Vote for Your Oscar Favorites on Rotten Tomatoes
Posted on February 19, 2014 at 5:05 pm
You can vote for your own Oscar favorites on Rotten Tomatoes. And you can see how your pick compare with fans across the country.
Related Tags:
Rogerebert.com Writers Salute Oscar Favorites
Posted on February 19, 2014 at 10:49 am
My friends at Rogerebert.com wrote brief essays paying tribute to the Oscar nominees selected as the favorites by visitors to the site, continuing Roger’s beloved “If We Picked the Winners” tradition.
Black Reel Awards 2014: 12 Years a Slave Breaks the Record
Posted on February 17, 2014 at 1:37 pm
I always look forward to the announcement of the Black Reel Awards, which each year pay tribute to the greatest achievements of African-Americans and people of the African Diaspora in feature and independent films and television. This year, I was especially interested in the results because 2013 was unquestionably the best year in history for African-Americans in film — behind the screen, on the screen, and in the range of stories presented, from the real-life tragedies of “12 Years a Slave,” “Fruitvale Station,” and “Captain Phillips” to the genre films that may not have had lofty artistic aspirations but still gave African-American performers and film-makers a wider range of opportunities to tell their stories, even thrillers and romantic comedies.
“12 Years a Slave,” a stunning achievement with a good chance of winning this year’s Best Picture Oscar, was the big winner at the Black Reel Awards, breaking the all-time record set by “Precious” with a sweep of eight awards: Outstanding Motion Picture, outstanding actor for Chiwetel Ejiofor, Outstanding Supporting Actress for dazzling newcomer Lupita Nyong’o, who also won Outstanding Female Breakthrough Performance, Outstanding Director for Steve McQueen, Outstanding Screenplay for John Ridley, Outstanding Ensemble, and Outstanding Score for Hans Zimmer. “The fact that in one of the strongest years for Black film in recent memory, one film was able to be so dominant is a testament to the vision of Steve McQueen, the screenplay by John Ridley and the fantastic performances of the trio of actors led by Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyong’o,” said Black Reel Awards creator and Executive Director, Tim Gordon. “This will be a year no one forgets.”
Other notable awards went to “Captain Phillips'” Barkhad Abdi (Outstanding Supporting Actor and Outstanding Male Breakthrough Performance) and Danai Gurira (Outstanding Actress) for her role in “Mother of George,” the story of Nigerian immigrants living in Brooklyn and struggling with infertility. Documentary honors went to “20 Feet from Stardom,” about the back-up singers who perform on hit records and are usually overlooked. A documentary about gay rights in the African-American community, “The New Black,” won the award for Outstanding Independent Documentary. Outstanding Independent Feature went to “Blue Caprice,” the story of the DC snipers.
The full list of awardees:
Outstanding Motion Picture
12 Years a Slave
Outstanding Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor | 12 Years a Slave
Outstanding Actress
Danai Gurira | Mother of George
Outstanding Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi | Captain Phillips
Outstanding Supporting Actress
Lupita Nyong’o | 12 Years a Slave
Outstanding Director
Steve McQueen | 12 Years a Slave
Outstanding Screenplay
John Ridley | 12 Years a Slave
Outstanding Documentary
20 Feet From Stardom | Morgan Neville
Outstanding Ensemble
12 Years a Slave | Francine Maiser
Outstanding Foreign Film
War Witch | Canada
Outstanding Score
Hans Zimmer | 12 Years a Slave
Outstanding Original Song
“Desperation” by Judith Hill | 20 Feet From Stardom
Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Male
Barkhad Abdi | Captain Phillips
Outstanding Breakthrough Performance, Female
Lupita Nyong’o | 12 Years a Slave
Outstanding Voice Performance
Samuel L. Jackson | Turbo
Outstanding Independent Feature
Blue Caprice | Alexandre Moors
Outstanding Independent Documentary
The New Black | Yoruba Richen
Outstanding Independent Short
Black Girl in Paris | Kiandra Parks
Outstanding Television Documentary
Whoopi Goldberg Presents Moms Mabley | Whoopi Goldberg
Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series
Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth
Outstanding TV Movie Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor | Dancing on Edge
Outstanding TV Movie Actress
Anika Noni Rose | The Watsons Go to Birmingham
Outstanding Supporting Actor, TV Movie
Omari Hardwick | Being Mary Jane
Outstanding Supporting Actress, TV Movie
Octavia Spencer | Call Me Crazy: A Five Film
Outstanding Director, TV Movie
Spike Lee | Mike Tyson: Undisputed Truth
Outstanding Screenplay, TV Movie
Mara Brock Akil | Being Mary Jane
Faith-Based Oscar Disqualified Song Creates Controversy
Posted on January 31, 2014 at 3:59 pm
For the first time ever, the Motion Picture Academy has disqualified a nominee for ethical reasons. The nomination of “Alone Yet Not Alone” as best song came as a surprise. Most people had not heard of the song or the movie it came from, a small, faith-based film of the same name.
The song was disqualified because its composer, Bruce Broughton, sent out an email to his friends in the Academy asking them to consider it for an award. While “for your consideration” lobbying is widespread, what concerned the Academy was that in this case it was coming from a former official of the Academy and was therefore seen as implicitly and improperly endorsed.
Now, according to the LA Times, there is a backlash, accusing the Academy of applying a different standard to small, independent films than it does to big studio movies.
Broughton has cried foul, saying he was simply trying to draw attention to his independent movie, as many in Hollywood do during awards season.
“They had previews and parties and huge promotion,” Broughton said of the studio campaigns for Oscar-nominated songs from other films, which include box-office hits such as Disney’s “Frozen” and Universal Pictures’ “Despicable Me 2.””We had no budget. There’s no Oscar campaign. All there is is this really stupid email that went out to about 70 people saying, ‘Please look at my song.'”
After sending out its statement Wednesday, the academy offered no further comment on Thursday. But already the story had gained traction, with “CBS This Morning” bringing Broughton on the air and conservative-leaning outlets such as the Drudge Report and the Washington Times setting up a Hollywood vs. Middle America battle.
“Christian Film Stripped of Oscar Nomination,” a headline blared on Drudge.
Even some in Hollywood thought that Broughton, a music personality, longtime head of the music branch and a USC professor, had been given a raw deal.
Critics Choice Awards 2014
Posted on January 16, 2014 at 10:16 pm
I’m very proud of all of our nominees and winners:
BEST PICTURE
12 Years a Slave
BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuaron – Gravity
BEST ACTOR
Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett – Blue Jasmine
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Lupita Nyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Spike Jonze – Her
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
John Ridley – 12 Years a Slave
BEST ART DIRECTION
Catherine Martin (Production Designer), Beverley Dunn (Set Decorator) – The Great Gatsby
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Emmanuel Lubezki – Gravity
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Catherine Martin – The Great Gatsby
BEST EDITING
Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger – Gravity
BEST MAKEUP
American Hustle
BEST SONG
Let It Go – Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez – Frozen
BEST SCORE
Steven Price – Gravity
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Gravity
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Frozen
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Blue Is the Warmest Color
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
20 Feet from Stardom
BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS
Adele Exarchopoulos – Blue Is the Warmest Color
BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE
American Hustle
BEST ACTION MOVIE
Lone Survivor
BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Mark Wahlberg – Lone Survivor
BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Sandra Bullock – Gravity
BEST COMEDY
American Hustle
BEST ACTOR IN A COMEDY
Leonardo DiCaprio – The Wolf of Wall Street
BEST ACTRESS IN A COMEDY
Amy Adams – American Hustle
BEST SCI-FI/HORROR MOVIE
Gravity