Almost There: Andy Serkis in "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers"

by Cláudio Alves

The particularities of screen acting make it a collaborative effort, even in the most low-fi of situations. What gets left on the cutting room floor, what reactions are chosen by the editor and director, the sound, the makeup, the way a cinematographer lights the performer's eyes, all shape what we see projected on-screen. Still, when it comes to awards, there's a belief that performance is the sole responsibility of the individual in front of the camera.

When the collaborative aspects of screen acting are made inescapable, it's  difficult to collect golden accolades. We see that happening to voice-only performances and motion-capture efforts, in particular. With The Lord of the Rings trilogy new to streaming on Hulu, we have a good opportunity to explore the mo-cap performance that came closest to Oscar glory. I'm talking about the paradigm-shifting work of Andy Serkis as Sméagol/Gollum in 2002's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers…

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Pt 1 - Sizing up Netflix's contenders in all 23 Oscar categories

by Juan Carlos Ojano

It is already November and the pandemic rages on.  With moviegoing risky or unavailable movielovers have turned to streamers for their film consumption. The Academy has even acknowledged this shift in how we consume films by allowing films to qualify for the Oscars even if they only went streaming.  While the past few years have seen the rise of streaming wars (Amazon Prime, Hulu, HBO Max, Apple TV+, and Disney+, etcetera), nobody has been able to match the sheer quantity of content that Netflix has been producing or acquiring. Netflix could well dominate this awards season. But by how much?

Important Caveat: Do note that Netflix has not announced the entirety of its slate through February 28, 2021, the final day of eligibility for this Oscars; pieces are still moving and more films will probably show up. With that, here are Netflix’s contenders in all 23 Oscar categories...

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2005: When Tilda Swinton went full Hollywood

Please welcome back former contributor Sean Donovan who returns to the fold...

With the 2005 Supporting Actress Smackdown quickly approaching TFE, let’s take a moment to think about a future Best Supporting Actress winner who was just then gathering her strength, summoning her powers of fierce alien glamour, and dipping a toe into Hollywood. 2005 was a pivotal year for Tilda Swinton in that it was her first engagement with big budget genre filmmaking. Tilda had found her way onto some Hollywood projects prior to this -- The Beach (2000) with Leonardo DiCaprio, Vanilla Sky (2001) with Tom Cruise, Jonze and Kaufman’s contemporary classic Adaptation (where she briefly shares the screen with Meryl Streep and my little gay heart explodes) -- but 2005 brought bombast, costuming, and blockbuster genre storytelling to her body of work...

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April Foolish Predix Pt 2: Visuals & Sound

Hello brave readers willing to fantasize about the 93rd annual Academy Awards while the bulk of the internet (but not us!) is convinced they won't exist! We've previously covered potential options for Best Animated Feature so now let's talk all the craft categories before we get to the 'big eight' (Screenplays, Director, Acting, and Picture). It's a wild wild world out there in terms of possibility. We only know:

a) which movies are "definitely*" still planning to open this year
b) the kinds of things Oscar tends to like in a normal year
c) a vague idea and plentiful hunches about which movies are closest to being finished in post-production and will risk opening. 

So please take all of these predictions in the way they are intended: a bit of fantasy escapism based on past punditry experience mixed with vague ideas about what might happen in the future of this tumultuous year. 

VISUAL CATEGORIES
Our favourite film categories to think about apart from Actressing & International Film. Come look at what we think might happen in Costume Design, Cinematography, and more. 

SOUND CATEGORIES
These are much less fact-based. Composers are often the last part of a creative team hired so a lot of upcoming pictures dont have composers announced yet. Especially since Hollywood isn't at work at the moment. So this is wild guesswork. We also dont know which movies will have original songs. So we are blindfolded while looking at these crystal balls. It's quite odd, punditry, in this pandemic world.

Links

The Guardian wonders if dog actors are a thing no more after Call of the Wild. This makes us sad. Though wild animals as CGI makes sense, dogs actually love training/performing/playing with humans.
/Film Bong Joon Ho has floated the idea that he'd like to make a musical. Unlike /film, we don't approve given his comments. We've been saying this since the days of the early Aughts 'filmmakers who are non-fans or embarrassed by the musical form SHOULD NOT make them.' Periodt.

after the jump more on the coronavirus and Hollywood, Lyle Waggoner RIP, and more...

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