Awards Daily

I think the second one is more honest, though. After the cut.

(thanks to Marshall for the tip)

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Yes, the mark of a true Oscar game player is that the film finishes the season with its being anointed by 60 Minutes. The King’s Speech already got a mini review by Andy Rooney the week before who said he liked movies about things he knew about, as opposed to things he had to ask his grandchildren to explain to him, which was the gist. Game, match.

But then this past Sunday they brought out the letters by Lionel Logue as they did a profile on Colin Firth, etc. I’m sure if there were any Academy members on the fence about whether to vote for the movie, it might have swayed them, but something tells me those who were going to vote for the movie aren’t going to be the types who leave their ballots around long.

Watch the 60 Minutes thing here.

On ABC News’ site, though, they say it’s among the “most nominated films of all time.” Yes, but that isn’t really saying much — here are the films that also had 12 nominations:

Ben-Hur
The English Patient
On The Waterfront
My Fair Lady
Dances With Wolves
Schindler’s List
Mrs. Miniver
Gladiator
A Streetcar Named Desire *
The Song of Bernadette *
Reds *
Johnny Belinda *
Becket *
The King’s Speech

Only a few dwindling hours left to cast your vote with the Awards Daily Simulated Oscar Ballot.

The first time Christopher Hitchens made his objections known I didn’t bother posting it or discussing it. The reason for this is primarily that it would have an impact on whether the King’s Speech will win the Oscar or not – it very likely will, and it will have nothing to do with the historical facts, but to do with it being a moving film. ¬†The same goes for the Social Network – nothing Sean Parker or Mark Zuckerberg could ever do or say would change the fact that it is a great film.

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If the King’s Speech wins, it will become the first film in 83 years of Oscar history with a British monarch as the central figure to win Best Picture. [source]

If the Social Network wins Screenplay, Editing, Directing but then loses Best Picture it will join the ranks of only two movies in Oscar history to do so:

A Place in the Sun
Traffic

In the years that Oscar has split with Picture/Director, only twice has the DGA winner lost the Oscar for Best Director but then had the film win Best Picture:

Crash (Did not win DGA)
Chicago (won DGA, The Pianist won BD)
Gladiator (did not win DGA, Traffic won BD)
Shakespeare in Love (did not win DGA, Saving Private Ryan won BD)
Chariots of Fire (did not win DGA, Reds won BD)
The Godfather (won DGA, Cabaret won BD)
In the Heat of the Night (did not win DGA, The Graduate won BD)
Around the World in 80 Days (did not win DGA, Giant won BD)
An American in Paris (did not win DGA, A Place in the Sun won BD)

If the Social Network and David Fincher win on Sunday, they will be the third to win without the DGA:

Ron Howard, Apollo 13 (PGA, DGA, SAG, SEFCA), lost to Mel Gibson, Braveheart (Globe for Dir, BFCA for Best Dir, Eddie, WGA)
Steven Spielberg, the Color Purple (NBR, DGA) lost to Sidney Pollock, Out of Africa (won Globe)
Anthony Harvey, the Lion in Winter (won Globe, NYFCC, WGA, DGA) lost to Carol Reed and Oliver (won Globe)

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She’s kind of got this thing down. James Franco is just along for the ride, Brian Dunkleman style.

In the past few months I’ve been interviewed a couple of times, the most recent is for Ask Men with a wonderfully titled article, “How Crash Saved the Oscars.” ¬†But a week or so ago I was interviewed by a former critic and journalist who writes for the LA Daily News and he asked me why I thought the Oscars were so important. ¬†After all, he said, we’ve always just assumed the Oscars were a middlebrow group that had nothing whatsoever to do with awarding quality filmmaking. ¬†That isn’t a direct quote but it’s the gist. ¬†This sentiment was echoed by Marshall Fine, who wrote a piece for the Huffington Post, and also by Peter Rainer who moderated our Oscar blogger panel at the Santa Barbara Film Fest.

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