Category Archives: Academy Awards

What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1996

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

There was a lot of excitement to see what 1996 would hold, given the huge success of the 68th Academy Awards.  Toy Story had energized the industry, and while Pixar’s next film was still several years away people remained hopeful for a battle for the Best Voice Performance Oscar that matched the one between Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.  When no clear frontrunners emerged, talk about the award started to die down, and industry analysts marked the category as one to ignore this year.  They were wrong, because when the nominations were announced the category was one again at the forefront of conversation.  However, instead of excitement the overwhelming tone of the discussion was one of confusion. Continue reading →

What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1995

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

When Jeremy Irons won the award at the 67th Academy Awards, the general consensus was that the category had finally produced a winner that represented the dramatic performance quality that the award had been created in order to recognize.  There was still some grumbling over the fact that the nominees were largely dominated by one film, but The Lion King had been so impressive that it was hard for people to complain too much about any of the individual nominees.  Disney was set to release another animated film in 1995, Pocahontas, based on a time period and series of events ripe for drama, and featuring the voice of Mel Gibson, who would go on to have a huge year with Braveheart.  But what no one could have predicted was Toy Story and the emergence of Pixar. Continue reading →

What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1994

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

After a disappointing slate of nominees at the 66th Academy Awards, the speculation was that another year of mediocre nominees would doom the category once and for all.  Fortunately, there was a savior on the horizon, in the form of another big release from Disney, The Lion King.  It was even speculated that the film could take all five of the nomination slots, given the strength of its casting, its popularity and yet another dearth of competition.  Even if The Lion King ended up with all of the nominations, it was already predicted that the film’s mere presence would be enough to grant the category a stay of execution for at least another year. Continue reading →

What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1993

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

Following Robin Williams’ win of the first ever Best Voice Performance Oscar for his role as The Genie inAladdin, industry experts began looking ahead at 1993’s slate of animated films, trying to anticipate who the next winner might be.  Both the experts and the Academy were more than a little dismayed to find that not only was Disney not releasing a classically styled animated films along the lines of Beauty and the Beastand Aladdin, but that there were very few animated films lined up for the year at all.  There were calls from opponents to drop the category entirely, while even some supporters of the award thought it might be best to hold the award back and only bring it out on years with better prospects.  Nevertheless, the Academy decided to press on with the award as an accepted part of the ceremony, not knowing exactly what the nominations would bring. Continue reading →

What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1992

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Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards, in a moment that changed the face of the animated film landscape forever.  It signaled that the Disney Renaissance that began two years earlier with The Little Mermaid (or perhaps even earlier with Oliver & Company) was not just a fluke and was destined to continue on.  It showed that animation is just as important as other types of film, and that they could be just as artistic and meaningful.  And while it eventually lost to The Silence of the Lambs, it still stood as the moment when animation as an industry and a media announced itself as an equal to the rest of Hollywood.  And while it was a number of years before feature length animation received its own category in the awards (2001) and even longer before another animated film would be nominated for best picture (2009’s Up), the fact that animated films are now consistently among the highest grossing films each year and are often the most popular and longest lived of new releases owes a lot to Beauty and the Beast.

But what if Beauty and the Beast had done even more for animation?  Continue reading →

Ellen Degeneres returning to host Oscars!

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Ellen hosting the 79th Academy Awards

So the news today is that Ellen Degeneres will be hosting the 86th Oscars in March.  I’m extremely pleased by this, especially after the bizarre sexism from Seth MacFarlane last year.  Ellen last hosted in 2007 when The Departed (ugh) won best picture.  I remember enjoying her hosting job, though I don’t recall any particular gags or jokes*, but that’s never been Ellen’s style.  If you’ve ever watched her stand-up, her gift is telling funny stories instead of jokes.  I’ve always been a huge fan of hers, and she has a gift for being warm while also bitingly hilarious, all as she maintains a constant level of entertainment.  She may not hit the highs that some other hosts, but she rarely has the lows either. Continue reading →

Analysis: Argo and Filmmakers’ Responsibility

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Even before Argo won the Academy Award for Best Picture, Hollywood’s top honor, it was already being plagued by controversy.  (Nevermind the fact that every other nominee was controversial in some way: Lincoln got easy facts wrong, Silver Linings Playbook mishandled mental illness, Beasts of the Southern Wild romanticized poverty, Zero Dark Thirty lied about torture’s effectiveness, Django Unchained was racist and used the n-word too much, Russell Crowe’s singing was horrible in Les Miserables, Life of Pi misrepresented Indians and religion, and Amour advocates assisted suicide and wasn’t even in English!)  It’s nothing unusual for films to encounter controversy, or even to court it, but the debates this year about facts and politics in film have raised questions (none of them new) about the responsibility of filmmakers to the audience.
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2013 Oscars Recap

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Another Academy Awards ceremony has come and gone, and overall it was an enjoyable evening.  There were few surprises among the award winners, though I only correctly predicted 16/24 winners correctly (equaling my score from last year, at least I’m consistent).  In addition to there being no real surprises there are also no winners that I feel were not deserving to win; even if I disagree with the outcomes, the awards went to quality films/performances which makes it hard to complain too loudly.  The show itself was enjoyable, if not spectacular, with some wonderful moments and some bits that fell flat, and I was surprised with how much I enjoyed Seth MacFarlane.  Read on to see my thoughts in a bit more detail.
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85th Academy Awards

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Once again, it’s time for Oscar predictions.  I did pretty well last year, getting 16 correct, and almost all of the major categories (curse you Meryl!).  This year is going to be an extremely tough one, given all of the drama involving Ben Affleck’s snub in the directing category.

Best Short Film, Live Action:
Prediction: Curfew
My Pick: N/A

Best Short Film, Animated:
Prediction: Paperman
My Pick: Paperman
Everyone loved Paperman, which played before Wreck-it Ralph.  It’s a perfectly sweet and heartfelt hand drawn/CG combination, and seems like a certainty. Continue reading →

The 84th Annual Academy Awards

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Once again, it’s time for Oscar predictions. Last year I did a pretty poor job with my predictions, getting only 10 correct.

Best Short Film, Live Action:
Prediction: Tuba Atlantic
My Pick: N/A

Best Short Film, Animated:
Prediction: La Luna
My Pick: Tangled Ever After
It’s interesting that La Luna is nominated, despite the fact that it has yet to play nationwide.  You’d think Pixar would have waited on it until it airs before Brave this summer.

Continue reading →