Jane Fonda & Kristen Stewart + Jennifer Garner & Kerry Washington: Oscar presenters
Jane Fonda, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Garner, and Kerry Washington have been added as Oscar 2013 ceremony presenters, producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have announced. (Image: Kristen Stewart and Al Franken at the Academy’s Governors Awards last December.)
Jane Fonda
Daughter of Henry Fonda (Oscar nominee for John Ford’s The Grapes Wrath and winner for Mark Rydell’s On Golden Pond) and sister of Peter Fonda (nominated for Victor Nuñez’s Ulee’s Gold), Jane Fonda has received seven Academy Award nominations, winning Best Actress Oscars for Alan J. Pakula’s Klute (1971), opposite Donald Sutherland, and Hal Ashby’s Coming Home, opposite Jon Voight and Bruce Dern.
Jane Fonda’s other Best Actress nominations were for Sydney Pollack’s They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969), with Michael Sarrazin and Susannah York; Fred Zinnemann’s Julia (1977), with Vanessa Redgrave and Jason Robards; James Bridges’ The China Syndrome (1979), with Jack Lemmon; and Sidney Lumet’s The Morning After (1986), with Jeff Bridges. Additionally, Fonda was nominated as Best Supporting Actress for On Golden Pond, co-starring Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn.
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart is best known for playing Bella Swan in the Twilight Saga movies based on Stephenie Meyer’s novels: Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight, Chris Weitz’s New Moon, David Slade’s Eclipse, and Bill Condon’s Breaking Dawn – Part 1 and Breaking Dawn – Part 2. Stewart’s Twilight co-stars are Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner.
Kristen Stewart’s other movies include Walter Salles’ On the Road, with Garrett Hedlund and Sam Riley; Rupert Sanders’ Snow White and the Huntsman, with Chris Hemsworth; Jake Scott’s Welcome to the Rileys, with James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo; David Fincher’s The Panic Room, with Jodie Foster; Greg Mottola’s Adventureland, with Ryan Reynolds and Jesse Eisenberg; and Floria Sigismondi’s The Runaways, with Dakota Fanning.
Jennifer Garner
Jennifer Garner’s film credits include Peter Hedges’ The Odd Life of Timothy Green, with Joel Edgerton; Jason Winer’s Arthur, with Russell Brand and Helen Mirren; Garry Marshall’s all-star Valentine’s Day, with Julia Roberts, Taylor Swift, and others; and Jason Reitman’s Juno, with Ellen Page and Jason Bateman.
Jennifer Garner will next be seen in Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club, with Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, and Steve Zahn. Garner’s husband, Ben Affleck, is himself vying for an Oscar, as one of the producers of Best Picture nominee Argo. Affleck is also an Oscar 2013 presenter.
Kerry Washington
Kerry Washington is featured in Best Picture nominee Django Unchained, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jamie Foxx (Washington’s leading man in Taylor Hackford’s Ray). Among Washington’s other movie credits are Tim Story’s box office disappointment Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, with Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, and Chris Evans; Tyler Perry’s For Colored Girls, with Kimberly Elise and Janet Jackson; Kevin Macdonald’s The Last King of Scotland, with James McAvoy and Forest Whitaker; and Doug Liman’s Mr. & Mrs. Smith, with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Oscar nominations
Best Picture Oscar: Benh Zeitlin’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, Michael Haneke’s Amour, David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook, Ben Affleck’s Argo, Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi, Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained, Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. Best Director nominees: Haneke, Lee, Zeitlin, Russell, Spielberg.
Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field, Lincoln; Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables; Helen Hunt, The Sessions; Amy Adams, The Master; Jacki Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook.
Best Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master; Robert De Niro, Silver Linings Playbook; Alan Arkin, Argo; Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln; Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained.
Best Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour; Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty; Quvenzhané Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild; Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook; Naomi Watts, The Impossible.
Best Actor: Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook; Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables; Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln; Denzel Washington, Flight; Joaquin Phoenix, The Master.
Best Foreign Language Film nominees: Kim Nguyen’s War Witch; Michael Haneke’s Amour; Pablo Larraín’s No; Nikolaj Arcel’s A Royal Affair; Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s Kon-Tiki.
Oscar presenters & guests
Here’s the list of the previously announced Oscar 2013 presenters: Paul Rudd, Nicole Kidman, Jane Fonda, Jean Dujardin, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Aniston, Meryl Streep, Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Melissa McCarthy, Reese Witherspoon, Octavia Spencer, Michael Douglas, Christopher Plummer, Kerry Washington, Salma Hayek, Liam Neeson, John Travolta, Mark Wahlberg, Ted, and Jamie Foxx.
Also: Chicago‘s Richard Gere, Queen Latifah, Renée Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones; The Avengers’ Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Mark Ruffalo, and Samuel L. Jackson; and special guests Daniel Radcliffe, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Channing Tatum, and Charlize Theron.
Oscar 2013 performers include Barbra Streisand, Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Adele, Amanda Seyfried, Shirley Bassey, Kristin Chenoweth, Jennifer Hudson, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Norah Jones, Russell Crowe, Aaron Tveit and Helena Bonham Carter.
Seth MacFarlane will host the 2013 Oscar ceremony next Sunday, Feb. 24, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. For more information go to Oscar.com or download the official Oscars app.
Hosted by Seth MacFarlane, the Oscar ceremony 2013 will be held on February 24.
Kristen Stewart and Al Franken photo: Richard Harbaugh / © A.M.P.A.S.
Kristin ChenowethKristin Chenoweth & Seth MacFarlane: Oscar musical number finale performers
Kristin Chenoweth and Oscar 2013 ceremony host Seth MacFarlane will perform in a special closing musical number, Oscarcast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences press release quotes Zadan and Meron describing the musical finale as a “’can’t miss’ moment.” (Another apparent “can’t miss moment” – even if not for the best of reasons – would surely have been James Franco singing in drag at the Oscar 2011 ceremony, but Franco’s number was axed.) [Photo: Kristin Chenoweth at the 2008 Academy Awards ceremony.]
Besides Kristin Chenoweth – and now Seth MacFarlane as well – Oscar 2013 ceremony performers include Dreamgirls’ Jennifer Hudson, Chicago‘s Catherine Zeta-Jones, Les Misérables’ Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, Amanda Seyfried, Eddie Redmayne, Russell Crowe, Samantha Barks, Aaron Tveit, and Helena Bonham Carter (but not Sacha Baron Cohen); Skyfall‘s Adele, Shirley Bassey, Norah Jones, and two-time Oscar winner Barbra Streisand (Best Actress for William Wyler’s Funny Girl; co-composer of Best Song winner “Evergreen” from A Star Is Born).
Kristin Chenoweth at the 2008 Academy Awards ceremony photo: Michael Yada / © A.M.P.A.S.
Meryl Streep, Jean Dujardin, Octavia Spencer, and Christopher Plummer: Last year’s Oscar winners to return as presenters
Meryl Streep, Jean Dujardin, Octavia Spencer, and Christopher Plummer, the 2012 Academy Award winners in the acting categories, will be presenters on the 2013 Oscar show, telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have announced. Streep, Dujardin, Spencer, and Plummer are not in the running this year. (Image: Christopher Plummer, Octavia Spencer, Meryl Streep, Jean Dujardin backstage at the Oscar 2012 ceremony.)
With 17 Academy Award nominations spanning more than three decades, Meryl Streep is the record-setter in the acting categories. Streep has won three Oscars: Best Supporting Actress for Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), in which she plays Dustin Hoffman’s ex-wife fighting for custody of their child (Justin Henry); Best Actress for Alan J. Pakula’s Sophie’s Choice (1982), as an emotionally unstable Nazi concentration camp survivor befriended by Kevin Kline and Peter MacNicol; and once again Best Actress for Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady (2011), as British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.
Among Meryl Streep’s Oscar nominations are those for Sydney Pollack’s Out of Africa, Hector Babenco’s Ironweed, Clint Eastwood’s The Bridges of Madison County (1995), and David Frankel’s The Devil Wears Prada (2006).
First-time nominee Jean Dujardin, the first Frenchman to win an Academy Award and the first male winner since Emil Jannings (The Last Command, The Way of All Flesh) back in early 1929 to receive a Best Actor Oscar for a (nearly 100 percent) non-speaking role, was singled out for Michel Hazanavicius’ Best Picture winner The Artist. In the film, Jean Dujardin plays a silent movie actor in the skids.
First-time nominee Octavia Spencer received her Best Supporting Actress Oscar statuette for Tate Taylor’s socially conscious ensemble comedy-drama The Help, featuring Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Best Supporting Actress nominee Jessica Chastain, among others. Veteran Christopher Plummer, who had been previously nominated for Michael Hoffman’s The Last Station, took home the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for his performance as Ewan McGregor’s gay father in Mike Mills’ Beginners.
Christopher Plummer, Octavia Spencer, Meryl Streep, Jean Dujardin backstage at Oscar 2012 ceremony photo: Todd Wawrychuk / © A.M.P.A.S.
Renée Zellweger & Richard Gere + Catherine Zeta-Jones & Queen Latifah: ‘Chicago’ movie reunion
Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Queen Latifah, the stars of Rob Marshall’s 2002 Best Picture Academy Award winner Chicago, will get together once again – this time, as presenters at the 2013 Oscar ceremony. Telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron made the announcement earlier today.
Now, keep in mind that this year’s Oscar ceremony has a Hollywood Musical theme, and that ten years ago Rob Marshall’s Chicago became the last musical (to date) to win a Best Picture Academy Award. Coincidentally, it’s also been ten years since a DGA Award winner failed to take home the Best Director Academy Award: an occurrence bound to be repeated at the 2013 Oscar ceremony, as DGA winner Ben Affleck failed to be shortlisted by the Academy’s Directors Branch. For the record: Although Rob Marshall was the early 2003 DGA winner, The Pianist‘s Roman Polanski was that year’s Best Director Oscar winner.
‘Chicago’: Oscar nominations in the acting categories
Renée Zellweger, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Queen Latifah were nominated for their performances in Chicago; Richard Gere, however, was bypassed by the Academy. Jones and Queen Latifah were shortlisted in the Best Supporting Actress category; Zellweger, in a role previously played by Phyllis Haver (1927, in Cecil B. DeMille’s saucy silent*) and Ginger Rogers (1942, William A. Wellman’s Roxie Hart), was a Best Actress nominee.
Renée Zellweger lost that year’s Oscar to Nicole Kidman, who played Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours. Curiously, Zellweger did take home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar statuette the following year, for her performance in Anthony Minghella’s Cold Mountain, starring none other than Nicole Kidman. Queen Latifah lost to Catherine Zeta-Jones, whose husband Michael Douglas and father-in-law Kirk Douglas announced Chicago as the year’s Best Picture.
As a result of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq shortly before the ceremony, the 2003 Oscar telecast was reportedly the least watched in history. (Since then, the Oscars’ official TV-ratings nadir was reached by the 2008 ceremony, the year Joel and Ethan Coen’s No Country for Old Men won Best Picture.)
I should add that Richard Gere was a potential Best Actor nominee this year for Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage, co-starring Susan Sarandon. Yet, Gere once again went nomination-less. In fact, Gere, whose film career stretches back to the mid-’70s, has never been nominated for an Oscar.
* Starring Phyllis Haver and Victor Varconi, the 1927 Chicago was officially credited to Cecil B. DeMille’s assistant Frank Urson. DeMille, whose other 1927 release was the reverent The King of Kings, starring H.B. Warner as Jesus Christ, apparently didn’t want the Jesus-Roxie connection in the minds of moviegoers and/or critics.
Renée Zellweger, Richard Gere Chicago movie photo: Miramax.
Nicole Kidman & Sandra Bullock + Halle Berry & Reese Witherspoon: Oscar presenters
Nicole Kidman, Sandra Bullock, Halle Berry, and Reese Witherspoon will be presenters at the 2013 Oscar ceremony on Feb. 24, Oscarcast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today. All four performers are past Best Actress Oscar winners. (Image: Nicole Kidman hot and sultry in Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy.)
Nicole Kidman won the Best Actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Virginia Woolf in Stephen Daldry’s The Hours (2002), co-starring Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore. Kidman was also nominated for Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge! (2001) and John Cameron Mitchell’s Rabbit Hole (2010). She was not nominated but should have been for Gus Van Sant’s To Die For, and this year was considered a potential contender in the Best Supporting Actress category for her SAG Award-nominated performance in Lee Daniels’ The Paperboy, starring Zac Efron.
Halle Berry was the Best Actress Oscar winner for Marc Forster’s Monster’s Ball, co-starring Billy Bob Thornton. That remains her sole Oscar nomination (and win) to date.
Sandra Bullock made awards-season history
In early 2010, Sandra Bullock made awards-season history when she became the first actress to win both an Academy Award (for John Lee Hancock’s The Blind Side) and a Razzie (for Phil Traill’s All About Steve). Early Oscar buzz has already begun for Bullock’s upcoming movie, Alfonso Cuarón’s sci-fier Gravity, co-starring George Clooney.
Reese Witherspoon won the Best Actress Oscar for James Mangold’s Walk the Line (2005), co-starring this year’s Best Actor nominee Joaquin Phoenix (The Master). That’s Witherspoon’s sole nomination to date.
Paul Rudd & Jennifer Aniston + Michael Douglas & Jamie Foxx: Oscar presenters
Jennifer Aniston, Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas and Jamie Foxx are the latest additions as presenters on the 2013 Academy Awards ceremony, Oscarcast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today. (Image: Paul Rudd Admission.)
Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd
Former Friends star Jennifer Aniston’s movie credits include The Switch, Marley and Me, with Owen Wilson; The Break-Up, Along Came Polly, Bruce Almighty, The Good Girl and Office Space. Most recently, Aniston was seen opposite Paul Rudd in the critical and box office bomb Wanderlust. Aniston and Rudd had better luck with The Object of My Affection, released in the late ’90s.
Paul Rudd has been featured in more than 50 films, oftentimes in broad, low-brow comedies. Among Rudd’s credits are Judd Apatow’s This Is 40, Dinner for Schmucks, Our Idiot Brother, I Love You, Man, Role Models, Knocked Up, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, The Cider House Rules, and Clueless.
Next, Paul Rudd will be seen in Paul Weitz’s Admission, with Michael Sheen, Tina Fey, Lily Tomlin, and Wallace Shawn. And later this year, Rudd and Emile Hirsch should be seen in David Gordon Green’s Prince Avalanche, winner of the Best Director Silver Bear at the 2013 Berlin Film Festival.
Michael Douglas and Jamie Foxx
Michael Douglas won a Best Actor Academy Award for his performance as the greedy villain and Charlie Sheen mentor in Oliver Stone’s Wall Street (1987). Douglas had previously taken home an Oscar as one of the producers of the 1975 Best Picture winner One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, directed by Milos Forman, and starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher.
Among Michael Douglas’ other film credits as an actor are The China Syndrome, with Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda; Romancing the Stone, The Jewel of the Nile, and The War of the Roses, all three with Kathleen Turner; Curtis Hanson’s Wonder Boys, with a pre-Spider-Man Tobey Maguire; and Oliver Stone’s Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, with Shia LaBeouf and Susan Sarandon.
In early 2005, Jamie Foxx received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Collateral, starring Tom Cruise. That same year, Foxx won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance as Ray Charles in Taylor Hackford’s Ray. Of note, Foxx is one of the actors – alongside Leonardo DiCaprio and Christoph Waltz – featured in Quentin Tarantino’s Best Picture Oscar nominee Django Unchained.
Mark Wahlberg and Ted: Oscar 2013 presenters
Oscar 2013 will be a family affair. Ted‘s teddy bear Ted and Mark Wahlberg will be presenters at the Oscar 2013 ceremony, Oscarcast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced earlier today. (Image: Mark Wahlberg, Ted in Seth MacFarlane’s Ted.)
“We are happy to make it possible for Mark and Ted to make their debut appearance on the Oscar stage,” Zadan and Meron are quoted as saying in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ press release. “And we won’t deny that Ted used his pull with our host to get himself the booking.”
Oscar 2013 ceremony host Seth MacFarlane directed and co-wrote Ted. MacFarlane, himself an Oscar nominee for the Ted tune “Everybody Needs a Best Friend,” also provided the voice for the teddy bear. Apart from Will Smith / Tommy Lee Jones’ special-effects-laden Men in Black 3, Ted was the highest-grossing live-action comedy at the worldwide box office in 2012, collecting more than $515 million. And if one chooses to ignore inflation, Ted is the seventh highest-grossing R-rated movie in North America.
Also worth mentioning is that Ted scandalized a politician from Brazil’s Communist Party, who wanted the film banned in that country. But instead of getting his Big Brotherish wish – that country’s constitution forbids such a ban – said politician (and former federal police officer) got plenty of ridicule in the Brazilian media and on Twitter.
Mark Wahlberg: Two Oscar nods
Mark Wahlberg, by the way, has been nominated for two Academy Awards: Best Supporting Actor for Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (2006) and as a producer of the Best Picture nominee The Fighter, directed by this year’s nominee David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook), and starring Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Amy Adams, and Melissa Leo.
Wrapping this up, here’s a quote found in the Academy’s press release: “I’m excited to present an Oscar with Mark Wahlberg,” said Ted. “I’m spending the next month learning to pronounce ‘Quvenzhané.'”
Whether or not you find that humorous (or cringe-inducing), Mark Wahlberg and Ted – along with Adele, Norah Jones, and Barbra Streisand – will be seen on the Oscar 2013 stage on Sunday, Feb. 24, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles. Just don’t expect any R-rated fun in the Academy’s PG-friendly proceedings.
Mark Wahlberg, Ted in Seth MacFarlane’s Ted image: Universal Pictures.
Palestinian director Emad Burnat.The Palestinian co-director of Best Documentary Feature Oscar 2013 nominee 5 Broken Cameras, Emad Burnat, was held for more than one hour by American immigration officials upon his arrival in Los Angeles from Turkey on Tuesday evening. That same evening, Burnat was expected at a dinner party for the Documentary Feature nominees; the 2013 Academy Awards ceremony takes place next Sunday. (Image: Palestinian director Emad Burnat.)
Instead, Burnat, his wife, and 8-year-old son, Gibreel, who is featured in 5 Broken Cameras, were stuck at the Los Angeles International Airport, and threatened with deportation that same day in case the Palestinian farmer-turned-director failed to show proof that he was an Academy Award nominee. (A bizarre request, considering that Burnat’s Oscar “credentials” could easily have been verified online.)
Michael Moore comes to the rescue
Oscar winner Michael Moore (for the documentary Bowling for Columbine), one of the heads of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Documentary Branch and one of the hosts at the Academy’s dinner party, tweeted about the issue.
Emad Burnat, Palestinian director of Oscar nominated 5 Broken Cameras was held tonight by immigration at LAX as he landed to attend Oscars
Emad, his wife & 8-yr old son were placed in a holding area and told they didn’t have the proper invitation on them to attend the Oscars.
Although he produced the Oscar invite nominees receive, that wasn’t good enough & he was threatened with being sent back to Palestine.
Apparently the Immigration & Customs officers couldn’t understand how a Palestinian could be an Oscar nominee. Emad texted me for help.
I called Academy officials who called lawyers. I told Emad to give the officers my phone # and to say my name a couple of times.
After 1.5 hrs, they decided to release him & his family & told him he could stay in LA for the week & go to the Oscars. Welcome to America.
“It’s nothing I’m not already used to,” he told me later. “When u live under occupation, with no rights, this is a daily occurrence.”
Emad Burnat, Palestinian farmer turned filmmaker, director of 5 Broken Cameras, the 1st Palestinian doc ever nominated for the Oscar.
This all just happened tonight, a few hours ago. He was certain they were going to deport him. But not if I had anything to do about it.
Later on, Michael Moore wrote on his blog an essay about the U.S. Immigration Officers vs. Emad Burnat episode.
“He said they would not believe him when he told them he was an Oscar-nominated director on his way to this Sunday’s Oscars and to the events in LA leading up to the ceremony. He is also a Palestinian. And an olive farmer. Apparently that was too much for Homeland Security to wrap its head around.
“’They are saying they are going to put us on the next plane back to Amman,’ he told me.
“I immediately contacted the Academy CEO Dawn Hudson and COO Ric Robertson, who in turn told Academy President Hawk Koch. They got ahold of the Academy’s attorney who is also partners with a top immigration attorney and they went to work on it. I called the State Department in DC.
“I told Emad to give the Homeland Security people my name and cell number and to have them call me ASAP so I could explain who he was and why they should let him go.
“After being held for somewhere between one and two hours, with repeated suggestions that the U.S. may not let him into the country – saying that they may send him back home – the authorities relented and released Emad and his family.”
American immigration officials declined to comment on the incident.
Emad Burnat Oscar questionnaire responses
In his Academy-sponsored Oscar 2013 questionnaire, when asked about his reaction to his nomination, Emad Burnat wrote the following: “In total shock! Excited for a victory for myself, but more importantly all of Palestine!”
The first movie Burnat ever saw was Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, while “who or what inspires” him is “Michael Moore; he is a master of documentary films. He captures his audience and shifts their perceptions through film.”
‘5 Broken Cameras’
Co-directed by Israeli filmmaker Guy Davidi, 5 Broken Cameras chronicles five years of non-violent protests in Emad Burnat’s village of Bil’in in the West Bank, where the Israeli government wanted to build a wall straight through the village – and where the Israeli army was caught on camera shooting at unarmed Palestinian civilians.
5 Broken Cameras’ competitors in the Best Documentary Feature category are Dror Moreh’s The Gatekeepers, David France’s How to Survive a Plague, Kirby Dick’s The Invisible War, and Malik Bendjelloul’s Searching for Sugar Man.
Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep, Robert Benton, and Stanley R. Jaffe.Dustin Hoffman & Jack Nicholson: Final two Oscar presenters
Dustin Hoffman and Jack Nicholson have been added to the list of presenters at the 2013 Oscar ceremony, Academy Awards telecast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced today. (Image: Oscar 1980 ceremony, featuring Kramer vs. Kramer winners Robert Benton, Meryl Streep, Dustin Hoffman, and Stanley R. Jaffe.)
Dustin Hoffman Oscar nominations
Dustin Hoffman has been nominated for seven Oscars, always in the Best Actor category, winning twice: Robert Benton’s Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), with Meryl Streep, and Barry Levinson’s Rain Man (1988), with Tom Cruise. Hoffman’s other Oscar nods were for Mike Nichols’ The Graduate (1967), with Anne Bancroft and Katharine Ross; John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy (1969), with Jon Voight; Bob Fosse’s Lenny (1974), with Valerie Perrine; Sydney Pollack’s Tootsie (1982), with Jessica Lange; and Barry Levinson’s Wag the Dog (1997), with Robert De Niro.
Hoffman’s directorial debut, Quartet, was considered a potential Oscar 2013 contender, but failed to receive a single nomination. Written by Ronald Harwood, Quartet features Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, and Billy Connolly.
Jack Nicholson Oscar nominations
Jack Nicholson has been nominated 12 times for an Oscar, both in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories. As Best Actor, Nicholson won for Milos Forman’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and James L. Brooks’ As Good as It Gets (1997). As Best Supporting Actor, Nicholson won for Brooks’ Terms of Endearment (1983). Curiously, all three of Nicholson’s leading ladies won Best Actress Oscars, respectively, Louise Fletcher, Helen Hunt, and Shirley MacLaine.
Jack Nicholson’s nine other Oscar nominations were, as Best Actor: Bob Rafelson’s Five Easy Pieces (1970), with Karen Black; Hal Ashby’s The Last Detail (1973), with Randy Quaid; Roman Polanski’s Chinatown (1974), with Faye Dunaway; John Huston’s Prizzi’s Honor (1985), with Kathleen Turner; Hector Babenco’s Ironweed (1987), with Meryl Streep; Alexander Payne’s About Schmidt (2002), with Kathy Bates. As Best Supporting Actor, Nicholson’s other nominations were for Dennis Hopper’s Easy Rider (1969), with Hopper and Peter Fonda; Warren Beatty’s Reds (1981), with Beatty and Diane Keaton; and Rob Reiner’s A Few Good Men (1992), with Tom Cruise and Demi Moore.
Robert Benton, Stanley R. Jaffe, Dustin Hoffman, Meryl Streep 1979 Oscar photo: Courtesy of AMPAS.
Oscar 2013: Final round of voting begins on Friday
Feb. 7: It’s Carnival time (a.k.a. Mardi Gras) everywhere you look – Rio de Janeiro, New Orleans, Nice, Venice, Beverly Hills, Bel Air, Brentwood, Malibu. Well, the last four locales will be celebrating a different kind of Carnival festivity: the Academy Awards’ final round of voting – the one that decides who will take home the Oscar statuette. Oscar 2013 voting officially opens at 8 a.m. Pacific Time on Friday, February 8. (Image: Lincoln Sally Field as Mary Todd Lincoln.)
So, while scantily clad Rio and warm-clothed New Orleans denizens and tourists will be dancing in the streets, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences members will be heading for either online booths or the nearest desk where they can mark down their choices on paper ballots.
Now, whereas Rio’s and New Orleans’ street Carnival ends next Tuesday, voting for the cinematic partying known as the Oscars ends on another Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 5 p.m. PT.
Oscar 2013: All members eligible to vote for Documentary Feature, Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film
As explained in the Academy’s press release, this year all members are allowed to vote in up to 24 categories, including, for the first time, for Documentary Feature, Animated Short Film and Live Action Short Film. Those three categories had previously been the domain of members who actually bothered watching the nominated films at Academy screenings. (Now, when will the Academy’s Foreign Language Film committee make a similar and much-needed move?)
Also worth mentioning is that just because members are currently allowed to vote in 24 categories, that doesn’t mean those who take the trouble to cast ballots will be making selections in every single one of them. It’d be interesting to learn which categories get the fewest votes, but don’t expect the secretive Academy to divulge that information any time soon – or ever. Needless to say, one assumes that Best Picture and the acting categories are the ones that in all probability get the most votes.
And here’s wondering if discrepancies between Best Picture and Best Director winners in years past – e.g., Crash vs. Brokeback Mountain‘s Ang Lee, Chicago vs. The Pianist‘s Roman Polanski – are a consequence of some voters’ not caring about making a choice in the Best Director category. Illogical and absurd? Well, of course. But then again, that’s The Academy.
As usual, since the ’30s or so, the accounting firm of PriceWaterhouseCoopers will both tabulate and check the results. (Check out: Bette Davis asserts she was the reason the Academy hired PriceWaterhouseCoopers.)
1 comment
Now how about trying to bring aboard some movie musical living legends, ie Esther Williams, Doris Day, Debbie Reynolds, Rita Moreno, Mickey Rooney, Jane Powell, etc. Let’s not wait until they’re dead!