Results tagged “academyawards”

       

Last night, any attempts to revamp the Oscars into a sleeker production were foiled by the telecast's 3 hours and 30 minute running time. Sure, some of the show's pace seemed faster, but other decisions, like the five previous acting Oscar recipients presenting the acting awards helped draw out the evening (the NY Times' TV critic Alessandra Stanley said it "looked a little grim, less a movie-star moment than a Star Chamber"). However, there were some gratifying moments:

"Speedy," starring Harold Lloyd as a less-than-safe NYC driver, was released in 1928 and illustrates how New Yorkers gained their reputation as being somewhat reckless. The above clip features Babe Ruth himself requesting Lloyd the cabbie to get him to Yankee stadium in a hurry, and then soon regretting it as Speedy is more interested in chatting up his sports idol than keeping his eyes on the road.

At 8:30PM (following a half-hour red carpet special), the 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony will begin, finally putting an end to the "There Will Be Oscar" or "Oscar Country for Old Men" type headlines.

The Oscars are in town! Well, at least some 8-foot Oscar statues for the official New York Oscar night celebration at the Carlyle hotel, where east coast industry folk will come together Sunday night as the show goes down in Hollywood.

• Perhaps the big surprise (besides Juno getting nominated for Best Director and Best Picture) was Ruby Dee for her work in American Gangster (its only other nomination was for art direction)

After Letterman announced his show's comeback with new episodes, writers' strike or no writers' strike, the leaders of late night all followed suit.

The New York Film Critics Circle met yesterday to vote on their “Best of” list for 2007; widely viewed as a barometer for the upcoming Academy Awards, the critics pride themselves as “a principled alternative to the Oscars, honoring esthetic merit in a forum that is immune to commercial and political pressures.” But if one anonymous member is to be believed, the meeting sounds more like a “principled” excuse for an Aint It Cool News-style...

Joel Siegel, perhaps best known as Good Morning America's film critic (a program he was on weekly since 1981), died yesterday in New York at the age of 63. Siegel had been battling colon cancer, though many didn't even know he was sick as he stayed positive until the end and kept working until just two weeks ago.

If you detected a frisson of fabulous excitement scorching the air this morning, it’s because the 61st annual Tony award nominations were announced! (For those who may not fathom the awesome significance of the Tonys, the awards are the Broadway theater world equivalent of the Oscars and named for Antoinette Perry, an actress, director, producer and who passed away prior to the first award show in 1947.)

It's a holiday weekend for the NY Times Weddings Announcements!

Blades of Glory (directed by Will Speck and Josh Gordon): "Will Ferrell the Serious Actor" is a good thing, but oh how we adore "Will Ferrell the Clown." The off-kilter mannerisms, the flamboyant costumes and the tendency to flash his hairy belly for cheap laughs are hallmarks of a great Will Ferrell movie and they're all there in his newest, the figure skating spoof Blades of Glory. Ferrell plays Chazz Michael Michaels, otherwise known as "sex on skates," who ties the single men's skating world championships with the effete, former child prodigy, Jimmy MacElroy (Jon Heder). The two rival skaters get into a tussle on the podium and get tossed out of skating for good. However, a loophole pointed out by Jimmy's stalker persuades Chazz and Jimmy to get back on the ice, this time as the first men's skating pair. The premise is slight to say the least, but all the better for giving screen time to mercilessly mocking the over-the-top world of skating. Practically every skating great either has a cameo (see Ferrell ogling Nancy Kerrigan's butt) or a reference in the script (we learn Oksana Baiul is as cold in bed as she is on the ice). Plus the film is filled with instantly quotable supporting performances.

A look at some noteworthy televison shows this week:

Okay, so it's been 2007 for the last four days but since everyone's doing it from the critics circles to the awards nominating pools, it seemed worth it to weigh in on last year's movies. However, constructing end of the year top ten lists can be both painful and thrilling. Looking at a long list of the year's movie releases reminds you how many films passed you by in the theaters and playing favorites amongst the pool is never easy. It's much more fun to look at a top 10 and what various moviemakers from around the world have churned out in the last 12 months as glass half full. In the midst of the dreck of horrible new releases are some very bright spots, and here are 10 of our personal highlights.

If you count yourself as a New Yorker and a movie lover, it's tough to not have a special affinity for films by Woody Allen. Practically the filmmaker laureate of the city, Allen's prolific 40 plus year career is getting a three week long screening series at Film Forum starting this Friday. Gothamist loves Allen's movies (both the highs and the lows) so much that we thought we'd chat with an Allen expert, Queens College professor Bob Kapsis, about how to plan our screening calendar during "Essentially Woody."

It's December today and you know what that means...let the rampant awards season speculation commence! As the year comes to a close, it's that magical time when all of the movie studios begin unloading their most precious commodities into our theaters, making sure things come out in New York (and LA) before Dec. 31 so they'll be eligible for this year's Academy Awards. But of course, we're still weeks away from any nomination announcements for the Oscars. Heck, even the Golden Globes noms are still but a fantasy of a date marked with a big red X on the calendar. (Okay, fine they'll be broadcast on December 14th. It's closer than it seems.)

Robert Altman, maverick film director, died on Monday night in Los Angeles. He was 81 years old.

As Jon Stewart takes to the stage this Sunday at 8 pm to host the 78th Annual Academy Awards, the movie-lovin' Gothamist will be watching with eager anticipation from our couch. The spectacle, the glamour, the bad musical numbers and cheesy memorial montages -- we love it all. In fact, Gothamist (ie. Jen Chung and movie correspondent Karen Wilson) will be live blogging the ceremony but in the meantime, here's a few predictions for the winners:

It's the itch we can't scratch - the Academy Awards. We make sure we see the announcements at 8:30AM and then rush to work, thinking about the nominations while on the train. This morning, Academy President Sid Ganis and Mira Sorvino (who isn't doing anything else, anyway) announced the nominations. As expected, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, and Capote earned many nominations, and Crash made a surprising showing with Best Picture, Best Director and even a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Matt Dillon. Other surprises/interesting things:

On Sundays, Gothamist runs opinion pieces on issues relevant to life in New York. The views expressed below belong entirely to the author.

First bloggers were accused of damaging journalism, then politics, and now? The Oscars! What's next, Christmas?

. Lately, seems as if every studio or theatre is looking for a quick fix, as “anyone whose name was a derivation of Herbert” received, as the Wall Street Journal notes, sneak-peak preview tickets to Lindsay Lohan’s disaster, whereas Fox offers a “buy-three-get-one-free deal” to boost Star Wars, Episode III.

You know it's the Oscars when P. Diddy busts out the velvet suit! Gothamist loves the Oscars, and we're going to attempt to do a little liveblogging. We might need to order a vat of caffeine and an EMT team at the ready; not because Chris Rock will be boring, but because we think that Gil Cates might kill us with his newfangled ideas and because we're meh about this year's nominees in the big categories. Anyway, onto the show.

Bruce Goldstein, Film Forum

Florence Almozini, BAMcinématek

David Schwartz, Museum of the Moving Image

Laurence Kardish, MoMA, Dept. of Film & Media

Kent Jones, Walter Reade Theater/Film Society of Lincoln Center

The Oscars are this Sunday at 8PM. Check out E! hours before for the bad jokes and kettle-calling-the-pot-black of Joan and Melissa Rivers. E!'s online coverage is actually quite good.

Yay for surprises. The announcement of the 76th Academy Awards nominations were not the snoozefest we thought they would be, thanks to some shockers. Some thoughts on the categories: