Big Picture: "Untransformed"

Given my now-recovering illness (no clue what it was, but my room looked like Hendrix died there) you almost didn't get this today. But here it is:

The Escapist : The Big Picture : Untransformed

14th Polskich Nagród Filmowych Orły (Eagle Awards)

Recently the Polish Academy announced the nominees for this year and no surprise the film with more nominations is W ciemności (In Darkness) by Agnieszka Holland that’s Poland submission to Oscar that made the shortlist of nine and is nominated for Best Foreign Language film. Winners are in *BLUE.

Best Film
*Róża (Rosa), Wojciech Smarzowski
Sala Samobójców (Suicide Room), Jan Komasa
W ciemności (In Darkness), Agnieszka Holland

Best Director
*Wojciech Smarzowski for Róża (Rosa)
Jan Komasa for Sala Samobójców (Suicide Room)
Agnieszka Holland for W ciemności (In Darkness)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Roma Gąsiorowska-Żurawska in Ki (My Name is Ki), Leszek Dawid
*Agata Kulesza in Róża (Rosa), Wojciech Smarzowski
Agnieszka Grochowska in W ciemności (In Darkness), Agnieszka Holland

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Marcin Dorociński in Róża (Rosa), Wojciech Smarzowski
Jakub Gierszał in Sala Samobójców (Suicide Room), Jan Komasa
*Robert Więckiewicz in W ciemności (In Darkness), Agnieszka Holland

To check nominees in all 16 categories go here.  Award ceremony will be on March 5 and will be broadcast live on Channel 2.

84th Academy Awards Nominated Short Films

As every year here are some of the nominated shorts.

Dimanche (Sunday), Patrick Doyon, Canada




The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore, William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg, USA



Short Preview of La Luna, Enrico Casarosa, USA (Pixar)



Trailer of A Morning Stroll, Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe, UK



Wild Life, Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby, Canada

2012 Golden Reel Award Winners

Yesterday the Motion Picture Sound Editors had their awards ceremony and from general news in *BLUE are the feature film winners. To check winners in all categories go here and browse for television categories.

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in an Animation Feature Film

*The Adventures of Tintin
Cars 2
Kung Fu Panda 2
Puss in Boots
Rango Rio
The Smurfs

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue, ADR and Music in a Feature Documentary
Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey
Cave of the Forgotten Dreams
*George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Lemmy
Pearl Jam Twenty

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects, Foley, Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Foreign Language Film
1920. The World's Most Important Battle
Circumstance
*The Flowers of War
In the Land of Blood and Honey
Sarah's Key
The Skin I Live In
Tropa de Elite 2 (Elite Squad 2: The Enemy Within)

Best Sound Editing: Music in a Feature Film
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hop
*Hugo
Priest
Super 8
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
The Tree of Life

Best Sound Editing: Music in a Musical Feature Film
Footloose
*The Muppets
Perfect Age of Rock 'n' Roll
Pina

Best Sound Editing: Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film
Abduction
The Help
Moneyball
Quarantine II: Terminal
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
*Super 8
War Horse
The Way

Best Sound Editing: Sound Effects and Foley in a Feature Film
Drive
Fast Five
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Super 8
Transformers: Dark of the Moon
*War Horse

STILL VOICES #011

Oscar voters overwhelmingly white, male

Now I understand why Academy members will always vote in strange ways as accordingly to the L.A. Times study "The Times found that some of the academy's 15 branches are almost exclusively white and male. Caucasians currently make up 90% or more of every academy branch except actors, whose roster is 88% white. The academy's executive branch is 98% white, as is its writers branch."

The LATimes article continues to give us charts that tells us the Academy members are mainly white (94%), male (77%), have a median age of 62, and are mostly not Oscar winners (64%) which obviously doesn't represent USA population distribution. Some like Denzel Washington said: "If the country is 12% black, make the academy 12% black," Washington said. "If the nation is 15% Hispanic, make the academy 15% Hispanic. Why not?" Yes, why not? But did you all notice what I immediately notice?  There is no mention to women; so, if  American population by gender is approximately 50% male and 50% female, shouldn't the Academy ALSO be 50% female?

But then I'm thinking that AMPAS is really representative of large American Industries, Corporations, etc that not only are owned but also are managed by proportions similar to what the L.A. Times is publishing about the Academy members in yesterday article.

If you wish to read the complete article please go here and maybe will like to comment about the many interesting findings from their study.  As you can see in the article above photo is from the AMPAS seen at its first organizational meeting in 1927 and if my eyes work right, I can clearly see about five women in what you can call an almost all male room.

If the Academy members distribution looks similar to what looked in in 1927, Oscar nominees this year have a little bit more female participation but look really white; take a look to the Class of 2012.

2012 EDDA Awards Winners

Last Saturday the Icelandic Film & TV Academy had the awards ceremony where Rúnar Rúnarsson’s Volcano was the big winner. Here are the winners for the main categories.

Feature Film of the Year: Eldfjall (Volcano), Rúnar Rúnarsson
Director of the Year: Rúnar Rúnarsson for Eldfjall (Volcano)
Actress of the Year: Margrét Helga Jóhannsdóttir in Eldfjall (Volcano), Rúnar Rúnarsson
Actor of the Year: Theodór Júlíusson in Eldfjall (Volcano), Rúnar Rúnarsson

To check winners in all categories including television go here.