Tuesday, 24 January 2012

Oscars 2012

The 84th Academy Awards ceremony will honor the best films of 2011 and will take place on February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. It will be televised in the United States on ABC. The nominations were announced on January 24, 2012.

Billy Crystal will be the host. This will be Crystal's ninth time hosting the awards ceremony.



Best Documentary Feature:

- Hell and Back Again
Hell and Back Again is a 2011 documentary film directed by Danfung Dennis about a sergeant in the United States Marines Corps who returns from the Afghanistan conflict with post-traumatic stress disorder.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Hzz4iTwSsI

- If A Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front is a documentary film by filmmaker Marshall Curry, exploring the origins, motives, and organization of the Earth Liberation Front and Eco-terrorism in general. Additionally, it explains how the Department of Justice was able to find and arrest Daniel McGowan and his co-conspirators in a nationwide sweep in December, 2005 and raises questions as to whether or not they deserved to be sentenced as "terrorists."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAGxy85R380

- Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory is a 2011 documentary film and sequel to the films Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills and Paradise Lost 2: Revelations. The three films chronicle the arrest, 18 year imprisonment, and eventual release of Damien Echols, Jason Baldwin, and Jessie Misskelley, otherwise known as the West Memphis 3. The films, directed by Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky, are considered to play a substantial role in generating publicity, awareness, and support for the innocence of the West Memphis 3.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B43Cj-JEJdo

- Pina
Pina is a 2011 German 3D dance film directed by Wim Wenders. During the preparation of the documentary about Pina Bausch, she died unexpectedly. Wim Wenders cancelled the film production, but the other dancers of Tanztheater Wuppertal convinced him to make the film anyway. It now shows these other dancers, talking about her and dancing in her honor, not just in the theater, but most of the time at various outdoor locations.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNuQVS7q7-A

- Undefeated
Undefeated is a 2011 documentary directed by Daniel Lindsay and T.J. Martin. The film documents the struggles of the Memphis's Manassas Tigers as they attempt a winning season after years of losses. The team is turned around (=changed to be succesful) by a devoted coach, named Bill Courtney, who help form a group of young men into academic and athletic team.


Best Animated Feature:

- 2. +650 A Cat in Paris
A Cat in Paris (Une vie de chat) is a 2010 animated film by the French animation studio Folimage, telling the story of a young Parisian girl whose cat leads her to unravel (= aclarar) a thrilling mystery over the course of a single evening. The film was directed by Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli.
Chico and Rita is an animated feature-length film directed by Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal. The story of Chico and Rita is set against backdrops of Havana, New York City, Las Vegas, Hollywood and Paris in the late 1940s and early 1950s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTWxB9hRjwI

Kung Fu Panda 2
Kung Fu Panda 2 is a 2011 3D American computer-animated action comedy film, directed by Jennifer Yuh Nelson, produced by DreamWorks Animation, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is the sequel to the 2008 film Kung Fu Panda, in which Po and his friends battle to stop a would-be conqueror with a powerful new weapon and a disquieting (= causing worry) link to the giant panda's past. The film was released on May 26, 2011 in Real D 3D and Digital 3D. It was a commercial success surpassing the original film and, like the original film, is the highest grossing animated feature film of the year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdaMGcOyfjM

Puss In Boots
Puss in Boots is a 2011 computer-animated action comedy film produced by DreamWorks Animation, directed by Chris Miller (who directed Shrek the Third in 2007). The film was released in theaters on October 28, 2011 in Digital 3D and IMAX 3D. The film is a spinoff (= additional result) prequel (= that develops the story of an earlier film) to the Shrek franchise, and it follows the character Puss in Boots on his adventures before his first appearance in Shrek 2 in 2004. Accompanied by his sidekicks (= less important friends), Humpty Dumpty and Kitty Softpaws, Puss is pitted (= competing) against Jack and Jill, two murderous outlaws in ownership of magical beans which are legended to lead to great fortune. The film opened to very positive reviews and has become a success at the box office with a gross of over $492 million as of January 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMYpXl0mnL8



1. -350 Rango
Rango is a 2011 American computer-animated Western comedy film directed by Gore Verbinski and produced by Graham King. In the film, a chameleon named Rango accidentally ends up in the town of Dirt, an outpost that is in desperate need of a new sheriff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-OOfW6wWyQ


Best Actress:

- Albert Nobbs - Glenn Close
Albert Nobbs is a drama film starring Glenn Close and directed by Rodrigo García. The screenplay is based on a short story by Irish novelist George Moore. Glenn Close plays a woman passing as a man in order to work and survive in Ireland in the 1910s. Some thirty years after donning (= putting on) men's clothing, she finds herself trapped in a prison of her own making.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y5b4c5x0SIk

2. +300 The Help - Viola Davis
The Help is a 2011 drama film adaptation of Kathryn Stockett's novel of the same name. The film is an ensemble piece about a young white woman, Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, and her relationship with two black maids during Civil Rights era America in the early 1960s. Skeeter is a journalist who decides to write a controversial book from the point of view of the maids (known as the Help), exposing the racism they are faced with as they work for white families. The Help became a massive box office success with gross of about $205.3 million against its budget of $25 million. In January 2012, the film received four Academy Awards nominations, including Best Picture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbuKgzgeUIU

- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Rooney Mara
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is a 2011 English-language thriller film directed by David Fincher, with screenplay adapted by Steven Zaillian from the Swedish-language novel of the same name by Stieg Larsson. The film tells the story of a man's mission to find out what has happened to a girl who has been missing for 40 years, and who may have been murdered. The film is nominated for five Academy Awards.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RL8LI-h2WFc



1. -250 The Iron Lady - Meryl Streep
The Iron Lady, directed by Phyllida Lloyd, is a biographical British film about Margaret Thatcher, longest serving Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of the 20th century, portrayed primarily by Meryl Streep, but also, in her formative and early political years, by Alexandra Roach. Since its release, Meryl Streep's performance was widely acclaimed. Streep has won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress - Motion Picture Drama, her eighth win and twenty-sixth nomination, and has been nominated for both the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, her fourteenth nomination, and the Academy Award for Best Actress, her seventeenth nomination overall.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlBr-3aDTHg

3. +450 My Week with Marilyn - Michelle Williams
My Week with Marilyn is a British biographical film directed by Simon Curtis and written by Adrian Hodges. Based on two books by Colin Clark, it depicts the making of the 1957 film The Prince and the Showgirl, which starred Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier. The film focuses on the week in which Monroe spent time being escorted around Britain by Clark, after her husband, Arthur Miller, left the country.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_tbnTM7zVE


Best Actor:

- A Better Life - Demián Bichir
A Better Life is a 2011 American drama film directed by Chris Weitz. The screenplay, originally known as The Gardener, was written by Eric Eason based on a story by Roger L. Simon. This film is unique among Hollywood productions in that it is set in a Hispanic community and features an almost entirely Hispanic cast.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaLSBdL-zCY1



1. -300 The Descendants - George Clooney
The Descendants is a 2011 American drama film directed by Alexander Payne. The screenplay is based on the novel by Kaui Hart Hemmings. In January 2012, The Descendants won two Golden Globe Awards and earned five nominations at the 84th Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWHNXJ1K4yA

2. +225 The Artist - Jean Dujardin
The Artist is a 2011 French comedy-drama film directed by Michel Hazanavicius, starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. The story takes place in Hollywood between 1927 and 1932 and focuses on a declining film star and a rising actress, as silent cinema grows out of fashion and is replaced by the talkies. Most of the film itself is silent; it is shown in black-and-white, and has received wide praise from critics and many accolades. Dujardin won the Best Actor Award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered. The film was nominated for six Golden Globes, the most of any film from 2011, and won three, including Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, and Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for Dujardin. In January 2012 the film was nominated for twelve BAFTAs, and ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Bejo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixqr8D7J_Kc

- Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Gary Oldman
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is a 2011 British espionage film directed by Tomas Alfredson, based on the 1974 novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy by John le Carré. Set in London in the early 1970s, the story follows the hunt for a Soviet double agent at the top of the British secret service. The film was produced through the British company Working Title Films and financed by France's StudioCanal. The film received generally favourable reviews and was the highest grossing film at the British box office for three consecutive weeks.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5p31OI_AMs

3. +1400 Moneyball - Brad Pitt
Moneyball is a 2011 biographical sports drama film directed by Bennett Miller and distributed by Columbia Pictures. The film is based on Michael Lewis's 2003 book of the same name, an account of the Oakland Athletics baseball team's 2002 season and their general manager Billy Beane's attempts to assemble a competitive team. In the film, Beane and his assistant GM Peter Brand, faced with the franchise's unfavorable financial situation, take a sophisticated sabermetric (= analysis of baseball through statistics) approach towards scouting and analyzing players, acquiring "submarine" pitcher Chad Bradford and former catcher Scott Hatteberg, and winning 20 consecutive games, an American League record. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture on January 24, 2012.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4QPVo0UIzc


Best Picture:


1. -450 The Artist (also 1st -175 for Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixqr8D7J_Kc

2. +400 The Descendents (also 3rd +650 for Best Director - Alexander Payne)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWHNXJ1K4yA

- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a 2011 American drama film adaptation of the novel of the same name by Jonathan Safran Foer, directed by Stephen Daldry and written by Eric Roth. In the 2005 novel, the book's narrator is a nine-year-old boy named Oskar Schell. Oskar discovers a key in a vase that belonged to his father that inspires him to search all around New York for information about the key. Production took place in New York City. The film has been nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Picture.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_quK9SEGYE

- The Help
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbuKgzgeUIU

3. +1200 Hugo (also 2nd +175 for Best Director - Martin Scorsese)
Hugo is a 2011 3D family mystery film based on Brian Selznick's novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret about a boy who lives alone in a Paris railway station and the enigmatic owner of a toy shop there. It is directed by Martin Scorsese and written by John Logan. Hugo is Scorsese's first film shot in 3D, of which the filmmaker remarked: "I found 3D to be really interesting, because the actors were more upfront emotionally. Their slightest move, their slightest intention is picked up much more precisely." The film was distributed by Paramount Pictures and released in the U.S. on 23 November 2011. The film has been nominated for 11 Academy Awards, making it the most nominated film of 2011, which include a Best Picture nomination and a Best Director nomination for Martin Scorsese. The film also won two BAFTAs and was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards, earning Scorsese his third Golden Globe Award for Best Director.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hR-kP-olcpM

- Midnight in Paris (also nominated for Best Director - Woody Allen)
Midnight in Paris is a 2011 romantic comedy film written and directed by Woody Allen. The plot centers on a small group of Americans visiting the French capital for business and pleasure. The protagonist, a screenwriter, is forced to confront the shortcomings (= deficiencias) of his relationship with his fiancée and their divergent goals due to his magical experiences in the city beginning each night at midnight. The movie explores themes of nostalgia and modernism. It premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and was released in North America in May 2011. In January 2012, the film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Screenplay and received four Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Direction.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=atLg2wQQxvU

- Moneyball
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4QPVo0UIzc

- The Tree of Life (also nominated for Best Director - Terrance Malik, and Mexican Emmanuel Lubezki for Best Cinematography)
The Tree of Life is a 2011 American drama film with experimental elements written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Sean Penn, Brad Pitt, and Jessica Chastain. Malick's film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed (= intercalado) with imagery of the origins of the universe and the inception of life on Earth. The film premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or. In January 2012, the film received three Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRYA1dxP_0

- War Horse
War Horse is a 2011 English war epic motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg. It is based on both War Horse, a children's novel set before and during World War I, by British author Michael Morpurgo (first published in the United Kingdom in 1982) and the 2007 stage adaptation of the same name. The film is currently in contention for six Academy Awards including Best Picture. It was also nominated for two Golden Globe Awards and five BAFTAs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhueHIXbTF4

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