British actress Kate Winslet will remember the year 2009 all her life. First, because she won her maiden Oscar this year for The Reader, and second, she was more talked about this year than ever before, and had gathered something of an informal lobby of supporters who wanted her Oscar dry-spell to end.
Statistics can explain the wonderment that most felt at Kate Winslet being Oscar-less thus far.
At age 33, she is the youngest actress to have six Oscar nominations. In fact, she has even defeated veteran Sean Penn, who has only five nominations.
Meryl Streep holds the record for most oscar nominations at 15 (the way she understands it, she also holds the record for losing most often). After Streep is Katherine Hepburn with 12 nominations.
Winslet stands alongside Thelma Ritter and Deborah Kerr with six nominations and what is worth noting, at a much younger age.
Somehow, Winslet had been denied an Oscar thus far, despite all in the industry claiming that she is easily among the finest actresses of her generations. Some commentators went as far to say that she is the Meryl Streep of her generation.
During her emotional acceptance speech, Winslet mentioned all her fellow nominees and paid a special tribute to Meryl Streep by saying, “I want to acknowledge my fellow nominees, these goddesses. I think we all can’t believe we are in the same category as Meryl Streep at all. I’m sorry Meryl but you have to just suck that up.”
A document listing the Oscar winners in each category leaked on the internet is a fraud, says an Oscar spokesperson. “The document is a complete fraud,” said Oscar spokeswoman Leslie Unger.
The list first appeared on the international blog site ‘Cinematical’ and it was believed to be authentic as it had the signature of Sid Ganis, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’, according to reports.
The document stated that the ceremony, scheduled for Sunday, will see Mickey Rourke (Best Actor), Kate Winslet (Best Actress), Heath Ledger (Best Supporting Actor) and Amy Adams (Best Supporting Actress) as the winners.
The paper also shows that British filmmaker Danny Boyle will be handed the best director award trophy, and his film Slumdog Millionaire will be named best picture.
However, the Academy has dismissed the list as nothing more than a hoax and insisted the votes are still being counted.
“PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is still counting the ballots and there are only two people there who will know the complete list of winners in advance of the envelopes being opened during the ceremony. The Academy’s president is not advised of the winners in advance and no such list is created,” said Unger.
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BAFTA List
February 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Film: Slumdog Millionaire
British Film: Man on Wire
Actor: Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Christina Barcelona
Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
First-time Director: Steve McQueen, Hunger
Rising Star: Noel Clarke
Original Screenplay: Martin McDonagh, In Bruges Adapted
Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
Film Not in the English Language: I’ve Loved You So Long
Music: A R Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
Cinematography: Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire
Editing: Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire
Production Design: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Costume Design: The Duchess Sound: Slumdog Millionaire
Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Makeup and Hair: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Animated Feature: WALL-E
Short Animation: Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf andDeath
Short Film: September
Academy Fellowship: Terry Gilliam
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Oscar contender Slumdog Millionaire to gross about Rs 300 million
February 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Oscar contender Slumdog Millionaire, which has received global critical acclaim and become a worldwide box-office success, has raked in Rs 215 million since its Jan 23 release in India and is expected to gross about Rs 300 million. “We expect Slumdog Millionaire to make about Rs 300 million in India. Considering the fact that it is not one of the formula films, its box-office performance in India so far is really gratifying. Frankly, it was beyond our expectations,” said Vijay Singh, CEO of Fox Star Studios that brought the film to India. The money made by the film in India is nearly four percent of its worldwide collection of Rs.5.30 billion. Fox Star has released both the English and Hindi versions of Slumdog Millionaire in India. Expectedly, the Hindi version, Slumdog Crorepati has fared better at the box-office, contributing 30 per cent more to the distributor’s kitty. “The Hindi version is doing better business in the smaller centres. In fact, we had to increase the number of prints of the Hindi version in the second week of its run following the public demand in those centres,” Singh said. Slumdog Millionare opened with Rs 135 million overall and its per print earnings in second week stood at Rs 592,000 in an average, which is excellent for a film of its genre when taken into account that as many 363 prints of the film were in circulation in the second week of its run in India. Although the number of prints has been reduced to 350 in the third week, according to Singh, multiplexes in some cities have increased the number of shows to cater to the demand. The heart-warming story of a poor boy from the slums of Mumbai who goes on to win the Indian version of TV game show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire has won top prizes from the Directors Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild and Producers Guild of America, as also the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards. The film by British Director Danny Boyle is also leading in the Oscar race with 10 nominations.
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Free Directories
February 3, 2009 · Leave a Comment
The IPL has announced an exhaustive list of 111 overseas players who will be considered for the second auction in Goa on February 6. Not surprisingly, Australians dominate the list (27) while the big difference from last year’s edition is the addition of 21 England players.
Each franchise has a free directories maximum of US$2m to spend on their overseas signings in the auction, which gets underway on February 6, and it is likely that only about 16 players – or two per franchise – will be chosen out of the 112.
The England players will be available for a three-week window in the tournament for the next two years, with Kevin Pietersen the star attraction. Pietersen has a base price of US$ 1.3 million, and it is expected that he could be the highest paid player. Veterans like Dominic Cork and Darren Gough also figure in the list.
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