best director

Christopher LeeasMonsieur LabisseHelen McCroryasMama JeaneMichael StuhlbargasRene TabardFrances de la TourasMadame EmilieRichard GriffithsasMonsieur FrickJude LawasHugo’s Father

Directors: MajorNames With MajorWorks Crowd the RaceBy PeteHammondCall it the year of the master. The Oscar® race for best director is chock full of majornames and past winners who are back with some of their most acclaimed andanticipated films in years.Consider this. Woody Allen, a past winner in the categoryfor 1977's Annie Hall is back this year with Midnight inParis, not only his most acclaimed film in years but his mostsuccessful ever at the box office ($131 million worldwide).Martin Scorsese, a winner in 2006 for The Departed, has inHugo a film that many are calling a masterpiece and one thatis perhaps his most personal. Steven Spielberg, a two-timewinner in the category for 1993’s Schindler’s List and 1998’sSaving Private Ryan is having a banner year not only with apossible nomination for best animated feature for his firstever’toon, The Adventures of Tintin but is also expectedto be a major player as director of the film adaptation ofthis year’s big Tony ® winning play, War Horse. RomanPolanski, 2002 winner for The Pianist, also has a pony in therace with another Tony ® winning play adaptation, Carnage,the film version of the Broadway smash, God of Carnage. Twotimewinner Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven, Million Dollar Baby)is competing with J. Edgar, his biopic of the controversialFBI director J. Edgar Hoover. Past nominees AlexanderPayne, Terrence Malick, Stephen Daldry, BennettMiller, David Fincher, Jason Reitman and GeorgeClooney are also in the hunt in what promises to be one ofthe most competitive races in years. But could the big prizeactually go to a first time nominee who made a black andwhite silent film? Here’s the rundown on who are the hothelmers in the race for Oscar ® this year.| frontrunners |04 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02STEVEN SPIELBERGWAR HORSEHollywood’s most famous and powerful director is goingfor his seventh nomination in the category and firstsince 2005 and Munich. Previously nominated for CloseEncounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark and E.T.:The Extra-Terrestrial and a winner for Schindler’s List andSaving Private Ryan, this is his best chance to make it athree-peat with his screen adaptation of the beloved bookand play, War Horse. The epic look at the adventures ofa brave horse in World War I has all the elements for awinner: strong emotion, big action scenes and a majorpedigree. With his well-reviewed first animated foray, TheAdventures of Tintin, also being released at the same time,Spielberg is a force to be reckoned with this year.ALEXANDER PAYNETHE DESCENDANTSAlthough his filmography is not large, it includes suchmodern classics as Election, About Schmidt and Sidewayswhich won him an adapted screenplay Oscar ® in 2005ALEXANDER PAYNEand reps his only nomination in the directing category.A second nomination for the much acclaimed Hawaiiansetdramedy, The Descendants would seem a strongbet and the film – which resembles past winners likeTerms of Endearment and The Apartment in its effortless mixof comedy and drama – would seem to be a perfectrecipe for success here.WOODY ALLENMIDNIGHT IN PARISLike Spielberg, Allen has been Oscar ® -nominated sixprevious times as best director but his last nod came 17years ago for Bullets Over Broadway. He won the first timeout for Annie Hall in 1977, although he also has two otherOscars ® for screenwriting and 14 overall nominations inthat category. Since its opening night debut in Cannes inMay, Midnight in Paris has seemed destined to put him backin the driver’s seat in both categories this year and thecontinuing boxoffice and critical success of the movie hasnot hurt his chances. Once thought to be well beyond hisprime, Allen is a longtime Academy favorite who couldbenefit from proving he is this year’s true comeback kidalthough comedy isn’t usually a huge factor here.MARTIN SCORSESEHUGOYet another six time nominee in this category for thelikes of Raging Bull, The Last Temptation of Christ, GoodFellas,Gangs of New York, The Aviator and his winner The Departed,Continued on p6

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O NBEST ACTRESS ADEPERO ODUYEBEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS KIM WAYANSBEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY DEE REES“To watch Adepero Oduyeis to experience the thrill ofdiscovery. Dee Rees’s filmilluminates an individual universeof meaning and emotion.”A.O. SCOTT,“Adepero Oduye is luminous.Wonderful.”PETER TRAVERS,“Deeply affecting.”PARIAH“Breaking is freeing. Broken is freedom. I am not broken. I am free. ”For up-to-the-minute screening information, exclusive video content, the score,screenplay and more on this extraordinary film, go to: www.FocusAwards2011.com

06 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02Scorsese has made his first 3D excursion and family filmwith Hugo, based on the children’s book The Invention ofHugo Cabret. While serving as a history lesson in the originsof cinema, Hugo is a true director’s treat and the use of3D may be the best yet seen onscreen, making this mastera formidable contender here, even if the film itself fails tomake the cut as a best picture nominee.TERRENCE MALICKTHE TREE OF LIFEAlthough his directing resume is thin, only five filmsreleased in 38 years and he has just been nominated inthe directing category only once before for 1998’s TheThin Red Line, Malick’s long-awaited existential epic TheTree of Life is the kind of personal, uncompromisedfilmmaking directors love. Although it was a modestboxoffice performer ($13.3 million domestic B.O.) andhas divided audiences, it did win the Cannes Palme d’Orand could nab the reclusive Malick his second nominationfor best director based on prestige factors alone.CLINT EASTWOODCLINT EASTWOODJ.EDGAREastwood is a four-time nominee and two-time winner inthe category, so that’s a pretty good track record. Workingagain in the biographical genre with this controversialportrait of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, the icon provedhe still has style and stamina even at age 81. Directors justmight want to reward the oldest contender this year forhanging in there and still turning out challenging moviedramas that go against the grain of what major studiosnormally traffic in these days.DAVID FINCHERTHE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOOMany thought Fincher’s time for his first best directorOscar ® had come with 2008’s The Curious Case ofBenjamin Button but he ran into the Slumdog Millionairejuggernaut. Then he became a front runner last year forTATE TAYLORTHE HELPActor-turned-director Taylor is riding a hot hand withthe summer smash hit ($168 million domestic B.O.), TheHelp and while the film seems more and more a surething in the best picture race, his very assured direction isin danger of getting overlooked. He stands a better shotin the adapted screenplay category.STEPHEN DALDRYThe Social Network until he was derailed by a certain ‘king’with ‘speech’ problems. Could this finally be his year?Although his remake of the Swedish book and filmphenomenon is said to be intensely violent, it is right inline with Fincher’s gritty fare. It may be that working inhis comfort zone will finally bring him an Oscar. ®STEPHEN DALDRYEXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSEAlthough this acclaimed stage and film director hasonly made three previous movies – Billy Elliot, TheHours , The Reader – each one of them brought him anOscar ® nomination as best director, the best movie-tonominationrecord in the category. It’s expected thatthis highly emotional post 9/11 drama starring TomHanks and Sandra Bullock could make it four forfour. The directors branch clearly loves this guy and thiskind of material (the script is from Oscar ® winner EricRoth) usually spells Oscar ® anyway.BENNETT MILLERMONEYBALLMoneyball represents only Miller’s second narrativemovie but the first one six years ago, Capote, brought himan Oscar ® nomination and this one has the bones to dothat too. With a star turn from Brad Pitt, a script fromOscar ® winners Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkinand a producing team that includes two of last year’snominees for The Social Network, including Scott Rudin,Moneyball is poised for across the board success. Comingin to save the day after helmer Steven Soderberghwas jettisoned just a few days before production was tostart, Miller also comes off as a bit of a hero for not onlystepping in but also producing a critical hit.GEORGE CLOONEYTHE IDES OF MARCHClooney is quickly becoming a renaissance man in showbusiness and was previously nominated in the directingcategory for 2005’s Good Night, and Good Luck. An Oscar ®winner already for his supporting performance inthe same year’s Syriana, Clooney continues to take onSTEVE McQUEEN| possibilities |challenging material and bringing this highly chargedpolitical thriller to the screen as a writer, producer,director and co-star is something his fellow directorsmay well admire. That’s especially true since having asex scandal as part of its plot makes it seem even morerelevant and prescient since it opened.JASON REITMANYOUNG ADULTWith three major movies under his belt, Reitmanmanaged two best director nominations already for Junoand Up in the Air. This dark comedy about a woman inher 30s who refuses to grow up (played by CharlizeTheron) is gaining some early raves after surprisinglyskipping the film festival circuit this fall. Paramount ishoping to spring it as a late-inning surprise in Decemberand the timing could bode well for Reitman’s chances oflanding a third directing nod, although most pundits seethis as a long shot possibility. They said the same thingabout his chances for Juno. Don’t count him out.MICHELHAZANAVICIUSTHE ARTISTCould the one candidate among front runners who hasnever had a single nomination, or ever even been in theawards conversation, take it all? Hazanavicius, previouslybest known for the OSS 117 French James Bond spoofs,has been dutifully working the festival circuit sinceCannes with this black and white silent charmer and itmay pay off in his first Oscar ® nomination. Wherever ithas been shown, audiences have stood up and cheered;could the same reaction happen within the much moreinsular and exclusive directors’ branch? Like Scorsese’sHugo, The Artist deals with Hollywood's beginnings andhas the benefit of Harvey Weinstein’s awards seasonsavvy and with this unusual entry he smells Oscar. ®BENNETT MILLER, RIGHT, WITH JONAH HILLEVAN RACHEL WOOD, GEORGE CLOONEY, AND RYAN GOSLINGSTEVE McQUEENSHAMEThis festival favorite and controversial NC-17 drama is anacquired taste and may be seen as too indie and indulgentby some but don’t count it out, even if it is a long shotfor the directing prize. Michael Fassbender’s leadperformance may be its best bet.Continued on p8

ANGELINA JOLIEANGELINA JOLIEIN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEYThis very intense and important Bosnian-set story markssuperstar Jolie’s directorial debut and the fact that shetook on such challenging material may impress thedirectors’ branch. Plus it is also being released in its nativelanguage which gives her points for authenticity. Angie’sthe real deal but not really a member of this club yet sochances are iffy, but late December momentum and goodreviews could help.PHYLLIDA LLOYDTHE IRON LADYThis seems more like a slam dunk for its star MerylStreep than anything else, but The Weinstein Co. isquietly starting to boost its chances across the board.Lloyd, previously known for Streep’s Mamma Mia! maynot be able to ride the wave.TOMAS ALFREDSONTINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPYThis stylish adaptation of the John le Carré book andmini-series is so dense it may take a guidebook for someto be able to follow its myriad plot twists. That doesn’tbode well for its director but the British contingent couldpush it forward.DAVID YATESHARRY POTTER AND THEDEATHLY HALLOWS: PART 2Yates directed the last four Potters but the Academy hasbarely recognized the series. Still this extremely wellreviewedand financially successful swan song ($1.3billion worldwide B.O.) could get them to take a second,er eighth look.PEDRO ALMODÓVARTHE SKIN I LIVE INAlthough it was passed over for prizes after its officialcompetition screening in Cannes, many critics thoughtAlmodóvar’s first foray into the horror genre was worthyof Hitchcock at his sinister best. Too complex and creepyfor some, the Almodóvar directorial touches are evidenteverywhere and his long-awaited cinematic reunion withmuse, Antonio Banderas, is another plus. The two-timeOscar ® winner has only one nomination in this categoryfor 2002’s Talk To Her so count this one as a long shot.J.J.ABRAMSSUPER 8Another summer hit ($260 million worldwide B.O.) inthe mix won very nice reviews and was given a personaltouch by J.J. Abrams and a boost from producerSteven Spielberg. Due to its “summer movie” stigma, it’sdefinitely a dark horse but its superb direction deservesconsideration for the well-liked and talented Abrams.ROMAN POLANSKICARNAGEPolanski’s first film since his Swiss incarceration is anadaptation of the Tony ® winning hit Broadway play,God of Carnage but it is darker in tone and less farcical.Still its unexpected territory for Polanski and his fellowdirectors might like the offbeat casting between helmerand material.AGNIESZKAHOLLANDIN DARKNESSPoland’s official entry for the best foreign language filmOscar ® competition is also being released by Sony PicturesClassics at the end of the year in order to qualify in othercategories, notably directing, where the veteran Hollandwould become a first-time nominee. This harrowingHolocaust story of the rescue of Jewish refugees hidingin a sewer in a Nazi occupied Polish city has gotten greatbuzz from its foreign language committee screening andalso won plaudits at the fall festivals.DAVID CRONENBERGA DANGEROUS METHODIncredibly Cronenberg has never been nominated for anOscar ® and is way overdue. Could this talky, intelligentstory about Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud do the trick? Itcame into Venice with high hopes but has not ignited theway some pundits expected. New momentum followingits first theatrical engagements in November could giveit new life and add Cronenberg’s work to the Oscar ®conversation but it doesn’t seem likely. •08 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02CAMERON CROWEWE BOUGHT A ZOOFox has not put Crowe’s latest front and center as a majorOscar ® -type picture and not many have seen it yet. Thestudio seems more intent on selling it as a feel-good familyfilm for the holidays (it opens Dec 23). Crowe’s earlydirectorial credits including Say Anything, Jerry Maguire andAlmost Famous (for which he won a best original screenplayOscar ® ) made him a force but Vanilla Sky and Elizabethtownwere not as well received. Could this be a boxoffice andartistic comeback?NICOLASWINDING REFNDRIVEDirectors love style and cool and the Denmark-bornRefn supplies both in droves. The movie’s middlingperformance and early September release may mean ithas faded a bit too much though to put him into this race.SIMON CURTISMY WEEK WITH MARILYNInitially seen as more likely to win acting nods forMichelle Williams’ brilliant portrayal of MarilynMonroe and Kenneth Branagh’s Laurence Olivier,early reaction out of the Academy screenings has beenthrough the roof for the movie too, increasing the darkhorse chances of TV and stage director Curtis whomakes his feature film directorial debut here.DAVID YATESNICHOLAS WINDING REFNAGNIESZKA HOLLAND

TWCGUILDS.COMTHEARTISTMOVIE.NET

Spielberg Reflects on a Duo of Films,3D and Four-Legged ActorsBy MikeFlemingSteven Spielberg has been a prominent player on the feature film scene for close to 40years, and scored the first of his 12 Oscar® nominations (with three wins), 34 years ago.Yet in many ways the filmmaker maintains a perpetualboyish image in the public imagination. Maybe it’shis affinity for stories featuring children – like hisOscar ® -contender War Horse, - or his unquenchableexcitement about movie-making.Whatever the reason, the director-writer-producermogulalways seems to be in the center of the currentconversations about film – at the moment, he andproducer/filmmaker Peter Jackson are unleashingthe 3D motion capture animated family film TheAdventures of Tintin just days before War Horseis released. And so, on a break from shooting hisupcoming biopic on Abraham Lincoln, Spielberg tooktime to reflect on his lessons learned, the advice he’signored and the medium he loves.AWARDSLINE: After Jaws went 100 days over schedule, GeorgeLucas was quoted as saying, ‘stay away from working on the waterand working with kids, old people and live animals.’ Was shootingWar Horse with real horses déjà vu all over again for you?SPIELBERG: No, because the horses work. I mean seriously,they work. The nice thing about a living creature is thatthey do have a mind of their own. And that could beeither a worst enemy or it could be your greatest ally asin this case, when all of us started trusting each other,meaning the actors and the horse. The horse actuallymade material contributions to the experience and addedthings that we never trained the horse to contributeand that was what was so amazing for me. I don’t wantto compare that to Jaws because Jaws was just an aquaticnightmare for me; I mean, all of those stories weretrue. In this case the horses were in a sense one of thegreatest surprises I ever had in making movies.AWARDSLINE: What kinds of material contributions did the horses make?transferred over to France in no man’s land. This isreally about connections, the connections of courageand hope but mainly about the connections betweenpeople and animals and how much this horse bringsinto everybody’s life.AWARDSLINE: Saving Private Ryan was a violent, jarring,concussive war film. Here, because you’re making a family film,what did you do differently to make it accessible to families?SPIELBERG: What I certainly was not going for was humandismemberment and the actual effects of shellingand combat, I’ve done that, and didn’t need to do itagain. What I really wanted to do was find a way toallow the audience to fill in the blanks that I wasn’tliterally putting in their faces. So, for instance, whenthe cavalry charges you don’t see a single Britishcavalryman being shot off the horse nor do you seea single horse being shot back into the ground. Yousimply see horses with riders and then you see the samehorses without riders, and I thought that was sufficientto convey the impression that the technology thensuddenly rendered horses useless in war time.AWARDSLINE: You’ve got an old fashioned period film in WarHorse opening up on Christmas and four days earlier you’vegot the Adventures of Tintin which feels like an IndianaJones-style serial but it uses cutting edge performance captured3D. How different was each to shoot?SPIELBERG: I started Tintin in 1983 in the sense for gettingthe film rights to the series of books. So I’ve been livingwith Tintin for majority of my professional life, it justhappened that over the three years it took to animateTintin, there was a period of time that Peter Jacksonand I weren’t needed, because we’re not animators.And that’s when Kathy Kennedy (see related story, page14) brought War Horse to my attention. It was almosta gift because it fell into my arms at a time when Iwouldn’t have been doing anything as a director.AWARDSLINE: How was Peter Jackson’s skill set most helpful to youas a collaborator?SPIELBERG: I think that we discovered each other asfriends first. When I handed him the Oscar ® for Lordof the Rings, we kind of met, that evening and becamefriends. I was very curious about Peter’s company,WETA, which was eventually going to do Avatar, andasked Peter’s company, if they would do a test of adigital dog, Snowy, and then Peter showed up one day,unannounced, and performed the test of the digitalContinued on p1210 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02SPIELBERG: They brought to many of the scenes a horsesense. If the scene was tense and electrifying, theywere on edge and they were reactive and you could seetheir eyes flaring, you could see their nostrils openingand taking in more air, they were very responsive tothe situations that we placed them in. In many manycases the horse just loved [acting with] Geordie (TobyKebbell), loved Albert (Jeremy Irvine), and he wasmuch more reactive and responsive and in affectionateway to Albert than anyone else who came near himand you can’t ask for that, you can’t train for that.AWARDSLINE: What was the appeal of building a movie around WorldWar I for you? Obviously you’ve shot your share of war films.SPIELBERG: World War I was part in parcel of MichaelMorpurgo’s children’s book he wrote in 1982 and itwas certainly a very important part of the stage play,[but] what attracted me to the project was reallythis very soulful narrative about a family of farmerswhose very existence depends on the land. And thefather buys the wrong horse, yet the horse is able toovercome its own breeding to be able to help the farmthrough, and the heart the horse displays in that getsSTEVEN SPIELBERG WITH JEREMY IRVINE ON THE SET OF WAR HORSE

“‘MONEYBALL’ RENEWS YOUR BELIEF INTHE POWER OF MOVIES.BENNETT MILLER TAKES HIS PLACE INTHE FIRST RANK OF AMERICAN DIRECTORS.”THE wall sTrEET journal joe morgensternFOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIESINCLUDINGBEST PICTUREBEST DIRECTOR B E NNETT MILLERCHANGE YOUR GAME

STEVEN SPIELBERG ON THE SET OF WAR HORSE12 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02From p10dog and that’s when I knew he had some knowledge.After I viewed the test I called him and Peter told mehow he grew up with the book, since he was five yearsold. I knew I had a partner, at that moment.AWARDSLINE: How would you compare your collaborative style withhim to George Lucas when you did the Indiana Jones films,aside from it being a long distance relationship?SPIELBERG: Well you know, George and I have a long distancerelationship too, he rarely comes down south and wehave been on the telephone with each other, for decades.Peter and I also had a very long distance relationship onTintin, but it doesn’t matter. I love creating partnerships, Ilove not having to bear the entire burden of the creativestorytelling and when I have unions like with GeorgeLucas and Peter Jackson, it’s really great; not only do Ibenefit but the project is better for it.AWARDSLINE: 3D has been criticized somewhat as an excuse tocharge more for tickets but now you and Martin Scorseseand Ridley Scott and some other important filmmakers aremaking movies using it, so, based on your own experience, howmuch of a game changer is 3D?SPIELBERG: I believe in 3D for certain kinds of films, Icertainly believe in using 3D for all things in animationbecause animation has such clarity and so muchdepth of focus. It worked great with Avatar because 70percent of that film is animated. I like it also for somelive action. I haven’t done a 3D live action movie yet,I’m still looking for the right one to use the process on.I just don’t believe that every film has to be in 3D.AWARDSLINE: Jaws was cited as a game changer, which got studiosmaking bigger movies with larger screen counts. Some say thishas become a blockbuster-obsessed industry. What’s your feelingabout the downside of that?SPIELBERG: There is no downside; it’s the way thebusiness has been since the silent movies of TheGreat Train Robbery, since Birth of a Nation, since TheTen Commandments, since Gone With the Wind. There’vealways been the blockbusters, the melodramas, the lovestories. There’s room for everything and in this industry,the only change in the paradigm is in exhibition. GoneWith The Wind is still today the most successful moviesever, at a quarter a ticket, and it just played forever andpeople kept going to see it.The simple truth with Jaws is it was Lew Wasserman’sbrain child and Sid Sheinberg’s to do a rather massiverelease which had never been done before. When I saymassive I’m talking about something like 490 screenswhen the film opened in 1975; that was consideredmassive back then. That’s the only real difference, it’sbeen blockbusters all through the decades since theadvent of cinema.AWARDSLINE: Turning to the Oscars, ® you were nominated for manyyears, and then had a big night with Schindler’s List. What’syour most special memory of that night?SPIELBERG: I guess the most special memory of that nightwas being able to talk to all the teachers and encouragethem to teach the stories. That was the opportunity Igot that night and I took advantage of it and so I thinkthat was one of the most special moments for me.AWARDSLINE: You’re now in a very prolific period, which you’vedone a couple a times to great success in your career, like when youmade Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park in 1993. Are youbetter when you multi-task?SPIELBERG: I’m better when I have good scripts.Everybody’s better when they have good screenplays.It’s not a matter of the mileage or the time that youput into something. What counts is what you are doingworth it? Is the project that you doing inspirational?Does it make you get up in the morning with nosleep in your eyes? You can’t wait to go to work? Is itintoxicating enough? And it’s always based on howgood the screenplay is.AWARDSLINE: People learn more from failure than they do in success.Now you haven’t failed often, but what failure or setback in yourcareer taught you the most and helped you to improve as a filmmaker?SPIELBERG: I think obviously 1941 was the failure thathelped me the most because I had shot three moviesthat required more than 100 days. The first one was noone’s fault, except Mother Nature, which was Jaws, thesecond movie, Close Encounters, went over 100 days on theschedule, the third movie, 1941, was my longest schedule.That took 178 days to complete. I think that I sort of sawthe light after the failure of 1941. And I made up for itwhen I did Raiders of the Lost Ark, 16 days under schedule.AWARDSLINE: Did you finish War Horse on schedule?SPIELBERG: I finished in 63 days, which I’m very proudof so it was completely on schedule and it was underbudget by $4 million. Which I’m very proud of too.AWARDSLINE: Wow, that certainly something that maybe experience brings.SPIELBERG: There you go, that’s experience. You answeredthe question for me! •

Kathleen Kennedy: A Producer andHer War Horse DirectorBy DianeHaithmanIs there Oscar ® buzz for War Horse? Hmmm, let’s see: Serious, historical wartime drama.Based on Michael Morpurgo’s acclaimed children’s novel adapted into a Tony ® -winningplay. Steven Spielberg. If there was no Oscar ® buzz for this one, that would be news.It’s not the first time producer Kathleen Kennedy, aSpielberg collaborator for more than 30 years, has seena Spielberg film poised to gallop toward an AcademyAward ® nomination. Beginning as Spielberg’s secretary,she became a co-founder of Spielberg’s AmblinEntertainment in 1981, garnering producer crediton E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial in 1982. In 1992, she leftAmblin to form the Kennedy/Marshall Company withhusband Frank Marshall, whom she met while workingon Spielberg’s Raiders of the Lost Ark, but the creativepartnership with Spielberg has continued. Collaborationsover the decades include Jurassic Park and Schindler’s List.14 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02While Kennedy has countless credits independently ofSpielberg (recently, 2007’s The Diving Bell and the Butterflyand Persepolis) the two always seem to end up backtogether, like a boy and his horse. Kennedy also producedSpielberg’s much-anticipated animated The Adventuresof Tintin, opening Dec. 21, and the upcoming Lincoln.Kennedy talked to Awardsline about one of Hollywood’smost celebrated partnerships.AWARDSLINE: What inspired the movie version of War Horse?KENNEDY: I took our two teenage girls to see the play [inLondon], having no idea that it would be something Iwould be attracted to as a film. It was around the sametime we were doing the score on Tintin. So I was sittingon the scoring stage with Steven, and told him I had seenthis extraordinary play. I told him, I keep thinking aboutwhether it’s a movie – it was extraordinary to watch thepuppeteering, but I couldn’t help thinking how majesticreal horses could be. Steven instantly said that sounds likea perfect movie story. He said ‘see where the movie rightsare.’ It turned out that Michael Morpurgo had been approachedby a number of people but he hadn’t reallyentertained any movie offers. We were shooting within ayear, which is fairly unusual.AWARDSLINE: War Horse is a Christmas Day film, and Tintin iscoming out only a few days before. What is your strategy?KATHLEEN KENNEDYJEREMY IRVINE IN WAR HORSEKENNEDY: We talked about this very, very carefully, in termsof how this was going to be difficult. We don’t have a lotof stars in either film. It was going to put a tremendousamount of pressure on Steven. But we also felt that, evenif it were a completely different filmmaker, we would haveprobably made the same choice to release them during theChristmas holidays, because we felt they were the best films.AWARDSLINE: What elements do you look for in a holiday film?KENNEDY: Certainly when you look at how eclectic themovies are that come out at Christmas, you wouldn’tarrive at the same definition. But if you are lucky enoughto have a film that appeals to the entire family – I thinkthat War Horse is the definition of the perfect family film.AWARDSLINE: It seems as though there are many years in which there is abig, serious Spielberg film alongside a Spielberg popcorn movie. 1993’scombo of Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park come to mind.KENNEDY: I think going through those emotional gymnasticsin a way, that variety, is really important. And you don’tget a sense that there’s one kind of film that he likes, andconsequently there’s not one kind of film that he makes.AWARDSLINE: How do you feel about the fact that some critics have saidTintin should be excluded from the animated film category becauseit uses motion capture technology?KENNEDY: I think that debate is over, because it has been acceptedby the animation branch of the Academy, as I thinkeverybody anticipated that it would. And it very clearly is animation,you do performance capture for about 30 days, andthe animation process is over three years, animators workingtirelessly about four or five hours per frame, and there’sabout 93 minutes of film. I think the really interesting issueis about film in general, that there are so many things happeningwith technology and different tools to create imagesthat there are all sorts of people with titles we never heard of10 years ago. And they are doing things that are extremelylegitimate in terms of imagery.AWARDSLINE: Every screenwriter in town must be eager to haveSpielberg direct his or her script. Do you get more first-lookmaterial than he can handle?KENNEDY: To be perfectly honest, the majority of things thatSteven does he ends up developing. He doesn’t make alot of movies that come to him from the outside. I thinkthat’s a process he needs to go through, it’s very personal.AWARDSLINE: What is your role as producer?KENNEDY: I usually start with a script discussion with Steven,and I work closely with the writer. Once we have a scriptthat we feel confident about, then it is putting the casttogether. It’s communication with the studio or whoeverthe financial partner is going to be. Once you put the crewtogether and move through the budgeting process, it isgoing to overlap into marketing discussions and how themovie is going to be sold. If it’s a huge tentpole movie, forinstance with a movie like Tintin, a year and a half, almosttwo years in advance, we were developing a videogameand massive consumer products campaign. Obviouslykey decisions are made by Steven, but all of that has to bewrangled to a point where a presentation can be made toSteven and a lot of that responsibility falls to me.AWARDSLINE: I won’t use the term ‘war horse,’ but to what do youattribute your longevity in such a fickle business?KENNEDY: I don’t know necessarily why, other than I stayfocused on doing the things I feel passionate aboutexclusively. I’m all about the work, I always have been,that’s the part that I enjoy. Each time, even as my kidshave gotten older, I think maybe I should slow downa little bit, be around a little more, then I find myselfgetting caught up in something I never saw coming, andit’s hard to turn that off. I’m also very fortunate to stillbe collaborating with someone like Steven. When he’sinterested in something that I’m interested in, there’s astrong likelihood of getting it made. •

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O NBEST PICTURE OF THE YEARDavid Parfitt, Harvey WeinsteinBEST DIRECTORSimon CurtisBEST ACTRESSMichelle WilliamsBEST ACTOREddie RedmayneBEST SUPPORTING ACTRESSJudi Dench, Julia Ormond,Zoë Wanamaker, Emma WatsonBEST SUPPORTING ACTORKenneth Branagh, Dominic Cooper,Dougray ScottBEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAYAdrian HodgesBEST CINEMATOGRAPHYBen SmithardBEST FILM EDITINGAdam RechtBEST ART DIRECTIONDonal Woods (Production Designer)Judy Farr (Set Decorator)BEST COSTUME DESIGNJill TaylorBEST MAKEUPJenny ShircoreBEST ORIGINAL SCOREConrad PopeBEST SOUND MIXINGRichard Dyer (Production Sound Mixer)Mike Dowson (Re-Recording Mixer)BEST SOUND EDITINGNick Lowe(Supervising Sound Editor)BEST VISUAL EFFECTSStefan Drury (Head of Visual Effects)Sheila Wickens (Visual Effects Supervisor)“ ★★★★What an extraordinary thrillto leave the theater feelingexhilarated and rejuvenated.A MAGICAL EXPERIENCE.”Rex Reed,“ONE OF THE MOSTPURELY ENTERTAININGFILMS OF THE YEAR!A real contender asBest Picture – Musical or Comedy.”Pete Hammond,“MICHELLE WILLIAMSis a revelation. Lush and vibrant.”Betsy Sharkey,myweekwithmarilynmovie.comTWCguilds.comArtwork © 2011 The Weinstein Company. All Rights Reserved.

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATIONBEST DIRECTORSTEVEN SPIELBERGFor screening information,visit www.DreamWorksPicturesAwards.com©2011 DreamWorks II Distribution Co., LLC

The Descendants’ Director SpeaksHis Mind; He May Surprise YouBy AriKarpelAlexander Payne, the writer-director of The Descendants, knows his mind: He hatesroad-trip movies even though he keeps making them; he doesn’t give a damn if peopledon’t like voiceovers; and he doesn’t think he’s a brand — at least not yet.AWARDSLINE: In The Descendants, we see a Hawaii that we neverget to see in movies and on TV. Was the author of the book [KauiHart Hemmings] singular in knocking on those doors for you?PAYNE: She opened a lot of doors for me and the productiondesigners, to get the houses right and the senseof place right. It’s not a film about tourists, as mostmovies are. It’s about people who live there. The nicething about making a film on location is that you beginthe process of superficially weaving yourself into thatfabric of society, just enough to be able to make thefilm with accuracy and verisimilitude.AWARDSLINE: The music in the film is exclusively Hawaiian.PAYNE: I thought, again, capture a sense of place. I alsothought it would be inelegant of me not to attempt toscore the film with 100 percent preexisting Hawaiianmusic. I wasn’t sure if we would be able to do that.By “we” I mean the music supervisor, music editor, theeditor and myself [Dondi Bastone, Richard Ford,Kevin Tent, respectively]. It became a very longprocess of trial and error, clawing our way throughmountains of Hawaiian music. I had begun listeningto Hawaiian music when I was scouting locations andthe voice that had caught my ear belonged to GabbyPahinui, I fell in love with his music and for a while Ithought I could score the whole film with his songs, likeMcCabe & Mrs. Miller with Leonard Cohen or Haroldand Maude with Cat Stevens, but then I found that Icouldn’t. So, we’ve got five or six of his songs in thefilm as a kind of anchoring voice.AWARDSLINE: There’s a recurring road-trip motif in your films— in Sideways and About Schmidt, and then in this filmit’s road tripping by air as the family flies from island to islandwithin Hawaii. What is it about road trips that speak to you?AWARDSLINE: Your producer Jim Burke told me that you’re a frequentflier of Up in the Air proportions.PAYNE: I just got my three-millionth mile on American.AWARDSLINE: Where do you go?PAYNE: I split my time between a home in L.A. and ahome in Omaha, so I do go back and forth a lot. I’vegone to New York a lot over the years. Then of coursewhen you do a publicity tour for a film, you accrue alot of miles that way.AWARDSLINE: Another recurring element in your films is the voiceover. Why?PAYNE: I think voiceover, when well used, is an extremelydelicious device.AWARDSLINE: So, unlike the road trip, it’s a very conscious device.PAYNE: I refuse to conform to any narrative conventionsthat say, ‘Well, if you begin a film with voiceover you atleast have to bookend it, have it at the end. You can’tjust have it at the beginning and let it taper off.’ I’mthinking, I’m 50 and I’m going to use whatever cinbuiltby the gods for that guy. But Clooney is right forthis one. He has the good looks that those rich guys outthere in Hawaii have. A few people have said, ‘Clooneyis playing the closest he’s ever come to playing aregular guy in this.’ I don’t entirely agree with this. Hisemotions and carriage may be that of a regular guyand the character aspires to be more of a regular guy,but he’s meant to be more of a patrician. I think alsothat there’s a patrician-ness to Clooney.AWARDSLINE: Sideways established you as a brand. When an advertisementsays, ‘From the director of Sideways,’ people knowthat they’re getting a certain kind of movie. Does that brand resonatewith you?PAYNE: I don’t think it’s a brand when they say, ‘From thedirector of…’ I think you’re a brand when they say ‘fromAlexander Payne,’ ‘from Pedro Almodóvar.’ Then you’rea brand. I’m still ‘From the director of…’ So, I’m not sure ifthat’s a blessing or a curse, or neither or both. But one thing,and certainly with The Descendants, when they say ‘From thedirector of Sideways,” well, it’s dangerous. On one hand, I18 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02PAYNE: I don’t know because I don’t even like road-tripfilms and I find I keep making them. I swear to God,I hate shooting in cars, that’s why increasingly in myfilms, you have scenes in Sideways and The Descendantswhere they’re talking in a car, but you just see a drivebyand I put their voices on the soundtrack over them.I don’t know. Consciously, I dislike them, but unconsciouslyI seem to be drawn to them. In real life, I myselfam kind of a rambling guy. I like to travel. Maybethere’s something that appeals to me on that level.ALEXANDER PAYNE, LEFT, WITH CLOONEYSHAILENE WOODLEY, GEORGE CLOONEY, BARBARA L. SOUTHERN, ROBERT FORSTERematic device I want to. So, voiceover was useful in thefirst half-hour, 40 minutes of the film and then it hadno more utility. So, I jettisoned it.AWARDSLINE: Why did you cast George Clooney in this andnot in Sideways?PAYNE: In the case of Sideways, it would have been toomuch that the most handsome and successful movieand television star is playing the most washed up TVactor. I don’t want contextual jokes. I want to be completelyinternal to the film. Plus, when the hell else areyou going to get Thomas Haden Church in a part justguess the studio wants to monopolize the popularity of thatprevious film, on the other hand, you don’t want to leadpeople to believe it’s going to be a laugh riot like that onewas to some viewers. This one is a little bit more somber forlong passages. So, I don’t know, I appreciate that people arebeginning to see a throughline in my films, to use a pretentiousterm, an authorial voice. That’s flattering.I’ll tell you this much, it helps keep me in business. My onlygoal in all of this is just to keep making movies. Notoriety,box office success, those things are flattering, but they’reuseful exclusively in being able to keep me making films.•

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O NBEST PICTUREOF THE YEARDamian JonesBEST DIRECTORPhyllida LloydBEST ACTRESSMeryl StreepBEST SUPPORTINGACTORJim BroadbentHarry LloydBEST SUPPORTINGACTRESSOlivia ColmanAlexandra RoachBEST ORIGINALSCREENPLAYAbi MorganBESTCINEMATOGRAPHYElliot DavisBEST FILM EDITINGJustine WrightBEST ORIGINAL SCOREThomas Newman“Only an actress of Meryl Streep’sstature could possibly capture Thatcher’sessence and bring it to the screen. It’s aperformance of towering proportionsthat sets a new benchmark for acting.”TheIronLadyMovie.comTWCguilds.comArtwork © 2011 The Weinstein Company.All Rights Reserved.

Bennett Miller Saves Sony'sGame with MoneyballBy SharonBernsteinBased in New York and steeped in the world of independent film, director Bennett Millerhad spent his career steering clear of the politics, the compromises and the generalizedheartache of making a big-budget, big-studio movie – until he was brought in to save one.Sony Pictures’ Moneyball, based on the book byMichael Lewis, was a wounded Frankenstein of amovie when Miller came to the project in 2009; afteryears of development, director Steven Soderberghabruptly left the project shortly before it was scheduledto start production (David Frankel was the first directorinvolved in developing the project). Now the film iswidely viewed as an Oscar ® contender, with a shot atbest actor for star and co-producer Brad Pitt, and apossible best director nomination for Miller.The 44-year-old Miller, whose 2005 film, Capote, garnereda best actor Oscar ® for Philip Seymour Hoffman,was the third director to sign on to the story of BillyBeane, the pioneering general manager of the OaklandAthletics baseball team who was the first in the sport toadopt a mathematical approach to scouting new players.AWARDSLINE: How did you get involved in this film?MILLER: I got a phone call asking if I was interested in asubject and if I would look at it. It came from Brad and Ilooked at it all and flew out to talk to him. We sat togetherfor some hours and talked it through. I pitched my versionof the thing and talked to him about what it was thatwas making him so determined to get this thing done.He could have let this thing go many times, and I thinktypically if a movie stumbles the way this thing did –and as many times – typically, you let it go. And he justdid not want to let it go.BRAD PITT, LEFT, WITH BENNETT MILLER20 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02AWARDSLINE: How were you able to evaluate it, since the existingproject wasn’t what they wanted?MILLER: After they pulled the plug they did some work on it.They had brought in Aaron Sorkin, and Aaron had donea pass. Then I read [Steve] Zaillian’s pass, then I read thebook, then I spent a little time on Google. Then I sat with ita little bit and decided to fly out and talk it through.AWARDSLINE: What needed to be done?MILLER: A movie like this, the moment it reaches forsomething cheap at the expense of the veracity andthe integrity of the film I think you doom the film. It’sthe kind of film that unravels very quickly if you’re notsucceeding in a number of categories, and one of themis credibility and truthfulness. If you load it down withjokes – if it becomes a joke – the movie unravels.AWARDSLINE: There were some points in the film where the scriptseemed to have some lines more like what you might call ‘zingers,’but they were delivered in a very quiet way. Was that necessary tokeep the tone you wanted?MILLER: There were a lot of great ideas that came fromboth writers, and I thought that many of them had tobe disqualified because they just didn’t feel crediblecoming out of a general manager’s mouth to seasonedscouts. There were a number of drafts, and then Aaronwrote this line about, ‘We’re looking for Fabio.’ And thena bunch of stuff passes and the scout comes back andsays, ‘Who is Fabio?’ And if you read that line in the scriptyou laugh out loud. It’s really funny, and you can call it azinger. But I think it fell cleanly within the boundaries ofthe credible.AWARDSLINE: Were you nervous in doing a big studio film that youwouldn’t have the freedom to set that tone?MILLER: I avoided ever engaging with a studio beforeabout anything because I didn’t want the extrachallenge of having to navigate the politics and theplayers to achieve something that is hard enough toachieve without that stuff. It was a big concern, butwhen I talked to Brad the first time we spoke reallybluntly about that exact thing. And I told him I’dnever spoken to a studio seriously about a project. I’dnever gone in on a studio job before – never – andthose were the reasons. And if we’re not all making thesame movie, if we don’t agree, it’s going to be hard andpeople are going to be hurt and the movie is going tobe hurt and it’s not going to be what we want it to be.And Brad said, ‘Look, you can expect that there will bechallenges to what we’re talking about, but I am goingto take on a lot of responsibility personally to makesure that it gets protected. And if ever those forces arechallenging the integrity of what we’re going to do, callin the cavalry. Call for air support. I’m here. That’swhat I’ll do.’ And true to his word, that did happen.AWARDSLINE: What were you doing before Brad came to you on this?MILLER: I had been trying for some years to get a filmmade, and I had just conceded it was not going to bepossible after spending years on the thing. And thephone rang and the question was asked: ‘Do you likebaseball?’AWARDSLINE: What was the movie you had been trying to make?MILLER: That was Foxcatcher, the John du Pont story. Johndu Pont was a wealthy heir to the du Pont fortune. Hebecame obsessed with all these wrestlers and wantingto be some kind of patron or leader with these guys. Hegot them all to move on to his estate in Pennsylvania.Things got weirder and weirder and he ended upkilling one of them.AWARDSLINE: And now you’re actually going to make that movie.MILLER: I am likely going to be doing that. I put it like thatbecause I believe that nothing is real until it’s openingnight and the end credits are playing in a theater wherepeople paid money.AWARDSLINE: Will it be a studio film?MILLER: Not a big studio film. I’m going to go back to myroots a little bit. Megan Ellison is going to finance Foxcatcher.I’m about to make another independent movie.•

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O NI N A L L C A T E G O R I E S I N C L U D I N GBest ActressGLENN CLOSEBest Supporting ActressJANET MCTEERBest PictureBest Adapted ScreenplayGAbRIELLA PREkOP, JOhN bANvILLE, GLENN CLOSEStory by ISTvAN SzAbO“A jaw-dropping performanceby Glenn Close…brilliant.In tackling the most demandingrole of her career, Close deliversa restrained, heartbreakingperformance.”- Marlow Stern, Newsweek“A career-crowningrole for Glenn Close.”- Peter Debruge, Variety“A lovely and surprising movie.Great acting…Glenn Close issurrounded by otherexceptional actors,especially Janet McTeer.”- A.O. Scott, The New York Timeswww.roadsideawards.com©2011 Roadside Attractions, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Silent Film, The Artist,Looks to Make Big Noiseat Awards GameBy PeteHammondMichel Hazanavicius has never been nominated for an Academy Award.® In fact, hehas never been to the Academy Awards® but he may very well be going this year asdirector of the much acclaimed black and white ode to silent films, The Artist.He made his first feature Mes amis in 1999 but sincethen has focused on his James Bonds spoofs, the 2006international comedy hit OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spiesand its 2009 sequel, OSS 117: Lost in Rio. Both starredJean Dujardin and Hazanavicius’ wife BéréniceBejo who also headline The Artist. Since debuting atCannes in May, the film has won a slew of honors atfilm festivals around the world and now may be TheWeinstein Co.'s best bet for anther best picture triumph.AWARDSLINE: Why did you want to do a black and white silent film?Nobody has really had that idea in about 80 years.HAZANAVICIUS: You know these movies; it is a very special experienceto watch a silent movie with other people. I reallylike the way the story is told in a silent movie. As an audienceyou take part in the storytelling process. In a way Idid a sort of crook thing. I cheated. I have the benefit of80 years of sophistication, of narration and I took the oldmovies and I did a modern one with the oldest ones.AWARDSLINE: You had quite a few inspirations to begin with. Whatwas one of them you patterned this after?22 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02HAZANAVICIUS: I watched a few from many countries but Ichose the four or five final years of the American silentera. City Girl, Sunrise, the Frank Borzage movies, the JohnFord movies, Four Sons for example. The Crowd from KingVidor. Chaplin of course. The von Sternberg movies,Underworld and Docks of New York.AWARDSLINE: What’s the big challenge in doing this film now?HAZANAVICIUS: It was in the writing. I needed to shoot thesequence without asking actors to do pantomime. Iwanted them to act as they do usually. I have to find thegood images to tell the story, but it had to be done withimages. That had to be figured during the writing process.AWARDSLINE: It must be difficult to work with a partially Americancrew in Hollywood since you are French.HAZANAVICIUS: Being French is not an issue for me. I amFrench by coincidence. I didn’t choose to be French andreally I don’t care. When I work, before being French, Iam the director. For instance I don’t talk to the costumedesigner as an American, I talk to him as a costumedesigner. I’ve made movies in Brazil, Morocco, Franceand all over the world. And it’s the same. Hollywoodis not especially American anyway. Hollywood isworldwide, it belongs to everybody. So I felt reallylegitimate. I did some research, read a lot of books,watched movies and looked at photos so I think I knewthe subject pretty well. I was able to communicate to anAmerican crew, but first and foremost a crew.AWARDSLINE: The film has a universal theme.MICHEL HAZANAVICIUS, RIGHT, WITH JEAN DUJARDINHAZANAVICIUS: I really think there is something beautifulwith the silent format. I think the directors, when theymade the movies back in the 1920s, they didn’t have anoption to do talking movies, they were just doing moviesand it was a new type of a universal language and Ithink it is very touching when you see the silent moviebecause it has no language so it’s just images and music.It’s like paintings and all music. It’s really a languagewith emotions and feelings and it’s deeper than talkingmovies, I think.AWARDSLINE: What are the influences on the film?HAZANAVICIUS: Actually not many people would know thesilent era and it is not something I calculated. I thinkmy film is a homage to the classical Hollywood movies.Music is really important in the silent process and therewas no music in the silent era but we chose to be reverentto the classical Hollywood composers so it goes from1940s and 1950s until Vertigo. I gave my cinematographer12 movies to watch and analyze the texture of what Iwanted. But at the end of the day I told him we haveto forget everything and tell our own story. I really canborrow mood from movies of the 1940s.For instance, in the sequence when you discover thesound test, you can go to the very beginning of CitizenKane in the screening room. It’s a strong backlight. And Iwanted that. I wanted the character of George to refusethe sound at the moment and he goes from the light tothe darkness. I needed that strong black and white lightand shadow so I didn’t want it to be just from the silentera. I wanted it to be from all the classic movies.AWARDSLINE: And the black and white is stunning.HAZANAVICIUS: It’s so beautiful. For the actors they aremagnified, it’s especially great. And I think the aspectratio of 1:33 it’s wonderful for the actors. You really seetheir bodies. When you do a close-up in 1:33 it takes thespace of the whole frame. It’s really spectacular.AWARDSLINE: Can you talk about the scene where you bring soundinto the film while the actor stays silent?HAZANAVICIUS: Actually it was an option for the entire script.In the beginning it was an option to tell the story of asilent actor and little by little the sound is coming tolife, but he stays silent. I thought it was interesting, butthe problem is if you make a promise in the first 15minutes of the movie and say ‘OK, you are going to seea silent movie,’ little by little you’re cheating. And that’sdisappointing because you’re not doing a silent movie.So that was a bad option. But I liked the initial idea soI kept it and put it in just one sequence. I thought itwas very funny that something that was so normal likea glass or object; just doing this natural sound can bevery shocking. You are completely shocked when yousee it because it is not the film’s convention, but it meanssomething. I thought it was funny. •

“THE STARS OF ‘BRIDESMAIDS’ARE VERY FUNNY.The triumph of this movie and its comic ensemblehas made a lot of money and taken onSPECIAL CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE.‘Bridesmaids’ has been hailed as a vindication of the rightsand abilities of all women—not just those six—to makejokes, and thus a resounding rebuttal to what is supposedlya widespread assumption otherwise.”A.O. ScottCONSIDER USuniversalpicturesawards.com© 2011 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

The Director and the Showgirl:Simon Curtis andBy CraigModdernoMy Week With MarilynEven though Simon Curtis is the new guy in town from across the pond, don’t thinkthat will foil his chances of landing a directing nod from the Academy for his featureforay, My Week With Marilyn.24 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02As two-time film helmer Tom Hooper proved last yearwith his 12 nods and four wins with The King’s Speech,if a producer wants to rally at the Oscars © , just tapa former British TV director, which is exactly whatproducer David Parfitt did with BAFTA winnerCurtis (Five Days, A Doll’s House). Certainly, TheWeinstein Co. is looking to replicate their success withanother British entry this season, however, Marilynarrives with an extra whiff of perfume to makevoters swoon: Michelle Williams makes a careerdefining turn as Hollywood legend Marilyn Monroein a behind-the-scenes story most Americans may notknow about; the making of the 1957 Laurence Oliviermovie The Prince and the Showgirl.SIMON CURTISAWARDSLINE: How essential was it to land Michelle Williams toplay the title role?CURTIS: Absolutely essential. I remember being thrilledwhen she wanted to meet at her home in upstate NewYork after she read the script. I took the bus to her homeand prayed all the way there that she would say ‘yes,’because I couldn’t imagine making the movie withouther. Even though I had been working over seven years toget the movie made, I hadn’t a list of other actresses forthe part if Michelle said no. At the time of our meetingthere was also another potential Marilyn project, allegedlywith Naomi Watts attached to it, which put evenmore pressure on me to convince Michelle to trust meand come to England to make the picture.AWARDSLINE: What was your biggest challenge creatively once shewas on board?CURTIS: Just making sure the wealth of material availableon Marilyn’s life was properly sifted through so we couldfocus on just the time covered in Colin [Clark’s] book.Our film deals with just one period in her life but onefilled with optimism and hope. She had just marriedArthur Miller, was coming to Britain to work witharguably the best actor in the world and had startedher own production company, which few stars in the1950’s had even attempted. Marilyn thought making themovie with the great Olivier would get people to takeher seriously as an actress and give her better control ofher career and more integrity. Marrying Miller was herdream come true, which was to have an intellectual mansee that hidden quality in her. In some ways our film isabout all those aspirations falling apart.AWARDSLINE: In that initial meeting did each of you discuss yourfirst awareness of Marilyn?CURTIS: Michelle talked about having a Marilyn posteron her wall as a kid. But in all honesty I didn’t cometo this film as a Marilyn obsessive, but because I fell inlove with Colin’s book. My starting point was the storyof a young man who got the golden ticket to work inhis dream profession. And then he got this passionate,intimate insight into the world’s biggest movie star atthe peak of her fame.AWARDSLINE: How integral was Harvey Weinstein inmaking the movie?CURTIS: Extremely essential. He was as passionate aboutthis film as I am. He was an active partner and remainsso, plus a good sounding-board in the editing room.AWARDSLINE: Why did you shoot the two big musical numbers thatbookend the film weeks after you finished shooting?CURTIS: When we saw the finished film, David, Harveyand I thought we needed to have more of the wellknownMarilyn, since our movie just covered a specificpiece of time. It seemed just a good way to show moreof the fantasy Marilyn, I guess.AWARDSLINE: How is Marilyn regarded in England today?CURTIS: She’s a household name still but she’s betterknown as an image, a face, a brand; a film like SomeLike it Hot remains very popular, but most young Britsnowadays think of her as this Andy Warhol image. Youcan’t walk down Hyde Street without seeing her imageon a daily basis.AWARDSLINE: What challenges did screenwriter Adrian Hodgeshave to overcome in getting the script right?CURTIS: He had to get Colin’s tone of voice, which attimes is both naive and at times expert. The script hadto feel accurate to Colin Clark because we were in thebusiness of telling his version of these events. Adrianhad to get the parts right for our ensemble of actors,making sure there was a journey for every character.Plus he had to balance the comedy and the drama asthe movie shifts quite often from one to the other.AWARDSLINE: Was there one scene more than others when you feltMichelle had become Marilyn?CURTIS: There was a look Michelle had when she was ona chaise lounge in an early scene that captured Marilynphysically. But the scene where Michelle recreated thehappy dance from The Prince and the Showgirl, which weshot in the same studio where the original scene wasfilmed, was special. That was the most joyous Marilynwas in the picture and Michelle felt that completely.When I snuck a look at the crew during the scene, Icould tell everyone felt we were watching somethingmagical.AWARDSLINE: Why is the Academy so gracious in giving outOscars © to Brits?CURTIS: I don’t know. I think it’s because Hollywood, atleast of late, is doing more big-budget, comic-bookmovies. We Brits concentrate on more characterdrivenmovies that attract great actors, because that’sgenerally all we can afford. Most British films, however,would not get made without some financial help fromBBC Films and the UK Film Council, which is nowregrettably undergoing changes from the currentgovernment. In our case they put up the early financingto develop a script or else I’m sure our movie neverwould have gotten made. •MICHELLE WILLIAMS

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION“MICHAEL SHANNONIS TREMENDOUS.”-Christy Lemire, ASSOCIATED PRESSA COMEDY OF NO MANNERSKEIRAKNIGHTLEYVIGGOMORTENSENMICHAELFASSBENDERJodie FosterANDVINCENTCASSELKate WinsletChristoph WaltzTAKESHELTERJohn C. ReillyA ROMAN POLANSKI FILMDirected byDAVID CRONENBERGProduced byJEREMY THOMASWritten byCHRISTOPHER HAMPTONBased on the book'A Most Dangerous Method' by JOHN KERRMidnightin Pariswww.sonyclassicsscreenings.com

The Help Gets Tate Taylor’sFeet On the GroundBy CraigModdernoPeriod southern dramas might seem like riskypropositions for a major studio, but the sub-genre haslong-charmed Academy members, earning multiple nomsand wins for such titles as 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird(eight noms, three wins), 1984’s Places in the Heart (sevennoms, two wins), 1989 best picture winner Driving MissDaisy (nine noms, four wins) and of course the belle of theball, 1939’s Gone With the Wind (13 noms, 8 wins).Looking to join them is DreamWorks’ adaptationof Kathryn Stockett’s bestselling tome The Helpwhich chronicles a young female reporter’s crusade tosmash racial divides in Jackson, Miss. between whitehomemakers and their African-American maids. Sure,a socially conscious epic goes a long way with voters,but also bolstering a film’s profile– and an excellentawards season campaign tactic – are the inspirationalbehind-the-scene stories. For The Help, it’s a taleabout two childhood friends from the Magnolia state,one a first-time bestselling New York Times author whorefused to bail on her novice director friend’s vision tobring her baby The Help to the screen. Director TateTaylor recalls The Help’s journey:AWARDSLINE: How did you get involved on this project so early?Much has been made of your longtime friendship with authorKathryn Stockett.TAYLOR: She came on the set in Montana’s GlacierNational Park where I was making my independentfilm and liked the way I went about making [my 2008film] Pretty Ugly People. She asked me to read The Help,which I did and which I loved. When [sales of] thebook took off, John Norris, my manager at the timeand now my producing partner, started getting callsfrom Hollywood, interested in the material. When theydiscovered I was attached to the project as a writerdirector,many of the people interested in making itsuddenly weren’t.AWARDSLINE: What was your biggest argument in support of youdirecting the film?TAYLOR: I grew up in the region where the book takesplace, as did the author. I knew these people andin many ways I was either one of them or grew upknowing many of the characters they were modeledon. I knew what I’d put on screen would be an honestrepresentation of the South and the wonderfulcharacters Kathryn lovingly created.AWARDSLINE: What major film studios turned down the project?TAYLOR: Warner Brothers had interest then passed. I wasnever told why.AWARDSLINE: Did Stockett ever get feedback as to why over 60publishing people rejected her book?

TAYLOR: Never. Nobody wanted to write the one sentence‘I don’t think this will sell’ in case she was successful ingetting it published elsewhere!AWARDSLINE:With so detailed and full a story, was there ever anydiscussion about making The Help into a mini-series?TAYLOR: Never once. I optioned it to be made as anindependent film. That’s the form I was alwayspassionate about seeing The Help in and the studioencouraged having an ensemble cast instead of onewith big names basically doing cameos. We wantedthe smallest characters to stand out. Viola Davis isdefinitely the star of the film but I directed the actorslike an ensemble.AWARDSLINE: What made you cast Emma Stone in the key roleof the author?TAYLOR: We had a two-hour meeting and I discovered shewas personally engaging, extremely intelligent. Emmahad the essence of soul and yet was someone you’denjoy sharing a meal with.AWARDSLINE: How did shooting a studio film differ from yourexperience making an independent film?TAYLOR: On a studio film you have a real veteran crew, thefreedom to re-shoot a scene and better craft services.When I made my independent film in Montana, therewere times we had no electricity and we rarely found aplace where our cellphones worked.AWARDSLINE: What does Hollywood generally get wrong when theymake movies that depict life in the South?TAYLOR: They only focus on the horrific. There’s no graymatter. They need to show that people in the South aremore complicated, more colorblind. I thought DrivingMiss Daisy and Places in the Heart captured that quitenicely, and to a degree so did In the Heat of the Night. •EMMA STONE, LEFT, TATE TAYLOR AND VIOLA DAVISSTONE, LEFT, WITH ALLISON JANNEY

Awardsline AnalysisTRENDS & STATS ILLUMINATING THE OSCAR ® CONTEST$1.8$1.7$1.65$1.5$1.3In millions. Industry estimates.2008 2009 2010 2011 2012Oscar ® Ad RatesFlatline – WhichIsn’t So BadAny advertiser seeking 30 seconds of exposure before anaudience of roughly 40 million during the ultimate awardstelecast can look to shell out as much as they did last year –maybe even slightly less. The good news for ABC: Oscar ®spot rates are still above 2009 recession prices.HistoricalPolitical BiopicsCan The Weinstein Co.’s The Iron Lady outstrip WarnerBros.’ J. Edgar both at the box office and the Oscars ® ? U.S.auds and the Academy alike have embraced biopics aboutworld leaders, whereas stateside biopics aren’t as successful.Oscar ® nomOscar ® winDomestic box office totals in millions.InternationalPolitical Biopics$138.8 $31.8The King’s Speech 2010$56.4 $18.6DomesticPolitical BiopicsMilk 2008The Queen 2006 Frost/Nixon 2008$52.8$13.7Gandhi 1982 Nixon 199528 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02Brokeback Mountain 2005 Rdirector, writing, musicMidnight Cowboy 1969 X†best picture, director, writingClockwork Orange 1971 X†Monster's Ball 2001 RactressLast Tango in Paris 1973 X†Unbearable Lightness of Being 1988 RBlue Valentine 2010 NC-17†Awardsline ArithmeticHope for the Kids: Inthe 40 Oscar© races since1970, 26 directors wonan Oscar© for their firstnomination in the category.000011One raging bull: MartinScorsese finally won his firstOscar ® after the 8th time he wasnominated (for either director orwriter) for 2006’s The Departed.22233478‘94.5% of all Statistics areMade Up’: An old quip by WoodyAllen and probably what he wouldsay again after not being nominatedas best director for the last 17 years.Sex, X and Oscar ®Are Academy members too stuffy to laud the sexualdrama Shame? Nonsense – they’re more tolerant then yathink. While such sexual revolution pics of the ’70s likeMidnight Cowboy and Last Tango in Paris were in sync withvoters’ attitudes of yore, in recent years The Academyhas continued to look beyond racy moments to respect afilm’s finer attributes in above-the-line categories.Oscar ® nomOscar ® win†Rating ultimately reduced to a lesser rating.26 8 17 21Source: A.M.P.A.S. ®‘Do I Feel Lucky?’:Clint Eastwood was finallynominated and won his firstdirecting Oscar ® 21 years intohis feature directing career.

O F F I C I A L I T A L I A N E N T R YF O R T H E 8 4 T H ACA D E M Y AWAR D S ®F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O NBESTFOREIGNLANGUAGEFILM“A multi-layered story…Crialese has created an absorbing drama.”-THE NEW YORK TIMES“Powerful…a Ken Loach-like combination of heart-on-sleevecommitment and elegantly succinct dramatic structure.”-SCREEN INTERNATIONAL”Thoughtful and luminous.”-CORRIERE DELLA SERAA FILM BY EMANUELE CRIALESETERRAFERMAACADEMY MEMBERS PLEASE JOIN US - RSVP TO RSVP@FREDELLPOGODIN.COM OR (323) 784-1838SUPPLEMENTARY SCREENING DATESTUESDAY, DECEMBER 6TH AT 7:30PMWilshire Screening Room8670 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211SATURDAY, JANUARY 7TH AT 4:00PMWilshire Screening Room8670 Wilshire Blvd. Beverly Hills, CA 90211

McQueen Sees No ‘Shame’ inFilms for AdultsBy AnthonyD’AlessandroThe hasty assumption often made by Oscar ® prognosticators is that the Academy iscomprised of blue-hairs whose cinema predilections are so conservative, they rivalthose of the Roman Curia.30 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02Yet even if the demographic is closer to the twilightyears than the Twilight crowd, voters have longdemonstratedan open mind, continually embracingaudacious works, no matter how much blood and howmany body parts are splashed on the screen.And that wasn’t just in the ’70s, when the Academydisplayed an inclination toward such X-rated darlingsas Midnight Cowboy and Last Tango in Paris, but even inrecent times they have shown favor toward such diceytitles as Monster, Monster’s Ball and Brokeback Mountain.(See chart, page 28.)Enter British visual artist cum cinema auteur SteveMcQueen, who is poised to deafen them all with hisfearless sexual addiction Dante-like tragedy Shame,starring burgeoning U.K. marquee performersMichael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan asa porn-crazed lothario and his needy BohemianSTEVE McQUEEN, LEFT, WITH MICHAEL FASSBENDER ON THE SET OF SHAMEsister, respectively, in a soulless Gotham. Quoting hisscreenwriting partner Abi Morgan on their shockinducingm.o., McQueen exclaims, “What we want tohappen is like a dog whistle going off at the cinema.”Indeed it has. Shame has conquered critics, collectedthree awards at the Venice Film Festival, includingbest actor for Fassbender, and landed a $400,000 FoxSearchlight domestic distribution deal ($1.5 million inP&A) out of the Toronto fest. It’s a revolutionary pieceof cinema – not just in its dramatization of sexualaddiction, but in terms of how quickly an edgy adultfilm got off the ground.Searchlight presidents Nancy Utley and StephenGilula immediately grasped Shame’s potential at theprecipice of Oscar ® season: The actors branch, beingthe largest arm of the Academy, could surely recognizethe fierceness put forth by Fassbender and Mulliganas well as the film’s steely earth tone cinematography,provocative screenwriting and sharp direction. Mostdistributors, like Harvey Weinstein, cringe at thestigma of an NC-17 label, i.e. last year’s Blue Valentine,however, Searchlight is embracing the stamp. Thatalone sealed the deal, convincing McQueen and hisproducers Emile Sherman and Iain Canning(who won best picture Oscars ® with The King’s Speech) tochoose Searchlight over other bidders.“It’s important to take risks in this business,” says Utleywho was shaken to the core by the film after catchingShame at Telluride.Utley and Gilula believe the dog days of NC-17 sinceits advent in 1990 are gone. Sure, certain exhibitorswon’t book Shame in the south, but Gilula says “wedon’t expect the film to play everywhere. It’s a prettydemanding art.” Searchlight isn’t fretting about certainnewspapers’ barring NC-17 ads, particularly in this adstarvedclimate. The biggest word of mouth for Shameremains its protagonist’s vice: the internet.Launching a sexual drama like Shame stateside wouldseem impossible as literary agents could easily pigeonholeit as soft porn ripe for Cinemax. Few have gotten awaywith peddling adult big screen fare and to varyingdegrees of success, read The Weinsteins (1995’s Kids),the late Stanley Kubrick (1999’s Tom Cruise headlinerEyes Wide Shut). The standard question begged by anyU.S. studio head: ‘Who’s going to see this?’“I don’t have those kinds of conversations. I make whatI want to make and never have that worry looking overmy shoulder. It’s about the work and the art,” saysMcQueen who together with Morgan conceived Shameafter sharing mutual opinions about the internet’sannihilation of human intimacy.Canning, who first worked with McQueen on the auteur’s2008 debut Hunger, says “People will respond to the ideaof seeing a film for adults, rather than an adult film.”In fact, Shame, despite its taboo content, gestated forone year in development; an anomaly considering thatanother of this season’s U.K. contenders, My Week WithMarilyn, took seven. Why so fast? McQueen. Thoughhardly known stateside, he’s a hot commodity in the U.K.,in the vein of an early Quentin Tarantino, having wonthe 2008 Golden Camera kudo at Cannes and a 2009BAFTA for most promising newcomer. McQueen’sreputation quickly cued such financers as Film4, the U.K.Film Council, Momentum, Lipsync and Aver to backShame’s $6.5 million budget – and this was before CareyMulligan, who lobbied McQueen to be cast, boarded.In pushing for BAFTAs, U.K. distributor Momentumis aggressively unspooling Shame at 100 screens onJan. 13 versus Searchlight’s Dec. 2 platform release ata limited number of locations in New York and LosAngeles. Like Searchlight, Momentum has the mindsetthat Shame’s sex won’t be a turnoff, which is ironicconsidering that McQueen and Morgan discoveredthat sexual addiction wasn’t easily discussed in the U.K.by therapists or patients. This prompted the filmmakersto switch their backdrop to New York, as doctors andaddicts were more accessible. It also proved to be afurther boon for the production’s bottom line whichshaved off a third of its cost between New York andU.K. tax credit incentives.During the sexually charged ’70s, before watchdogcultural groups set in, X-rated titles like Midnight Cowboy(domestic B.O. $45 million) and Last Tango in Paris ($36million) weren’t risky propositions. While BrokebackMountain was a breakthrough for gay cinema ($83 million),it didn’t feature the quantity of Shame’s sex scenes.“Shame isn’t erotic cinema at all,” McQueen asserts,“This is a film that has sex in it and there are a lot ofpeople who have sex. It’s not pornography. It’s normal.It’s just like having a feel-good piece of eating in the film.But to Searchlight’s credit, they have experiencemilking the most out of niche titles, i.e. TerrenceMalick’s uber-philosophical Palme d’Or winner TheTree of Life. Not to mention, they spend money tomake money, especially on hot award contenders.Should Shame exceed the total of 1995’s Showgirls($20.4 million) it will become the highest grossing NC-17 film of all-time.And with a track record like Searchlight’s, that’s all theViagra Shame needs.“It’s great when you have a chance to prove peoplewrong, that we can make these movies, that there’s anaudience out there who actually wants to see moviesabout the world that they’re living in, rather thanfiction,” exclaims McQueen, “If it was 1951 thenmaybe Michael (Fassbender) would be walking aroundin his pajamas, but it’s 2011 and people don’t walkaround in their pajamas. If we have to portray reality,that’s what we have to do.” •

Director-Writer Doremus’By AriKarpelTechnique: ‘Crazy,’Maybe, But SuccessfulThe excitement in Like Crazy director and co-writer Drake Doremus’ voice is palpable,even over the phone. “Oh, man, it was incredible!” he exclaims. “It was just fun, really,more than anything. I mean, it was so exhilarating!”He is talking about growing up in the Groundlings,the venerable improvisational comedy school onLos Angeles’ Melrose Avenue. And we don’t mean‘growing up’ figuratively. “I would be, like, the onlykid in the class,” he recalls.ANTON YELCHIN, LEFT, DRAKE DOREMUS AND FELICITY JONESAt the age of six, Doremus was on stage, improvisingscenes with students 10- and 20-years his senior. Hismother, Cherie Kerr, was a founding member ofthe group, and went on to start the Orange CountyCrazies, an improv school where Doremus, taught anddirected as a teenager.Now 28, Doremus’ improv-honed skills — shootingfrom the hip, reacting to stimuli around him — guide hisfilmmaking. He and Ben York Jones are credited withwriting the screenplay for Sundance darling Like Crazy,though technically they didn’t write one. “It’s really morelike a short story,” Doremus explains. “It’s 50 pages andthey’re just paragraphs.” Those paragraphs lay out thearc of the narrative, with backstory, subtext and characterobjectives mapped out as well. “In the outline, we hitevery emotional beat. We just go really in-depth with thecharacters instead of writing actual lines of dialogue.”The result is a film about young lovers Anna, a Brit(newcomer Felicity Jones) and Jacob, an American(Star Trek’s Anton Yelchin), separated by unanticipatedcircumstances. (Doremus says it was inspired in part byhis own short-lived marriage to a woman from Austria.)Like Crazy is light on plot, heavy on feeling — which wasprecisely his aim. “I wanted the movie to kind of washover the audience emotionally,” he says. “I wanted tocreate a very emotional experience without trying to gettoo deep into all the why’s and how’s and when’s of theirsituation. More just feeling what they’re going through.”That raw connection to feeling is what improv is reallyabout, and how Doremus operates. You could say it’s hisway of life. “I think I fall back on that every day,” he says.“I find when I’m totally off the cuff is when I get in themagical stuff. I see something over there or someone saidsomething, then my mind starts going, and I go, ‘Great,go with that, go with that,’ as opposed to having thesepreconceived notions that I’m so stuck in. I’m at mybest when I’m thinking fast on my feet and go with myinstincts. I just try to go with flow.”That’s what he did in casting Yelchin. “We spentthree hours together,” he says, “just talking about ourphilosophies on film, character, life, love. And after thethree hours, I was like, ‘OK, this is my guy. I think myinstincts and decisions I make on set or about actors orwhatever, is really from trusting your gut and going withyour instincts. Because you know when your first instinctsare right as a filmmaker, they really are.”Improvisation is most commonly used to comic effect,as in the films of Judd Apatow and Christopher Guest.Even Doremus’ first two features, the little-known Spoonerand the micro-budget success Douchebag, were comedieswith dramatic underpinnings. But Like Crazy is a ripyour-heart-outemotional drama. “I guess there’s a levelof sadness in me that deserves to be taken a little bitmore seriously than laughing at or being goofy,” he says,explaining his foray into drama.For all his knack for thinking on his feet, Doremus admitsthat he has no instincts for the business side of makingmovies. “Oh, God, I’m the worst businessman alive. Atthe end of the day, I don’t understand really how thebusiness side works. I can’t imagine how the movie that Iliterally cut in my bedroom — which I did for Like Crazy— could be in this place that it is now being seen all overthe world by tons and tons of people.”Luckily, he had savvier business minds on his teamhandling the bidding war that erupted at the SundanceFilm Festival over Like Crazy. “I was hoping we’d maybesell the movie to an IFC, or something like that,” he saysmodestly. Instead, Paramount picked up the film for $4million. “The bidding war was so surreal and just to get tohave the studio to want the movie and love the movie wasoverwhelming and totally, totally unexpected.”He credits much of the outcome to Sundance, citing festivaldirector John Cooper and programming chief Trevor Groth.“They care about showing the best work they can,” he says.“Nowhere else in the country can you premiere your movieand every single distributor is in the house.”Since selling Like Crazy at Sundance, Doremus has beenon the wild ride of pre-release promotion and post-releaseawards campaigning. One thing has surprised him aboutall of it: It’s exhausting. “I think a year ago I would havepaid to travel around the world with my movie and doQ&As and talk to people,” he says. “I would pay to dothat. Now I find that it’s exhausting just doing a coupleof interviews in one city and then getting on a plane andgoing to the next city and doing this and doing that. Onone hand it’s exhausting, which I wasn’t expecting, but onthe other hand, it’s invigorating.”He’s also been taken aback by the broad appeal of hismovie. He had figured younger audiences would go for it,but he wasn’t sure about those who might look back onfirst love with nostalgia. “Whether I did a screening witha bunch of college kids or an Academy event in ShermanOaks, age changes but love remains the same.”Doremus is deep in filming his still-untitled fourth feature,about love and fidelity, starring Jones, Guy Pearce andAmy Ryan. “It’s sort of a romantic thriller,” he teasesabout the movie, financed by Indian Paintbrush, whichco-purchased Like Crazy. He expects it to come out in late2012. Once again, it’s based on an outline, and they’regoing from there. “I could never do it the normal way,” hesays. “Well, I could, but it’d be a challenge.” •JONES AND YELCHIN

Mills Experiences a Unique Caseof Beginners’ LuckBy DianeHaithmanWhat are the odds that a movie featuring fractured chronology, discursiveflashbacks and historical essays, confused characters stumbling to expresscomplex emotions, hand-drawn illustrations and a dog that “speaks” through subtitleswould get produced in today’s Hollywood?32 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02Oh, and did we forget to mention the autobiographicalstory revolves around a closeted gay father who comes outat age 75 after his wife’s death?Such a film’s chances are between slim and none, admits45-year-old Mike Mills, writer-director of Beginners,a film that includes all of these unlikely elements. Thosevery singular qualities, on the other hand, can be just theticket to help a film stand out and get attention in thevery competitive, high-stakes year-end awards derby. Sureenough, Beginners is on several critics and pundits’ short listsof the year’s best, and in fact some are predicting it can be afinalist in the race for screenplay, acting and other Oscars. ®But first the filmmaker had to get his movie made – nosimple task. Mills, also the writer-director of the 2005film Thumbsucker, points out that Beginners is not the kindof movie that’s easy to explain in a pitch meeting. “It wasso hard to get this film financed, to get people on boardwith this,” Mills says. “I spent a lot of time in 2007 and2008 trying to get this financed.“The film world is shrinking, and especially in 2007 and2008 it was in a very defensive mode,” Mills continues.“All these different distributors were closing that weremaking the more independent, less commercial films.”Actually, it wasn’t the gay character that was a problem:It was everything else. Potential producers were thrownby the introspective quality of the adult son, whoseexperiences reflect Mills’ own when his father finallycame out after his mother died, and the son’s plaintiveFrench girlfriend, grappling with the fallout of her ownfamily issues (she also spends the first few scenes of thefilm writing and drawing her thoughts on paper due to asevere case of laryngitis).Then, too, the screenplay was coming from the manwho wrote and directed the quirky Thumbsucker, adaptedfrom the Walter Kirn novel of the same name, abouta teenager’s attempt to break his thumb sucking habit.While the film won some critical acclaim, Mills says, “itdidn’t catapult my career in that it was about somethingnobody wanted me to make a film about.”In the case of Beginners, “to be honest, people liked Hal thedad character, because he was so strong and heroic,” Millsexplains. “But the couple had so many interior problems,and the film world doesn’t really like people with interiorproblems. There weren’t any external obstacles in termsof a villain, or an explosion or a bullet coming at them.It was inside their emotional lives, their own doubts andfears. The sort of stuff that the American film paradigmdoesn’t seem to like.”But inside that rare sliver of space between slim and none,Mills was able to find a studio executive who wanted totake a chance: producer Leslie Urdang, President ofOlympus Pictures. She saw the screenplay before big-nameMIKE MILLSstars Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer andFrench actress Mélanie Laurent were attached.“I was familiar with Mike’s work from Thumbsucker, and Ithought that this distinctive, funny and honest story oflove and grief in the hands of Mike Mills would becomesomething very beautiful,” Urdang says. “So whilegenerally Olympus Pictures evaluates risk and reward bylooking carefully at numbers, international sales estimates,tax credits and marketing hooks, with Beginners it wasmostly instinct and heart that said there would be morethan ample reward.”Finding a production company home for Beginners madethings easier, but hurdles remained, Mills says. “I paid forthis movie,” the writer director says simply. “I put my feeback in, I paid for my assistant, I paid for all the years oftravel and development. I started writing in 2005, I shot itin 2009, I’ve done nothing but lose money. I was so luckythat Olympus wanted to make it, and put the money in it.“I knew I would never lose sleep putting everything Ipossibly could into the movie, and I would lose sleep if Ididn’t. So it got me in some financial trouble, but I woulddo it again,” Mills continues. Directing commercials forcompanies including Nike, Levi’s and Volkswagen helpedkeep his filmmaking career afloat.Beginners was produced for $3.2 million using Los Angeleslocations. “There are definitely films that are made forcheaper, but we did it union, with actors of that [high] level,”Mills says. “I loved shooting in L.A. We kept it incrediblysmall, and we were actually quite fortunate to be shootingat the end of 2009, when L.A. was really feeling the hurtof the loss of production, and we got all those locationsthat we wouldn’t have been able to afford in a normal year.Everybody needed work, and that helped us.”Mills realized that star power was needed to launch sucha non-Hollywood film. “That’s the only way you get yourfilm financed, that’s the only way you get the bank loan –that’s your collateral,” he says.Through connections, luck and a romantic press accountof the film’s star McGregor being persuaded to takethe role of Oliver while on a ski lift at Sundance – Millsswears it’s an apocryphal story – he secured the servicesof his talented cast.Having major stars on board is already beginning to payoff: Plummer was honored as a supporting actor by theHollywood Film Awards ® earlier this fall, and mainstreampress outlets including the Los Angeles Times are alreadyspeculating about whether the role will win the 81-yearoldactor his first Oscar. ®Talk of awards and mainstream success remains asbaffling and exciting to Mills as…well, as having yourelderly father come out of the closet.“I work so much on the periphery of the mainstream –just being validated by the more mainstream film worldcan help me so much just in terms of having a job, ofgetting to write and direct my next film,” Mills observes.“It means that more people are going to get to see thefilm, which is incredibly important to me, and also anincredible honor. It’s a filmmaker’s dream.” •CHRISTOPHER PLUMMEREWAN McGREGOR AND MÉLANIE LAURENT

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATIONBEST ACTOR D EMIAN BICHIR“DEMIAN BICHIRGIVES ONE OF THE YEAR’SBEST PERFORMANCES.”—Peter Travers, ROLLING STONE“Delicacy, precision, startling force...These arethe qualities that defined Bichir’s performancein A Better Life, a remarkable film that hascemented his reputation as a formidable talentin Hollywood.”—Alex Kuczynski, THE NEW YORK TIMES“AN EMOTIONALLY RESONANT FILM...TOUCHING AND STARTLING...”—Manohla Dargis, THE NEW YORK TIMES“A must see.”“The bravura performances set the film apart.”“Demian Bichir is pitch perfect as the humbleCarlos, he brings dignity, as well as heartwarmingsadness, to the role.”—Claudia Puig, USA TODAY© 2011 Summit Entertainment, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Turning Offbeat CharactersInto Leading Men:By CraigModdernoThomas McCarthy’s Win WinWhen director-writer Thomas McCarthy’s wrestling comedy drama Win Winunspooled in March, it had the upper hand at arthouses, becoming a fixture ($10.1million) prior to summer’s onslaught of niche hits, i.e. Midnight in Paris.34 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02Typically most Sundance Film Festival worldwidepremieres are held by their distributors for an openingcloser to awards season, but Win Win, armed with ravereviews out of Park City, Utah (94% fresh on RottenTomatoes) quickly made a beeline for indie exhibitors.However, Win Win’s challenge this awards season issimple: How do you build voter excitement for a moviethat came out at the end of last awards season?“Though it’s a little trickier this year with so many studiodramas now debuting, Fox Searchlight knows howto create an awards PR campaign, which gives meconfidence” offers McCarthy.It’s not an unfamiliar conundrum for the director.McCarthy’s previous Oscar ® contender, 2009’s The Visitor,also played in the spring to limited indie box office ($9.4million) and rave reviews. Luckily, its distributor Overturewas able to keep that film’s award heat going, nabbing abest actor Academy Award ® nomination for longtimecharacter actor Richard Jenkins.THOMAS McCARTHY, LEFT, WITH PAUL GIAMATTIIn just three films, McCarthy has demonstrated a flair forheightening low-key dramatic scenarios into wonderfulhilarity while accentuating the idiosyncrasies of hischaracters against their settings.“All I want to do is make personal films with offbeat charactersthat you’d find away from the roadside of American life.For some strange reason you don’t find comic book heroeshanging out there!” says the director cum writer.McCarthy’s schlubby protagonists, like Paul Giamatti’ssuburban New Jersey lawyer Mike Flaherty in Win Winare on a quest for redemption. Flaherty is looking tobreak his ho-hum streak: His wrestling team can’t win.The economy is souring his practice and the boiler in hisoffice is busted. Breaks soon blossom for Flaherty in thewake of his custodianship of a senile client (Burt Young)and the arrival of his teenage grandson Kyle (newcomerAlex Shaffer), who demonstrates an aptitude for wrestling.Searchlight’s prowess as a kudos’ promoter should helpwhen it comes to reinvigorating award voters’ sense ofrecall. However, ballot casters can’t ignore Win Win’ssilver lining which is Giamatti himself; a one-time Oscar ®nominee for 2005’s Cinderella Man and two-time GoldenGlobe ® champ for last year’s Barney’s Version and 2008’sHBO flick John Adams.But it takes a character actor like McCarthy, whose stintsinclude such turns in Flags of Our Fathers and Little Fockers,to know how to break another character actor out of hisshell into a larger-than-life personality.Says McCarthy, “My advantage as a director is being anactor. I have a different insight, more personal perhaps,in casting actors. If you don’t know your actors or can’trelate to them, sometimes the filmmaking process canseem like a long first date.”Two years ago, McCarthy brought a bottle of wine to hislongtime friend Paul Giamatti’s house for Thanksgivingdinner, not exactly the perfect time or place to pitch his project.“I always heard Paul’s voice in the back of my headwhen I was writing Win Win. We had often expresseda desire to work together, so I knew it was a strongpossibility he’d respond to the material. We discussedit later at Thanksgiving while pretending to watch afootball game. Paul got what I wanted to do right away,and wanted to make the movie.“Now let me tell you something about getting a moviemade today that they dvon’t teach you in film school.When you go to a financier, their first casting choicetrumps any idea or actor’s commitment that you have.”McCarthy then continues with a light laugh. “And theirfirst choices are always named Clooney, Pitt, Damon ...the usual suspects.” But having written and directed twomemorable indie titles – The Station Agent and The Visitor– the New England-based filmmaker knew he could getWin Win made somewhere with Giamatti in the lead.BOBBY CANNAVALE, TOP, WITH GIAMATTICalling Giamatti and his on-screen wife Amy Ryan the“essence of actors who connect with their characters,”McCarthy was then able to concentrate on his maincasting problem: finding a high school teenager whocould actually wrestle and act. Since the script called forseveral close-up wrestling scenes, it was necessary for theactor to perform without a body double.“I can’t stand sports films where directors cut around theactors because they’re not athletic enough to fake it,” saysMcCarthy who is a former high school wrestler himself,“The irony is that most people think professional wrestling isfake, but they know high school and college wrestling is real.“My biggest directorial challenge was to decide if I wasgoing to cast a teenager who could act but couldn’twrestle, or vice versa.”Enter Alex Shaffer, a high school wrestling championwhose natural unassuming performance is one of the films’many strengths. “Alex was extremely likeable, with a weirddrawl. In the film he exhibits a winning, subtle charm, likethe Sean Penn character in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Thefact that he is such a good wrestler and knew the psychologyof the sport was a gift from the movie gods.”And if cinematic deities have any more sway, they’ll makesure that Academy members savor Win Win in the best ofvenues, which for McCarthy is outside their homes.“I’m now discovering many people saw Win Win onNetflix, even though it played three months in theatres.I still believe movies should be seen with audiences, eventhough the screening process for a director is often puretorture. And if the first time a director sees his movie withan audience is at the Sundance film festival like I did withWin Win, I suggest they bring a bottle of wine regardlessof how terrific they think their movie is.” •

Black Finds Humanity InJ. Edgar Hoover,By Cari LynnControversy In Audiences“I’m avoiding a lot of the chatter out there,” J. Edgar screenwriter Dustin Lance Blackadmits. It’s opening week of his latest biopic and, despite early Oscar® buzz and theheavy-hitting combo of Clint Eastwood directing and Leonardo DiCaprio playing a J.Edgar Hoover who ages over 50 years throughout the film, reviews have been mixed.“I knew that, because of what I selected to put in J. Edgar,which really excavated a lot of the gray, a lot of the ‘why’about the guy that I would end up humanizing him inorder to understand him, and that would end up angeringboth the left and the right. And I think it worked, I thinkwe did it,” explains Black, whose previous biopic, 2008’sMilk, won him an Oscar ® and was named one of theAFI’s top 10 movies of the year.In writing about a man both lauded for creating the FBIand reviled for extreme abuses of power, Black stands byhis original intent of focusing on aspects of Hoover’s lifethat he felt would reverberate with the current generation.But why does he feel the need to direct the film at youngpeople who’ve probably never heard of J. Edgar Hoover?36 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02“I was reading a poll that asked young people of today whatthey wanted to be when they grow up,” Black explains,“and the No. 1 answer was: Famous. It used to be that akid would want to be a doctor who cured cancer and sure,fame would come with that, but this is fame for fame’s sakeand that’s the trapping Hoover got stuck in.” Black says hesees J. Edgar as a cautionary tale. “I know we all want tosee the champion, but if we don’t pay attention to wherewe’ve gone wrong, we’re going to continue to make thosemistakes and I want this country to do better.”Known for his one-two punch of being both incrediblyarticulate and leading-man handsome, Black is not oneto shy away from issues of the day. His 2009 Oscar ®speech for Milk was a heartfelt tour de force dedicatedto “all of the gay and lesbian kids out there...who havebeen told that they are less than by their churches or bythe government or by their families.” Black followed thiswith action, vehemently protesting California’s Prop 8and subsequently penning the play, 8, based on courttranscripts from the trial that temporarily overturnedCalifornia’s ban on same-sex marriage.It seems a chasmic leap for Black to go from writing aboutopenly gay activist Harvey Milk — whom he credits asone of the biggest influences in his young life — to theself-loathing, likely closeted, and outwardly homophobicHoover. But he approached the topic when his youngerbrother gave him Kenneth D. Ackerman’s book, Young J.Edgar: Hoover and the Red Scare. “It started giving me littlehints of a man who didn’t completely match the monsterof the 1970s,” Black says. “Milk was not out yet and I didthink [Hoover] was worthy of examination, especially ifsome of the sexuality stuff rang true.”Black then heard that producer Brian Grazer also had J.Edgar Hoover on a short list of topics of interest. A meetingDUSTIN LANCE BLACK, RIGHT, WITH LEONARDO DiCAPRIO AND CLINT EASTWOODwas arranged and they discussed using the Lindbergh babykidnapping as the spine of the script. “I think Brian wasreally interested in [the theme of] power. How you get it,how you maintain it,” Black says. “And I was interested in,why do you want [power], and why do you hold on to it?”Black then delved into months of research, even movingin with his mother, who lives outside of Washington,D.C., so he could spend time tracing Hoover’s daily lifeand tracking down anyone who might have known him.He found that most source material conflicted wildly,from describing Hoover as either married to the FBI orflouncing around in a cocktail dress.“I thought the dress-wearing aspect could be reallyfascinating,” Black admits, “but it falls apart really quickly.”Still, he decided to give the subject a nod. “The first thinganyone asked me when I said I was doing a movie aboutJ. Edgar Hoover, was ‘What dress are you putting him in?’To not say anything at all about it is a cop out.” Blackcrafted a scene that he believes also shows Hoover brieflycontemplating his ability to be true to himself.Black discovered much evidence about Hoover’s sexualityin reading journals kept by Hoover’s mother, in whichshe wrote that she’d rather have a dead son than a lilyfor a son. “Here was a kid who was told at a very youngage, probably very explicitly, you will not love in this life,you will not have a family in this life. I think the first timehe ever felt love other than his mother’s, which seemedvery demanding, was the admiration of the country ashe started to do great things at a very young age. I justthought, boy this really is a guy who became obsessed andfilled the spot where love goes with this public admiration.”When asked if he met resistance for trying to keep thestory as close to the facts as possible, Black gives a relievedshake of his head. “I’ve gotten so lucky twice, with Milkand with this; everybody wanted it to be as accurate aspossible. I know I could have probably created an evenmore entertaining film if there were more diversions,more ball gowns, but to me that’s dishonest and I don’twant my career to look like that.” He says his first phonecalls with Eastwood were all about fact checking. “Clintwanted to know where everything came from. I think it isone of the most accurate portrayals of the man to date.I wanted to get to the truth of the man, not to make apolitical statement about whether he was good or bad.”Up next for Black: another biopic, the story of ColtonHarris-Moore, the Barefoot Bandit, for 20 th Century Fox.That will be followed by an adaptation for Warner Bros.of Jon Krakauer’s 2003 book, Under the Banner of Heaven,about the Lafferty Brothers, Mormon fundamentaliststurned murderers. It’s a story that Black, who was raisedin a Mormon household in San Antonio, Texas, andwho cut his teeth writing on HBO’s Emmy-nominatedseries Big Love, says he’s been wanting to do for years.He’ll team up again with Imagine Entertainment withRon Howard set to direct. •

By Tim AdlerWriters Tinker With, TailorLe Carré’s Iconic Book Into FilmMoondog, a blind vagrant jazz pianist who slept rough in New York, provided theunlikely musical inspiration for the script of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.Co-screenwriter Peter Straughan would sit in his atticoffice typing away listening to Moondog on headphones,while downstairs his wife and writing partner BridgetO’Connor was also writing the script, based on thebestselling spy novel by John le Carré. They would emaileach other drafts, critiquing each other’s work as theyploughed on. O’Connor, a prizewinning dramatist, foundwriting lonely and loved collaborating with her husband.Their co-written script is seen as a likely for a best adaptedscreenplay nomination at this year’s Oscars. ®Husband and wife were on holiday when they got acall from Working Title asking if they wanted to adaptTinker Tailor. Peter Morgan (Frost/Nixon) wrote an originaldraft, having pitched a film version of Tinker Tailor to thecompany already. Nobody was happy with Morgan’sthriller-ish take. Straughan admits he and O’Connorwere nervous about adapting Tinker Tailor – especiallywhen the ’70s BBC TV series was so iconic. Le Carré’swork is fiendishly difficult to adapt: The plot of the 1974novel often takes place inside the head of George Smiley,a retired spymaster hunting the traitor inside the BritishSecret Service, and is mostly told in long flashbacks.Straughan tells me, “We wondered if they were goingto do a silly, sexy updating of it with car chases but weknew Tomas Alfredson (Let the Right One In) was alreadyattached as director, which was enticing. Le Carré hadalso given his blessing, so that calmed us down.”Straughan says he and O’Connor were both interestedin the core concerns of the novel, especially the humancost of the Cold War, which makes up the emotionalheart of the novel’s labyrinth. “That was what we triedto hold to, always going back to the victims one way oranother,” he says.The couple went through the book, creating a mastersynopsis that ran to a scroll of five taped-togetherPETER STRAUGHANTOM HARDY, LEFT, AND GARY OLDMAN IN TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPYpages. They set to work alternating scenes, occasionallytelephoning le Carré for advice. Straughan says le Carréencouraged them to “make the film of the film, not thefilm of the book.” Indeed, the author was less reverentialabout the novel than they were, encouraging themto invent new scenes, and as a result, the script movedfurther away from the book with each draft.“My principle, which I enunciated at our first meetingbefore they set pen to paper, was that I am a passiveresource. If you hit a problem or want to expand an idea,you call me,” le Carré says.And, as if straightening out the novel’s twists, turnsand doublings-back, was not enough, Straughan andO’Connor added their own flashback: a Christmas partyscene where all the spies are gathered. The idea sprangfrom an anecdote le Carré, who used to work for BritishIntelligence, told them about police being called to breakup an MI5 Christmas party that had gotten too rowdy,BRIDGET O'CONNORwith bottles being hurled into the street. “People who livein the secret world absolutely let their hair down whenthey have a party,” the former spook says. “So muchinhibition for 364 days of the year; you never know whatother people’s work is. It’s a huge release.”Le Carré remembers emailing Working Title partner TimBevan after he read the first draft, telling him how pleasedhe was: “When I read Bridget and Peter’s first draft, it was apiece of dramatic and intellectual architecture that I couldadmire. Right from the start it was clear they’d done theimpossible – reducing the cow to a stock cube.”The novelist admits he has not been happy with someother movie adaptations: Eight of his 22 novels havenow been filmed, with three others adapted for television.Anton Corbijn (Control) plans to film A Most Wanted Mannext. “The Looking Glass War was absolutely dreadful,while The Little Drummer Girl was a total failure in everysense,” le Carré says. Straughan and O’Connor, on theother hand, provided “a seamless collaboration ... I thinkthey did it splendidly.”Peter Straughan began his career as a playwright workingin the north-east of England. Growing up, he had alwaysloved movies but he decided to go into theatre becausefilms felt like a different world; it never occurred to himto write them. It was Harry Potter producer David Barronwho invited Straughan to write his first movie script. Sincethen he has become one of Britain’s most sought afterscreenwriters, with credits including The Debt and The MenWho Stare at Goats. He says the darkly comic runs throughhis work because it gives him the widest field to work with:“Black comedy is almost like the tone of the world to me.”Straughan and his wife spent a year working on theTinker Tailor screenplay when tragedy struck: O’Connordied, aged 49, of cancer one week before filming wasdue to begin in Budapest, Hungary. “I know Peterwas tremendously badly hit by it,” le Carré says. “Thescript should be remembered as a monument to theircollaboration and their marriage. Their best worktogether has been memorialized on screen.” •

Comedy’s Slippery Slope:Awards Voters Aren’tLaughing as StudiosCampaign Dramasas ComediesBy PeteHammondDying is easy, comedy is hard. Someone said that, right? Judging by the paltrynumber of “pure” comedies that have won best picture Oscars® in the past,apparently the Academy doesn’t think it’s hard at all.38 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02A version of this story originally ran onDeadline.com on Nov. 15, 2011.But could this actually be the year comedy will onceagain get its due in the best picture race? Will we eversee another genuine laugher taken seriously?“It’s crazy when you see what these great comedypeople do,” says Bridesmaids producer JuddApatow. His film was a huge surprise summer hit($288 million worldwide box office) and has one of thehighest critics’ ratings on Rotten Tomatoes with 90%fresh reviews. That’s a lot better than many dramaticcontenders that pundits take more seriously as trueOscar ® pictures. Broad, hit-’em-in-the-gut comedy isalmost always dismissed.Apatow told me he was really surprised when Bridesmaidsstarted to become part of the awards conversationthis year but now believes they have a shot, at least insome categories — although not daring to dream ofbest picture yet. “We’re very hopeful about MelissaMcCarthy in supporting. (Co-writer and star)Kristen Wiig should get recognition too. It’s veryhard to do what she does,” Apatow said, adding thathe thought Zach Galifianakis in The Hangover (whichApatow did not produce) should have been recognizeda couple of years ago for the “perfect supporting part”but was obviously overlooked.Further proving disrespect for comedy in the Academy,Apatow himself was dissed even to become anAcademy member until finally getting the invite in2008. Considering the Academy’s usual reluctanceto reward the genre, Wiig is shocked they are even inELLIE KEMPER AND MELISSA McCARTHY IN BRIDESMAIDS

the hunt, but Bridesmaids is the only movie Universalis significantly campaigning this year. “It’s nuts,” shesaid. “Recently we were looking at our original draftand thinking the fact people are even talking about it inthis way is very strange. But I think ultimately it’s aboutthe story and characters. You have to care about themor you’re not going to care about the movie whether itis comedy or drama.”Bridesmaids is also hoping for recognition as a bestpicture comedy or musical nominee in the GoldenGlobes ® where it actually does have a realistic chanceof making the cut (The Hangover actually won in 2010).Many people have called for the Academy to instituteseparate categories to honor comedy, like the Globeshave always done but it has never flown.It is not hard to see why.Often there’s a very gray line between what constitutesa comedy in the first place. The Hollywood ForeignPress Association ® lets studios determine whichcategories they want to be in but has final say. In otherwords if a studio tries to squeeze J. Edgar into comedybecause there is less competition, forget it.This year there was lots of discussion among somedistributors about what constitutes a comedy.Fox Searchlight initially debated whether to enter itsGeorge Clooney starrer, The Descendants in thevoicing concerns about having to judge The Help as acomedy. The film was indeed initially sold by Disneyand DreamWorks with an emphasis on its lighterelements and past Globe winners in the category suchas Driving Miss Daisy were similar in tone. Still thatwould have meant Viola Davis would compete in thebest actress-comedy or musical category and no matterhow you slice it her character, a civil rights era maid,just wasn’t that funny.Other entries that remain in the category that bordercomedy and drama are Focus Features’ Beginners andSummit’s 50/50 both dealing with main characters withcancer, Paramount’s Young Adult and the WeinsteinCompany’s My Week With Marilyn but the placementseems logical and their chances against stiff competitionin the drama categories would be considerably lessened.Last year Focus entered the dramedy, The Kids Are All Rightin the comedy categories and bagged Globes for both thepicture and Annette Bening.It seems unfair that sometimes pure comedies such as thisyear’s Midnight in Paris, The Artist, The Muppetsand Crazy Stupid Love have to share the category withfilms that also benefit from the kind of heavier subjectmatter towards which voters often tend to gravitate.As for the Oscars ® you can probably count on onehand the number of “real” comedies that have wonBRAD PITT IN MONEYBALLCHARLIZE THERON IN YOUNG ADULTAMY ADAMS AND JASON SEGEL IN THE MUPPETScomedy or musical category because there are definitelaughs but the dramatic elements ruled the day and itis submitted as a drama, same as Sony’s Moneyball,which had some TV ads with quotes calling it “Hilarious.”In the end it wasn’t that hilarious. It’s in drama.On the other hand DreamWorks officially submittedThe Help in comedy or musical even though it hassome very heavy dramatic moments. On Nov. 14,an HFPA ® committee rejected it in comedy anddetermined that it would compete as a drama whereit will now go head to head with Disney/DreamWorks’other big hopeful, War Horse (assuming both getnominated, as seems likely). It’s not surprising. At arecent event I attended a lot of HFPA ® members werebest picture in the last 84 years of the contest. Therewas It Happened One Night and You Can’t Take it With Youin the ‘30s; All About Eve in the ‘50s; Tom Jones in the‘60s; Annie Hall in the ‘70s. I don’t really count movieslike The Apartment (1960) which had heavy drama lacedin with the laughs but was actually a Globe winner inComedy. The last Golden Globe ® comedy or musicalwinner to repeat in the best picture category at theOscars ® was 2002’s Chicago.This year there is a real chance that something like thesilent comedy, The Artist or Woody Allen’s Midnightin Paris could join the short list of best picture winnersthat really are comedies in intent and execution (eventhough The Artist has its own dramatic moments).But why is it so rare and why does it take a WoodyAllen to do the trick? “I think that it’s very difficult toput comedies and dramas in the same category,” saysMidnight in Paris producer Letty Aronson, Allen’s sisterand longtime collaborator. “Somehow, if you certainlylook over the history of the Academy, and not just theAcademy, but any awards or people’s thoughts, they feelthat drama is more important. Certainly awards-wise,dramas get them way out of proportion to comedy…It would certainly be fairer to everyone to make twodistinct categories because it’s not possible – you’recomparing apples to oranges.”The bottom line is, at least when it comes to Oscars, ®that comedy will never truly get the respect it deservesfrom the Academy. It goes back to the ancient Greeksthat comedy just isn’t important and the ancientAcademy basically seems to agree. Woody Allen orthe French filmmakers behind The Artist may make alittle dent in that thinking, but common wisdom is thatwhen it comes to handing out their top Oscars, ® theAcademy just doesn’t get the joke. •

A PBS Documentary MayHelp Put Woody Allen inthe Forefront of the Oscar ®Race AgainBy PeteHammondCan a PBS documentary actually have a major impact on this year’s Oscar® race?That’s the question I asked writer-director-producer Robert Weide, whose two-partAmerican Masters portrait of Woody Allen began airing on PBS stations November 20.A version of this story originally ran onDeadline.com on Nov. 16, 2011.40 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02Of course this is perfect timing because Sony PicturesClassics is launching a major Oscar ® campaign onbehalf of what has turned out to be Allen’s mostsuccessful film ever, Midnight In Paris, which sofar has a domestic gross of more than $55 million,is critically acclaimed and is on every pundit’s list ofpotential Oscar ® players this year.Weide is an 11-time Emmy ® nominee and threetimewinner for directing Curb Your Enthusiasm as wellas various showbiz docus on W.C Fields, the MarxBrothers and Lenny Bruce (a feature doc for whichhe also earned a 1998 Oscar ® nomination). He hastried for decades and finally got unprecedentedaccess and cooperation from Allen and his associatesand colleagues in the making of this remarkabledocumentary on all things Woody. But if you think thiswas all calculated to impact the Oscars, ® think again.For SPC, it is just a happy coincidence.“Listen, when I approached Woody, he was still shooting[2009’s] Whatever Works with Larry David, and then Iwas on the set with him for You Will Meet a Tall DarkStranger, thinking that would be, sort of, the mostcurrent film at the time of the release,” Weide said.“But this guy is so damn prolific he made three moviesin the time it took me to make the one documentary.I went to Cannes with him for the release of the film,and then he did Midnight in Paris, and it’s like, ‘oh boy,I’m not going to have the most current film.’ So I wentto Cannes with him for Midnight and shot from there,thinking we’d see him at Cannes with Owen Wilsonand that’s how we’d bring it up to date. And then hereally double-crossed me by having that film becomehis most successful film financially to date.”WOODY ALLEN WITH JOHNNY CARSON ON THE TONIGHT SHOW

Weide further updated the Midnight phenomenonby going back and interviewing one of its producers,Steven Tanenbaum, to talk about the film’s success.But Allen was non-plussed about the whole thing.“Woody couldn’t care less,” Weide said. “I said to him‘you know this is great, I’m gonna go back and filmSteve, I’m gonna get footage from Sony’ and said ‘thismakes a nice happy ending for the film’ and he wroteback something like, ‘Happy ending? Who needs ahappy ending for the film? So what? So this film hasdone better than the others. The next one could just aseasily bomb. There are no happy endings.’ There’s nomaking this guy happy,” Weide said.His wife, Soon-Yi is seen but not heard from and if you’rewondering if one of his major co-stars and loves MiaFarrow is here talking about Woody, she’s not. Of coursethey had one of the most bitter and publicized breakupsand custody battles (quickly covered in the second part ofthe film) of all time once she learned Woody had takenup with one of her adopted daughters, Soon-Yi. Weidedid ask her but was politely declined. In order to use herfilm clips, though, he needed her permission due to SAGregulations. She consented to let them be used. “Shecould have really hung me up there but she didn’t andI’m extremely grateful for that because I would have hada 12-year hole in my film,” he said.Despite all the rare personal insights into Allen and allthe access into his apartment, there is no sign of thethree Oscars ® he won (two as director and co-writer of1977’s Annie Hall and another writing Oscar ® for 1986'sHannah and Her Sisters). Nor is there any sign of the 21Academy certificates signifying all of his nominations(the last coming for 2005’s Match Point). “I doubt he evenknows where they are, and I’m not kidding about that,”Weide told me. “Because he gave all that stuff, all thosetoys to his parents and his parents are both gone now.Maybe his sister has them or something but no, youwalk into his house and you would have no idea he’s inshow business at all. There’s no movie posters on theALLEN WITH ROBERT WEIDEThere can be no doubt though it is a bit of a “happyending” for Sony Pictures Classics which is getting allthis free publicity during a key campaign period andhave a show that reminds everyone of the prodigioustalent and career of Woody who has now reached anew peak at age 75.In the film, Weide takes Allen back to his oldneighborhood in Brooklyn, the now-vanished movietheatre locations he went to as a kid, the set of an Allenfilm, his editing room, his home, the New York hauntswhere he plays clarinet weekly among other places. Plusthere are numerous in-depth interviews with Woodyand key players in his life including his sister/producerLetty Aronson, such actors as Diane Keaton, DianneWiest, Mariel Hemingway, Tony Roberts, Sean Penn,Scarlett Johansson, Gordon Willis, Martin Scorsese,Dick Cavett, Owen Wilson and critics like LeonardMaltin, FX Feeney and Richard Schickel.One of the most fascinating and rare parts of thisportrait is seeing Allen and the simple typewriter he hasused to type every film script and even every joke sincehis career began as a writer and nightclub performer inthe ’50s. He has never gone to a computer and neverchanged typewriters. I asked Weide where Allen evengets the typewriter ribbons for it. “He said there’s aplace downtown and every now and then he’ll sendsomeone over and just buy boxes of them. And I said‘you’re famously inept when it comes to anything sortof mechanical, how do you even know how to changethe ribbon?’ He says ‘I’ll throw a dinner party. AndI’ll be sure to invite someone who I know knows howto change it…So right around dessert I’ll kinda sidleup to them and say, ‘hey, when you were here beforedidn’t you change my typewriter ribbon?’ And they’llsay, ‘yeah’ and I’ll say ‘hey do you wanna come upand take a look again?’ And then he cons them intochanging the ribbon,” Weide explained.wall, there’s no pictures of him with celebrities. It’s allvery tasteful but it could be the apartment of a lawyeror doctor or something. There’s nothing that indicatesthat it’s Woody Allen. He doesn’t have disdain for thatstuff, he’s just not interested. So it’s not like ‘what arethey giving me these Oscars ® for?’ It was kinda ‘Ahh,that’s nice’. And he gave them to his parents.”The fact is Allen has never attended a single Oscar ®ceremony where he was nominated and has appearedon the show only once, post 9/11, when he wasrecruited to do a tribute to New York filmmaking onthe 2002 Oscarcast. Should Midnight in Paris bring himmore nominations as I expect, you can bet he won’tbe at the Kodak to see if he wins. But Weide’s oncein-a-lifetimeportrait of this icon will certainly remindviewers (and voters) why he still deserves to be in theOscar ® hunt, whether he wants them or not. •

Gervais Is Back toGive HFPA ®a Host of AGITABy RayRichmondSo in the end, Ricky Gervais will get to have his cake and insult it, too. Again. Justas he seemed to know all along with his Cheshire Cat grin and mocking, goadinggame of Truth or Dare.42 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02The Golden Globe Awards ® – which takes pride in beingthe most unpredictable awards show on the planet – hasagain enlisted the services of a British comedian reveredfor being rude and crude to all dinner guests ratherlike the naughty love child of Simon Cowell and DonRickles. And you can safely bet that’s what people will beexpecting when Gervais takes the stage on Jan. 15 in theGrand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel for the eventbeing telecast live once again over NBC.How did it come to this? It’s a good question. And to besure, despite the presumption that the Hollywood ForeignPress Association ® had no choice but to invite Rude Rickyback to three-peat as host, Gervais’ return for his thirdconsecutive stint was hardly a slam-dunk. There wasgreat internal debate at the HFPA ® over whether this wasreally such a swell idea, ratings bump or no ratings bump.If you want to hear what it sounds like when a coupleof thousand people collectively hold their breath, besomewhere near a television monitor on Jan. 15 to catchGervais’ opening monologue. There has in fact never beena more hotly anticipated awards show hosting appearancethan is Ricky’s early next year, when he will somehow beRICKY GERVAIS HFPA ®expected to top what was widely seen as the most jawdroppinglydiscourteous performance in Hollywoodkudofest annals. It was really closer to A Comedy Central Roastof A-List Hollywood. The tension this time will require notmerely a knife to cut it but a samurai sword.Gervais immediately fanned the flames of anticipationfollowing the Nov. 16 announcement of his momentousGlobes return, tweeting, “Just told Billy Crystal he’d betternot use any of my Holocaust or pedophile material at theOscars. ® He agreed (true).” Later, he tweeted, “Be afraid,Hollywood egos, be very afraid. It’s gonna be Biblical.”This past January, after Gervais took hardcore shotstargeting everyone from Johnny Depp and AngelinaJolie to Tom Cruise and John Travolta to Scientologyto the HFPA ® itself, the shock-laden buzz followingthe Globes show was deafening. Many of the stars inattendance were said to be incensed. It obliged then-HFPA ® president Philip Berk to insist, “He definitelycrossed the line. And some of the things were totallyunacceptable. But that’s Ricky.”Since Gervais now has been invited back, unacceptableapparently just became acceptable. But the decision forRicky to return was internally very much a close call atthe HFPA. ® Those arguing for his coming back cited howthe Globes audience rose in 2010 during Gervais’ firststint to around 17 million viewers, and there was littlefalloff in year two this past January. Plus there was all ofthat chatter, the kind that the staid Globes could neverhave dreamed of before Gervais strode up and tossed anice-cold glass of water in everyone’s faces.A source close to this year’s discussions told Awardsline a fewdays before the decision, “There are those who feel thatratings and revenue are what the HFPA ® need to focus onmost. Of course, that’s all NBC is interested in. The otherfaction at the association believes that without Ricky, youmay lose a little in viewership but wind up better protectingthe brand…The problem is, if you have Ricky, the showtends to be all about him and how mean he can be. Heeffectively dwarfs the importance of the ceremony itself.”That same source reported that the debate inside theHFPA ® was fierce and the factions initially thought tobe evenly split. But finally, those supporting Gervaisoverwhelmingly won out during the Nov. 16 membervote, echoing the desire of NBC (which had been openlylobbying for his return) and risking an A-list backlash.Word is that at least one significant star was threateningnot to attend if Gervais emcees. That may still be the case.Aida Takla-O’Reilly, the newly installed president of theHFPA ® , stressed to Awardsline that NBC wasn’t exertingpressure on the group to have Gervais return for the thirdgo-’round. “I don’t react well to pressure,” she said. “Thisis all about making a reasoned decision and what’s best forthe Hollywood Foreign Press and the Golden Globes. ® ”On the other hand, as one Hollywood producer observed,“All of the posturing was bullshit. They never had anychoice but to have him back. Gervais has given this showits greatest buzz and exposure ever, for a lame ceremonythat quite frankly no one has ever really given a crap about.”Takla-O’Reilly maintained that the Globes are about a lotmore that just a host. But she did admit that the show hadbeen “getting boring” in recent years and had been pushingthe idea that “the format has to change.” Change how?“With more entertainment, more razzle-dazzle,” she replied.“That’s why I’m greatly in favor of the Aida Formula.”The Aida Formula?“That’s making sure that the star interaction is the key,”Takla-O’Reilly says of her eponymous rule. “The idea isto have a constant flow of stars so that at every momentthere is a movie star on stage being looked at. It’s howthose stars interact that will make the day.”Well, perhaps that and how effectively the host is carvingthose same stars to ribbons. The odds that Gervaiswould have a third opportunity at this gig were thoughtto be exceedingly slim in the immediate wake of lastJanuary’s controversy. Even Gervais himself was notedto be somewhat sheepish at the ceremony after-parties,earnestly quizzing well-wishers on whether he hadindeed gone too far. But as the months passed, the stormsubsided and the HFPA ® increasingly warmed to itssavior-tormenter.Brace yourself, then, for The Ricky Gervais Show: Volume 3,though this time it’s thought that the HFPA ® could insiston vetting Gervais’ monologue and one-liners in advance.Noted the source: “Right. Like Ricky is going to pay anyattention to that.” •

NIkkI FINkEFOUNDER & EDITOR IN ChIEFIS hOSTINGA VERY SPECIAL EVENT OVER ONEExTRAORDINARY WEEkENDsaturday, december 10 thand/or sunday, december 11 th10am to 5pm each daybreakfast • morning presentations • lunchpanel discussion • afternoon presentationsthe landmark theatre10850 west pico (at westwood blvd)AMPAS AND GUILD MEMBERS ONLYseating is extremely limitedThis inviTaTion is non-Transferableemail rsvp@deadline.comor call 310-484-2572PARTICIPATING STUDIOS INCLUDE:Sony PicturesMoneyballIdes of MarchThe Weinstein CompanyThe ArtistCoriolanusThe Iron LadyMy Week with MarilynW.E.Summit50/50A Better LifeLionsgateWarriorDreamWorksThe HelpWar HorseMillenniumRampartFox SearchlightThe Tree of LifeParamountFilms TBDFocus FeaturesPariahDreamWorks AnimationKung Fu Panda 2Puss in BootsCohen Media GroupThe LadyWarner Bros.ContagionHarry Potter and the DeathlyHallows: Part 2J. Edgar

An Emotional GovernorsAwards Pays TributeBy PeteHammondto Winfrey, Jones, SmithA.M.P.A.S. ®At the third annual Governors Awards held on Nov. 12, Oscar®-winning screenwriterDiablo Cody (Juno) was seated next to me and before the show unexpectedly saidof being in the room with Oprah: “This is extreme for me. I am an Oprah worshipper.”44 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 02A version of this story originally ran onDeadline.com on Nov. 13, 2011.After this year’s recipient of the Jean Hersholt HumanitarianAward earned a trio of standing ovations and ended heremotional acceptance speech to bring the big night to aclose, Cody concluded, “I feel like I have just freebasedOprah.” Indeed it was Oprah’s night in this room.But it also belonged to the other honorary Oscar ®winners, too – makeup legend Dick Smith and actorJames Earl Jones, who accepted his award from London’sWyndham stage in a segment taped earlier in the day aftera matinee performance of Driving Miss Daisy in which heis appearing alongside Vanessa Redgrave.So far I have been to all three Governors Awardsceremonies and this seemed the most emotional of themOPRAH WINFREY A.M.P.A.S. ®all, with both Winfrey and Jones referencing their longjourney from Mississippi to this Hollywood moment.One attendee told me afterwards, “I was really movedby this more than any other year.” If only the speechescould be this good on the Oscar ® show itself. Then theAcademy wouldn’t have to worry about who hosts orproduces the show.Academy President Tom Sherak made his entrance ina Darth Vader uniform (in tribute to Jones) and openedwith the same line he used to introduce a screening ofthe Jones film, The Great White Hope on Friday night:“How was your week?” It was an obvious reference to thetumultuous events surrounding this year’s Oscar ® show.But that was the only time the week’s events came upall evening. This was a night for the honorees and theyall made the most of it. Before dinner, a stirring reel wasshown highlighting the entire 84-year history of honoraryOscar ® winners, followed by a touching tribute to pastOscar ® show producers Laura Ziskin and Gil Cates whoboth died this year.Alec Baldwin got the show rolling after dinner by honoringhis The Hunt for Red October co-star Jones saying, “Unlikemany actors, James Earl Jones never had to get his careerback because he never lost it. He is one of the greatestactors in history.” Glenn Close came out to praise him byreferencing his Broadway triumph Fences. “He is the onlyactor who has broken me apart and transformed me untilI was a screaming slobbering mess. James Earl Jones isindeed a world treasure.” Redgrave via tape surprised herco-star by bringing on Sir Ben Kingsley with an Oscar ® topresent to Jones. ”You achieve what every actor is strivingfor. You are always so damn good,” Kingsley praised.Jones was genuinely taken aback. “If an actor’s nightmareis being onstage butt-naked and not knowing his lines,then what the hell is this?” he laughed. “This is an actor’swet dream. I am gobsmacked at this improbable momentin my life. You cannot be an actor like I am and not havebeen in some of the worst movies like I have. But I standbefore you deeply honored, mighty grateful, and justplain gobsmacked.”The room then turned into a lovefest for veteran makeupwizard Dick Smith, the legend behind such remarkabletransformations as Dustin Hoffman in Little Big Man,Marlon Brando in The Godfather, Robert De Niro in TaxiDriver, F. Murray Abraham in Amadeus, and Linda Blair inThe Exorcist, who told the crowd: “I was supposed to be thenext Disney girl but then I got this movie and Dick Smithturned me into the ugliest, sickest, scariest monster ever.”Director J.J. Abrams gave a tip of the hat to Smith in hisfilm Super 8 and got the biggest laugh of the night with astory about how when he was a kid back in 1981 he wasobsessed with Smith and wrote him a fan letter. “One daya box arrived from Dick Smith with a note to me that said‘Dear J.J. Here’s an old but clean tongue from The Exorcist’- and it was signed Dick. My mother was very concernedabout who this man named Dick was and why he wassending me tongues.”Seven-time Oscar ® winner and fellow makeup genius RickBaker presented Smith with his Oscar ® (it’s Smith’s second,having won for 1984’s Amadeus) and called him “my idol,mentor, and friend for over 40 years, the greatest makeupartist of all time.” Smith teared up and became almostspeechless but managed to say, “When I watch the wonderfulfilms they just showed, I thought, ‘What a wonderful careerthis fellow has had.’ I have loved being a makeup artist. Tohave had so much kindness is just too much.”Among those paying tribute to Winfrey were her goodfriends John Travolta and producer Larry Gordon (with ahilarious story involving lots of shared tequila), and MariaShriver who explained, “I am standing here because thiswoman has stood by me for 34 years. I’m also standinghere because so many people want to love Oprah.” Topresent the Oscar, ® a young Harlem girl stepped up to thepodium: Ayanna Hall who received a scholarship fromthe Oprah Winfrey Foundation and said she was one of65,000 other students whom Oprah has sent to college.Visibly overwhelmed, Winfrey claimed she had notprepared a speech. “I just wanted to feel what this is…It is unimaginable if you were not a black ‘colored girl’in Mississippi in 1954 to know what this means. WhenI saw The Help and read the book, it was my story. Mygrandmother was a maid, her mother was a maid, hermother before her was a slave, my mother was a maid.This is unimaginable… I will keep this Oscar ® on my deskto remind me to use our lives in service of one another.For me this Oscar ® will represent love from all of you.” •

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATIONBest PictureProduced byDavid Hobermanand Todd LiebermanBest DirectorJames BobinBest Adapted ScreenplayJason Segel& Nicholas StollerBest ActorJason SegelBest ActressAmy AdamsBest Supporting ActorChris CooperBest Original ScoreChristophe BeckBest Original Song“Man Or Muppet”Written by Bret McKenzieBest Original Song“Life’s A Happy Song”Written by Bret McKenzieBest Original Song“Pictures In My Head”Written by Jeannie Lurie,Aris Archontis andChen Neemanwww.WaltDisneyStudiosAwards.com© 2011 DISNEY

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O NBEST PICTUREPRODUCED BYROLAND EMMERICHLARRY FRANCOROBERT LEGERBEST DIRECTORROLAND EMMERICHBEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYJOHN ORLOFFBEST ACTORRHYS IFANSBEST SUPPORTING ACTRESSVANESSA REDGRAVE“‘ANONYMOUS’ IS A SPLENDID EXPERIENCE: THE DIALOGUE,THE ACTING, THE DEPICTION OF LONDON, THE LUST, JEALOUSY AND INTRIGUE.”– Roger Ebert, CHICAGO SUN-TIMES