First for a quick bit of news as IFC has made available the Oscar-nominated screenplay for In the Loop. Written by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche, you can download the script in .PDF format right here. I don’t see it winning as I imagine Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner’s script for Up in the Air will claim the Adapted Screenplay prize, but it is a fantastic lesson in how to write screen comedy with wit.
Next we move into the association awards, which should help fellow Oscar prognosticators predict the winners for the 2010 Oscars.
First off, announced on Saturday night, the Art Director’s Guild named their winners in their 4th Annual Excellence in Production Design Awards with Avatar winning in the fantasy category, The Hurt Locker for contemporary film and Sherlock Holmes taking the nod for period piece.
Of the three winners, Avatar and Sherlock Holmes are both nominated along with The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine and The Young Victoria.
Of the bunch, John Myhre and Gordon Sim (set director) won the Art Direction Oscar back in 2003 for Rob Marshall’s Chicago. Myre also won for Marshall’s Memoirs of a Geisha in 2006 and has been nominated two other times. Avatar‘s Rick Carter was nominated for an Oscar for his work on 1994’s Forrest Gump and half of The Young Victoria team, Maggie Gray, was nominated in 1986 for her work on Terry Gilliam’s Brazil.
However, I would say the front-runner position belongs to Sherlock Holmes art directors Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer whom have been nominated as a team twice before for both Atonement and Pride and Prejudice. Perhaps the third time’s a charm?
The second association award recently announced came late on Sunday night as the 60th annual American Cinema Editors’ Eddie Awards were held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel naming The Hurt Locker editors Bob Murawski and Chris Innis winners in the dramatic category.
The Hangover editor Debra Neil-Fisher won for comedy/musical and editor Kevin Notling won for best edited animated feature film with Disney/Pixar’s Up.
Only The Hurt Locker is among the five Oscar nominees out of the five Eddie winners. The other four nominees include Avatar, District 9, Inglourious Basterds and Precious.
Of the five films nominated, Sally Menke and James Cameron are the only two previously nominated for an Editing Oscar. Cameron was part of the Titanic team that won in 1998 while Menke was nominated for her work on Pulp Fiction in 1995.
As for those top line predictions, I currently have The Hurt Locker taking the top prize followed by Inglourious Basterds and Avatar, in that order. While popular opinion is to say the race is between The Hurt Locker and Avatar, I just don’t see it. Basterds got a nice bump with its SAG win, which I think showed a certain level of appreciation for the film in a category Avatar wasn’t even nominated in and still isn’t nominated in not having earned an acting nomination at the Oscars.
Speaking of which, did you know the last movie to win Best Picture without a Screenplay nomination? It was James Cameron’s Titanic in 1998. However, did you know the last movie to win Best Picture without a Screenplay or Acting nomination? Yeah, that was Grand Hotel in 1932, which based on my math was a long time ago.
With Kathryn Bigelow winning the Director’s Guild Award and The Hurt Locker winning with the Producer’s Guild it is the statistical front-runner, but history and instinct begins to leak into the equation pushing Avatar further from the top spot and Inglourious Basterds closer to it.
My most recent top line Oscar predictions can currently be found in “The Contenders” section. I’m not sure they will be changing much between now and March 7, but I continue to doubt my prediction of Sandra Bullock over Meryl Streep. I’m not sure I will ever be comfortable predicting that win though.
What do you think out there? Speak up in the comments below and if you need a nominee refresher here’s the link.
