- Academy Awards 2010: The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the semifinalists for Best Live Action Short Film, Best Documentary Feature, Best Animated Short, and Best Visual Effects, in addition to 20 contenders in the Best Animated Feature category.
Oscar 2010: Eclectic topics featured in Best Live Action Short Film semifinalists
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 10 semifinalists – out of a pool of 71 eligible entries – in the 2010 Academy Awards’ Best Live Action Short Film category.
Here they are, in alphabetical order:
- The Door – Dir.: Juanita Wilson; Prod.: James Flynn
- The Ground Beneath – Dir.: Rene Hernandez; Prod.: Kristina Ceyton
- Hotel – dir. & Prod.: Tim Conrad
- Instead of Abracadabra – Dir.: Patrik Eklund; Prod.: Mathias Fjellstrom
- Kavi – dir. & Prod.: Gregg Helvey
- Miracle Fish – Dir.: Luke Doolan; Prod.: Drew Bailey
- The New Tenants – Dir.: Joachim Back; Prod.: Tivi Magnusson
- The Response – Dir.: Adam Rodgers; Prod.: Sig Libowitz
- Short Term 12 – Dir.: Destin Daniel Cretton; Prod.: Creton & Michelle Steffes
- Sidney Turtlebaum – Dir.: Tristram Shapeero; Prod.: Daniel Jewel
Below is a quick overview of four of the eclectic titles listed above.
- Stage and film veteran Derek Jacobi (Othello, Hamlet) plays the title character in Sidney Turtlebaum, a comedy-drama about a 70-something gay Jewish con man who gatecrashes Shiva houses of mourning so he can relieve the grieving parties of at least some of their earthly possessions. Rupert Evans costars.
- Featuring Kate Mulgrew, Peter Riegert, Aasif Mandvi, and Sig Libowitz, The Response is a courtroom drama based on actual transcripts from the United States’ Guantanamo military tribunals.
- Featuring Karl Beattie, Brendan Donoghue, and Tara Morice, the Australian mystery short Miracle Fish revolves around an 8-year-old boy who discovers that his wish has come true – everyone in the world appears to have disappeared.
- The Hindi-language, socially conscious drama Kavi follows an Indian boy attempting to escape from the brick kiln where he is forced to perform what is tantamount to slave labor.
Next, members of the Academy’s Short Films and Feature Animation Branch will select three to five nominees from the 10 titles on the shortlist. Branch screenings will be held in January 2010 in Los Angeles, New York City, and San Francisco.
The 2010 Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at 5:30 a.m. PDT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. On television, Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married, 2008) and Academy President Tom Sherak will announce the nominees in 10 categories.
Produced by Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman, and co-hosted by Meryl Streep’s It’s Complicated costars Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, the 2010 ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center.
Jeff Margolis will executive produce the Red Carpet pre-show “Countdown to the Oscars 2010,” while five-time Oscar-nominated composer Marc Shaiman (The American President, 1995; etc.) will be the ceremony’s musical director.
Oscar 2010: Best Animated Feature contenders
Twenty features have been submitted for consideration in the 2010 Academy Awards’ Best Animated Feature Film category. Here they are, in alphabetical order:
- Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
- Astro Boy
- Battle for Terra
- Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
- Coraline
- Disney’s A Christmas Carol
- The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer
- Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs
- Mary and Max
- The Missing Lynx
- Monsters vs. Aliens
- 9
- Planet 51
- Ponyo
- The Princess and the Frog
- The Secret of Kells
- Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure
- A Town Called Panic
- Up
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel, The Dolphin – Story of a Dreamer, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Planet 51, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells (which is also in the running at the 2009 European Film Awards) and A Town Called Panic have not yet had their required Los Angeles qualifying run. As per the Academy’s press release, “submitted features must fulfill the theatrical release requirements and meet all of the category’s other qualifying rules before they can advance in the voting process.”
Under the rules for this category, a maximum of five features can be nominated when there are at least 16 eligible entries. Since the Best Animated Feature Film category was instituted in 2001, only once – in 2002 – have there been five nominated films; the other years had three titles in the running.
Films submitted in the Best Animated Feature Film category may also qualify for Academy Awards in other categories, including Best Picture, provided they meet the requirements for those categories.
A brief overview of several of the titles listed above:
Shane Acker’s post-apocalyptic 9; Robert Zemeckis’ version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, featuring Jim Carrey, Robin Wright, Colin Firth, and Michael J. Fox, among others; Ron Clements and John Musker’s The Princess and the Frog, a fairy-tale set in Jazz Age New Orleans, and voiced by Oprah Winfrey, Terrence Howard, Anika Noni Rose, and others; and Adam Elliot’s Sundance opener Mary and Max, about two unlikely pen pals, an 8-year-old girl (Toni Collette) in Melbourne and a 40-something man (Philip Seymour Hoffman) in New York City.
Oscar 2010: Best Visual Effects semifinalists
The seven semifinalists in the 2010 Academy Awards’ Best Visual Effects category are the following, in alphabetical order:
- Avatar
- District 9
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
- Star Trek
- Terminator Salvation
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
- 2012
The pool of potential nominees included 15 titles – a small number of titles, when taking into account all the special-effects-driven movies out there, not to mention “regular” movies that make use of special effects (e.g., Invictus, The Lovely Bones).
No longer in the running are the following, in alphabetical order:
- Angels & Demons
- A Christmas Carol
- Coraline
- G-Force
- G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
- Sherlock Holmes
- Watchmen
- Where the Wild Things Are
On Thursday, Jan. 21, members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven semifinalists. Following the screenings, they will vote to nominate three titles for final Oscar consideration.
But again, considering the state of filmmaking nowadays, Best Visual Effects should be a regular Oscar category with five nominees each year.
Oscar 2010: Best Documentary Feature semifinalists
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the 15 semifinalists in the 2010 Academy Awards’ Documentary Feature category. They are the following, in alphabetical order:
- The Beaches of Agnes – Dir.: Agnès Varda
- Burma VJ – Dir.: Anders Østergaard
- The Cove – Dir.: Louie Psihoyos
- Every Little Step – Dir.: James D. Stern & Adam Del Deo
- Facing Ali – Dir.: Pete McCormack
- Food, Inc. – Dir.: Robert Kenner
- Garbage Dreams – Dir.: Mai Iskander
- Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders – Dir.: Mark N. Hopkins
- The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers – Dir.: Judith Ehrlich & Rick Goldsmith
- Mugabe and the White African – Dir.: Andrew Thompson & Lucy Bailey
- Sergio – Dir.: Greg Barker
- Soundtrack for a Revolution – Dir.: Bill Guttentag & Dan Sturman
- Under Our Skin – Dir.: Andy Abrahams Wilson
- Valentino The Last Emperor – Dir.: Matt Tyrnauer
- Which Way Home – Dir.: Rebecca Cammisa
Themes range from the Valentino couturier empire (Valentino The Last Emperor) to doctors risking life and limb in the line of fire (Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders); from veteran filmmaker Agnès Varda’s reminiscences (The Beaches of Agnes) to the strong ties between the crap we’re given to eat, the food industry, and the U.S. government (Food, Inc.); from the staging of A Chorus Line (Every Little Step) to the nasty abuse of dolphins (The Cove).
Other subjects include: Lyme disease (Under Our Skin), immigration hardships (Which Way Home), the life and death of UN ambassador to Iraq Sérgio Vieira de Mello (Sergio), the Pentagon papers and the demise of the Richard Nixon administration (The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers), the anti-junta protests staged by Burmese Buddhist monks (Burma VJ), and the garbage trade in Egypt (Garbage Dreams).
Surprising omissions: Yoav Shamir’s Defamation, Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story, and R.J. Cutler’s The September Issue failed to make the cut. Eighty-nine films had been in the running.
According to the Academy’s press release, the Documentary Branch Screening Committee viewed “all the eligible documentaries for the preliminary round of voting.” Documentary Branch members will now select the five official Oscar 2010 nominees.
A few more notes:
Burma VJ, Anders Østergaard
In 2007, thousands of monks took to the streets of Burma to protest the military government’s brutal anti-democratic policies.
The Cove, Louie Psihoyos
Beautiful, intelligent dolphins are abused and slaughtered to provide entertainment and fodder for ugly, stupid people. The bloody cove of the title is located near Taijii, Japan, where the government does nothing to stop the slaughter.
Food, Inc., Robert Kenner
The distasteful food industry and their government accomplices vs. your health
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
Daniel Ellsberg, the Vietnam War, the Pentagon Papers, undemocracy at work, Watergate, and the fall of the unscrupulous Nixon regime
So difficult to predict, in fact, that two of the films previously listed above – Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story and Yoav Shamir’s Defamation – were not even included in the Academy’s Documentary Branch list of 15 semifinalists for the best feature documentary 2010 Oscar. Also left out was R. J. Cutler’s widely acclaimed The September Issue, which focuses on Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour’s preparations for her magazine’s 2007 fall issue.
Also: Kirby Dick’s daring Outrage, an indictment against several closeted anti-gay politicians. And Sacha Gervasi’s Anvil: The Story of Anvil.
Oscar 2010: Best Animated Short Film semifinalists
The 10 semifinalists in the 2010 Academy Awards’ Best Animated Short Film category are the following, in alphabetical order:
- The Cat Piano – Dir.: Eddie White & Ari Gibson
- French Roast – Dir.: Fabrice O. Joubert
- Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty – Dir.: Nicky Phelan; Prod.: Darragh O’Connell
- The Kinematograph – dir. & Prod.: Tomek Baginski
- The Lady and the Reaper / La dama y la muerte – Dir.: Javier Recio Gracia
- Logorama – Prod.: Nicolas Schmerkin
- A Matter of Loaf and Death – Dir.: Nick Park
- Partly Cloudy – Dir.: Peter Sohn
- Runaway – Dir.: Cordell Barker
- Variete – Dir.: Roelof van den Bergh
Thirty-seven entries had originally qualified in the category.
Following screenings held in Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco next January, Short Films and Feature Animation Branch members will select the eventual five Oscar 2010 nominees.
Oscar 2010: Best Documentary Short Subject semifinalists
The 2010 Academy Awards’ eight semifinalists in the Documentary Short Subject category are the following, in alphabetical order:
- China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
- The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
- The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
- Lt. Watada
- Music by Prudence
- Rabbit a la Berlin
- Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak
- Woman Rebel
Three to five of these shorts will receive an Oscar nomination.
Subjects range from interviews with parents who lost their children following the devastating Sichuan earthquake of 2008 (Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill’s China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province) to the closing down of the General Motors assembly plant in Moraine, Ohio (Steve Bognar and Julia Reichert’s The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant); from an examination of children’s book writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak’s thoughts, including his lifelong obsession with death (Lance Bangs and Spike Jonze’s Tell Them Anything You Want: A Portrait of Maurice Sendak) to how rabbits stuck inside the confines of the Berlin Wall (or rather, walls) were affected after the Wall came down in the late ’80s (Bartek Konopka’s Rabbit a la Berlin).
Also, Daniel Junge’s The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner shows how the former governor of the state of Washington led the campaign on behalf of the state’s Death with Dignity Act, which allows assisted suicide; Lt. Watada is a portrait of US Army First Lieutenant Ehren Watada, who refused to fight in the Iraq War and got into some serious trouble for that reason; Roger Ross Williams’ Music by Prudence looks at the Zimbabwe musical group Liyana and their lead singer, Prudence Mabhena; and Kiran Deol’s Woman Rebel chronicles the stories of female Nepalese rebel fighters who have recently been running for public office.
The eight semifinalists were chosen after voters from the Academy’s Documentary Branch viewed this year’s 37 eligible entries and submitted their ballots to PricewaterhouseCoopers for tabulation. (How many voters actually watched all 37 entries remains unclear.)
The 2010 Academy Award nominations will be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The 2010 Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, March 7, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center. In the U.S., it’ll be televised live by ABC.
Oscar 2010: Best Makeup semifinalists include Italian political satire-drama Il Divo – but not Avatar
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced the seven semifinalists in the 2010 Academy Awards’ Best Makeup category. Here they are, in alphabetical order:
- District 9
- Il Divo
- The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
- Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
- The Road
- Star Trek
- The Young Victoria
The biggest (and best) surprise was the inclusion of Paolo Sorrentino’s biting satirical drama Il Divo (makeup artists Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano), starring Toni Servillo as Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. Apart from the San Diego Film Critics Society, which named it the year’s Best Foreign Language Film, Il Divo has been all but completely ignored by U.S.-based critics groups.
Another surprise is the omission of Avatar. One assumes the absence of James Cameron’s mega-blockbuster is related to the fact that the Na’vi’s look is largely the result of computer-generated imagery, not actual makeup jobs.
On Saturday, Jan. 23, members of the Academy’s Makeup Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films. Following the screenings, members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar consideration.
Oscar 2010: Scientific and Technical Awards
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced 46 individuals responsible for 15 scientific and technical achievements will be honored at its annual Scientific and Technical Awards Presentation on Saturday, Feb. 20, at The Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills. Actress Elizabeth Banks will host the ceremony.
As found in the Academy’s press release, “achievements receiving Scientific and Technical Awards need not have been developed and introduced during 2009. Rather, the achievements must demonstrate a proven record of contributing significant value to the process of making motion pictures.”
Among the Academy Awards’ Scientific and Engineering Award (Academy Plaque) recipients are Per Christensen and Michael Bunnell “for the development of point-based rendering for indirect illumination and ambient occlusion” and Volker Massmann, Markus Hasenzahl, Dr. Klaus Anderle, and Andreas Loew “for the development of the Spirit 4K/2K film scanning system as used in the digital intermediate process for motion pictures.”
“Oscar 2010: Short Film, Animation, Documentary Contenders” notes
Rupert Evans and Derek Jacobi Sidney Turtlebaum image: Third Man Films.
*Last modified May 2025.