News for the Oscars


Sony High-Definition Cameras Capture The Academy Awards® Ceremony | Sony
| Facebook
Sone expensive cameras will be used to broadcast tomorrow's show:
PARK RIDGE, N.J., Feb. 24, 2012 – The 84th Academy Awards® ceremony will be broadcast worldwide using 50 Sony high-definition cameras. The HD telecast airs live on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012 from the Hollywood & Highland Center®.
[...] The Sony camera models include 15 of the HDC-2500s, and another 35 HDC-1500s [$99,750] for the main broadcast and other red carpet shows.


How to win an Oscar | Lucy Rodgers | BBC
Play a real person with a mental illness in showbiz, suffering from alcoholism, and you're certain to get a nomination!
Almost one in five (19%) of the best-actor Oscars have gone to performers playing a character based on a real person.

Just last year Colin Firth won for his portrayal of George VI battling a stammer in the King's Speech, two years earlier Sean Penn claimed an award for playing American gay rights activist Harvey Milk, and two years prior to that Oscar rewarded Forest Whitaker for his depiction of genocidal Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the The Last King of Scotland.


2012 Oscars: Are Docs Technically Getting the Shaft? | Farihah Zaman
| Huffington Post
More on how documentaries just don't get respect:
Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, a survey of the historic cave paintings of Lascaux, some of the earliest human artworks ever discovered, and Wim Wenders's Pina, a visually stunning look at the work of late choreographer Pina Bausch, both received high critical praise and the latter an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary, but the final list of nominations gives neither of their technical achievements any notice; those awards may as well not exist for documentaries.


Martin Scorsese's Film School: The 85 Films You Need To See To Know Anything About Film | Rick Tetzeli | Fast Company
In a four hour interview with Fast Company, Martin Scorsese mentioned 85 films!:
Cape Fear: As he once explained to Stephen Spielberg over dinner in Tribeca, one of Scorsese’s fears about directing a remake of this film was that, “The original was so good. I mean, you’ve got Gregory Peck, Robert Mitchum, Polly Bergen, it’s terrific!” 1962


Oscars Favor Film Acquisition, But Digital Looms Large | Bryant Frazer
| Studio Daily
Film was used for two-thirds of all narrative work this year, but the numbers are changing:
Of course, facts are funny things, and you could always turn that number around. Digital cinema has a very short history — Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones was the first full-on 24p HD release, and it came out less than 10 years ago — and now, more than one-third of the films receiving the industry’s highest honors were shot digitally? That’s either exciting or alarming, depending on how you feel about going digital. (For added irony, consider that a cash-strapped Kodak, having filed for bankruptcy protection, just had its name stripped from the theater hosting the actual Oscars ceremony.)


Notable Directors Who've Never Won An Academy Award For Best Director
| FilmmakerIQ | Twitter
A list of directors who never won, and includes such notables as Robert Altman, Alfred Hitchcock and Sidney Lumet. Also lists the number of nominations they received (if any.)



The Academy Grows A Pair, Sacha Baron Cohen Will Show Up At The Oscars As 'The Dictator' | Kevin Jagernauth | The Playlist
The Academy changes their minds; how long into the show will it be before Billy Crystal makes a reference to it?
the Academy has relented on their ban -- sort of -- and allowed Sacha Baron Cohen to show up as his character from "The Dictator" on the red carpet before changing into his formal attire for the ceremony.



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