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The countdown is on & VanRamblings is excited (or, we need to get a life).
In less than three months from now, Hollywood will award prizes for the best films of 2010, ranging from Best Picture, Best Actress and Best Actor to Best Screenplay and Best Cinematography. The ‘in’ for the avid moviegoer revolves around the fact that there will be 20 or more Oscar contenders for us to see at our local multiplex, an almost guaranteed good time in the theatre, serving to create a sort of welcoming camaraderie among all of those who’ve caught all of the Oscar contenders leading up to the Oscar ceremony, this year to be telecast on Sunday, February 27th.
There are a handful of Oscar bloggers who’ve created rewarding employment for themselves by dedicating a significant portion of their lives to coverage of the Oscars, and related awards activities, emerging as ‘experts‘ in the burgeoning field of Oscar predicting. That these very same informed bloggers have also come to have influence in the decision-making of the 5000+ members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences gives them a certain power that not only shapes who ‘wins’ the last Sunday of February, but in no small measure helps to set the tone for the kind of ‘Oscar bait’ films Hollywood studios greenlight or pick up at indie festivals like Sundance or Telluride. As such, for movie lovers it becomes a worthwhile endeavour to spend a little time reviewing the prognostications of these emergent and increasingly influential group of Oscar bloggers.
VanRamblings has listed these bloggers’ websites under the Cinema category in the list of websites to your left, under the title ‘Oscar Roll‘. We’ll write a bit about each blogger after the jump …
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We know next to nothing about Sasha Stone, the ‘intelligence’ behind the Oscar prediction blog Awards Daily. From what we’ve gathered listening to her and Jeffrey Wells’ always delightful and informative Oscar Poker podcast (a must-listen for anyone who loves the movies), Ms. Stone is a single mother raising her daughter, has worked on Awards Daily for the better part of a decade, loves movies, is possessed of a wonderful sense of humour, seems both generous and genuine of spirit (and humble, too, which always works when one is presenting themselves before the public), and is darned well informed about film, and its cultural impact on 21st century social mores.
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Long associated with the Los Angeles Times’ awards covering website, The Envelope, after six years with the Times Gold Derby founder Tom O’Neil has taken leave of the security work with the Times provided to recapture the old entrepreneurial spirit (although he’ll continue to submit to the Times on a freelance basis). Needless to say, O’Neil’s association with the Times has given him a certain caché in Hollywood which — lucky for those who visit his blog during the Oscar season — translates into a well-informed, compelling site to read, written by someone with ready access to Hollywood’s movers and shakers. A must-read Oscar blog.
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Each week from the beginning of November lasting through til the week before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences make their late January Oscar nominee announcement, MovieCityNews editor / founder David Poland gathers together a few of the most informed Oscar prognosticators to predict the Oscar race, and publishes the results as Gurus of Gold. As is the case with the other sites mentioned in this post, the dozen or so film writers Poland gathers together not only predict, their ‘judgment’ sets the stage for whom Academy members will cast their Oscar ballot. Influential and informative.
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Here’s what Kris Tapley has to say about himself, and In Contention …
Editor Kristopher Tapley has covered the film awards landscape in various forms on the Internet since 2001. He launched In Contention in the summer of 2005 as a solo gig and now finds himself joined by a chorus of contributors … who comment and reflect upon, muse about and attempt to decipher the season on a daily basis throughout the year and especially during the Oscar crunch of the fall.
Truth to tell, Kris Tapley is not our favourite Oscar blogger. Still, there’s no question he’s hard working (and if VanRamblings were to be generous, we might say he’s a little shy), and has created a listenable podcast called Oscar Talk, with IndieWire’s Anne Thompson, about whom we’ve written previously. So we’re inclined to withhold final judgment (altho’, we find Mr. Tapley to be a tad ungenerous, but perhaps that’s just our perception).
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While we’re in a confessional mood, we’ll reveal the following: we have only recently become aware of the seemingly quite tremendous and generous Mr. Feinberg (we heard him on a recent episode of the Oscar Poker podcast with Jeffrey Wells and Sasha Stone, and were impressed). So, although we were not a Scott Feinberg aficionado previously, we will rectify that egregious oversight tout-de-suite. You can check out Scott’s work here.
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Yes, the august New York Times is behind The Carpetbagger, originally the brainchild of the once dissolute and wildly readable David Carr (now a media and culture columnist for the Times). In 2009, the not-quite-so-
tremendous, nor quite-so-readable Melena Ryzik took over from Carr. This year, Ryzik will work closely with Michael Cieply (who we like), as well as Brooks Barnes (both of whom are stationed in Los Angeles), Paula Schwartz in New York, and for the first time, polling guru Nate Silver, each of whom will offer their take on the Oscar contenders, the filmmakers and the ‘talent’, as well as set out to provide some (let’s hope humorous, and at time scathing) commentary and insight on the Oscar awards season.
There are even more websites which cover the Oscar awards season, including …
- The Contenders, brought to you by the folks behind the Rope of Silicon;
- The Envelope: The work of the folks at the Los Angeles Times, with a whole whack of Times’ film and industry writers bringing you the latest info on the Oscar race;
- Deadline Hollywood Awards: In her quest to rule the Hollywood entertainment universe, Deadline Hollywood founder-editor Nikki Finke hired longtime Los Angeles Times / Variety awards columnist Pete Hammond to front Deadline’s awards coverage. Hammond has a reputation for usually getting it right, for having first-rate access to studios and the Hollywood moguls therein, the studio’s ‘stars’ and critical inside the beltway info, all of which makes him a first-class ‘acquisition’ for Finke;
- The Odds: Daily posts from The Wrap’s Steve Pond, another respected Oscar prognosticator. Here’s an interview Gold Derby’s Tom O’Neil recently conducted with the former Premiere magazine writer …
And, finally, the two industry awards websites, first from …
- The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Watch, and
- Variety magazine’s Awards Central
Tracking the lead-up to the 83rd annual Academy Awards provides insight into the cultural juggernaut that is the Hollywood film industry, and oughta give you some tips as to movies you missed but are worth catching (many, like potential Oscar nominee Winter’s Bone — which last night was a double winner, picking up the Gotham Film Awards top prize, and the Stockholm Film Festival Best Picture / Best Actress awards — are already on video).
Enjoy the holiday movie season. We’ll see you at the cinema.
