53 Responses for "Slumdog Wins ASC, Sweeping Major Guild Awards"

1. Zinc February 16th, 2009 at 12:05 am 1

   Another night, another sweep.

2. Antoinette February 16th, 2009 at 12:08 am 2

   And in other news… the sky is blue.

   This is the most boring Oscar race ever. It’s not even a race. It should be called an “Oscar stroll” or an “Oscar crawl”. Zzzzz…….

3. a.m.j February 16th, 2009 at 12:12 am 3

   what point is there to watch the oscar, it’s so predictable, i am really hoping there’s an upset even if it is benjamin button or even the reader

4. Tufas February 16th, 2009 at 12:13 am 4

   Sigh

5. Tiago Marin February 16th, 2009 at 12:17 am 5

   It deserves.

6. KB February 16th, 2009 at 12:18 am 6

   Slumdog Millionaire = The most overrated film of the decade. The sad thing is that I actually like the film. But…..enough is enough.

7. Eddee February 16th, 2009 at 12:21 am 7

   I agree all! A sweep is a sad thing. Even if one loves the film that is sweeping. No excitment, no anticipation.

   Let us all hope for at least a couple of surprises, no matter what they may be.

8. Zach February 16th, 2009 at 12:23 am 8

   Sweeping the guilds doesn’t make the movie overrated, KB.

   Sasha, you say it sweeps major guild awards, but there’s still the Motion Picture Sound Editors Award (and the CDG). Of course it didn’t win at the ADG, but that wasn’t expected.

   If it wins the Sound Editors guild award, though, we really must prepare/alter our predictions for an all-out sweep.

9. qwiggles February 16th, 2009 at 12:28 am 9

   Slumdog will handily take this one at the Oscars, for its over-filterized film school vision of poverty as a speckled, dirty thing, and its ridiculous overuse of the Dutch angle as a way of making unfamiliar spaces look hip, because slanted. This is the old adage with editing awards: the most, not the best, edited film is generally your winner. And Slumdog sure is photographed to all hell. Incidentally, its charms, if you find its cinematography charming, are almost spookily reminiscent of Chungking Express, which was also hailed as a visionary and unexpectedly great looking indie — well over a decade ago.

   Having catalogued the defensive, irrational love I’ve heard expressed for this film since I thought it a disappointingly uneven but decent B+ back in September, and was promptly called everything from a hateful cynic, critic (!) and racist (?) who just hates Bollywood (?!), I think I can finally step back a moment and transcribe the kinds of responses I get when I ask why Salim’s arc gets messily resolved in a series of montages, or how Latika’s casual Millionaire watching in the kitchen signifies Huge Fan, Watches It Obsessively for Jamal, or why Millionaire seems to run in the day when she is watching it, then again live at night when Jamal is playing. Here goes:

   “It’s a buoyant hymn to life about the hard experience of being a poor, so poor, poor Indian boy who transcends the horrible slum life of Mumbai by just always fighting, always loving and, and— oh just the buoyant, buoyant life of the slums, teeming with life, Dickensian life. And his experiences, his hard life, it’s all so important because…destined, because his love, his LIFE, is written. It’s such — so real in its actuality, the realness of a world that is a fairy tale, such an original, timeless real fairytale. And oh, the dance. The dance is JUST. Such a movie. I don’t — the movie is just such a movie in the Dickensian form of destiny. And if you cannot, if you don–Because racist dismissals of Bollywood are just…You don’t even KNOW. I am so sad for you. I’ve seen a world.”

   What’s interesting to me about these hysterical and utterly lovestruck defenses, apart from the baffling mix of paradoxes, and the refusal to even gesture toward the problems raised by what I consider ozone level narrative and thematic holes, is that they are typical of these zeitgeist sweep years. If the love is there, it extends everywhere indiscriminately, and the result is either community-enforcing and lovely, if you’re onboard, or alienating and strange, if you’re not. Criticism gets lazy, award groups get tired, and even those who like but don’t love the winner simply go with the flow and say ‘at least it’s not Crash.’

   So here’s my last thought on the subject, as I predict a 9 Oscar victory next Sunday: at least it’s not Crash.

   My only hope is that next year, movies I legitimately love, not just like, will get at least some of the big prizes, or, alternately, that I at least love the sweeper enough to feel confident that it deserves its notices for cinematography, editing, sound, catering, best boy, grip and so on. Maybe thats the lesson here: we all follow the race objectively until oops, we don’t.

10. SephardicThought February 16th, 2009 at 12:28 am 10

    Zach, Slumdog did win the Art Directors Guild award for Best Contemporary Film.

11. KB February 16th, 2009 at 12:30 am 11

    Did I say that sweeping the Guilds makes it overrated? Um, no. It’s my opinion. And as far as being overrated, that’s debatable.

12. Lee February 16th, 2009 at 12:30 am 12

    This feels a lot like the “ROTK fatigue” from a few years ago. At least then it was awarding the final chapter of a literary trilogy brought to film (in epic proportions) that most in Hollywood said could not be done.

13. Chosh February 16th, 2009 at 12:31 am 13

    Sigh…Slumdog is a good film, but it is NOT the best in every single category. Benji Button and TDK were so much more worthy of this award it hurts.

14. Zinc February 16th, 2009 at 12:32 am 14

    FUN FACT: Even Schindler’s List lost the ASC, and American Beauty lost the Eddie. So… Does this make Slumdog have the biggest sweep ever?

15. Other Ryan February 16th, 2009 at 12:35 am 15

    Fantastic! Go Slumdog Millionaire! What an amazing accomplishment for a wonderful film. On to the Academy Awards!

16. a.m.j February 16th, 2009 at 12:38 am 16

    i hope 2009 will be better, cause 2008 was a weak year for flim

17. Zach February 16th, 2009 at 12:47 am 17

    Oops, forgot about the Contemporary ADG category! Well, then all that’s left is Sound Editing and the CDG! Can Slumdog beat Sex at the CDG??

    And anyway, it’s not a sweep until it’s over.

18. Tim H February 16th, 2009 at 12:49 am 18

    Zinc: I am thinking that Schindler still has a slight lead… it did manage to win New York Film Critics, NSFC, LA & Chicago Critics awards for Best Picture. Slumdog lost those prizes.

19. Dan February 16th, 2009 at 12:51 am 19

    Spot on, qwiggles.

20. Oscar February 16th, 2009 at 1:08 am 20

    Most boring and predictable Oscars in at least 10 years. Period.

21. Pierre de Plume February 16th, 2009 at 1:09 am 21

    Next week’s Oscarcast may not be the most exciting ever but I’d hesitate to call it boring, especially in advance. I’ll be happy to see Slumdog win several awards — happier, for sure, than the year of Titanic.

22. Tim H February 16th, 2009 at 1:15 am 22

    Zinc: then again, if you are talking strictly guild awards, then, yes I think you are right: Slumdog just pulled ahead of Schindler’s List as the new champ. Good grief.

23. Ben February 16th, 2009 at 1:15 am 23

    QWIGGLES: You know your stuff.

    KB: Slumdog isn’t the most overrated film of the decade, that would be Crash. On the other hand, without its still-shocking undeserved Oscar, nobody would be saying that, because without that Oscar, Brokeback Mountain was the most dominant film ever at Best Picture/Director awards but for Schindler (and Brokeback won more).

    Tim H: Right. Slumdog has a lot of awards, but they are not all the major Best Picture and Director prizes, the top 2 that usually (and should) go together. Brokeback Mountain won New York and Los Angeles, while Slumdog won neither. Slumdog did better at the guilds, but not all these guilds are handing out Best Picture prizes!

    Moreover, at this point it is clear that some of these guilds simply are not doing their jobs. I liked Slumdog a lot, it is in my top 10 and my favorite of the nominees. However, does anybody really think it deserved had the best sound of the year over Dark Knight and Iron Man and Wall-e? C’mon. Yes, I know the sound techs typicallyknow best about sound, but in this case there’s just no way, history will prove them wrong (and I’m still confident that Dark Knight will win that Oscar). And does anyone truly think Slumdog had the best acting by a cast this year? Many prognosticators didn’t even think it would be nominated. No Oscar nominations for acting is telling. As usual, the actors screwed up royally, voting with their hearts for their favorite movie but not paying attention to their duty to select best overall acting. That award has been a joke since they gave Birdcage their first ensemble prize, and continued since, with ridiculous wins like Full Monty over the uniformally brilliant acting in LA Confidential, and Chicago beating The Hours and Adaptation (since Richard Gere was awful and Renee can’t sing) and Brokeback losing to true ensemble but very unevenly acted Crash (think awful Sandra Bullock and Ryan Phillipe and Brendan Fraser, among others) etc.

    I stopped watching the Oscars after the Academy blatantly snubbed Brokeback, which arguably was just as big a power-house as Slumdog (more crix prizes including New York and LA, same big 3 guilds, same 4 Golden Globes, same BAFTA, etc. I wonder, if suddenly Ernest Borgnine and Tony Curtis and “all their friends” suddenly said they wouldn’t even WATCH Slumdog because they don’t like Indian movies, wouldn’t that make you lose respect for the Academy? It should.

    True Best Picture of 2008: Wall-e

24. Zach February 16th, 2009 at 1:22 am 24

    OK, people, get it out of your system, because sweep or no sweep, Slumdog is taking the top awards next week.

    There will always be haters. What was the last Best Picture with across-the-board support from Oscar prognosticators, Schindler’s List? How many of those are we going to see in our lifetimes?

25. Ibad February 16th, 2009 at 1:24 am 25

    I don’t think a sweep is boring if a film is truly deserving of the sweep. I felt the same way about No Country for Old Men last year. There’s no reason it should go any differently.

    And though Schindler’s List swept the critics awards more than Slumdog I consider the critics awards very insignificant in the larger spectrum of the Oscar race. It can create buzz and give people a general sense of a good portion of the nominees, yes, but once the nominees are announced whoever won all those critics awards won’t matter.

26. Pierre de Plume February 16th, 2009 at 1:24 am 26

    I feel that Slumdog’s cinematography was good but not really the best of the year. And certainly the acting on the whole wasn’t the best either, regardless of what SAG says.

    To me, the sound was very good not just judging by quality of what I heard but also how sound is used and interwoven with the film’s other elements. I feel this heightened the film’s impact and enhanced the meaning.

27. drab tee shrit February 16th, 2009 at 2:31 am 27

    ALL OF YOU STOP HATING !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!JEEZ ………………………………ITS JUST A MOVIE …………………………………………..

28. drab tee shrit February 16th, 2009 at 2:32 am 28

    GOD DAM

29. Jake February 16th, 2009 at 2:39 am 29

    @ #2….

    “And in other news… the sky is blue. ”

    Haha. Hilarious. Seriously, though, the sweep is boring.

30. HBK February 16th, 2009 at 2:43 am 30

    

    Makes Me so happy .

    Anthony Dod Mantle was a very deserving winner .

    

    

    Cool to see the haters are still burning .

    I am going to enjoy the Oscars this year .

    And then I ‘ll come and read the comments on this site , and have a good laugh .

    You people who think it ’s bad are in a minority , most of the critics have said it was a very good film which is deserving of the Best Picture Award .

    If Slumdog loses all the awards , i would not be whining on and on about it .

    The best film is sweeping .

    Get Over It .

31. david February 16th, 2009 at 3:06 am 31

    It should be obvious to everyone … and now, statistics show what will transpire next Sunday at the Oscars.

    Why will Slumdog Millionaire win Best Picture at the Oscars?
    A. Danny Boyle won the top honor from the Director’s Guild
    B. Chris Dickens won the top honor from the Editor’s Guild.
    C. Simon Beaufoy won the top honor from the Writer’s Guild.
    D. It is written.

    Answer — D. It is written:
    When the Director’s Guild (DG) winner AND one of the American Cinema Editors (ACE) winners AND one of the Writers Guild (WG) winners are ALL given awards for the same film, that film has been named Best Picture 6 of 6 times (100%) during the last 47 years (1961-2007).

    Read more about the relevant statistics here:
    http://www.davidhanks.com/dhformula.html

    2006 – The Departed – Martin Scorsese (DG)
    2006 – The Departed – Thelma Schoonmaker (ACE)
    2006 – The Departed – William Monahan (WG)

    1994 – Forrest Gump – Robert Zemeckis (DG)
    1994 – Forrest Gump – Arthur Schmidt (ACE)
    1994 – Forrest Gump – Eric Roth (WG)

    1993 – Schindler’s List – Steven Spielberg (DG)
    1993 – Schindler’s List – Michael Kahn (ACE)
    1993 – Schindler’s List – Steven Zaillian (WG)

    1990 – Dances With Wolves – Kevin Costner (DG)
    1990 – Dances With Wolves – Neil Travis (ACE)
    1990 – Dances With Wolves – Michael Blake (WG)

    1970 – Patton – Franklin Schaffner (DG)
    1970 – Patton – Hugh S. Fowler (ACE)
    1970 – Patton – Francis Ford Coppola, Edmund H. North (WG)

    1965 – The Sound of Music – Robert Wise (DG)
    1965 – The Sound of Music – William Reynolds (ACE)
    1965 – The Sound of Music – Ernest Lehman (WG)

32. Antoinette February 16th, 2009 at 3:22 am 32

    Actually I’m beginning to think this Slumdog situation is worse than the whole Crash thing. At least there was an explanation for that. An ugly one, but you knew why. This steamrolling that Slumdog is doing is inexplicable to me. I’m beginning to think that people are voting for it because they want to vote for a winner. So since everyone knows it’s going to win BP at the Oscars, maybe these other people don’t want to be the goofballs that voted for something else.

33. Ross February 16th, 2009 at 3:40 am 33

    I predict best picture, best directing, best adapted screenplay, best original score, best film editing and best sound mixing. Come on, it’s more of a Chicago case here.

    The Academy is going to spread the wealth a little. I don’t think it’s going to win best original song. If it wins song, it’ll be O Saya, simply because Oscar voters usually diss the anti campaign thing and campaigning against O Saya was wrong in terms of the campaign. But I think Peter Gabriel is going to prevail. And Thomas Newman is overdue.

    For sound editing – they’ll go with something really flashy: The Dark Knight possibly, but I don’t count out WALL-E here.

    And I still think The Dark Knight wins cinematography! It probably won’t, but I won’t give up on this prediction!

34. Michele Innocenti February 16th, 2009 at 3:52 am 34

    wow, what a thrill…
    what a great oscar night full of excitement and surprise will be…

    sigh…

35. Tufas February 16th, 2009 at 4:09 am 35

    @ qwiggles

    Brilliantly written, agreed 100%

    T.

36. Zach Macias February 16th, 2009 at 4:11 am 36

    This really has become an incredibly boring race. I mean, I loved Slumdog Millionaire, but hell, let some of these poor nominees at least have SOMETHING.

    That said, Anthony Dod Mantle’s cinematography was spectacular, but I was sort of pulling for Wally Pfister here (rewatching clips of The Dark Kight reminded me of how well-photographed it was). As visually creative as Slumdog’s cinematography was, I dunno, sometimes it felt like it was being aesthetic for the sake of being aesthetic, where Pfister’s work in TDK seemed more purposeful in context of the film as well as visually interesting, if that makes any sense. Anyway, I’ll still be pulling for TDK for the cinematography Oscar, but I won’t mind if Slumdog takes it anyways.

    I still can’t figure out how Slumdog took the Cinema Audio Society award over TDK, Iron Man, and WALL-E of all things (still haven’t seen Quantum of Solace). That’s probably the one award it honestly doesn’t deserve to win over the other nominees.

    I guess really the only surprise we can hope to see is is the Academy loves Slumdog enough to award it both of its Original Song nominations somehow.

37. Banana February 16th, 2009 at 5:37 am 37

    I usually don’t trust the ASC Awards and the Oscar to coincide. A lot of people were so sure Emmanuel Lubezki was going to win in 2006 for Children of Men – especially after he won the ASC award – but Guillermo Navarro ended up winning the Oscar for Pan’s Labyrinth.

    I’m still leaning towards Wally Pfister winning the Oscar.

38. Faux February 16th, 2009 at 5:58 am 38

    Awful, it’s like the other movies were nothing.

39. Ash February 16th, 2009 at 6:44 am 39

    It’s like everyone is an angry teenager again. It’s as though it has become cool to diss Slumdog, the way it was considered cool to diss one’s parents back then.

    Nobody likes a winner… this is why i’m so unpopular.

    Qwiggles – I’ve been wanting to know about the slanted camera technique abundantly used in the movie, and you’ve finally given me its name. Thanks!

    With regard to editing, I don’t think the academy rewards the most edited movies ahead of the best edited movies. 2 examples that come to mind are City of God (which was very acutely edited) and Dreamgirls (which had a whole bunch of flashy edits).

    I think the editing in Slumdog was really outstanding without drawing too much attention to itself. To me, the most well edited part of the movie was the part when the cell phone is ringing in the car. The way they cut between shots, and the timing of each cut, was just perfect. Even now, despite knowing what is going to end up happening, the adrenaline always seems to flow whenever I watch that scene.

40. Christopher Calder February 16th, 2009 at 6:49 am 40

    “What’s interesting to me about these hysterical and utterly lovestruck defenses”

    What’s interesting to me, qwiggles, is how hysterical the haters of Slumdog Millionaire are, how enraptured in their own banality and cliched response and moral opprobium and world weary dismissiveness they are, elevating their own technical critique into a righteous flaming lamp of truth telling. Until….

    “My only hope is that next year, movies I legitimately love, not just like, will get at least some of the big prizes….Maybe thats the lesson here: we all follow the race objectively until oops, we don’t.”

    Ain’t that the truth! At least you admit it.

    Anthony Dod Mantle is a worthy winner. Slumdog Millionaire is a marvellous movie. Forward to the Oscars, and I can’t wait to come back here if it wins big there, to laugh and grin at the haters.

41. spacey February 16th, 2009 at 7:46 am 41

    Bravo qwiggles, Bravo!

42. Strange February 16th, 2009 at 7:58 am 42

    It seems every year for you guys is “the most boring year”.

43. Other Ryan February 16th, 2009 at 8:49 am 43

    @ Strange. Ain’t that the truth.

    I’m just happy that a movie I really love is most likely going to win Best Picture (and a whole lot more Oscars) next week. The last one to do that was Return of the King!

    Lots of heartbreaks in years past with There Will Be Blood, Atonement, Brokeback Mountain, Moulin Rouge, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind not taking the big one. So bravo to Slumdog Millionaire for getting me truly excited again about the Oscars.

44. Glenn February 16th, 2009 at 9:26 am 44

    If Slumdog wasn’t superior in cinematography, sound, editing etc then why are the specialists in those fields voting for it? It clearly has something to offer in these areas if it is winning all these acolades. People want to see their favourite films win which is why they cannot understand Slumdog’s success.

45. Say NO To Ben Button! February 16th, 2009 at 9:37 am 45

    Dear Strange,

    Preach brother!

    Haha people think the world is coming to an end because they don’t like the frontrunner. Slumdog has a higher Metacritic rating than any other motion picture from an English-speaking country released in 2008. You might not like it, but people who have been trained in movie criticism like it. Granted, they do not absolutely love it (87 is very good, but great is above 90) but the competition this year is VERY weak.

    Benjamin Button, as has been said over and over, had a seriously messed up script, poor chemistry between Pitt and Blanchett, emotionally detached acting from Pitt in general, and the wrong director. No mistake that it got a 70.

    As much as I loved Hanna Schmitz, Harvey really screwed up the film by releasing it so early. It clearly could have used some more editing and decision making. But it also suffers from the core premise: a woman would be so embarrassed of her illiteracy that she would feel okay killing hundreds of Jews, and we should feel sorry for her? Kate Winslet gets me to do it without thinking, but when I’m not being mesmerized by her performance, I am left wondering why the heck I felt the way I did.

    Frost/Nixon was clearly a made for TV movie.

    TDK was excellent, but its script was campy and the acting apart from Ledger was subpar.

    Then you have films with excellent scripts and amazing acting (Rachel Getting Married…perhaps the most underrated film of the year, Frozen River…why does no one talk about how amazing this movie was?, Wendy and Lucy) that didn’t have big enough budgets to obtain the cinematography, editing and flashiness needed to contend for best picture. While I may enjoy these types of movies immensely, special effects, editing, cinematography etc. are all very important parts of filmmaking, so I understand why they got left out of the Best Picture line up.

    There were some really good low budget films this year, and one legendary high budget film that nearly transcended the limitations of its genre and plot, but the movies that were designed for Oscars (namely, that attempted to blend high quality acting/intellectual premise with high budget film making) were all bland and seriously flawed, except for Slumdog. In a normal year, it might not even win Best Picture (no way it beats No Country for Old Men). But this isn’t a normal year. It is one of the worst years in recent memory, at least if you judge by critical reaction.

46. Afrika February 16th, 2009 at 10:46 am 46

    I don’t get how SLumdog is considered a superior film to ReVOLUtionary Road. Is the present state of the economy so bad that Americans are desperate to embrace any heart-warming bollywood flick and call it a masterpiece? I’m, perplexed.

47. Ryan Adams February 16th, 2009 at 10:58 am 47

    If Sam Mendes had been one of the Best Director nominees, and Revolutionary Road had been among the 5 BP Nominees, along with its well-deserved nods in other categories, then I’d have been really happy with this year’s selections. Instead, we get F/N and Defiance.

48. Other Ryan February 16th, 2009 at 12:26 pm 48

    “Is the present state of the economy so bad that Americans are desperate to embrace any heart-warming bollywood flick and call it a masterpiece? I’m, perplexed.”

    No, just this one film since you know… it was good. I know, shocking that some people actually think that. Perplexing indeed.

49. Tim H February 16th, 2009 at 3:30 pm 49

    Qwiggles: great post (waaay back at #9)

    Afrika: I, too, would have loved seeing Revolutionary Road among the contenders. I would happily see it in the race for
    Picture, Actor, Supp Actress (Bates), Supp Actor, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography and Thomas Newman’s beautiful score.

50. Nick K. February 16th, 2009 at 7:21 pm 50

    I’m hoping for the Batman to sweep in. Oh well…

51. Promotions by Gallant February 16th, 2009 at 7:25 pm 51

    Slum Dog will sweep….
    Except for Penn as leading actor for Milk

52. Andrew February 19th, 2009 at 6:07 am 52

    OK so is Slumdog the first to win all the guilds, or did LOTR do so also (I know no SAG ensemble in Schindlers year)???

53. autumn February 20th, 2009 at 12:25 am 53

    Slumdog Millionaire’s unforgettable story. It deserves Oscar Best Picture.