OSCAR 2012: Borne back ceaselessly into the past

Phillip Seymour Hoffman in "The Master".

It comes with a certain panic that I must inform you all that the fall festival season is set to kick off any moment now with goings on in Venice set to start very soon. The season often comes with something of a ruckus, but this year seems wholly preoccupied with Cannes, at least in the respect that the May festival didn't offer much to blow this year's slate open. Last summer coasted through with the general knowledge that "The Artist" would be a relative frontrunner in the race, and... well, it won. I've spent much time mulling over the events of Cannes this year in attempt to find potential candidates for the races this year, and if we come up short on first half year nominees, it wouldn't be the first time.

That's putting it lightly, since last year had a rather unprecedented three Cannes debuts nominated for Best Picture. Previous year would be lucky to get just one, mostly due to original five nominee ballot, but in the past three years of expanded category, Cannes has had notably little effect in proceedings. If the 2012 awards season takes a similar trait, I wouldn't be thoroughly surprised, though I do expect a few Cannes premieres to infiltrate the Best Picture race this year. The most obvious one, which I previously went on at length about its chances, would be Wes Anderson's independent hit "Moonrise Kingdom". That simply seems like one for the heart, which should appeal to the Academy in the same way "The Artist" did last year.

Zadan & Meron to produce 85th Oscar telecast

About a month after we got the producer pot stirring in terms of who would be ideal for this year's Oscar telecast, the Academy has again chosen for style over substance. Not that that's a terribly bad thing, and I personally consider this recent news rather fortunate. Neil Moren and Craig Zadan, most popularly known for producing the original 1984 "Footloose", Adam Shankman's "Hairspray", and the NBC hit "Smash", are actually quite ideal choices to helm this year's Oscar telecast. The Academy has always had a tendency to hire teams known for a certain extravagance, given the 2009 telecast produced by Bill Condon of "Dreamgirls" fame was met with an interesting amount of glee.

The instinct is to shrug when a group of musical producers are put on a show meant to celebrate film, but the telecast has, in recent years, been rather deprived of razzle-dazzle. The most current memory of such a feeling came with the 2010 show, when a group of dancers were choreographed to the original score nominees. I think that knowledge of stage presence and theatrical excitement will fit the telecast like a glove, and perhaps give us the most entertaining show since 2008. Now the only question that remains is who will host the event. Your guess is as good as mine, but given the announcement, I'd place hard money on Daniel Radcliffe. Honestly, how would that not be a ridiculously fun show?

OSCAR 2012: Weinstein spreads options wide

I don't really know if it's at all wise to predict nominations so hastily ahead of the game. I usually refrain from doing it even when we get far enough into the game, but I want to be hands on the coverage of this year's awards season. For once, I don't want to miss a beat, like I felt no issue in doing last year. It was a very dull season, and this year promises to change up the formula to some degree. I'll admit that I'm quite pleased with that, since Oscar has been kinder in the past to some of the more challenging directors debuting flicks this year. Take Paul Thomas Anderson for example, who made a film called "There Will Be Blood" a few years back that seemed utterly too dark for the Academy, but it made the cut anyway on sheer ingenuity.

Anderson is back this year with "The Master", a project five years in the making that reaches us this fall. I must admit a high degree of excitement, mostly surrounding the project's mystery. For so long we didn't even really believe it was called "The Master". It was just Paul Thomas Anderson's 1940s religion project, but even that arouses all kinds of fun debate. It's one of plenty major films the Weinstein Company is opening towards the close of the year, also including Quentin Tarantino's "Django Unchained". Tarantino has been off for quite some time, not in terms of making films, but making great films. Since "Kill Bill Vol. 1", the guy's skewed a little over-indulgently.