SUNDANCE 2008
Awards were passed around at Sundance last night as follows:
Grand Jury Prize, Documentary Feature: Trouble the Water
Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic Feature: Frozen River
World Cinema Jury Prize, Documentary: Man on Wire
World Cinema Jury Prize, Dramatic: King of Ping Pong
Audience Award, Documentary: Fields of Fuel
Audience Award, Dramatic: The Wackness
Directing Award, Documentary: American Teen
Directing Award, Dramatic: Ballast
Nice. Both of the American dramatic features were on my earlier Sundance list. Also, I got to see U2 3D earlier today - definitely worth checking out if you're any level of U2 fan.
So, I'm looking forward to seeing what's picked up and distributed throughout the year. And evidently no overt Little Miss Sunshine/Juno silliness this year. Looks like we might be back on the Half Nelson/Hustle & Flow track.
SAG AWARD WINNERS 2008
The Screen Actors Guild Awards were held earlier tonight. Not as much fun predicting these, since it's only the actors choosing each other and is therefore a lot more predictable. For the same reason, a SAG award (especially an individual one) is generally regarded as a pretty special trophy. Here's who's heads got a little bigger tonight:
Outstanding Performance by Actor in Leading Role: Daniel-Day Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Outstanding Performance by Actress in Leading Role: Julie Christie, Away from Her
Outstanding Performance by Actor in Supporting Role: Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men
Outstanding Performance by Actress in Supporting Role: Ruby Dee, American Gangster
Outstanding Performance by Ensemble Cast: No Country for Old Men
Outstanding Performance by Stunt Ensemble (there's shamefully no Oscar for Stunts): The Bourne Ultimatum
Along with the Director's Guild of America awarding the Coen brothers this weekend, it looks like No Country for Old Men is poised for a busy Oscar night. Fine by me.
It's interesting, some folks seem disappointed there's no Little Miss Sunshine and they're chalking up Sundance as a disappointment.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. It sounds like there's some interesting stuff there and I'm looking forward to it coming down the pipeline.
I'm with you.
ReplyDeleteWhen did Little Miss Sunshine become the gold standard for Sundance movies, anyway? Was it the first one to get an Oscar nod?
Seems like there were plenty of movies before it that are a lot more important.
I think the drive for the next LMS is as old as Sex Lies and Videotape...not that they're the same kind of movie at all, but once the big studios realized there was box office gold to be found at Sundance, things started to change. LMS is just the end result of a system where studios are looking for a certain thing, and filmmakers are looking to give the studios what they want.
ReplyDeleteIt's lead to a blandness, I think.
Wow, that was a ramble that probably made no sense at all. Sorry.
Hehe, no worries. I think I understand - the studios moving in has reduced the chances for really creative indies to get out. Little Miss Sunshine-type movies are almost like a genre now (broadly, from Napoleon Dynamite to Rocket Science to Juno). They're funny enough, but I'm ready for something else.
ReplyDelete