Academy Awards
Best (and Worst) of 2016: FilmSaturday, 31 December 2016
Prepare to disagree. 2016 has been getting bad reviews all year long, but for film it was actually pretty strong. So strong, in fact, that there are big omissions from this list of our best films from the past 12 months. Our method of selection was... Read more... |
Oscars 2016: Between Chris Rock and a hard placeMonday, 29 February 2016
The causes kept coming – diversity, of course, but also climate change, sexual abuse, LGBT rights and more – at the 88th annual Academy Awards, which surely ranked as the most politically charged Oscars in years. And that’s not only because one of... Read more... |
We Made It: 'Carol' Costume Designer Sandy PowellTuesday, 16 February 2016
If there is a successor to the great Hollywood costume designer Edith Head, it is Sandy Powell, the British designer of six films directed by Martin Scorsese, three each by Todd Haynes and Neil Jordan, and others by the likes of Derek Jarman, Sally... Read more... |
Best (and Worst) of 2015: FilmMonday, 28 December 2015
The autumn cinema schedules of 2015 were assailed by the double whammy of Spectre and The Force Awakens– at times making it hard to find a screen showing anything else. Yet you’ll see that neither that latest instalment in the Bond... Read more... |
Oscars 2015: Birdman soars, Boyhood plummetsMonday, 23 February 2015
I hope someone by now has told Neil Patrick Harris how to pronounce David Oyelowo’s surname, but if anyone wants to see how not to host an Oscars, Harris’s stewardship of the 87th annual Academy Awards can provide that service in spades.Sure, there... Read more... |
Oscars 2014: All that glitters is not GravityMonday, 03 March 2014
If ever an Oscar ceremony pointed to the fundamentally schizoid nature these days of Hollywood’s defining love-in, the 86th annual Academy Awards was it. On the one hand, you had an out-gay host in Ellen DeGeneres taking selfies, ordering pizza, and... Read more... |
Oscars 2014: Best Picture / Foreign Language Film / Animated FilmSaturday, 01 March 2014
Here's the astonishing thing about the 2014 Oscars: for the first time in memory, there are actually three or four nominees that - dare one say it? - actually merit consideration as the year's best. Is this because films are actually getting better... Read more... |
Oscars 2014: Best Screenplays/Supporting Actor/ActressFriday, 28 February 2014
“Follow the instructions."David Lean’s suggestion to a costume designer shows the importance of the script – a film’s “recipe”. This is why the Oscar categories for Best Adapted Screenplay and Original Screenplay are so important: without great... Read more... |
Oscars 2014: Best Actor/Actress/DirectorWednesday, 26 February 2014
Is it just me or are the Oscars getting better? I don't necessarily mean the show itself, rather the films selected for nomination and the eventual winners. In recent years we've seen films as brilliant and diverse as The Artist, The Hurt Locker and... Read more... |
Oscars 2014: Leo, Sally and Jonah all in, Emma and Tom and French lesbians outThursday, 16 January 2014
The 2014 Oscar nominations are out, and many of the expected awards-season favourites will be popping yet another champagne cork tonight (or, given that the nods take place at 5.30 am in Los Angeles, maybe over breakfast). But even as Cate Blanchett... Read more... |
Oscars 2013: Day-Lewis 3, Skyfall 1½, MacFarlane 0Monday, 25 February 2013
Emmanuelle Riva travelled all the way to Los Angeles for that? I doubt I’m the only one whose heart went out to the radiant French actress, newly turned 86, as the 85th annual Academy Awards drew to a long and lumbering close well into its fourth... Read more... |
Oscars 2013: Best Actor/Actress/DirectorSaturday, 23 February 2013
Given the quantity of uncertain outcomes, this year's Academy Awards guarantee excitement, and there's nothing better than an Oscars ceremony filled with surprises. Furthermore, the selection of films nominated this year are of a rare vintage. Today... Read more... |
