The Artist

My initial gut reaction(s):
Margin Call deserved more than just best screenplay nom. I would even give it cinematography. But, unlike War Horse, it happens in an office building.

I think there has been a mistake: Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is on the list of best pics in 2011, but not Tinker Tailor Solder Spy or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, OR Margin Call for that matter.

I am very glad that The Artist is. I was worried for a while that there would be some strange problem with its international producers and financiers. Apparently the Academy doesn’t think so.

Holy crap Octavia Spencer got an Oscar nomination – way to go! (I knew her when).

Holy crap the fat kid from Superbad got an Oscar nomination! (Sorry, I just couldn’t stop myself). Way to go Jonah Hill!

I love the list for Animated Feature. Relieved to have relief from Pixar and well, I loved every movie that is on the list and my own list might have been identical.

Oh golly, the Best Original Song category is a little bleak this year – no “My Heart Will On” stuff happening in ’011 apparently. Expect to see Muppets all over the place.

And why do the same five movies show up in so many categories? Were there really only twenty Academy-qualifying films in 2011 in all categories? And does John Williams really need two f%$*ing nominations in the same category for both Tin Tin and War Horse? Come old boys, your wires are showing. Where is the nomination for Ernst Reijseger’s amazing score for Cave of Forgotten Dreams?

Anyway my fave for best pic is The Artist and The Tree of Life, both among the best of the past decade so I’ll take either, or both. Please keep both Spielberg and Scorsese out of this set, voters, please.

Also where are Bill Cunningham’s New York, Melancholia, Incendies, Heartbeats, The Skin I Live In?

The list is far too homogeneous.

Alright enough of me, here’s the list:

BEST PICTURE

The Artist
Thomas Langmann, Producer

The Descendants
Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor,
Producers

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Scott Rudin, Producer

The Help
Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and
Michael Barnathan, Producers

Hugo
Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers

Midnight in Paris
Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers

Moneyball
Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt,
Producers

The Tree of Life
Nominees to be determined

War Horse
Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy,
Producers

Actor in a Leading Role

Demián Bichir
A Better Life

George Clooney
The Descendants

Jean Dujardin
The Artist

Gary Oldman
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Brad Pitt
Moneyball

Actor in a Supporting Role

Kenneth Branagh
My Week with Marilyn

Jonah Hill
Moneyball

Nick Nolte
Warrior

Christopher Plummer
Beginners

Max Von Sydow
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Actress in a Leading Role

Glenn Close
Albert Nobbs

Viola Davis
The Help

Rooney Mara
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Meryl Streep
The Iron Lady

Michelle Williams
My Week with Marilyn

Actress in a Supporting Role

Bérénice Bejo
The Artist

Jessica Chastain
The Help

Melissa Mccarthy
Bridesmaids

Janet McTeer
Albert Nobbs

Octavia Spencer
The Help

Animated Feature Film

A Cat in Paris
Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli

Chico & Rita
Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal

Kung Fu Panda 2
Jennifer Yuh Nelson

Puss in Boots
Chris Miller

Rango
Gore Verbinski

Art Direction

The Artist
Production Design: Laurence Bennett
Set Decoration: Robert Gould

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Production Design: Stuart Craig
Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan

Hugo
Production Design: Dante Ferretti
Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo

Midnight in Paris
Production Design: Anne Seibel
Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil

War Horse
Production Design: Rick Carter
Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

Cinematography

The Artist
Guillaume Schiffman

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Jeff Cronenweth

Hugo
Robert Richardson

The Tree of Life
Emmanuel Lubezki

War Horse
Janusz Kaminski

Costume Design

Anonymous
Lisy Christl

The Artist
Mark Bridges

Hugo
Sandy Powell

Jane Eyre
Michael o’Connor

W.E.
Arianne Phillips

Directing

The Artist
Michel Hazanavicius

The Descendants
Alexander Payne

Hugo
Martin Scorsese

Midnight in Paris
Woody Allen

The Tree of Life
Terrence Malick

Documentary Feature

Hell and Back Again
Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky

Pina
Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel

Undefeated
TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Documentary Short Subject

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin

God is the Bigger Elvis
Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson

Incident in New Baghdad
James Spione

Saving Face
Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy

The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom
Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Film Editing

The Artist
Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius

The Descendants
Kevin Tent

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

Hugo
Thelma Schoonmaker

Moneyball
Christopher Tellefsen

Foreign Language Film

Bullhead
Belgium

Footnote
Israel

In Darkness
Poland

Monsieur Lazhar
Canada

A Separation
Iran

Asghar Farhadi's film - A Separation nominated for best foreign language film 2012

Makeup

Albert Nobbs
Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin

The Iron Lady
Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (Original Score)

The Adventures of Tintin
John Williams

The Artist
Ludovic Bource

Hugo
Howard Shore

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Alberto Iglesias

War Horse
John Williams

Music (Original Song)

Man or Muppet
The Muppets
Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie

Real in Rio
Rio
Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown
Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Short Film (Animated)

Dimanche/Sunday
Patrick Doyon

The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg

La Luna
Enrico Casarosa

A Morning Stroll
Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe

Wild Life
Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Short Film (Live Action)

Pentecost
Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane

Raju
Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren

The Shore
Terry George and Oorlagh George

Time Freak
Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey

Tuba Atlantic
Hallvar Witzø

Sound Editing

Drive
Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Ren Klyce

Hugo
Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl

War Horse
Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

Sound Mixing

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson

Hugo
Tom Fleischman and John Midgley

Moneyball
Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin

War Horse
Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson

Hugo
Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning

Real Steel
Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett

Transformers: Dark of the Moon
Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

The Descendants
Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash

Hugo
Screenplay by John Logan

The Ides of March
Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon

Moneyball
Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin
Story by Stan Chervin

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)

The Artist
Written by Michel Hazanavicius

Bridesmaids
Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig

Margin Call
Written by J.C. Chandor

Midnight in Paris
Written by Woody Allen

A Separation
Written by Asghar Farhadi

I found the link in an innocuous email newsletter for HD video cameras – the opportunity to apply to Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School. Having spent three years shooting assorted interviews about fine artists in Los Angeles who were once street artists, the implications of co-opting oneself and so on, I decided to apply, if only to put pressure on myself to create a “sizzle reel” per my documentary instructor’s instructions, as I was advised in her UCLA extension course.

I input less than a thousand lines about my life in the bio section of my application. Two weeks later I was advised that I had been accepted. At first, my LA-fuelled cynicism presumed this to be a given, that these celebrity auteurs simply allowed any applicant in to cover the speaking fee. But upon arriving at the hotel for the first meet and greet, my sense of wonder and awe were restored as I met fellow journeymen who had traveled from Africa, Italy, the Netherlands and Canada to join the 65 members of this year’s Rogue Film School.

For the required reading list alone, it became apparent that this was worth the cost of admission. Such black and white classics as The Treasure of Sierra Madre, Battle of Algiers and the Apu Trilogy had been prescribed. Masterworks that I may never have taken the time to which to be exposed. The reading list required Virgil’s “Georgics”, Earnest Hemingway and the Warren Commission report.

There was a prevalent theme, and that was that in order to kill the snake, you must first cut off its head so that the body may die.

I spent three hours speaking with the other who had been accepted and found a room filled with cultural savants, encyclopedias, vessels of experience, and instantly introduced to a myriad references: musicians, films, books. These were all readily available, but how would I have otherwise been pushed to review them?

There is a universe available to us all. With the internet it is more readily available than ever before. But to where have we arrived? A summary of experience that blocks us from even the endeavor to access it.

I recall the posit, perhaps from Ray Kurzweil in The Age of Spiritual Machines, faced with a quantum computer, wherein any question could be answered would pose a new problem – not whether the computer could find the correct answer instantly, but whether we might have the capacity to posit the appropriate question.

The technology is prepared to serve, but are prepared to demand of it what is available?

As we virtually sign petitions to shoot down SOPA and PITA, as we march on Wall Street, as we ingest documentaries on Netflix, or stream playlists created by iGenius or Spotify, are we, in turn doing these artificially intelligent tastemakers justice? How about those that are not artificially so?

Are we really doing our part and protecting and nurturing the fonts of learning, understanding and progression?

Is it not up to us to look into dark corners, to seek further? Else we are just feeding the status quo, rife as it may be with stoic insistence that what we have already covered is all that there is?

Take risks, play, step outside your comfort zone, for learning is ecstatic and the truth even more so.

“And therefore as a stranger give it welcome.
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” – Shakespeare