An Open Letter, Some Linkage, Blurry Photos
Monday, March 3, 2014 at 6:45PM previously in Oscar coverage: "best tweets of Oscar night" the broader picture Oscar night in review, our favorite post-show game those rewindable winning/losing moments and more tomorrow.
Dear, Internet. If the Academy themselves understand that we just watched the 2013 Oscars, so can you! - Love, Nathaniel R
The Dolby Theater was quick about getting 12 Years a Slave up in their awesome atrium of Best Picture winners in Hollywood. I stared at that so much while I was in LA, trust. But naturally it must prompt my annual outrage again.
Calling the Oscars by the wrong year is really all the IMDb's fault and then Google, too. Now virtually everyone except the Oscars and The Film Experience calls the Oscars by the wrong year, which will wreak so much havoc at future trivia nights and in every way of documenting film history. I have a friend who did really great work on several Wikipedia pages and people kept trying to change his dates to the wrong year so now it's a mess of conflicting pages. This madness must stop. Cate Blanchett is not the Best Actress of 2014... (at least not yet. Will Carol be ready in time?). She's the Best Actress of 2013. The Oscars aren't like a Beauty Pageant where you get a title andtour the country for the following year before you pass on the tiara. It's not like that. It's for a movie you did. Pretending that Cate is the Best Actress of 2014 puts you in People's Choice territory where people just win prizes even if they sat at home that year but are still popular. It's not really territory you want to be in.
Five completely random links (more time to catch up what's happening elsewhere tomorrow)
- Vanity Fair on their Oscar Party
- Daily Mail on that pizza guy and the tipping situation at the Oscars
- Buzz Feed if John Travolta had to pronounced other people's names at the Oscars
- Vulture Pharrell's Happy performance gifs of the stars joining in. This was SO smart to include so early in the show. The energy was perfect.
- Vanity Fair [LONG READ] I bookmarked this story about trying to find out what happened to the real "Patsey" from 12 Years a Slave and I haven't had time to finish it yet but it's totally an interesting subject. I WILL carve out time to read it this week and so should you.
- And if you're just joining us here at THE FILM EXPERIENCE make sure to check out "best tweets of Oscar night", the broader picture of Oscar night in review, our favorite post-show game those rewindable winning/losing moments and more tomorrow.
After the jump my favorite blurry photos I took of my TV last night. But why blurry photos, you ask?
Lupita's Forever Big Moment
Who wants to look at blurry photos besides me? I'm not sure why but I actually love blurry photos that are unsuitable for publication. Sometimes I used them for desktop wallpaper. They capture for me something like the ephemeral nature of an image and also they allow you to project more on to it emotionally since it's not too concrete; the moment becomes partially yours.
Cate's Well Wishers
Bette Midler summoning the demonic spirits of Oscars Past (Cimarron, Braveheart, Crash,...which others can you make out?
Seating Arrangements! Do you think Nicholas Hoult realizes how blessed he is to be seated next to Don Gummer, the oldest of pros at being the plus one of a mega star
na-na-na Matthew doesn't care if you hate him
open the damn envelope Will!
Brad and Alfre exit the stage after their Best Picture Win
I'm still sort of floating from happiness that 12 Years a Slave won. It's quite rare for my favorite film of the year to win the big prize. I love that Brad Pitt and Alfre Woodard exited the stage long before the others, all snuggly. The After Parties await.
Reader Comments (13)
re: the Hollywood atrium of Best Picture winners...
Yes, it's quite lovely. I won't deny i've tried to slap a BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN label on the 2005 square
The Oscar website, no joke, has "The Oscars 2014" as the title of the site. Open it in a new tab. I see "The Oscars 2014 | 86th Ac." So, I'm not too sure that they go with the film year rather than real year anymore.
The Vanity Fair article is worth the read! I was hoping someone was going to try to find out what happened to Patsey. There is some encouraging stuff in there.
I'm floating on the 12 Years win too, and as nervous as I got, I had a little faith because there's a trend since 2007: odd years, best picture goes to a movie I'm totally wild about (No Country, Hurt Locker, The Artist, 12YAS), and even years go to movies to which I'm indifferent at best. So, fans of Slumdog, King's Speech and Argo, next year is your year!
(And you'll notice I know my odd years and my even years. I grew up memorizing the nominees pre-imdb, and I know their win represents the film's year.)
Pitt and Woodard are masterminding a potential Oscar vehicle for her.
I loved the Vanity Fair article on Patsey. I wish there was renewed interest in finding out what became of Northup himself!
ryan -- i'm sorry you weren't successful
You said it, Hoult getting the best seat of the night, and Brad and Angelina relegated to 2nd row.
Nate, I'm totally with you on the year thing. If anyone bitches about it, just say "that's not how I was raised!"
what exactly does streep's husband "sculpt"? lucky dude, all those front row oscar tickets.
I so agree with you about the wrong years--it drives me crazy. I'm still also trying to get someone to admit that there were two Best Picture winners the first year of the Academy Awards.
I am 100% with you on the Oscar date stuff. I remember playing Oscar trivia one year and having the question be 'What film won Best Picture in 1991' and being pissed to high heavens that they were looking for 'Dances with Wolves' and not 'Silence of the Lambs'. I even bitched to the poor girl doling out the answers and made her give me a point, since her system was WRONG!
Jeff D: I agree with you, especially since the one that always gets snubbed is a cinematic masterpiece.