Could you ever have imagined that the coffee plant could be molded into an object of sheer beauty and creativity? Art has always been an individual expression of ideas and aspirations. When art takes form through the simple blend of natural pigments, plants, wood, cotton, and latex, it transforms into much more than being just an ordinary art sculpture – it becomes a sustainable inheritance from a person’s creativity. Ranjani Shettar’s latest solo museum exhibition in Mumbai, India does just that. Shettar’s first solo exhibition in India, High Tide for a Blue Moon is currently on display at the city’s oldest museum, the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, till February 17, 2013.

Shettar’s sculptural installations are inspired by nature and she makes use of natural, traditional ingredients in all of her works such as tamarind kernel paste, muslin cloth, latex, wooden beads, coffee stems, and natural pigments. Ten sturdy yet delicate sculptures infuse the museum’s grand interiors with poetic drama and create vivid pictures spanning landscapes. The highlight of the exhibition is High Tide for a Blue Moon where Shettar creates a dramatic structure formed from the joining of coffee stems, which are coated with metallic automobile paint. Visitors must engage and soothe their senses with some of Shettar’s best creations: Lagoon, Remanence from Last Night’s Dream, and Scent of a Sound.

Ranjani’s inspired creations and dexterity have earned her accolades in prestigious museums worldwide including the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and the New York Museum of Modern Art. Her sculptures lend the surrounding environment, a surreal and magical touch.

Ranjani is a young artist from Bangalore in India and she draws inspiration for most of her works from her mother’s home in Coorg and her own penchant for swimming against the tide of conventionalism. She grew up seeing the coffee plant being used decoratively and this fueled her creativity. From her student days at the Chitrakala Parishath, Ranjani Shettar wanted to create sculptures that could be suspended and even float in the air. With her first exhibition in Mumbai, she has been able to achieve that and much more.

Ranjani’s works have charmed collectors and art critics all over the world. If you happen to be in Mumbai then do stop by at the museum and enthrall your senses with her fine creations.

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The newly Oscar awarded ‘The Artist’ is Michel Hazanavicius’s third film with director of photography Guillaume Schiffman, who shot both of Hazanavicius OSS comedies. “With Guillaume, it’s more than just collaboration,” Hazanavicius remarks. “We’ve done films together, we’ve done ads together, and we know each other very well.

As soon as I had the idea of ‘The Artist’, I talked to him about it. I gave him tons of films to watch and he did a lot of professional research about the techniques, cameras and lenses of the time. The idea was the same for all us, on both sides of the camera: do some research; nourish ourselves; understand the rules thoroughly in order to be able to forget them at the end.”

Hazanavicius had storyboarded the entire screenplay for ‘The Artist’, and during preproduction he and Schiffman spent countless hours looking at these blueprints and discussing their options. In a black and white silent movie, lighting and color scale become critical tools of the storytelling, Schiffman points out.

“Because there’s no dialogue, light has to tell you something, the shadows have to tell you something. Michel told me how he envisaged the story, how he was going to play with the blacks and whites, shadow and light, and a lot of grays. What is fascinating about Michel is that he never loses sight of the story he wants to tell. You can’t produce only beautiful images and lose the audience in the process. The goal isn’t to make the audience go ‘Wow!’ at each shot but to captivate them and, in this case, to move them.”

Schiffman describes the film as a rare creative opportunity. “A black and white movie; 1.33 format; 20s and 30s style: it’s a dream come true for a cinematographer. What a pleasure to revisit this moment of cinema history, particularly today, when we are moving towards digital supremacy.”

As pre-production got underway in Los Angeles, news of ‘The Artist’ spread quickly in the film community. The black and white style and period setting offered interesting and unusual work for all the industry’s trades: set design, costume design, hair and makeup, camera, electric, etc. Hazanavicius was delighted to find himself surrounded by some of best and most experienced professionals in Los Angeles, all of them eager to contribute.

“Everyone got very excited,” the filmmaker smiles. “I think people appreciated the fact that this was a movie about their profession. People from the camera department offered to make special lenses, old projectors were pulled out of closets … it was very special.”

One of the earliest hires was production designer Laurence Bennett, who has worked extensively with writer/director Paul Haggis on films including the Oscar-winning ‘Crash’. Hazanavicius notes that he had very specific elements he wanted to incorporate into the film’s design, responsibilities that Bennett took on.

“The Artist’ is about the fall of an actor, so I was always looking for locations with stairs. I wanted the actors to go down, and down, and down, sequence after sequence,” says Hazanavicius. “It’s the same with mirrors; it’s the idea of representation because George is an actor. There are always many George Valentins in the frame. Larry brought his own sensibility to the production design, while achieving all the very precise effects I asked him to create. He did a great job.”

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Michel Hazanavicius had the opportunity to fulfill his dream of a silent era film with his Oscar-winning work ‘The Artist’ and found another enthusiastic colleague in costume designer Mark Bridges, a lifelong fan of silent cinema who remembers seeing classics like ‘Wings’ as a child.

Over the course of his career, Bridges has outfitted films set in virtually every era of the 20th Century, making key contributions to the likes of Paul Thomas Anderson’s early 20th Century epic ‘There Will Be Blood’ and 70s-era drama ‘Boogie Nights’, and David O. Russell’s 80s boxing drama ‘The Fighter’.

For ‘The Artist’, Bridges happily immersed himself in research, studying silent films, old publicity stills and day-in-the-life candid photos to get a feel for the impeccable tailoring of the era and the elegant clothing that a movie star like George Valentin would have worn in his leisure time.

For the character of Peppy Miller, he found inspiration in early Joan Crawford films, which capture her evolution from average chorus girl to dynamic jazz baby and finally to glamorous star. The silent backstage comedy ‘Show People’ provided clues about what studio workers wore, as did a short film, ‘1925 MGM Studio Tour’, made on the MGM lot.

Bridges found both garments and ideas in Hollywood’s professional costume shops, including The Collection at Western Costume, Motion Picture Costume Company, United American Costume Company, and Palace Costume Company. “Here in Hollywood, we’re really set up to do a movie like ‘The Artist’. I could go to any of these costume shops I regularly use, go through 100 dresses or 50 dresses, and something would read to me ‘Peppy,’” he says.

Milliners freshened and re-blocked hats that had spent decades in boxes. Veteran tailors made duplicate formal wear for Jean Dujardin, and expert shoemakers copied vintage shoes. Some original garments were in fine condition and were used in the film, including a nightgown worn by Bérénice Bejo and a tennis dress Bridges found in a shop.

But many vintage items were too fragile or dilapidated to be worn, and were instead copied and made in new fabrics. Sometimes old was incorporated into the new; when Bridges found a panel of Art Deco-styled vintage brocade, he used it to trim the dress Bejo wears during the scene when Peppy is being interviewed. Hazanavicius was impressed by Bridge’s talent and work ethic.

“Mark Bridges knows everything, and I think he works maybe thirty hours a day!” the director enthuses. “He’s very perceptive and he knows that small details can be very powerful. For example, there’s an ellipse from ’29 to ’31, when George’s decline accelerates. I asked Mark to adjust Jean’s costume, and to make it a little bit larger so we have the feeling that his character has shrunken a little bit. And Mark did that, very subtly, with a lot of taste. His work throughout brought so much to the film.”

Music is an indispensable part of silent film storytelling, serving variously as emphasis and counterpoint to the actions and emotions onscreen. For this critical element, Hazanavicius turned to his longtime collaborator Ludovic Bource, who has scored all the director’s films since his feature debut, 1998’s ‘Mes Amies’.

Like the other collaborators working on the film, Bource did his homework, listening to scores by legendary Hollywood composers such as Max Steiner, Franz Waxman and Bernard Hermann; music written by Chaplin for his films; and the 19th Century composers whose work was the foundation of Steiner, et al.  With that knowledge absorbed, Bource was then free to write the score that would help tell the story of ‘The Artist’.

He began working on the score before production began, coming up with melodies and themes based on the screenplay and storyboards. Once production began, Hazanavicius sent him rushes on a regular basis. “I immersed myself in the rushes as they came in, and in the performances of Bérénice and Jean,” Bource remembers.

“Watching these magnificent images as they arrived was very inspiring. The hardest thing, particularly with Jean’s character George, was to respect the combination of comedy and emotion. As a result, rather than pastiche or spoof, we worked – a bit like Chaplin – along the lines of a light sophistication. And for the tap dance sequence, I wrote music that was essentially big band/jazz, which was a pleasure.”

Work continued on the film’s music during the editing process, when Bource worked with Hazanavicius to refine the music and match it to the  final scenes. Bource recorded the score in Brussels with the Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra. Says Bource, “I recorded with 80 musicians: 50 string players, 4 French horns, 4 trombones, 5 percussionists who ran around all over the place, a harpist, 10 technicians, 5 orchestrators, 3 mixers – it was sublime.

I was lucky enough to get marvelous people. They told me it had been a long time since they had felt this way while recording the music for a film. It was very moving and gratifying.”

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Having never written a silent film, ‘The Artist’ creator Michel Hazanavicius immersed himself in the genre to gain an understanding of what did and didn’t work. “At the very beginning I watched movies from all over: America, Germany, Russia, France, England. I observed that as soon as the story starts to grow unclear — too many new developments, too many characters — you lose interest,” he says.

“Very soon I focused on the last four or five years of the silent era, especially in America. I think those were the best movies, and also the ones that aged best. The way the stories are told in American silents isn’t so different than the way the stories are told today.” Along with watching films, the director read cinema histories as well as memoirs and biographies of silent era directors, producers and stars. He looked at photographs and other archival materials and listened to music of the period.

He drew inspiration from the work and lives of such stars as Douglas Fairbanks, Joan Crawford, Gloria Swanson, John Gilbert and Greta Garbo. “Research is very important,” he comments. “Not so much to be strictly realistic — that’s not what I’m after — but as a springboard for the imagination. The research fed the story, the context, the characters.  The more research you have done, the more you can play with it all.”

Unfolding during a four year period, 1927-1931, ‘The Artist’ introduces its titular character, the action-adventure hero George Valentin, at the peak of his popularity. Fans flock to see George in films tailored to his dashing persona: exotic tales in which he triumphs over evil with wit, panache and the aid of his devoted sidekick, a Jack Russell terrier with impeccable timing.

When sound arrives, George resists the upstart format (as did Chaplin, among others). He stakes his career on his belief that the talkies will remain a novelty, and sets out to prove that he can succeed on his own terms, as an artist of the silent cinema.

Though ‘The Artist’ is set over 80 years ago, George’s circumstances, and the powerful emotions attached, are as current as ever. Says Hazanavicius, “To me, it’s interesting to think of George’s story in terms of a human being in a transition period. The world is always moving, and you might be looking in another direction.

One day, the world says to you, ‘you’re part of the past.’ It can happen in your own office, in your factory, in your relationship. It’s a feeling any person can understand.” But before he begins his descent from Hollywood heights, George meets the energetic young actress Peppy Miller.

The famous actor and the effervescent unknown are irresistibly drawn to one another, but are kept apart by chance and circumstance, unable to give voice to their feelings. It’s a classic scenario of star-crossed romance, intense yet chaste. “It’s an old-fashioned vision of love, very pure, and it also holds with the form of silent movies,” comments Hazanavicius. “Some of the masterpieces of silent cinema are simple love stories. They inspired me to take the film in a direction that was lighter, more optimistic and joyful.”

By the time he finished writing, Hazanavicius felt confident that he had constructed a story that could sustain a silent format. Hazanavicius believed ‘The Artist’ — steeped in Hollywood cinema history, sensibility and technique — had to be shot in Los Angeles.

And a Franco-American production in Los Angeles would mirror yet another aspect of silent movie history: many of the most renowned directors of the American silent cinema were native Europeans, including Charlie Chaplin, Erich von Stroheim, F.W. Murnau, Ernst Lubitsch, Josef von Sternberg and Victor Sjöström.

To Hazanavicius’s delight, Langmann agreed the film belonged in Los Angeles. “If Thomas had said to me, ‘Okay, we’ll make the film but we’ll shoot it in the Ukraine!, I would have gone to the Ukraine to shoot it,” the filmmaker remarks. “Thomas did everything within his power to allow us to shoot ‘The Artist’ where it should be shot, where the action took place.”

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Winner of the prize for Best Actor at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival and Best Picture at the 2012 Academy Awards, Michel Hazanavicius’s ‘The Artist’ is a heartfelt and entertaining valentine to classic American cinema.

Set during the twilight of Hollywood’s silent era and shot on location in Los Angeles, ‘The Artist’ tells the story of a charismatic movie star unhappily confronting the new world of talking pictures. Mixing comedy, romance and melodrama, ‘The Artist’ is itself an example of the form it celebrates: a black-and-white silent film that relies on images, actors and music to weave its singular spell.

Hollywood, 1927. George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) is one of Hollywood’s reigning silent screen idols, instantly recognizable with his slim moustache and signature white tie and tails. Starring in exotic tales of intrigue and derring-do, the actor has turned out hit after hit for Kinograph, the studio run by cigar-chomping mogul Al Zimmer (John Goodman).

His success has brought him an elegant mansion and an equally elegant wife, Doris (Penelope Ann Miller). Chauffeured to the studio each day by his devoted driver Clifton (James Cromwell), George is greeted by his own smiling image, emblazoned on the posters prominently placed throughout the Kinograph lot. As he happily mugs for rapturous fans and reporters at his latest film premiere, George is a man indistinguishable from his persona — and a star secure in his future.

For young dancer Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo), the future will be what she makes of it. Vivacious and good-humored, with an incandescent smile and a flapper’s ease of movement, Peppy first crosses George’s path at his film premiere and then as an extra on his latest film at Kinograph.

As they film a brief dance sequence, the leading man and the newcomer fall into a natural rhythm, the machinery of moviemaking fading into the background. But the day must finally end, sending the matinee idol and the eager hopeful back to their respective places on the Hollywood ladder.

And Hollywood itself will soon fall under sway of a captivating new starlet: talking pictures. George wants no part of the new technology, scorning the talkie as a vulgar fad destined for the dustbin. By 1929, Kinograph is preparing to cease all silent film production and George faces a choice: embrace sound, like the rising young star Peppy Miller; or risk a slide into obscurity.

The Journey

A celebration of Hollywood moviemaking at its most magical, ‘The Artist’ represents the fulfillment of a long-held dream for writer/director Michel Hazanavicius. “From the beginning of my career, I fantasized about making a silent film,” he says. “I call it a fantasy because whenever I mentioned it, I’d only get an amused reaction – no one took this seriously.”

But Hazanavicius was entirely serious. The legendary filmmakers he most admired had begun their careers in silent cinema: Alfred Hitchcock, Fritz Lang, John Ford, Ernst Lubitsch, F.W. Murnau, and, in his early years as a screenwriter, Billy Wilder. Mainly, though, he was drawn to the format for creative reasons.

“As a director, a silent film makes you face your responsibilities,” he remarks. “Everything is in the image, in the organization of the signals you’re sending to the audience. And it’s an emotional cinema, it’s sensorial; the fact that there is no text brings you back to a basic way of telling a story that only works on the feelings you have created. I thought it would be a magnificent challenge and that if I could manage it, it would be very rewarding.”

In 2006, Hazanavicius scored a critical and commercial success with his second theatrical feature, the buoyant spy spoof ‘OSS 117  – Cairo, Nest of Spies’, starring Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo. A sequel, ‘OSS 117 – Lost in Rio’, followed in 2009, cementing Hazanavicius’s reputation as a maker of artful and crowd-pleasing entertainment.

Set in the late 50s and early 60s, respectively, the films had given Hazanavicius a solid grounding in the logistics of period storytelling and cinematic tribute. With those back-to-back hits under his belt, the filmmaker decided to pursue his silent movie for his next project.

His quest for a producer eventually led him to Thomas Langmann, whose credits include the award-winning ‘Mesrine’ gangster films and whose father was the Oscar-winning filmmaker Claude Berri. Langmann immediately understood what Hazanavicius wanted to do and why. “Thomas is a producer like no other,” asserts Hazanavicius.

“Not only did he take what I said seriously, I saw in his eyes that he believed in it. It was no longer a fantasy but a project. I could start working.” Says Langmann, “Michel had such passion and understanding for the genre, and it was clear he had the creativity and drive to make a silent movie that would be vibrant, beautiful and relevant to the 21st Century. The whole idea was so daring, so enthralling, I didn’t hesitate to pledge my support to Michel.”

As he began mulling story ideas, Hazanavicius remembered an anecdote he’d heard from a family friend, screenwriter and playwright named Jean-Claude Grumberg. One day, Grumberg pitched a producer an idea about a silent movie actor ruined by the arrival of talkies. “The producer had replied: ‘That’s wonderful, but the ’20s — that’s too expensive. Couldn’t it be set in the ’50s?’” Hazanavicius recalls.

“That’s how this idea of a film set in the Hollywood of the late ’20s and early ’30s, in black and white, was formed. I don’t make films to reproduce reality.  What I love is to create a show and for people to enjoy it and be aware that’s what it is, a show. In any case, you can’t remake films exactly the way they were made 90 years ago.

Audiences have been exposed to so much; they are sharper, quicker and a lot smarter.  It’s exciting to stimulate them.” He continues, “My starting point was a silent movie actor who doesn’t want to hear anything about the talkies. I circled around this character, and then I got the idea of this young starlet and crossed destinies. Everything fell into place, including the themes — pride, fame, vanity, love.”

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The award for Best Original Score at the 2012 Academy Awards went to the French composer Ludovic Bource for his compositions featured in the movie The Artist. This was Bource’s first nomination, and he triumphed over such Oscar veterans as John Williams, Howard Shore and Alberto Iglesias. Bource  earlier also won the Golden Globe for his composition.

Credit: Darren Decker / ©A.M.P.A.S.

The Artist is a silent movie about the end of Hollywood’s silent movie era. For this reason, it is easy to understand the important role played by the score. In this particular style of movie, the music score not only is a magnificent support to the storytelling, but also fulfills the role of spectacular protagonists, as well as carry the mood of the movie.

Credit: Greg Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S.

Ludovic Bource began his acceptance speech at the ceremony by underlining the importance of music: “Wow, I want to pay, first of all, a tribute for the power of the music,” he said, then adding; “I’d like to thank the Academy; with this Oscar you have given a man a special honor. And to all of you, please accept me because I’ve got so much love to give.”

Ludovic Bource incorporated a variety of different sounds and moods in the score of The Artist; he sought inspiration from several directions. In an interview with ‘Classic FM,’ he said that he started by studying the period that inspired the movie, namely the 1920s-40s. This era saw the birth of jazz and swing, both of which influenced contemporary movie scores. Bource took inspiration from films like ‘Tabu: A Story of the South Seas’ and ‘Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans,’ among others. He then turned to the classical compositions of Tchaikovsky, Brahms, Wagner, and Debussy before creating his own sound for the film.

Credit: Greg Harbaugh / ©A.M.P.A.S.

The score was recorded with the Flanders Philharmonic Orchestra in Brussels. Although nothing is certain yet, rumor has it that there is a project for Bource to tour the world with a live orchestra, performing the compositions that thrilled the voters of the Academy Awards  to a live audience. In the interview with ‘Classic FM’ he expressed the specific desire to perform in London. The live tour would also visit several other cities in the world, including New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Brussels and Geneva. The tour experience is a throwback to the days of silent films, when movies were accompanied by live orchestras.

Image Courtesy of  Matt Petit / ©A.M.P.A.S. (Top Image)

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In celebration of this year’s Academy Awards, the Queen’s Film Theatre (QFT) in Belfast hosted a special screening of Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 hit film ‘The Godfather‘. The screening was in partnership with Jameson Irish Whiskey, and offered audiences the opportunity to relive, or experience for the first time, this Oscar-winning film on the big screen.

The Godfather, featuring an all-star cast headlined by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino, was a low-budget production which upon its initial release went on to take in close to $300,000,000 at the box office worldwide, as well as to win Academy Awards for Best Actor (Brando), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Drama.

Therefore, it was no surprise that the film was included in the QFT’s “series of special themed film experience events celebrating cult classics from a range of different genres“, or that Domino’s Pizza joined forces with the organisers to make this event more than just a typical trip to the cinema.

For this event, the QFT was transformed with a projected image of Brando in character hanging in the middle of the foyer. Audience members were treated to a special pre-show warm-up, during which they could pose with plastic top hats and novelty moustaches, but it wasn’t long before the film theatre was packed with eager fans waiting for the curtain to go up.

Only one woman admitted to being a first-time viewer of ‘The Godfather’, however, her admission garnered her nothing but envy from the speaker who introduced the film, while a prize raffle brought some extra entertainment value to the screening as various audience members won prizes ranging from tickets to future QFT/Jameson events, to a bottle of Jameson whiskey, and to a limited-edition artwork print of The Godfather, which was clearly the most sought-after item judging from the crowd’s disappointed groans when the winner was announced.

As for the film itself, there were no signs of fatigue or boredom from the dozens of people who had already seen the film countless times. In fact, iconic moments such as Hollywood producer Jack Woltz finding his horse’s decapitated head in bed with him received exactly the kind of mixed horror and amusement that one would have expected to hear from an audience during the film’s original theatrical run thirty-eight years ago.

It is a testament to the timelessness of this film that the audience was still engaged and responsive by the time the last scene faded to black well after 1a.m. The sold-out screening reflected the public’s eagerness to support the QFT and Belfast’s local film community, with the film’s introductory speaker noting that the QFT was the only film theatre in the city to offer screenings of ‘The Artist’ – a film widely tipped to win Best Picture at this weekend’s Academy Awards – and other critically-acclaimed films which often elude mainstream attention.

Perhaps the most surprising aspect of the night was that it managed to be such a success, especially at the price of £10 per ticket for a film which many can watch on DVD in the comfort of their own homes. Attendee Danielle Lavery put things into perspective by explaining that while she knew the film “inside-out”, there was something unique about viewing the film on the big-screen, the way it was originally intended and the way that The Godfather first made its indelible cultural mark on audiences around the world.

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Leading online betting firm Sky Bet has updated its full list of Oscars betting [http://www.skybet.com/betting/tv-and-film-specials/oscars/t10003442.html] markets ahead of the 84th Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday. Black and white silent movie ‘The Artist’, which picked up the Producers Guild Award and also won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy/Musical, looks a shoo-in to win Best Picture at 8/1 ON, with the odds having been cut from a pre-Christmas 2/1.

The French tribute to the silent movie received ten Oscar nods, although it was beaten by Scorsese’s 3D charmer ‘Hugo’ (25/1), which received 11 nominations. ’The Artist’ dominates several other categories, with its helmsman Michel Hazanavicius, looking certain to win Best Director at odds of 1/10 after being hailed as outstanding director of the year at the Directors’ Guild of America Awards last month.

The film’s leading man Jean Dujardin shot to favouritism in the Oscars Best Actor betting after winning the BAFTA and now heads the betting at 8/11 (from 2/1). George Clooney was relegated to second favourite to take home the lead actor gong for his performance in comedy-drama ‘The Descendants’ and may now be backed at 11/10, having drifted from 2/5. Gary Oldmanis bidding for his first ever Oscar and is quoted at 20/1 to win for his performance in ‘Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy’.

The lead in the Best Actress race has also changed over the past fortnight, with double Oscar winner and 17-time nominee, Meryl Streep, having been usurped at the top of the betting by ‘The Help’ star, Viola Davis. Davis is odds-on at 4/6 to prevent Streep (out to 11/10 from 1/2) claiming a third Oscar for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in ‘The Iron Lady’. It looks a two-horse race between Davis and Streep, with ‘My Week with Marilyn’ star, Michelle Williams, their nearest rival at 18/1.

Sky Bet’s Oscars betting expert, Helen Jacob, said: “The Artist seems way ahead of its rivals in the race to win Best Picture and Director but the lead acting categories are closer, with the favourites having flip-flopped in recent weeks.”

For Best Supporting Actor, Christopher Plummer (‘Beginners’) looks all but home and hosed at 1/33 and Octavia Spencer at 1/25 (‘The Help’) looks certain to land what could be the best actress double for ‘The Help’.

Sky Bet is also offering a number of novelty special bets on the Oscars ceremony itself, which takes place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, February 26th.

Veteran actress Meryl Streep accidentally swore onstage at the Globes and Sky Bet go 7/2 that the Oscars best actress winner turns the air blue again in her acceptance speech. It’s even money that the best actress cries during her speech and 10/1 that any recipient’s address consists of a single ‘Thank you!’

 Sky Bet Odds: Oscars Betting

Best Film

The Artist 1/16

The Descendants 10/1

Hugo 25/1

The Help 25/1

War Horse 40/1

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 80/1

Moneyball 80/1

Midnight in Paris 80/1

The Tree of Life 100/1

  Best Director

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist 1/10

Martin Scorsese – Hugo 6/1

Alexander Payne – The Descendants 22/1

Terrance Malik – The Tree of Life 33/1

Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris 50/1

Best Actor

Jean Dujardin – The Artist 8/11

George Clooney – The Descendants 11/10

Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 20/1

Brad Pitt – Moneyball 20/1

DemianBichir – A Better Life 50/1

Best Actress

Viola Davis – The Help 4/6

Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady 11/10

Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn 18/1

Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs 40/1

Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 50/1

Best Supporting Actress

Octavia Spencer 1/25

Berenice Bejo 8/1

Jessica Chastain 25/1

Melissa Mccarthy 25/1

Janet McTeer 40/1

Best Supporting Actor

Christopher Plummer 1/33

Kenneth Branagh 14/1

Max Von Sydow 22/1

Nick Nolte 33/1

Jonah Hill 40/1

Oscars specials

Lead or supporting actress to cry during acceptance speech Evens

Lead or supporting actor to swear during acceptance speech 9/4

Lead or supporting actress to swear during acceptance speech 7/2

Lead or supporting actor to cry during acceptance speech 6/1

Any recipient’s speech to consist of single “thank you” 10/1

Streaker to run on stage and interrupt ceremony 16/1

Any of the 6 major award winners to drop the statuette 16/1

Any winner to fall over on stage 20/1

George Clooney win best actor and Meryl Streep win best actress 6/4

George Clooney win best actor and The Descendants win best picture 9/1

George Clooney to win an Oscar No 8/11 Yes Evens

For the full range of Oscars odds from Sky Bet, click here [http://www.skybet.com/betting/tv-and-film-specials/oscars/t10003442.html]

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Nominations for the 84th Academy Awards were announced today (Tuesday, January 24) by Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Tom Sherak and 2010 Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence.

Sherak and Lawrence, who was nominated for an Academy Award for her lead performance in “Winter’s Bone,” announced the nominees in 10 of the 24 Award categories at a 5:38 a.m. PT live news conference attended by more than 400 international media representatives. Lists of nominations in all categories were then distributed to the media in attendance and online via the official Academy Awards website, www.oscar.com.

Academy members from each of the branches vote to determine the nominees in their respective categories – actors nominate actors, film editors nominate film editors, etc. In the Animated Feature Film and Foreign Language Film categories, nominations are selected by vote of multi-branch screening committees. All voting members are eligible to select the Best Picture nominees.

Nominations ballots were mailed to the 5,783 voting members in late December and were returned directly to PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the international accounting firm, for tabulation.

Official screenings of all motion pictures with one or more nominations will begin for members this weekend at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater. Screenings also will be held at the Academy’s Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood and in London, New York and the San Francisco Bay Area.

All active and life members of the Academy are eligible to select the winners in all categories, although in five of them – Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject and Foreign Language Film – members can vote only if they have seen all of the nominated films in those categories.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2011 will be presented on Sunday, February 26, 2012, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 4 p.m. PT/7 p.m. ET. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 225 countries worldwide.

Nominations for the 84th Academy Awards:

Actor in a Leading Role

• Demián Bichir in “A Better Life”
• George Clooney in “The Descendants”
• Jean Dujardin in “The Artist”
• Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”
• Brad Pitt in “Moneyball”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn”
• Jonah Hill in “Moneyball”
• Nick Nolte in “Warrior”
• Christopher Plummer in “Beginners”
• Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs”
• Viola Davis in “The Help”
• Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo”
• Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady”
• Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist”
• Jessica Chastain in “The Help”
• Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids”
• Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs”
• Octavia Spencer in “The Help”

Animated Feature Film

• “A Cat in Paris” Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli
• “Chico & Rita” Fernando Trueba and Javier Mariscal
• “Kung Fu Panda 2″ Jennifer Yuh Nelson
• “Puss in Boots” Chris Miller
• “Rango” Gore Verbinski

Art Direction

• “The Artist” Production Design: Laurence Bennett; Set Decoration: Robert Gould
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan
• “Hugo” Production Design: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo
• “Midnight in Paris” Production Design: Anne Seibel; Set Decoration: Hélène Dubreuil
• “War Horse” Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales

Cinematography

• “The Artist” Guillaume Schiffman
• “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Jeff Cronenweth
• “Hugo” Robert Richardson
• “The Tree of Life” Emmanuel Lubezki
• “War Horse” Janusz Kaminski

Costume Design

• “Anonymous” Lisy Christl
• “The Artist” Mark Bridges
• “Hugo” Sandy Powell
• “Jane Eyre” Michael O’Connor
• “W.E.” Arianne Phillips

Directing

• “The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius
• “The Descendants” Alexander Payne
• “Hugo” Martin Scorsese
• “Midnight in Paris” Woody Allen
• “The Tree of Life” Terrence Malick

Documentary (Feature)

• “Hell and Back Again” Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
• “If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front” Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
• “Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs
• “Pina” Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
• “Undefeated” TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Richard Middlemas

Documentary (Short Subject)

• “The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement” Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin
• “God Is the Bigger Elvis” Rebecca Cammisa and Julie Anderson
• “Incident in New Baghdad”James Spione
• “Saving Face” Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy
• “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom” Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen

Film Editing

• “The Artist” Anne-Sophie Bion and Michel Hazanavicius
• “The Descendants” Kevin Tent
• “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
• “Hugo” Thelma Schoonmaker
• “Moneyball” Christopher Tellefsen

Foreign Language Film

• “Bullhead” Belgium
• “Footnote” Israel
• “In Darkness” Poland
• “Monsieur Lazhar” Canada
• “A Separation” Iran

Makeup

• “Albert Nobbs” Martial Corneville, Lynn Johnston and Matthew W. Mungle
• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
• “The Iron Lady” Mark Coulier and J. Roy Helland

Music (Original Score)

• “The Adventures of Tintin” John Williams
• “The Artist” Ludovic Bource
• “Hugo” Howard Shore
• “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Alberto Iglesias
• “War Horse” John Williams

Music (Original Song)

• “Man or Muppet” from “The Muppets” Music and Lyric by Bret McKenzie
• “Real in Rio” from “Rio” Music by Sergio Mendes and Carlinhos Brown Lyric by Siedah Garrett

Best Picture

• “The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer
• “The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers
• “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer
• “The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers
• “Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers
• “Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers
• “Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers
• “The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined
• “War Horse” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

• “Dimanche/Sunday” Patrick Doyon
• “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg
• “La Luna” Enrico Casarosa
• “A Morning Stroll” Grant Orchard and Sue Goffe
• “Wild Life” Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby

Short Film (Live Action)

• “Pentecost” Peter McDonald and Eimear O’Kane
• “Raju” Max Zähle and Stefan Gieren
• “The Shore” Terry George and Oorlagh George
• “Time Freak” Andrew Bowler and Gigi Causey
• “Tuba Atlantic” Hallvar Witzø

Sound Editing

• “Drive” Lon Bender and Victor Ray Ennis
• “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” Ren Klyce
• “Hugo” Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty
• “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl
• “War Horse” Richard Hymns and Gary Rydstrom

Sound Mixing

• “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Bo Persson
• “Hugo” Tom Fleischman and John Midgley
• “Moneyball” Deb Adair, Ron Bochar, Dave Giammarco and Ed Novick
• “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Peter J. Devlin
• “War Horse” Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson and Stuart Wilson

Visual Effects

• “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2″ Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson
• “Hugo” Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning
• “Real Steel” Erik Nash, John Rosengrant, Dan Taylor and Swen Gillberg
• “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White and Daniel Barrett
• “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” Scott Farrar, Scott Benza, Matthew Butler and John Frazier

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “The Descendants” Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash
• “Hugo” Screenplay by John Logan
• “The Ides of March” Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon
• “Moneyball” Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin. Story by Stan Chervin
• “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• “The Artist” Written by Michel Hazanavicius
• “Bridesmaids” Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig
• “Margin Call” Written by J.C. Chandor
• “Midnight in Paris” Written by Woody Allen
• “A Separation” Written by Asghar Farhadi

The article 2012 Oscar Nominations Are Out: Scorsese’s Hugo Leads with 11 appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

The nominations for the 2012 BAFTA (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) Film Awards have been announced, and French silent film The Artist leads the field with twelve nominations including one for Best Film.

BAFTA’s announcement of the nominees comes just days after The Artist and The Descendants swept the board at the 69^th Annual Golden Globes Awards, and it seems likely that both films will experience similar success at Britain’s equivalent to the Academy Awards.

The two aforementioned films will go head-to-head in the categories of Best Film and Best Leading Actor (for Jean Dujardin and George Clooney), while their screenplays will each compete in the Original and Adapted Screenplay categories, respectively.

Other Golden Globes winners are included in this year’s nominations, namely: The Adventures of Tin Tin: The Secret of the Unicorn for Best Animated Film; Meryl Streep for her leading role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady; and Octavia Spencer for Supporting Actress in The Help.

Meanwhile, Martin Scorsese, has been nominated for his directorial job with Hugo and will also be the recipient of this year’s BAFTA Fellowship, placing him in such Academy ranks as, Sir Charles Chaplin, Steven Spielberg, Dame Maggie Smith, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Dame Judi Dench – all of whom have received the Fellowship since Alfred Hitchcock’s special recognition in 1971 for “outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image. It is the highest honour the Academy bestows”.

Unsurprisingly, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2, the conclusion to the most successful film series in box office history and one which helped elevate the British Film Industry during the 2000s, failed to pick up any nominations for its acting, directing or screenplay; however, it did earn a place on the shortlist for Best Make Up & Hair, Sound and Special Visual Effects.

The Harry Potter film series has had mixed success during awards season in the past, but it was thought that a last-minute promotional push from Warner Bros. might help Deathly Hallows Part 2 achieve some recognition from the major award voters this season.

Nevertheless, the BAFTA voters have acknowledged one British cinema hit: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of the 1974 espionage thriller novel of the same name. Cast member Gary Oldman has been nominated for Best Leading Actor, while the film itself will vie for: Best Film, Best British Film, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Original Music, among several others.

The awards will be held on Sunday February 12 at London’s Royal Opera house, airing on BBC One, and will be hosted by Stephen Fry for the first time since 2006.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.mtv.co.uk

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