Oscar Party at Gorilla
With this week’s nominations, Oscar season is officially upon us. Not sure if you saw the telecast of the Oscar Nominations or not but it’s worth watching if you’ve never seen it. And you only need to view one of these ceremonies once because it’s the same every year. Before the telecast, Oscar and his buddies call up two people: an attractive, not going to be nominated this year actress (in this case Anne Hathaway) and an older, “who the heck is this guy” Academy President (in this case Tom Sherak). They smile at hundreds of journalists, blink at their flashing cameras, and read off nominations in an every-other format. Now, they don’t go through all the nominations. And thank goodness! Do the interested parties really care about best achievements in sound mixing? I’ll answer for everyone except our good friends at Sound Post USA…no, we don’t, but we do care that they highlight the big ones (best actor/actress, screenplay, director, best picture, etc).
This year saw some happy nominees! Like Jeremy Renner for Best Actor in “The Hurt Locker” and Gabourey Sidibe for Best Actress in “Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire” (if there was a worst title nominee this would win). It was good to see Carey Mulligan get nominated for “An Education” and Nick Hornby for the adapted screenplay. And I was on pins and needles to see if “Miracle Fish” would get nominated for Best Live Action Short Film! It did!
But regarding the best picture nominations, you may or may not know, faithful reader, that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences decided to expand their viewership base by nominating ten (10) films this year. The thought with this was that they would be able to appease box-office darlings and the audiences who went and saw them. It’s in this format that we were hoping to see the nominations of films like “The Hangover” or “Star Trek” — but they were not to be found! And though nice to see a couple of smaller films given a nod (i.e. “A Serious Man” and “An Education”), it was a bit knee shaking to see “The Blind Side” and “District 9” included on the list of Best Picture nominees. We’re not trying to be haters. One of Gorilla’s finest looking employees (you can guess at who that may be) saw “The Blind Side” and enjoyed it for what it was. But Best Picture? If you do watch the Oscar Noms video, pay special attention to the reaction when they announce “The Blind Side” as a best picture nomination. People love the “little movie” that could. And say what you want about “District 9” but it is not as impressive a movie as “Star Trek.” It’s just not. This is not debatable. Eric Johnson and Caleb Slain have threatened to boycott when they heard that one of the years best films and performances was admittedly snubbed (Sam Rockwell in Moon), but I’m sure they’ll show up just to boo.
Winning an Oscar is considered by many to be the highest glory in film, animation and video production. And as it is, Michigan film production companies are not often invited to the soiree — so what do we do? We create our own high-fiving good time! So, to celebrate, Gorilla Pictures is throwing an Oscar Party at their Grand Rapids offices on the night of its broadcast, Sunday March 7! It’s a bring your own beverage sort of thing, and you are encouraged toshow up at least 15 minutes before hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin take stage, because we will all be competing by guessing and filling out empty ballots. Whoever compiles the most correct guesses is the winner! So brush up on your Short Film Animation knowledge, ladies and gentleman, because that one point could be all the difference between you going home with a Door Prize or going home with a sad face. More will be posted about the Gorilla Oscar Party soon!
http://oscar.go.com/
