2011 July | Awards Daily

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Best Picture Quick Take

Posted by Sasha Stone on Jul 30, 2011 in BEST PICTURE, featured | 202 comments

Jeff Wells went down the Best Picture rabbit hole, riffing on Guy Lodge’s piece at In Contention.

The movies Guy has chosen as the best bets — he stipulates that this is mostly just for fun — are:

The Artist
The Descendants
The Ides of March
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Tree of Life
War Horse

I think it’s a pretty good, for the most part, though I’m firmly against the notion of choosing films as best bets before they’ve been seen. After twelve years of this I know without a shred of doubt that you can’t count your chickens before they hatched. Oh, if only you could. So many great projects would be Best Picture winners. Usually, a Best Picture winner, or even a nominee, comes not out of its designated ambition of being such, but of its own greatness. One hopes, anyway. The Artist and Tree of Life are the only two that can be considered at this point because they’ve been seen. The only film I think right now that is a sure bet is Woody’s Midnight in Paris.

Bigelow's Killing Bin Laden set for October 12, 2012

Posted by Sasha Stone on Jul 29, 2011 in Upcoming | 76 comments

Kathryn Bigelow’s Bin Laden assassination film has been strategically positioned for next year’s Oscars — a slot, incidentally, that could help tilt some influence in the 2012 presidential elections.

When bin Laden was killed, Boal and Bigelow were well along on a project called Killing Bin Laden, about the so-far unsuccessful attempt to kill the mastermind of the 9/11 terror attacks. It immediately became the hottest project in town, and Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Films banner agreed to fund the film. Buyers materialized during the Cannes Film Festival even as Boal was rewriting the script to reflect a most satisfying third act. Deadline broke news around that time that Sony signed on as distributor. They’ve kept details close to the vest even as thesps like Warrior’s Joel Edgerton were rumored to be taking part. (Deadline)

Vanity Fair asks, “Could Kathryn Bigelow’s Osama bin Laden Movie Be the 2012 Election’s October Surprise?”