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Because we can: A few more thoughts on Oscar's decathlon day

By Steven Zeitchik

Our phone's been ringing off the hook ever since the ol' AMPAS crew decided to go with the everyone's-a-winner mentality. Mostly that's been awards publicists pitching their movies as best-pic contenders -- "It doesn't matter if you haven't seen any of them, you have  _ten_ movies to choose from." But it's also been consultants hashing out what this means for the awards business. A few nuggets:

-- To Trek or Not to Trek. The conventional thinking is that this opens up the field to a few tentpoles, because those were the ones just missing the cut before. But there's a whole other category that was getting overlooked: the movies pigeonholed simply as "performance" pictures (From last year, "The Wrestler" comes to mind.) Those type of generally overlooked specialty pics may just as likely crowd out the Star Trek and generally overlooked tentpole pics. Plus when it comes to said big-budgeters you can change rules, but you can't change perception. If something wasn't seen as a contender before, the idea that there are a few more lines on a voting sheet probably won't change that. There's always a dark drama to fill the void.

-- Studio Revival. The studios have done their damnedest to get out of the awards business. But the awards business just keeps pulling them back in. Despite most lots' success in not spending much on awards (Paramount and Ben Button excepted), they may now be roped back into the glitz, the glamour, the absurd overspending. Which leads us to...

--Vanity just got Vainer. Under the old system, certain stars -- ahem, Will Smith, ahem -- tended to get campaigns just because studios wanted to keep them happy. In the past, that meant the star's reps made a push, the studio made a nominal effort, and that was that. But the ten slots for best pic means reps -- obviously for directors and producers, but also for stars -- now have a lot more leverage. They can say, sure, so-and-so had no chance under the old system. But the new one? It's a lock. The end result could be a proliferation of futile campaigns of the sort we haven't seen since Michael Dukakis.

The dark side of Oscar's move to 10

By Steven Zeitchik

We love the idea that the Oscars are "returning" to a 10-film best pic race -- the last time it happened was in the middle of World War II, so not exactly something most of us remember fondly.

Still, Sid Ganis' announcement today that the Academy will double the number of nominees for its top prize this year is both a shrewd marketing move and a questionable policy change, and there'll no doubt be plenty to say about it over the coming season.

Most obviously (and hopefully, from Ganis' standpoint), it broadens the kind of movies that could get nominated, potentially also broadening the audience for the telecast. If the assumption was that "The Dark Knight" last year was the sixth best-pic choice and "Iron Man" wasn't far behind, that would have meant two superhero nominees in the mix (superhero nominees with no chance of winning, but that's another matter).

Of course if the criteria remain the same, it may just mean that there are more art house pictures nominated (isn't art house what the Oscars are supposed to be about anyway?). Which means that the Academy hasn't so much democratized (read: gone tentpole) with its biggest category as much as it's given us more specialty movies.

Now imagine what could have happened with more action clips from The Reader

By Steven Zeitchik

So after a bigger song-and-dance than a Hugh Jackman number, all that fear from experts about Oscar ratings proved to be more notes than music.

As THR's James Hibberd reports over at The Live Feed, the unusual presentation, intimate setting and semi-noticeable nods to movies like "The Dark Knight" (or at least jokes about all those "The Dark Knight" fans) helped push ratings up 13% in the key 18-49 demo, and total viewers up to 36 million from the record low of 32 million last year.

That may not seem like a big gain, but in TV-land, flat is the new up (sports postseason competitions like the NBA Finals have been cut in half from their late 90's heyday) so any year when the Oscars show a bounce has to make the Academy happy.

There was a little bit of talk that while the Oscars played well in the room it didn't play as well at home -- a reversal of sorts from the Jon Stewart quipfest Oscars of three years ago that played well at home but not as well in the room -- but fans seemed to like the five-stars-per-acting-award onslaught and the quicker pace.

Oscar history proves that anytime a show makes gains, the stars tend to be back. So we may get a chance to see the Mark/Condon duoo again next year. Hold on to your tophat.

When the last Slumdog barks

By Steven Zeitchik

"God help whoever's in charge of putting them to bed," Danny Boyle said backstage after his victory, referring to the "Slumdog" kids.

And indeed the partying, with said kids, continued until an hour well past midnight at One Sunset in West Hollywood, site of the official Searchlight afterbash. "Slumdog" actors young and younger were out in force, soaking up the red carpet and snapping photos. They may be struggling to keep afloat in a place of poverty and overcrowding, but they still seem to know how to use the iPhone.

Then again, as ripsnorting as the Searchlight bash was, it was nothing compared to the celebration in Mumbai.

Comment about bedtimes wasn't the only good-natured sentiment expressed by "Slumdog" filmmakers backstage, where producer Christian Colson went optimistic, saying he believed the film's best pic prize would change the mind-set at the biggies.

"Even the studios will take note that we made this for 7 million pounds. and it's about to cross $100 million in the U.S.," he said. "That's good business for them. It really is. Hopefully this means that the great scripts that don't tick all the boxes can get made."

(Nice idea, though we're a little bit skeptical.)

There was some other freshness honored Sunday, incidentally the last Oscars until 2011 to take place in February (next year the winter Olympics takes care of the 14th, 21st and 28th, while the 7th is the Super Bowl -- will they go as early as January or the first week in March?).

On the "Slumdog" music side, A.R. Rahman's score and that new anthem of American youth, "Jai Ho," took prizes. Not surprising: the doc category, where for the first time in several years the most commercially successful entry was also the winner, as Magnolia's "Man on Wire" captured the Oscar.

On receiving the prize, the film's subject Philippe Petite said that he planned a series of high-wire acts in New York in the fall. Coming on the heels of so much specialty-division precariousness, that seemed like all too appropriate a metaphor.

More backstage: Winslet gets direct

By Steven Zeitchik

The actress, in a teary appearance that also saw her run into a gang of reporters and hug one who's covered her since teenage days, says she gives little shrift to those who say she plays a Nazi too sympathetically.

"I cant be responsible for the emotional response that an audience has to any film, and going into it I was aware if they did feel any sympathy for Hanna, that would be an interesting emotion for them to deal with. But it certainly wasn't my intention to make people sympathize with an SS guard."

She also gets on the British tabs who've critiqued her crying at some of the awards show: "It makes me very sad that my own country can't be happy for my success in the way that America really seems to be. So I really don't care." (More backstage bits, by the way, when we're off a few other deadlines...)

And then she very directly -- after a moment of pause -- answers the question of who should do nude scenes now that she apparently won't.

"Susan Sarandon," she says. There's something refreshing about her whole performance; it's schmaltzy, sure but with none of the awards-season poses we're used to seeing in this kind of venue.

Then again, maybe things are so rehearsed at the show that we'll take any bit of spontaneity. Awards-season bloggers are, after all, an easy bunch.

Slumdog is Coronated

By Steven Zeitchik

In the least surprising best picture coda in years, "Slumdog Millionaire" is crowned -- we mean given best picture -- and by Steven Spielberg (who once called "Ben Button" an "American classic," you may recall).

The movie ends its remarkable run with the same way it began, winning its umpteenth major prize and its eighth Oscar of the night, losing out only in sound editing.

All the kids, actors, producers and everyone else gets up on stage. Christian Colson notes that how "we didn't have enough money to do what we wanted to do...but a script that inspired mad love and a genius of a director and a cast and a crew whose commitment was unwavering."

Most interesting in all the thank-you from Colson: no mention for Warners, Alan Horn or anyone else. Boyle has been more vocal about it in toher awards show, as he was tonight, but still a notable bit of drama. Or at least the only notable bit of drama for this most undramatic win.

Picking up a Penn?

We have a strange feeling Sean Penn is pulling this out. And a minute later, he does, to the chagrin of Vince McMahon and thousands of fans who like to seek out speeches on YouTube.

Mickey, give us another comeback.

Sean, from the stage, has a rare moment of self-awareness: "You commie, homo-loving sons of guns. I did not expect this and I want it to be very clear and I do know how hard I make it to appreciate me often. But I am touched by the appreciation."

Then he does get political after all, saying "it's a good time for those who voted for the ban againt gay marriage" to take a look at themselves. "We got to have equal rights for everyone."

He ends with a very  tactical mention of Rourke -- after their supposed feud -- "He is my brother."

We can't wait for the first post-show Rourke interview.

Winslet's new chapter

Sixth time's the charm for Kate Winslet. The actress picks up the prize for "The Reader," after being nommed (but not winning) five times before.

"I was probably eight-years-old and staring into a shower mirror, and this (Oscar) would have been a shampoo bottle. Well, it's not a shampoo bottle now." Then a nice impromptu moment, asking her dad to whistle.

But she goes back to the more teary speech she's been given all season winning trophies, "I want to acknowledge my fellow nominees, these godesses."

And now this scorecard note: The Weinstein Company has two wins, more than any specialty division besides Searchlight.

The pot Boyles over

Danny Boyle continues the Slumdog Express, winning for best director and thanking Peter Rice, Tessa Ross et al. And the nice, if repetitive shout-out to the people of India, this time with an Academy twist. "All of you helped make the film. Thank you so much. You dwarf even this guy."

And now "Slumdog," with wins for "Jai Ho" and A.R. Rahman's score, is now poised to win eight of the nine categories it was nominated in (it missed for sound editing, to "Dark Knight"). It's unlikely to miss again.

Slumdog Gazillionaire, really.

Foreign-language is a Departure

By Steven Zeitchik

The first -- and possibly last -- true upset of the night. "Departures" indeed pulls it out over "Waltz With Bashir."

Yojiro Takita's Japanese tale -- about a young man in a small town who think he's working as a travel agent but really has gotten a job in a mortuary -- has the feel of a foreign-language winner. But there was so much acclaim and a pile of statues for "Bashir," not to mention plenty of topicality, that it was hard to imagine how it would lose. But it did -- and landed Asia's first win since "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" in 2000.

Regent Releasing is bringing out the film -- probably with just a slight bit more fanfare. The foreign-language winner has earned in the solid $5 million range or higher the past few years.

Quick housekeeping bit: Running a little behind with the Ledger stuff. More on docs and music categories shortly.

Heath Ledger's family: Our Son Knew

By Steven Zeitchik

Just before he died, Heath Ledger had an inkling he might get a statuette for his performance as The Joker in "The Dark Knight," which earned him a  posthumous best supporting actor Oscar Sunday. After alluding to it on the podium, the Ledger family elaborated backstage on a conversation they had with him

"When he came home for Christmas a year ago he had been sending me shots and bits of pieces from the film," sister Kate Ledger told reporters. "And I said to him, 'I have a feeling this is it for you; you're going to get a nomination for this from the Academy.' And he just looked at me and smiled. So he knew."

The family said the Oscar itself would be held in trust in either the U.S. or Australia, before given to Heath Ledger's daughter Matilda upon her turning eighteen.

That daughter, family members said, remind them of their father every day

"You just have to look at Matilda to know she's totally like her daddy. She has the same mannerisms," said mother Sally Bell. "It's a delight to know she's full of the same enthusiasm and energy, and she looks a little like him."

Ledger's parents that their son showed early signs of precociousness -- in a way that evoked mixed feelings. "Heath was always watching films and playing the fool and horsing around," Kim Ledger said. "He was very intelligent in a lot of ways and it always worried me as a parent, because  you've got to find something you're good at and stick to it because you might have to make a buck one day."

Asked how her son would have felt going through the awards-season process had he lived, Bell said: "I think he would have been quietly pleased," she said. "He was very proud of what he did. Heath was never one to be over the top with anything. but i think he would have been quietly pleased that it's recognized by his peers in the industry."

The entire scene -- in which the family also said that they'd seen bits of Ledger's last appearance on celluloid in Tery Gilliam's "Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus" -- was moving even to  many of the hardened souls in the press room. What was so striking was that when we watch this spectacle, we see Heath Ledger, but the family is enduring the loss of a son. And yet they carried it off with grace and even a little humor. Very touching.

 

The Dark Knight, the Oscar snub with more airplay than the nominees

The visual effects category has become the Super Bowl commercial of the Oscars. Plenty of explosions and shot of "Dark Knight" et al., part of the "post-production" segment of this weird making-of-a-movie conceit.

Then Will Smith coming out and taking knocks at arthouse movies, saying they don't have fans. "Sometimes action movie doesn't get the respect they deserve," It's almost like producers are apologizing for the "Dark Knight" snub. But it only goes so far: "Button" with its third Oscar, triumphing over "Dark Knight" in what our resident expert Carolyn Giardina says is hardly a surprise. 

Dark Knight gets on the board next with sound editing, though -- interestingly, the same prize that last year's potentially snubbed blockbuster "The Bourne Ultimatum" picked up. Chris Nolan really is the new Paul Greengrass.

A serious moment for the Joker

By Steven Zeitchik

Heath Ledger wins...but the real drama comes with the acceptance. Would it be Christopher Nolan? His family? Another actor?

And it is the family. "Father Kim Ledger, mother Sally Bell and sister Kate Ledger accept the Oscar," the voice over tells us, and the standing ovation follows.

Kim says it is "ever so humbling" and then thanks Academy, Warners, Christopher Nolan, and his son's agent.

"This award tonight would have humbly validated his quiet determination, to be truly accepted by all of you here, his peers, by all those he so loved."

Sally notes his "generous soul" and adds "We have been truly overwhelmed bestowed upon him with his award. Tonight we are choosing to celebrate what he has achieved."

And then Kate: "Heath, we both knew what you had created in the Joker was extraordinarily special and you even talked about being here today (interesting tidbit). We really wish you were, but we will happily accept this award on behalf of your lovely Matilda."