So much to say; so little time. Ellen hops on that stage in under an hour, and what have I missed? I still didn't finish wrapping up 2007 2006 (thanks Cinetrix for being copyeditor to my mushy brain); I never put up my Spirit Awards or Razzies ballots; I haven't even stopped by to mention what's been going on at "the job" that has involved a bit of writing. And oh yes ... everything recently is about "the job."
This year, in addition to my old position (and miscellaneous other hats), I've been included as an official member of the Tribeca programming team: Associate Programmer has been added to my title. Suffice it to say, my DiVo is constantly taunting me, screaming, "Look at all you've recorded, and now watch it disappear because you don't have the room. You're not watching. You're spending too much time with all those sketchy DVDs of movies you may forget half-an-hour after you've finished them."
Actually, this year's Tribeca program looks like it's going to be great. (It will be announced in mid-March.) We're at the point now where the hard decisions come as movies we love won't get a spot because there simply aren't enough. Last night, I was up until 4:30 AM screening films; today we were in the office all day starting the slotting process -- assigning screening times. (We've also set-up a camera recording one frame every 30 seconds. When the program is announced, we're planning on putting the time-lapse video up on the Tribeca website so everyone can see the "magic" of lots of index cards and velcro.)
But what does any of this have to do with Oscar? Not much. Nor do I have time or am I much in the mood to write a quick prediction post that nobody will see until after the awards anyway. But here are some things I did want to shout out about:
In case you didn't read it before, I did an interview on the Tribeca site with Jesus Camp directors (and all around awesome gals) Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady. You can read our Q&A here. But even more fun has been the fact that Heidi and Rachel have kept a little diary (with pics!) about their road to the Oscars on the Tribeca site, and if you haven't checked it out, you should. You can find it here, and we're expecting some great post-ceremony material this next week. Meanwhile, I'm definitely rooting for Jesus Camp tonight, although I'm expecting that the Powerpoint Presentation Al Gore did not direct will actually win.
I also did an interview for the Tribeca site with Mark Fergus. Mark directed, and with his writing partner Hawk Ostby co-wrote, the film First Snow, which world premiered at Tribeca last year and is getting a theatrical release next month. Right now, Fergus and Ostby are writing the script for next summer's big comic book adaptation of Iron Man. That film is about to go into production with Jon Favreau directing Robert Downey Jr (in the title role) and Gwyneth Paltrow. But I spoke to Mark because he and Hawk also were writers on Children of Men, and that credit earned them a Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award nomination. I'm actually rooting for them, not for any Tribeca reasons but simply because as much as I appreciate William Moynahan's work on The Departed, I think the former's adaptation was actually more difficult and accomplished from a writing perspective. (Although in an ideal world, we'll see Sacha Baron Cohen up there for Borat.)
I'm prepping myself for a great amount of outrage tonight. I can't tell whether Little Miss Sunshine's win at yesterday's Spirit Awards is a good omen meaning that it's not going to pull an upset tonight or if it's a scary forewarning of giving this fun but flawed -- and nowhere near top 5 of the year -- movie accomplish something that only Platoon has done: won Best Picture at both the Spirits and the Oscars. The race for Most Overrated Film of 2006 will be decided tonight. Babel is still the clear favorite. Little Miss Sunshine can grab this title if it wins Best Picture, but otherwise Babel owns it. Even if the right film does win -- i.e., The Departed -- Babel still gets this web site's most inauspicious honor thanks to its Golden Globe win.
The only award that truly counts this year is Best Director, unless the DGA was incorrect for only the seventh time and Martin Scorsese doesn't win. Considering that the next two rightful honorees -- Alfonso Cuaron and Guillermo del Torres -- aren't even nominated, it really would be criminal if anyone else takes home the statue. And anyone calling this a lifetime honor would be doing Scorsese a great disservice. Had he won for Gangs of New York or even The Aviator, that would be a somewhat fair argument. But The Departed is more than a genre picture and a great filmmaking achievement.
Next to Scorsese winning, the next thing that would make me happy would be seeing Pan's Labyrinth win in all six of its categories. I know it won't happen, but it deserves it.
If I can get away from slotting, I hope to wrap up 2007 for myself (and you) along with reactions to this weekend's awards -- as much as I'd like to say The Black Dahlia was the worst film of the year, can I 100% argue with the Razzie for Basic Instinct 2, which I have yet to see?
Anyway, Happy Oscar everyone.