[OT] Peter Jackson Snubbed

[Storm Raven]

The Oscar nominations came out this AM, and were broadcast live on the Today show. The Lord of The Rings (Two Towers) was nominated for best picture, but Jackson wasn't nominated for Best Director, nor were any of the cast for actor/actress or supporting.

Thoughts?

I have no problem with it. TTT seemed less well directed than FotR to me. At several points the flow of TTT seemed disjointed, action sequences oddly broken up by placid dialogue and so on. It was still a good film, but it was not Jackson's best effort.

 

[Ranger REG]

Yeah, I think Peter Jackson got snubbed. Big time.

But the buzzword is that Hollywood don't want a Kiwi. They're pushing for Martin Scorsese to be the winner.

 

[Umbran]

But the buzzword is that Hollywood don't want a Kiwi.

Yeah, right. As if "Hollywood" were in some way a single unit with a single mind? Like Hollywood as a whole gets together and plans things? *shrug*. And I thought I was a conspiracy theorist

 

[haiiro]

LotR:TTT actually got more nominations than I expected: Picture, Art Direction - Set Decoration, Editing, Sound, Sound Effects Editing, Visual Effects.

I figured "they" would be less interested in TTT than FotR -- much less, that is. FotR did get 13 nominations to TTT's 6 (Picture, Director, Supporting Actor (Ian McKellen), Screenplay (adaptation), Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Makeup, Original Score, Original Song, Sound, Visual Effects), of which it won Cinematography, Visual Effects, Makeup and Original Score.

I think FotR was more Oscar-worthy overall, and I was certainly disappointed that Peter Jackson didn't win for Best Director in 2002.

Having seen none of the other movies up for the "big" awards -- picture, director, actor, actress -- I don't have much basis for speculation.

 

[Eridanis]

TTT got exactly what I expected (hoped) it would get. A Best Picture nomination, and technical noms. It is an extraordinary film, but the middle film of a very tightly scripted trilogy; when RotK comes out next year, it will blow away the general populace, and bring back to the fold those who got thier knickers in a twist at the deviations from the text (PJ said before TTT opened that it would be the one of the three to deviate most from the text).

2004 nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Elijah Wood, and all the technical categories it got this year. That's my prediction.

 

[DM_Matt]

What the hell is wrong with the west coast? Are you really calling someone else an elistist when bashing an entire coast at the same time?

In my opinion, these are not films that allow for a best actor/actress or supporting roles for either. There are too many people involved for anyone to stand out.

However, I think it should get Director, FX, Editing, and Score nods. I worry, however, that the third movie will do even worse than this year.

He was distinguishing the type of elitists that are elitist in the left coaster kind of way from the other various possible types or elitists.

And he's right...I can't even bear to watch this year. The thought of The Hours, which glorifies narcissism as man's highest calling, and perpetuates politically-motivated stereotypes, winning Best Picture makes me want to throw up.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Yeah, right. As if "Hollywood" were in some way a single unit with a single mind? Like Hollywood as a whole gets together and plans things? *shrug*. And I thought I was a conspiracy theorist

Actually, it's not Hollywood as a whole, just the Academy. Less than 6,000 members. And it does often think and act as a single unit. There is a lot of backroom politics going on, both in the nomination process and the voting for winners.

 

[Shadowdancer]

The lack of a TTT nomination for makeup surprised me the most. There are only two nominees in that category, and neither are TTT.

I guess the Academy doesn't consider all the work of turning people into orcs as makeup. Maybe under the Academy's rules, that much latex or whatever they use qualifies as a visual effect rather than makeup. I don't know. But it still seems like it should be considered makeup, at least to me.

 

[Corinth]

Oscars are kudos given by a powerful group of Hollywood brokers with the intention of maintaining the status quo of Hollywood's subculture and power structure. They're bought, sold, used and abused in this manner.

Remember, folks: The awards that matter are Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Original/Adapted Screenplay and Best Score. Those are the awards that make or break careers, both for the winners/losers and for those tied to them. Those are the awards that turn little-known films into widely-known classics. Those are the money-maker awards.

The others matter to no one but fellow travellers in the business; they don't put asses in seats, thus generating more millions for a picture and its studio.

This is why people get mad over Oscars. Oscar gold often goes far beyond the statuette. That said, most Oscar voters see LOTR as one film in three parts; they will not give it real awards until ROTK becomes eligible. Bitch about snubbing then, should LOTR fail to do what it could do--force a paradigm shift amongst the Oscar set about genre films--and thus get few nominations and few or no awards in the categories that count.

 

[Shadowdancer]

Yeah, I think Peter Jackson got snubbed. Big time.

But the buzzword is that Hollywood don't want a Kiwi. They're pushing for Martin Scorsese to be the winner.

I don't think it's so much that the Academy doesn't want a Kiwi to win so much as Jackson was a victim of numbers and other Academy politics.

The Academy wanted to nominate Spanish director Pedro Almodovar as a makeup for his film "Talk to Her" -- which received lots of critical acclaim as one of the year's best films -- not being nominated for best foreign language film.

Why was it not nominated? Because his home country submitted another movie for consideration instead. Each country is allowed to submit the name of only one foreign-language movie for considertation in the category. Spain wanted another movie to be nominated because Almodovar has already won an Oscar in this category, just two or three years ago.

So Almodovar was snubbed by his own country. So the Academy, which likes Almodovar and his movies, made it up to him by nominating him for best director and best screenplay. He won't win either category, but the Academy wanted to at least have him nominated for something.

To make room for Almodovar in the best director category, someone had to go. All the other nominees were directors of best picture nominees. Jackson was the only director who's film was nominated for best picture this year who was also nominated for best director last year. And everyone is basically saying the award is Jackson's to win next year once RotK is released, unless he botches the job terribly.

So the Academy decided Almodovar would be nominated rather than Jackson.

And you are right -- the Academy does want Scorsese to win this year, as a makeup for all the better films he made (Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, GoodFellas) in past years and never won the best director Oscar.