Memo To The Academy (Part I)

If there's one thing I remember about Siskel and Ebert when they were in their prime, it was that they would take a film or a performance around the time the ballots for the Academy were given out to vote on who would be nominated and put special mention of notables that might have gotten overlooked and a few had resulted in being nominated and once or twice was well called when it came time for awards night.

Focusing on the main six categories as well as noting some potential locks to be nominated in what looks to be a big year (10 nominations for best picture, anything goes) here is a 3 part look at some locks and a notable or two for each of the big categories that would be great if the Academy acknowledged with a nomination come February 2nd:

Best Picture:

Locks: Avatar, The Hurt Locker and Inglorious Basterds

If there's one thing summer and the addition of five more nominees this year, sci-fi has had a place few times when it came to Best Picture and this year might have room for two in the ten big slots.

Potentials:

The adventures of the Starship Enterprise have not been well acknowledged being that the closest of any being for The Voyage Home to The Motion Picture of the Undiscovered Country. But adding those numbers up and coming up with the number 11, its time for, technically speaking, the 11th Star Trek film but with that new feel and an appeal that attracted practically everybody to possibly give these big end of the year releases a run for their money.

J.J. Abrams did the unthinkable. Take a dying franchise and give it the ultimate defibrulation that not only brought it back to life but had it running, jumping and hanging on by the edge of the seat throughout its entire thrill ride without losing touch with the audience.

Who knows? Being nominated for Best Picture under these circumstances might be the highly logical thing to do.



Duncan Jones' directorial debut shows that less is more and gives Sam Rockwell a showcase that is one to see that gives his best performance in a feature film so far. Think of it as Further Up In The Air and Beyond but much better than Up In The Air. The story is simple, the visuals and sets are striking and proof, like a previous nominee many years ago in Francis Ford Coppola's The Conversation, that you can tell so much with so little and on second viewing it remains a solid piece of filmmaking that I suspect won't be nominated for a thing (should be up for Original Screenplay) but one that shouldn't be ignored either.

Best Director:

Locks: James Cameron (Avatar), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds)

Potential:


Say what you want but all genres got their fair share of boost whether it came to The Hangover for comedies or Paranormal Activity in a low key horror movie but one that seemed to shower over was animation and this year had three strong contenders that displayed the best hand drawn, computer and stop motion, and even though Up might be the more hopeful for best picture, nothing showed hard work than the stop motion job done by Fantastic Mr. Fox's Wes Anderson.

As with its combination of humor for both adults and young adults to appreciate, it was the fine camerawork throughout all the set pieces whether it was the closeups or the way characters were introduced like our main character in the beginning relaxing with his cool near a tree ready for his next act of mischief or when a beloved cousin comes with just the movement of 2 arms at a distance with the showing of the tag, all of these little touches and a great flow that didn't slow down from one moment to the next.

It's a long shot but a year where in a far distance of a few forests, the world of the fantastic deserves to be acknoledged in the Academy's direction.

In the next part, we lead you down the path of the leaders in the acting field with Best Actor and Actress locks and hopefuls as Memo To the Academy continues.

Hats off when the lights come down!