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[Amir0x]

Ok, so as many of you know tommorrow morning we find out what is and is not nominated for the 77th Academy Awards. Awards shows are mostly behind the scenes affairs with lots of lobbying and bullshit politics determining what ultimately wins. What the viewer is left with is a husk of a show that is only entertaining to the most hardcore movie fans, such as myself. But there's a way I like to spice things up for everyone... so let me elaborate.

As I did last year, I'm getting a pool together to predict the winners of the 2005 Oscars. It's going to be done via the BLOCKBUSTER "PREDICT THE WINNERS" Contest. For those of you not familiar, what it does is simple.

Starting tommorow after the nominees are announced, a page will go up where you'll be able to create an account and place your predictions for each individual category. You can find out HOW TO PLAY here. I will be creating a GROUP that every person that chooses the participate in this GAF/TTB/PA pool can join. Via this group, we can compare predictions and receive rankings based on how well we perform on Oscar Night. You can change your predictions as much as you want up until 5:30 PM PST on February 27, 2005. Then the site will lock down all predictions can be monitored as they will be automatically updated whenever a winner is announced during the awards ceremony.

The incentive, besides bragging rights if you do really well within our group, is to win the GRAND PRIZE. What is the Grand Prize?


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GRAND PRIZE (1):
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ONE YEAR MEMBERSHIP TO BLOCKBUSTER ONLINE

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SECOND PRIZE (10):

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________________________________________________________________________________


So, if you're thinking of joining up just make yourself known here. I'll be giving detals about how to join the GAF/TTB/PA GROUP tommorrow night after everything is set up and the contest website officially goes up.

Here's the important links:

HOW TO PLAY
PRIZES
RULES

_________________________________________________________________________________

CONTESTANT LIST:

Amir0x
distantmantra
Twisted
StrikerObi
XMonkey
Foreign Jackass
Duck of Death
Dan
corrupt-koopa
IAmtheFMan
Liono
Juan (?)
SlayerCait
Toecutter
rooter (?)
_________________________________________________________________________________

IMPORTANT:

Eligibility: 2. Eligibility: Sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington D.C., who are at least 18 years of age and who have an active e-mail account and Internet access as of the beginning of the Sweepstakes period.
_________________________________________________________________________________

NOMINEES

_________________________________________________________________________________

And here's the details:

Go to the page linked to in the first post and create an account if you don't already have one. Once there..

Join the Group named: Torch the GAFers
The password is: fourna201

And then just start making your predictions. You can look around at other teammates predictions, etc...

Have fun

 

[Memles]

Addendum: Only open to residents of the United States of America.

Canada is the new Hollywood, you fuckers, get with the picture!

...ahem. Sorry bout that. I'd love to do some predictions, but I am sadly unable to do so.

 

[distantmantra]

Count me in. I'm sure I'll be slaughtered, seeing how I will vote for all the deserving indies, when the big budget bio-pics and that damn "made for Lifetime" boxing movie take home the awards.

 

[Amir0x]

Yeah, I should make this clear:

Eligibility: 2. Eligibility: Sweepstakes is open only to legal residents of the 50 United States and Washington D.C., who are at least 18 years of age and who have an active e-mail account and Internet access as of the beginning of the Sweepstakes period.

 

[JasoNsider]

Can we Canadians at least participate on the forums to help GAF members out? The last two years I've been within 2 categories of getting every single prediction on the money (even predictions for the 5 nominations in 'best film' category before they were announced.)

I always have lots of fun trying to guess who will take which prize.

Just for fun - what are your predictions for best film nominees? This is easily the hardest year I can remember for this category. So far I have:

-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-Sideways
-The Aviator
-??

This year is difficult because some of the best movies were entertaining flicks that are not necessarily pushed by the academy. Colateral is one that I sincerely enjoyed in every respect, but will probably not make the list.

Note: I haven't seen Million Dollar Baby yet, as it just released where I live.

 

[XMonkey]

Eh, why not. Count me in.

 

[StrikerObi]

Sure, why not. Sounds fun. I'm in.

 

[distantmantra]

Just for fun - what are your predictions for best film nominees? This is easily the hardest year I can remember for this category. So far I have:

-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-Sideways
-The Aviator
-??

This year is difficult because some of the best movies were entertaining flicks that are not necessarily pushed by the academy. Colateral is one that I sincerely enjoyed in every respect, but will probably not make the list.

Note: I haven't seen Million Dollar Baby yet, as it just released where I live.

The performances in Million Dollar Baby were good, but I still view it as a well done made for TV movie that is only robbing more deserving films of nominations.

This is what I think will end up being nominated, not what I would like to see get nominated.

Best Film:
The Aviator
Million Dollar Baby
Sideways
Ray
Finding Nerverland

 

[Amir0x]

Can we Canadians at least participate on the forums to help GAF members out? The last two years I've been within 2 categories of getting every single prediction on the money (even predictions for the 5 nominations in 'best film' category before they were announced.)

I always have lots of fun trying to guess who will take which prize.

Just for fun - what are your predictions for best film nominees? This is easily the hardest year I can remember for this category. So far I have:

-Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
-Sideways
-The Aviator
-??

This year is difficult because some of the best movies were entertaining flicks that are not necessarily pushed by the academy. Colateral is one that I sincerely enjoyed in every respect, but will probably not make the list.

Note: I haven't seen Million Dollar Baby yet, as it just released where I live.

Of course you can. In fact, I encourage it...makes the discourse more entertaining. This is basically an excuse to get together and discuss things with the chance of winning a neat prize at the end. But the discussing part is what is important

Best Film:

Sideways
Aviator
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
Hotel Rwanda (wildcard)

I don't think Eternal Sunshine will get in there, even though it's my favorite film of 2004, because it came out so early and because it doesn't exactly have the buzz behind it (i.e. the momentum) to carry it into a surprise nomination.

Although, I could be wrong. The nomination for Keisha Castle Hughes last year was extremely surprising.

 

[distantmantra]

Of course you can. In fact, I encourage it...makes the discourse more entertaining. This is basically an excuse to get together and discuss things with the chance of winning a neat prize at the end. But the discussing part is what is important

Best Film:

Sideways
Aviator
Finding Neverland
Million Dollar Baby
Hotel Rwanda (wildcard)

I don't think Eternal Sunshine will get in there, even though it's my favorite film of 2004, because it came out so early and because it doesn't exactly have the buzz behind it (i.e. the momentum) to carry it into a surprise nomination.

Although, I could be wrong. The nomination for Keisha Castle Hughes last year was extremely surprising.

I think Cheadle will be nominated for Best Actor, but Hotel Rwanda as a film will probably be ignored, much like how Charlize Theron was nominated for her performance in Monster, and the film itself was left out of the running. Fantastic movie, and I'd love to be surprised, but I don't see it happening.

 

[Amir0x]

I think Cheadle will be nominated for Best Actor, but Hotel Rwanda as a film will probably be ignored, much like how Charlize Theron was nominated for her performance in Monster, and the film itself was left out of the running. Fantastic movie, and I'd love to be surprised, but I don't see it happening.

I think the crucial difference was that the film Monster was a empty shell of a film without Charlize. In fact, without her performance nothing about it would be noteworthy at all.

While it could be said that Cheadle elevated the film to fantastic levels, the movie had great performances from the entire cast, an excellent screenplay and some superb direction.

It's not exactly like Monster.

Monster: Great lead performance, sucky everything else.
Hotel Rwanda: Everything was pretty much great.

 

[JasoNsider]

Eternal Sunshine was probably my favorite film of '04 as well, and I still stand by the fact that it will be nominated. It was intelligent and haunting, something that made it memorable even into the late months of the year. A best film list without Eternal Sunshine is a sad list indeed. Eternal Sunshine and Sideways are the two films I am going to be pushing for. I suppose we'll see tomorrow .

Finding Neverland was good, but I would be hesitant to list it as best film (though A Beautiful Mind's winning shocked the daylights out of me a few years back). Instead, I would have Johnny Depp nominated as best actor.

 

[Memles]

I totally intend on participating for the hell of it; I love this stuff.

Best Picture
Sideways
The Aviator
Million Dollar Baby
Finding Neverland
Hotel Rwanda

Bold - Locked
Italics - Vulnerable

There's where I stand right now. My standbys are Ray and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The reasons for picking those two is simply that Hotel Rwanda is more or less the kind of story that will hold resonance, and it is definitely a much smaller release. Finding Neverland is a film that has two performances from Oscar Nominated actors (Who could have nominations themselves, although Winslet's wouldn't be for Neverland) and a striking performance from a young actor. It's the kind of film that simply comes together for an Oscar audience.

At the same time, I think that Ray has a chance of ousting one of them, based purely on the momentum that Foxx is building. He's the guaranteed Best Actor winner. There hasn't been a frontrunner like this for awhile, with such complete and totall dominance. Eternal Sunshine would need a whole lot of love, including nominations for both leads and Gondry in order to get a Best Picture nod, and I just don't see it happening.

Castle Hughes was a surprise last year, but so was Samantha Morton for In America. There were all sorts of surprises last year. I'm really interested to see how Original Screenplay nods come out. Like, Tina Fey's script for Mean Girls was nominated for a Writer's Guild Award, so there are chances of seeing some really original nominees coming out of this. Here's hoping it doesn't end up predictable.

 

[Amir0x]

Eternal Sunshine was probably my favorite film of '04 as well, and I still stand by the fact that it will be nominated. It was intelligent and haunting, something that made it memorable even into the late months of the year. A best film list without Eternal Sunshine is a sad list indeed. Eternal Sunshine and Sideways are the two films I am going to be pushing for. I suppose we'll see tomorrow .

If Eternal Sunshine gets nominated I'll be so freakin' happy. I just don't see it happening, though. All the other award shows we have to go off of right now... I just don't think it has momentum. To further cripple this some of the more naive academy members may judge Eternal Sunshine as a psuedo-comedy drama of sorts, and they wouldn't ever put two of those films in the list (Sideways being the other).

And Sideways has way, way, WAY more buzz.

Finding Neverland was good, but I would be hesitant to list it as best film (though A Beautiful Mind's winning shocked the daylights out of me a few years back). Instead, I would have Johnny Depp nominated as best actor.

Finding Neverland and Aviator has just about all the momentum right now. Here's the Golden Globes:

Best Picture, Drama: The Aviator
Best Picture, Comedy: Sideways
Best Director: Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby
Best Actor, Drama: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Aviator
Best Actor, Comedy: Jamie Foxx, Ray
Best Actress, Drama: Hilary Swank, Million Dollar Baby
Best Actress, Comedy: Annette Bening, Being Julia
Best Supporting Actor: Clive Owen, Closer
Best Supporting Actress: Natalie Portman, Closer
Best Screenplay: Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Sideways
Best Foreign Language Film: The Sea Inside
Best Original Score: Howard Shore, The Aviator
Best Original Song: "Old Habits Die Hard," Alfie
Cecil B. Demille Lifetime Achievement Award: Robin Williams

 

[Timbuktu]

What's the buzz around Sideways? I saw the trailer and it seemed nothing special.

I think Kate Winslet deserves a nomination for 2004, for either Eternal Sunshine or Finding Neverland. I think Foxx outdid himself too in '04, good performances in Ray and Collateral.

I didn't find any film in '04 that outstanding though, it wasn't the best of years for films. The only definite I see is The Incredibles for feature animation.

 

[Bristow]

I don't really care about the Oscars this year, but Eternal Sunshine better get nominated for best film.

 

[JasoNsider]

I know the chances of it being nominated are slim, but I'm stubborn with these things . I called Roman Polanski best director before he was even nominated, and everyone said I was bat-shit insane.

At the very least, if Eternal Sunshine doesn't get nominated, Sideways most certainly will. And to be honest, both of those movies are absolutely superb anyway.

I didn't find any film in '04 that outstanding though, it wasn't the best of years for films.

Yes and no, IMO. Even though the volume of great films was somewhat sparse, Eternal Sunshine and Sideways alone will make this a memorable year.

 

[Foreign Jackass]

The performances in Million Dollar Baby were good, but I still view it as a well done made for TV movie that is only robbing more deserving films of nominations.

You're made for TV.

And I'm in for the predictions, although I'm not really sure what this contest is about. Must we guess the oscar NOMS or the oscar winners? If it's the winners, I'd rather wait till tomorrow to take a guess, eh?

 

[Memles]

At the very least, if Eternal Sunshine doesn't get nominated, Sideways most certainly will. And to be honest, both of those movies are absolutely superb anyway.

Sideways will be a guaranteed nomination, even if its a stretch to say it could win. It's the feelgood film of the year, and for its lighthearted qualities and strong reviewes it will get a definite nomination. It is one of the things standing in the way of Eternal Sunshine, that there is already a bit of a less traditional Oscar film in the category, pretty well guaranteed.

And, there are two categories where the nominees don't matter, at this point. Best Actor and Best Animated Film. Seriously, The Incredibles has won EVERY single critic's award, in every single city for the thing. It's a no-brainer.

 

[Amir0x]

You're made for TV.

And I'm in for the predictions, although I'm not really sure what this contest is about. Must we guess the oscar NOMS or the oscar winners? If it's the winners, I'd rather wait till tomorrow to take a guess, eh?

Hehe, we're guessing the winners. If you read the topic the nominations are getting announced tommorrow and then contest signups will begin at the main page. I'll be creating a GROUP on the page which everyone involved in this can join. From there you just modify your predictions for who will win and it'll be all good until the day comes.

 

[Foreign Jackass]

Even though the volume of great films was somewhat sparse, Eternal Sunshine and Sideways alone will make this a memorable year.

Agreed about these two movies, but I'll remember this movie year as the "Million Dollar Baby" year. I can't remember the last time I had this kind of experience in a movie theater (I'm excluding the huge number of older movies I've seen on DVDs). The movie is not for jaded people, probably, but what good movie is, really?

 

[distantmantra]

Agreed about these two movies, but I'll remember this movie year as the "Million Dollar Baby" year. I can't remember the last time I had this kind of experience in a movie theater (I'm excluding the huge number of older movies I've seen on DVDs). The movie is not for jaded people, probably, but what good movie is, really?

Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate Million Dollar Baby, I enjoyed it very much, I guess I just view it in the same way I did Mystic River. They both happened to receive loads of critical praise that I don't fully agree with.

 

[Foreign Jackass]

Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate Million Dollar Baby, I enjoyed it very much, I guess I just view it in the same way I did Mystic River. They both happened to receive loads of critical praise that I don't fully agree with.

I liked Mystic River very much, and so I thought it deserved much of the praise it had, and none of the backlashing it got. What I hate is that for both these movies, people rant about the improbability of things happening in those movies. These are STORIES, people. NOT YOUR OWN LIFE. OTHER FICTIONAL, INTERESTING LIVES. Reality TV has really fucked up the market, now people want boring real life stories. Shit, what's the fucking probability of Indiana Jones or Da Vinci code happening anytime soon, and yet, people love 'em! The "lack of realism" argument against Mystic River was so dumb I had trouble answering to it. I was like "well, go watch shitty biopics and good luck trying to believe the stuff in it is real, too!". Good god, weird stuff happens all the time in real life. Coincidences, undeserved punishment, etc. are all part of real life. Granted, Mystic River isn't the 'masterpiece' some people said it was. But M$B IS a masterpiece, in my opinion. Don't let jaded people get you out of this one.

 

[Duck of Death]

It's game time, I'm in bitches!

 

[Dan]

Count me in.

I'll also do up a list for the boards here that contain my personal picks, as my choices never coincide with what I think the idiot voting members will select in their lame hype-induced popularity contest mentality.

 

[corrupt-koopa]

ok i am in!

i am the biggest film geek ever.
I even prize up oscars on a betting site for people to bet money on!
so from next week you will find odds on this site www.unibet.com and those odds on it are done by me

 

[Mike Works]

 

[Memles]

:lol :lol

Not sure why I'm listed as competing, since I already said I was Canadian, but I'll predict and discuss for the hell of it.

Who the hell would want that ring, anyways? Pfft.

 

[IAmtheFMan]

Yeah, sure, I'll play.

 

[Foreign Jackass]

:lol :lol

Not sure why I'm listed as competing, since I already said I was Canadian, but I'll predict and discuss for the hell of it.

Who the hell would want that ring, anyways? Pfft.

Yeah, same here.

 

[XMonkey]

I'm really pulling for Eternal Sunshine to get nominated for Best Picture, I felt it was far and away the best movie i've seen all year.

 

[Liono]

I'll give it a shot.

 

[Amir0x]

Count me in.

I'll also do up a list for the boards here that contain my personal picks, as my choices never coincide with what I think the idiot voting members will select in their lame hype-induced popularity contest mentality.

I think I'll do something like this too since the Academy never picks what I want. Well, almost never. That ROTK sweep was mighty nice

Also, list updated (Memles, sorry for the mistake).

 

[sefskillz]

It's up and I'm game for the contest.

 

[Memles]

Surprises
- Mike Leigh for Vera Drake. Most expected one of the Best Picture Nominees to go without a Directing nod, but most expected someone else than Leigh to take the spot.
- Eastwood for Actor AND Director. Beat out Javier Bardem for the prize, very interesting choice. Eastwood didn't make it into the Globes.
- Lack of Incredibles for Score. Fuckers.
- Azkaban for Score. Love it.
- Polar Express, even with no Animation nod (Shark Tale? Idiots), gets more nominations than Shrek 2.

I'll be back later with my full, initial impressions. Go me and my Canadian citizenship.

 

[JasoNsider]

The nominations, as usual, have some really admirable choices and sad misses at the same time. Giamatti with no nomination, Eternal Sunshine sorely missing from Best Picture, and more. On the other side, we get Jamie Foxx's well-deserved nods for his amazing work and a nod to Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine.

For those who haven't seen many movies this year, I say go find a cinema that will be replaying Sideways as soon as you can. You might love it.

 

[Dan]

- Lack of Incredibles for Score. Fuckers.

Seriously, what the fuck. Giacchino's absence there is a travesty.

 

[Memles]

For those who haven't seen many movies this year, I say go find a cinema that will be replaying Sideways as soon as you can. You might love it.

Who needs a cinema?

 

[border]

Can someone explain why Before Sunset is Best Adapted Screenplay? The story doesn't come from a book or old movie or anything. It can't be just because it is a sequel, can it?

 

[Memles]

Can someone explain why Before Sunset is Best Adapted Screenplay? The story doesn't come from a book or old movie or anything. It can't be just because it is a sequel, can it?

I think maybe because Linklater and the other person not an actor wrote the story, but then the dialogue was all either adlibbed or written by the actors/director themselves.

 

[border]

Fahrenheit 9-11 got snubbed for the fat McDonald's eating guy and a cash-in Tupac documentary :lol Are they just trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug now that Kerry lost?

 

[Memles]

Fahrenheit 9-11 got snubbed for the fat McDonald's eating guy and a cash-in Tupac documentary :lol Are they just trying to sweep the whole thing under the rug now that Kerry lost?

This is becoming a pattern.

Moore didn't submit the film for Documentary, hoping for a Best Picture Nod, and to give others a chance to win an award...but the second one was just preemptive damage control for what actually happened.

 

[Amir0x]

Nominees:

And here's the details:

Go to the page linked to in the first post and create an account if you don't already have one. Once there..

Join the Group named: Torch the GAFers
The password is: fourna201

And then just start making your predictions. You can look around at other teammates predictions, etc...

Have fun

 

[border]

You are good at answering these questions

Now a third: Why the hell is Tupac: Resurrection even eligible in the first place? According to Box Office Mojo, it opened on November 14, 2003.....and left theaters on December 25, 2003. It wasn't even showing at all during the 2004 calendar year so why the hell is it nominated for Best 2004 Documentary? How is that fair to the other documentaries that were legitimately released in the past 12 months?

 

[Memles]

You are good at answering these questions

Now a third: Why the hell is Tupac: Resurrection even eligible in the first place? According to Box Office Mojo, it opened on November 14, 2003.....and left theaters on December 25, 2003. It wasn't even showing at all during the 2004 calendar year so why the hell is it nominated for Best 2004 Documentary? How is that fair to the other documentaries that were legitimately released in the past 12 months?

Tupac never dies, so his documentary is never ineligible.

When I go for THAT easy an answer, you know I have no clue.

 

[distantmantra]

I totally (and unfortunately) called the best picture nominations, woo.

I'm very happy to see Mike Leigh nominated for directing Vera Drake, it's a fantastic film. I am absolutely ecstatic that Before Sunset was nominated for best screenplay, I knew it wouldn't have a chance at best picture, but it's my best picture for 2004.

Paul Giamatti was robbed I tell you, Clint Eastwood took his place in the best actor category.

edit: Ok, I signed up and voted. I'm sure I'll lose, but it's still fun.

 

[Amir0x]

I totally (and unfortunately) called the best picture nominations, woo.

I'm very happy to see Mike Leigh nominated for directing Vera Drake, it's a fantastic film. I am absolutely ecstatic that Before Sunset was nominated for best screenplay, I knew it wouldn't have a chance at best picture, but it's my best picture for 2004.

Paul Giamatti was robbed I tell you, Clint Eastwood took his place in the best actor category.

edit: Ok, I signed up and voted. I'm sure I'll lose, but it's still fun.

Omg, you and me love Before Sunset almost the same amount!

Yeah, it's one of my top movies of the year. The film was getting overlooked by everyone

 

[LinesInTheSand]

Clint Eastwood for best actor baby! Hell yeah!

 

[distantmantra]

Omg, you and me love Before Sunset almost the same amount!

Yeah, it's one of my top movies of the year. The film was getting overlooked by everyone

Before Sunset is pure dialogue, and it requires you to have seen a relatively unknown film that is often thought of as Gen-X trash, it was destined to be overlooked.

 

[border]

Before Sunrise was pretty well-reviewed as well. I don't think the perception was that it was "Generation X trash"....maybe you are thinking of Singles or Reality Bites or Threesome.

Critics would be pretty familiar with the original, though I don't know about the Hollywood elite. Their memory doesn't seem to stretch very far beyond the last 6 months, if Oscar nominations are anything to go by.