretty much HAS to win Adapted Screenplay doesn't it? That would give it a Best Picture profile that conforms with the stats: at least 3 wins (Picture/Adapted Screenplay/Editing) and one other major award besides Picture (Adapted Screenplay). So on Oscar night, if Adapted Screenplay does to SLP or Lincoln, then we know Argo is either not winning or about to defy stats in a major way, no?
What do you think?
For fun, let's assume Argo will win Best Picture. What else does it win on Oscar night? Argo isn't really the front runner in any other category it's nominated for. Adapted Screenplay would be an upset over Lincoln. Supporting Actor seems to be going everywhere but to Arkin. Editing? Score? Sound?
When will Kerry Washington get her due as one of the most consistant and talented young actresses working today? If Jackie Weaver gets a supporting nod then Washington clearly could have gotten one. When will the Academy fully embrace actors of color?
Can Sony ever be trusted with a Best Picture contender? The Social Network and Zero Dark Thirty appeared favorites after numerous wins at critics awards but Sony seemed ill-prepared for the controversy and backlash among AMPAs members to both. Boal and Bigelow just appeared left to dry when there seemed to be legal reasons before they broke their silence and Sony just issued innocuous statements leaving heavy lifting to the cast and creatives. Django Unchained, another property of Sony, has barely skated by its controversy and I place that on the Weinstein side of the co-production being more protective of Quentin.
Is everyone underestimating Beasts of the Southern Wild?
Will DDL's *third* Oscar mean Hugh Jackman never gets one? Of all five BA nominees, he's the one I think least likely to return, though he is also the one I have loved in the most movies.
Is there any chance that Amour and Beasts of the Southern Wild walk away as Oscar winners? They're my one and two in their shared categories but not my winners in their solo categories.
I would like to know why it took so long for AMPAS to acknowledge the Greatness of Martin Scorsese ?
It's been eighteen years since our last Osar tie, and considering we've had five so far, we should be due for one in the near future-what is the category most likely to give us one?
@CMG: Don't forget how SPC seems to be dropping the ball on Amour, Haneke and Riva.
Why, why, why is the film editing category so in lockstep with the best picture race? Is there something about the editors that makes them so susceptible to awards narratives, or so disinterested in staking out their own territory? I mean, I enjoyed Silver Linings Playbook, but what about its editing seems so compelling to the editing branch?
@ Paul Outlaw - how is SPC dropping the ball? They got 5 nominations for a French language movie about the end of life starring 2 actors in their 80s. I'm baffled.
Great post, CMG. Sony is incompetent. They couldn't even send screeners to the SAG members. ZD30, the best and bravest film of the year, has gotten the shaft by its studio and the awards groups. Sickening.
Nick, if Chastain loses will she be an inevitable Bridesmaid or a Slum Queen?
Nathaniel, am I wrong for wanting to murder Harvey Weinstein?
How many acting Oscars have benefited from Harvey's love? I think the first two were in 1989 for Daniel Day-Lewis and Brenda Fricker.
Sorry, that should have read, "how many acting Oscar wins were at least partially a result of Harvey's love?"
Here's an easy one - will Daniel Day Lewis be the youngest person to hit three acting Oscars? I sorta think he's still younger than Walter Brennan, Ingrid Bergman, Katharine Hepburn, Jack Nicholson or Meryl Streep were when they hit three. Did I miss anyone?
And here's a more speculative question - will anyone else coming up ever hit 3? It coudln't be someone "overrewarded" already like say Hilary Swank (who I actually like...in the right project), but rather a kind of living legend type. Robert De Niro? Jodie Foster?...Jessica Lange?
Dave, you read my mind. If Jessica Lange could win the right leading role, ala Streep and Close, she would knock it out of the park and get that second Best Actress...Damn, that would be epic!
@Paul Outlaw Honestly Sony Pictures Classics has a much better track record with their stuff getting nominated and a lot of stuff went their way this year such as Haneke finally having a film that warms to AMPAs standards that stars three legends of world cinema. I agree with murtada that they have done their work but that speaks to having better incompetence there than at Columbia Pictures. That said, Cotillard getting the Globe and SAG nods and not Riva has made the Best Actress race feel a little off. Same goes for Wallis not included for either. Still feel that race is up in the air.
@brookesboy I know it is driving me nuts. Not just the fact they let a director's film not get a Best Director nomination but the fact no cinematography nod, no score nod, and absolutely no campaigns or momentum for Jennifer Ehle and Jason Clarke whatsoever (that easily could have made them a Best SAG ensemble nod) in roles I would stack against any of the nominees. I go back to The Social Network because again, there were signs of trouble before the PGA and DGA when Andrew Garfield was ignored for an Oscar and no real serious campaigning and promoting Armie Hammer's dual performance that really could have put the film over the top as the best directed as opposed to Hooper close-ups.
CMG, right on the money about Ehle and Clarke. They did tremendous work. As did Ramirez, Chandler and Strong. The Argo cast pales next to these performances. Kathryn Bigelow, who should win the Oscar for director, isn't even nominated. ZD30 is the great filmmaking achievement it is because of her. This will go down as one of the worst snubs in Academy Awards history. The fact that we are even discussing the merely competent Argo winning BP when the brilliant ZD30 has been treated so shabbily is sad.
A my the only one who finds the Best Supp. Actress categorie SOOOOOOO boring this year? It's usually one the most exiting ...
1.- Does anyone follow what happens to Oscar hopefuls that finally weren't nominated? Case in point, Ann Dowd this year. Had she been an Oscar nominee we would hear her name from now on, but will people remember her next year? And who were the Ann Dowds of previous years?
2. Oscar and pregnancy. Lately, either there's a nominee who's pregnanf or Oscar winning actresses who decide to have kids right after winning. That's not a question, I know.
**Word flub. Should have been Sony Pictures Classics having better 'competence' than Columbia Pictures.
After the controversy surrounding the Best Director snubs of Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow this year, is it possible the Academy will try to introduce even more rule changes next year? For instance, do you think we could see 6 nominees in all of the major categories like the BFCA has?
I can't for the life of me figure out what to make as my "Amour" themed appetizer for the Oscar party. Pigeon!?! Suggestions welcome.
Everytime I think of best supporting actor, I really fool myself and actually see Matthew McConaughey among the five gents....but no. Its a gazzy cathegory
@Dave in Alamitos Beach: Just in response to your question about age, Walter Brennan was younger than DDL by the time he won his third Oscar. He was only 46, whereas DDL is 55.
If we have to miss the Oscars (I KNOW! First time in years, can't avoid it), any way to watch them later? Hulu? Oscars' website? Will it include the clips for the acting nominees? That's all I really want to see: the 4 acting categories. This is killing me.
Why is the trend often ingenues in Best Actress and middle-aged/older nominees in Best Actor?
Which of this scenarios would you prefer on oscar night?
- Jessica Chastain officially becoming the new Meryl Streep winning Best Actress
- Jennifer Lawrence becoming the new Gwyneth ''We are gaga for you, we'll love you for two o three years then see you again 10 years later when you appear as a guest in the glee diaries'' Paltrow
- Jessica Chastain establishing herself as a goddess as Cate Blanchett did when she lost back then.
- Nicole Kidman going all ''you go girl! for Naomi Watts winning
- 1968 deja vu: Chastain & Lawrence tie!
- Harvey Weinstein' say WHAAAT? reaction when Riva wins.
... and I know this is not oscar-irsh related but is really haunting me, there's a possibility you could invite someone to letterboxd?
and I know this should be in another post but still a doubt: Is possible you can do a retrospective before the book of the Film Bitch Awards. I know you can't change your picks but it was interesting when you did it once and you didn't knew or understand why 'Before night falls' got a bronce medal.
When is Patty Clarkson going to get her long overdue second nomination and finally hold her deserving Best Supporting Actress Oscar?
I know he's made a lot of turkeys lately (though not as many as De Niro), but I could definitely see Tom Hanks winning a third. He's pretty much a legend, and all it would take is one really good role. And of course there's Denzel.
I want to know how people can honestly vote for Jennifer Lawrence over Naomi Watts, Emmanuelle Riva, and Jessica Chastain. Like, I saw ZDT a few weeks ago, watched Amour the other night, and I just saw the impossible tonight and the idea to me that people actually vote for Jennifer's shitty performance in that shitty movie over these beautiful performances in these amazing films is INSANITY to me. Literally laughable. I can't even wrap my mind around it. I can usually handle these things since I follow them every year, but geez, I just can't get this one. I guess I can, but I mean ... Naomi Watts was EVERYTHING in The Impossible.
Also, how in the world did The Impossible manage to not get traction any where else? I thought it was pretty amazing. It was honestly my favorite film of the awards season movies I've watched.
Who is your favorite date of an Oscar winner? Diane Lane with Timothy Hutton? Zsa Zsa Gabor with George Sanders? Ben & Matt's moms? Other?
@CMG & murtada: "Drop the ball" in an almost literal sense: They had it the ball in their hands (they got the nods) and seem to be dropping it now. Riva has one of the most potent narratives of the BA nominees (including her birthday on the day of the awards), and thanks to the insane backlash against ZD30 she'd have a better chance of stopping the J-Law train than Chastain does. But the campaign seems stalled at this point. No momentum.