Cool Black's 2014 Oscars Short List

Blog Post #19

 For the first time ever

I never make Oscar “lists” this early, but this year I wanted to try. I never make predictions anyway. In my annual Oscar picks, they “are NOT who I think WILL win; it’s who I think SHOULD win”, so these are who I think SHOULD be given consideration based on the films I’ve seen thus far January to November 2014.

UPDATE: FEBRUARY, 7, 2015
The nominees were announced for the 87th Annual Academy Awards on January 15, 2015. The ceremony will take place on February 22, 2015. Below I will post every "Post Nomination Result" below.


Gugu Mbatha-Raw (pictured left) for the film Belle

What they are calling a breakthrough performance and I agree. Her performance was the heart and soul of the film and I think should be recognized by The Academy. You can read my review for Belle at the ‘Nother Brother Entertainment blog here
.
Post Nomination Result: Was not nominated



Robert Duvall (pictured left) for The Judge  “Bobby D” has been one of the great American actors of his generation and he gives a raw honest performance here. He should get a nomination for this role and his body of work.

Post Nomination Result: Was nominated for Best Supporting Actor


Richard Linklater for writing and directing Boyhood  I just thought Boyhood was a phenomenal film. Linklater took what seemed like a gimmick and made it work—phenomenally.

He shot the film intermittently over an eleven-year period from May 2002 to October 2013, showing the growth of the young boy and his sister to adulthood. That means we see the SAME ACTORS age over this period. You can read more about the film at Wikipedia by clicking the link above.

Post Nomination Result: Boyhood received six Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original Screenplay and Best Editing.

Force Majeure for Best Foreign Language Film
It has already been selected as the Swedish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but I think it should get a nomination as it is a terrific film and one of the best I've seen this year.



Post Nomination Result: Was not nominated

Rosamund Pike (pictured left) for Gone Girl  A fearless performance that drives the whole film. I’d be surprised if she doesn’t get a nomination.

Post Nomination Result: Was nominated for Best Actress

Gillian Flynn (pictured left) for writing the screenplay for Gone Girl.  She also wrote the original source material, the novel Gone Girl. Only a tiny list of authors have successfully brought their books to life on the screen and she has done just that by writing an excellent screenplay. A more than worthy nomination.

Post Nomination Result: Was not nominated





So that is my short list. Looking forward to seeing more nomination worthy films in these coming months.

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Click the graphics below to see my Oscars picks from over the years

‘Selma’: How the Martin Luther King Biopic Finally Got Made

‘Selma’ first look: David Oyelowo takes on Martin Luther King in upcoming film

By Nicole Sperling, Entertainment Weekly 

August 22, 2014

A cross, constructed entirely of lightbulbs, shines behind David Oyelowo as he approaches the pulpit of Atlanta’s 145-year-old Wheat Street Baptist Church. It’s a steamy June night, and 500 extras—including U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a key architect of the civil rights movement—eagerly await the British-born actor’s first attempt to preach as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But just as director Ava DuVernay puts on her headphones and does a last sound check, a freak lightning storm threatens the safety of the crew and forces the production to shut down.

Delays are nothing new in the long saga of bringing MLK’s life to the big screen. Despite the success of Hollywood movies focused on African-American figures Malcolm X, Ray Charles, and, most recently, Jackie Robinson and James Brown, it took the work of a relatively unknown female director, a British actor, and Oprah Winfrey to make an MLK biopic finally happen.

Selma chronicles the Nobel Prize-winning civil rights leader during three intense months in 1965, from the “Bloody ­Sunday” assault on protesters to the historic march through Alabama that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act. The film will have an Academy run in December before rolling out nationwide by MLK weekend in January, just in time for the 50th anniversary of the events it depicts.

“My vision was surrounding King with the band of brothers and ­sisters that got him to where he was,” says DuVernay, who won the Best Director prize at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival for her second feature, Middle of Nowhere, co-starring Oyelowo. “You see King’s vulnerability, you see when he gets angry, you see the complexity. But part of the complexity is he didn’t do it alone. This is a film that shows a black community that activated a nation to come together behind what was right.”

David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo in Selma

British screenwriter Paul Webb wrote the first draft of Selma back in 2007, centering on King’s contentious relationship with President Lyndon B. Johnson. (DuVernay shifted the focus to a more intimate look at the hero, including his complicated relationship with his wife, Coretta, played by The Purge: Anarchy’s Carmen Ejogo.) Directors as varied as Paul Haggis, Spike Lee, and Stephen Frears circled the project. Lee Daniels signed on to direct in 2010, casting Oyelowo in the lead after hiring the actor for The Paperboy.

For his part, Oyelowo says he was undaunted by the challenge of playing one of the most famous men in history. “It’s never felt like a movie,” he says. “It’s always felt like an appointment. It felt like a calling.” He also proved instrumental in putting Selma together when Daniels backed out to avoid tackling another civil rights story so soon after The Butler, in which Oyelowo played the firebrand son of Forest Whitaker’s title character. The actor suggested his Middle of Nowhere director for the job, then recruited his Butler costar Oprah Winfrey to produce—which helped secure a green light from Paramount. Winfrey also agreed to take a small role as Annie Lee Cooper, an activist who was beaten in her quest to vote. “If [the right to vote] didn’t happen, there wouldn’t have been an Oprah Winfrey,” says DuVernay. “There was a poetry to seeing Oprah walk down that hallway of the registrar’s office only to be rejected and told to sit her black butt down.”

Back at the Wheat Street ­Baptist Church, it’s nearing midnight and the cameras are finally ready to roll. Oyelowo again takes the pulpit, dressed in a gray suit and a yellow tie. After gaining 30 pounds, shaving his hairline, and growing a mustache, the actor bears a spooky resemblance to King. His voice begins to crescendo until the crowd is on its feet, revved up by his demand for voting rights. “We will not wait any longer! Give us the vote!” he shouts. DuVernay calls “Cut!” She runs up clapping, headphones still on, a huge smile across her face. The cast, crew, and extras stand to applaud Oyelowo.

Later that night, Oyelowo, as King, recites a eulogy for slain ­activist Jimmie Lee Jackson (Keith Stanfield)—a solemn event that Lewis witnessed firsthand. “It started raining the day of the funeral—just like tonight,” Lewis says. “And when David was getting up there, my mind kept going back to Dr. King standing in that little country church right outside of Selma.”

Additional Info

Read more about the director of Selma Ava DuVernay on our parent blog 'Nother Brother Entertainment here

Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar Selfie Worth as Much as $1 Billion

MIPTV: Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar Selfie Worth as Much as $1 Billion

@TheEllenShow/Twitter

12:13 PM PDT 4/8/2014 by Rhonda Richford, The Hollywood Reporter

Samsung marketer Maurice Levy said the photo's value is based on its popularity on social media.

CANNES -- It was the tweet heard around the world, and now Publicis CEOMaurice Levy has valued Ellen DeGeneres' Oscar selfie at between $800 million and $1 billion, he told a crowd at MIPTV.

Levy's Publicis Groupe, the Paris-based global advertising and marketing behemoth, handles international marketing for Samsung. He valued the Oscar photo of host DeGeneres with Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Julia Roberts, Brad Pitt, Meryl Streep, Kevin Spacey and others at the large sum because of its massive sharing on social media.

The tweet was seen by 37 million people worldwide, according to Twitter numbers. In contrast, 43 million viewers tuned in to the broadcast to see the Samsung snap. Levy said that the product placement was handled by his team.

Levy also took credit for President Barack Obama's controversial selfie: "This is something we did for Samsung. It's us. The two selfies that are so famous -- the one with all the actors at the Oscars and the second with President Obama -- the two were done by our team."

He refused however to go into detail on how that now-infamous photo came about. When queried if Obama or his team were given the phone for the photo Levy answered: "No, but we did it with someone else who took the picture with Barack Obama. But I won't give you the recipe," he said. Boston Red Sox baseball player David "Big Papi" Ortiz has declined to say if he was paid. When pressed again Levy demurred: "For us it is business. This is a TV conference."

Levy also addressed the merging of advertising and television production to the assembled producers and buyers. Publicis created a film-like 3 1/2 minute commercial for luxury brand Cartier that aired only once on France's TF1, but was viewed more than 60 million times on YouTube. At a time when traditional TV networks are bleeding ad money, numbers like that hurt.

He called television production and advertising production "faux amis" -- French for "false friends" -- and said the crossover is simply more transparent now than it was before. "Producers and directors have their independence and they do their work in their way, but at the same time we see a lot of directors that are doing TV series or movies for the big screen who are directing advertising. There is a long list of great directors that have shot commercials. We've always had that kind of relationship without entering into each other's space," he said. "But today we are co-producers and sometimes executive producers and all this is for the brand, for our clients."

Not that it is all so bleak. Both advertisers and television producers are facing common challenges as they fight for eyeballs and figure out how to reach consumers that divide their time among multiple devices. "I don't think the world is an 'or,' " he said, referring to content consumers spending more time with one screen or another. With creative content coming from both advertising and television production "the world is an 'and.' " He added, "There is an infinite number of possibilities with interactive."

Cool Black's Oscar Picks 2014

By Dankwa Brooks AKA Cool Black

Last year I saw ALL of the nominated films for Best Picture, all NINE of them. This year I was not as fortunate. I did see seven of the nine Best Picture films and I’ve seen several other nominated pictures. For the first time in my recollection I have seen ALL of the films nominated for "Best Picture". Quite a feat since there are NINE this year. I have also seen several other films that I thought would get nominated so I have seen a majority of the entire Oscar nominated categories.

Since I have seen the majority of the nominated films (I will ONLY bold in red the correlating nominations that I have NOT seen.)

My pick will be under “Cool Black’s Oscar Pick:” These are NOT who I think WILL win; it’s who I think SHOULD win based on my opinion and those who know me, know I am quite discerning. While I do think some films were "omitted" I'll vote by the nominations as selected by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences.

And now...the awards.

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As a screenwriter two of my favorite categories are the two screenwriting ones. For the record:
The Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay is the Academy Award for the best script not based upon previously published material and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source (usually a novel, play, or short story but also sometimes another film). All sequels are automatically considered adaptations by this standard (since the sequel must be based on the original story).

Writing

(Adapted Screenplay)

12 Years a Slave

John Ridley

Based on the memoir 12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northup.

Before Midnight

Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater

Based on characters from the film Before Sunrise, written by Richard Linklater and Kim Krizan.

The Wolf of Wall Street

Terence Winter

Based on the memoir The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort

Captain Phillips

Billy Ray

Based on the book A Captain's Duty by Richard Philips, Stephan Talty

Philomena

Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope

Based on the book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by Martin Sixsmith

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave. Of the three nominated films I’ve seen, this screenplay seemed to be the most arduous. Not only did it have to adapt history, it had to adapt one man’s personal struggle through a horrific time. I’m sure the original book had more situations and stories, but Ridley did a fine job at honing in on the principle story and making it memorable.  

Writing

(Original Screenplay)

David O. Russell and Eric Singer (American Hustle)

Bob Nelson (Nebraska)

Spike Jonze (Her)

Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack (Dallas Buyers Club)

Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Absolutely it’s Spike Jonze for Her. After I saw the trailer for this film I didn’t know if it would make a compelling full length picture, but boy was I wrong. The screenplay for this film was wonderfully splendid and made you really believe in what seemed like a far fetched concept. Excellent writing job. 

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FILM EDITING

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

12 Years a Slave

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: This is a hard one. I've seen all five of these nominated pictured and the editing in three of them greatly led to the success of the pictures. Those pictures being American Hustle, Captain Phillips and Gravity. 

Each of those three films had great tension filled scenes that wouldn't have been possible if not for the editing. In the end though Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Gravity. Some of those scenes looked tremendous like it was all one shot, but I know some of it had to be edits. I also the know that the “visible edits” greatly led to the danger and peril in the film.  

VISUAL EFFECTS
(The special, often computer generated, effects for a film) 

Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
The Lone Ranger
Star Trek Into Darkness

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Gravity —Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould. The other two films I saw Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness had some great visual effects, but the visual effects for Gravity were outstanding!


CINEMATOGRAPHY

Philippe Le Sourd (The Grandmaster)
Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity)
Bruno Delbonnel ( Inside Llewyn Davis)
Roger Deakins (Prisoners)
Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska)

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Bruno Delbonnel for Inside Llewyn Davis. Of the three pictures I saw Delbonnel did outstanding work. I really loved the cinematography of Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity and you can never go wrong with the excellent Roger Deakins (Prisoners), but Delbonnel did some terrific cinematography for Inside Llewyn Davis that will blow you away.

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ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
Jonah Hill (Wolf of Wall Street)
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club. I’ve seen all five of these performances and while all worthy Jared Leto was simply outstanding in Dallas Buyers Club. 

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years a Slave)
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
June Squibb (Nebraska)
Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Lupita Nyong'o in  12 Years a Slave. One of my favorite actors Jennifer Lawrence was great as usual in American Hustle and this is the first time I’ve seen Sally Hawkins, but she was really great in Blue Jasmine, but Lupita Nyong'o…Lord was she devastating in 12 Years a Slave. Such a devastating performance. 


ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

Christian Bale (American Hustle)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
Leonardo DiCaprio (Wolf of Wall Street)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave. Of the four performances I saw, all of them were of course worthy, but it really came down to three for me. 

Leonardo DiCaprio was as outstanding as ever in Wolf of Wall Street. Just when you thought you saw him do it all—he does more.

Matthew McConaughey who has been racking up great performances back to back these last several years gives an angry yet vulnerable and touching performance in Dallas Buyers Club. 

Chiwetel Ejiofor though was just heartbreaking as the kidnapped freeman Solomon Northrop. His performance exuded class and dignity then turmoil and desperation then hope and jubilation. A tour de force performance!  

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: This was another hard choice for me. The three performances I saw I loved. 

I loved what Sandra Bullock did with here role where she was onscreen most of the time alone. I didn’t think she would be able to pull it off, but she did! 

The choice though ultimately came to Amy Adams and Cate Blanchett for me. I thought both did outstanding jobs in their roles and it made it hard for me to pick, but I have. Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Amy Adams. I thought she did a fierce, manipulative job in her role in American Hustle. Fierce. 

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DIRECTING

Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) 
David O. Russell (American Hustle)
Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
Alexander Payne (Nebraska)
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick: Of the four pictures I’ve seen of course all of these directors are worthy of their nominations. 

You never ever go wrong with Martin Scorsese and The Wolf of Wall Street was another example of his brilliance.  

David O. Russell went all out with the period piece American Hustle. I loved the visual style of the picture and thought it was his finest work.

The visual and compelling brilliance of Alfonso Cuarón’s Gravity  was one of the best cinematic experiences I had last year 

My PICK though is Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave. McQueen’s tone for this film was exactly what it should have been, harsh, brutal and unforgiving. It is the director’s job to establish and cultivate the tone of the film and McQueen did just that with a film that was unrelenting in its depiction of the atrocity of slavery.

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BEST PICTURE

American Hustle
Producers: Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, and Jonathan Gordon

Captain Phillips
Producers: Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti and Michael De Luca, Producers

Dallas Buyers Club
Producers: Robbie Brenner and Rachel Winter

Gravity
Producers: Alfonso Cuarón and David Heyman

Her
Producers: Megan Ellison, Spike Jonze and Vincent Landay

Nebraska
Producers: Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa

Philomena
Producers: Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan and Tracey Seaward

12 Years a Slave
Producers: Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen and Anthony Katagas

The Wolf of Wall Street
Producers: Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Joey McFarland and Emma Tillinger Koskoff

Cool Black’s Oscar Pick:
I can truly say that all seven of the Best Picture nominees that I saw deserved their nomination. I saw a lot of pictures last year and these WERE some of the Best I’d seen. I’m not mad at any of these nominations.

I thought Captain Phillips while slightly too long was still an excellent and taut picture. Tom Hanks was great as usual and Barkhad Abdi as one of the pirates was really good too. Director Paul Greengrass has crafted another excellent tensioned filled picture.

Dallas Buyers Club was a great tale of adversity featuring what I thought was Matthew McConaughey’s BEST onscreen performance to date and as I stated above he “has been racking up great performances back to back these last several years”. His performance and MY PICK for Actor in a Supporting Role Jared Leto made this a really great picture.

Gravity was simply what I call a "pure cinematic experience". I saw this film 
twice in 3D and loved it both times. All around great film. More than great. 
It's also what I call "Cinematic Excellence". 

Her was an intriguing looking concept from the trailer, but I was more intrigued 
in the execution of the said concept. Could they really pull it off? They did! 
The concept which seemed more science fiction than romantic was I indeed all 
heart. Such a wonderful film.

The Wolf of Wall Street was Martin Scorsese back with one his favorite muses 
Leonardo DiCaprio. Their pairing was again fantastic in this tale of debauchery. 
You usually can't miss with pair together and you sure didn't this time. A 
really great film.  

My PICK for BEST PICTURE goes to 12 Years a Slave. 

I picked 12 Years a Slave because IT was the film that I thought really went for it all. It took a harsh subject matter and through great acting, story and direction made an excellent film about it. The relatively unknown story of a free black man kidnapped and forced into slavery was an intriguing segue into telling the horrible plight of slavery. The film really took no prisoners (no pun intended) in its brutal depiction of slavery and gave every viewer something to witness and ultimately think about.

So that’s it, my picks this year. As always looking forward to the ceremony!

CLICK the graphic below for my

How 'New Girl' got Prince on Their Show

by Michael O'Connell, The Hollywood Reporter

January 30, 2014

Excerpted from the article "'New Girl' Creator Liz Meriwether Talks Prince, Super Bowl Pressure and Letting Zooey Sing"

So you first tried to get Prince on the show last year?

We thought it was would be really fun if Cece [Hannah Simone] lost her virginity to Prince in that flashback episode ["Virgins"], so we offered him that role and he couldn't. He said, "I'm a big fan. I'd love to do the show at some point in the future." I think I didn't really take that seriously because, you know, that can't be true. And then we were contacted by his manager in the beginning of this season that he was serious.

And he's no stranger to the Super Bowl.

They approached us right about the same time Fox gave us the post-Super Bowl slot, so we built the episode around him. He was really involved in the planning of it and emailing back and forth about what he wanted to do on the show, collaborating with us. It's a really fun, crazy, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

How long was he on set?

I think he shot for two days. He performs a song in the episode, and he also acts. He has a bunch of scenes with Zooey. He plays ping-pong with Hannah.

Does Prince have a ping-pong stand-in or did he really play?

Prince is fantastic at ping-pong, like maybe one of the best I've ever seen, which is amazing because I kind of think you can only be really good at one thing -- but you can be really good at a lot of things if you're Prince. He told Hannah to practice. She actually got one back at him during the first take, and he was genuinely surprised that she could score a point off of him.

This is not the most organic thing to happen to these characters. How easy was it for you to write Prince into a storyline?

We went through a couple scripts where it didn't feel like our show. It was funny, but it didn't feel real. These are real characters, so it was actually a huge priority that we kept it feeling like the show -- even though these huge, semi-implausible things are happening. It is a Super Bowl episode, so we also have a little bit of leeway. I remember one pitch that we didn't do involved Prince playing the lead singer of a Prince cover band. That would have felt a little more like what would actually happen to our characters, but there's a great wish fulfillment kind of fun and a slightly fantastical feeling to this episode that I really like.

Read the full article at The Hollywood Reporter here