The Great 2009 Oscar Challenge

The Challenge:
Have the most number of correct picks in the class.

The Prize:
The top two winners will be allowed to "skip" one journal of their choice.

The Procedure:
1. Copy this ballot
2. Open the Comments option below
3. Paste the ballot into a comment box, leaving only your picks for EACH category (Note: If you don't already have one, you may need to create a Gmail account to post)
4. I'll tally the results by Monday's class and announce the winners

The Rules:
1. All entries must be in by 12 AM Saturday
2. Only fully-completed ballots will counted

(See my picks in the Comments section as an example)

The Ballot:

BEST PICTURE
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
"Frost/Nixon"
"Milk
"The Reader"
"Slumdog Millionaire"

BEST ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"
Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"
Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"
Meryl Streep, "Doubt"
Kate Winslet, "The Reader"

BEST ACTOR
Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"
Sean Penn, "Milk"
Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler"
Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, "Doubt"
Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Viola Davis, "Doubt"
Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin, "Milk"
Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"
Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road"

BEST DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"
David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"
Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"
Gus Van Sant, "Milk"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Dustin Lance Black, "Milk"
Courtney Hunt, "Frozen River"
Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky"
Marttin McDonagh, "In Bruges"
Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon, "WALL-E"

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire"
David Hare, "The Reader"
Peter Morgan, "Frost/Nixon"
John Patrick Shanley, "Doubt"
Eric Roth, Robin Swicord, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
"The Baader-Meinhof Complex" (Germany)
"The Class" (France)
"Departures" (Japan)
"Revanche" (Austria)
"Waltz with Bashir" (Israel)

BEST ANIMATED FILM
"Bolt"
"Kung Fu Panda"
"WALL-E"

BEST ART DIRECTION
"Changeling"
"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button"
"Dark Knight"
"The Duchess"
"Revolutionary Road"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
"Changeling" Tom Stern
"Slumdog Millionaire," Anthony Dod Mantle
"The Reader," Chris Menges
"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," Claudio Miranda
"The Dark Knight," Wally Pfister,

BEST FILM EDITING
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Kirk Baxter, Angus Wall
"The Dark Knight," Lee Smith
"Frost/Nixon," Daniel P. Hanley, Mike Hill
"Milk," Elliot Graham
"Slumdog Millionaire," Chris Dickens

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
"Australia," Catherine Martin
"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," Jacqueline West
"The Duchess," Michael O'Conner
"Milk", Danny Glicker
"Revolutionary Road," Albert Wolsky

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)"
"Encounters at the End of the World"
"The Garden"
"Man on Wire"
"Trouble the Water"

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
"Slumdog Millionaire," "Jai Ho," A.R. Rahman
"Slumdog Millionaire," "O Saya," A.R. Rahman & M.I.A.
"WALL-E," "Down To Earth," Peter Gabriel & Thomas Newman

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
"The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," Alexandre Desplat
"Defiance," James Newton Howard
"Milk," Danny Elfman
"Slumdog Millionaire," A.R. Rahman
"WALL-E," Thomas Newman

BEST MAKEUP
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Colleen Callaghan, Fionagh Cush
"The Dark Knight," Peter Robb-King, John Caglione Jr.
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army," Mike Elizalde, Thom Floutz

BEST SOUND EDITING
"The Dark Knight," Richard King
"Iron Man," Frank Eulner, Christopher Boyes
"Slumdog Millionaire," Tom Sayers
"WALL-E," Ben Burtt, Matthew Wood
"Wanted," Wylie Stateman

BEST SOUND MIXING
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Mark Weingarten, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce
"The Dark Knight," Ed Novick, Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo
"Slumdog Millionaire," Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
"WALL-E," Ben Burtt, Tom Myers, Michael Semanick
"Wanted," Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," Eric Barba
"The Dark Knight," Chris Corbould, Nick Davis, Paul Franklin, Tim Webber
"Iron Man," John Nelson

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
"Auf der Strecke (On the Line)"
"Manon on the Asphalt"
"New Boy"
"The Pig"
"Spielzeugland (Toyland)"

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
"La Maison en Petits Cubes"
"Lavatory - Lovestory"
"Oktapodi"
"Presto"
"This Way Up"

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM
"The Conscience of Nhem En"
"The Final Inch"
"Smile Pinki"
"The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306"

'Friday the 13th' scores largest horror-film debut

By Scott Bowles, USA Today

Friday the 13th scared up the largest debut on record for a horror film, taking in $42.4 million this weekend, according to studio estimates from box office tracking firm Media By Numbers.

The debut was $17 million more than many analysts projected and trounced the record held by 2004's The Grudge, the previous highest-opening horror film with $39 million.

The 12th film to spring from the 1980 original is good news for studios rushing to reboot classic horror titles. Remakes of A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Wolf Man and The Last House on the Left are headed to the big screen.

The romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You was second with $19.6 million, bringing its 10-day total to $55.1 million.

The thriller Taken also held well, taking third place with $19.3 million. The Liam Neeson picture has done $77.9 million in three weeks.

The Isla Fisher comedy Confessions of a Shopaholic met most expectations with $15.4 million, good for fourth place, while the animated Coraline took $15.3 million and fifth place.

The only other major newcomer, Clive Owen's political thriller The International, was seventh with $10 million, meeting most projections.

Ticket sales surged 28% over last weekend and 43% over the same weekend last year.

Final figures are due Tuesday because of the Presidents Day weekend.

Auteurship Research Paper: Director List

Here is the list of directors to choose from for your auteurship paper:

Woody Allen:

Annie Hall
Broadway Danny Rose
Crimes and Misdemeanors

Alison Anders:
Gas Food Lodging
Mi Vida Loca
Grace of My Heart

Wes Anderson:
Bottle Rocket
Rushmore
The Royal Tennenbaums

Michael Bay:
The Rock
Pearl Harbor
Transformers

Brad Bird:
The Iron Giant
The Incredibles
Ratatouille

Alfonso Cuarón:
Y Tu Mamá También
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Children of Men

Jane Campion:
Sweetie
The Piano
The Portrait of a Lady

Frank Capra:

It Happened One Night
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
It’s a Wonderful Life

Charlie Chaplin:
The Kid
City Lights
Modern Times

The Coen Bros.:
Raising Arizona
Barton Fink
Fargo

Sofia Coppola:
The Virgin Suicides
Lost in Translation
Marie Antoinette

Guillermo del Toro:

Cronos
The Devil's Backbone
Pan's Labyrinth

Clint Eastwood:
Unforgiven
Million Dollar Baby
Flags of Our Fathers

Bob Fosse:
Sweet Charity
Cabaret
All That Jazz

Mel Gibson:
The Man Without a Face
Braveheart
The Passion of the Christ

Terry Gilliam:
Brazil
Twelve Monkeys
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Lasse Hallström:

What’s Eating Gilbert Grape
The Cider House Rules
Chocolat

Curtis Hanson:
L.A. Confidential
Wonder Boys
In Her Shoes

Todd Haynes:
Poison
Safe
Far From Heaven

Alfred Hitchcock:
Rear Window
Vertigo
Psycho

Alejandro González Iñárritu:
Amores perros
21 Grams
Babel

Jean-Pierre Jeunet:

Delicatessen
La Cité des Enfants Perdus (co-directed with Marc Caro)
Le Fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain

Ang Lee:
Sense and Sensibility
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Brokeback Mountain

Spike Lee:
Do the Right Thing
Jungle Fever
Get on the Bus

Jerry Lewis:
The Nutty Professor
The Bellboy
Cinderfella

Sidney Lumet:
Network
Dog Day Afternoon
Long Day’s Journey Into Night

Hayao Miyazaki:

Kiki's Delivery Service
Princess Mononoke
Spirited Away

Mira Nair:
Salaam Bombay!
Mississippi Masala
Monsoon Wedding

Gregory Nava:
El Norte
Mi Familia
Selena

Mike Nichols:
The Graduate
Silkwood
Closer

Neil LaBute:

In the Company of Men
Possession
The Shape of Things

Alexander Payne:
Election
About Schmidt
Sideways

Satyajit Ray:
Pather
Panchali Aparajito
The World of Apu

M. Night Shyamalan:
The Sixth Sense
Unbreakable
Lady in the Water

John Singleton:
Boyz in the Hood
Higher Learning
Poetic Justice

James Whale:

Frankenstein
The Old Dark House
The Invisible Man

Robert Wise:
West Side Story
The Haunting
The Sound of Music

Week 3- Razzle Dazzle ‘Em: Musicals

M 2.16
No Class (Presidents’ Day)

W 2.18
Razzle Dazzle ‘Em: Musicals
Lecture: Musicals—An Overview, Pt. 1
Due: OSR 1 (Silents-1939)

Ryan Gosling, Rachel McAdams top movie romance list

Posted by: Alex Dobuzinskis, Reuters
2.12.09

With Valentine’s Day coming up on Saturday, many movie fans will be looking for a good romance film to spark their own love life. But not all movie couples can convince fans they belong together, either on-screen or off.

Online ticket seller Fandango conducted a poll of customers buying tickets for February movies, asking people about their favorite and least-liked romantic movie pairings. On Tuesday, Fandango released a top 10 and worst 10 list.

Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams lead all couples for their performance in the 2004 movie “The Notebook.” They won 14 percent of the vote, four percent more than runner-ups Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie in the 2005’s “Mr. and Mrs. Smith.” The other couples on the list were, in order: Richard Gere and Julia Roberts (”Pretty Woman”); Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey (”Dirty Dancing”); Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet (”Titanic”); Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore (”Ghost”); Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (”Twilight”); Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (”Brokeback Mountain”); and at No. 10, Johnny Depp and Juliette Binoche (”Chocolate”).

Pitt and Jolie became inseparable after their on-set meeting in “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and the two have since become a Hollywood supercouple with six children, including three adopted kids.

But Harry Medved, spokesman for Fandango, said that off-screen romance only counts for so much. “When it comes to classic mismatches, like Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez in ‘Gigli,’ the fact that the two stars may have been a couple off-screen didn’t make the on-screen chemistry between them any more convincing,” Medved said.

But JLo and Affleck, who since their 2003 movie “Gigli” have separated and are married to other entertainers, are not the most mismatched couple, according to Fandango customers.

Leading Fandango’s top 10 most mismatched couples were Jessica Alba and Mike Myers in 2008 movie “The Love Guru,” which was panned by critics and made only $32.2 million worldwide. That couple got 9 percent of votes, followed in second place by Woody Allen and Charlize Theron in “The Curse of the Jade Scorpion,” a 2001 movie that came out when the acclaimed actor and director was 65 and she was 26. The other names on the list in order were: Katherine Heigl and Seth Rogen (”Knocked Up”); Adam Sandler and Kevin James (”I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry”); Anne Heche and Harrison Ford (”Six Days Seven Nights”); Kate Winslet and Jack Black (”The Holiday”); Julia Roberts and Woody Allen (”Everyone Says I Love You”); Nikki Blonsky and Zac Efron (”Hairspray”); Jennifer Lopez and Ralph Fiennes (”Maid in Manhattan”); and at No. 10, Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck (”Gigli”).

This Valentine’s Day, movie goers will have a couple romantic comedies to choose from. “He’s Just Not That Into You” opened on Feb. 6 with an A-list ensemble cast that includes Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston and Scarlett Johansson, and had a strong opening weekend of $27.5 million, while “New In Town” starring Renee Zellweger and Harry Connick Jr. has earned a disappointing $11.9 million worldwide since its Jan. 30 opening.

U.S. stores hope to duplicate "Twilight" success

NEW YORK (Reuters) -

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, is hoping that the vampire romance movie Twilight, which was a surprise hit at the box office, will mean runaway success at its cash registers.

Twilight, based on the best-selling novel by U.S. author Stephenie Meyer, boasted a bigger opening North American weekend box office than the James Bond movie when it landed in theaters in November.

The Twilight movie DVD is slated for release on March 21, and to appeal to fans Wal-Mart will open "Twilight Shops" within each of its 3,500 U.S. discount stores starting in mid-March.

Wal-Mart said it will sell the DVD movie and CD soundtrack along with Twilight clothes, posters, jewelry and key chains. Fans can also place early "pre-orders" on Wal-Mart's website for the Twilight DVD ahead of its nationwide release, and Walmart.com will post news about upcoming fan events and activities.

Wal-Mart is not the only retailer looking for a Twilight boost. Teen retailer Hot Topic Inc has seen brisk sales of its Twilight T-shirts, sweatshirts and jewelry. Its website is also taking early orders for the Twilight DVD.

Will Smith tops Forbes.com's bankable stars list

(02-11) 10:16 PST New York (AP) --

Will Smith was voted the most bankable star in Hollywood in a survey of industry professionals by Forbes.com.

The financial magazine's Web site gives the actor a score of 10 out of 10 for his bankability in its first "star currency" list, compiled by surveying more than 150 industry professionals.

Following Smith on the list: Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and Leonardo DiCaprio, who all tied for second with a score of 9.89. Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Denzel Washington, Matt Damon and Jack Nicholson rounded out the top 10.

Smith's superior box-office clout has been long established. He's known for "owning" the July Fourth weekend box office with films such as "Independence Day" and "Men in Black," and has had few flops.

The 40-year-old actor recently topped the annual poll by Quigley Publishing Co., which has surveyed movie exhibitors since 1932 on which stars generate the most box-office revenue.

The Forbes survey, which acknowledged that it was "subjective," also took into account a star's ability to attract financing for a project. The list was released Tuesday.

Smith's latest film, "Seven Pounds," received terrible reviews, but still earned $70 million at the domestic box office. His summer superhero blockbuster "Hancock" grossed $228 million.