Awards season is nearly over for another year (which must come as a relief to most of you). It's been a slightly longer season this year due to the Winter Olympics in Sochi. In other years, this would have been done and dusted last weekend. So you can blame the IOC for the extension.
Anyway, the 86th Annual Academy Awards ceremony is tonight (March 2nd). It can be viewed on a dedicated Sky Movies channel in the UK and on ABC in the US. But before I turn my eyes to the Oscars, here's a round-up of the other awards ceremonies that have taken place in this weekend.
INDEPENDENT SPIRITS AWARDS
Yesterday- Saturday 1st March- saw the handing out of the Independent Spirit Awards, in a ceremony hosted by comedian Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille, Young Adult). These honour films made (partly or wholly) outside the major film studio system. Some of the winners are below.
Best Feature: 12 Years A Slave
Best Female Lead: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Best Male Lead: Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best Supporting Female: Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave)
Best Supporting Male: Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)
Best Director: Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave)
Best Screenplay: 12 Years A Slave
Best First Screenplay: Nebraska
Best Cinematography: 12 Years A Slave
Best First Feature: Fruitvale Station
Best International Film: Blue Is The Warmest Colour
Best Documentary: 20 Feet From Stardom
John Cassavetes Award: This Is Martin Bonner
The John Cassavetes Award is given to the creative team of a film budgeted at less than $500,000. The full list of winners can be found here.
12 Years A Slave was the runaway winner with five awards (all deserved). I'm sure I said this last year when I shared the results, but there were several nominated films and performances that had quite a widespread cinema release- I think Dallas Buyers Club and 12 Years A Slave are still at my local cinemas- so it's good to see that independent film is going strong. I think it's also good to show that films not produced (or not wholly produced) within Hollywood's studio system can get to a wide audience. Long may it continue.
RAZZIES
As is traditional, last night (the night before the Oscars ceremony) also saw the 34th Annual Golden Raspberry Awards. No runaway winner this year (unlike Twilight's almost clean sweep) which probably goes to show that there have been a lot more bad movies made in the last year.
Here's the full 'winners' list:
Worst Picture: Movie 43
Worst Actor: Jaden Smith (After Earth)
Worst Actress: Tyler Perry (in drag) (A Madea Christmas)
Worst Supporting Actor: Will Smith (After Earth)
Worst Supporting Actress: Kim Kardashian (Tyler Perry's Temptation)
Worst Screen Ensemble: Jaden Smith & Will Smith (After Earth)
Worst Director: Movie 43's 13 directors
Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel: The Lone Ranger
Worst Screenplay: Movie 43 (written by 19 screenwriters)
It does seem a damning indictment that- even with over 30 people working on writing and directing Movie 43 (let alone production staff and the actors)- it turned out to be such a turgid mess. One surprise though: no Golden Raspberry for Adam Sandler this year; perhaps the nominations were enough?
So now we're up to date. But what about the Oscars? My predictions for who will win the major prizes will be posted next.
Tez
