81st Academy Awards: Difference between revisions
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| [[Academy Award for Documentary Feature|Best Documentary Feature]] |
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Revision as of 04:59, 23 February 2009
 | This article documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses, and initial news reports may be unreliable. The latest updates to this article may not reflect the most current information. |
| 81st | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Date | Sunday, February 22, 2009 |
| Site | Kodak Theatre Hollywood, Los Angeles, California |
| Hosted by | Hugh Jackman |
| Preshow hosts | Tim Gunn Robin Roberts Jess Cagle[1] Robert Osborne[2] |
| Produced by | Bill Condon Laurence Mark |
| Directed by | Roger Goodman[3] |
| Highlights | |
| Best Picture | Slumdog Millionaire |
| Most awards | Slumdog Millionaire (8) |
| Most nominations | The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (13) |
| Television coverage | |
| Network | ABC |
The 81st Academy Awards ceremony was held by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to honor its selection of the best films of 2008 on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. The ceremony is currently being televised in the United States on ABC. Australian performer Hugh Jackman hosted the ceremony for the first time.[4] Academy Award-nominated producer Laurence Mark has been tapped to produce and Academy Award-winning writer/director Bill Condon to executive-produce.[5]
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button leads the nominations with a total of thirteen. Slumdog Millionaire received ten, The Dark Knight and Milk received eight, and Doubt, The Reader, and Frost/Nixon each received five. The animated film WALL-E received six, tying it with Beauty and The Beast for the most nominated animated film in Oscar history.[6]
The Academy hopes to rework the ceremony through an entirely new production team sworn to secrecy. The ceremony has received recent controversies prior to its broadcast, most notably the Academy's alleged snubbing of films such as The Dark Knight, Doubt, and WALL·E, threats from a possible Screen Actors Guild strike, and fear of the Oscar telecast's recent low viewership.
This will be the last Oscars' telecast in analog format before the U.S. digital transition takes place on June 12, 2009.
Major winners
This is a breakdown of only major winners.[7][8]For a complete list of nominees and winners, see: 81st Academy Awards nominees and winners
Feature films
| Award | Winner | Producer |
|---|---|---|
| Best Picture | Slumdog Millionaire | Christian Colson |
Directing
| Award | Winner | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Best Director | Danny Boyle | Slumdog Millionaire |
Acting
Writing
| Award | Winner | Film |
|---|---|---|
| Best Writing - Original Screenplay | Dustin Lance Black | Milk |
| Best Writing - Adapted Screenplay | Simon Beaufoy | Slumdog Millionaire |
Special honors
| Award | Winner | Field |
|---|---|---|
| Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award | Jerry Lewis | Comedic film & Humanitarian Work |
Premise
Due to the declining viewership of the recent Academy Awards ceremonies, the Academy has contracted an entirely new production team in an attempt to revive the award ceremony and revamp its general script and theming. Marketing for the ceremony has even gone so far as to advertise it as "The Biggest Movie Event of the Year". Producers Bill Condon and Laurence Mark have announced their plans to rewrite the script, and they have made attempts to keep the entire premise of the ceremony a secret, even from the presenters and performers.[9] Film director Judd Apatow will air a new short film during the ceremony, making it the first ceremony to include a short film since the 79th Academy Awards for 2006. Chris Harrison is hosting "Road to the Oscars",[10] a weekly behind the scenes video blog on the Academy's website, oscar.com.[11] David Rockwell is in the process of designing a new set and stage design for the ceremony.[12] Host Jackman has expressed his anticipation of the awards, and he has commented that he was thrilled with preparations for the ceremony.[13]
Schedule
- As of January 15, 2009[14]
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Wednesday, December 3, 2008 | Official Screen Credits forms due |
| Friday, December 26, 2008 | Nominations ballots mailed |
| Monday, January 12, 2009 | Nominations polls close 5:00 p.m. PST (01:00, 13 Jan. UTC) (8:00 p.m. EST) |
| Thursday, January 22, 2009 | Nominations announced 5:38 a.m. PST (13:38 UTC) (8:38 a.m. EST) at Samuel Goldwyn Theater |
| Wednesday, January 28, 2009 | Final ballots mailed |
| Monday, February 2, 2009 | Nominees Luncheon |
| Saturday, February 7, 2009 | Scientific and Technical Achievement Awards presentation |
| Tuesday, February 17, 2009 | Final polls close 5:00 p.m. PST (01:00, 18 Feb. UTC) (8:00 p.m. EST) |
| Sunday, February 22, 2009 | 81st Annual Academy Awards presentation |
Nominations
The nominees for the 81st Academy Awards were announced live on Thursday, January 22, 2009, at 5:38 a.m. PST (13:38 UTC)[15] by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences president Sid Ganis and Oscar-winning actor Forest Whitaker at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in the Academy's Beverly Hills headquarters.[16] The winners are to be announced during the awards ceremony scheduled to take place on Sunday, February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California. Jerry Lewis will be honored with the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.[17]
Multiple nominations
The following 7 films received multiple nominations.
Presenters and performersAs of February 22nd, 2009[18] Presenters2
Performers
AdvertisementsABC has prepared the advertisements to be shown during the ceremony. The Academy's ban that disallows film commercials to be aired during the telecast was lifted in mid-2007, thus allowing film companies to promote their upcoming films for the first time during the broadcast.[21] The rates for the advertisements will not cost an excessive amount of money to air, due to the recent global economic crisis.[22] Voting trends and summaryContinuing a trend in recent years, the field of major nominees did not include a bona fide blockbuster at the U.S. box office, with all but one of the nominees for Best Picture performing even more poorly than those of the previous year. In fact, The Dark Knight earned more money than all the Best Picture nominees combined in its first four days of release. However, the top money earner in this year's field of Best Picture nominees performed slightly better in box office receipts compared to last year's highest grossing Best Film nominee, Juno. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was the highest earner among the Best Picture nominees with $104.4 million in domestic box office receipts (compared to Juno which grossed $87 million prior to its nomination). The film was followed by Slumdog Millionaire which earned $44.7 million, Milk with $20.7 million, and Frost/Nixon with $8.8 million. The Reader rounded out the Best Picture nominees with $8.3 million. Among the rest of the top 50 releases of 2008 in U.S. box office before the nominations, 32 nominations went to 8 films on the list. Only The Dark Knight (1st), WALL-E (5th), Kung Fu Panda (6th), Bolt (19th), Tropic Thunder (20th), and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (21st) received nominations for best picture, directing, acting, or screenwriting. The other top-50 box office hits that earned nominations were Iron Man (2nd), and Wanted (16th). The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, WALL-E, and Wanted each received more than two nominations. For the first time since 2004, two films received more than eight nominations: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button received 13 and Slumdog Millionaire received ten. For the fourth consecutive year, four of the Best Picture nominees were rated R (under 17 requires accompanying adult). Of the 86 nominations awarded to non-documentary feature films (apart from the Foreign Film category), a majority of 46 went to R-rated films (down from 50 one year earlier), 35 to films rated PG-13 (up from 29 the previous year), two to PG-rated films (down from 4 the year before) and eight to a G-rated film (up from five from last year). Duplicating the rating-related division among the nominations for the past three years, R-rated films captured 27 of the 40 nominations for Best Picture, directing, screenwriting and acting; while non-R-rated films received 25 of the 43 nominations in the remaining categories, primarily those in "below the line" areas. ControversiesLike the previous year's awards, this year's Oscars has also faced multiple controversies. Snubbed filmsFollowing the nominations announcement, the Academy was accused of deliberately snubbing Gran Torino, WALL-E, The Dark Knight, Revolutionary Road, and The Wrestler, five critically praised films that were considered contenders for nominations in the five major categories. As a result, Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay nominations for the films were widely expected. It was also accused of snubbing Clint Eastwood for Best Actor in Gran Torino, Sally Hawkins for Best Actress in Happy Go Lucky, Kristen Scott Thomas for I've Loved You So Long, Ralph Fiennes for Best Supporting Actor in The Duchess, and Andrew Stanton and Christopher Nolan as Best Director for WALL-E and The Dark Knight, respectively,[23][24] as well as the omission of Bruce Springsteen from the Best Song category, for his song from The Wrestler, which took the 2009 Golden Globe Award.[25][26] Disputes over Ledger's winBecause Best Supporting Actor nominee Heath Ledger died in January of 2008 making his nomination one of posthumous recognition, the Academy had disputes over who should accept the award and who should gain ownership of it should Ledger win it. Following talks with Ledger's family in Australia, the Academy ruled that his previous domestic partner Michelle Williams cannot accept the award as the two were not married. They then decided that Ledger's three year old daughter, Matilda Rose Ledger, will accept the award. However, due to Rose Ledger's age, she will not gain full ownership of the statuette until her eighteenth birthday in 2023.[27] It is still unknown who will gain ownership of the award at the present time, although Ledger's family attended the ceremony to accept the award on his behalf when he won.[28] Faked winners leakShortly after the voting polls were closed for the awards, a list of winners were leaked and subsequently posted online.[29] The list, which bears an offical signature from Academy president Sid Ganis, supposedly reveals that Mickey Rourke has won for Best Actor, Kate Winslet has won for Best Actress, Amy Adams has won for Best Supporting Actress, Heath Ledger has won for Best Supporting Actor and Slumdog Millionaire has won for Best Picture. It has since been confirmed as a fake list. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences spokeswoman Leslie Unger later revealed that the list was "a complete fraud",[30] and that PricewaterhouseCoopers had just began to count the ballots. The awards were previously revealed prior to the ceremony in the 1950s. This list was proven to be false when Penélope Cruz was victorious in Best Actress in a Supporting Role, not Amy Adams, the winner in the fake list. Other controversiesPrior to the nominations announcement, it was suggested that the 2008-09 Screen Actors Guild labor dispute would affect the awards in discouraging actors attendance to the ceremony, However, as talks to end the dispute between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are currently underway,[31][32] the expected strike is unlikely to affect the awards ceremony.[33] However, a resolution between SAG and AMPTP has not yet been reached.[34][35] Peter Gabriel, who was scheduled to perform his nominated song "Down to Earth" from WALL-E during the live broadcast, has cancelled the performance, after learning that only 65 seconds of his song would be showcased during the ceremony's Best Original Song nominee performances.[36] Gabriel will still attend the ceremony. The Academy has expressed an ongoing fear of low viewership during Oscar night.[37] See also
References
External linksOfficial websites
News resources
Analysis
Other resources |
