Tuesday, December 30, 2014

THE 4TH ANNUAL ONE-YEAR-LATER AWARDS! HONORING THE BEST IN CINEMA FROM THE YEAR BEFORE LAST! Presented by "David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews".

(As we pans the huge audience, drumroll)

ANNOUNCER
Welcome to the 4TH annual ONE-YEAR-LATER AWARDS! 

(Drumroll ends, audience applauds and Opening music plays) 

ANNOUNCER
Ladies and gentleman, by special request of Kim-Jung Un, our host for the 4th Annual OYL Awards, Sarah Silverman!

(Audience cheers as SARAH SILVERMAN, enter stage left, and approaches the microphone, music stops as she starts acknowledging the applause.). 

SARAH
So, it's an honor, to be asked to host the OYL Awards; I was a nominee and a presenter last year, and they thought I could, come do this, this year.Very honored, and so many great films, that are being honored this year. A lot of great performances, nominated, it's a real lot of acting nominations actually. 40 acting nominees actually. Really, seems to make that nomination last year, a little less important doesn't it? 

(Slight laugh)

SARAH
I mean- I guess, I don't mind, recognizing all of your great work, but it's a bit like, I don't know what, just, when you get that phone call, and it's like, "Hey, you got nominated for an award!" and you're like, "Awesome," and you ask, "Who are you up against?" and they go, "Everybody!" 

(Audience laughs)

It's a bit like saying, you had just as many votes for President as somebody who wasn't running. Cause, technically you did. As much as, there's however many people, running for President, let's say seven people are on the ballot, you finished tied for 8th, with everyone else. It's not like, you couldn't have won. 

(Audience laughs) 

It's very unlikely, but I mean, statisically, it's not bad. Considering everybody who could've possibly been President, and you finished tied for 8th, that's not bad. Finishing 8th here, not bad. 

(Audience laughs) 

And really, since this is only, one person voting, you're all really tied for 2nd, except for a few people, who win. 

(Audience laughs)

I mean, it's not like the Oscars, where we don't find out, who came in second, you're all in second, but on the other hand, nobody voted for you, and you feel like an idiot for showing up at these. And I know how you feel; it happened to me last year. 
(Pause)
Which was really two years ago, 'cause it's the One-Year-Later Awards, I guess. 

(Audience laughs) 

And I don't get that, the One-Year-Later Awards. I mean, if it takes you a year, to figure out what films were any good? 

(Audience laughs) 

I mean, it shouldn't take you that long, to realize that Amy Adams was really good in "American Hustle", or that the cinematography from "The Grandmaster" was really good, or that "12 Years a Slave" shouldn't have been a Best Picture nominee. 

(Audience laughs, ohh.)

'Cause it's about black people. No, I'm kidding, we loved "12 Years a Slave", but there was only ten slots, it's not like, they should just arbitrarily nominate everything; it's not like Jennifer Lawrence, we're talking Best Picture here. 

(Audience laughs, none of the laughs are big by the way, they're all kinda eh at best, mixed reactions from the mixed crowd mostly.)

And it's a tough call. Anyway, these are the OYL Awards, and they honor the best in cinema, from the year before, which basically means, the best things the voters watched on DVD and not in theaters. 

(Audience laughs)

I'm sorry, that's a joke; it's the best that the voters streamed illegally. 

(Audience laughs) 

No, basically, the OYLs are here to not simply look at a quick list of good films and give out awards, they take the time needed to sit through all of the awards, and then honor the best in film, and truly mean it, having thought about analyzed it, seen every movie, basically the kind of shit you have time for when you don't have a life or a girlfriend,
(Pause)
 and we're gonna start that now, with out first presenter, she beat me last year to win the OYL for Best Supporting Actress for "Showgirls"- I mean, "Killer Joe", a great actress who has been rumored to have slept with President Clinton, which, would be awesome whether she did or not by the way; here's the amazing Gina Gershon! 

(GINA GERSHON enters stage right carrying an envelope and approaching the podium as Sarah exits stage left.) 

GINA
Sarah's right, there is a lot of acting nominees this year, and while it seems a lot, don't just remember how many great and talented actors there are in Hollywood, realize how difficult it truly is distinguish between so many great performances that require so many different high levels of acting ability and skill. Is it more difficult to play a legendary Austrian race car driver than it is, an Texas transvestite dying from AIDS, or how about a reckless motorcycle stunt performer, or a hotshot FBI sting operative? There's different things needed to play those characters than is needed to be a pompous stock trader in the cutthroat Caligula of modern-day Wall Street, than it is to play an escaped Jew hiding out in the woods of WWII Germany, or a bartender who marries a single mother recording artist, or even a son trying to help out his father as he battles Alzheimer's.  Even a police officer, investigating a little girl's disappearance can be daunting, just as daunting as playing a character so foreign to the universe of South Florida he inhabits, that they call him Alien. These ten performances amazing performances are the nominees for Best Supporting Actor.

(Montage of nominees and performances, as recorded voice of Gina announces each nominee's name. Audience applauds) 


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Daniel Bruhl- "Rush"
Bradley Cooper-"American Hustle"
James Franco-"Spring Breakers"
Will Forte-"Nebraska
Ryan Gosling-"The Place Beyond the Pines"
Jake Gyllenhaal-"Prisoners"
Jonah Hill-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
Jared Leto-"Dallas Buyers Club"
Kai-Peter Malina-"Lore" 
Alexander Skarsgard-"What Maisie Knew"

And the OYL Award goes to...
(Gina opens envelope)

WILL FORTE for "Nebraska"



(Mark Orton's "New West" plays as WILL FORTE smiling almost bemused, gets up and heads towards the stage. Gina Gershon hands him his OYL Award as he approaches the podium.)

ANNOUNCER:
This is Will Forte's first win and nomination!

(He thanks Gina and turns towards the audience for a second, unsure of what to do, he shrugs slightly holding his OYL before Will and Gina exit stage left. Music fades out)

ANNOUNCER
A double-nominee tonight, for Best Supporting Actress and as a member of the Cast for "American Hustle" and a five-time nominee overall, Jennifer Lawrence!

(JENNIFER LAWRENCE enters stage right and heads towards the podium to rousing cheers and applause, she's somewhat nervous)

JENNIFER
This is the first time that the One-Year-Later Awards have decided to honor the most outstanding achievements in Production Design. There job is tougher than it seems, because the best directing and lighting in the world, can't save a film if what they're shooting doesn't plausibly seems like the world the characters actually inhabit, whether that's the London in the sixties, China before the Sino-Japanese War, New Jersey in the seventies, the extravagance of modern-day Wall Street, or Rome, or Jazz Age New York, or even worlds in the near future, or outer space, or recreate the worlds of 1970s Formula-1 racetracks. Here are the nine nominees for Best Production Design:

(Montage again of nominees, as a recorded voice of the presenter announces each name. Slight applause after the nominees are announced. [This will precede each time nominees are listed off])


BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
American Hustle-Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
Ginger & Rosa-Production Design: Carlos Cont; Set Decoration: Liz Griffiths
The Grandmaster-Production Design: William Chang Suk Ping; Art Design: Alfred Yau
Gravity-Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin & Joanne Woollard
The Great Beauty-Stefania Cella
The Great Gatsby-Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverly Dunn
Her-Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdana
Rush-Production Design: Mark Digby; Set Decoration: Michelle Day
The Wolf of Wall Street-Production Design: Bob Shaw; Set Decoration: Ellen Christiansen

and the OYL Award goes to:
(Open Envelope)

Oh wow, "AMERICAN HUSTLE"! YES! Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler!



(Electric Light Orchestra's "10538 Orchestra" plays as HEATHER LOEFFLER and JUDY BECKER arise from their seats and walk towards the stage. Jennifer hands them their OYLs as she hugs each of them.)

JENNIFER
Oh my God; I didn't think you guys would win with me presenting.

(Jennifer realize how loud she said that, and it's picked up as she congratulates them. Judy and Heather turn towards the stage before exiting stage left.)

ANNOUNCER
A three-time OYL Award nominee, for Supporting Actress and as a cast member of "The Tree of Life" and for Lead Actress for "Zero Dark Thirty", Jessica Chastain!

(Jessica Chastain enters stage right and approaches the podium as Lawrence, Becker and Loeffler as they walk off. Audience gives an ovation.)

JESSICA
It seems somewhat magical at times, at least from our vantage point. As actors, we're told we're going to act in a film, and it's a lot of waiting around while they're getting ready for you, and doing the same lines over and over again, sometimes to the point where you don't even know what you're supposed to be doing, and this goes on and on, and then, someone, an amazing film is made out of all of it. Those magicians are the editors, and the very best, like those who edited the nine nominated films here, essentially make a movie, where there was just a bunch of footage that somebody shot. Here are the nominees for Best Editing:


BEST EDITING
12 Years a Slave-Joe Walker
American Hustle-Alan Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Captain Phillips-Christopher Rouse
Gravity-Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Sanger
Her-Jeff Buchanan and Eric Zumbrunnen
Inside Llewyn Davis-Roderick Jaynes (aka Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty-Terence Nance
Rush-Dan Hanley & Mike Hill
The Wolf of Wall Street-Thelma Schoonmaker

And the OYL Award goes to
(Struggles to open envelope for a second, but finally does)
Ah, got it.

(Slight laugh from audience.)

and the OYL goes to Thelma Schoonmaker for "THE WOLF OF WALL STREET"!



(7Horse's "Meth Lab Zoso Sticker"plays as THELMA SCHOONMAKER stands up to roaring applause, hugged by Martin Scorsese and congratulated by others as she heads up to the stage.)

ANNOUNCER
This is Thelma Schoonmaker's second OYL Award nomination and first win. She was previously nominated for editing "Hugo".

(Jessica hands Thelma her OYL as she congratulates her. There's a lot of applause as Thelma turns towards the audience for a moment before exiting with Jessica, stage left)

ANNOUNCER
To announce the award for Best Documentary, 4-time OYL Award nominee last year, for Directing and Cinematography, and last year's winner for both Best Editing and for Best Documentary, all for "Samsara", Ron Fricke!

(RON FRICKE enters stage left, passing Thelma and Jessica as they head backstage. The audience gives a standing ovation and applauds the reclusive filmmaker as he approaches the podium.)

RON
Thank you very much. It's an honor to be here; I don't do this sort of thing often so bare with me. I was awarded this award last year, for Best Documentary, and I'm very honored to present the Award this year, to one of these nine amazing films. The award is given the film's director and producers; here are the nominees for Best Documentary Feature.


BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
20 Feet from Stardom-Director/Producer: Morgan Neville; Producers: Gil Friessen and Caitrin Rogers
The Act of Killing-Director: Joshua Oppenheimer; Co-Director/Producers: Anonymous and Christine Cynn; Producers: Signe Byrge Sorensen, Joren Tem Brink and Michael Uwemedino.
Blackfish-Director/Producer: Gabriella Cowperthwaithe; Producer: Manuel V. Oteyza
The Crash Reel-Director/Producer: Lucy Walker; Producer: Julien Cautherly
Let the Fire Burn-Director/Producer: Jason Osder
More than Honey-Director/Producer: Markus Imhoof; Producer: Helmut Grasser, Thomas Kufus and Pierre-Alan Meier
The Square-Director/Producer: Jehame Noujaim; Producer: Karim Amer
Stories We Tell-Director: Sarah Polley; Producer: Anita Lee
Tim's Vermeer-Director: Teller; Producers: Penn Jillette and Farley Ziegler

And the OYL Award goes to:
(Opens envelope)

"20 FEET FROM STARDOM". 



(Judith Hill's "Desperation" begins to play as Morgan Neville and Caitrin Rogers get up and begin heading towards the stage)

ANNOUNCER
This is Morgan Neville second nomination and first win. He was nominated for Best Documentary as a producer for "Pearl Jam Twenty". These are Caitrin Rogers and Gil Friesen's first nomination and wins. Gil Friesen has become the first person to win an OYL Award posthumously.  Accepting on behalf of Gil Friesen, his wife Janet.

(All three make their way onto the stage, as the audience applauds. Ron hands each of them, their OYL Awards, congratulating each of them, quietly. They turn towards the audience and exit stage right)

SARAH
Our next presenter, won an OYL Award last year, as a member of the Cast for "Lincoln", and was nominated for a Best Actor OYL Award, and just like Ron Fricke, he only does one movie every two Presidential Elections, so it turned out he was free tonight to do this tonight. Ladies and Gentleman, Mr. Daniel Day-Lewis!

(DANIEL DAY-LEWIS enters stage right and approaches the podium, to a rousing applause)

DANIEL
Thank you.

(Applause dies down).

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS
It was an honor to be a winner as a member of the cast of "Lincoln", but the award is presented and given firstly, to the Casting Directors on a film. They're the ones who manage to pull off miracles sometimes and find the correct people for each part in a film, and not only that, wrangle, and arm-twist them, and the directors and producers into convincing them to even be in the movie. It's a tricky job, and each of these ten nominees, had an incredibly difficult job, of getting the correct assortment of talented people together, and have them use their talents together for the benefit of a single project. The nominees are:


BEST CASTING ENSEMBLE
12 Years a Slave-Casting by Francine Maisler
American Hustle-Casting by Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu
Blue Jasmine-Casting by Patricia DiCerto and Juliet Taylor
Ginger & Rosa-Casting by Irene Lamb and Heidi Levitt
Inside Llewyn Davis-Casting by Ellen Chenoweth
Prisoners-Casting by Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee
A Touch of Sin-(Ex. Pro.: Zhangke Jia, Zhong-lun Ren and Yuji Sadai; Pro.: Shozo Ichiyama
The Way Way Back-Casting by Allison Jones
What Maisie Knew-Casting by Avy Kaufman
The Wolf of Wall Street-Casting by Ellen Lewis

And the OYL Award goes to...

(Opens envelope)
"12 YEARS A SLAVE". Casting by Francine Maisler. 

  

(Gary Clark Jr.'s "(In the Evening) When the Son Goes Down" plays as Francine Maisler gets up, and starts walking towards the stage as members of the cast "12 Years a Slave" present, surprised by the announcement congratulate her and each other as she heads up. Audience applauds.)

ANNOUNCER
This is Francine Maisler's second OYL Award nomination and first win. She was previously nominated for casting "The Tree of Life".

(Daniel hands Francine her award, she then turns towards the audience before exiting stage right.)

ANNOUNCER
A double-nominee tonight as a cast member and for Best Actor for "American Hustle" and an OYL AWARD winner for Best Supporting Actor for "The Fighter", Christian Bale!

(CHRISTIAN BALE enters stage left and approaches the podium)

CHRISTIAN
It's somewhat hard to believe that something as intangible as light, can be harnessed and manipulated in such a way that it can exceed the mere technical accomplishment it is and become a spectacular art form that it is. The joke is that the director makes the movie, while the Director of Photography makes it look pretty, but there's much more to it. Without them, the cinematographers behind these ten nominated films can do, and many other, film wouldn't be the art that it is today. Here are the nominees for Best Cinematography:


BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
All is Lost-Frank G. DeMarco
The Grandmaster-Phillippe Le Sourd
Gravity-Emmanuel Lubezki
The Great Beauty-Luca Bigazzi
Her-Hoyte van Hoytema
Inside Llewyn Davis-Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska-Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners-Roger A. Deakins
Rush-Anthony Dod Mantle
To the Wonder-Emmanuel Lubezki

And the OYL Award goes to
(Opens envelope)

Emmanuel Lubezki, 
(slight pause) 
for "GRAVITY"!



(Emmanuel Lubezki rises from his seat rather inauspiciously as he heads towards the stage. There's a slight delay until Steven Price's "Gravity (Main Theme)" plays, as Christian Bale didn't announce which film he won for immediately upon opening. Audience cheers)

ANNOUNCER
These are Emmanuel Lubezki's first nominations and his first win. He is the first person to be nominated twice in the Best Cinematography category in the same year.

(Christian hands the OYL to Lubezki, congratulating him, as he turns towards the audience before quickly exiting stage right. Music fades out.)

ANNOUNCER
To announce the award for Best Animated Feature, a double nominee tonight as a cast member and for Best Actress for "American Hustle", and a previous Best Supporting Actress nominee for "The Fighter", Amy Adams!

(AMY ADAMS enters stage right, passing Lubezki and saying hi to Christian Bale as she walks in. Applause from the audience)

AMY
Okay, I know what you're all thinking, why are all the "American Hustle" people giving out the awards?

(Audience laughs)

Honestly, it's a pure coincidence, they wanted Jennifer cause she's been nominated so much, they wanted Christian to give out something, 'cause he's nominated, and because he's a former winner, and basically they didn't know who to give the Best Animation Feature category,-

(Audience laughs)

And I was Princess Giselle in "Enchanted" so they thought that made me qualified for this category.

JONAH
Are you kidding me!

(Cut to Jonah Hill in the audience, who's visibly upset, there's laughter)

JONAH
That wasn't even a half-animated movie. Why aren't I up there?

AMY
(Confused)
I'm sorry Jonah, what animated movie were you in?

JONAH
Animated movie! Mov-ies. I was Snotlot in "How to Train Your Dragon", I was Tighten in "Megamind", -eh, I was Snotlot, in "How to Train Your Dragon 2", I mean, it's the same character, but still, that's animated franchise now!

(Audience laughs)

AMY
Well, okay, that is more animation than I've done.

JULIE
Hey, what about us?

(Cut to Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke in the audience)

ETHAN
Julie, what you doing?

JULIE
No, no, no, we were both in "Waking Life", we were as our characters, apart of a legendary trilogy; I came all the way down here from France, I could present the Animation award.

(Audience laughs)

ETHAN
We were in "Waking Life" for one scene, that's hardly comparable to what they've done in animation.

JULIE
Oh, just one scene. She's in a live-action movie, and nobody remembers Jonah Hill in any of his animated movies.

(Audience laughs)

JONAH
Hey, I resent that, I'm memorable in "Megamind", for those who saw it, which is probably more than who saw "Waking Life"; you two trying to weasle your trilogy into another movie?

ETHAN
Hey, hey, leave me out of this, I'm okay sitting here, your fights are with her-

JULIE
You never take my side, do you Ethan.

ETHAN
I take your side plenty of times-

AMY
Okay, all of you, can we stop it now!

(Audience laughs)

AMY
Okay, some of us have also done animation, I don't know why they picked me-

SARAH
Yeah, they should've picked me!

(Sarah is suddenly stage left)

SARAH
I was Vanellope in "Wreck-It Ralph", and I've done more animation work than all of you combined if you count television; I should be handing out the award!

(Audience laughing hard)

AMY
Eh, Sarah, you gave the award out last year, and not only that you're hosting the awards this year.

SARAH
That's right, on top of all that, I'm hosting, and I have experience, and can't even give out the Animation award. That's just sexist, you know?

(Audience bursting with laughter, after a very long pause and wait, Amy, noticeably uncomfortable, decides to simply go on with handing out the award)

AMY
There are five nominees this year for Best Animated Feature, the award goes to the film's director and producers, here are the nominees:


BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Despicable Me 2-Directors: Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud; Producers: Janet Healy and Chris Meledandri
Ernest & Celestine-Directors: Stephane Aubier & Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner; Producers: Didier Brunner, Henri Magalon, Stephan Roelants and Vincent Tavier
Frozen-Directors: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee; Producer: Peter Del Vecho
Monsters University-Director; Dan Scanlon; Producer: Kori Rae
The Wind Rises-Director: Hayao Miyazaki; Producer: Toshio Suzuki

And the OYL Award goes to:
(Opens envelope)

"FROZEN".



(Idina Menzel's "Let It Go" plays as CHRIS BUCK, JENNIFER LEE and PETER DEL VECHO arise to appreciate but mild applause and head towards the stage.)

ANNOUNCER
This is the first OYL Award win for Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho. Jennifer Lee was nominated previously for Best Original Screenplay for "Wreck-It Ralph", she and Chris Buck are nominated tonight for Best Adapted Screenplay tonight for "Frozen".

(Chris, Jennifer and Peter go up and Amy Adams hands each of them their OYLs congratulating them as the turn to the audience, before exiting stage right. Sarah on stage behind the podium)

SARAH
(Clapping off the winners.)
Alright, I think we're almost a third of the way through folks. so let's keep it going. To present the OYL Award for Best Supporting Actress, a double nominee last year as a cast member and the winner of the Best Supporting Actor OYL for "Django Unchained", he also won the Oscar for his performance, and he's from Austria,
(Slight awkward set-up pause)
but, he assures us he's not related to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

(Audience tries to hold in slight laugh)

See, what I did there, I made it seem like I was gonna make a Hitler joke, but no, switched it up on you. Made it Arnold. You know, to be edgy. You know, I mean he's not related to Hitler either, I don't think. Probably not. It'd be weird if he was though wouldn't it. Like we'd be going, "That Christoph Waltz, he's a great actor!" and then we'd think, "And, he's related, to Hitler."

(Audience laugh)

Actually, it wouldn't be that joyful, really. "He's a great actor, it's a shame he's related to Hitler." More like that I guess. We wouldn't be like,
(Joyous, girly sounding)
"Oh boy, he's related to Hitler!" No, we wouldn't do that,

(Audience Laughs loud)

We wouldn't do that, I don't think. Anyway, here's a man not related to Hitler, Christoph Waltz!

(Christoph Waltz enters stage left, laughing as Sarah walks off stage, audience applauds loudly as he approaches the microphone.)

CHRISTOPH
Thank you. This wide range of female characters portrayed by these amazingly talented actresses, makes determining a single greatest performance among the bunch, that much harder. One single mother looking to con her way into keeping her marriage afloat, while another struggles to find love again.One goes back to her hometown to help her ailing husband achieve his dream, while another has to practically give up her talents as a modern time closes in. A prostitute who's addictions put her kids in a horrible situation, a famous musician, who's equally incapable of taking care of her daughter. A slave who dreams of freedom, a trophy wife, fighting for power, an artist searching for love, and a nanny who ends up finding it, in the most unexpected of places. These are the roles of these ten nominees portrayed, and you couldn't come up with a more random cross-section of women if you tried. The nominees are:


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins-"Blue Jasmine"
Jennifer Hudson-"The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete"
Jennifer Lawrence-"American Hustle"
Julianne Moore-"What Maisie Knew"
Lupita Nyong'o-"12 Years a Slave"
Margot Robbie-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
Lea Seydoux-"Blue is the Warmest Color"
June Squibb-"Nebraska"
Joanna Vanderham-"What Maisie Knew"
Ziyi Zhang-"The Grandmaster"

And the OYL Award goes to
(Opens envelope, pause)

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, "American Hustle" 



(Jennifer, with a shy smirk as though she thinking, "Wow, again." look pauses before getting up and walking to the stage as Electric Light Orchestra's "10538 Orchestra" plays, while the audience applauds)

ANNOUNCER
Counting her Casting Ensemble nomination earlier tonight, this is Jennifer Lawrence's fifth nomination and her first win. She was previously nominated as apart of the cast and as Best Actress for "Silver Linings Playbook" and was nominated for Best Actress for "Winter's Bone".

(Jennifer hugs Christoph as he hands her the OYL. She turns nervously and anxiously towards the cheering audience. She then turns and exits stage right.)

ANNOUNCER
A four-time nominee last year and the winner of last years OYL Awards for Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Language Film, for "Rust and Bone", Jacques Audiard!

(JACQUES AUDIARD enters stage left and approaches the podium to applause)

JACQUES
Bonjour. Eh, ce est vraiment une honte, que nous films souvent séparés par la langue parfois. Il ne ya aucune raison l'un de ces neuf films nominés, ne pouvait pas être juste des films, et laissez-nous en rester là. Hypothétiquement, comme une histoire de deux jeunes femmes dans l'amour, ou de femmes qui perd sa prise avec la réalité après la maternité, ou un documentaire sur la situation de l'abeille, pourrait hypothétiquement être dit ne importe où. D'autres, comme la documentation d'une révolution démocratique dans un pays arabe, ou de multiples histoires critiquant le mouvement capitaliste dans un pays communiste, ou comment une jeune fille précoce est déterminé à obtenir de l'argent pour un vélo, en mémorisant le Coran, doivent être dit dans certains endroits, mais ne peut toujours susciter des émotions universelles dans son auditoire, peu importe d'où ils viennent. Que leurs musiciens folkloriques en difficulté après la perte de leur enfant, un millionnaire regardant en arrière sur sa vie extravagant, ou une famille dynamique profondément bouleversée par les secrets et les tragédies qu'ils ne sont même pas conscients effet eux, les neuf candidats pour le meilleur film en langue étrangère, aren «films de t en langue étrangère, ils sont juste bons films, où ils juste, ne utilisent pas la langue anglaise à parler.

(Translation)
Bonjour. Eh, it's really a shame, that we often separate films by language sometimes. There's no reason any of these nine nominated films, couldn't just be movies, and let us leave it at that. Hypothetically, like a story of two young women in love, or of a women who loses her grip with reality after motherhood, or a documentary about the plight of the bee, could hypothetically be told anywhere. Others, like the documenting of a democratic revolution in an Arab country, or multiple stories critiquing the capitalist movement in a Communist country, or how a precocious young girl is determined to get money for a bike, by memorizing the Qu'ran, have to be told in certain locations, but still can stir universal emotions in it's audience, no matter where they're from. Whether their folk musicians struggling after the loss of their child, a millionaire looking back on his extravagant life, or a family dynamic deeply shattered by secrets and tragedies they aren't even aware effect them, the nine nominees for Best Foreign Language Film, aren't foreign language films, they're just good films, where they just, don't use the English language to speak. 

(In English)
The award is given to the film's director, here are the nominees:


BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Blue is the Warmest Color-Abdellatif Kechiche (France)
The Broken Circle Breakdown-Felix von Groeningen (Belgium)
The Great Beauty-Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
More than Honey-Markus Imhoof (Switzerland)
Our Children-Joachim Lafosse (Belgium)
The Past-Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
The Square-Jehame Noujaim (Egypt)
A Touch of Sin-Zhangke Jia (People's Republic of China)
Wadjda-Haifaa Al-Mansour (Saudi Arabia)

Et le prix d'un an plus tard est décerné à ...
(Opens Envelope)

"LA VIE D'ADELE", Abdellatif Kechiche!



(Alex Johnson, Chris Allen & Steve Satterthwaite's "Feel It Now" plays as ABDELLATIF KECHICHE gets up to a rousing applause and cheers as he walks towards the stage.)

ANNOUNCER
This is the first OYL Award win for Adbellatif Kechiche; he's also nominated tonight for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Picture for "Blue is the Warmest Color". This is the second consecutive year a film from France has won the Best Foreign Language Film award, becoming the first country to win the Foreign Language OYL Award twice. France also holds the records for most nominations in the category for a country with 5, and is the only country to have at least one nominated film every year since the OYLs were created!

(Abdellatif shakes hands with his fellow countryman as he hands him his OYL. He turns to the audience. After a moment he and Jacques exit stage right. Sarah looks like calming down from a suddenly rapid rage)

SARAH
(Breathing heavy)
Whew, thank God, if you're there. Sorry, I was freaking out back there, I wasn't paying that much attention, but it turned out, nobody understood what the hell that guy was saying!

(Audience laughs)

Sor-, no seriously, I was so freaking out, man, 'cause I- I thought I had eaten, you know, I thought I only ate, the one pot brownie in the back, but-

(Audience laughs awkwardly)

But then that happened, and I thought, "Oh no, they were Michael Cera's batch!", but, no it wasn't.

(Audience laughing)

It wasn't that, he just speaking, a different language or something. So, I'm pretty sure they were my batch of brownies. Um-

(Sarah Pauses for audience laughter)

Never eat someone else's pot brownies. Words of wisdom from Mrs. Silverman's daughter.. Our next presenter- There should've been like, the NBC, "The More You Know", coming across the screen, "Never eat someone else's pot brownies", (Hums "The More You Know" song)

(Audience laughting)

Always bake your own. Our next presenter is a 3-time OYL Award nominee, for Producing and Directing, and won the OYL Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing "The Descendants", and he definitely bakes his own brownies, Mr. Alexander Payne!

(ALEXANDER PAYNE enters stage left and approaches the podium, holding in an uncomfortable laugh as Sarah walks off stage right. Audience, big applause)

ALEXANDER
Thank you, I promised I'd make this up for making Jim Rash present alone last year so, hear I am. Nothing to promote right now, so, no excuses now.

(Slight chuckle from audience)

No, I'm kidding; I'm glad I'm here, oh, Congratulation Will, by the way. You deserved it!

(We see Will Forte back in the crowd holding up his OYL Award as Alexander mentions him)

I'm very honored, to be here, to honor, one of these ten incredibly talented filmmakers nominated for Best Original Screenplay. I say filmmakers because each one of the nominated films in this category, because most of the nominees, ended up directing or producing their vision, and they're able to do that next step-, they not only have the ability to take a unique idea, in their mind, and then transfer it into words on a page, and then they can take those words, and turn it into images. It's hard enough doing one of those skills, so it's an honor to award somebody capable of both. Here are the nominees for Best Original Screenplay:


BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
All is Lost-J.C. Chandor
American Hustle-Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine-Woody Allen
Ginger & Rosa-Sally Potter
Gravity-Alfonso Cuaron & Jonas Cuaron
Her-Spike Jonze
Inside Llewyn Davis-Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
The Past-Asghar Farhadi
Rush-Peter Morgan
A Touch of Sin-Zhangke Jia

and the OYL Award goes to
(Opens envelope)

Spike Jonze for "HER"!



(Karen O's "The Moon Song" plays as Spike Jonze, humble and quietly gets up and heads towards the stage as the audience gives a rousing cheer and applause)

(ANNOUNCER)
This is Spike Jonze's first OYL Award win and nomination! He is also nominated tonight for both Best Picture and Best Director for "Her"!

(Spike walks up stage and Alexander congratulates him, handing him the OYL, and Spike gets a standing ovation, as he turns towards the audience. He motions them to calm down, as he's reluctant and almost seems tired of the praise; the audience lets up soon after. Spike then exits stage left.)

ANNOUNCER
A 3-time OYL Award nominee last year, for Producing, Directing and the winner of last year's Best Original Screenplay OYL Award for "Moonrise Kingdom", Wes Anderson!

(As Spike and Alexander exit, Wes Anderson passes them as he enters stage right and walks towards the podium, loud applause starts momentarily again before dying out.)

WES
It's one thing to use some classic text of other piece of art as inspiration, a jumping off point for your own vision. It's another thing to have to use that source, and instead recreate or reimagine upon it, or continue upon it yourself. In this sense, some would say that adapting a screenplay is harder than creating your own original work, having not only a ready-made audience for you to please, who have all kinds of expectations, but also having to balance to the spirit of the original intent and spirit of the creators of the original, but also having enough individualism within it to clearly say that the work is indeed your own. These seven nominees pulled this off and then some. Here are the nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay:


BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
12 Years a Slave-John Ridley
Before Midnight-Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy
Blue is the Warmest Color-Abdellatif Kechiche & Ghalia Lacroix
The Broken Circle Breakdown-Felix von Groeningen and Carl Joos
Frozen-Story/Screenplay by Jennifer Lee; Story by Chris Buck & Shane Morris
What Maisie Knew-Nancy Doyne & Carroll Cartwright
The Wolf of Wall Street-Terence Winter

And the OYL Award goes to...
(Opens Envelope)

Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy for "BEFORE MIDNIGHT"!



(The shock of their names being called, practically sends ETHAN HAWKE and JULIE DELPY back into their chairs, RICHARD LINKLATER, pauses for a second stunned before getting up and leading the other two to do the same as Graham Reynolds's "The Best Summer of My Life" plays. There's a rousing ovation from the audience that turns to a standing one as the approach the stage)

ANNOUNCER
This is the first win and nomination for Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Ethan Hawke is nominated later tonight for Best Actor, Julie Delpy is nominated for Best Actress and Richard Linklater is nominated for Best Director and Best Picture all for "Before Midnight"!

(Wes congratulates each of them as he hands them their OYL Awards one at a time, and they turn nervously towards the audience. After a moment, they head off, exiting stage right hurriedly, as though unsure how to react, especially Julie Delpy who leaves last. Sarah's back on stage and with her guitar now.)

SARAH
Our next presenter was a nominee tonight as a cast member of "Prisoners", and won the OYL Award last year for Best Actor for "Les Miserables", and since he knows a few things about musicals and hosting shows like this, I decided to write a song for him....
(Sarah starts tuning her guitar slight, quietly)
There we go, okay, one-two-three-four...-

(Sarah begins strumming noticeably badly, singing)

Hugh Jackson you make my pussy wet.
You're so hot, I just can't help it.
I call my vibrator Wolverine.
When I watch "X-Men" I wish you take those claws and just take me.
It's a shame you're married, you have a lovely wife
But we can work around that, hey that's life
I used to (Bleep) Jimmy Kimmel, sorry about that
But we can work it out, if you can get past it
Hugh Jackman you make this Jew girl's pussy we-et!!!!!
(Sarah takes the last line and spreads it out for a while, before she stops playing.)

(Half the audience is laughing in tears and shocks, the other half is somewhat confused but they're being overruled by laugher)

Okay, before I'm kicked out and never allowed to host this again, here's Hugh Jackman!!!

(HUGH JACKMAN enters stage right trying to keep his composure and with about him as Sarah heads off stage. Hugh approaches the podium)

HUGH
An astronaut fighting for her survival, a mother losing her mental capacity to survive, an unwanted free spirit with secrets of her own, a teenager who falls head over heels in love for the first time, a folk singer, who can't go on after losing her daughter, a wife trying to survive after her husband loses everything, a con artist, who can make it seem like she has it all, a woman fighting with her lover because she feels she's being held down from getting it all, a caretaker whose troubled past invokes her passion to help, and a wife and mother, who suddenly finds excitement and freedom, with her secret new job. These ten nominees for Best Actress, gave us the complete range of human emotion with each of these performances, and hit emotional levels and stretched their physical acting abilities to the farthest of limits. I've been informed that this was an incredibly difficult decision to determine the best performance out of this group, but I'm not surprised by that declaration at all. Here are the nominees for Best Actress...


BEST ACTRESS
Amy Adams-"American Hustle"
Veerle Baetens-"The Broken Circle Breakdown"
Cate Blanchett-"Blue Jasmine"
Sandra Bullock-"Gravity"
Julie Delpy-"Before Midnight"
Emilie Dequenne-"Our Children"
Adele Exarchopoulos-"Blue is the Warmest Color"
Gaby Hoffmann-"Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus & 2012"
Brie Larson-"Short Term 12"
Robin Weigert-"Concussion"

(Hugh is clapping at the montage tucking the envelope under his arm, before grabbing it to open)

And the OYL Award goes to....
(Opens envelope, pause before speaking)

GABY HOFFMANN for "Crystal Fairy.."!



(There's a lot of sudden gasps in the audience, but the loudest gasp came from GABY HOFFMANN. The audience soon however starts applauding as Gaby slowly manages to find her way up and walk towards the stage, still somewhat in disbelief as Manu Chau's "Bongo Bong" plays.)

ANNOUNCER
This is Gaby Hoffmann's first win and first nomination!

(Gaby walks onstage as Hugh congratulates her, as he hands her the Award. She turns to the audience who's giving a rousing ovation, a delayed one. Nervous, she quickly though, starts to exit stage left.)

ANNOUNCER
To present the OYL Award for Best Actor a 3-time OYL Award nominee and 2-time OYL Award winner, first as apart of the Casting Ensemble for "Midnight in Paris" and then last year's OYL Award winner for Best Actress for "Rust and Bone", Marion Cotillard!

(MARION COTILLARD passes Gaby Hoffmann as she enters stage left, congratulating her but Gaby just barely notices. Marion heads towards the podium, gets applause)

MARION
Tell Sarah, not to worry, I'm doing it in English.

(Slight delay, but Audience laughs)

A folk musician who's lost her daughter, and now might be losing his wife and sense of self, another folk musician who's doesn't have much to lose, but that doesn't stop him from losing what we has, a violinist who's tricked into being a slave, a stock broker, who manipulates the market and others to riches, a con man, who has to con his way out of a situation that he's way in over his head on, a witness to histoy of America, to a many who won't be a simple witness to his own death and demise, to an old man who's literally alone, with just the sea, to a man who's lonely enough to embark on a romance with a sentient machine, and a man who's struggling to keep his relationship afloat. The ten nominees for Best Actor gave us some unforgettable characters, with their own distinct behaviors and reactions to situations, none of which are similar to each other, yet all of their struggles and actions, are remarkably familiar and touch us on a human level, transforming and stretching the craft and turning it into an art. Here are the nominees for Best Actor...


BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale-"American Hustle"
Leonardo DiCaprio-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
Chiwetel Ejiofor-"12 Years a Slave"
Ethan Hawke-"Before Midnight"
Johan Heldenbergh-"The Broken Circle Breakdown"
Oscar Isaac-"Inside Llewyn Davis"
Matthew McConaughey-"Dallas Buyers Club"
Joaquin Phoenix-"Her"
Robert Redford-"All is Lost"
Forest Whitaker-"Lee Daniels' The Butler"

and the OYL Award goes to...

(Opens envelope)

Ah, Congratulations my friend, LEONARDO DICAPRIO, for "The Wolf of Wall Street"! 



(7Horse's "Meth Lab Zoso Sticker" plays as LEONARDO DiCAPRIO as he happily gets up and heads towards the stage. The audience applauds and gives him a standing ovation as he approaches the stage.)

ANNOUNCER
This is Leonardo DiCaprio's first win, including nominations tonight as apart of the Casting Ensemble and Best Picture for "The Wolf of Wall Street", he's been nominated five times, nominated twice last year for the Casting Ensemble and for Best Supporting Actor for "Django Unchained".

(Leonardo and Marion embrace as she gives him his award. He then turns towards the audience, who's still standing. He mouths "Thank you", quietly, but then humbly walks off, exiting stage right.)

ANNOUNCER
To announce the OYL Award for Best Director, a 2-time OYL Award winner last year for Best Picture and Best Director, for "Life of Pi", Ang Lee!

(ANG LEE enters stage right and approaches the podium, to a rousing ovation, they remain standing for Ang until eventually they sit down as he awaits at the podium.)

ANG
I-eh, thought of bringing out a thing of wine let George did last year and toast to the nominees and winners, but I don't think I can pull that off as well as he could.

(Slight pause)

So, let's just get to it, here are the ten amazingly talented nominees for Best Director:


BEST DIRECTOR
Ethan Coen & Joel Coen-"Inside Llewyn Davis"
Alfonso Cuaron-"Gravity"
Ron Howard-"Rush"
Spike Jonze-"Her"
Abdellatif Kechiche-"Blue is the Warmest Color"
Richard Linklater-"Before Midnight"
Steve McQueen-"12 Years a Slave"
David O. Russell-"American Hustle"
Martin Scorsese-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
Zhangke Jia-"A Touch of Sin"

and the OYL Award goes to...
(Opens envelope, sudden pause)

Oh, hold on, we have a tie. 

(Audience gasps, murmurs about under the audiences' breath)

How do we do this, both at once, or,-
(Pause, looking off-stage, listening to instructions)
Okay, the first winner is ALFONSO CUARON for "Gravity" 



(Audience applauds, albeit nervously, as ALFONSO CUARON gets up and makes his way towards the stage as Steven Price's "Gravity (Main Theme)" plays.

ANNOUNCER
This is Alfonso Cuaron's first win. He's also nominated tonight, for Best Editing, Best Original Screenplay and for Best Picture all for "Gravity"!

(Alfonso meets Ang on stage. Ang congratulates Alfonso as he hands him the OYL. He then turns towards the audience but then steps back after a moment of applause as Ang goes back to the podium.

ANG
The second winner is,
MARTIN SCORSESE for "The Wolf of Wall Street"!



(7Horse's "Meth Lab Zoso Sticker" plays as MARTIN SCORSESE, happily gets up to a loud ovation from a still stunned crowd and heads towards the stage)

ANNOUNCER
This is Martin Scosese's first OYL Award. Counting his nomination tonight for Best Picture for "The Wolf of Wall Street", he's been nominated for four OYL Awards. He was previously nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for "Hugo"! This is only the 3rd tie in the history of the OYL Awards!

(Martin goes up and talks with Ang, who congratulates him and hands him his OYL. He then turns towards the audience, who's giving him a standing ovation. Then Alfonso joins Martin at the front of the stage, making the applause louder. Martin tries to get Ang to join them up there, which he does reluctantly for a second as the audience cheers all three directors on the stage, before all three of them eventually exit stage right, happily. The audience is still a sputter when they die down as Sarah goes back on stage.)

SARAH
Wow, that was amazing wasn't it? Man, that's hard to top. I have to introduce Brad Pitt now, and I had a joke about how great it is (BLEEP)ing Angelina Jolie with or without her (BLEEP), but- it seems wildly inappropriate now.

(Some laughter from audience)

You know, it was gonna be detailed, and go into-
(Motion like she was about to make a crude sexual gesture, but decides against it.)
Yeah, nevermind that. Anyway, to announce the final category, Best Picture, a-now 3-time OYL Award winner, having won his third earlier tonight as apart of the Casting Ensemble for "12 Years a Slave", he also won Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture for "The Tree of Life", ladies and gentlemen, Brad Pitt!

(Brad Pitt enters stage left to a large ovation as he approaches the podium. A few people start to stand, but he motions for them to sit back down. They actually do, surprisingly enough)

BRAD
Alright. it's been a great night, last one Everybody.
(Holds up envelope, flicks it to show it's real)
As always there are ten nominees for Best Picture, and here are the nominees...


BEST PICTURE
American Hustle-Producers: Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon, Charles Roven and Richard Suckle
Before Midnight-Producers: Christos V. Konstakopoulos, Richard Linklater and Sara Woodhatch
Blue is the Warmest Color-Producers: Laurence Clerc, Abdellatif Kechiche and Vincent Maraval
Gravity-Producers: Alfonso Cuaron and David Heyman
Her-Producers: Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze and Vincent Landay
Inside Llewyn Davis-Producers: Joel Coen & Ethan Coen and Scott Rudin
Rush-Producers: Andrew Eaton, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Peter Morgan and Brian Oliver
A Touch of Sin-Producer: Shozo Ichiyama
What Maisie Knew-Producer: Daniel Crown, Daniela Taplan Lundberg, William Teitler and Charles Weinstock
The Wolf of Wall Street-Producer: Riza Aziz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland, Martin Scorsese and Emma Tillinger Koskoff

(Drumroll begins after applause ends)

And One-Year-Later Award for Best Picture, goes to...

(Opens envelope, pause before speaking)

"BEFORE MIDNIGHT"!




(Drumroll ends, Graham Reynolds's "The Best Summer of My Life" plays as Richard Linklater's mouth is dropped open. The audience is applauding but still in a slight state of surprise, like "Wow, they really did that?" moment. Linklater, CHRISTOS V. KONSTAKOPOULOS and SARA WOODHATCH stand up and finally head towards the stage)

ANNOUNCER
This is Richard Linklater's 2nd win tonight, and the first wins and nominations for Christos V. Konstakopouls and Sara Woodhatch.

(There's a standing ovation as the group from of "Before Midnight" goes on stage. Brad gives Richard, Chris and Sara their OYL Awards, Richard's holding both his awards now. After a moment everybody exits stage left. Sarah goes back onstage.)

Congratulations to all the winners folks, the rest of you, better luck next year,- which is really this year, isn't it?
(Shrugs)
Alright goodnight folks. Happy New Year Everybody!

(Closing music plays, credits start to roll, showing highlights of the night)

ANNOUNCER
(During credits)
All vote tabulations are done by the in-house accountants at "David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews". The results of those tabulations are kept secret until the envelopes are opened on the night of the Awards.
(Pause)
Some departing nominees will receive consolation prizes provided by...

(Commercials for ACT mouthwash, Netflix, Hulu, The Olive Garden, Station Casinos, Victoria's Secret, Cinemark Theaters, and Napa Auto Parts)

Additional gift basket items provided by USA Network. Sorry about that, but we had to get rid of these "Silk Stalkings" DVDs somehow.

LAWYER'S NOTE: "David Baruffi's Entertainments Views & Reviews" denies all existence and knowledge of the One-Year-Later Awards, and disputes any/all claims of certain bribery, blackmail, racketeering, kidnapping, cyberterroristic threats, overdue jaywalking tickets, sodomy, and airplane hijackings in regards to the awards themselves, and any subsequent parallel activities, potentially regard but not limited to activities involving, sponsors or potential sponsors, publishers, producers, studio executives, potential Presidential candidates, CEOs of noted golf club manufacturers or chain supermarkets stores in the Northwest, none of which occurred, and none of which occurred, and were involved with the One-Year-Laters Awards and any potential existence of them, which they deny. All celebrities appearance at the awards are fictitious, as well, and we dispute everything Whitney Cummings claimed Sarah Silverman did to her in order to prevent her from hosting, and David Baruffi's Entertainment Views & Reviews" does not endorse torture in order to get hosting gigs or get celebrities to appear."

The OYL Awards is a "David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews" producion.
In association with Midnight Green Studios.



IN MEMORIAM

Malik Bendjelloul  (1977-2014)
OYL AWARD NOMINEE-Best Documentary-"Searching for Sugar Man"


Philip Seymour Hoffman (1967-2014)
OYL AWARD NOMINEE-Best Supporting Actor-"The Master"


Gil Friesen (1937-2012)
OYL AWARD WINNER-Best Documentary-"20 Feet from Stardom"

Sunday, December 28, 2014

CANON OF FILM: "YANKEE DOODLE DANDY"

YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (1942)

Director: Michael Curtiz
Sceeenplay: Robert Buckner and Edmund Joseph from the story by Robert Buckner



“Yankee Doodle Dandy,” shocked audiences when it originally came out. Not because of any risqué dialogue or subject matter, but because it’s star, James Cagney gave one of the most unexpected and greatest performances ever. It was somewhat known that Cagney was a dancer, he even danced once in a film before, Busby Berkeley’s “Footlight Parade” but that was a decade earlier, and since then he  had become infamous for playing bad guys in mobster films, and doing many of them, often 4 a year for a decade. So, audiences were amazed to find he was a Broadway caliber dancer and a good singer. In this biopic, he plays legendary American actor/dancer/playwright/producer/vaudevillian… George M. Cohan who once owned Broadway, filling the streets with his good time Patriotic plays like “Little Johnny Jones,” and “45 Minutes from Broadway,” and wrote dozens of songs including, “Mary,” “Over There,” “Give My Regards to Broadway,” “Grande Old Flag”, and of course, “Yankee Doodle Dandy,” which in the right context as part of “Little Johnny Jones,” holds up better than it should. Cohan was born into Showbiz playing as part of the 4 Cohans, his family’s traveling vaudevillian act, nearly from birth, with his father (Walter Huston), his mother (Rosemary De Camp) and his sister (Jeanne Cagney, Cagney’s actual sister). He then went on to be arguable the most successful producer and playwright in the history of Broadway. Fred Astaire turned the part down, and people were amazed Cagney was the one who ended up playing such a performing legend, but here Cagney leads in showing us some of the greatest song-and-dance performances in the history of film, and earned him the Best Actor Oscar, and is consider by many to be one of the greatest in all of cinema: Premiere Magazine listed it as the 6th Greatest Acting Performance in the history of film, and after watching the film, you'll be wondering exactly what were the five that could possibly be better. 

As a film, an even more impressively as a biopic, a genre of film that is although usually interesting, but the even best ones don’t hold up on repeated viewings, especially music biopics, but this one does, despite the… or maybe because the flights of fancy in storytelling it dares us to take; this one holds as a joyous celebration of a man’s life and it doesn’t do anything else. It’s not like their weren't ups and downs to Cohan’s life; it completely skips over his divorce from his first wife, and right to a magical whirlwind love with a fan of his who confronted him backstage, Mary (Joan Leslie) and the worst thing that happens is his own major bomb, a serious play called “Popularity” that was supposed to be without the flamboyance and patriotism and even music, but even it’s failure is handled with tact, wit and humor.  The movie begin with him in his older years, coming out of retirement to play FDR in his Broadway comeback, still dancing and singing as he was when he was younger and he is called to the President’s office, possibly for daring to portray the President in a somewhat audacious light. He then commences to telling his life story, which is one that has very little setbacks and rehabs or any other kind of depressing material most biopics dwell on. "Yes I was born on the 4th of July," he says, "And it took me until I was 6 to realize they weren't celebrating my birthday," that's the perspective of Cohan's work, and it's the perspective of this movie, light-hearted, joyous and celebratory almost completely throughout. Some will reveal the ending and the real reason why the President asked for his presence at the White House, but I would rather you see it for yourself. Reviewing the movie over again, I thought it would’ve come off as dated, but every time I go back to it, I’m amazed to find Cagney’s performance still magnificent; he was one of those performers who can just magnetize you when he's onscreen, and that's when he was doing nothing, much less showing all of his talents here, and more than that, the film works as entertainment. Out of context, it would just seem bizarre even in the most surrealist of films to find the star of the movie tap dancing down the steps of the White House (A final improvised scene from Cagney, that was not in the script) but for George M. Cohan, it just seems arbitrary and natural, of course he would tap dance down the stairs. 


“…Spread the word, spread the word…”

Thursday, December 25, 2014

MIX BAG BLOG #11: CHRISTMAS EDITION: SONY HACKERS, HBO MOVING TO L+7 RATINGS, AND SOME PERSONAL CHRISTMAS THOUGHTS

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas to all of you out there. Since it's the holiday, we're taking a break from our planned "TV Viewing 101" post for now. And frankly, since it is the holidays, we don't want to take up too much of your time today, so, when those times come when there isn't anything going on in the entertainment industry that I think is worth devoting a whole blogpost about, once in a while, we do a little Mixed Bag Blog, where instead of a more in-depth analysis of a single subject, we simply touch lightly on a few different subjects perpetuating the modern entertainment world and news, and we're doing one of those today. Enjoy.


YES, I'M TALKING ABOUT SONY HACKERS AND "THE INTERVIEW," BUT IF YOU WANT AN OPINION, YOU MIGHT NOT GET ONE.


As of today, if you have a few dollars, you can go and watch "The Interview" in a few movies, and on a few websites, including Youtube, for $5.99. (BTW, I'm not planning on buying/watching it right now; believe it or not, I'm in no particular rush to go see it; I'll get to it later) I'm not go over the entire timeline, but basically, these hackers, were able to convince Sony Pictures Entertainments, that based on their threats, their actions, including hacking into Sony Pictures, and taking everything, really everything that Sony has, and then releasing some of the more salacious details about their practices, until they finally, pulled the movie from the theaters, under some belief that the cyberterrorists' threats were indeed legitimate, and that people could've gotten killed had they screened it. Now, this set off, so many other things, that I can't keep track of. Eh, basically, the government thinks North Korea is involved in these cyberterroristic attacks, and the hacker underground groups like Anonymous are supposedly shutting down North Korea's internet for a day, and now the debate over whether to screen the movie, if they're able to (Remember the theaters were the ones that were pulling out first, before Sony, the chains were refusing to screen it.) and everything. Look, I have actually made a conscious effort to avoid commenting my opinions, because, I don't know enough about this. I use a computer, but I am no security expert on them, and I am no hacker. That said, I do know a couple, and I've been in constant discussions with them about this, as they sort through, not the details of whatever was in Amy Pascal's emails that day (And BTW, Aaron Sorkin's article is right; I know it won't stop the press from publishing them, but they really shouldn't and frankly we should stop reading them, 'cause they're not what they seem. Nobody really thinks that about Angelina Jolie, or whoever, it's just, sausage-making; they're trying to get the best deals and make the movie as well as they could; I've produced movies before, you start talking like Ari Gold, really fucking quickly when you're doing that, doesn't mean anything) they're looking, through all the news, and updates, from Sony, from the government, who are involved in trying to figure out who these hackers are, and if we're able to catch them. Last I checked, they don't think it's North Korea necessarily. They suspect it could be but right now, basically, the only evidence that the government has really revealed is that, the Malware used in the Sony attack was also used in South Korea, not North Korea, South Korea, which to my friends indicates nothing. This can easily be two ten-year-olds in Van Huys, although it probably isn't. They were sophisticated hackers who took, everything. Sony, is basically gonna have to spend millions right now in replacing the entire infrastructure of the entire company, across the board, if they're smart, and re-up their protections, and lord knows how much that'll cost. Hopefully, they'll make enough back on "The Interview," but if since we don't know enough details really, about the hackers and even the hack itself, the how did they dod this, and especially where it's coming from, I'm not criticizing Sony's decisions here. I frankly wouldn't know what to do either. They got the CIA on one side investigating, they got their secrets being released every day, they got the the terrorists threatening to attack people on Christmas day, in the theaters showing "The Interview", this after, they threatened to hack on a massive scale, and then they did. Ugh! I wouldn't know what to do either in Amy Pascal's shoes, and I'm pretty sure both me and her are out there trying to learn as much as they can very quickly about computer security, hoping to even understand the battleground that this attack is going on. If you want to take a beginners course, I've been watching "Security Now" on Twit. There's a Youtube clip of their Best of for the year episode, below are links to the latest episodes below, where they do go into details about Sony:

http://twit.tv/show/security-now/485
http://twit.tv/show/security-now/486

Steve Gibson is the guy, who-, I don't know, invented computer protection software, or whatever the hell he did, but he's an expert at this, and they talk mostly about, the weekly news in Computer security. We'll probably investigate and discuss more of this as more and more about the attack comes out. In the meantime, don't read the e-mails. They're stolen, and frankly, they're not what they sound like anyway. Alright, so Franco gets paid to drive himself to work, who gives a shit frankly. And, the who wrote who about what, it's all sausage-making folks, it really is. It's not as shocking as it seems. You'll see the movie, in the nice little package, you don't always want to know all the details about how it was made, well, we're seeing a glimpse of it now, but still, it's not what you think.


HBO AND OTHERS, STOPS RELEASING OVERNIGHT RATINGS, WILL START ISSUING LIVE +7 RATINGS, AND THEY AREN'T ALONE

This story, kind fell under the radar and it frankly, is an inevitable, but basically all internal information on rating for HBO, and it's not just them, CBS, FX too, their not releasing the overnight Neilsen ratings for their programs, instead, they're only gonna release the Live +7 ratings, which, is basically a symbolic gesture 'cause Neilsen has their own ratings, but basically their no longer looking at the overnight ratings as legitimate indicators. There's always been a few different ratings, even with Nielsen, but basically, once overnights come in, they traditionally were usually an accurate indicator of what the eventually ratings are. That seems hard to believe, but when you consider the sampling data that they pull from, it actually isn't that illogical, at least it didn't used to be until the age of streaming date kicked in. This is what the L+7 and the L+3 ratings account for. HBO right now, and despite them still having major ratings hits on live initial viewings like "Game of Thrones" and "Girls", the streaming ratings on HBOGo actually makeup a bigger margin of the overall ratings. But, in a news cycle, even an entertainment news cycle, and even in the day-to-day business cycle of running a network, the overnights were traditionally the ratings that come out first and that had the highest eventual impact. HBO and a few others, working with Nielsen are working on changing that, hence the recent string of networks now vowing not to release overnight ratings anymore. It'll take a week now before we get to hear the ratings for HBO, but with television movie ever-so-quickly and more forcefully into the streaming avenues, this basically is going to be how in the future, we start to consider ratings, and clearly the networks, are actually there. The issue is still gonna be, on the systems on which people stream, HBO took the first big jump, offering HBOGo without a cable subscription, and that's pissed a lot of the cable companies off, and CBS is now getting into a similar streaming service, model, although I think that's gonna have somewhat less success considering that CBS is pretty free to begin with, and unlike, the other network channels, most of which invested or made deals with Hulu, sometimes on top of their own streaming options, CBS, has had high live overnight ratings across it's whole channel, and I think the most under-discussed reasons is because they came late to the streaming venture, but- we'll see how this inevitably plays out. By next year those, most of the major network, cable and otherwise will be including streaming numbers somehow into their ratings system, and hopefully this'll mean a complete re-map of how the Neilsen's formula works.

PERSONAL THOUGHTS ON THIS CHRISTMAS DAY

You know, the older I get the more low-key we try to make the holidays, especially Christmas, mostly out of want moreso than necessity, actually. I appreciate all you readers, but you should know that it really hasn't been too great for me lately. I don't talk much about my regular day-to-day life, and frankly part of why I pursue entertainment is so I can go into other worlds and universe, distract ourselves from the problems of the world. A place to get away from all your worries, and the rest of the theme song to "Cheers". I watch my autistic brother during the days and nights frankly, I even get paid for it now, because I'm basically not really able to go out and pursue my career in film properly. And frankly, we're not exactly rich either, and frankly, the holidays comes off more of an obligation nowadays, although every year we try to get into the spirit. We're getting into it this year, but by tomorrow, it'll just be another cold winter day here in Vegas, and not much had changed. This blog, helps me connect to you readers, and helps me through a lot, but in the near future, I'm gonna start being less active on here. Don't worry, my presence will not go away, my reviews, my opinions, and whatnot , we'll cover the Oscars and Emmys and you'll hear from me, don't worry, but it's another year, and I need some new challenges. I might be changing the look more to this blog, I'm already adding new features and making it easier to navigate and it's becoming more interactive with the FB page and the Twitter, and I'm even becoming a presence on Google Friend now, even participating in google hangouts when I can. That said, I'm gonna start taking longer between posts soon, I've already had way more delays and late postings than I ever want, even though I know I shouldn't be so concerned over a fictitious deadline, but it does annoy, and it bothers me when I can't get to put out things for you, the readers, in a timely manner. As fun as it is though, it's time for me to rethink my priorities and begin working towards getting not only a new approach to my outside work and pursue those dreams and goals, but I gotta come up with new approaches here. So, we're gonna do a few different thing. Play around with the look, I know some don't like the black background on the white, I kinda get that, although I do prefer it, but I'll give it another try to find something new look, but I also want to bring in new voices, so if you're interesting in occasionally an article to this blog, let me know. Plenty of way to get ahold of me, two FB pages, my own, and the blogs, Twitter, let me know your ideas or what you want to talk about, and if it's something that fits into the milieu of the blog, or it's just something interesting in general, I'll post your work as a guest blogger, you'll be credited, and I'll even put some contact information for you. I want this to be more interactive, elsewise. So hopefully you'll still hear a lot of me, assuming you're willing to tolerate that, but also some other people with their thoughtful insights and observances. We'll start doing these things after the New Year, when we really should be doing things new. Well, those are the thoughts I've had this Christmas. I wish it was more, peace on Earth, good will towards men, but I do want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year,

Sunday, December 21, 2014

THE 4TH ANNUAL OYL AWARDS NOMINATION ANNOUNCEMENT!

(A podium awaits quietly in front of a large TV screen as the press awaits for an announcement, as I walk onto the stage, applause begins and continues as I reach the podium.)

ME
Thank you Everyone, for coming, to the announcements for this years nominees for the 4th Annual, One-Year-Later Awards, The OYLs!

(Press applauds)

Yes, thank you. We're the only Award show, that takes it's time, and takes a whole year, to go through and see as much as we can from the year before, to make sure, that we get it correct, what was the best in film from the year.

(Press applauds again)

So far, we also have so hopefully again this year. Eh, before we announce the nominees, I wanted to refresh everyone on the nominees and awards and how exactly they are determined, so let's go over those real quick...

(I go over the rules and regulations, however no one's listening and the televised broadcast has chosen to comment over me at this moment.)

OYL AWARD RULES and REGULATIONS
1. Everybody who works at "David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews," is eligible to vote for the OYL Awards, but they must've seen 200 films from the year before this year, including a majority of the major Award nominees and winners from that year.

2. Awards will be presented in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best Foreign Language Feature, Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay, however, the OYL Awards won't necessarily be limited to these Awards alone.

3. THE NOMINATING RULES
A. Each category, unless otherwise noted, will have a minimum of 5 nominations per category, however, up to 10 nominations per category are allowed if more than five nominations in se category are deserving of a nomination, for that year, but no more than 10.

B. The Best Picture Category will have 10, and only 10 nomination per year, done so irrelevant of the amount of films the Academy nominates in order to promote and showcase many movies that might generally be overlooked.

C. The Best Animated Feature category will follow the same standard set by the A.M.P.A.S. as to nominations, a maximum of 3 nominations for years with less than 15 feature films released, and five nominations for years with 16 or more.


D. The Best Foreign Language Feature category can choose any film that's predominately shot in a foreign language, and that can include films shot and produced in the United States, by American filmmakers.

E. Documentaries are not eligible for the Best Picture category, although they are eligible in every other category.

REPORTER #1
If you're just joining, this is from the Las Vegas, where they are currently in the process of announcing the One-Year-Later Awards nomination, the film awards, that are very young, but have clearly distinguished themselves so far, by insisting on taking a whole extra year to watch, every film they can, before finally announcing the nominees, we have our entertainment reporter Alan Smithee on the scene, Alan, are there any predictions or surprises we should be expecting from these awards? 

REPORTER #2
Well, there may be some surprises from the General Public's perception, but if you paid attention, there certainly are a few films we're expecting to hear quite a bit from tonight, for instant, we think the Best Picture category, we suspect that that is set, but there's room for surprises in some of the other awards, and they are known, for being against the grain at times, like their name implies, they wait a whole year before announcing the winners and nominees. They take pride, in being very precise and careful with these awards, so we'll see.

REPORTER #1
Do we have time for another question, to Alan, no we don't, I'm told, the announcements are coming up now.

(Back to me)

ME
It's my pleasure to introduce last year's winners for both Best Actor and Best Actress to announce the awards this year. OYL-Award winner for "Les Miserables," Hugh Jackman, and a 2-time OYL Award winner, as a member of the cast of "Midnight in Paris", and last year for Best Actress for "Rust and Bone", Marion Cotillard.

(Hugh and Marion enter stage left and approach the podium, as I walk off stage right.)

MARION
Bonjour.

HUGH
Good morning, Everyone. For the second consecutive year, their are ten nominees, the maximum, in the Best Supporting Actress category. The nominees are:

 
  Sally Hawkins-"Blue Jasmine"                                       Jennifer Hudson-"The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete"
 
  Jennifer Lawrence-"American Hustle"                     Julianne Moore-"What Maisie Knew" 
  Lupita Nyong'o-"12 Years a Slave"                         Margot Robbie-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
 
  Lea Seydoux-"Blue is the Warmest Color"                    June Squibb-"Nebraska"   
 
  Joanna Vanderham-"What Maisie Knew"                       Ziyi Zhang-"The Grandmaster"


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Sally Hawkins-"Blue Jasmine"
Jennifer Hudson-"The Inevitable Defeat of Mister & Pete"
Jennifer Lawrence-"American Hustle"
Julianne Moore-"What Maisie Knew"
Lupita Nyong'o-"12 Years a Slave"
Margot Robbie-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
Lea Seydoux-"Blue is the Warmest Color"
June Squibb-"Nebraska"
Joanna Vanderham-"What Maisie Knew"
Ziyi Zhang-"The Grandmaster"

(Some collected ooh, oh, and other rumblings from the Press as some of the more unexpected names are announced)

MARION
For the second consecutive year, we're proud to announce that there are ten nominees, the maximum, in the Best Supporting Actor category. The nominees are:

 
  Daniel Bruhl-"Rush"                                                        Bradley Cooper-"American Hustle"
 
  James Franco-"Spring Breakers"                                   Will Forte-"Nebraska"
 
  Ryan Gosling-"The Place Beyond the Pines"                 Jake Gyllenhall-"Prisoners"
 
  Jonah Hill-"The Wolf of Wall Street"                             Jared Leto-"Dallas Buyers Club"
 
  Kai-Peter Malina-"Lore"                                       Alexander Skarsgard-"What Maisie Knew"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Daniel Bruhl-"Rush"
Bradley Cooper-"American Hustle"
James Franco-"Spring Breakers"
Will Forte-"Nebraska"
Ryan Gosling-"The Place Beyond the Pines"
Jake Gyllenhaal-"Prisoners"
Jonah Hill-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
Jared Leto-"Dallas Buyers Club"
Kai-Peter Malina-"Lore"
Alexander Skarsgard-"What Maisie Knew"

(There's a notable loud cheer after James Franco's name is announced, while other rumblings also occur at some of the other names.)

HUGH
Alright, Jake.

(Audience chuckles at Hugh's reference to being a co-star in "Prisoners")

HUGH
As the One-Year Later Awards continue to grow and expand, for the first time ever the OYLs have chosen to give out an Award for Outstanding work in Production Design for a feature film. For this inaugural year for the award, there are nine nominees, and they are: for "American Hustle", Production Design Judy Becker, Set Decoration by Heather Loeffler, for "Ginger & Rosa", Production Design by Carlos Conti, Set Decoration by Liz Griffiths, for "The Grandmaster" Production Design by William Chang Suk Ping, Art Direction by Alfred Yau, for "Gravity", Production Design by Andy Nicholson, Set Decoration by Rosie Goodwin & Joanne Woollard, for "The Great Beauty" Stefania Cella, for "The Great Gatsby", Production Design by Catherine Martin, Set Decoration by Beverly Dunn, for "Her", Production Design by Mark Digby, Set Decoration by Michelle Day, and for "The Wolf of Wall Street", production design by Bob Shaw, set decoration by Ellen Christiansen.

PRODUCTION DESIGN
American Hustle-Pro.: Judy Becker; Set: Heather Loeffler
Ginger & Rosa-Pro.: Carlos Conti; Set: Liz Griffiths
The Grandmaster-Pro.: William Chang Suk Ping, Art: Alfred Yau
Gravity-Pro: Andy Nicholson; Set: Rosie Goodwin & Joanne Woollard
The Great Beauty-Stefania Cella
The Great Gatsby-Pro.: Catherine Martin; Set: Beverly Dunn
Her-Pro.: K.K. Barrett; Set: Gene Serdana
Rush-Pro.: Mark Digby, Set: Michelle Day
The Wolf of Wall Street-Pro.: Bob Shaw; Set: Ellen Christiansen


MARION
There are nine nominees this year in the category of Best Editing. The nominees are:
(Pause)
for "12 Years a Slave", Joe Walker, for "American Hustle", Alam Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers, for "Captain Phillips", Christopher Rouse, for "Gravity", Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Sanger, for "Her", Jeff Buchanan and Eric Zumbrunnen, for "Inside Llewyn Davis", Roderick Jaynes,
(Slight pause, to make sure she says the film title correctly)
for "An Oversimplification of Her Beauty", Terence Nance,
(A second slight pause)
for "Rush" Dan Hanley & Mike Hill, and for "The Wolf of Wall Street", Thelma Schoonmaker.

EDITING
12 Years a Slave-Joe Walker
American Hustle-Alan Baumgarten, Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers
Captain Phillips-Christopher Rouse
Gravity-Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Sanger
Her-Jeff Buchanan and Eric Zumbrunnen
Inside Llewyn Davis-Roderick Jaynes (aka Joel Coen & Ethan Coen)
An Oversimplification of Her Beauty-Terence Nance
Rush-Dan Hanley & Mike Hill
The Wolf of Wall Street-Thelma Schoonmaker


HUGH
For the second consecutive year, there are ten nominees in the OYL Award for Best Cinematography. The nominees are.
(Pause)
For "All is Lost", Frank G. DeMarco, for "The Grandmaster," Philippe Le Sourd, for "Gravity" Emmanuel Lubezki, for "The Great Beauty," Luca Bigazzi, for "Her", Hoyte van Hoytema.
(Pause after saying name) for "Inside Llewyn Davis" Bruno Delbonnel, for "Nebraska", Phedon Papamichael,
(Slightly louder than he has)
for "Prisoners", Roger A. Deakins.
(Slight applause for the crowd)
Yeah.
(Slight laughter as Hugh acknowledges the praise)
for "Rush", Anthony Dod Mantle, and to- for "To the Wonder", Emmanuel Lubezki.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
All is Lost-Frank G. DeMarco
The Grandmaster-Phillippe Le Sourd
Gravity-Emmanuel Lubezki
The Great Beauty-Luca Bigazzi
Her-Hoyte van Hoytema
Inside Llewyn Davis-Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska-Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners-Roger A. Deakins
Rush-Anthony Dod Mantle
To the Wonder-Emmanuel Lubezki

MARION
For the third consecutive year, there are ten nominees, the maximum, in the category of Best Casting Ensemble. The OYL Award is for the Most Outstanding Work by a film's main acting ensemble. The award is presented and given to the film's Casting Director and the an award goes to all of the main members of a cast. If no casting director is listed, the nomination is presented to the Executive Producers and Producers. The nominees are:
(Pause)
"12 Years a Slave", casting by Francine Maisler, "American Hustle", casting by Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu, "Blue Jasmine", casting by Patricia DiCerto and Juliet Taylor, "Ginger & Rosa" casting by Irene Lamb and Heidi Levitt, "Inside Llewyn Davis", casting by Ellen Chenoweth, "Prisoners", casting by Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee-

(Hugh reacts with a shocked expression once "Prisoners" gets announced and looks towards Marion,  audience laughs, pause)

"A Touch of Sin", Executive Producers Zhangke Jia, Zhong-lun Ren and Yuji Sadais; Producer Shozo, Ichiyama. Whew.
(Pause)
 "The Way Way Back", casting by Allison Jones, "What Maisie Knew", Avy Kaufman and "The Wolf of Wall Street", casting by Ellen Lewis.

CASTING ENSEMBLE
12 Years a Slave-Casting by Francine Maisler
American Hustle-Casting by Lindsay Graham and Mary Vernieu
Blue Jasmine-Casting by Patricia DiCerto and Juliet Taylor
Ginger & Rosa-Casting by Irene Lamb and Heidi Levitt
Inside Llewyn Davis-Casting by Ellen Chenoweth
Prisoners-Casting by Kerry Barden and Paul Schnee
A Touch of Sin-(Ex. Pro.:) Zhangke Jia, Zhong-lun Ren and Yuji Sadai; (Pro.:) Shozo Ichiyama
The Way Way Back-Casting by Allison Jones
What Maisie Knew-Casting by Avy Kaufman
The Wolf of Wall Street-Casting by Ellen Lewis

and Congratulations Hugh.

HUGH
Thank you, I swear, I was not told of this ahead of time. Were you nominated for anything?

MARION
Not so far, but if you didn't know, maybe, I am?

HUGH
Well, we'll see. You didn't make a documentary this year did you?

MARION
No, I didn't

HUGH
Alright. Probably not nominated here. There are nine nominees this year in the Best Documentary category, the OYL award is given to the film's Director and Producers. The nominees are:
(Pause)
"20 Feet from Stardom", Director, Morgan Neville, Producers, Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers, "The Act of Killing, Director, Joshua Oppenheimer, Co-Directors/Producers, Anonymous and Christine Cynn, Producers Anne Kohncke, Signe Byrge Sorensen, Joren Tem Brink and Micheal Uwemedimo-
(Pause for breath)
Whew. And that was just one nomination.

(Pause laughs)

Eh, sorry. This is work. "Blackfish", Director/Producer Gabriella Cowperthwaithe, Producer Manuel V. Oteyza, "The Crash Reel", Director/Producer Lucy Walker, Producer Julian Cautherly, "Let the Fire Burn", Director/Producer Jason Osder, "More than Honey", Director/Producer Markus Imhoof, Producers Helmut Grasser, Thomas Kufus and Pierre-Alain Meier, "The Square", Director/Producer Jehame Noujaim, Producer Karim Amer, "Stories We Tell," Director Sarah Polley, Producer Anita Lee, and "Tim's Vermeer", Director Teller, Producers Penn Jillette and Farley Ziegler.

 
 
 
 

DOCUMENTARY
20 Feet from Stardom-Dir./Pro.: Morgan Neville; Pro.: Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers
The Act of Killing-Dir.: Joshua Oppenheimer; Co-Dir./Pro.: Anonymous and Christine Cynn; Pro.: Anne Kohncke, Signe Byrge Sorensen, Joren Tem Brink, and Michael Uwemedimo
Blackfish-Dir./Pro.: Gabriella Cowperthwaithe; Pro.: Manuel V. Oteyza
The Crash Reel-Dir./Pro.: Lucy Walker; Pro.: Julian Cautherly
Let the Fire Burn-Dir./Pro.: Jason Osder
More than Honey-Dir./Pro.: Markus Imhoof; Pro.: Helmut Grasser, Thomas Kufus and Pierre-Alain Meier
The Square-Dir./Pro.: Jehame Noujaim; Pro.: Karim Amer
Stories We Tell-Dir.: Sarah Polley; Pro.: Anita Lee
Tim's Vermeer-Dir.: Teller; Pro.: Penn Jillette and Farley Ziegler


MARION
There are nine nominees this year in the Foreign Language Film category, the award is given to the film's director. The nominees are:
(Pause)
from France, "Blue is the Warmest Color", Director Abdellatif Kechiche, from Belgium, "The Broken Circle Breakdown" Director Felix von Groeningen, from Italy, "The Great Beauty", Director Paolo Sorrentino, from Switzerland, "More than Honey", Director Markus Imhoof, from Belgium, "Our Children", Director Joachim Lafosse, from Iran, "The Past" Director Asghar Farhadi, from Egypt, "The Square", Director Jehame Noujaim, from the People's Republic of China, "A Touch of Sin", Director Zhangke Jia, and from Saudi Arabia, "Wadjda", Director Haifaa Al-Mansour.

  
  
 
 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Blue is the Warmest Color-(France) Abdellatif Kechiche
The Broken Circle Breakdown-Felix von Groeningen (Belgium)
The Great Beauty-Paolo Sorrentino (Italy)
More than Honey-Markus Imhoof (Switzerland)
Our Children-Joachim Lafosse (Belgium)
The Past-Asghar Farhadi (Iran)
The Square-Jehame Noujaim (Egypt)
A Touch of Sin- Zhangke Jia (People's Republic of China)
Wadjda-Haifaa Al-Mansour (Saudi Arabia)


HUGH
There are five nominees this year in the Best Animated Feature category, the award is given to the film's director and producers, the nominees are:
(Pause)
"Despicable Me 2", Directors Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud, Pro.: Janet Healy and Chris Meledandri, "Ernest & Celestine", Directors Stephen Aubier & Vincent Patar, and Benjamin Renner, Producers Didier Brunner, Henri Magalon, Stephan Roelants and Vincent Tavier, "Frozen", Directors Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, Producer Pet Del Vecho, "Monsters University, Director Dan Scanlon, Producer Kori Rae, and "The Wind Rises", Director Hayao Miyazaki, Producer, Toshio Suzuki.

 
 

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Despicable Me 2-Dir.: Pierre Coffin & Chris Renaud; Pro.: Janet Healy and Chris Meledandri
Ernest & Celestine-Dir.: Stephane Aubier & Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner; Pro.: Didier Brunner, Henri Magalon, Stephan Roelants, and Vincent Tavier
Frozen-Dir.: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee; Pro.: Peter Del Vecho
Monsters University-Dir.: Dan Scanlon; Pro.: Kori Rae
The Wind Rises-Dir.: Hayao Miyazaki; Pro.: Toshio Suzuki


MARION
For the third time in four years there are ten nominees, the maximum, in the Best Actress category. The nominees are:

 
  Amy Adams-"American Hustle"                                     Veerle Baetens-"The Broken Circle Breakdown"
 
  Cate Blanchett-"Blue Jasmine"                                      Sandra Bullock-"Gravity"
 
  Julie Delpy-"Before Midnight"                                       Emilie Dequenne-"Our Children"
 
  Adele Exarchopoulos-"Blue is the Warmest Color"        Gaby Hoffmann-"Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus & 2012"
 
  Brie Larson-"Short Term 12"                                           Robin Weigert-"Concussion"

BEST ACTRESS
Amy Adams-"American Hustle"
Veerle Baetens-"The Broken Circle Breakdown"
Cate Blanchett-"Blue Jasmine"
Sandra Bullock-"Gravity"
Julie Delpy-"Before Midnight"
Emilie Dequenne-"Our Children"
Adele Exarchopoulos-"Blue is the Warmest Color"
Gaby Hoffmann-"Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus and 2012"
Brie Larson-"Short Term 12"
Robin Weigert-"Concussion"


(Press murmurs about, somewhat surprised and puzzled by some of the more obscure nominations and names)

HUGH
For the second consecutive year, there are ten nominees, the maximum also, in the Best Actor category; this marks the first time that all four acting categories have reached the maximum number of nominations. The nominees are:

 
  Christian Bale-"American Hustle"                                  Leonardo DiCaprio-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
 
  Chiwetel Ejiofor-"12 Years a Slave"                               Ethan Hawke-"Before Midnight"
 
  Johan Heldenbergh-"The Broken Circle Breakdown"     Oscar Isaac-"Inside Llewyn Davis" 
 
  Matthew McConaughey-"Dallas Buyers Club"               Joaquin Phoenix-"Her"
 
  Robert Redford-"All is Lost"                                           Forest Whitaker-"Lee Daniels' The Butler"

BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale-"American Hustle"
Leonardo DiCaprio-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
Chiwetel Ejiofor-"12 Years a Slave"
Ethan Hawke-"Before Midnight"
Johan Heldenbergh-"The Broken Circle Breakdown"
Oscar Isaac-"Inside Llewyn Davis"
Matthew McConaughey-"Dallas Buyers Club"
Joaquin Phoenix-"Her"
Robert Redford-"All is Lost"
Forest Whitaker-"Lee Daniels' The Butler"


MARION
For the second consecutive year, there are ten nominees, the maximum this year in the Best Original Screenplay category, and the nominees are:
(Pause)
For "All is Lost", J.C. Chandor, for "American Hustle", Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell, for "Blue Jasmine", Woody Allen, for "Ginger & Rosa", Sally Potter, for "Gravity" Alfonso Cuaron & Jonas Cuaron. for "Her", Spike Jonze, for "Inside Llewyn Davis" Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, for "The Past", Asghar Farhadi, for "Rush", Peter Morgan, and for "A Touch of Sin", Zhangke Jia.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
All is Lost-J.C. Chandor
American Hustle-Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine-Woody Allen
Ginger & Rosa-Sally Potter
Gravity-Alfonso Cuaron & Jonas Cuaron
Her-Spike Jonze
Inside Llewyn Davis-Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
The Past-Asghar Farhadi
Rush-Peter Morgan
A Touch of Sin-Zhangke Jia


HUGH
There are seven nominees this year in the Adapted Screenplay category, the nominees are:
(Pause)
for "12 Years a Slave", John Ridley, for "Before Midnight", Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy, for "Blue is the Warmest Color", Abdellatif Kechiche & Ghalie Lacroix, for "The Broken Circle Breakdown," Felix von Groeningen and Carl Joos, for "Frozen", Story/Screenplay by Jennifer Lee, Story by Chris Buck & Shane Morris, for "What Maisie Knew", Nancy Doyle & Carroll Cartwright, and for "The Wolf of Wall Street", Terence Winter.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
12 Years a Slave-John Ridley
Before Midnight-Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke & Julie Delpy
Blue is the Warmest Color-Abdellatif Kechiche & Ghalia Lacroix
The Broken Circle Breakdown-Felix von Groeningen and Carl Joos
Frozen-Story/Screenplay by Jennifer Lee; Story by Chris Buck & Shane Morris
What Maisie Knew-Nancy Doyne & Carroll Cartwright
The Wolf of Wall Street-Terence Winter


MARION
For the first time ever, there are ten nominees, the maximum, in the category of Best Director. The nominees are:

 
  Ethan Coen & Joel Coen-"Inside Llewyn Davis"            Alfonso Cuaron-"Gravity"
 
  Ron Howard-"Rush"                                                          Spike Jonze-"Her"
 
  Abdellatif Kechiche-"Blue is the Warmest Color"           Richard Linklater-"Before Midnight"
 
  Steve McQueen-"12 Years a Slave"                                David O. Russell-"American Hustle"
 
  Martin Scorsese-"The Wolf of Wall Street"                  Zhangke Jia-"A Touch of Sin"

BEST DIRECTOR
Ethan Coen & Joel Coen-"Inside Llewyn Davis"
Alfonso Cuaron-"Gravity"
Ron Howard-"Rush"
Spike Jonze-"Her"
Abdellatif Kechiche-"Blue is the Warmest Color"
Richard Linklater-"Before Midnight"
Steve McQueen-"12 Years a Slave"
David O. Russell-"American Hustle"
Martin Scorsese-"The Wolf of Wall Street"
Zhangke Jia-"A Touch of Sin"


HUGH
And here to announce Best Picture, the editor of "David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews", and the producer/creator of the One-Year-Later Awards, David Baruffi.

(I walk back out after a pause, to applause from the press and from Hugh and Marion as I head to the podium, and stand between them)

ME
Thank you very much, Hugh, Marion, thank you very much for doing this, Hugh Congrats, on your nomination, Marion, I've heard very good things about a couple of the films you're in this year, so your name might be mentioned next year.

MARION
I hope so.

ME
I do too. Okay, as always there are ten nominees for the OYL Award for Best Picture; the award is given to the film's Producers; and the nominees are:
(Pause)
"American Hustle", Producers, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon, Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, "Before Midnight," Producers, Christos V. Konstakopoulos, Richard Linklater and Sara Woodhatch, "Blue is the Warmest Color", Producers Laurence Clerc, Adbellatif Kechiche and Vincent Maraval, "Gravity", Producers Alfonso Cuaron and David Heyman, "Her", Producers Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze and Vincent Landay, "Inside Llewyn Davis", Producers Joel Coen & Ethan Coen and Scott Rudin, "Rush", Producers Andrew Eaton, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Peter Morgan and Brian Oliver, "A Touch of Sin", Producer Shozo Ichiyama, "What Maisie Knew", Producers Daniel Crown, Daniela Taplan Lundberg, William Teitler and Charles Weinstock, and "The Wolf of Wall Street", Producers Riza Aziz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey MacFarland, Martin Scorsese and Emma Tillinger Koskoff.

 
 
 
 
 


BEST PICTURE
American Hustle-Pro.: Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon, Charles Rovan and Richard Suckle
Before Midnight-Pro.: Christos V. Konstakopoulos, Richard Linklater and Sara Woodhatch
Blue is the Warmest Color-Pro.: Laurence Clerc, Abdellatif Kechiche and Vincent Maraval
Gravity-Pro.: Alfonso Cuaron and David Heyman
Her-Pro.: Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze and Vincent Landay
Inside Llewyn Davis-Joel Coen & Ethan Coen and Scott Rudin
Rush-Pro.: Andrew Eaton, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard, Peter Morgan and Brian Oliver
A Touch of Sin-Pro.: Shozo Ichiyama
What Maisie Knew-Pro.: Daniel Crown, Daniela Taplan Lundberg, William Teitler, and Charles Weinstock
The Wolf of Wall Street-Pro.: Riza Aziz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey MacFarland, Martin Scorsese, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff


Congratulations to all the nominees, don't forget to join us on December 30, here at "David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews", for the 4th Annual One-Year-Later Awards, this year hosted by former OYL Award nominee Sarah Silverman, where we will open the envelopes and be, the final last word on the best in film from 2013. Thank you very much.

(I, Hugh and Marion stand at the podium for a few moments, talking with each other, while the press begins huddling and scurrying about trying to figure out the nominees.)

REPORTER #1
Well, Alan, this was I-, Alan you there?

REPORTER #2
Yes, I'm here Jane.

REPORTER #1
Well, I guess you're all kinda overloaded right loaded now, there seemed to be a lot of nominations wasn't there, from a lot of films it seems?

REPORTER #2
(Laughs)
Well, I gotta be honest here, this has always been somewhat, a bit of an ordeal, but yes, even the OYLs, this amounts to a staggering amount of confusion, not only did, as they mention, all four acting categories, five if you count the Casting Ensemble by the way, did they all reach ten nominations, there wasn't even a repeat actor, getting maybe a second nomination in any of those categories, this was spread around, even more than ever, but it wasn't the only category, except for Adapted Screenplay, it seems, every category seems a very overloaded. Normally, the OYLs, do want to not narrow the nominations, because they do want to honor outstanding work in general and not be force to selecting the five best; they want the 5-10 performances that were absolutely outstanding and special to be mentioned for themselves, but this was unusually excessive I must say, but then again, I think this underlines, how much quality there was this past year in some of these categories. Best Actress, alone,- uh, I don't know how the hell they're gonna pick one from that list of nominees-

REPORTER
Well, Alan let's talk about the nominees, first for Best Picture, and we're to get totals in btw for each film, those should be on your screen in a second, what films did really well for these OYL Awards.

TOTAL NOMINATIONS
American Hustle=10
The Wolf of Wall Street=9
Gravity=7
Her=7
Inside Llewyn Davis=7
Rush=7
12 Years a Slave=6
Blue is the Warmest Color=6
What Maisie Knew=6
Before Midnight=5
A Touch of Sin=5
Blue Jasmine=4
The Broken Circle Breakdown=4
All is Lost=3
Ginger & Rosa=3
The Grandmaster=3
The Great Beauty=3
Nebraska=3
Prisoners=3
Dallas Buyers Club=2
Frozen=2
More than Honey=2
Our Children=2
The Past=2
The Square=2
All others with 1 nomination

REPORTER #2
Well, "American Hustle" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" did the best, with ten and nine nominations respectively, "American Hustle" ties the record btw with "Inglourious Basterds" last year, although that film only won one OYL last year, but "American Hustle"'s nominations are spread over nine categories, so that bodes well for them; like the Oscars they got into all four acting categories, something hasn't happened until now with the OYLs. But, those two were basically the exception, there was a lot of spreading around, and then, and while it seems like they put some stock into the Oscars picks last year, if you look closer, they really didn't care, about other awards and simply gave out their own nominations. I'll give you an example here, not only did eight of the nine Foreign Language nominees get into another category, but "The Grandmaster" which wasn't nominated for Foreign Language film, got three nominations, and three other foreign language films got into other category, one in Supporting Actor, two in Animation, btw, "The Grandmaster" wasn't only not picked for Foreign Language Film, they picked another Chinese film, "A Touch of Sin" and that got into four other categories, including Picture and Director, so that country got eight nomination, and Belgium had seven, by the way, across three films, two nominated for Best Foreign Language film, "The Broken Circle Breakdown" and "Our Children", both of whom in other strange categories, but that country also made, "Ernest & Celestine", which got into Animated Feature. France only had six, and that was all, "Blue is the Warmest Color".

REPORTER #1
I also noticed that two films got Foreign Language film nominations and Documentary nominations, has that ever happened?

REPORTER #2
No, that's new as well, with "More than Honey" and "The Square", oh, "The Square" also, the first African film to get nominated anywhere at these awards, although last year, one of the Japanese animated films got into Animation and Foreign Language Film, and strangely the two foreign language Animated films, did not get into both. And neither of those docs were Cambodia "The Missing Picture" which didn't get into either, despite a Foreign Language Oscar nomination last year.

REPORTER #1
Well, back to Best Picture any surprises here, no "12 Years a Slave", for instance, no nominations at all for "Philomena", "Dallas Buyers Club", didn't do well, was this expected?

REPORTER #2
Actually Best Picture, for those who kept an eye out and payed attention, there wasn't a lot of surprises in Best Picture, for OYL followers who keep an eye out year-round, although  a few would surprise some; Steve McQueen getting int Director, despite "12 Years a Slave", staying out of Picture, that was a bit of a surprise but not totally unexpected. The real surprises, and not counting a lot of the "Huh?" nominations, for films that most of the audience might not know about, "Frozen" getting into Adapted Screenplay, was the last one I truly didn't expect to see, "The Great Gatsby" in Production Design is an interesting one, 'cause that's the first time a film got a negative review from this blog, but still got into a category, that's groundbreaking, although it is Production Design. But, especially for Best Actress, I think a lot of people were going, "What the hell is "Our Children"?" What the hell is "Concussion"?! What's "Crystal Fairy and..." whatever the hell that was...", what' "Lore" is Supporting Actor, I think a lot are caught off-guard by those nominations right now, than anything else.

REPORTER #1
Okay, good I'm not alone. I didn't know "What Maisie Knew" or "A Touch of Sin" into the Best Picture categories even, and then what was Jennifer Hudson, surprisingly nominated for?

REPORTER #2
That was a "What?" and a "Huh?" for me too, "The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete", that one, very small independent film, that got a few nominations at like, the Spirits and something like that. The one that caught some of the insiders offguard, was an experimental film, "An Oversimplification of Her Beauty" being remembered for Editing, that was one that surprised even the people who thought they had this the most pegged, but apparently not.

REPORTER #1
Okay, I'm not gonna ask you predictions, a lot of nominations, would you say anything is weird, or undeserved, and completely missed the mark to some degree?

REPORTER #2
Honestly, and I'm still scouring these, but no, I don't see something where I'm like annoyed by, and in some cases, some of these other nominations,- I mentioned Best Actress again, if you saw those other performances, by Veerle Baetens and Emilie Dequenne and Gaby Hoffman, and if you remember those films, you're really just at a complete blank on what could win in this group. Some of the performances not nominated in that category, were still reeling from them, but now we're looking at these other ones and thinking, "Oh wait a minute, this was unbelievable, that was unbelievable..." or Cinematography is the same way,- I just don't know who they're picking out of some of these major categories; it's a bit of a tricky awards to predict, and when you see what they were working with, it actually makes it harder, to predict, and it's also very easy to see why, so many categories, got to the maximum nominations this year; it really was incredible year for film.

REPORTER #1
Alright, Alan thank you very much, we'll get back to you later.

REPORTER #2
Thanks, Jane.

REPORTER #1
(Turning back to local station camera)
That was Alan Smithee, reporting for the Announcements of the One-Year-Later Awards Nominations.



To see past awards and nominations see the links below:
3RD OYLs NOMINATION ANNOUNCEMENTS
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-3rd-annual-oyl-awards-nominations.html
3RD OYLs AWARDS
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-3rd-annual-one-year-later-awards.html

2ND OYL NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCEMENTS
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-2nd-annual-oyl-awards-nomination.html
2ND OYL AWARDS
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-2nd-annual-oyl-awards-honoring-best.html

1st OYL NOMINATION ANNOUNCEMENT
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2011/12/1st-annual-oyl-award-nominations-and.html
1st OYL AWARDS
http://davidbaruffi.blogspot.com/2012/01/1st-annual-oyl-awards-honoring-best-in.html

(Lawyer's Note #1: Certain nominations my possibly be subject to change, before the Awards are given out. If that situation happens, changes will be noted and marked on the bottom of the blog.)

(Lawyer's Note #2: Reporters Alan Smithee and Jane U. Ignarant-Slutte are fictional, created by "David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews" and used for entertainment purposes, and do not represent any real entertainment reporter living, dead, serious injured, in a coma, suffering the effects of blunt force trauma, kidnapped by the North Koreans, tied to a coconut tree, on an island of cannibals in the South Pacific, been forcibly injected with Ebola against their will, or being blackmailed to show up after photos surfaced of them being choked in a sex swing by Tiger Woods while attending an orgy at The Green Door. Yeah, that's just a rumor, nothing's been proven and nothing should be read into that. David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews" also denies any/all possible knowledge of any supposedly missing and/or presumed dead entertainment reporters, particularly those of whom, whose accidentals deaths while skydiving seemed "suspicious" according to eyewitnesses, Coroners' reports, and supposed video footage)

(Lawyer's Note #3: Hugh Jackman and Marion Cotilliard denies participating in or had knowledge to or of the existence of the OYL Awards or the nominations thereof.)

(Lawyer's Note #4: David Baruffi, David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews, the OYL Awards and all affiliates and associates deny all existence of David Baruffi, David Baruffi's Entertainment Views and Reviews and the OYL Awards. None of which to our knowledge actually exists, and deny any/all claims of bribery in regard to the Awards, which aren't in existence and not affiliated with David Baruffi.)