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2007 Academy Awards Winners

Posted by Vogt
at May 24, 2008

Let’s look at the results from the 79th Academy Awards ceremony:

Best Motion Picture of the Year:

The Departed

Achievement in Directing:

Martin Scorsese for The Departed

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role:

Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role:

Helen Mirren for The Queen

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role:

Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role:

Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls

Best Animated Feature Film of the Year

Happy Feet (George Miller)

Best Foreign Language Film of the Year:

The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen) - Germany (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

Best Documentary Film of the Year:

An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim)

Best Adapted Screenplay:

William Monahan for The Departed

Best Original Screenplay:

Michael Arndt for Little Miss Sunshine

Best Cinematography:

Guillermo Navarro for Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score:

Gustavo Santaolalla for Babel

Best Original Song

An Inconvenient Truth: Melissa Etheridge (”I Need To Wake Up”)

Other Awards

Best Art Direction: Pan’s Labyrinth (Eugenio Caballero, Pilar Revuelta)

Best Achievement in Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (John Knoll, Hal T. Hickel, Charles Gibson, Allen Hall)

Achievement in Make-up: Pan’s Labyrinth (David Mart, Montse Rib)

Best Sound Editing: Letters From Iwo Jima (Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman)

Best Sound Mixing: Dreamgirls (Michael Minkler, Bob Beemer, Willie D. Burton)

Best Film Editing: The Departed (Thelma Schoonmaker)

Best Costume Design: Marie Antoinette (Milena Canonero)

Best Documentary Short Subject: The Blood of Yingzhou District (Ruby Yang, Thomas Lennon)

Best Animated Short: The Danish Poet (Torill Kove)

Best Live-Action Short: West Bank Story (Ari Sandel)

Big Winners:

Four Awards:

The Departed

Three Awards:

Pan’s Labyrinth

Two Awards:

An Inconvenient Truth

Dreamgirls

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Annette Bening Biography

Posted by Vogt
at May 9, 2008

annette-bening.jpg

The preternatural poise exuded by versatile, attractive performer Annette Bening is a byproduct of her years of successful stage work in regional theater that culminated with a 1987 Tony-nominated portrayal in Tina Howe’s “Coastal Disturbances”. Although her feature debut as the sexually frustrated wife of Dan Aykroyd in the lackluster comedy “The Great Outdoors” (1988) may have disappointed, audiences soon took note of her streamlined carriage and superb vocal instrument when she etched an aptly uneasy portrait of wickedness as the Marquise de Merteuil in Milos Forman’s “Valmont” (1989). The cool subtlety of her performance caught the attention of Stephen Frears, who ironically had directed his own version of the same tale, “Dangerous Liaisons”, six months earlier. (Bening had, in fact, auditioned for Michelle Pfeiffer’s role in that film).

Frears cast Bening alongside John Cusack and Anjelica Huston in his classy film noir, “The Grifters” (1990), adapted from the novel by Jim Thompson. Although it was her nude scenes in the film which generated the most publicity, Bening injected considerable verve and authority into her portrayal of a tough young hustler who coolly uses her body as one of the tools of her trade–a performance intentionally modeled after Gloria Grahame’s in Fritz Lang’s landmark noir “The Big Heat” (1953). The role earned Bening a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, propelled her into the front rank of Hollywood leading ladies and prompted references to her as the “thinking man’s sex symbol.” She went on to demonstrate her versatility by portraying nurturing, supportive wives in “Guilty By Suspicion” and “Regarding Henry” (both 1991) before returning to a more seductive role opposite future husband Warren Beatty in “Bugsy” (1991), surprising everyone by winning the heart of the Playboy of the Hollywood World.

After a three year hiatus to marry and start a family, Bening and Beatty again co-starred, this time in “Love Affair” (1994), the second remake of a 1939 film of the same title. They played two people engaged to others who fall in love after an accidental meeting. While many hoped to draw comparisons between the couple’s real-life romance and their film characters, the pair vehemently denied any connections and the on screen results were less than stellar. Juggling motherhood and a career, Bening has made sacrifices, relinquishing the coveted Catwoman role in “Batman Returns” (1992) when the stork first flew into her life and dropping out of “Disclosure” (1994) due to her second pregnancy. She won acclaim for her deft comic turn as a lobbyist romanced by “The American President” (Michael Douglas) and as Queen Elizabeth in Ian McKellen’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s “Richard III” (both 1995).

After appearing in Tim Burton’s “Mars Attacks!” (1996), Bening starred alongside Bruce Willis and Denzel Washington in “The Siege” (1998) and teamed with Aidan Quinn as a psychic with telepathic connections to a killer in Neil Jordan’s “In Dreams” (1999). She followed with what many felt was her best work in years, playing the domineering real estate broker wife of a man undergoing a mid-life crisis in the acclaimed “American Beauty” (also 1999). For her performance, she netted a Best Actress Academy Award nomination. Bening followed with a comic turn opposite Garry Shandling in the Mike Nichols-directed comedy “What Planet Are You From?” (2000). After a lengthy hiatus from the screen, Bening—who dropped out of the Disney comedy remake “Freaky Friday” shortly after filming began—took on the role of actor/director Kevin Costner’s spirited and refreshingly age-appropriate love interest Sue Barlow in the under-appreciated Western revival “Open Range” (2003). The actress then accumulated some of the best reviews of her career when she starred as a diva stage actress caught up in a May-December romance with a young social climber only to end up plotting a delicious revenge in “Being Julia” (2004), a bravura turn that ultimately earned her a Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. Hot off the heels of her Golden Globe win, Bening grabbed an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role and was considered a heavy favorite going into the awards.

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Friend and Bates join Pfeiffer in “Cheri”

Posted by Vogt
at May 7, 2008

cheri.jpgTwo-time Academy Award-nominated director Stephen Frears (The Queen) is set to helm a 1920s period piece based on the book “Cheri” by French author Collette.  Michelle Pfeiffer had already signed on to do the project, but it has been announced that Kathy Bates and Rupert Friend (Pride & Prejudice) will now be joining her.

Friend will play the title character, and Bates is in final negotiations to play his mother, Madame Peloux, a famed courtesan in 1920s France. Peloux sends the spoiled Cheri to her courtesan pal Lea de Lonval (Pfeiffer) for an adult education, but their six-year affair comes to a painful end when he’s forced to marry a wealthy young woman.

Cheri will begin filming later next month and is slated for release sometime in 2009 (exact date not yet specified).

These are some incredibly talented actors and, from what I hear, Frears is a great director (you don’t get two Oscar nods if you aren’t!)… so I’m interested to see what they do with this!

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