Podcast: Sundance Debrief and DGA Reactions

On this week's special cross-country podcast recorded live from Utah, Nathaniel welcomes back Katey Rich in New York, Nick Davis in Chicago, and special guest Guy Lodge, also in Chicago en route to London. Guy and Nathaniel share their Sundance favorites, the chief crossover being Richard Linklater's Boyhood. 

Other Topics include: The Producers Guild of America and Directors Guild winners and what that might mean for 12 Years a Slave and Gravity come Oscar night, categories where we'd enjoy ties on Oscar night, and favorite "overheard" bits in movie theater lines regarding Dallas Buyers Club and Philomena. 

You can listen to the podcast right here at the bottom of the post or download the conversation on iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments! 

Which tie would you love to see this year?

Sundance Debrief and Oscar Ties

Cuarón Takes DGA

In non-surprising awards news Alfonso Cuarón has won the Directors Guild of America prize for his long-in-the-making sci-fi epic Gravity. Though I've long been predicting him to win the Oscar, the Best Picture race still seems competitive. It's insane that 12 Years a Slave, a magnificent film and a historically significant drama in several ways, isn't steamrolling but it isn't. My guess is that even if Gravity sweeps the craft categories, Best Picture will be a nail biter down to the last envelope opening. The most famous 'dominated the Oscars but still lost Best Picture' year is, of course, 1972. Cabaret won 8 Oscars but The Godfather beat it in two of the top 8 categories Adapted Screenplay & the big kahuna Best Picture. The end result: they were both winners. Cabaret took home a lot of Oscars and has the impressive distinction of being the biggest winner among all Best Picture losers. (There are some who think that 2002 was heading toward a similar outcome had The Pianist had another month to gain momentum on Chicago) 

Will we see another split year? No predominantly black film has ever won Best Picture which is depressing and bad news for 12 Years a Slave but no sci-fi film has won either which isn't exactly points in Gravity's favor. 12 Years has to convince voters who are resisting it to see the picture (if you ask me, AMPAS voters who won't watch all the Best Picture nominees each year before voting really ought to have their memberships revoked) and it needs to find a second wind with the media who have a predictable way of turning on frontrunners each year. I fear a Brokeback Mountain situation where the less evolved voters just won't give a seminal work its due because of the subject matter. Am I too pessimistic?

Gravity has the potentially easier task in that it only needs to convince voters that it isn't lightweight and that it won't age poorly (I'm not convinced on the latter). And, since it hasn't truly been the frontrunner at any point, it doesn't have much backlash to conquer. I'm leaning toward predicting Gravity to just (nearly) sweep the whole thing.

Sundance Prize Winners

The Sundance prizes were handed out tonight and the top winners will be screening on Sunday the last day of the festival. =Glenn, Michael and I have a handful more reviews for you including a couple of these winners. But it figures that not one of the three of us caught the unquestionable champ, Whiplash starring Miles Teller as a drummer and JK Simmons as his military father, which took home both the juried top prize and the audience award for dramatic feature. You may recall that last year Fruitvale Station won both of those prizes too... but it wasn't able to convert that early rush of promise into Oscar nominations. The year before that those top prizes were split between Beasts of the Southern Wild (jury) and The Sessions (audience) which both went on to Oscar nods. The year before that Like Crazy (jury) and Circumstance (audience). Etcetera. Sundance is hit and miss in terms of its top films going on to further awards glory. Any guesses as to how Whiplash will fare further down the road? 

Full list of winners is after the jump.

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PGA Shocks With a Best Picture Tie

My head is spinning as fast as Sandra Bullock's  tiny white spacesuit body during Gravity's terrifying opening calamity. The Producers Guild of America, which could have ended the Oscar race with a win for American Hustle, which had been gaining strength via high profile Globe and SAG wins, opted out. They looked elsewhere, two elsewheres to be specific: Gravity and 12 Years a Slave tied for their top prize. [more...]

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SAG Winners Win Again

A quick break from festival screenings to shove food in my face (tortilla chips, peppermint patty, a tangerine. Healthy!) and watch a few minutes of the SAG Awards. But I won't be able to do the whole thing as I'll be racing back to hopefully get into a new Mark Ruffalo movie with the unwieldy title of Infinite Polar Bear. Why must everything happen within the same two weeks? Since I didn't get to watch, not really, I trust you'll share your favorite moments in the comments so I can seek them out on YouTube later (like the non-movie obsessed civilians who see everything they're curious about that way. Such a strange lifestyle!)

It may seem morbid to say but I enjoy SAG's "in memoriam" section so much more than Oscars. Perhaps it's their limited focus on actors but it gives them a chance to show a million clips instead of just quick flashes without much in the way of dialogue

FILM WINNERS

ENSEMBLE IN A MOTION PICTURE

American Hustle

MALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Matthew McConaughey, "Dallas Buyers Club"

FEMALE ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Cate Blanchett, "Blue Jasmine"

MALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Jared Leto, "Dallas Buyers Club"

FEMALE ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Lupita Nyong'o, "12 Years A Slave"

ACTION PERFORMANCE BY STUNT ENSEMBLE

"Lone Survivor"

TELEVISION

ENSEMBLE IN A DRAMA SERIES

"Breaking Bad"

ENSEMBLE IN A COMEDY SERIES

"Modern Family"

MALE ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Bryan Cranston, "Breaking Bad"

FEMALE ACTOR IN A DRAMA SERIES

Maggie Smith, "Downton Abbey"
Dame Maggie has better things to do then attend awards show!

MALE ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Ty Burrell, "Modern Family"

FEMALE ACTOR IN A COMEDY SERIES

Julia Louis-Dreyfus, "Veep"

MALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR MINISERIES

Michael Douglas, "Behind the Candelabra"

FEMALE ACTOR IN A TELEVISION MOVIE OR MINISERIES

Helen Mirren, "Phil Spector"

ACTION PERFORMANCE BY STUNT ENSEMBLE IN A TELEVISION SERIES

"Game of Thrones"

I'm always hoping that the Oscar acting races will be real competitions but most years this ends up happening with all the big shows in regimented lock-step for all four categories with maybe ONE errant choice by one show. It's such a drama killer... and these people are in the business of making drama for us to enjoy. Why does this happen, this winner-takes-all effect? Theories. Got any?