Results tagged “academyawards”

Did you know that in the 30's and 40's there were frequently ten nominees for Best Picture? Neither did we. The practice ended in 1943, when Casablanca took home the Oscar. Since then it's always been winnowed to a list of five. But this morning AMPAS President Sid Ganis announced that the bigger list is being revived for next year's awards. There will once again be ten nominees. Said Ganis, "Having ten Best Picture nominees is going to allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize. The final outcome, of course, will be the same - one Best Picture winner." The other categories will remain unchanged.

       

The Hollywood Hills will soon be set aflutter, as the stars of screen pen their acceptance speeches and rehearse their red carpet sashays in preparation for the 81st Academy Awards. These stars--with the spotlight often on their personal lives as much as their performances--we know all too well. Yet few know much about the Academy's most important guest of the evening: Oscar himself. Far from the paparazzi and tabloid presses, Oscar is making his own preparations at Chicago's R.S. Owens & Company. In fact, the specialty awards company has been the exclusive crafter of the iconic statuettes since 1982. An annual run of Oscars takes three to four weeks to complete, and as Chicagoist found out firsthand, there is a great deal of substance behind the glitz and glam we see on stage.

We are not fetishists in any way, shape or form. And yet even we would be loathe to pass up the chance to fondle an actual Academy Award. (Note: we actually have; Ben Hecht's Oscar is in the collection of the Newberry Library). You'll have the chance to do it too: February 13-22 at at The Shops at North Bridge on Michigan Avenue, "Meet the Oscars, Chicago" will feature a display of Oscars. One of which you'll be able to hold. The free exhibit will include six statuettes to be given out during next year's ceremony as well as Clark Gable's Best Actor Oscar for It Happened One Night. Since 1982 the awards have been manufactured here in Chicago by R.S. Owens & Company.

Whew, thank goodness that's over. We were beginning to think that our planned big-ass Oscar preview would be falling on deaf ears. But now that we know there's really going to be a show, it's time to play catch up. Jon Stewart certainly is. In fact there'll probably be more glitz than ever this year if only to overcompensate for the lack of a proper build-up.

Ah, the Academy Award "Shorts." Largely ignored in favor of the races focusing on acting accomplishments and what movie had the saddest/more politically controversial/historically momentous ending, the Short Subject categories often offer a hodgepodge of achievements actually more worthy of your time than most of the feature length tripe that hits theaters these days. They're also full of fun trivia: did you know Billy Zabka, a.k.a the fantastic villain Johnny Lawrence from one of our favorite films of all time, was actually nominated for an Academy Award in the Live Action Short category in 2004? And have you ever seen Don Hertzfeldt's excellent 2001 nominated animated short, "Rejected"? Wacky stuff.

Nominees for this year's Academy Awards were announced this morning and there weren't any huge surprises. Personally we're pretty excited to see P.T. Anderson up against the Coen brothers in both the directing and best picture categories. And everyone we've spoken too seem to think Ellen Page is deserving of her best actress nomination for Juno. in fact, for the first time in recent memory, we actually think just about all of the nominations are pretty right on.

Perhaps it is the image of Jennifer Hudson walking down the red carpet at the Academy Awards, but we've been getting inundated with talk of the event. The barrage has had its affect though, we have some Oscar related events for you this weekend, well except for one that involves vintage beer drinking, but we all need a break some time. We are all about gluttony and package deals this weekend, enjoy! We would suggest...

In two short days the 79th Academy Awards will be presented, and this will cause two things to happen. First, people will immediately start whining about what won and what didn't win. Second, our list of Oscar predictions will probably look ridiculous. Since hindsight is always 20/20, undoubtedly we have made some stupendous blunders. (Where's Karnak when you need him?) But it's all in good fun. Unlike predicting the Super Bowl or election results, our...

Did you know that there's an Oscar available for viewing right here in Chicago, and that you can even make an appointment to see it and actually hold it in your hand? It's at the Newberry Library, a private institution that's open to the public and just far enough west of Michigan Avenue that you won't have to worry about shopaholic tourists when you visit.

Our weekend visit to Intuit’s quirky outsider art gallery sure was fun. Maybe not Academy Awards fun or drunken Milwaukee Art Museum party fun, but we did enjoy old timey photos of strangers made ghostly by double exposures and other such manipulation. Sixty-five of these photos comprise Intuit’s “Accidental Mysteries” exhibit, a peek into the John and Teenuh Foster collection of ‘vernacular photography.’ These found snapshots by anonymous photographers of unknown subjects range from...

The Super Bowl of the movie industry begins in about four hours or so and we couldn’t be more inebria...er, excited. Did anyone else know Oscar producer Gil Cates had a blog? Does anyone else know who Gil Cates is? Or care? His most recent entry includes such nuggets as: Without giving away anything from his performance, I can tell you that Chris will be hilarious. “He better be or it’s my ass on the...

Chicagoist plans to spend Oscar night at a house party where our friend has promised "tons of movie-themed food". He better deliver on that shit because we're dying to know what this movie-themed food could be. House parties are where it's at, in our opinion, but if you're more of a socialite and would like to go to some Oscar parties around town, we've picked 3 that we think sound cool for Sunday night -...

There�s a reason Blake Edwards received an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards this year. He was a master of what former Reader critic (and current New York Times DVD columnist) Dave Kehr called the �sophisticated comedy.� Never one to follow comic conventions � he accepted that Oscar with a staged wheelchair crash � his impressive body of work includes Chicagoist favorites The Party and 10 (which he reportedly wants to remake).