[press release] – Monday, October 3, is the deadline to submit entries in the Live Action Short Film, Animated Short Film and Foreign Language Film categories to be considered for the 84th Academy AwardsŽ. Complete entries must arrive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by 5 p.m. PT that day.

In the short film categories, filmmakers must submit an entry form, one film print or copy in an approved digital format, and all other required materials by the deadline.

In the Foreign Language Film category, filmmakers must submit entry forms, one English-language subtitled film print or copy in an approved digital format, and all other required materials by the deadline. Only one motion picture will be accepted from each country.

And so it begins. Thanks to @johnnymonteith on Twitter

‘No, she’s not. Superheroes live in a world of good and evil, and she’s far more complex than a superhero. She’s been compromised. She’s been subjugated. She’s been marginalised. She’s been swept into the gutter and she’s had a part in it. She dresses like trash because she’s someone who has been betraued and hurt so badly, by forces beyond her control, that she’s just decided to be refuse. She can sit anywhere she wants on the bus, because nobody wants to deal with her.” David Fincher on Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo for an upcoming  interview in Empire Magazine

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More than anything, though, the film’s not-so-secret weapon is its screenplay, written by the powerhouse team of Steven Zaillian (Schindler’s List) and Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network). Moneyball may be a sports movie, but what it really is is one of those happy, gabby, super-smart talkfests that take you back to the pleasures of movies made during the wisecracking days of the Hollywood studio system, when action and F/X and “visuals” hadn’t taken over everything, and talking — whether in snappy screwball comedies, ingeniously ominous film noirs, or teary romantic melodramas — was really all that actors and actresses could do. Moneyball isn’t a movie about swinging a bat and spitting tobacco. It’s a heady, digital-age story of salaries, statistics, front-office politics, and the art of the deal that lurks behind the art of the game. Owen Gleiberman on how audiences have fallen back in love with the screenplay.

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Gary Oldman, Charlize Theron and David Cronenberg will all be honored at the Gotham Film Awards, November 28.

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Clint Eastwood will be the voice of Mark Twain for Mark Twain: Words and Music to be released. More information on the CD here.

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Played a famous person: 14 out of 50 nominees.
Starred in a period piece set more than 15 years before the release of the movie: 24 out of 50 nominees.
Used an accent/changed his voice: 23 out of 50 nominees.
Underwent an impressive physical transformation and/or allowed himself to look like shit: 21 out of 50 nominees.
Miscellaneous showboat factor not quantified above (aged many decades on screen, played multiple roles, played someone with a physical or mental handicap, sang, etc.): 11 out of 50 nominees.
Died on screen: 11 out of 50 nominees. (This one’s an estimate based on memory, because despite my commitment to bringing you the best possible Oscar analysis, life is just too short to rewatch Venus to determine if Peter O’Toole’s character survives to the end. I barely survived to the end.)
–Mark Harris’ stats on why he thinks the odds are against Brad Pitt getting nominated for Moneyball

Audience Favorite Feature
50/50
Directed by Jonathan Levine
(USA, Summit Entertainment)

Runner-up
THE WOMEN ON THE 6TH FLOOR
Directed by Philippe Le Guay
(France, Strand Releasing)

Audience Favorite Documentary-shared
BEING ELMO: A PUPPETEER’S JOURNEY
Directed by Constance Marks
(USA, Submarine Deluxe)

WILD HORSE, WILD RIDE
Directed by Alexandra Dawson and Greg Gricus
(USA, Fish Creek Films)

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Why does it seem like the beginning of October is already too late to push through an Oscar contender?  If you’re a big star in a big movie you’re already on the radar of those who write about Oscar buzz, a thing that increasingly has no there to it.  But if you’ve just given the performance of your life in a movie nobody has seen how does your publicist get enough people to see your performance to find a spot for you in the already crowded acting or Best Picture categories?

This moment in the Oscar race is what I always think of as the Million Dollar Baby zone.  Clint Eastwood brought that film in at a time when there were less media outlets focused on the race, as many of them are now, and when those of us who were focused on the race – it was like me, David Poland, Tom O’Neil and Kris Tapley and a few others – had our radars tuned to The Aviator, which seemed, at the time, like it might finally be Martin Scorsese’s big Oscar win (he would later go on to win big with The Departed, nothing less than one of the best films ever to win the award).  But then people saw Million Dollar Baby. I’ll never forget reading Poland’s site the day after that screening — there was simply no question what movie was going to win and win big.

What I now wonder looking back at those seemingly innocent times, with all of the chatter we have now, so many hunters stalking Oscar prey, where the demand far exceeds the supply, would we have already been well aware that Million Dollar Baby would have been the big Oscar winner? Would it be showing up on Oscar charts as the de facto frontrunner? So much has changed since then.

Either way, and for whatever reason, after Toronto it always feels like the window of opportunity to break through gets smaller and smaller as the days go by.  If you’re not considered a major contender already, by October, your chances are slim.  But they’re not zero.  Late entries can sometimes shake up the race, like The Reader did when it bumped The Dark Knight, altering Oscar history while doing so.

On today’s Off the Carpet column, Kris Tapley looks at the Best Actor race, but specifically at those performances that could be overlooked.  I had no idea he was writing this, and I was writing a similar piece at the same time (great minds…) only mine covers Best Picture and Actress too (albeit not as thoroughly as Kris…).  So you want to head over there to In Contention to read that piece.  

Oscar buzz is now and has always been something undefinable – it’s like sexual attraction: you know it when you feel it.

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[Press Release] The 15th Annual Hollywood Film Festival and Hollywood Film Awards, presented by Starz Entertainment, are pleased to announce honorees that will be recognized for their achievements at the festival’s Hollywood Awards Gala Ceremony, which will take place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills on October 24, 2011.

Academy Award-nominated actor Christopher Plummer will receive the “Hollywood Supporting Actor Award,” for “Beginners,” actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt will be honored with the “Hollywood Breakthrough Actor Award,” for “50/50,” actress Jessica Chastain will be honored with the “Hollywood Breakthrough Actress Award,” for “The Tree of Life,” “Coriolanus,” “The Debt,” “The Help,” and “Take Shelter,” and actress Felicity Jones will receive the “New Hollywood Award” for “Like Crazy.”

“It is extraordinary that all of these honorees have contributed their talent to such high quality films, and it is a great pleasure to honor them for their work,” said Carlos de Abreu, Founder of the Hollywood Awards Gala.

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