Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards: Kristen Stewart & Johnny Depp among winners
Kristen Stewart and Johnny Depp were two of the film category winners at this year’s green-slime-infested Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards held at the University of Southern California’s Galen Center south of downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, March 23. Kristen Stewart was chosen as favorite movie actress and female butt-kicker of the year, apparently for her physical prowess in Bill Condon’s Breaking Dawn – Part 2, the final episode in The Twilight Saga and in which Stewart co-stars opposite Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner. Johnny Depp was the favorite movie actor for, seemingly, Tim Burton’s widely derided box office bomb Dark Shadows. Jeez, don’t kids read box office reports? (Image: Kristen Stewart at the Kids Choice Awards 2013.)
Johnny Depp, who doesn’t kick any ass (or crotch) and doesn’t break any skulls (I don’t think) in Dark Shadows, was bypassed in the best male butt-kicker category. The winner was Dwayne Johnson, whose box office dud Snitch is currently in theaters. (Note: The Kids’ Choice Awards don’t have a best male/female ass-kisser category for, however necessary and widely practiced, ass-kissing is a no-no; ass-kicking, on the other hand, is a desirable, admirable quality to be emulated.)
Kids’ Choice Awards presenters & performers + other winners
Besides Kristen Stewart and Johnny Depp, also present at the 2013 Kids’ Choice Awards ceremony were show host Josh Duhamel (whose romantic melodrama Safe Haven is currently playing at North American theaters), performers Christina Aguilera, Ke$ha, and Pitbull, and presenters Sandra Bullock, Nick Cannon, and Neil Patrick Harris.
If host Josh Duhamel is to be believed, a record-breaking 350 million votes were cast this year by “kids” everywhere. Among those 350 zillion kids’ other favorites were the band One Direction (which, like Kristen Stewart, also won two awards), Gary Ross’ The Hunger Games as favorite movie and book (and to think that kids these days can not only read, but also watch violent movies about dystopian societies!), Justin Bieber as favorite male singer, Katy Perry as favorite female singer, Selena Gomez as favorite TV actress for the long-gone show Wizards of Waverly Place, and Adam Sandler as favorite voice from an animated movie for his voice-acting in Hotel Transylvania.
Kids’ Choice Awards: Don’t do drugs & always be nice to your teachers
“Kids” (i.e., upcoming adults) are the future and the hope of humankind and the world at large. Katy Perry herself declared as much at the Kids’ Choice Awards ceremony, adding “Stay safe, stay in school, don’t do drugs,” while Adam Sandler spared a few extra words of wisdom: “Always be nice to your parents. Always be nice to your teachers.”
We’re all doomed.
Kristen Stewart image via Just Jared.
Student Academy Awards: David Wolter.
Student Academy Awards deadlines loom
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has issued a reminder that the deadlines to submit entries for the 2013 Student Academy Awards competition are Friday, March 22 (in the Foreign Film category), and Monday, April 1 (all other categories). (Image: 2012 Student Academy Award winner David Wolter, director of the animated short Eyrie.)
The 40th Annual Student Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Saturday, June 8, at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal awards, along with cash prizes, may be handed out to student filmmakers in the Alternative, Animation, Narrative, Documentary, and Foreign Film categories.
Student Academy Awards eligibility rules
According to the Academy’s press release, qualifying Foreign Film category entries are those from “full-time college and university students attending schools that are members of the international film school organization known as CILECT (cilect.org), and located outside the borders of the United States.”
The Academy’s release adds that the 2013 Student Academy Awards competition in all other categories “is open to all full-time college and university students at accredited U.S. institutions, whose films are made within the curricular structure of a film program or class at their respective schools.” For the 2013 Student Academy Awards, AMPAS’s accepted accreditation agencies for U.S. institutions are Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools; New England Association of Schools and Colleges; North Central Association of Colleges and Schools; Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities; the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges.
For more information about the 2013 Student Academy Awards rules and to find online application forms, visit the Academy’s website.
Student Academy Awards & the Oscars
Past Student Academy Award winners have gone on to receive 46 Academy Award nominations, and have won or shared eight Oscars. Among those are Oscar winner and six-time nominee Pete Docter (Up, WALL-E), and Live Action Short nominee Reto Caffi (On the Line / Auf der Strecke).
2012 Student Academy Award winner David Wolter photo: Richard Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.
Best Animated Feature winner Brave.(Flexible) maximum of two winners in Best Animated Feature Film category
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced another rule change for the 2014 Academy Awards. This latest change affects the Animated Feature Film category.
According to the Academy’s press release, from now on there will be “a maximum of two award recipients” for Best Animated Feature Film, one of whom must have a producer credit. And that’s where things get a bit confusing. Despite the “maximum of two” Oscar recipients, “the director and/or key creative individual shall continue to be a recipient, and in the circumstance of a two-person team with shared and equal director credit, a third statuette may be awarded.” In other words, it’s a flexible two-person maximum.
Last year, at most two individuals were listed per nominated film in the Best Animated Feature Film category: Tim Burton for Frankenweenie, Sam Fell and Chris Butler for ParaNorman, Peter Lord for The Pirates! Band of Misfits, Rich Moore for Wreck-It Ralph, and winners Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman for Brave.
More Oscar rules changes: Best Foreign Language Film and Documentary Shorts
Announced a few days ago, the most important change in the Oscar 2014 voting process affects the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Documentary Short categories. From now on, Academy voters will be able to watch the nominated films either at a theatrical screening or on DVD. That means for the first time the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ entire voting membership will automatically be eligible to choose the winners in all 24 Oscar categories.
Why the Academy waited until 2013 to come up with this change is unclear. This should have taken place in 1983 – at the latest, as VHS tapes had been available since the late 1970s. Perhaps making thousands of VHS tapes back then would have been too costly? But those people are filthy rich! Anyhow, better in 2013 than in 2033.
“This change continues our efforts to expand our members’ participation in all aspects of the Academy’s activities including, of course, voting for the Oscars,” Academy president Hawk Koch was quoted as saying. “Building on this past season’s 90 percent record voter turnout, we want to give our members as many opportunities as possible to see these great films and vote in these categories next year.” (If that percentage figure is accurate – even if it doesn’t represent voting across the board in the Oscars’ two dozen categories – that’s quite impressive indeed.)
So, before the Oscar 2014 winners are selected, the Academy will provide members with DVDs of the nominated films in five categories: Best Foreign Language Film, Best Documentary Feature, Best Documentary Short Subject, Best Animated Short Film, and Best Live Action Short Film.
Last year’s Best Foreign Language Film winner was Michael Haneke’s Amour, also a Best Picture nominee. The widely acclaimed drama stars Jean-Louis Trintignant, Best Actress nominee Emmanuelle Riva, and Isabelle Huppert. The Best Short Documentary was Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine’s Inocente.
The Academy’s press release adds that “rules are reviewed annually by individual branch and category committees. The Awards Rules Committee then evaluates all proposed changes before presenting its recommendations to the Academy’s Board of Governors for approval.”
The 2014 Academy Awards will be presented on Oscar Sunday, March 2, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.
Oscar dates
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the ABC Television Network have announced the Oscar 2014 and Oscar 2015 dates – respectively, for the 86th and 87th Academy Awards ceremonies. Oscar 2014 will be broadcast live on ABC on Sunday, March 2, 2014; Oscar 2015 will air live on Sunday, Feb. 22. Both Oscar ceremonies will be held at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles.
Oscar dates
Below are key dates for the Oscar 2014 season. Note that despite the March 2 Oscar 2014 ceremony date (the 2014 Olympic Winter Games run Feb. 7–23), nominations voting will once again end in early January – Jan. 8, to be exact.
- Saturday, November 16, 2013: The Governors Awards
- Monday, December 2, 2013: Official Screen Credits due
- Friday, December 27, 2013: Oscar 2014 Nominations voting begins
- Wednesday, January 8, 2014: Oscar 2014 Nominations voting ends 5 p.m. PT
- Thursday, January 16, 2014: Oscar 2014 nominations announced
- Monday, February 10, 2014: Oscar 2014 Nominees Luncheon
- Friday, Feb. 14, 2014: Voting for the Oscar 2014 winners begins
- Saturday, Feb. 15, 2014: Scientific and Technical Awards
- Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014: Voting for the Oscar 2014 winners ends at 5 p.m. PT
- Oscar Sunday, March 2, 2014: 86th Academy Awards (Oscar 2014 ceremony)
So far, there’s only one Oscar 2015 date scheduled: Oscar Sunday, Feb. 22, 2015: 87th Academy Awards (Oscar 2015 ceremony).
Potential Oscar contenders: From The Wolf of Wall Street to Fruitvale Station
Too early to name a few potential Oscar 2014 contenders? Hardly. Possibilities include Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, with an international cast featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill, Kyle Chandler, Julie Andrews, Jean Dujardin, Rob Reiner, Spike Jonze, and Joanna Lumley; Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Carey Mulligan, Tobey Maguire, and Joel Edgerton; John Wells’ George Clooney / Grant Heslov-produced August: Osage County, with Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts, and Juliette Lewis; and Alexander Payne’s Nebraska, with Bruce Dern and Will Forte.
Also: Paul Greengrass’ Captain Phillips, with Tom Hanks and Catherine Keener; Bennett Miller’s Foxcatcher, with Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo; Jason Reitman’s Labor Day, with Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin; Terrence Malick’s To the Wonder, with Ben Affleck, Olga Kurylenko, Javier Bardem, and Rachel McAdams; John Lee Hancock’s Saving Mr. Banks, with Emma Thompson, Tom Hanks, Colin Farrell, and Paul Giamatti; and Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity, with George Clooney and Sandra Bullock.
A few more potential Oscar 2014 contenders: Director George Clooney’s Monuments Men, with Clooney, Daniel Craig, and Cate Blanchett; Robert Redford’s The Company You Keep, with Redford, Shia LaBeouf, Brit Marling, Stanley Tucci, and Nick Nolte; and Joseph Kosinski’s Oblivion, with Tom Cruise, Morgan Freeman, Andrea Riseborough, and Olga Kurylenko.
Potential Oscar indie nominees
On the English-language indie front, Oscar 2014 potential contenders include Ryan Coogler’s Sundance Film Festival winner Fruitvale, with Michael B. Jordan and Octavia Spencer; Olivier Dahan’s Grace of Monaco, with Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, Milo Ventimiglia, and Paz Vega; and Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist, with Riz Ahmed, Liev Schreiber, Kiefer Sutherland, and Kate Hudson.
Also, David Gordon Green’s Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear for Best Director winner Prince Avalanche, with Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch; Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha, with Greta Gerwig and Mickey Sumner; and, if released in 2013, David Michôd’s The Rover, with Robert Pattinson and Guy Pearce.
Potential non-English-language Oscar nominees
Among the non-English-language entries, Oscar 2014 possibilities – depending on when those movies will reach Los Angeles –include Sebastián Lelio’s Chilean comedy-drama Gloria, starring Berlin Best Actress winner Paulina Garcia, and Calin Peter Netzer’s Romanian drama Child’s Pose, winner of Berlin’s Golden Bear.
Pedro Almodóvar’s I’m So Excited is – at best – an iffy Oscar 2014 proposition, as Spanish reviews have been mostly negative and, it seems, so has word of mouth: Following a solid domestic (as in, in Spain) box office debut, I’m So Excited was down 55 percent on its second weekend out.
Leonardo DiCaprio The Wolf of Wall Street photo: Paramount Pictures.