AFF at the Oscars

There were a lot of proud faces on television screens around the world Sunday night, as the Academy Awards presented their annual prizes to a few lucky filmmakers.  In fact, anyone who played a part in the triumph of an Oscar-winning film had reason to be proud, particularly those involved with the Best Picture winner, “The Artist.” Originally screened at Cannes, this little black-and-white silent French film that initially scared away distributors eventually charmed the world, taking home 5 Oscars by the end of the evening.

The thought of marketing a film like “The Artist” was naturally a concern for all involved, including festivals like AFF.  Even though most of us who programmed the film had seen it at Telluride or Toronto and knew how great it was, convincing everyone else of that fact was a different matter altogether.  Ultimately, we at AFF decided to screen “The Artist” at the Paramount Theatre, Austin’s beautiful classic movie palace, and the experience of seeing that particular film in that particular cinema was truly unparalleled. The film went on to win our Audience Award, and we couldn’t be prouder to have our trophy join the growing number of statues on this wonderful film’s shelf.

Nothing brings the staff of a film festival greater joy than seeing one of its programmed films going on to conquer the hearts and minds of moviegoers everywhere. We were also so pleased to see “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” which won both our Jury and our Audience Award for Best Animated Short, go on to win the Oscar in that category.  I can remember the day that my fellow film programmer, Stephen Belyeu, and I watched that film for the first time.  We both knew we had just seen something very special, and we were so honored to introduce it to our festival audience and the Austin moviegoing community at large.  Those are the moments that make this job so rewarding, and we can’t wait to do it all over again this October.  Here’s to another year at the movies!

What I Learned From the Oscars

Even with some last minute changes to the predictions I initially posted, I still ended up predicting only 17 out of 24 categories last night.  Not my best by any means but alas, there’s always next year when the Dark Knight Rises will sweep the 2013 Oscars (one can still dream I guess).  It’s funny how obvious the outcome seems now in retrospect.  In this age of blogging, anyone can be an Oscar expert but the only ones who truly know the outcome in advance is PricewaterhouseCoopers.  Nobody knows anything and the best method to playing this game is to not over think it.  So instead of moping over how bad I did this year, I’ll reflect on what I learned from watching the Oscars:

1. I realized I was born the same year Meryl Streep won her last Oscar for Sophie’s Choice.  I can’t wait to see her win another 29 years later when she won’t need makeup to play Margaret Thatcher again in The Iron Lady 2.
2.  The telecast was rather dull and I wonder what Eddie Murphy would have brought to the show if he had hosted.  Heck, Ellen DeGeneres’ JC Penney commercials were considerably funnier.
3. I did not realize Twilight belonged in the pantheon of great movie moments.
4. Comedic anecdotes from presenters are almost never funny unless you can speak Mandarin like Sandra Bullock, or your names are Will Ferrell and Mack Zalifigakas.  
5. My thoughts from watching the In Memoriam montage: “All those people are dead???”
6. I would like to play a drinking game with the Bridesmaids.  “Scorsese!”
7. Viola Davis is gorgeous.  I’ll predict she’ll win an Oscar in the future or at least end up on Joan Rivers’ best dressed list.
8. Never underestimate the power of Harvey Weinstein.  Three of his films won Oscars (The Artist, The Iron Lady, and Undefeated)
9. The Academy really needs to reevaluate its voting process for Best Original Song.  Only two nominees this year?  And it was a crime The Muppets didn’t get to perform the winning song, “Man or Muppet”!
10. Christopher Plummer is just two years younger than the Academy Awards?
11. Billy Crystal can read minds.  I’m glad we all finally know what goes on in Marty Scorsese’s and Nick Nolte’s heads. AND...
12. I need to stop obsessing over the Oscars and get back to writing my script!

 --Matt Dy, Screenplay & Teleplay Competition Director

A Chance to Own A Piece of Oscar History

The Oscars are tonight, and we at AFF are so proud to have a slew of 2011 AFF films like THE ARTIST, THE DESCENDANTS, ALBERT NOBBS, PUSS IN BOOTS, THE FANTASTIC FLYING BOOKS OF MR. MORRIS LESSMORE, HELL AND BACK AGAIN, and RAJU represented at the Oscars. We can't wait to watch the ceremony on the 26th, and we've got our hands on some pretty exciting Oscar swag to make the event even more exciting!


Last week, we announced that everyone who has purchased a Producers Badge to the 2012 Austin Film Festival & Conference by Wednesday, February 29th will be entered for a chance to win a copy of the screenplay of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, signed by Academy Award®-winning writer Steven Zaillian!

Now, we're thrilled to announce we have not one but two copies of the screenplay of EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE, signed by Academy Award® winning screenwriter Eric Roth!
Roth has been nominated for four Oscars, winning in 1994 for FORREST GUMP. The 2011 film EXTREMELY LOUD & INCREDIBLY CLOSE, for which Roth wrote the adapted screenplay, is nominated for two Oscars.


Now you have three chances to win a signed Oscar nominated script and a piece of Oscar history. And to make the deal a little sweeter, everyone who has purchased a Badge by the end of February will be entered to win an upgrade to a Producers Badge! Your last chance to enter the contest is midnight, Wednesday, February 29th, so grab one before it's too late!


Tonight, make sure to check out the blog or follow us on twitter @austinfilmfest as AFF Marketing Director Taylor Cumbie live-blogs the Oscars!

Final Oscar Predictions

Will The Artist sweep the Oscars?  Will Meryl Streep FINALLY win a long overdue second Oscar for lead actress?  All will be answered this Sunday night when the awards will be handed out.  The real question is… will people really care?  Compared to last year, most of the films nominated this year haven’t really polarized the general public as much while the current frontrunner is a black and white silent film most are hesitant to see at first.  Regardless, I’m still a faithful Oscar watcher and prognosticator (read my post from Feb 1) and I’ll still make my annual predictions.  Here’s who I think will win in all 24 categories.
 
Best Picture: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Descendants
Best Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris
Best Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Best Actress: Viola Davis, The Help
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help
Best Cinematography: The Tree of Life
Best Art Direction: Hugo
Best Costume Design: The Artist
Best Makeup: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part II
Best Visual Effects: Hugo
Best Editing: The Artist
Best Sound Mixing: Hugo
Best Sound Editing: War Horse
Best Original Score: The Artist
Best Original Song: “Man or Muppet”, The Muppet Movie
Best Animated Feature: Rango
Best Documentary Feature: Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Live Action Short: Tuba Atlantic
Best Animated Short: A Morning Stroll
Best Documentary Short: The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

And… to make a shameless plug, we have a special promotion in honor of the Oscars.  Anyone who purchases a Producers Badge to the 2012 Austin Film Festival & Conference by Sunday, February 26th will be entered for a chance to win a copy of the screenplay of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, signed by Academy Award®-winning writer Steven Zaillian!

Zaillian, who was awarded with the Distinguished Screenwriter Award at the 2009 Austin Film Festival, wrote both THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO and MONEYBALL, each earning a handful of Oscar nominations.

And everyone who has purchased a Conference Badge or below by February 26th will be entered in a raffle to win an upgrade to a Producers Badge!  Click here to buy your Badge.

--Matt Dy, Screenplay & Teleplay Competition Director

My Super Bowl

A friend recently asked me who I think will win the Super Bowl.  My response was: “The Super Bowl?  It’s this Sunday?  Are the Cowboys playing?”  Obviously, I am not planning to watch the game on Sunday (although I heard Madonna will be performing).  Lately, my focus has been diverted to my own version of the Super Bowl: the Oscars.  Some guys are into fantasy football; I’m into predicting the Oscars.

My earliest memory of the Oscars was in 1991 when Beauty and the Beast was nominated for Best Picture.  I was 8 years old then living in Southern California and my school took a field trip to watch the film at the El Capitan Theater in Hollywood.  It was perhaps the first time that I had actually seen a film that was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture and I hoped it would win.  Instead, another film about a beauty and a beast would eventually win (Silence of the Lambs).  Since then, I was hooked on the Oscars.

                                                   

Fast forward several years later and I would find myself a student in film school attending friends’ Oscar parties still debating who will win.  I would religiously read Entertainment Weekly’s coverage of the Oscars and frequent many Oscar message boards and blogs especially Sasha Stone’s OscarWatch site (now called Awards Daily).  I became obsessed.  Before the Academy cracked down on unofficial Oscar-viewing parties, I used to attend the Alamo Drafthouse’s annual Oscar party.   For two years in a row, I won their prediction contest and was asked to go to the stage to accept a fake Oscar and give a speech.

This may all seem silly, I know, but what makes predicting the Oscars so fun and interesting is that it opens a dialogue about a film’s merits.  Just because a film wins an Oscar, does it validate it as the best film of the year?  As I’ve come to realize firsthand as the director of a screenplay competition, judging art at any level is, by nature, extremely subjective.  The measure of an artist’s talent is not subject to the outcome of a competition or an Academy Award but it sure is fun to debate about it.

So who will win the Super Bowl?  Unless Meryl Streep is playing quarterback this Sunday, I have no idea. In the meantime, I’ll eagerly await my Super Bowl on February 26^th.

In the weeks leading up to the Oscars, I’ll reveal my picks for each of the categories.  This week, I’ll give my predictions for the writing categories.

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

The Descendants

Written by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash

Hugo

Written by John Logan

The Ides of March

Written by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon

Moneyball

Written by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.  Story by Stan Chervin

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Written by Bridget O'Connor & Peter Straughan

Will Win:  The Descendants should take this but the dream team of Zaillian and Sorkin for Moneyball might be enough to upset.

Writing (Original Screenplay)

The Artist

Written by Michel Hazanavicius

Bridesmaids

Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig

Margin Call

Written by J.C. Chandor

Midnight in Paris

Written by Woody Allen

A Separation

Written by Asghar Far

Will Win: Midnight in Paris.  The Artist could win here but I think Hazanavicius has a better shot for Best Director and the Academy probably can’t resist giving Woody Allen another Oscar even though he probably won’t show up.

--Matt Dy, Screenplay & Teleplay Competition Director

Why the Awards Season Really Does Matter

The cinematic juggernaut that is The Artist continued steamrolling toward the Best Picture Oscar with several wins at the Golden Globes this past Sunday. Not too shabby for a black-and-white silent film from France that initially scared away several distributors before being picked up by The Weinstein Company. Anyone who has seen the film would say that these awards have been justly earned based on the film’s quality, and they would be correct. The Artist is an absolute delight. However, that doesn’t stop industry cynics from crediting this silent film’s accolades to one of the most aggressive campaigners in the history of awards, Harvey Weinstein, who is anything but silent.

The validity of film awards has increasingly come under question over the years, and the lengths to which awards campaigners will go to win awards for their films are the stuff of legend. Listen to rumors and hearsay, and you’d think that Weinstein stops just shy of threatening murder to get his films the recognition they deserve, which leads many to believe that these awards are meritless and unimportant. But I’d like to take this opportunity to make a bold statement: They’re wrong.

Ask any filmmaker or production studio, “Who do you want in your corner come Oscar season?” and you’ll more than likely hear them say Harvey Weinstein’s name. That’s because they recognize how important these awards truly are. The value of having “Academy Award Winner” stamped on a DVD cover is immeasurable; in fact, it is almost required if an independent or foreign film hopes to sell any copies at the local Target. That’s because, for the average moviegoer, the Oscars provide a quick summary of the best (well, one version of the best) films in a given year, films that an average moviegoer may not have had access to in their local movie theater.

I can speak to this issue from a personal angle. As a young film lover growing up in small-town Texas, my first chance at seeing a film like The Artist would’ve been home video. Films that run for weeks in LA or NYC cinemas never make it as far as Southeast Texas, so I used award nominations and critics lists as a guide to what I should look for at my local movie rental. Although the circumstances have changed a bit (rentals have given way to iTunes and Netflix), the basic facts are still the same: many great films don’t reach a broader audience until after they leave the cinema. That’s why these films need the awards season, and that’s why we need it, too.

-- Stephen Jannise, Film Program Director