The nominees, after the jump.
Showing posts with label Bound for Glory. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bound for Glory. Show all posts
Sunday, February 26, 2017
The Bicentennial Best Picture
The moment you've all been waiting for. Well, the moment you would have been waiting for 40 years ago. Before we see who the Academy honors as the Best Picture of 2016 tonight, let's take a trip back to 1977, and the Best Picture of 1976:
The nominees, after the jump.
The nominees, after the jump.
Friday, February 17, 2017
The Bicentennial Adapted Score
Did you know that this is a category that still technically exists? Yeah. According to official Academy Rules, Best Original Musical can be activated if it is determined that there are enough quality-level films to qualify. All they have to do is have at least five original songs that propel the narrative, not just incidental or "poppy" songs.
Now, it didn't used to be that way. Back when this was Adapted Score, all you had to do was arrange previously-written work, or the songs within your original musical, into an instrumental score. Which, like, if that rule was still in place, the number of studios that would squeeze an extra nomination out of that would be nuts. Think of Into the Woods, Pitch Perfect, Les Miserables, Black Swan, True Grit - they all would have been nominated here, you know it. Though the fact that they couldn't open up this rule for La La Land, Sing Street, and Moana makes me wonder if anyone knows this rule exists anymore.
Anyway. The 1976 nominees included arrangements of Woody Guthrie songs; arrangements of Paul Williams songs; and Paul Williams. The folk hero took the prize...sort of:
Actually, it was Leonard Rosenman, his second Oscar in a row, as he points out, having won the previous year for Barry Lyndon; he would eventually be nominated for his original score for Cross Creek.
The nominees for Best Adapted Score:
Now, it didn't used to be that way. Back when this was Adapted Score, all you had to do was arrange previously-written work, or the songs within your original musical, into an instrumental score. Which, like, if that rule was still in place, the number of studios that would squeeze an extra nomination out of that would be nuts. Think of Into the Woods, Pitch Perfect, Les Miserables, Black Swan, True Grit - they all would have been nominated here, you know it. Though the fact that they couldn't open up this rule for La La Land, Sing Street, and Moana makes me wonder if anyone knows this rule exists anymore.
Anyway. The 1976 nominees included arrangements of Woody Guthrie songs; arrangements of Paul Williams songs; and Paul Williams. The folk hero took the prize...sort of:
Actually, it was Leonard Rosenman, his second Oscar in a row, as he points out, having won the previous year for Barry Lyndon; he would eventually be nominated for his original score for Cross Creek.
The nominees for Best Adapted Score:
Monday, February 13, 2017
The Bicentennial Adapted Screenplay
I've always been partial to this category, even over Original Screenplay. It's fascinating to know what works have inspired others to create, or how someone else's story or characters can plant a seed that morphs into something new and exciting. Think the Socialist novel Oil! focusing in on the father instead of the son to become There Will Be Blood; think the Jane Austen classic Emma becoming the modern comedy of manners Clueless; think the impossibility of JFK working as well it does, coming from two books and mountains of speculative reports, pamphlets, and rumors.
And so in 1976, cinema is made out of a non-fiction account of a recent crime, a singer's autobiography, an erotic memoir, fan fiction, and a non-fiction account of a past crime. The recent crime won:
The nominees, after the jump.
And so in 1976, cinema is made out of a non-fiction account of a recent crime, a singer's autobiography, an erotic memoir, fan fiction, and a non-fiction account of a past crime. The recent crime won:
The nominees, after the jump.
Thursday, February 9, 2017
The Bicentennial Cinematography
It's all-star lineup of Cinematographers for 1976, with three former winners and two previous nominees - and many of them faced off against each other before.
Just the year before, in fact, Haskell Wexler's co-DP'ing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest faced off against Robert Surtees' solo work on The Hindenburg. Both had won previously, but they both settled for bridesmaid status - John Alcott's work for Barry Lyndon went home with the Oscar. Surtees already had three to his name, and Wexler already had one. Soon to be two:
In 1973, Surtees was once again up for the award, this time for Best Picture Oscar Winner The Sting. His competition? The Sting's only real rival for the Big Prize, The Exorcist, photographed by Mr. Owen Roizman. They lost to Sven Nykvist's Cries and Whispers, which made it the second time they'd both competed and lost - in 1971, Roizman was up for the first time in his career for The French Connection, while Surtees had a two-for-one special in The Last Picture and Summer of '42. The Oscar went to Oswald Morris for Fiddler on the Roof.
Ernest Laszlo met none of these men on the battlefield when he won for Ship of Fools. And indeed, he didn't meet them the year after, either: his Fantastic Voyage work was nominated in the Color category, while Wexler's winning work for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won in the Black-and-White category. By the following ceremony, there was no separation, so that the black-and-white In Cold Blood competed with Surtees' work on both Doctor Dolittle and The Graduate, as well as first-time nominee Richard H. Kline for Camelot.
What I'm saying is, some categories tend to have the same names batted around. It's probably why the Class of 2016 is such a breath of fresh air - Rodrigo Prieto is the one previous nominee of the bunch, and his only other nomination was 11 years ago.
The nominees and rankings of 1976, after the jump.
Just the year before, in fact, Haskell Wexler's co-DP'ing of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest faced off against Robert Surtees' solo work on The Hindenburg. Both had won previously, but they both settled for bridesmaid status - John Alcott's work for Barry Lyndon went home with the Oscar. Surtees already had three to his name, and Wexler already had one. Soon to be two:
In 1973, Surtees was once again up for the award, this time for Best Picture Oscar Winner The Sting. His competition? The Sting's only real rival for the Big Prize, The Exorcist, photographed by Mr. Owen Roizman. They lost to Sven Nykvist's Cries and Whispers, which made it the second time they'd both competed and lost - in 1971, Roizman was up for the first time in his career for The French Connection, while Surtees had a two-for-one special in The Last Picture and Summer of '42. The Oscar went to Oswald Morris for Fiddler on the Roof.
Ernest Laszlo met none of these men on the battlefield when he won for Ship of Fools. And indeed, he didn't meet them the year after, either: his Fantastic Voyage work was nominated in the Color category, while Wexler's winning work for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? won in the Black-and-White category. By the following ceremony, there was no separation, so that the black-and-white In Cold Blood competed with Surtees' work on both Doctor Dolittle and The Graduate, as well as first-time nominee Richard H. Kline for Camelot.
What I'm saying is, some categories tend to have the same names batted around. It's probably why the Class of 2016 is such a breath of fresh air - Rodrigo Prieto is the one previous nominee of the bunch, and his only other nomination was 11 years ago.
The nominees and rankings of 1976, after the jump.
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