My Award Nominations: Original Song

Eesh.

That's all I have to say about the selection there was for Best Original Song.
Not every year can be vintage, but these five aren't bad (though I had to make a stretch or two).

Oscar Postmortem Pt. 2: Sweet closure

My full review of the Oscar telecast will be up sometime in the next few days, but there's one microcosm of the show I wanted to address while it's still fresh in my mind.

Far and away the most heartbreaking part of Sunday's ceremony, for me at least, was seeing Adele Dazeem (aka: Idina Menzel) struggle through her performance of the Oscar-winning power ballad "Let It Go" from Frozen. To say I was psyched for this moment would be an understatement. I fully hoped and expected it to be the musical highlight of the night. But much as I love Menzel -- and Lord knows she doesn't have to prove her talent to anybody at this point in her celebrated career -- I couldn't close my ears and pretend not to notice how nervous she sounded; A rushed half-beat ahead, voice quivering (not in commanding vibrato either), and you can definitely hear it cracking on that last high note. Her disappointed facial expression afterwards says it all. Was she distracted by John Travolta's dyslexic mispronunciation of her name? Was it the damp air from all that rain (maybe the cold DOES bother her anyway)? Whatever the cause, it was more than a little saddening.

But whatever. She's a stunning talent even on her off days, and there was never any question that she'd take the bitter with the better and rebound in no time. She, and fans of the song, can finally see her nail it live courtesy of Jimmy Fallon and the Roots, who accompanied her in this uber-cute rendition of the song played on classroom instruments. Watch it below:

My Award nominations: Animated Feature

Somebody didn't want to open until ONE week before the Oscars, so I had to hold off on this category. But now that I've seen all the contenders, precious few as they are, I can finally publish my picks for Best Animated Feature of 2013.

Connecting with the Movies of 2013

How does one begin to relate the white-knuckle space adventure of a thrill ride like Gravity to the soberly grounded realism of a docudrama like Captain Phillips? How is the intimate conversation piece Before Midnight at all similar to the sprawling historical tragedy 12 Years a Slave? What do any of these films have in common with each other – or any of the dozens of other applicable films released in the past 12 months – besides the fact that they are among the finest motion pictures of 2013? It's a question I find myself asking not only this year (which is being touted as one of the best for American cinema in a critic's age), but every year, as my mind mulls over the thematic patterns that connect the cream of the annual movie crop.

In 2009, 'escapism' was the pervasive theme connecting such disparate stories as Up in the Air, Avatar, The Hurt Locker, An Education, and Precious, among others; In 2011, 'nostalgia' and 'inspiration' connected many of the year's most celebrated titles, including The Artist, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, and many more; And for me, 2013's greatest films were connected by... well, 'connection'. Indeed, and as generic as it sounds, it's hard for me to recall a year in which so many memorable screen characters seem to triumph or fail as direct result of the connections they forge (or don't forge) between themselves and their fellow human beings.

Gravity and 12 Years a Slave take final guild honours

The last two guilds to hand out hardware this season (the Cinema Audio Society and the Costume Designers Guild) did so last night, making winners out of leading Best Picture contenders Gravity and 12 Years a Slave.

MPSE honours Gravity, Captain Phillips

The Motion Picture Sound Editors spread the wealth last night, handing no more than one award to any film in contention, but the main prize of Best Sound Effects and Foley (which correlates most closely to the Academy's Sound Editing award) went to Gravity. Captain Phillips picked up a win as well for its ADR, but none of the other prize winners are up for the Oscar. Read the list after the cut.

BAFTA winners do little to clarify Oscar race

With the Winter Olympics pushing the Oscar voting window back a couple of weeks, all eyes this were on the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTAs) to indicate any late-breaking momentum for this contender or that during this crucial final phase of the season. However, it seems that the Brits are about as indecisive as American awards groups have been this year, as they too ended up splitting their decision between the leading runners in the race.

In eerily similar fashion to the way the Golden Globes went down, Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave managed to claim the Best Film prize at the BAFTAs, but only after it had been nearly shut out all night long. Losing categories in which it is believed to be the Oscar favourite (Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay) must have been cause for excruciating nervousness, but then it reared its head at the last minute with a victory for lead actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (in the absence of Oscar frontrunner Matthew McConaughey) and ultimately Best Picture.

But Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity led the total trophy haul with six, including Best British Film. Ironically, many would argue that the actual Best Film winner 12 Years a Slave is more British than the Mexican director's U.S.-financed space adventure. Keeping its own Oscar fires stoked with three wins was David O. Russell's American Hustle.

Check out the winners below for more commentary on individual categories, and how the winners here might affect the Oscar outcome.

VES winners

I completely forgot that the Visual Effects Society awards were being handed out last night, but can you blame me? This Oscar category is so locked down that it's hard to drum up much interest in it. Yes, Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity was the big winner of the night, claiming prizes in all but one of the individual categories in which it was nominated for a total of six. The one film that was able to defeat it: The Hobbit for Best Animated Character. Hard to dispute that one, and honestly, I wish there was a little more of that wealth spreading going on. Gravity may have the Academy Award sewn up but there were lots of other brilliant fx jobs this year that deserved recognition.

The sweep effect also factored into the Feature Animation races as Frozen won all four of those categories. That isn't so uncommon. For four consecutive years now it's been one toon winning all of the prizes for effects in animated films (How to Train Your Dragon, Rango, Brave, and now Frozen), which is really a shame, as it can't help but reflect a certain laziness in membership voting.

Check out the full list of motion picture winners below.

One Category at a Time: Animated Feature

Last year saw what many assume to be the closest race in the twelve year history of this category, as Brave edged out Wreck-It Ralph. Even with two great movies like those in play, I still thought at the time that it had been a thin year for animation in 2012. Boy, was I unprepared for the sorry state affairs this year, which claims arguably the weakest list of animated releases to date. Accordingly, the resulting Oscar lineup contains two films that shouldn't be in the awards conversation at all, two films that should be in the conversation but would not have made it in a stronger year, and one film which is still widely unseen!

My Award nominations: Original Song

As is the case every year, it's usually a bit of a struggle to find enough original songs that I feel significantly add to the films in which their used. But in the end, I always manage to cobble together five. Listen to my five favourite Original Songs of the year:

One Category at a Time: Original Song

Oh, where to begin with this category. Last year it looked like the music branch had maybe taken a step towards not embarrassing themselves on a yearly basis, having recently overhauled their voting system to yield five respectable (if not unanimously exceptional) nominees. Well, that streak was short-lived, as this year saw the suspicious nomination of the ultra-obscure Alone Yet Not Alone for music branch executive committee member Bruce Broughton, who apparently sent out emails soliciting votes. The Academy went and humiliated Mr. Broughton even further by revoking the nomination, but then decided not to replace it with another song, which is so sad and unfair for that sixth place song, whatever it may have been.

It's all a moot point anyhow. It's not as if Alone Yet Not Alone's disqualification has suddenly cleared the path for anything else to win, although the situation raises some questions about the where to draw the line on campaigning that merit discussion and possibly review. But now that the dust has settled, let's look at the four that remain:

ACE Eddie winners

One of the craft categories I'm having the hardest time predicting this year is Best Film Editing. I may keep going back and forth on the issue right up until the eve of the Oscars (and possibly well into the show)! But last night's American Cinema Editors (ACE Eddie) Awards lent some clarity into what the experts themselves think, and the news is not at all surprising.

Christopher Rouse took home top honours in Best Edited Feature (Drama) for Captain Phillips, and may well take the Oscar as well on March 2nd. Even though the film is apparently not the strongest Best Picture contender, having missed out on Best Director and Actor nominations, sometimes the Academy does vote for the film with the most obvious editing. Remember The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Black Hawk Down, The Matrix, and The Bourne Ultimatum (which brought Rouse his first Oscar) managed to win without Best Picture nominations even. Still, one gets the feeling that a Gravity sweep could tilt this category in Alfonso Cuaron's favour.

Frozen leads Annie Award winners

Frozen won five ANNIE Awards tonight including Best Animated Feature, further solidifying its stranglehold on the Oscar. But as the ANNIEs have been more prone to doing in recent years since adjusting their voting system, the wealth was spread out a bit. Monsters University won a pair and The Croods won three. Even The Wind Rises surprisingly popped up as the winner for Best Writing.

Over in the Short Subjects category, Oscar frontrunner Get a Horse won the day, so make of that what you will. Seems like as decent an Oscar prediction as any.

Check out the feature film winners after the cut.

Mind = Blown.

The Producers Guild of America is supposed to be the Oscar bellwether. In the four years that the Academy has had an expanded Best Picture lineup of nine or ten, the PGA has been the only group whose own top prize has gone on the win the Oscar all four times. Last night's PGA ceremony was supposed to finally clarify for us that American Hustle was the film to beat, but then the unthinkable (and I'm not just throwing that word, "unthinkable", around) happened.

The PGA Award was a freakin' TIE, between Gravity and 12 Years a Slave!

Mind = Blown.

For the first time in the ten-some-odd years I've been following the Academy Awards, Best Picture is officially too close to call.

Elsewhere, Frozen predictably triumphed in Best Animated Feature, while Alex Gibney's slick We Steal Secrets took home the Documentary honour, which isn't a bad consolation prize after it failed to even make the Academy's 15-title shortlist.

Cinema Audio Society sounds off

The CAS has listed what they believe to be the year's finest achievements in sound mixing. Presumed Oscar heavyweights Gravity and Captain Phillips are accounted for, along with Inside Llewyn Davis' gorgeous musical assembly. Lone Survivor and Iron Man 3 round out the remaining two slots, but whether or not they'll turn up on the Oscar ballot is another question.

The big takeaway, for me at least, is that All Is Lost is conspicuously absent yet again. After missing with every single guild this season (save for an embarrassing Stunt Ensemble nod from SAG that does not include the daring Mr. Redford), one would have thought that surely the sound mixers would finally stand up for it, but no dice. I expect Gravity to take it anyway, and it's hardly undeserving.

Over on the animated side of things, it would appear Frozen is the one to beat. It's joined by likely-soon-to-be-fellow-Animated-Feature-nominees Monsters University, Despicable Me 2, and The Croods. They're joined by not-so-likely-to-be-Animated-Feature-nominee Walking With Dinosaurs.

Guild noms keep rolling with American Cinema Editors

The ACE has joined the fray with their nominations for the Eddies. As expected, all four Best Picture frontrunners are represented.

The four feature film categories (plus commentary) after the cut:

Review - Frozen

Casual moviegoers with kids to entertain for an hour or so can be forgiven for thinking that the latest animated effort from Walt Disney Studios is little more than a slapsticky romp about an impish snowman. That is, after all, the only clue they've been given by the TV ads and movie posters, but those only represent the tip of the proverbial ice berg. With Frozen, Disney actually makes as earnest an attempt as they have in the last 15 years to recapture the magic of their 1990s musical heyday, with a Broadway pedigree cast and not one, but two new Disney princesses front and centre.

The story, written by Shane Morris and co-directors Jennifer Lee & Chris Buck, is based very loosely on Hans Christian Anderson's The Snow Queen, although its vague Scandinavian setting seems to be all that was retained from Anderson's original 19^th century fable. This re-imagining tells of two princesses in the fictional land of Arendelle. Elsa, the eldest and therefore first in line to inherit the crown, was born with the magical ability to form ice and snow with the slightest gesture. Anna, the youngest, adores frolicking in the indoor winter wonderlands her sister can conjure, until a near-death accident convinces their parents that the girls should be separated and Elsa's powers kept under wraps.

Annie nominations kick off a crowded December

It must be December, because lists of nominations, top tens, and critics' superlatives are officially upon us. Today, ASIFA-Hollywood dropped their bloated slate of nominees for the 41st Annie Awards, and the Golden Satellite nominations were announced. If those two groups don't quite have you titillated (neither of them move the needle much in terms of influence on the awards race), then look forward to the coming days when we can expect announcements from the New York critics, LA critics, and the National Board of Review.

But back to the Annies...

In the feature film categories, Monsters University and the likely Oscar frontrunner Frozen lead the way with ten nominations. Following with nine are The Croods and Despicable Me 2 (no, I'm not inclined to count the latter's short film Puppy or its nominated TV commercial towards its total).

Speaking of shorts, the only ones to pop up both here and on the Academy's shortlist are Disney's Get A Horse! (the presumed frontrunner), the NFB's Gloria Victoria (a fringe contender if ever there was one), and the BBC's Room on the Broom (from the makers of the 2011 nominated short The Gruffalo). So make of that what you will.

Best Animated Feature

• A Letter to Momo - 
GKIDS
• Despicable Me 2 - 
Universal Pictures
• Ernest & Celestine
 - GKIDS
• Frozen - 
Walt Disney Animation Studios
• Monsters University - 
Pixar Animation Studios
• The Croods
 - DreamWorks Animation
• The Wind Rises
 - The Walt Disney Studios

Early Oscar predictions - Part 3

We're taking a look at Best Animated Feature and three of the visual craft categories this week; Cinematography, Editing, and Effects. Next week we'll complete the visual crafts with Production Design, Costume Design, and Makeup.

Best Animated Feature

Another unrequested Pixar sequel (well, prequel) doesn't have me all that titillated, but the steadily increasing quality of Disney's output these last few years has me excited for their upcoming musical fantasy Frozen, based on Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen. If Pixar and Dreamworks disappoint, that might also open the doors to GKIDS' art house titles, which this year includes 2012 Cannes entry Ernest & Celestine.