International 27
careers 26
travel 25
societies 24
film 22-23
relationships 21
culture 20
music 19
front row 18
food 17
fashion 14-15
23
features 13
10 March 2014 waterfrontonline.co.uk
Looking back: the ones that got away
A
ll Is Lost, Tom Hanks, Sean Bobbitt and Paul Greengrass. What do all these have in common? They were all snubbed from this year’s Oscars, writes Saul Masters. But it isn’t the only time the Oscars have got it wrong. Here just a few examples of when the academy dropped the ball. 1. 2001: A Space Odyssey - Best Film
One of the most bizarre choices the academy have ever made is never awarding Stanley Kubrick with one of their golden statues, despite the fact Kubrick is often cited as one of the greatest directors to have ever sat behind a camera. Even more bizarre is not nominating 2001 for best film let alone awarding the great piece of cinema with an accolade. Instead in 1968 the Academy went for the mediocre musical Oliver! It could be that the Academy just didn’t get what Kubrick was doing and just enjoyed the visuals seeing as they award the film Best Visual Effects. 2. Bob Mottin - Best Visual Effects for The Thing The academy basically ignores the existence of science fiction and only awards the genre with special effects accolades. And they seem to make it their job to ignore anything from the horror genre, with the exception of The Silence of the Lambs. So when in 1982 John Carpenter remade the 1950s classic The Thing, no one was holding out for it to sweep the Oscars off their feet. Okay, it was never going to be up for best film or best actor, despite Kurt Russell, but Bob Mottin deserved to go home with the award for his skill in the creation of the monster in The Thing. The film’s amazing special effects still hold up to this day and cite it as the finest example of physical special effects. 3. Ben Mendelsohn -Best Supporting Actor for Animal Kingdom If Ben Mendelsohn had been nominated in 2011 he would have been going up against Christian Bale for his role in The Fighter, tough competition. But even so Mendelsohn’s role as Pope in the underrated Australian crime film Animal Kingdom is worthy of an award. Animal Kingdom tells the story of a young orphan J, who is taken in by his estranged grandmother Smurd (Jacki Weaver) and it doesn’t take long for J to discover that his family are a violent gang of bank robbers wanted by Guy Pierce’s police detective. Mendelsohn plays Pope, the unhinged oldest brother of a family of bank robbers. The Australian actor brings fierce menace to the role that haunts the film. No doubt it was the role that won him work in the likes of The Dark Knight Rises and The Place Beyond the Pines but the academy deemed the likes of Mark Ruffalo and Jeremy Renner as more worthy of a nomination. 4.Trainspotting- Best Adapted Screenplay It’s no surprise that the academy completely ignored this excellent piece of cinema; it involves a group of heroin addicts stealing, swearing and shooting up their way through Edinburgh. Irvine Welsh’s source material is thick with Scottish dialect but John Hodge’s script is an expert piece of adaptation that lost out to the more Hollywood friendly, L.A. Confidential in 1997. Trainspotting would go onto become one of Britain’s finest films ever and director Danny Boyle would go on to become one of the best of his generation. 5.Steven Spielberg - Best Director for Jaws The academy has made bizarre choices in its time but sometimes they make just plain stupid ones. How Spielberg was not nominated for Jaws in 1976 makes absolutely no sense to anyone who has watched the film, the director himself resented the academy for not being nominated and rightly so. Spielberg’s work on Jaws is one of the most outstanding pieces of directing made by a director in the last few decades. The academy rarely hand out awards to new and upcoming directors but Jaws was a ground-breaking film that would go on to define cinema.
6. Dark Water - Best Foreign Film The academy has a system when it comes to foreign films and it works like this: only one film can be put forward to be nominated from each country. Sadly Hideo Nakata’s ghost story, Dark Water, did not make the cut in 2006. Centring on a divorced woman going through her separation and possibly losing her child while living in a haunted apartment block, the film does not rely on Hollywoodlike shocks but instead is a much more subtle and quiet film. No doubt the academy would not award a horror film, let alone one directed by the same guy who did The Ring. 7. A History of Violence - Best Film/Director Most people would associate the Canadian director, David Cronenberg with body horror films and rightfully so, but in the last few years the director has matured and so have his films. The likes of Eastern Promises and especially A Dangerous Method, seemed to be something the Oscars could get behind - but no. Cronenberg has never had any luck with the Oscars and has been overlooked for every effort he has directed. A History of Violence being sidelined by the Oscars in 2006 was pure stupidity. Perhaps they were put off by the graphic violence depicted or just perhaps their judgement shouldn’t be trusted. Cronenberg has won at the likes of Cannes Film Festival and the Berlin Film Festival and even managed to bag himself a Diamond Jubilee Medal but the golden statues still elude him. 8. Bill Murray - Best Actor for Groundhog Day Oscar prefers his male protagonists to be oppressed and challenged or Daniel Day-Lewis. So it is no surprise that Bill Murray was ignored by the academy for his performance in the late Harold Ramis comedy, Groundhog Day, a story of a grumpy weather man forced to relive the same day till he learns to change. Murray’s role in the film offers so much and went onto become something of an icon film but sadly the academy didn’t see it as worth bothering with in 1994. The academy have had a problem with rewarding comedy roles over the last few years with the likes of Jim Carey and Robin Williams being heavily ignored by Oscar voters. But Murray’s performance is as touching as any previous Best Actor winner. 9. Roger Deakins - Best Cinematography for Miller’s Crossing It’s an odd choice by the academy to completely overlook Miller’s Crossing in 1991, especially as how much the academy now love the Coens. But what is more tragic is the academy have failed to reward Roger Deakins despite being nominated 12 times. Deakins is the cinematographer behind the likes of Skyfall, Fargo, The Shawshank Redemption and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. Deakins work on the Coens’ gangster flick is nothing but amazing, a true example of the amount of talent the man possesses. A pity the academy have been so stupid in ignoring him. 10. Olivia Colman - Best Actress for Tyrannosaur Anyone who witnessed Colman’s performance in Tyrannosaur would have found it difficult to describe her as anything but powerful. Colman plays Hannah, a caring charity shop worker who looks after Peter Mullan’s alcoholic and violent Joseph but it is her life at home where the drama lies. The chances of Colman getting nominated in 2012 were incredibly slim, having been snubbed by both the Golden Globes and the BAFTAs but the Sundance Film Festival made the right choice offering her the award for Breakout Performance.It’s a travesty that the best actress award went to Meryl Streep for her performance, or rather imitation of everyone’s least favourite Prime Minister Margaret Thacter in The Iron Lady, when it should have gone home with Colman. No doubt Colman will be back at some point to have the last laugh.