Monthly Wallpaper - February 2010: Strange Love

With Valentine's Day at its heart, February is the month for love ... of all kinds.  Therefore, this month's Movie Dearest calendar wallpaper salutes the many kinds of cinematic "strange love", unlikely romances that think outside the box.

And, as seen in several "beauty and the beast" scenarios, sometimes that is outside the species, not to mention love connections that transcend age, class and (surprise) gender differences.  Then there is the undying love (literally) of ghosts and the undead, not to mention the spark of amour that can be ignited between a certain pair of robotic lovebirds.  These may not be your typical examples of film romance, but they sure are some of the most memorable.

All you have to do is click on the picture above to enlarge it, then simply right click your mouse and select "Set as Background". (You can also save it to your computer and set it up from there if you prefer.) The size is 1024 x 768, but you can modify it if needed in your own photo-editing program.

MD Poll: Good Golly, It's WALL-E!

The fans have spoken, and WALL-E has been voted your favorite Pixar movie in the latest MD Poll.

The Oscar-winning tale of two robots in love took nearly a quarter of the total votes, followed by its successor, this year's hit Up. Three more Academy Award winners — Finding Nemo, Toy Story and The Incredibles — round out the top five. See the comments section below for the complete stats.

And for more Pixar fun: here's the teaser trailer for Toy Story 3, in theaters next summer.

MD Poll: Pick Your Pixar

Now that you have all had a chance to see this summer's hit Up, the MD Poll wants to know: what is your favorite Pixar movie?

You now have a full ten to choose from, so make your "Pixar pick" and vote in the poll, located in the right hand sidebar. Results will be revealed Saturday August 1.

UPDATE: This poll is now closed; click here for the results, and click here to vote in the next MD Poll.

Awards Watch: Saturns 2009

The Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy & Horror Films went bats for The Dark Knight, bestowing the blockbuster with five Saturn Awards last night, including a Best Picture prize in the Action/Adventure/Thriller category. As for the science fiction, fantasy and horror Best Pictures, winners were (respectively) Iron Man, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Hellboy II: The Golden Army, while WALL-E and Let the Right One In triumphed in the animated and international races.

Acting honors went to Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr., as well as Changeling's Angelina Jolie, Knight's Heath Ledger, Button's Tilda Swinton and The Day the Earth Stood Still's Jaden Christopher Smith. The evening's big surprise was a win for Iron Man helmer Jon Favreau over Dark director Christopher Nolan.

Honorary awards were given to actors Lance Henriksen and Leonard Nimoy and producer Jeffrey Katzenberg. Click here for the complete list of winners.

Awards Watch: Saturn Nominations

As could be expected from a group called The Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, The Dark Knight dominated their recently announced Saturn Award nominations, leading the pack with 11 nominations. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Iron Man also finished strongly, with 9 and 8 film nominations (respectively), while Lost dominated the television categories, also with 11 nominations.

What is not as expected is the ASFFHF's broad definition of genres; according to them, Clint Eastwood's Changeling and Gran Torino are thrillers and Slumdog Millionaire is a fantasy (as if that movie needs any more awards any way), among other head-scratchers. And while most would agree that The Happening is a horror film, even more would say it was just plain horrible; and yet, there it is, nominated for Best Horror Film.

The 35th Annual Saturn Awards will be presented June 25. For a quick look at all the film nominees, see the comments section below.

Awards Watch: Oscars Post Mortem and the 2008 Yearly Round Up

Now that all the (gold) dust has settled on this year's Oscars, it's time to take one last look at the movie award season just past. But before we get to our yearly round up of what movies won the most prizes overall, there's one more bit of 2008 business to attend to: how about that show the other night?

Having watched every single Academy Award ceremony since at least 1977, I have to say that this year's was by far the best. As expected, Hugh Jackman was as charming and classy a host as we have seen in a long time, and his marathon musical numbers proved to the world that he is not just Wolverine. I especially enjoyed his mega-movie musical salute (staged by Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann) with Dreamgirl Beyoncé Knowles, High School Musical cuties Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens and Mamma Mia! lovebirds Amanda Seyfried and Dominic Cooper.


Further kudos go out to the ceremony's producers, Laurence Marks and Bill Condon, who took some chances with the format and succeeded in shaking things up in a positive way. From the grandiose yet intimate set to the unique presentation of the acting awards, the show finally did what it is supposed to do: celebrate the year in film (and not just those chosen few that were nominated too). Here's my vote that this dream team reunites for next year's Oscars.


All right, onto our annual look at the top award winners. As I stated last year, I have tallied up the total trophies handed out by the top 26 organizations, critics groups and industry guilds so as to get a clearer picture of what is indeed the Best Picture (et al) of the year; the results can sometimes be surprising. (Only categories with at least two wins are included.)

Picture of the Year: Slumdog Millionaire, 7 wins.
Actor of the Year: Sean Penn in Milk, 6 wins.
Actress of the Year: Sally Hawkins in Happy-Go-Lucky, 5 wins.
Supporting Actor of the Year: Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, 7 wins.
Supporting Actress of the Year: Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona, 6 wins.
Director of the Year: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire, 7 wins.
Adapted Screenplay of the Year: Simon Beaufoy for Slumdog Millionaire, 6 wins.
Original Screenplay of the Year: Dustin Lance Black for Milk, 3 wins.
Cinematography of the Year: Slumdog Millionaire, 5 wins.
Art Direction of the Year: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 3 wins.
Costume Design of the Year: The Duchess, 4 wins. Original Score of the Year: Slumdog Millionaire, 6 wins.
Original Song of the Year: "The Wrestler" from The Wrestler, 2 wins.
Film Editing of the Year: Slumdog Millionaire, 3 wins.
Sound Mixing & Editing of the Year: The Dark Knight and Slumdog Millionaire, 4 wins each.
Visual Effects of the Year: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 6 wins.
Makeup Design of the Year: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2 wins.
Animated Feature of the Year: WALL-E, 9 wins.
Foreign Film of the Year: Waltz with Bashir, 2 wins.
Documentary Feature of the Year: Man on Wire, 10 wins.
New Director of the Year: Courtney Hunt for Frozen River and Steve McQueen for Hunger, 2 wins each.

The top winner was (no big surprise) Slumdog Millionaire, with wins in 7 categories, while the documentary Man on Wire won the most awards in any category, with 10 total. It is also worth noting that Kate Winslet won a total of 5 awards for her performance in The Reader, 2 for Best Actress and 3 for Best Supporting Actress.

See the comments section below for the list of the 26 groups tracked.

Oscars 2008: Best Animated Feature

WALL-E

Awards Watch: Sound and Fury '08

The last of the pre-Oscar award groups have spoken in two separate ceremonies last night:

The Visual Effects Society showed some love — in the form of four trophies — to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, while The Dark Knight and WALL-E nabbed three each. Changeling also picked up two prizes, but the big news is that Iron Man, which had the most nominations going in, went home empty-handed.

Elsewhere, the Motion Picture Sound Editors bestowed two of its Golden Reel Awards upon The Dark Knight. Button and WALL-E also won, as well as Mamma Mia! and Slumdog Millionaire.

Movie Dearest's Fearless Oscar Predictions - 2008

At first, it seemed that this award season was going to be a little more exciting and unpredictable than usual, what with a masked superhero and a cartoon robot unexpectedly in the mix. But, as you know, that didn't happen. Then a feel good sleeper about abject poverty, child prostitution and drug dealers snuck in under the radar and won every award in sight.

And that's not hyperbole, Slumdog Millionaire really has won every award in sight, some dubiously so (again, costume design ... really?). (Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed Slumdog, but I have a feeling once it hits DVD, there is going to be a lot of "is that it?" chatter.) Needless to say, Slumdog is poised to take the lion's share of tomorrow night's trophies, including Best Picture, Director (Danny Boyle), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Film Editing and Original Score. For the rest of Movie Dearest's Fearless Oscar Predictions, see below.


Actor: This race would be a lot closer if Sean Penn (Milk) hadn't won it just five years ago. But he did, so comeback kid Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler) will win.
Actress: Kate Winslet (The Reader) is long overdue.
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) is the surest bet of the evening, and rightly so.
Supporting Actress: This category is always good for a surprise, and I have a hunch that Viola Davis (Doubt) will upset front runner Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona).
Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black's script is Milk's best chance at a win.
Art Direction, Visual Effects and Makeup: With a leading 13 nominations, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button should triumph in these so-called "lesser" categories.
Costume Design: Opulence is the key here, and The Duchess has the prize all but sewn up.
Original Song: Slumdog's "Jai Ho" could dance off with the prize, but I'm sticking with my original prediction for WALL-E's "Down to Earth".
Sound Mixing: Another possibility for a Slumdog sweep, but I expect the bombastic The Dark Knight to be triumphant here, leaving ...
Sound Editing: ... to Animated Feature victor WALL-E.
Foreign Language Film: This one is between Israel's Waltz with Bashir and France's The Class, with the latter, more traditional film winning.
Documentary Feature: Man on Wire seems unbeatable.
Animated Short and Live Action Short: Will turn to Chris' picks on these two — La Maison en Petits Cubes and Spielzeugland (Toyland), respectively.
Documentary Short: The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306 (about the MLK assassination) seems to be the consensus.

Well, there they are ... we'll see how well we do tomorrow night. Don't forget, Movie Dearest will be live blogging all the Oscar winners as they happen. See you then!

UPDATE: Movie Dearest scored about what we usually do, with 17 out of 24 correct predictions. The categories we missed: Actor, Supporting Actress, Foreign Language Film, Original Song, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Documentary Short.

Trivial Pursuits: Oscars 2008

With each year's Academy Awards comes a new batch of Oscar trivia, and 2008 is no different:

- The titles of all five Best Picture nominees — The Reader, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Frost/Nixon — refer to a main character in the film.

- With his Best Director nomination for The Reader, Stephen Daldry has become the first director ever to receive nods for his first three films (his earlier nominations were for Billy Elliot and The Hours).

- Kate Winslet is currently tied with Deborah Kerr and Thelma Ritter as the most nominated actress (six each) not to have won; she is also the youngest actor to have received that many career nominations.

- Robert Downey Jr.'s nomination for Tropic Thunder is not the first time an actor has been nominated for donning "blackface". Mickey Rooney, who performed an elaborate minstrel show production number in Babes in Arms, was nominated for Best Actor, as was Laurence Olivier for the title role in Othello.

- With Frank Langella's nod for Frost/Nixon, Richard Nixon is the first United States President that more than one actor has been Oscar-nominated for playing (Anthony Hopkins previously scored a nod for Nixon). Also, if Langella wins, he will be only the ninth person to win an Oscar and a Tony Award for the same role.

- Doubt's quartet of acting nominations for its entire principal cast is not unprecedented. The four actors of Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the two leads of Sleuth and James Whitmore in the one-man movie Give 'Em Hell, Harry! were all nominated. Note that they were all based on plays.

- Speaking of Doubt, Meryl Streep is now the reigning acting nomination champ, with 15 total. 12 of those noms are for Best Actress, tying her with Katharine Hepburn in that category. Ironically, she is also one of the biggest Oscar "losers".


- This year marks only the fifth time in Academy history that the Best Picture and Best Director races exactly matched; it last happened in 2005.

- Speaking of 2005, current Best Supporting Actor nominees Philip Seymour Hoffman (Doubt) and Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) were both nominated that year for Best Actor, with Hoffman taking home the gold for Capote.

- Speaking of Ledger, if he wins the Oscar on Sunday night, he'll be only the second posthumous acting winner ever, following Network's Peter Finch. Note that they are also both Australian, and they also received their only previous nomination for playing gay characters (Brokeback Mountain and Sunday Bloody Sunday, respectively).

- Ledger is not the only actor to be nominated for playing a comic book character. Previous nominees include Al Pacino (Dick Tracy), Paul Newman (Road to Perdition) and William Hurt (A History of Violence); note that they all also played villains.

- And speaking of Hoffman, he is the only repeat acting nominee from last year (for Charlie Wilson's War, also in the Supporting Actor category).

- Waltz With Bashir is the first animated film ever to be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

- Speaking of animation, WALL-E is tied with Beauty and the Beast for the most nominated animated feature, with six nods each. And if WALL-E wins more than two Oscars (which is a strong possibility), it will be the most honored animated film in Academy history.

Did I miss any thing? If so, add to list in the comments section below.

Awards Watch: Weekend Wrap-Up

With less than a week to go before the Oscars, this past weekend saw four guild award ceremonies ... and wouldn't you know it, Slumdog Millionaire won in every one.

In addition to taking the American Society of Cinematographers and the Cinema Audio Society awards, Slumdog also received trophies from the Art Directors Guild (for contemporary film) and the American Cinema Editors (for drama).

It wasn't all Slumdog though, as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (period film) and The Dark Knight (fantasy film) also won for their art direction, while WALL-E (comedy, a first for an animated film) and Man on Wire (documentary) took home ACE Eddie Awards as well.

Awards Watch: Grammy Winners 2008

Last night's Grammy Awards included a few stage and screen winners:

- Best Musical Show Album: In the Heights
- Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: Juno
- Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: The Dark Knight
- Best Song Written for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: "Down to Earth" from WALL-E
- Best Instrumental Composition: "The Adventures of Mutt" from Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Best Instrumental Arrangement: "Define Dancing" from WALL-E

Awards Watch: BAFTA Winners 2008

Slumdog Millionaire continues its sweep through the pre-Oscar awards, nabbing seven trophies from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts today, including Best Picture and Best Director for Danny Boyle.

Kate Winslet (The Reader) beat herself (Revolutionary Road) for Best Actress, while Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler), Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) and Penélope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) picked up the other acting prizes. (Ironically, the top five awards mirror the current front-runners in the MD Oscar Polls).

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button came in second over-all with three BAFTAs. Other winners include The Duchess, Hunger, In Bruges, I've Loved You So Long, Man on Wire and WALL-E.

Awards Watch: Best Original Song 2008

This post is part of The LAMB Devours the Oscars, a 24-part series dissecting the 81st Annual Academy Awards hosted by the Large Association of Movie Blogs.

Through the years, the Academy Awards category of "Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song" has received more than its fair share of derision. Simply put, it is the Oscar that gets no respect, partly due to the sometimes-questionable presentation of the nominated tunes on the night of The Big Show. Perhaps it is these very and varied production numbers, added to my already undying love for anything even remotely show tune-y, that makes Oscar's Best Songs something of a "guilty pleasure" of mine. In fact, I dare say it is my favorite Oscar category, the first one I instinctively scan the list for when the nominations are announced.

So naturally, this year's nominations were a bit of a disappointment for me, as only three songs (from only two films) made the finals. However, it was a mixed blessing, as (unlike in most years), all the nominees are deserving of winning. And those nominees are:

• “Down to Earth” from WALL-E(Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel.
• “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire(Fox Searchlight), Music by A.R. Rahman, Lyric by Gulzar.
• “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.

Anybody who has seen these two movies and/or heard the three songs (you can listen to them in their entirety at the Official Movie Dearest MySpace page) will notice that the Original Song category has gone global this year; all three tunes have distinct World Music influences. It is also notable that both Newman and Rahman are nominated in the other music category, Original Score, this year. This leads me to predict that they both will be taking home the Little Gold Man on Oscar Night, one in each category. But which one? Let's take a closer look/listen to all three nominated songs.


“O Saya” starts off Slumdog Millionaire with a driving, percussive beat as the two young protagonists are chased through the slums of Mumbai. The lyrics comment on the onscreen action ("They can't touch me") while alluding to the characters' futures ("One day I'll be a star"), and this perfectly captures the desperate situation Jamal and Salim are in, and the lengths they'll each go to escape it.


In contrast, the other Slumdog song “Jai Ho” is a high-energy finale heard at the beginning of the end credits and inter-cut with a dance number right out of Bollywood led by lovebirds Jamal and Latika in the middle of a train station. This infectious fantasy sequence serves as the "happily ever after" to this Dickensian tale and (despite some people's misgivings about it) is a large reason why so many audiences around the world have embraced Slumdog Millionaire, as it follows the old show biz maxim to leave them dancing in the aisles.


The third and final nominee, WALL-E's “Down to Earth”, also acts as an epilogue to the film in question. As Gabriel's plaintive yet inspiring vocals tell about "snow up on the mountains ... rivers down below" and sending the "seeds out in the breeze", the expressionistic end titles sequence depicts the rebirth of our planet through the evolution of art. This song too provides a happy ending, as the words and music wrap you in a comforting belief that there is hope for Mother Earth after all.

So whose name will be called on The Big Night? I think Rahman will get the score award for his overall work on Slumdog, while the song trophy will go to Newman and Gabriel. The Academy will want to (finally) honor Newman, and they love giving this particular prize to superstar recording artists like Gabriel (for example, such past winners as Elton John, Bob Dylan and Melissa Etheridge).

In any event, with three excellent compositions to choose from (and their eagerly awaited live performances on February 22), they (and we) are all winners in my Oscar Song-loving book.

Awards Watch: Panda Upset at the Annies

Kung Fu Panda swept last night's Annie Awards, leaving its fellow Oscar nominee WALL-E empty-handed. Not only did the DreamWorks Animation hit win in all ten feature film categories (thereby breaking the record nine wins set by Ratatouille, another Disney/Pixar favorite, last year), its video game and DVD spin-offs picked up an additional five trophies.

No doubt that this surprise Pixar shut-out will stir up some scandal for the International Animated Film Society (I still say DWA bought and paid for each of those awards). Regardless of their past record of matching up with the Academy Award winners (only once since the Animated Feature Oscar was introduced in 2001 have they not), WALL-E is still the front-runner ... and the Annies are now officially irrelevant.

Awards Watch: PGA Winners, More

This year's awards race is starting to sound like a broken record, as Slumdog Millionaire, Man on Wire and WALL-E took the top prizes in their respective categories at the Producers Guild of America Awards last night. As previously announced, Milk was honored with the Stanley Kramer Award for "dramatically illuminating provocative social issues".

In more Awards Watch for the week, the Motion Picture Sound Editors guild announced their Golden Reel Award nominees, including a Career Achievement Award for WALL-E MVP Ben Burtt. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight and Iron Man led the nominations with three each; see the comments section below for a quick look.

And the 15th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards will air live on both TNT and TBS this evening. In addition to the usual trophies, James Earl Jones will receive their Life Achievement Award. And as usual, we will be live blogging all the film winners right here at Movie Dearest. The festivities start 8:00 PM EST.

Oscars 2008: A Guide to What's on DVD

Haven't seen all of this year's Academy Award nominees? Here's a complete list of all of the Oscar nominated feature films that are currently available on DVD, plus release dates for those that are coming soon. All are also available on Blu-ray unless otherwise noted.

Now available:
- Changeling(3 nominations, including Best Actress).
- The Dark Knight(8 nominations, including Supporting Actor).
- The Duchess(2 nominations).
- Encounters at the End of the World(Documentary Feature nominee).
- Frozen River(2 nominations, including Best Actress).
- Hellboy II: The Golden Army(Makeup Design nominee).
- In Bruges(Original Screenplay nominee).
- Iron Man(2 nominations).
- Kung Fu Panda(Animated Feature nominee).
- Man on Wire(Documentary Feature nominee), DVD only.
- Tropic Thunder(Supporting Actor nominee).
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona(Supporting Actress nominee).
- The Visitor(Best Actor nominee).
- WALL-E(6 nominations, including Animated Feature; also includes Animated Short nominee Presto).
- Wanted(2 nominations).

Coming soon:
- Australia(Costume Design nominee), available March 3.
- The Baader Meinhof Complex(Foreign Language Film nominee), TBA.
- The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)(Documentary Feature nominee), TBA.
- Bolt(Animated Feature nominee), March 24.
- The Class(Foreign Language Film nominee), TBA.
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button(13 nominations, including Best Picture), TBA.
- Defiance(Original Score nominee), TBA.
- Departures(Foreign Language Film nominee), TBA.
- Doubt(5 nominations, including Best Actress), April 7.
- Frost/Nixon(5 nominations, including Best Picture), April 21.
- The Garden(Documentary Feature nominee), TBA.
- Happy-Go-Lucky(Original Screenplay nominee), March 10.
- Milk(8 nominations, including Best Picture), March 10.
- Rachel Getting Married(Best Actress nominee), March 10.
- The Reader(5 nominations, including Best Picture), April 14.
- Revanche(Foreign Language Film nominee), TBA.
- Revolutionary Road(3 nominations, including Supporting Actor), TBA.
- Slumdog Millionaire(10 nominations, including Best Picture), TBA.
- Trouble the Water(Documentary Feature nominee), TBA.
- Waltz with Bashir(Foreign Language Film nominee), TBA.
- The Wrestler(2 nominations, including Best Actor), TBA.