Theeb (2014)

1 Nomination, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film - Jordan

David Mackenzie’s exceptional Hell or High Water has received a great deal of praise for revitalizing the western, but with all due respect to this worthy entry into the genre’s pantheon, the film was a just a little late to earn this distinction. Naji Abu Nowar’s Theeb is in some ways an unconventional western, replacing the American Southwest with the Wadi Rum and Stetsons with head scarves, but in all of the ways that count it is very much in the tradition of the best of the genre. More importantly, it is a beautiful and thrilling film with elegant performances and keen direction.

The film centers on young Theeb (Jacir Did Al-Hwietat), a Bedouin child recently orphaned who finds himself alone in the Wadi Rum during World War I. Theeb is forced to partner reluctantly with his enemy in order to survive as the aftereffects of the Great Arab Revolt surround them.  

All of the conventions of the western genre are here - some in perhaps slightly altered forms - yet in the context of the story and location these conventions feel entirely new. The remarkable cast is made up almost exclusively of non-professional actors, and Naji Abu Nowar hit the jackpot in finding his star, a young man with a strong presence and deeply soulful eyes who gives an honest and compelling performance. He is surrounded by an equally talented cast, and the performance of these untrained individuals speaks to the director’s talents.

Of course, any film set in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I and filmed in Jordan lives in the shadow of Lawrence of Arabia. Theeb can be thought of as a worthy companion piece, but it also very much stands on its own. In recent years several talented filmmakers have attempted to reenergize the western with great films (see True Grit, 3:10 to Yuma, Django Unchained, et. al.), but after watching Theeb, I’ve never been more confident that the future of the western is in good hands.

Stutterer (2015)

1 Nomination, 1 Win

Win: Best Short Film, Live Action - Benjamin Cleary and Serena Armitage

Watching the nominees for Best Short Film, Live Action in any given year can be a relatively traumatic experience; of the five nominated films, three or four can be counted on to be gut punches of emotion, trying to outdo each other in what horrors they can foist upon the characters. This year's nominees were no exception to this rule, with themes of childbirth in a warzone, the death of a child in another warzone, and the abduction of a child. Between viewing each of these films, I was relieved by the relatively lighthearted "Ave Maria," but was especially grateful for the lovely film "Stutterer" for bringing a sincerity and sweetness not found in any of the other nominated films.

Starring the soulful Matthew Needham, "Stutterer" depicts Greenwood, a young man with the titular speech impediment battling his insecurities to find love.  The plot is simple and the lead performance understated, but director Benjamin Cleary introduces emotional and technical complexity in his contrast between the silence of what is depicted and the voiceover of Greenwood's thoughts.

On a personal note, as someone who has battled speech impediments for my entire life, I am used to seeing impediments depicted in a comical and mocking manner on screen.  Cleary represents Greenwood's impediment with dignity and respect, neither minimizing the challenges it presents nor mining it for humor or sympathy.

"Stutterer" is a sweet, deceptively simple film that quietly and confidently builds a strong central character through equal parts expertly written voiceover and a lovely collaboration between director and performer.

Chau, Beyond the Lines (2015)

1 Nomination, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Documentary, Short Subject - Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck

Watch Chau, Beyond the Lines on Netflix

In addition to the 24 competitive categories currently recognized by the Academy at the Oscars ceremony, over the past several years there has become an unofficial 25th category, that of "Most Difficult Shoot."  This past year, The Revenant's awards campaign focused on the difficult conditions faced by the filmmakers as much as it did on the film's artistic merit.  Last year, we heard about the longstanding 12-year dedication of the cast and crew of Boyhood, and the year before that we heard about the hours Sandra Bullock endured in a harness for the filming of Gravity.

No disrespect intended toward The Revenant, but my vote for the Most Difficult Shoot Oscar goes to Courtney Marsh and Jerry Franck for their moving and well crafted documentary short Chau, Beyond the Lines.  Director Courtney Marsh told The Moveable Feast that what was initially intended to be a 24-hour shoot during a trip to Vietnam instead became an eight-year project by a first-time filmmaker working in a country whose language she did not speak and telling a story that didn't reveal itself until years after the project commenced.

It is a testament to Ms. Marsh's nascent talents that, even as she was still learning the rudiments of her craft, she was able to create such a compelling and satisfying documentary as Chau, Beyond the Lines.

The film follows the transition of Chau - a Vietnamese teenager disabled by the effects of the use of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War - from his teenage years living in a Ho Chi Minh City care center through his transition to adulthood and independence.  Initially the film focuses on Chau's disability, an unsatisfying decision as Chau is not prone to reflecting upon his disability.  He is singularly focused on twin goals of independence and pursuing a career as an artist.  Ms. Marsh showed remarkable dexterity in adapting the focus of the film, shedding the initial themes and instead focusing on Chau's artistic ambitions.

Chau, Beyond the Lines doesn't look deeply into Chau's art, and does not question - nor does it ask the viewer to question - whether Chau's art is in any way remarkable.  The film's narrative carefully focuses on Chau, never falling into the easy trap of diving into tangential subjects like a wider look at Agent Orange, the art world's response to Chau, or any number of possibilities that are all too common for documentaries.  This singular focus is what makes the film special.

For a population that is all too often made silent, Chau, Beyond the Lines gives Chau the forum to speak entirely for himself.

Salvador (1986)

2 Nominations, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Actor in a Leading Role - James Woods
Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen - Oliver Stone and Rick Boyle

It has been 24 years since the peace accords were signed that brought a cease-fire to the Salvadoran Civil War, and 30 years since Oliver Stone's Salvador was released in theaters.  In that time, as El Salvador has faded from international headlines and back into relative obscurity, Stone's film has largely experienced the same fate.  While some political thrillers transcend the events that they depict and find their own relevance outside of their times, Salvador is grounded in the Salvadoran Civil War to such a degree that it was likely destined to be forgotten once time passed.

This is a shame; while not transcending its circumstances, Salvador is not limited by them.  Salvador is not a film with great character development or tense plotting, and much of the film is polemical rather than narrative in tone.  James Woods brings a manic intensity to the role that adds nuance to his brashness, anchoring both the character and the film itself.  He was never going to win the trophy over Paul Newman in The Color of Money, but it's an aggressive, bold performance well worthy of its nomination.

Oliver Stone's collaboration with Rick Boyle on the screenplay was equally worthy of its nomination (it also had little chance to win an Oscar, facing off against Woody Allen for Hannah and Her Sisters (interestingly, Stone was also competing against his own screenplay of Platoon)).  The film is about the Salvadoran Civil War, and the characters mostly exist as windows into the conflict rather than full individuals.  Yet the dialogue is so passionate and the pace is so focused that it still feels alive and important.

Ultimately, where Salvador succeeds is Oliver Stone's relentless focus on showing the horrors of the conflict.  The violence is raw, but never sensationalized, and the senselessness of the violence is on full exhibit.  The film takes a strong point of view, and Stone backs up this decision through his expert storytelling.  There are few examples of a film as focused and meaningful in Stone's oeuvre.

Richard III (1995)

2 Nominations, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Art Direction, Set Decoration - Tony Burrough
Nomination: Best Costume Design - Shuna Harwood

There's nothing rare about a William Shakespeare play adapted into another time period on film, whether in original Shakespearean English (as in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet or Kenneth Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost) or in a looser sense (as in 10 Things I Hate About You or Kiss Me Kate).  What is rare, however, is for an adaptation to to be done with as much intelligence, style, and verve as Richard III.

Directed by Richard Loncraine from a screenplay he co-authored with the film's star Ian McKellen, Richard III is made by people with both a sincere understanding and a deep affinity for the Bard's work.  The production finds the perfect balance of maintaining faithfulness to the original text while introducing a modern and compelling reimagination.  Richard III is as faithful to the original as is possible without being too dependent on what has come before.  Richard III is alive in the present without killing its own past.

Ian McKellen is magnificent in his portrayal as King Richard as only a performer of his caliber who has spent his life interpreting the works of Shakespeare can be.  There is no struggle to wrench meaning out of each word nor to prove he is up to the task of taking on the role.  McKellen had portrayed Richard on stage in 1990 and 1992 just a few years prior, and his experience and deep familiarity with the role allow him to practically exude glee as he tears through the film.  This could have easily been an Academy Award winning performance, and it is only because the class of Best Actor nominees at the Oscars was one of the stronger groupings of the 1990s that prevents his omission from even a nomination from being a complete travesty.

Annette Bening is adequate in the role of Queen Elizabeth, widow to Richard's brother Edward IV, while Robert Downey, Jr. and Kristin Scott Thomas are both solid but ordinary in portraying Lord Rivers and Lady Anne, respectively.  The rest of the supporting cast is terrific, representing some of the best British characters actors of the 90s: Jim Broadbent, Maggie Smith, Nigel Hawthorne, John Wood, Jim Carter, and many others.  It comes as no surprise that, with the exceptions of the late Nigel Hawthorne and John Wood, each continues to astound as among the best of their generations.

There was no way for the Academy to ignore the costume design of Shuna Harwood or the set decoration of Tony Burrough, and both received well-deserved nominations for their creativity in portraying 1930s Britain through an imagined fascist lens.  Both were bested by Michael Hoffman's Restoration, proving the truism that there's nothing the Academy likes better than recognizing the visuals behind a British period piece.

When it comes to adapting a work of William Shakespeare to the modern (or nearly modern) day, Richard Loncraine's Richard III is the model for all others to follow.

The Wind Rises (2013)

1 Nomination, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Animated Feature Film - Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki

In many ways, The Wind Rises's adult-oriented, historically based storyline is a departure for Hayao Miyazaki, but in other ways it is the natural culmination of the legendary director's career.  Though missing the fantastical elements of his previous output, the film brings the same childhood wonder and mystery from Miyazaki's world of imagination to a world more grounded in reality.

Hayao Miyazaki was born to Katsuji Miyazaki, an aeronautical engineer and the director of Miyazaki Airplane, a company that supplied rudders and other parts to Japanese fighter planers used in World War II.  It is not hard to see why Miyazaki was attracted to telling the story of Jiro Horikoshi, the primary engineer behind many of the airplanes used by Japan in the war, including the A6M Zero that Katsuji Miyazaki's rudders supplied.

Speculative psychology aside, what Miyazaki has put on film is a love letter to human flight, expertly balancing dramatically beautiful flight sequences with quieter moments of human drama.  Like all of Miyazaki's films, it is simple enough for children to love and complicated in its simplicity enough for adults to love.

The animation is beautiful, the American voice cast is well selected - particularly Joseph Gordon-Levitt in the lead role - and the story is told briskly and thoughtfully.

While the master is enjoying a well-deserved retirement from filmmaking, I selfishly hope the 75-year-old genius still has another film or two in him.  If not, The Wind Rises is a wonderful coda to his career.

   

Magnificent Obsession (1954)

1 Nomination, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Actress in a Leading Role - Jane Wyman

Every genre has a filmmaker or two who dominates all discussion of the genre, not by subverting or reimagining it, but by fully engaging in its conventions while introducing a previously unmatched level of artistry.  Like John Ford with the western or Vincente Minnelli with the musical, Douglas Sirk is the undisputed master of the female melodrama.  Though largely dismissed in his own time, the reevaluation of Sirk began in the 1970s with Cahiers du Cinema and the French New Wave and hit its crescendo in the early 2000s with Todd Haynes's majestic love letter Far From Heaven.  As Haynes continues to demonstrate Sirk's influence in his growing filmography, it is clear that Sirk's influence grows as well.

Magnificent Obsession began filming within days of the release of The Robe, a Biblical epic adapted from the novel by Lloyd C. Douglas that became a huge hit for 20th Century Fox.  Douglas's first novel, Magnificent Obsession - previously adapted in 1935 starring Irene Dunne and Robert Taylor - had sold nearly two million copies (according to the Chicago Tribune), and Universal saw potential taking another pass at the tearjerker.  They gave the assignment to their director Douglas Sirk, who had just wrapped production on Taza, Son of Cochise, a largely forgotten 3-D western starring Rock Hudson.  Though Taza did not exactly suggest a pedigree suited to Magnificent Obsession, Sirk, who had already built an extensive filmography at this point, had directed All I Desire immediately prior to Taza, a melodrama with many of the motifs that would become Sirk trademarks.  Magnificent Obsession began a run of several films for Sirk that firmly established his legacy, culminating in 1959 with Imitation of Life, Sirk's most admired film (and also his last).

It is impossible to deny Sirk's abilities as a director, and though Magnificent Obsession does not yet demonstrate the level of visual beauty he would offer in his later films, he loads frames with deep, rich colors and textures.  Performers never looked better than they did in front of Sirk's cameras, and co-stars Rock Hudson and Jane Wyman both practically glow in his frames.

The plot of the film is thin, and the character development is thinner.  In preparing for her performance, Jane Wyman claimed (to Hedda Hopper) to have gone to lengths that were unusual for the time, including speaking with an adult who had lost her vision.  Her performance is capable if uninspired, but it is not surprising that what might nowadays be characterized as Oscar bait resulted in an Academy Award nomination.  Hudson, who for reasons I cannot comprehend was Sirk's muse, is at his best when working with Sirk, though he still manages to bring little more to the role than any capable actor would bring.

Despite his visual gifts, I remain unconvinced of Sirk's genius in other aspects of filmmaking.  Magnificent Obsession is little more than the 1950s version of a Nicholas Sparks adaptation, and the visual beauty cannot make up for average performances and an emotionally insipid story.

The Judge (2014)

1 Nomination, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Actor in a Supporting Role - Robert Duvall

Photo Courtesy of Warner Bros.

Portraying difficult, overbearing fathers is right in Robert Duvall's wheelhouse, just as playing cocky and charming jerks with underlying hearts of gold is what Robert Downey, Jr. was born to do.  When you partner two of the best actors of their respective generations in roles perfectly suited for them with strong chemistry between the two performers, you have the recipe for a winning film.  The most important remaining ingredient is a strong script; unfortunately, this ingredient is - while not missing - certainly not at the level needed to match the talents of those bringing it to life.

Many have described The Judge as Oscar bait, and it's not hard to see why.  Both leads had the type of showy roles that tend to attract the notice of the Academy, with Duvall in a particularly strong position to gain a nomination.  The Academy loves nominating aging legends in the Supporting Actor category, and Duvall playing a dying older man accused of a crime certainly fits the bill.  But his performance is much more than a mere attempt to win his second Academy Award (he previously won for 1983's Tender Mercies).  Duvall is known for an actor especially adept at the loud, showy moments, and he has a few of these on display here.  But what often fails to get noticed is Duvall's absolute genius for holding back, for showing the briefest beginning of a big moment before repressing it.  We are almost certain we know what he is thinking, but we are never sure.  Duvall has never abandoned this tendency, and it is what has allowed him to continue to turn in some of his best work at an age at which most actors are trading in on their personas.

The Judge tries to be several kinds of film, and succeeds perhaps 80% in each of these efforts.  It has elements of a strong family drama weighed down by too many superfluous plot threads (adultery, a developmental disorder), a murder mystery that succeeds in ambiguity but failed in making me care about what actually happened, a sympathetic and unflinching look at aging that abandons the subject just as it hits its bravest moment, and a story of a fish-out-of-water in one's hometown whose fish acclimates all too quickly to create much drama.  There's a strong storyline in there somewhere deep down, but there are too many digressions and false starts to sustain any momentum in the telling.

But there is a benefit to all of these extraneous themes, and that is the multiple showcases it gives to a cast of gifted actors.  Aside from the headliners, Vera Farmiga adds some verve to the usually uninspiring role of the first love who stayed behind, Vincent D'Onofrio gives his best non-television performance in years, Jeremy Strong wisely underplays a role that is unnecessary but saved through Strong's performance, and Billy Bob Thornton - the new king of cameos - is one of the only actors who could be credibly cast as a lawyer capable of going toe-to-toe with Downey.

Adult melodramas like The Judge were common in the 1990s, but have all but disappeared in recent years as studios have marshaled their resources more and more toward potential tent-pole films.  The best of these films were almost always the result of a singular filmmaker's vision.  The Judge demonstrates all of the indicators of a story with multiple visions told by committee with no single person at the helm, and indeed the script was handed off to multiple screenwriters before director David Dobkin took the final pass.  Ultimately, the film falls short due to a lack of cohesiveness, and though this is partly covered by strong performances all around, it results in a film that feels bloated and confused.

On a related note, I am quite proud of myself for avoiding any review cliches related to "judgment."

Ida (2013)

2 Nominations, Wins TBD

Nomination: Best Foreign Language Film of the Year - Pawel Pawlikowski
Nomination: Best Achievement in Cinematography - Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski

Compared to the lush, showy cinematography of its fellow nominees (Birdman, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Mr. Turner, and Unbroken), it's not immediately clear why Ida was nominated in the category.  The film's stark black-and-white cinematography is far from the visual wonderland that is The Grand Budapest Hotel.  Yet the film's seeming visual simplicity belies a depth that is remarkable, much as the film's simple plot belies a depth of character and emotion that makes it one of the very best films of the year.

Ida reminded me a great deal of The White Ribbon, the Michael Haneke film from a few years ago that was also nominated in the foreign language and cinematography categories.  Both films were nominated not in spite of but because of their deceptively simple black-and-white cinematography.  Lukasz Zal and Ryszard Lenczewski's black-and-white cinematography is as beautiful as I've ever seen.  The pair don't rely on shadows to create visual interest, a common strategy with black-and-white films, but instead create stunning depth of field and beautifully simple lighting.

Most noticeably, the camerawork makes star Agata Trzebuchowska literally glow, with her eyes as big as dinner plates.  Trzebuchowska turns in a terrific understated performance, but it's hard to overstate how much the cinematography enhances her performance.  Trzebuchowska emotes with the only slightest of facial movements, so small that they would be lost in most cinematographers' gazes. Aside from the sheer beauty of the cinematography, it is absolutely essential to conveying the emotions of the lead, and thus the film is unimaginable without it.

Everything about Ida is understated, from the quiet performances to the simple story.  There is no single thing about the film that makes it great; it is truly larger than the sum of its parts.  Ida is a truly lovely film, and will stay with me far longer than many of the films that attempted to make a bigger and more lasting statement.

The 5 Biggest Surprises of the Oscar Nominations

Most who watch the Oscars find their greatest pleasure in judging the outfits worn by the stars, grading the monologue, or joking about the length of the ceremony.  I've always found my greatest pleasure in decrying the snubs and questionable nominations by the Academy.  I was not disappointed this year, as the Academy made several moves that I (nor most others) did not expect. 

Here are the five biggest surprises of this morning's Oscar nominations.

1. Bradley Cooper's Best Actor Nomination
Steve Carell, Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Keaton, and Eddie Redmayne were virtual locks for nominations, with only the fifth spot up for grabs.  Conventional wisdom had the fifth nomination going to Jake Gyllenhaal, who was nominated for his role in Nightcrawler by both the Screen Actors Guild and the Golden Globes, or Timothy Spall for his work in Mr. Turner.  If not one of these two, most Oscar watchers would have guessed David Oyelowo might be able to sneak in for his portrayal of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Cooper was barely talked about, yet he managed to sneak in his third consecutive acting nomination, in addition to an additional nomination for producing American Sniper.

2.  The LEGO Movie shut out from Best Animated Feature Film
The LEGO Movie has a 96% Tomatometer score at Rotten Tomatoes and grossed more than $250 million, and was seen by many as the clear favorite to take home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film.  Yet the film failed to receive even a nomination in the category, receiving its sole nomination in the Best Song category.  Two little known films received nominations instead (Song of the Sea and The Tale of Princess Kaguya), common practice for the Academy, but virtually no one saw The LEGO Movie getting shut out.

3. Amy Adams and Jennifer Aniston left out
After her win in the Musical or Comedy category at the Golden Globes for her role in Big Eyes, Adams's hope for her first Oscar were revived.  After the Screen Actors Guild left her off of the ballot in favor of Jennifer Aniston for her work in Cake, her nomination chances were far less certain, but it seemed that one of the two would battle for the nomination.  Instead, both were left off the ballot in favor of Marion Cotillard.  Notably, none of the Golden Globe Musical or Comedy actress nominees were nominated for Oscars, and only Michael Keaton of the Musical or Comedy actor nominees earned an Oscar nod.

4. Whiplash's Big Day
J.K. Simmons is the favorite for the Oscar in the Best Supporting Actor category, but it seemed unlikely that Whiplash would get other attention from the Academy.  Instead, the film received five nominations, including the Big Kahuna nomination for Best Picture.  The film has taken home just over $6 million, but this attention from the Academy should help it find a much larger audience.

5. Gillian Flynn Shut Out
Gillian Flynn's adaptation of her own novel Gone Girl was much lauded, with her smart pruning adding suspense to the already impossibly suspenseful story.  The film had the potential to be nominated for its screenplay, cinematography, and leading lady, but only Rosamund Pike was nominated for her star making performance.  The Imitation Game was a lock for a nomination after receiving nominations from the Golden Globes and the Writers Guild Awards, and The Theory of Everything seemed to be a likely candidate as well.  Whiplash was nominated by the WGA in the Original Screenplay category, so its nomination wasn't a huge surprise, and American Sniper seemed like a possibility after its WGA nomination.  Few saw Paul Thomas Anderson having much of a chance for Inherent Vice, especially after it failed to be nominated for either a Golden Globe or a WGA Award (Gone Girl was nominated for both films).  Yet Anderson heard his name called and Flynn did not, much to the dismay of the book's legion of fans.

And the least surprising nomination...

Roger Deakins for Best Cinematography for Unbroken
This is his 12th nomination and third in three years, and it's getting to the point where it's hard to imagine an Oscar ceremony without a Roger Deakins nomination.  Perhaps our greatest living cinematographer, Deakins has yet to take home an Oscar, and it seems unlikely that this will be his year. 

Contending With Variety's Best Documentary Feature Contenders

We are still two months away from the announcement of the 87th Academy Award nominations and three months away from the ceremony itself, but Variety is already weighing in on one of the least closely followed but always fascinating categories, Best Documentary Feature.  The industry paper lists 18 films contending for a nomination, ranging from the usual Best Documentary fare (Middle East relations and health care exposes) to far more unusual - and perhaps unlikely - selections.

While several of these choices appear to be strong contenders for a nomination, others seem unlikely.  I have only seen a few of these selections, but based on the Academy's recent history of nominees, I would like to take a quick look at the chances of each of Variety's selections to receive a Best Documentary Feature nomination.

Merchants of Doubt

Merchants of Doubt was the first film listed, and it is not hard to see why. The film is directed by Robert Kenner, who received his first career nomination a few years ago for Food, Inc. after a long career of filming television documentaries.  The film is inspired by the book of the same title by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway, and focuses on professional deniers: those whose job it is to deny the effects of climate change in order to slow attempts to address it.  Environmentally focused documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth and The Cove have taken home Academy Awards in recent years, and Inside Job, which focuses on corruption of policy by interest groups, also won the Oscar.  Merchants of Doubt isn't a shoo-in, but it has all of the ingredients of a Best Documentary Feature favorite.

Nas: Time Is Illmatic

It's unlikely that Academy voters (median age: 62) hold the the Nas album Illmatic with the same reverence as do hip hop fans, but we should be careful before we write off the chances of the Academy recognizing hip hop.  The Academy awarded Oscars to Eminem and Three 6 Mafia and also nominated M.I.A. (Pharrell also received an Oscar nomination, but it was for the decidedly un-hip hop "Happy").  Most significantly for Nas: Time Is Illmatic's chances, Tupac: Resurrection was nominated for Best Documentary Feature, paving the way for a hip hop documentary to receive a nomination.  However, Tupac was much more well known than Nas, and his untimely death more dramatic than the story of the creation of an album.  Still, with music-centered documentaries like Searching for Sugar Man and 20 Feet From Stardom recently gaining favor with the Academy, this doc has a chance.

The Salt of the Earth

Director Wim Wenders is a favorite of the documentarians branch, having been nominated twice before in this category (for Buena Vista Social Club and Pina).  The Salt of the Earth is a profile of photographer Sebastiao Salgado, co-directed with Salgado's son Juan Ribierto Salgado.  This doesn't seem like the type of subject matter that makes the Academy jump up and down, but Wenders's track record means that he should be taken seriously in prognosticating this category.

Life Itself

When I first saw Life Itself in August, I declared it a shoo-in for a nomination, and my opinion hasn't changed at all.  Roger Ebert, the film's subject, was a beloved figure in the film industry, beloved even by those whose films he criticized.  The film is a lovely retrospective of Ebert's life and career, but the scenes of he and his wife Chaz living through his illnesses are touching and beautifully rendered.  This film should be catnip to Academy voters, but is also entirely deserving of a nomination.

Finding Vivian Maier

Finding Vivian Maier has done well at some of the more progressive film festivals, but a documentary about a street photographer is unlikely to receive a nomination.  The film's chances are further hurt by the presence of The Salt of the Earth; the Academy is unlikely to nominate two films that profile photographers, and if they are to choose one they will almost certainly go with Wim Wenders.

Dancing in Jaffa

Along with Life Itself, this is one of the two films I am most confident in predicting a nomination.  The Academy famously loves to award trophies to films about Middle East relations, and this is the rare feel-good documentary on the subject, telling the story of Jaffa schoolchildren - both Israeli and Palestinian - finding commonality and fraternity in dance lessons.  It's hard to imagine this one getting left out.

Plot for Peace

This is a tough one to call.  Plot for Peace looks at Jean-Yves Ollivie, a South African diplomat who brokered many significant peace deals.  Any film about South Africa in the 1980's should get the Academy's attention, though Ollivie is a little known figure in the United States and thus this film could be forgotten.  After years of mostly irrelevancy at the Oscars, South Africa was nominated at the 77th Academy Awards for Zulu and won the Oscar the following year for the wonderful Tsotsi and garnered all kinds of attention for District 9.  This South African-produced film would also follow in the footsteps of Searching for Sugar Man, which, although not a South African film per se, prominently featured Cape Town.  This film has an uphill climb, but festival audiences have loved it.  If enough nominators see Plot for Peace, it could grab a nomination.

Fed Up
With Food, Inc. receiving a nomination a few years ago, Fed Up has to be taken seriously as a contender.  The film looks at the obesity crisis and the processed food industry, and if you believe the stereotype of Hollywood as a land of kale-chomping vegans, Fed Up would seem a natural fit.  Yet with constant news stories about the obesity crisis, it would take a unique viewpoint or an exceptionally well made film to get the attention of the Academy.  I haven't seen the film and thus can't say if Fed Up achieves this, but it would take a great film on this subject for a real possibility of a nomination.

Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me
Elaine Stritch is a beloved figure in the entertainment community, and this film is said to be a great telling of her life.  Still, the story just doesn't have enough emotional weight, outrage, or uplift to be much of a contender.

Tales of the Grim Sleeper
Tales of the Grim Sleeper has HBO Documentary Films behind it, and thus has a great chance of receiving a nomination.  It's a dark story that touches on many subjects that Academy voters love, and from everything I have heard it is a terrific film.  Definitely one to watch.

Code Black
Code Black was distributed by The Long Shot Factory, and while the film isn't necessarily a long shot, it's also not a favorite.  The film looks at the happenings of an emergency room, using the action to indict the American health care system.  While Academy voters have supported films of this subject, health care is not at the top of their minds the way it was before the passage of the Affordable Care Act.  There is still just as much to be outraged about in American health care, but unless this film is truly great (I have not seen it), this doesn't seem to be an Academy-favored subject.

Keep On Keepin' On
I am a huge jazz fan and occasional jazz writer, so a nomination for a documentary about the great Clark Terry working with prodigy Justin Kauflin would please me greatly.  Keep On Keepin' On has been picking up hardware on the awards circuit, but it isn't likely to get an Oscar nomination, especially with arts-centered films like Life Itself in the mix.  Still, this is the documentary I most want to see.

Virunga
A film about saving the mountain gorillas of Congo produced by Leonardo DiCaprio?  This film has everything going for it: an environmental theme and major star power.  This film is amongst the strongest contenders for a nomination, especially if DiCaprio and Netflix put their weights behind it.

Happy Valley
When the Academy rewards sports-themed films, they look for feel good stories.  Happy Valley documents the recent Penn State scandal, exactly the opposite of what the Academy likes.  It's hard to imagine a depressing documentary about college sports in rural Pennsylvania getting much love from Oscar voters.

Kids for Cash
Unlike Happy Valley, this Pennsylvania-set film is more in the wheelhouse of the Academy: an outrageous story of corruption and injustice perpetrated on children.  Kids for Cash is neither a lock nor a long shot, but it is easy to see the film outraging Academy voters enough to pick up a nom.

The Great Invisible
The Great Invisible picked up the Grand Jury Award at South by Southwest, instantly making the film an Oscar contender.  It's a meticulously produced expose of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, looking at both the damage perpetrated on the environment and Gulf Coast residents who rely on the Gulf waters for their livelihoods.  I'd be surprised if The Great Invisible isn't nominated.

Jodorowsky's Dune
Ever heard of the cult Chilean filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky?  Neither have all but the most avant-garde Academy members.  This film details the filmmaker's aborted attempt to adapt Dune for the screen.  If the much more accessible Lost in La Mancha couldn't get nominated, it's unlikely Jodorowsky's Dune can.

Alive Inside
As mentioned earlier, the average age for Academy voters as of 2012 was 62, and films about the aging tend to get noticed by the Academy.  Alive Inside was given the Audience Award at Sundance, and an inspiring look at the benefits of music therapy for senior citizens.  If the category is dominated by emotionally draining, hard-hitting films, look for Alive Inside to eke out a nomination.

Backdraft (1991)

3 Nominations, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing - Gary Rydstrom and Richard Hymns
Nomination: Best Effects, Visual Effects - Mikael Salomon, Allen Hall, Clay Pinney, and Scott Farrar
Nomination: Best Sound - Gary Summers, Randy Thom, Gary Rydstrom, and Glenn Williams

I was seven years old when Backdraft was released, and though my parents - in a rare but understandable moment of parental censorship - did not allow me to see the film, I lost many nights of sleep while dreaming of my house burning in the fires shown in the trailer for Backdraft and experienced at the Backdraft attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood.  While countless films and television shows have had scenes of dramatic fires since Backdraft, none have felt as real or dangerous. 

One of the best remembered (and most ridiculed by real firefighters) lines from Backdraft comes from Robert De Niro's character Donald Rimgale: "(Fire is) a living thing.  It breathes, it eats, and it hates."  Yes, this line is goofy and overtly anthropomorphic, but it accurately describes the film's fires.  The team of Mikael Salmon, Allen Hall, Clay Pinney, and Scott Farrar did outstanding work in creating the film's fire scenes.  Though computer-generated effects can offer cinematic experiences that could never be produced by conventional effects, there's something about traditional effects that hasn't yet been replicated by computers.  The fire scenes are dramatic in large part because the audience knows that real people are running through the fires as the scene is being filmed.  Yes, they are stuntmen, but they are in much more danger than an actor in front of a green screen.  Director Ron Howard and the effects team, working with the sound effects team of Gary Rydstrom and Richard Hymns, do wonderful work together in creating suspenseful, exciting, and oddly beautiful action sequences.

The scenes without fires, however, were not nearly as successful.  One of the film's very first decisions - casting Kurt Russell in the dual roles of a father and a son - left me questioning Howard's judgment, and the bad decisions keep coming.  William Baldwin's performance is easily mockable, the motivations behind the actions of characters are as silly as they are confusing.  The film's biggest issue is that there are just too many plotlines, causing the film to wander.  I loved De Niro's Rimgale, and would have gladly watched a film about his inspections of fires.  Donald Sutherland is equal parts campy and scary, and J.T. Walsh is as great as always.  Each of these characters could have been the protagonist of a film, and it's hard not to get the sense that any of these films would have offered a more compelling story than Backdraft.  

The main story of the film, the rivalry and battles between brothers Steven and Brian (Russell and Baldwin, respectively), isn't terribly interesting.  We've seen these brotherly battles before and since, and there are no surprises here.  I always enjoy Kurt Russell, and his screen presence is undeniable, but with a weak script and a co-star that is fighting far above his weight class, Russell can't do much.

The structure is a mess, the acting is uneven, and the personification of fire all drag the film down.  Yet with the one-two punch of unforgettable action sequences and the gifted trio of De Niro, Sutherland, and Walsh, I'll never change the channel when Backdraft is on TV.

Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)

Photo: Alison Rosa ©2012 Long Strange Trip LLC

2 Nominations, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Achievement in Cinematography - Bruno Delbonnel
Nomination: Best Achievement in Sound Mixing - Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, and Peter F. Kurland

Since watching Inside Llewyn Davis, I have read several glowing reviews and articles about the film, searching for an explanation of what I missed.  The vast majority of critics and thinkers about film, including several who I deeply respect, loved Inside Llewyn Davis, praising the Coen Brothers for the moody and ambiguous nature of this brooding film.  Though I loved a few aspects of the film - especially its musical performances - and take no exception with its two nominations, I still feel that I must be missing something.  I thought Inside Llewyn Davis was a terrible film.

This shouldn't be the case.  I have more Bob Dylan songs in my iTunes library than any other artist, and have many tracks by Dave Van Ronk and Ramblin' Jack Elliott, the two primary models for the film's protagonist.  I watched Martin Scorsese's epic Bob Dylan documentary while vacationing in the Bahamas, choosing to watch black and white footage on my iPad rather than gaze at the technicolor beaches.  I blazed through Greil Marcus's often rambling but never boring discourse on Dylan, and have inhaled every tale of the early days of the New York folk scene.  This was a film that was made for me, and yet I hated it.

Joel Coen said, perhaps speciously, that the film "doesn't really have a plot," which is why they "threw the cat in," referring to an ongoing element of the plot in which Llewyn loses his friends' cat.  It's hard to know if Coen was just being glib, and he and his brother have certainly made similar dismissive comments about their other films.  Yet the comment is all too true regarding Inside Llewyn Davis.  The lack of a plot isn't the problem, it's the thrown in elements.  We are left to watch Llewyn wander, sabotaging himself and making more poor choices than a prom queen in a slasher film.  We don't know what drives these self-destructive choices, we don't know why he's making the choices, and, as a result, we don't care about the choices.  Something meaningful is clearly happening to Llewyn, but we're never let in on the secret.

The film would be almost completely unwatchable if it weren't for Bruno Delbonnel's moody cinematography and the wonderful music produced by T Bone Burnett.  When a film features musicians as its subjects, the importance of the music is elevated, and T Bone Burnett was both the obvious and perfect choice to handle the film's music.  The recurring folk standard "Dink's Song" is lovely throughout, and is at its best when duetted by Oscar Isaac and Marcus Mumford.  Several other songs are simultaneously evocative of their era and completely original, but "Please Mr. Kennedy" is by far the most memorable.  Sung by Isaac, Justin Timberlake, and Adam Driver, the song is a desperately needed moment of levity in the film, and one of the film's true delights.  

The Coen Brothers are never boring, and I have always found their worst films compulsively watchable.  Inside Llewyn Davis made me question this.  The film is saved, to an extent, by its music; without the Cafe Wha?-esque music, I'm not sure I could have made it through Inside Llewyn Davis.

Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa (2013)

Photo Courtesy Paramount Pictures

1 Nomination, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling: Stephen Prouty

Had Stephen Prouty won the Academy Award for his work on Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, it would have supplanted Three 6 Mafia's victory for the song "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp" as the oddest victory in Oscars history.  Sadly, we missed out on this opportunity for true weirdness when the Academy gave the nod to Adruitha Lee and Robin Matthews for Dallas Buyers Club, the only "serious" film of the three nominees.

What is interesting about the makeup work in Bad Grandpa is that it is the only one of the three nominees, and one of the few films ever made, to have actual and tangible proof of the success of its makeup work.  Bad Grandpa is the type of fake documentary that puts a made-up character in the real world, and thus the reactions of everyone except the film's stars are genuine.  While we don't know how many of the people approached by Johnny Knoxville saw through his disguise, we know that at least several people were fooled by Prouty's makeup, even while standing just a few feet from Knoxville.

Yet despite its realism, Prouty's work was in no way deserving of the Oscar, and not just because of the moronic film of which it was a part.  While the work is technically impressive, there have been countless films that have successfully employed aging makeup, and Bad Grandpa doesn't push the form forward in any meaningful way.  While Knoxville's transformation was impressive, it doesn't compare to the transformation of Johnny Depp in The Lone Ranger or Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club.

At this point in my review, I am pretty proud of the fact that I have written three paragraphs and included just one reference to the lameness that is Bad Grandpa.  I don't see myself as one of the stuffy old critics unable to appreciate the juvenile humor of the film.  In fact, I am a member of the generation reared on Jackass, and I will gladly admit that I have often laughed at their stunts.  However, what is successful in a brief television show often is not successful in a feature film, and the humor from seeing a fake old man act grossly wears thin all too quickly.

I found myself thinking about Borat, a film that I loved with a similar premise: an actor plays a character who acts inappropriately in real-world situations, causing actual people to respond with horror.  I started to wonder how I could love Borat but hate Bad Grandpa.  Was it just that the jokes were funnier?  That seemed too simple.

The truth is, Bad Grandpa and Borat are very different films, despite their seeming similarities.  Borat is a complete joke, while Bad Grandpa is just a setup without a punchline.  What makes Borat so funny isn't just the ridiculous things he do, but the reactions that his behavior solicits.  The character of Borat is so disarming that the people Sacha Baron Cohen interacts with slowly begin to reveal who they truly are.  This moment, in which people show a side of their true selves to the camera, is where the best humor of Borat comes from.  Yes, his ridiculous questions to his driving instructor about women driving are funny.  But the punchline isn't Borat's questions, but the reveal of who the instructor really is through his response.  Bad Grandpa, on the other hand, finds little humor in the response.  Most of the people that Knoxville interacts with just look at him with horror or laugh uncomfortably.  Yes, Knoxville's behavior and dialogue is ridiculous and sometimes funny, but without a meaningful response, it's just a setup with no punchline.

It has been awhile since I've seen Borat, and if nothing else, I'm glad Bad Grandpa made me recall and appreciate that far superior film.

Captain Phillips (2013)

Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips. Photo Courtesy Sony Pictures

6 Nominations, 0 Wins

Nomination: Best Motion Picture of the Year - Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, and Michael De Luca
Nomination: Best Performance By an Actor in a Supporting Role - Barkhad Abdi
Nomination: Best Achievement in Film Editing - Christopher Rouse
Nomination: Best Achievement in Sound Editing - Oliver Tarney
Nomination: Best Achievement in Sound Mixing - Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, and Chris Munro
Nomination: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay - Billy Ray

I expected to hate Captain Phillips.

I'm not sure why this was the case.  There might not be a working actor with a better "lifetime batting average" than Tom Hanks (though Larry Crowne was bad enough to impugn his credibility for awhile), Paul Greengrass is a talented director with a strong individual voice, and the true story of Captain Richard Phillips is the stuff of which great suspense films are made.  Maybe it was the bland title of the film, the long running time, or my reluctance to sit through any film in which a non-New Englander attempts to perform the accent.  If nothing else, the name Billy Ray on the screenplay should have been enough to give me faith in the film, as Ray wrote and directed two of my favorite political suspense films of the past few decades, Breach and Shattered Glass.  While my concern about the film's running time was well founded, the filmmaking team behind Captain Phillips more than assuaged the rest of my films, and Captain Phillips was one of the films of 2013 that I most enjoyed.

Captain Phillips is really two films.  The first is the story of the takeover of the Maersk Alabama by Abduwali Muse (Barkhad Abdi) and his team of Somali pirates and the response of Captain Phillips (Tom Hanks) and his crew.  This section takes up approximately half of the running time, and Ray's script beautifully and methodically reveals the characters through the rising action.  Lesser screenwriters write two kinds of scenes: scenes that move the plot forward and scenes that develop characters.  Like the best writers, nearly every scene in Ray's screenplay does both.  Christopher Rouse's editing is superb in these scenes, and the first half of the film flies by with Rouse's editing and Greengrass's sharp direction.

The second half of the film begins (minor spoiler alert to follow) once the attempt to trade the captive Muse for Phillips is botched, resulting the pirates escaping with Phillips as their hostage onto a lifeboat. Though there are some wonderful moments of suspense and emotional drama in these scenes, the film loses its momentum.  The suspense of these scenes is not nearly as intense as in the first half of the film.  The script shifts its focus from the relationship between Muse and Phillips to a greater focus on "Will Captain Phillips survive or not?"  Because Captain Phillips is based a true story and Phillips was prominent in the news after the highjacking, the suspense of the film evaporates.  Hanks, however, is brilliant in these scenes, portraying deep vulnerability even as he performs the bravest of acts.  His final scene of the film is one of the great moments of a legendary acting career, and in another year might have been enough to secure him his sixth Academy Award nomination.

The revelation of the film is Barkhad Abdi, appearing in his first film after previously working in mobile phone sales and limousine driving.  Abdi is an untrained actor, but I never would have guessed this if not for the fact that it was mentioned a thousand times in the month before the Academy Awards.  Abdi walks with a natural swagger that belies his slight frame, yet also shows a vulnerability similar to that of Hanks.  This is the type of role that is probably going to be career-defining rather than career-making, but Abdi is brimming with talent and will hopefully continue to find opportunities to develop as an actor.

Phillips and Muse are two men who have very few choices available to them to support themselves and their loved ones, and though the film never forgives the acts of piracy and violence, it does successfully provide context to the actions of the pirates that elevate them from stock villains to developed characters.  This allows them to be fully realized foils to Phillips, and the interactions between the men provide just as much suspense as the film's most action-oriented scenes.

Captain Phillips didn't have much of a chance in the technical categories, with Gravity dominating the below-the-line awards.  I can't argue with the voting of the Academy.  Captain Phillips was the second or third best in each of the six categories for which it was nominated, but wasn't the best in any category.  Rouse's editing work is the one possible exception to this, but it's hard to argue with the absolutely brilliant editing work by Alfonso Cuaron and Mark Sanger for Gravity.

If you can ignore the bland title and the occasionally suspect accent voiced by Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips is a wonderful and memorable film well deserving of the six Oscar nominations it received.


                      

20 Feet from Stardom (2013)

Photo Courtesy TwentyFeetFromStardom.com

1 Nomination, 1 Win

Win: Best Documentary, Features

It has long been a truism that if you are having difficulty picking the winner of either the Best Documentary Feature or Best Documentary Short Subject in your Oscar pool, choose the film that deals with the subject of the Holocaust or AIDS.  Rather than judging the film that best documents its subject, the Academy has a tendency to reward the film that tackles the most serious subject.

For this reason, it has been surprising that the Academy has bestowed its Best Documentary Feature award to crowd-pleasing documentaries about musicians for the past two years, first to Searching for Sugar Man and then to 20 Feet From Stardom.  While I thought that Searching for Sugar Man was an enjoyable but underwhelming documentary and that the Oscar should have gone to David France's How to Survive a Plague, 20 Feet From Stardom is an absolutely wonderful documentary that is much deeper and it first appears to be.

Photo Courtesy of TwentyFeetFromStardom.com

Director Morgan Neville, a veteran of documentaries on the subject of music (he has made documentaries about Muddy Waters, Johnny Cash, and Stax Records), both follows the current lives and documents the long careers of several of the most notable backup singers in the history of popular music, including Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Taga Vega, and several others.  These women, though largely unknown to the majority of music lovers, have played essential roles in some of the most significant records ever made, with perhaps the best example being Merry Clayton's searing vocals on "Gimme Shelter" by the Rolling Stones.  Neville documents how these women came to become unknown legends of the music industry, the significant challenges they faced as they grew older and the music industry evolved, and celebrates their accomplishments.

But while the film at first seems to be merely an attempt to rectify the lack of attention these women have received by celebrating their contributions to music on film, Morgan Neville uses this story to explore the idea of how our dreams evolve as we get older, and how we either adapt or fail to respond to the unexpected directions our lives takes us.  None of the women profiled in this film set out to be backup singers, and each did so only to support themselves while they continued to seek their own stardom.  As the title suggests, these women stood a mere twenty feet from the stars they sang behind, but so much more separated them than physical distance.  For whatever reason, these women never became the superstars that they believed they would become, and it certainly wasn't due to a lack of talent, as they were more talented than many of the stars they supported.  As Sting explains in the film, to become a star requires more than just talent and hard work, and there is some essence that these women just did not have.

As their own attempts at stardom faltered, some of the women were able to accept this about themselves and were content to be great backup singers, while others could never give up on their dream of becoming true stars.  Few people achieve exactly what they dreamed they would when they were young, and we all to some degree accept unexpected roles for ourselves and must decide how we will respond.  While few of us achieve our exact dreams, few get even 20 feet from these dreams, and what these women accomplished and the legacies they made for themselves are truly incredible.

20 Feet from Stardom is a celebration of the amazing careers of these women, even if these careers are far different from what they dreamed of for themselves.



          

Interview with Academy Award Nominee Jeffrey Karoff, Director of CaveDigger

Jeffrey Karoff, Academy Award nominated director of CaveDigger

Of all of the Academy Award nominated films I watched last year, none surprised me more than Jeffrey Karoff's CaveDigger, nominated for Best Documentary Short Subject.  Prior to watching the film, I was unaware that the art of cavedigging even existed, let alone that there was a practitioner capable of such awe-inspring beauty as what the film's protagonist Ra produces.  Karoff's film is unlike anything I have seen before, and I give it my highest possible recommendation.  CaveDigger can be viewed on Amazon, Vimeo, and iTunes.  Links to all three formats are available here.

Jeffrey Karoff was generous enough to speak with me about CaveDigger and his experience as an Academy Award nominee.  

First, can you briefly tell me a little bit about CaveDigger, how you found out about Ra's work, and why you decided to tell this story?

I met two of the principal characters in the film, Shel and Liz, during the time they'd commissioned a Paulette cave and while Liz was battling cancer. The cave in progress was astonishing and its sheer visual, visceral impact made it seem ripe subject matter for film. But even after I launched into the filmmaking I wasn't sure what story I was telling beyond the glory of Ra's work. It wasn't until I was well into the process that I stumbled upon a recurring theme that included Shel and Liz's consternation with Ra's process, and an age-old artist/patron conflict.

At what point after you started screening CaveDigger did you start to realize that an Academy Award nomination was a real possibility? 

Never. I was entering a lot of festivals and completing the Academy qualifications was really a continuation of that festival-entry process.  I knew that CaveDigger was the kind of serious subject matter that the Academy might appreciate, so it wasn't entirely a Hail Mary, but I didn't actually think it would be nominated. But there was a turning point that led me to submit the film: At my very first screening to an invited audience, another filmmaker, Alex Rotaru, told me I should shorten CaveDigger from 47 mins to under 40 and submit it to the Academy as a short because, he said, "...the Academy eats this stuff up." I thought he was smoking crack, and I had no intention of going back into the edit bay after so many months of labor to get it finished. Weeks later, Sandra Ruch, a consultant who was helping me navigate the festival terrain, again suggested I shorten the film to allow it to compete as a short in all festivals. That was the push I needed, and I did so. Shortening the film, obviously, was a terrific idea.

How did you find out you had been nominated for an Oscar?  What was your reaction?

I had a colleague who was at the Academy on the day. She'd told me that she would text me the second she found out, 'yes' or 'no'. The phone buzzed -- my wife looked at the text and broke into tears of joy. I shot it all on my iPhone. It was a stunning day.

Did you attend the pre-Oscar ceremony luncheon for all of the nominees?  This luncheon famously mixes up people from all of the categories at the various tables.  Who did you dine with?  Any good stories from the luncheon?

Just about every nominee, in every category and including me, was at that luncheon. I sat at a table with Jeff Pope, one of the writers from Philomena, and right next to Bradley Cooper, who was kind and funny and interested in my film. He told me a great story about living with his mother, a version of which I heard a few days later on Ellen.

Were you particularly starstruck by anyone at the Oscars?  What was it like to walk the red carpet? 

I'm not starstruck. But I am an admirer and appreciator of talent. I was able to thank personally, for what I consider gifts, Scorsese, Amy Adams, and Roger Deakins. And Bradley Cooper, whose performance in American Hustle was outstanding. I approached all these people at the luncheon, which was more intimate and presented an easy environment in which to interact.

Other than your own film, if you were an Academy member, which of the films in your category would you have voted for?

My favorite was Edgar Barens' Prison Terminal. Important subject matter, sensitively handled. Our culture has a 'throw away the key' mentality about prisoners. Edgar's film humanized even capital criminals. I found the genuine affection amongst the men deeply moving.

What does it mean to you to have the title "Academy Award Nominee" for the rest of your life?

It's not bad. Really not bad.

What's next for you?  Are you working on any films?

I have a couple of doc projects swirling, but for the moment I'm at my day job, directing commercials and fundraising films. I just finished a mini doc for Robin Hood Foundation, a NYC-based philanthropic organization, about New York's immigrant population. They showed it at their annual fundraiser and brought in about $60mil that night.