Casting Coup: The Last Picture Show

NOMINATIONS

Best Picture

Best Director - Peter Bogdanovich

Best Supporting Actor - Jeff Bridges

Best Supporting Actor - Ben Johnson (WON)

Best Supporting Actress - Ellen Burstyn

Best Supporting Actress - Cloris Leachman (WON)

Best Adapted Screenplay - Peter Bogdanovich/Larry McMurtry

Best Cinematography - Robert Surtees

I love The Last Picture Show, another film I didn't see until I took on the 1971 Retrospective. It is so damn beautiful -- beautifully-written, beautifully-shot, beautifully-acted. Roger Ebert ranked it among his Great Movies, saying, "It is about a town with no reason to exist, and people with no reason to live there."

But oh, what people! A perfect ensemble just ripe for the casting -- and really, I expect that this film, along with The Big Chill, will eventually be remade. And if it happened today, who might we see?

This guarantees to be the 2014 Academy Award Nominee-iest cast of the bunch...check it out after the jump.

Oscar Predictions, 2015!

It's been a long and winding road that led to this door.

PICTURE: Birdman
DIRECTOR: Alejandro G. Inarritu, Birdman
ACTOR: Michael Keaton, Birdman
ACTRESS: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
SUPPORTING ACTOR: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Wes Anderson/Hugo Guinness, The Grand Budapest Hotel
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Damien Chazelle, Whiplash
ORIGINAL SCORE: Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel
ORIGINAL SONG: "Glory", Selma
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Emmanuel Lubezki, Birdman
PRODUCTION DESIGN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
COSTUME DESIGN: Milena Canonero, The Grand Budapest Hotel
EDITING: Tom Cross, Whiplash
MAKEUP: Foxcatcher
VISUAL EFFECTS: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
SOUND EDITING: American Sniper
SOUND MIXING: American Sniper
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Citizenfour
FOREIGN FILM: Ida
ANIMATED FEATURE: How to Train Your Dragon 2
DOCUMENTARY SHORT: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
ANIMATED SHORT: The Dam Keeper
LIVE ACTION SHORT: Butter Lamp


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Gold Rush 2015 (Part One)

I'm so glad -- one of my oldest and dearest friends, The March King, and I were able to talk Oscar agin this year, for our annual intake of the Gold Rush! These aren't predictions, nor are they reviews -- they're a perfect representation, though, of the conversation he and I have been having since we were adolescents.

Please enjoy this edition of the Gold Rush, after the jump.

Silver Screener: So our timing on this is excellent because I just finished watching THE JUDGE!

March King: And?

SS:  I liked it!

MK:  But was it Oscar worthy? 

Guild Developments!

Just got back into town from opening weekend at the Sundance Film Festival -- and indeed, just got back from the red carpet of the Screen Actors Guild Awards, where I field-produced a red carpet piece that included the cast of Orange is the New Black (who won Ensemble in a Comedy Series) and William H. Macy of Shameless (who won Actor in a Comedy Series). Life...is going well.

But it does mean I missed the Guild news. Which is rather shocking!

After Boyhood took LAFCA, NYFCC, the Golden Globes, and Critics' Choice, the Producers Guild Award for Best Theatrical Motion Picture went to...Birdman! Whoa! Surelt The Imitation Game or The Grand Budapest Hotel would take SAG though, right?

Wrong. Once again, 'twas Birdman that won the prize -- in this case, Ensemble in a Motion Picture. Patricia Arquette, J.K. Simmons and Julianne Moore once again won plaudits in their respective categories, but in the battle between Birdman's Michael Keaton and The Theory of Everything's Eddie Redmayne, it was the young'un in the biopic who won Actor in a Motion Picture. Which is bull. Redmayne is a great actor, it's a fine performance, and he's rather sexy in person (oh, trust me), but I believed Riggan Thomson more than I believed Stephen Hawking.

But who knows? Birdman's triumph in the Ensemble category could benefit Michael Keaton -- I hope it does -- just as it could influence its Best Picture chances...not a whit.

By the way. The frontrunners of this category are Birdman, a single-take (ish) film about a washed-up actor putting on a vanity project; Boyhood, a 12-years-in-the-making reflection of growing up and parenting; and The Grand Budapest Hotel, a zany-yet-melancholy period piece from Wes Anderson. No matter what, this year's Oscars are gonna be weird.

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