2013 Academy Awards Nominees Available on DVD, Blu-Ray & Streaming Before the Oscars Air

It's been a while since I've posted anything not having to do with my music. So, I thought I'd nerd out and talk about the 2013 Academy Awards nominees. As a movie lover, I grew up watching The Oscars every year and (as far as I remember) haven't missed a single telecast since then. So I get excited and nerdy when it comes to this time of the year. 

2012 was a great year for movies (which is good, because 2011 was not.) So it's no surprise that it's an interesting year for the Academy Awards as well.

Take the Best Actress in a Leading Role category for instance. This category contains the oldest and youngest nominees in its history. Emmanuelle Riva, will turn 86 on the day of the Academy Awards. On the other side of the pendulum, Quvenzhané Wallis, who filmed Beasts of the Southern Wild when she was a mere 6 years old, will be 9 and a half years when the Oscars are handed out.

Riva is nominated for Amour, an Austrian film which received five nominations including Best Picture, the most for any foreign film since Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful. If that film is any indicator (and it is) Amour should definitely take home the Oscar for Foreign Language Film.

All of the men in the supporting role category are past winners. So we'll hope for a speech that rivals that of Tom Hanks when he won his second award for Philadelphia, but I'm not holding my breath. All of the actresses on the supporting category are past winners with the exception of Jacki Weaver from Silver Linings Playbook. So let's go ahead and call her underdog of the year.

Argo received seven nominations including Best Picture, Film Editing, and Adapted Screenplay, but director Ben Afleck sadly did not receive a nod. Katherine Hardwick, who was named Best Director for 2008's The Hurt Locker, was also snubbed. Both were nominated for this year's Directors Guild of America Awards. The results of the DGA's, which are voted upon by directors only and will take place February 2, are usually the best indicator for who will take home the Oscar. The Academy decided instead to nominate Michael Haneke for Amour and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild.

It's always frustrating when the nominees for the previous year's best films come from films that haven't even hit local theaters yet. Thankfully this year is different and many of the nominees are or will be available on Blu-Ray, DVD, or streaming before the Oscars, which will air on February 25.

Below is a list of all the nominees that you can watch at home before the big show. I've included Netflix links for your convenience. Of course, Netflix being Netflix, they may not get these DVDs until well after the Oscars. I've placed them in alphabetical and chronological order, but If you really want to be prepared, your best bet is to watch the films with the most nominations first, and the films in the most important categories (Best Picture, Direction, Acting, Writing) second.

These movies are already available:

• The Avengers (Visual Effects)
• Beasts of the Southern Wild (4 important nom - Watch this one.)
• Brave (Animated Feature)
• Frankenweenie (Animated Feature)
• How to Survive a Plague (Doc Feature - Streaming now)
• The Invisible War (Doc Feature - Streaming now)
• Mirror Mirror (Costume - Streaming now)
• Moonrise Kingdom (Original Screenplay)
• The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Animated Feature)
• Prometheus (Visual Effects)
• Snow White and the Huntsman (Costume Design / Visual Effects)
• Ted (Best Song - so...just listen to the song if you want.)

These movies are coming soon:

• 01/15 - 5 Broken Cameras (Doc Feature)
• 01/22 - Amour - (5 Noms including Best Pic)
• 01/22 - Searching for Sugar Man (Doc Feature)
• 02/05 - Flight (Denzel Washington - Lead Actor)
• 02/12 - The Sessions (Helen Hunt - Lead Actress)
• 02/19 - Anna Karenina (4 Noms including Cinematography & Costume)
• 02/19 - Argo (7 noms - don't miss this one) 

If you want to see the rest of the films before the Oscars, your best bet is to head to your local dollar theatre (if you're lucky enough to have one). The majority of the rest of the films will be out on DVD in March. 

So there you go. Get to work!

Movie Trailer of the Week: The King's Speech

For the past couple weeks I wasn't able to find a trailer that really stuck out to me. Nothing seemed blogworthy. So, I didn't post anything. But as awards season approaches, this week I had a hard time choosing from a slew of new movie trailers.

I could have chosen either of two upcoming Ryan Gosling films (All Good Things or Blue Valentine). I think Gosling is maybe the best young actor in the world right now. I could have featured a truly depressing trailer for Rabbit Hole , a film with two of my favorite actors Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart, that I'm sure will be uplifting in the end. I could have forgone all of the award-seeking fodder for Scream 4.

Ultimately, the trailer that resonated with me the most was for the film The King's Speech. The king in question is stuttering, stammering King George VI, the father of Queen Elizabeth II. He is played by Colin Firth, who I'm certain will be a multiple award nominee for this film.

The King's Speech, also starring Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, Michael Gambon, and Guy Pearce, releases Thanksgiving weekend on November 26.

Movie Trailer of the Week - "The Company Men"

Movie Trailer of the Week: Legend of the Guardians

I figured if I'm going to post a trailer the day after the Oscars, I should try to find something that might be nominated next year. The Legend of the Guardians is a shoo in for nomination in the animation category. It comes to theaters on September 24.

Oscars

I'll be live blogging my thoughts on the Oscars at http://twitter.com/ericcoomer.

DVD Trailer of the Week: Millions

I've talked about the movie Millions before. Danny Boyle is a brilliant director and this is just another example of that. I felt he should have been nominated for best director at the Oscars. That wrong was righted when he won for Slumdog Millionaire. If you loved that movie--if you love movies at all--you're bound to love this one as well.

Netflix
Amazon

Oscar Wrap Up

At the end of the day, there were no major surprises...maybe foreign film. I did pretty well on my predictions this year.

I'm happy Slumdog Millionaire won so much. It is a great film with a unique voice.

2009 Oscar Predictions

• Picture - Slumdog Millionaire
  
  
• Director - Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
  
  
• Lead Actor - Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
  
  (For me, this is the hardest race to predict. This could easily go to Sean Penn. They have won almost an exactly equal amount of awards. I'm giving Rourke the edge because he won the BAFTA and that awards show has matched up with Oscar in the acting categories every year since 2001.)
  
  
  
• Lead Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
  
  
• Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
  (This is the most sure-fire of the night)
  
  
• Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  
  
• Original Screenplay: Dustin Lance Black, Milk
  
  
• Adapted Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
  
  
• Animated Film: Wall-E
  
  
• Foreign-Language Film: Waltz With Bashir
  
  
• Documentary Feature: Man On Wire
  
  
• Documentary Short: The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306
  
  
• Editing: Slumdog Millionaire
  
  
• Cinematography: Slumdog Millionaire
  

• Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
  
• Costume Design: The Duchess
  
  
• Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
  
• Score: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
  
  
• Song: "Down To Earth" - Peter Gabriel, Wall-E
  
  
• Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
  
• Sound Editing: Wall-E? (I may change this before the show)
  
  
• Sound Mixing: Slumdog Millionaire? (this one too)
  
  
• Live Action Short: Spielzugland (Toyland)
  
  
• Animated Short: Presto
  
  
  

Getting Ready for Oscar - Colbert's Predictions

Check back at noon today for my predictions.

Getting Ready for Oscar - The Guilds

The most famous "guild awards" is the Screen Actor's Guild. There are guilds and organizations for just about every other Oscar category though, and they provide a decent ruler by which to measure Sunday night's wins.

Screen Actors Guild

• Leading Actor - Sean Penn, Milk
• Leading Actress - Meryl Streep, Doubt
• Supporting Actor - Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
  
• Supporting Actress - Kate Winslet, The Reader

This year's SAGs aren't much help in the actress department this year. Kate Winslet was nominated for both lead and supporting at the SAGs. She was beaten by Meryl Streep for leading but at the Oscars Kate's only nominated for The Reader...as Lead. Confused?


Producers Guild of America

• Feature Film - Slumdog Millionaire
• Documentary - Man On Wire
• Animated - Wall-E
  

This award reflects on the best picture nominees. The other nominees at the PGA were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, Frost/Nixon, and The Dark Knight. The only difference in nominees for best picture at the Oscars is that Dark Knight was replaced by The Reader. Harvey Weinstein is campaigning ruthlessly for it to win but I'm hoping (and fairly confident) that Slumdog will still take best picture. Man On Wire and Wall-E are both no-brainers on Oscar night.


Director's Guild of America

• Feature Film - Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
• Documentary - Ari Folman, Waltz With Bashir
  

A couple things about this:

1. Usually at the Oscars, when the director wins, his film wins.
2. Oscar doesn't offer a director's award for documentary, but this is another reason Waltz could win Foreign Film, beating out the other leading contender The Class.

Writer's Guild of America

• Original Screenplay - Milk
• Adapted Screenplay - Slumdog Millionaire
• Documentary Screenplay - Waltz With Bashir

It is odd that the Academy didn't nominate Waltz for Documentary when so many other awards did. Oscar doesn't award a screenplay for doc, so here's yet another argument for Waltz to win foreign.


American Cinema Editors

• Dramatic Feature - Slumdog Millionaire
• Comedy or Musical Feature - Wall-E

Wall-E is not nominated for editing at the Oscars and Slumdog is likely to win.


Art Director's Guild
This one offers no real help. There are separate categories for Period Film (Benjamin Button), Contemporary Film (Slumdog), and Fantasy Film (Dark Knight). So, the three leading contenders in the Oscar category of art direction were all given awards by this guild. More often than not, Oscar rewards period films though.


Costume Designer's Guild
There are three categories for this guild as well, but it's much more helpful than the ADG winners. The CDG passed out their awards on Tuesday night and the award for best period film went to The Duchess. Fantasy and Contemporary matched the ADG, but it doesn't matter because they aren't nominated for an Oscar in this category. So, one could assume from this win that The Duchess will edge out its biggest competition, Benjamin Button on Sunday night. Come to think of it though, The Dark Knight should have been nominated in this category for the Academy Awards.



The American Society of Cinematographers

• Slumdog Millionaire
  

Motion Picture Sound Editors Guild
The MPSE Golden Reel Awards will be handed out Saturday night. The nominees are listed at their site.

M.I.A. Wants To Sing At The Oscars Through A Hologram

M.I.A. wants to sing at the Oscars through a hologram. The 31-year-old rapper - who gave birth to her baby son last Wednesday, just days after she performed at the Grammys - is so keen to sing at the upcoming award ceremony she is considering using a computer-generated image of herself.

M.I.A. is up for an award in the best original song category for her collaboration with Ar Rahman on "O Saya" - a song which features on the soundtrack of the Danny Boyle film Slumdog Millionaire.

Speaking about the new mother's possible Oscar performance, Indian composer Rahman said: "She wants to. In fact, she said she'll do it with a hologram. She has all these ideas. I don't know how it's going to be possible, though. Having a baby is such an important thing in your life - more important than winning an Oscar."

Read the rest of the article at icelebz.com.

Getting Ready for Oscar - Win Your Oscar Pool

The Oscar Guy is an invaluable resource. Here's his predictions. Here's a tally of the awards the nominated films have already won.

Here's Entertainment Weekly's predictions.

Here's another helpful site, Awards Daily.

My predictions are coming soon. I am usually sure I'm going to win because of all my research ,but then end up losing to my wife's guessing.

Getting Ready For Oscar - 25 Biggest Snubs Of All Time

This year the Academy snubbed several contenders. I mentioned the songs the other day. This year's biggest snub was Gran Torino, which was completely ignored. Many thought Clint Eastwood would be nominated for at least actor. Revolutionary Road's Leo wasn't nominated and Dark Knight was passed over for picture and director.

Check out Entertainment Weekly's 25 Biggest Oscar Snubs of All Time.

Oscar wants to make the show a little more boring.

So, I'm watching the Grammys and I have to say it's been a great show so far. More performances, less awards. But as John Mayer accepted his award for "Say" I thought, "Hey, that song was from the soundtrack to The Bucket List."

That made me remember how irritated I am that only three songs were nominated for Academy Awards this year. The nominees don't even include Bruce Springsteen's "The Wrestler" from the nominated film of the same name. It's not as though the awards show hasn't become one of the most boring things on television. So, why take away two of the musical performances?

I have not seen any of the High School Musicals and I don't plan on it, but it might have been nice to see one of the big numbers performed on the show. Might have been nice to hear Beyonce perform "Once In A Lifetime" from Cadillac Records. We could have continued our love/hate relationship with Miley Cyrus as she sang "I Thought I Lost You" from best animated nominee Bolt.

I would have loved to see Jason Segel perform "Dracula's Lament" from Forgetting Sarah Marshall or Alicia Keys and Jack Black perform "Another Way to Die" from Quantum of Solace.

What we will hear is "Down to Earth," by Peter Gabriel from WALL-E and two songs from Slumdog Millionaire with words I won't understand.

So, when you're trying to win the Oscar party pool it's a safe bet the Slumdog songs will cancel each other out and Peter will arrive on stage to collect his golden statuette. He won the Grammy tonight for "Best Song Written For Motion Picture, Television Or Other Visual Media".

Here is a complete list of the songs that were eligible for this year.

Here's the winner:

Oscar on DVD

It's that time of the year. The nominees for the 81st annual Academy Awards were announced in the wee hours of this morning. But in the current economic climate, who can afford to go to the theater these days? The Oscars will be handed out on February 22. So, there's time to catch up on DVD. Here are the nominees already available:

1. Dark Knight
   
   
2. Tropic Thunder
   
   
3. All the animated films (Kung Fu Panda, Wall-E, Bolt)
   

   
   

4. The Visitor
   
   This is a great movie you may not have seen.
   
   
   Although all of the acting in this film is stellar, The Visitor's lone nomination is for Richard Jenkins as best actor. While definitely deserving of the nomination, he will most likely be beaten by The Wrestler's Mickey Rourke.
   
   
   
   
5. Iron Man (Sound Editing / Visual Effects)
   
   
6. The Duchess (Costume Design)
   
   
7. Encounters at the End of the World (Documentary)
   
   
8. Man on Wire (Documentary)
   
   You can watch it on demand at Netflix.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
9. Wanted (Sound Editing / Mixing)
   
   
10. In Bruges (Original Screenplay)
    
    
11. Vicky Cristina Barcelona (Supporting Actress for Penelope Cruz) - January 27
    
    
12. Frozen River (Actress, Original Screenplay) - February 10
    
    
13. Changeling - February 17
    

AFTER THE AWARDS:

1. Australia (Costume Design) - March 10
   
   
2. Happy-Go-Lucky (Original Screenplay)
   - March 10
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Rachel Getting Married (Lead Actress - Anne Hathaway) - March 17
   

As far as I can tell that's it for now.

None of the best picture nominees or nominees for foreign film are available on DVD. You can count on the studios to announce more release dates over the next few weeks.

Oscar Predictions

• PICTURE – The Departed (This is the hardest to predict, I think. I liked Little Miss Sunshine but I can’t understand how got it nominated. I hated Babel but it really is the other top contender. I didn’t see the other two yet but Iwo Jima is unlikely because Eastwood has won so much lately and many would have preferred to see it nominated for Foreign Language Film. The Queen really is critically acclaimed so it may be the dark horse. I’m thinking they will reward Scorsese with Best Picture as well as Best Director.)
• DIRECTOR – Scorsese
• LEAD ACTOR – Forrest Whittaker
• LEAD ACTRESS – Helen Mirren
• SUPP ACTOR – Eddie Murphy
• SUPP ACTRESS – Jennifer Hudson
• ANIMATED – Cars
• ORIG SCREENPLAY – Little Miss Sunshine
• ADAP SCREENPLAY – The Departed
• FOREIGN FILM – Pan’s Labyrinth
• SCORE – Pan’s Labyrinth
• SONG – “Listen” from Dreamgirls
• ART DIRECTION – Pan’s Labyrinth
• CINEMATOGRAPHY – Children of Men
• EDITING – United 93
• COSTUME – Dreamgirls
• MAKEUP – Pan’s Labyrinth
• SOUND MIXING – Dreamgirls
• SOUND EDITING – Letters from Iwo Jima
• VISUAL EFFECTS – Pirates of the Caribbean – Dead Man’s Chest
• DOCUMENTARY FEATURE – An Inconvenient Truth
• DOCUMENTARY SHORT – Recycled Life
• ANIMATED SHORT – The Little Matchgirl
• LIVE-ACTION SHORT – West Bank Story

Oscars

This is the first year in nearly a decade we haven't had an Oscar party and I'm depressed about it and having withdrawals. I'll post my predictions for the awards tomorrow.

Oscar wrap up

So, I just watched the Oscars with a bunch of friends and it was a really boring show as far as speeches go, but Jon Stewart was hee-lay-ree-us.

Okay and here's my conclusion on the score for Brokeback Mountain...the theme rips off Maddonna's "Oh Father".

Crash won best picture! The only surprise all night and it was a big one.

Daphne and I watched March of the Pengiuns (a winner tonight) and Walk the Line (ditto) this week and loved both. The DVD for Crash was sitting on our shelf for two months (we have Netflix) because we got it right around the time of Hurricane Katrina and didn't feel like watching such a serious movie. Finally I got tired of seeing it sit there and sent it back. Well I got it again and maybe we'll watch it tomorrow night.

We're kind of TV junkies though and tomorrow night is a double helping of new 24 on Fox so I don't know. I do know we're not going to let it sit there for two more months.