Tom Hanks hands husband and wife team, Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo their Oscars for Best Art Direction.
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Dante Ferretti was the only winner to thank his crew, let alone any below-the-line crew. Films get made on the backs of their crew and I was so pleased to see that Dante respects his crew enough to thank them. It was lovely to see him win his 3rd Oscar for his staggering work on Hugowhich topped my list for best production design this past year. For once the Academy had it right.
For a list of all the nominees and winners of the 84th Academy Awards,click here.
[UPDATED FEB 26th: Winners listed with an * in red below]
At 8:30am EST this morning the Academy Award nominees were announced. Hugo led with 11 nominations followed by The Artist with 10. Noticeable snubs included Michael Fassbender, Ryan Gosling and Michael Shannon among others as well as their amazing films Shame, Drive and Take Shelter. Most shocking of all was the Best Picture nomination for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close as the film has not been all that well-received.
I personally was sad to see The Tree of Life snubbed in the Best Art Direction category as I think Jack Fisk brings with the goods each and every time and still hasn’t won an Oscar for his beautiful and restrained work but it was such a tight category this year. Overall I’m pleased with the craft categories but they really missed the mark with the major categories. They do this every year so I’m not sure why I’m surprised. I like to look at the positive though: At least Robert Stromberg will not be winning an Academy Award this year and with any luck nobody will pull out a hat to put on their Oscar. I could not have handled a threepeat.
I was also very pleased to see French Canadian film Monsieur Lazhar nominated for Best Foreign Language Film as well as Polish & Canadian co-production In Darkness in the same category. I don’t say it enough but I am very proud to be Canadian.
The 84th Academy Awards will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012. Here is the full list of Oscar nominees:
I loved Liz Taylor. Not because she was beautiful, not because she was a tabloid temptress, but because she was a damn fine actress. Since the day that she passed people seem to have forgotten that the reason she was in our lives in the first place was because she was an actress. She entertained us and made us feel something with every role she encapsulated. I just wanted to take a moment and remember some of her most memorable roles, not to mention some great sets she helped bring to life. She will be missed.
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Jane Eyre (1943)
Elizabeth Taylor as Helen Burns
National Velvet (1944)
Elizabeth Taylor as Velvet Brown
Little Women (1949)
Elizabeth Taylor as Amy
Father of the Bride (1950)
Elizabeth Taylor as Katherine ‘Kay’ Banks
A Place in the Sun (1951)
Elizabeth Taylor as Angela Vickers
The Last Time I Saw Paris (1954)
Elizabeth Taylor as Helen Ellsworth
Giant (1956)
Elizabeth Taylor as Leslie Benedict
Raintree County (1957)
Elizabeth Taylor as Susanna Drake
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)
Elizabeth Taylor as Maggie Pollitt
Suddenly Last Summer (1959)
Elizabeth Taylor as Catherine Holly
Cleopatra (1963)
Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
Elizabeth Taylor as Martha
The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Elizabeth Taylor as Katharina
Reflections in a Golden Eye (1967)
Elizabeth Taylor as Leonora Penderton
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What is your favourite Liz Taylor movie? The above two trailers are my favourites.
It’s time for our bi-weekly Links & Stuff post. If you want to stay in the loop before the weekend rolls around follow ADM on Twitter (@artdepartmental) and on our brand new Facebook page where we post all the latest and greatest Film, Art, Architecture and Production Design news. You can find the last Links & Stuff post here.
Robert Stromberg turns his Art Direction Oscar into the Mad Hatter.
Hold on… gag reflex kicking in… can’t write… *barf*
The problems with a 16 hr workday and what it says about you.
The King’s Speech Controversy and Eve Stewart’s lying. Figured I had to mention this at some point. I don’t care what she did. I care that she lied about it. I felt a bit betrayed. Some interesting points were also made in the comments section. It seems most people do not understand art direction in the slightest. This needs to change.
Thumbs down. Thumbs way down. Down, buried in the grave yard of dead art direction down. Wonderland is where art direction goes to die.
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Robert Stromberg thinks he’s a) funny or b) cute by putting a ‘Mad Hatter’ hat on his Oscar. How presumptuous to have it made and how insulting it is to the other nominees. Truly tasteless.
I realize that I shouldn’t bad mouth any production designer at this stage in my career but I’m sorry, I can’t help it. This was the worst choice the Academy could have made. If I were to order the strength of the nominees in the order that I see fit, Alice in Wonderland would have been on the bottom and in my books not even nominated. I think at this point the Academy just nominates all Tim Burton films no matter what and generally I’m okay with that as a big Tim Burton fan but when the film looks like a ghetto floral shop exploded on the screen in a cartoon candy land not to mention the over-use of visual effects and greenscreen I do not abide.
When I look at some of the truly phenomenal and thoughtful art direction provided to us this year by masters of their craft I shake my head in disgust at the disregard shown at the Academy Awards last night. I don’t believe for a second those voters did their homework nor understood in definition what great art direction is or what it entails. If they had, Robert Stromberg could have kept that dumb little hat in his pocket.
Inception was robbed. Blind-folded, held at gunpoint, and robbed.
Sorry but this is just my opinion. I’ll write something a little more educated and intelligent when the steam stops coming out of my ears. Rant over.
