Pages tagged “academy awards”

The Dark Knight’s increasingly plausible Oscar hopes hit a snag in at least one category when the academy ruled that its score was ineligible for an award because five composers were credited, even though it was widely acknowledged to be primarily the work of Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard.

There's a surprisingly gargantuan Internet faction dedicated to predicting who will be up for film's most coveted prize, the Academy Award. Publications like Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Entertainment Weekly, Los Angeles Times and New York Times all have Oscar blogs that obsessively trail the fluctuations in buzz amongst the year's top films. That's not to mention stand-alone sites like Awards Daily and In Contention, or well-known bloggers like Jeff Wells, Dave Poland and Anne Thompson. Even Roger Ebert has devoted a wealth of recent ink on the subject. But, the truth is, no matter how much someone knows, it's still just a wild guessing game.

At this point, it’s almost become a folk narrative: Ricky Gervais shows up at this year’s Emmys for a brief sketch and provides the only moment of relief in an otherwise disastrous ceremony. Within days there was talk of Gervais resuscitating another often-painful show—the Academy Awards—and reports had his agent in possible talks to get him the job.

Those who caught this year's dismal Emmy Awards know that one of the lone bright spots (and no, we're not referring to Josh Groban's confusing theme song medley) was when Ricky Gervais berated Steve Carell for stealing his Emmy.

“…And finally, I’d like to thank the Academy, especially Ms. Annette Bening for being the newest Academy board member and the board's only first-timer…”

The acceptance speeches at the next Academy Awards ceremony, held early next year, may well go something like that now that actress Bening is joining the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science’s Board of Governors.