Top Ten and Hollmann Awards: The Finale

Ah, once again, I've bitten off more than I can chew. It's already March, the Oscars are over, so there's no reason to stay in 2012 for much longer. My Top Three are reviewed below in the Best Picture column, but let's gaze first at Makeup, Supporting Actress and Art Direction:

Top Ten: Beasts of the Southern Wild

This year for the Hollmann Awards, we're counting down my Top Ten of the Year -- one entry per day, coupled with two categories -- leading up the naming of Best Picture of the Year.

#10. Beasts of the Southern Wild

dir: Benh Zeitlin

wr: Lucy Alibar/Benh Zeitlin, from the play Juicy & Delicious by Alibar

cin: Ben Richardson

Following its tremendous bow at Sundance, Beasts of the Southern Wild came to theaters sometime in May or June, with a lot riding on its shoulders. Was this going to be the crowdpleaser promised by its Park City debut, or would lower altitudes reveal that it was all a load of hooey? Judging by arguments I get into on Facebook, it's both, which is more evidence that no one can ever be right or wrong when it comes to film (except for The Descendants), and each cinematic experience is a subjective, personal experience that we bring our own baggage to.

Shock and Awe: Oscar Nomination Morn

Here is the beginning of my post.

Yes, of course I was up at 5:20 PST to watch the Oscr nominations live. I am obsessed.

Between bouts of uncomfortable schtick with Oscar host Seth MacFarlane and dream girl Emma Stone, the Academy pulled a fast one. No one got 100% on their predictions, I guarantee that right now.

The biggest surprise, I think, was the Best Director category: I knew Hooper was out, but the final list also excludes Kathryn Bigelow and former frontrunner Ben Affleck! They were considered the big locks, with many predicting their respective films to take home Best Picture. Gonna be hard to do that without a Director nom, although their films were Best Pic nominated.

Next surprise: Love for The Master, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Silver Linings Playbook. All three were more popular than I'd imagined, with Silver Linings netting four acting nominations in addition to its nods in Adapted Screenplay, Director and Picture. Beasts star Quvenzhane Wallis made history as the youngest Best Actress nominee of all time (she's nine!), while all three of The Master's stars were nominated.

Could this be due to the new voting process? Word spread that the new online balloting system was troubling older Academy members, leading many to fear that their votes would be miscounted or not processed at all. Looking at these nominees, they may not have been wrong -- although thank God, if so. This could not be a more fresh and exciting group of nominees.

Eschewing alphabetical order to make the suspense all the more agonizing, here, in order of their announcement, are the eleven categories featured on the live broadcast:

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master

Robert De Niro. Silver Linings Playbook

Alan Arkin, Argo

Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln

 

SONG

Before My Time - Chasing Ice

Suddenly - Les Miserables

Pi's Lullaby - Life of Pi

Everybody Needs a Best Friend - Ted

Skyfall - Skyfall

SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

"The Academy said YES!"

Sally Field, Lincoln

Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Helen Hunt, The Sessions

Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook

Amy Adams, The Master

ANIMATED FEATURE

Frankenweenie

The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Wreck-It Ralph

ParaNorman

Brave

FOREIGN FILM

Amour

No

War Witch

A Royal Affair

Kon-Tiki

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Beasts of the Southern Wild - Lucy Alibar/Benh Zeitlin

Argo - Chris Terrio

Lincoln - Tony Kushner

Silver Linings Playbook - David O. Russell

Life of Pi - David Magee

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Flight - John Gatins

Zero Dark Thirty - Mark Boal

Django Unchained - Quentin Tarantino

Amour - Michael Haneke

Moonrise Kingdom - Wes Anderson/Roman Coppola

DIRECTOR

"Where are youuuuu? Why do you hiiiiiide?"

David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

Ang Lee, Life of Pi

Steven Spielberg, Lincoln

Michael Haneke, Amour

Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

ACTOR

Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Denzel Washington, Flight

Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables

Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook

Joaquin Phoenix, The Master

ACTRESS

Nothing, Emmanuelle. For you, anyway.

Naomi Watts, The Impossible

Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty

Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook

Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild

PICTURE

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Silver Linings Playbook

Zero Dark Thirty

Lincoln

Les Miserables

Life of Pi

Amour

Django Unchained

Argo

I love that Zeitlin got in, but I think my favorite nomination is The Pirates! Band of Misfits for Best Animated Feature. 

You sly little devil, you.

Meanwhile, Anna Karenina gets the love it deserves, Life of Pi gets more mentions than I thought possible, my beloved Cloud Atlas is left in the dust despite it boasting INCREDIBLE production design and visual effects, and Skyfall corrects 35 years of Bond snubs by getting into four more categories.

The rest of the field:

Crystal Ball, Golden Trophy

With Oscar nominations happening in just 4 and a half hours, it's time to join the chorus of bloggers and predict! The nominees!
I know 1:00AM PST may seem a little late to jump on this bandwagon, but it's fine. You'll be up early to watch the nominations live anyway, so I just became the most relevant Oscarologist.

Without any further ado....

BEST PICTURE

I've never seen a season like this before. Were there only five slots open, I know exactly who I'd pick, but there aren't. Anywhere from five to ten films could be nominated, based on voters' passion -- and if Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close could get in last year, what could stop The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel?

So, let me think of the films that I absolutely could not imagine being left off the role call:

ARGO

LIFE OF PI

LINCOLN

LES MISERABLES

SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

ZERO DARK THIRTY

As well as anything I imagine will get in based on passion, visibility, etc.:

BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

DJANGO UNCHAINED

MOONRISE KINGDOM

Making nine nominees for Best Picture, at most. By the way, if there were only five nominees, I would expect Life of Pi to miss from those first six.

BEST DIRECTOR 

Now what? The DGA nominations have only repeated six times in Oscar History - 1977, 1981, 1998, 2002, 2005 and 2009. You'll notice that half of those instances is within the last ten years. I hope -- I need -- a Tarantino or an Anderson (either, really) to make it in, but I have this awful fear that yesterday's dull line-up is destined to repeat tomorrow morning.

These predictions, and more, after the jump:

Producers to the Left, Art Directors to the Right

The Producers' Guild surprised everyone by announcing their nominees a day (or two?) early. Here are their nominees:

So Long, 2012: The Best of the Year

Here is the beginning of my post.

Since 2008, I have posted the rankings of my favorite films of the year on the last day of the year. At first, it was just a Top Ten, but since 2009, I have compiled a Top 25. Why? Because I usually love more movies than I dislike; I have no real genre bias, nor do I differentiate between love for a wacky comedy, an Oscar contender, or Speed Racer. It's about what carries me off, lifts me off my seat and into the world of the film itself, forgetting for those two hours (or, increasingly, two and a half hours) that I am Walter Hollmann, blogger/movie theater employee. It's about what films remind me of why my best friend and I call ourselves Cinemaniacs.

Last year, I saw 82 films, and the result was a Top Ten that looked like this:

1. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

2. Drive

3. Super 8

4. Midnight in Paris

5. Young Adult

6. Contagion

7. The Ides of March

8. We Need to Talk About Kevin

9. Beginners

10. Anonymous

This year, I have seen a whopping 103 films, my best ever!

(more after the jump)