Category: Awards

  • 90th Academy Award Nominations

    The field of 2018 Oscar nominations has been set, with winners will being announced on March 4, 2018. Jimmy Kimmel will host for a second time.

    Notable snubs across the board: Blade Runner 2049 was left out of contention for Best Picture and Best Director. Wonder Woman received no recognition at all. I am pleased to see The Shape of Water as well received as that was an incredible film. There’s a lot of good competition in the field, making predictions for several categories difficult in my opinion. My predictions/picks are in bold for each category that I feel I saw enough of the nominees to field a pick.

    Best Picture:

    “Call Me by Your Name”
    “Darkest Hour”
    “Dunkirk”
    “Get Out”
    “Lady Bird”
    “Phantom Thread”
    “The Post”
    “The Shape of Water”
    “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

    Lead Actor:

    Timothée Chalamet, “Call Me by Your Name”
    Daniel Day-Lewis, “Phantom Thread”
    Daniel Kaluuya, “Get Out”
    Gary Oldman, “Darkest Hour”
    Denzel Washington, “Roman J. Israel, Esq.”

    Lead Actress:

    Sally Hawkins, “The Shape of Water”
    Frances McDormand, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
    Margot Robbie, “I, Tonya”
    Saoirse Ronan, “Lady Bird”
    Meryl Streep, “The Post”

    Supporting Actor:

    Willem Dafoe, “The Florida Project”
    Woody Harrelson, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”
    Richard Jenkins, “The Shape of Water”
    Christopher Plummer, “All the Money in the World”
    Sam Rockwell, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

    Supporting Actress:

    Mary J. Blige, “Mudbound”
    Allison Janney, “I, Tonya”
    Lesley Manville, “Phantom Thread”
    Laurie Metcalf, “Lady Bird”
    Octavia Spencer, “The Shape of Water”

    Director:

    “Dunkirk,” Christopher Nolan
    “Get Out,” Jordan Peele
    “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
    “Phantom Thread,” Paul Thomas Anderson
    “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro

    Animated Feature:

    “The Boss Baby,” Tom McGrath, Ramsey Ann Naito
    “The Breadwinner,” Nora Twomey, Anthony Leo
    “Coco,” Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson
    “Ferdinand,” Carlos Saldanha
    “Loving Vincent,” Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Sean Bobbitt, Ivan Mactaggart, Hugh Welchman

    Animated Short:

    “Dear Basketball,” Glen Keane, Kobe Bryant
    “Garden Party,” Victor Caire, Gabriel Grapperon
    “Lou,” Dave Mullins, Dana Murray
    “Negative Space,” Max Porter, Ru Kuwahata
    “Revolting Rhymes,” Jakob Schuh, Jan Lachauer

    Adapted Screenplay:

    “Call Me by Your Name,” James Ivory
    “The Disaster Artist,” Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
    “Logan,” Scott Frank & James Mangold and Michael Green
    “Molly’s Game,” Aaron Sorkin
    “Mudbound,” Virgil Williams and Dee Rees

    Original Screenplay (STACKED CATEGORY):

    “The Big Sick,” Emily V. Gordon & Kumail Nanjiani
    “Get Out,” Jordan Peele
    “Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig
    “The Shape of Water,” Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
    “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Martin McDonagh

    Cinematography:

    “Blade Runner 2049,” Roger Deakins
    “Darkest Hour,” Bruno Delbonnel
    “Dunkirk,” Hoyte van Hoytema
    “Mudbound,” Rachel Morrison
    “The Shape of Water,” Dan Laustsen

    Best Documentary Feature:

    “Abacus: Small Enough to Jail,” Steve James, Mark Mitten, Julie Goldman
    “Faces Places,” JR, Agnès Varda, Rosalie Varda
    “Icarus,” Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan
    “Last Men in Aleppo,” Feras Fayyad, Kareem Abeed, Soren Steen Jepersen
    “Strong Island,” Yance Ford, Joslyn Barnes

    Best Documentary Short Subject:

    “Edith+Eddie,” Laura Checkoway, Thomas Lee Wright
    “Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405,” Frank Stiefel
    “Heroin(e),” Elaine McMillion Sheldon, Kerrin Sheldon
    “Knife Skills,” Thomas Lennon
    “Traffic Stop,” Kate Davis, David Heilbroner

    Best Live Action Short Film:

    “DeKalb Elementary,” Reed Van Dyk
    “The Eleven O’Clock,” Derin Seale, Josh Lawson
    “My Nephew Emmett,” Kevin Wilson, Jr.
    “The Silent Child,” Chris Overton, Rachel Shenton
    “Watu Wote/All of Us,” Katja Benrath, Tobias Rosen

    Best Foreign Language Film:

    “A Fantastic Woman” (Chile)
    “The Insult” (Lebanon)
    “Loveless” (Russia)
    “On Body and Soul (Hungary)
    “The Square” (Sweden)

    Film Editing:

    “Baby Driver,” Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss
    “Dunkirk,” Lee Smith
    “I, Tonya,” Tatiana S. Riegel
    “The Shape of Water,” Sidney Wolinsky
    “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Jon Gregory

    Sound Editing:

    “Baby Driver,” Julian Slater
    “Blade Runner 2049,” Mark Mangini, Theo Green
    “Dunkirk,” Alex Gibson, Richard King
    “The Shape of Water,” Nathan Robitaille, Nelson Ferreira
    “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Ren Klyce, Matthew Wood

    Sound Mixing (setting the music to the movie):

    “Baby Driver,” Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin
    “Blade Runner 2049,” Mac Ruth, Ron Bartlett, Doug Hephill
    “Dunkirk,” Mark Weingarten, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo
    “The Shape of Water,” Glen Gauthier, Christian Cooke, Brad Zoern
    “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Stuart Wilson, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick

    Production Design:

    “Beauty and the Beast,” Sarah Greenwood; Katie Spencer
    “Blade Runner 2049,” Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola
    “Darkest Hour,” Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
    “Dunkirk,” Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
    “The Shape of Water,” Paul D. Austerberry, Jeffrey A. Melvin, Shane Vieau

    Original Score:

    “Dunkirk,” Hans Zimmer
    “Phantom Thread,” Jonny Greenwood
    “The Shape of Water,” Alexandre Desplat
    “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” John Williams
    “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” Carter Burwell

    Original Song:

    “Mighty River” from “Mudbound,” Mary J. Blige
    “Mystery of Love” from “Call Me by Your Name,” Sufjan Stevens
    “Remember Me” from “Coco,” Kristen Anderson-Lopez, Robert Lopez
    “Stand Up for Something” from “Marshall,” Diane Warren, Common
    “This Is Me” from “The Greatest Showman,” Benj Pasek, Justin Paul

    Makeup and Hair:

    “Darkest Hour,” Kazuhiro Tsuji, David Malinowski, Lucy Sibbick
    “Victoria and Abdul,” Daniel Phillips and Lou Sheppard
    “Wonder,” Arjen Tuiten

    Costume Design:

    “Beauty and the Beast,” Jacqueline Durran
    “Darkest Hour,” Jacqueline Durran
    “Phantom Thread,” Mark Bridges
    “The Shape of Water,” Luis Sequeira
    “Victoria and Abdul,” Consolata Boyle

    Visual Effects:

    “Blade Runner 2049,” John Nelson, Paul Lambert, Richard R. Hoover, Gerd Nefzer
    “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner, Dan Sudick
    “Kong: Skull Island,” Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza, Mike Meinardus
    “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Chris Corbould, Neal Scanlan
    “War for the Planet of the Apes,” Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Daniel Barrett, Joel Whist

    What are your picks? What were some glaring omissions? Comment below!

  • Shape of Water pulls a Monster Movie Award Coup

    At the 2018 Golden Globes, modern cinema history was made – but if you weren’t paying attention you may have missed it.

    “Since childhood I’ve been faithful to monsters — I have been saved and absolved by them – Because monsters, I believe, are patron saints of our blissful imperfection.” – Guillermo Del Toro, accepting 2018 Golden Globe for best director for ‘The Shape of Water’

    Guillermo Del Toro, mastermind director behind hits like Pans Labyrinth and Hellboy received recognition for his latest film, The Shape of Water, picking up a win for Best Director. What makes this significant is the fact that ‘monster’ movies are largely ignored for their artistic merits and are written off as mere box office fodder. They are hardly ever given credit for being forces of cinematic change and impact. Think of some of the best sci-fi, horror, and thriller genre films – Interstellar, Alien, Jurassic Park, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Mad Max: Fury Road, Get Out – how many received any critical acclaim from the Hollywood establishment, much less actual awards? There are usually some ‘token’ inclusions as nominations, but sci-fi/fantasy/horror flicks largely get the snub, and that is an unfair influence on what is deemed ‘culturally important’. If producers chase awards over art, we risk losing out on a lot of untold and still totally valid stories

    Now, I argue that Hollywood has it’s head so far up it’s butt that their opinions don’t much matter and is often out of step with what the average movie-goer is looking for. I argue that people love the spectacle of the tent-pole release, but they want something that can actually resonate. Something that moves the way you feel and think. Film is such a power medium of expression and provocation, to toss away the genre of horror and monsters is too pretend that we live in a perfect world free from such scares. I’d argue that the monsters we face in the real world are much more frightening than anything conjured up on the big screen – why be disingenuous?

    Here’s a sneak peak:

  • 2008 Emmy results

    Well, I had made some predictions as to who and what would win in some selected categories of the 2008 Primetime Emmy Awards, but boy was I wrong! ;(

    Here’s the actual results. Compare them to my prediction (but don’t make fun of me! 😉 )

    The Winners:
    BEST DRAMA SERIES – Mad Men
    BEST LEAD ACTOR – Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
    BEST LEAD ACTRESS, DRAMA – Glenn Close, Damages
    BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR, DRAMA – Zeljko Ivanek, Damages
    BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, DRAMA – Dianne Wiest, In Treatment
    BEST COMEDY SERIES – 30 Rock
    BEST LEAD ACTOR, COMEDY – Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
    BEST LEAD ACTRESS, COMEDY – Tina Fey, “30 Rock
    BEST SUPPPORTING ACTOR, COMEDY – Jeremy Piven, Entourage
    BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS, COMEDY – Jean Smart, Samantha Who?
    BEST LEAD ACTOR, MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE – Paul Giamatti, John Adams
    BEST LEAD ACTRESS, MINISERIES OR TV MOVIE – Laura Linney, John Adams
    BEST VARIETY, MUSIC OR COMEDY SERIES – The Daily Show With Jon Stewart
    BEST REALITY PROGRAM – Kathy Griffin: My Life on the D-List
    BEST REALITY COMPETITION PROGRAM – The Amazing Race
    BEST REALITY COMPETITION HOST – Jeff Probst, Survivor

    The only gripe I had was the Best Comedy Series award, which I really believed The Office should have one – I have never really loved 30 Rock like I love The Office. Oh well, that’s Hollywood for ya. 😉

    Are you satisfied with the results? Please comment below and share with SquidFlicks!

  • The Emmys are coming! The Emmys are coming! (2008)

    As you may or may not already know, the 60th Primetime Emmy Awards are tomorrow at 8pm ET/5pm PT on ABC.

    There are a lot of great shows and actors nominated for the many categories, but here are a few selections that I think should be made. Feel free to agree/disagree in the comments! 😉

    The Emmys are another prestigious award that TV shows and series can earn – and often the winners are well deserving of the award. After watching the awards every year, I end up seeing shows that were winners just to see if I liked them.

    Enough jabber, on to the predictions!

    Outstanding Comedy Series

    Out of all five shows, I would have to pick The Office as the best comedy series for the Emmy. Just two years ago, the series picked up the same award (2006 Outstanding Comedy Series) and I think that it deserves an encore this year.

    Outstanding Drama Series

    I am liking House, M.D. as the winner, but it faces stiff competition, especially from LOST, which would also be a good pick for this award.

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