I have to say, a lot of this morning's poo-pooing of the Oscar ceremony last night is a bit hyperbolic for my taste.  The mixed critical reactions, that is.  I found the night to be rather swift and host Jon Stewart to be at the top of his game.  Sure, there were a number of montages that should have been nixed.  The Best Picture bit that Jack Nicholson presented comes to mind as considerably unnecessary.  But by my watch, the thing was over in less than four hours, something around three and a half...and that's ALWAYS a good thing.  Right?

But let's get into it.  The season has come to a close and the Coen brothers, Scott Rudin and "No Country for Old Men" had their day to shine.  Good for all involved.  It's the most un-Academy win since "The Silence of the Lambs," but that's the way things go sometimes.

There were surprises in store for some.  Such as Marion Cotillard and Tilda Swinton taking the leading and supporting actress trophies, swooping in at the last minute to steal away the thunder of the night's frontrunners.  Personally, I saw this coming, but no one could deny the possibility was there and the situations were ripe for upsets.  Both speeches, by the way, were quite good.  Cotillard was appropriately emotional (as was Diablo Cody, who even choked me up with her teary acceptance).  Swinton, meanwhile, offered that Tilda charm and sass that has become something of a staple this season for the "Michael Clayton" star.

The biggest shocks of the night for me came in the craft races, where "The Bourne Ultimatum" snuck in and grabbed the sound editing and sound mixing statuettes.  The latter category had been primed as a race between "Transformers" and "No Country for Old Men," a considerable media concentration given the nominations tally of Kevin O'Connell and Greg P. Russell.  Sadly, they missed yet again and this was their last shot at getting it together.  They'll go off and, obviously, churn out great work separately, so this isn't the end of days.  But it would have been a nice bow on their partnership, to be sure.

I think the best moments of the evening both involved the film "Once."  The first was Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova's performance of "Falling Slowy," which elicited a huge cheer from the crowd.  The second was Jon Stewart's insistence that Irglova come back out and be given her moment to offer what ultimately was, let's face it, the bes speech of the evening.  Trigger happy bands really piss me off and someone needs to key them into the fact that some people you just don't scoot away like that.  This was a songwriting DUO, the two STARs of the film, for Pete's sake.  Give them both their moment, please.

The "Enchanted" numbers became a bit tedious after a while, and I couldn't help but wish Eddie Vedder had been there to mix things up.  There are no two ways about it.  The music branch embarassed itself this year.  That's my opinion, in any case.

Apparently the ratings were the lowest ever, which it is foolish to attribute (as some have) to the actual show.  I would say one need only look at the slate of rather unpopular Best Picture nominees to find out why the public at large wasn't very interested.  Personally, I thought it was the best year for movies in a long while.  But just look at the box office rankings to see what people preferred.  It's not in line with Oscar.

Anyway, now we look ahead to next year, right?  RIGHT?  Well, those of us who are nuts, in any case.  Scott Rudin and the Coens will be back, for different projects.  Josh Brolin, Sean Penn, Angelina Jolie, Frank Langella, Russell Crowe, George Clooney -- all heading back to the race.  Returning filmmakers include Ridley Scott, Joe Wright and David Fincher, while Paramount Pictures once again has the glut of product to consider.  And there'll be a "titanic" reunion in store for the nostalgic romantics in the crowd.

But we'll get there.  For now, let's just all enjoy the release of another Oscar year in the rear view mirror.  It's been a blast contributing here at variety this season,a nd I hope you've all enjoyed reading.  We'll weather the fallout in the coming days and call it quits at the end of the week.

Happy Monday.

The night's two biggest awards are handed out as "No Country for Old Men" takes Best Picture and Best Director(s).  The Coens become the only duo to ever win Best Director and Scott Rudin finally gets his Oscar.  So that's a wrap, and a rather unsurprising one at that (despite Rudin's attempt at modesty).  Here's how we wrapped things up at The Movie Blog.

Alright, I'm going to head out for now and do some socializing.  I'll be back either late this evening or in the morning to wrap the night up.

There are a couple of stories up this week detailing the correlation between box office and film awards success, starting here at home base with Pamela McClintock's Thursday piece.  The story is a pure numbers crunch, no quoted sources, but it gives the clear indication that, this year specially, the golden guys matter.

Here's how she kicks things off:

There's been an unusually strong awards box office bump this year, with the five best picture contenders combining to gross $97 million domestically since Academy Award nominations were announced Jan. 22.

That's more than double the $44 million pulled in by last year's class during the same frame.

No one expected the uptick to come in at record levels, considering the five noms are specialty films that, outside of Fox Searchlight's runaway hit "Juno," offer gloom-and-doom storylines. Also, two of the films -- Warner Bros.' "Michael Clayton" and Miramax's "No Country for Old Men" -- were well into their runs.

Heading into Oscar weekend, the total combined domestic cume for five best picture noms, which all began as limited releases, through Tuesday was $314.4 million, according to Rentrak. That compares to a combined cume of $287.8 million last year.

Last year, the best picture contenders grossed an average of $8.8 million between the time of the Oscar announcements and the week before the ceremony. In each of the two years prior to that, the top noms grossed an average of $13 million during the same time period.

This year, the average is $19.4 million.

Check out the rest.


Meanwhile, over at USA Today, I spoke with Anthony Breznican for a story concerning the Oscars as a cog in the marketing scheme rather than the victory lap they used to be.  Also quoted are Lionsgate prexy Tom Ortenberg, Awards Daily's Sasha Stone and Box Office Mojo's Brandon Gray.

Here's a look:

Today, every major film studio has specialty departments designed to create offbeat, smart contenders for the awards. They typically are films with modest budgets (usually less than $50 million) and limited promotion — at least initially.

In essence, such films are orchestrated to start off as word-of-mouth favorites among devoted moviegoers. As a result, they can wind up as Academy Award nominees with relatively few people having seen them.

Three films that fit that model are among the five contenders for best picture at the Academy Awards, which air live on Sunday (ABC, 8 p.m. ET/5 PT). They involve a bloodthirsty pioneer oilman (There Will Be Blood), an air-gun-toting killer (No Country for Old Men) and a pregnant teenager (Juno).

The films — up against Michael Clayton and Atonement for best picture — have generated increasing buzz for months. But only Juno is a bona fide blockbuster so far, with a surprising $125.5 million in box-office receipts. The Oscar nominations are likely to spread the windfall.

The rest.

As I told Anthony when we spoke, I have never dug into these sorts of numbers to glean any real pattern or consistency.  It makes my brain hurt.  But it is, regardless, difficult to discredit the role award play in a film's profit.  However, I'm of the mind that Oscar success plays into the home market more fiercely than in the box office run.

A sticker that says "Academy Award Winner" is an enticing addition to a DVD case, and as I told Anthony, all one need do is take a look at, say, the netflix list of most rented movies in the weeks following the race to see films like "Mystic River" and "Crash" dominating the top 10 most rented titles.

In any case, it's a circular conversation and a part of the equation parties much better versed (and indeed, much more affected) will coninute to pick at until the end of days.

In his annual pre-Oscar column, LA Times film critic Kenneth Turan has called a vote for "Michael Clayton" a vote for Hollywood itself, and "Thoughtful, adult studio films."  He says a vote for "No Country for Old Me," on the other hand, is a vote for the Hollywood art film, and in writing as much, he has me wondering if there might be an upset in the works after all.

Take a look:

A victory for this smart and suspenseful legal thriller would be more than a vote for the only one of the five to be distributed by an actual studio. It would be a vote for a beautifully remodeled classic studio picture, an impressively updated version of the kind of movie "they just don't make anymore."

All the elements of vintage Hollywood filmmaking are present and accounted for in "Michael Clayton," starting with writer-director Tony Gilroy's heightened and dramatic dialogue. Add to that the ability of a peerless cast, including George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton, to animate characters who are at once familiar archetypes and completely individual. Finally, there's Gilroy's instinct for the emotional jugular, a storytelling panache that is almost a lost art all by itself.

Is Turan predicting "Clayton" here?  I'm not sure.  However, I must say, I still don't understand this mentality that Tony Gilroy's film, though expert in its genre, is anything more than passable as a work of "great" cinema.  Perhaps I'm alone, and regardless, the industry has proven itself head over heels for the effort, so maybe...just maybe...Warner Bros. can catch the world off guard tomorrow night and steal one away from Miramax, the Coen brothers, Cynthia Swartz and Scott Rudin.

We'll see.

The truth is, this has been the race since day one following the nominations announcement.  All other comers are mere pretenders in the face of a battle between big studio and modest specialty division.  This is the race.  These are the players.

Check out the rest of Turan's column.

•  The local ABC affiliate sits down with Kevin O'Connell and Greg P. Russell to discuss the art of sound mixing and their history with Oscar. [ABC]

•  Steve Chagollan talks to this year's honorary Oscar recipient, art director Richard Boyle. [Variety]

•  Anne Thompson rounds up a few pundit predictions. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  Sasha Stone, meanwhile, starts her big ole' compilation chart. [Awards Daily]

•  Jon Stewart speaks!  Bill Carter does the reporting at the Gray Lady. [New York Times]

•  Edward Havens handicaps the Oscar race. [Film Jerk]

•  Jeffrey Wells keeps this "Juno" thing going with one guy's assessment of some unquantifiable British sentiment. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Don't think about taking an embed, biatch!  The Oscars get tubed. [YouTube]

•  Michele Norris talks to the two poor souls from Price Waterhouse tasked with counting all 6,000 ballots. [NPR]

•  Pete Hammond hits the nail on the head: it's a year of upsets; why not Oscar, too? [The Envelope]

•  Tom O'Neil tosses around the "actor rule" reagarding Best Picture winners. [Gold Derby]

•  The Gurus o' Gold do not expect "No Country for Old Men" to lose at all on Sunday. [Movie City News]

•  Gurus 2.0 offer up their final guesses as well. [Movie City News]

•  Nathaniel Rogers hearts the fact that love can survive in Hollywood, spotlighting the 34 year marriage of Sissy Spacek and "There Will be Blood" production designer Jack Fisk. [The Film Experience]

Are you kidding me?

•  If you're too cool for school Sunday night and won't be watching the Oscar like the rest of us, let your cell phone do the work. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  David Edelstein humors the reasoning that allows for a "Juno" Best Picture victory. [The Projectionist]

•  Jeffrey Wells is beside himself at such insinuations. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  David Carr thinks it's all a bunch of hot air and over-analysis. [The Carpetbagger]

•  Yours truly, meanwhile, happens to think it's pretty much a no-brainer at this point...sadly. [In Contention]

•  Sasha Stone advocates for "No Country" one...last...time, posting a full blown sequence from the film to make sure the point is made. [Awards Daily]

•  Jay Fernandez digs into the year's nominated scripts, with a eye toward vibrant characterizations. [The Envelope]

•  Tom O'Neil chats it up with sound mixer Kevin O'Connell backstage at the CAS Awards over the weekend. [Gold Derby]

•  Noah Forrest takes a stab at predicting the winners. [Movie City News]

•  Tim Long prolongs (heh) the anti-Oscar, elitest attitude at Vanity Fair. [Little Gold Men]

•  More predictions from T.L. Stanley. [Gold Rush]

•  A separate set from some cruis ship bartenders. [Cinematical]

•  Lou Lumenick predicts it right down the friggin' middle. [New York Post]

Two stories landed this week, from the AP and USA Today respectively, regarding Marfa, Texas, the westerly town that played host to the productions of "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" last year.

Here's a look at Scott Bowles' piece at USA Today:

Not that many Marfans have seen either film. The closest theater is in Alpine, 26 miles east. The tiny Rangra Theater, however, does have two screens. One is showing No Country, the other Blood. Neither sells out much.

"I thought they were OK," retired rancher Bill Owens, 61, says over an enormous dill pickle, a favorite theater concession. "I hope they win (Oscars) because it'll be good for Marfa. A little artsy-fartsy, though. They weren't no Giant, I'll tell you that."

Hahahaha!  I love it.  Next up, here's a peek at the un-by-lined AP story, via Yahoo! Movies:

When Hollywood needs Western desolation, it comes to Marfa.

More than 50 years ago, famed filmmaker George Stevens also settled on this area for his epic Texas oil tale "Giant," which starred Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean. (Stevens won a best director Oscar for "Giant" in 1957, the only win of that film's 10 nominations).

The stark, gorgeous landscape outside the town shows up in all three films, and it isn't just the wide open desert horizon that directors take advantage of. They also employ the locals.

In the depot scene from "Blood," filmed at the 59,000-acre MacGuire Ranch, it was lifelong rancher David Williams who led the group off the train. Not that he was scene-stealing.

"I wasn't trying to get in the movie or be a movie star," said Williams, 38.

When Williams first escorted location scouts here four years ago, the only structers were the long, unused railroad tracks that lead to Mexico and an old water tank that supplied steam engines of a past era. Houses, a block-long town, an oil well site and a church atop a hill were built later to represent Bakersfield, Calif., in 1910.

The New York Times, mind you, was all over this story waaaaay back in August of 2006.  Here's a look at Whitney Joiner's piece:

Until six months ago W. E. Love, also known as Chip, had not particularly intended to carry on his family’s cinematic legacy. Then Joel and Ethan Coen came to town.

Like many people raised in this isolated West Texas town near the Mexican border, Mr. Love, 49, grew up with a small connection to Hollywood: his grandmother was an extra in the 1956 film “Giant.” That Texas epic, touted at the time as the most expensive movie ever made, irrevocably changed Marfa, a drought-plagued ranching town that had long seen better days. The film’s stars — Rock Hudson, Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean — drew crowds at the Hotel Paisano on Marfa’s main street, and the movie employed hundreds of locals as extras.

Operating on a somewhat less grand scale, the Coens — the writing and directing team behind “Fargo,” “The Big Lebowski” and “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” — visited Marfa last March, as they searched for ranch land on which to film their latest project, an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s 2005 novel “No Country for Old Men.”

...The president of Marfa’s only bank, Mr. Love also owns a cattle ranch and gave the Coens a tour of his property when they scouted locations last spring. As the filmmakers and Mr. Love sat on his back porch talking, Joel Coen asked if Mr. Love would be interested in playing a small role in the movie.

“He said, ‘It’s pretty easy — it’ll just take a couple of days,’ ” Mr. Love recalled recently. “ ‘But there’s two bad things: You have to fall down, and you get killed.’ ” (The part Mr. Coen envisioned for Mr. Love was one of the hit man’s victims, who comes to a grotesquely bloody end.) Mr. Love warned the Coens that he wasn’t an actor: the only time he’d performed was in a high school production of “The Wizard of Oz.” “They said, ‘Perfect!’ ” he recalled. “I’m kind of bashful, but I thought it’d be a real goof.”

Check out the rest; it's a great read.

•  Anne Thompson writes up Saturday night's Art Directors Guild Awards. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  Rachel Abramowitz checks in with Tom Wilkinson, enjoying his great winter romance with the screen. [The Envelope]

•  David Carr explains the fascination with Oscar. [The Carpetbagger]

•  David Denby hearts the Coen brothers. [New Yorker]

•  Sasha Stone points us to the AP's Oscar week countdown. [Awards Daily]

•  Tom O'Neil concocts some Best Actor odds, wonders if George Clooney can pull an upset (uh...no). [Gold Derby]

•  Kim Voynar takes a stab at predicting the Oscar outcome... [Cinematical]

•  ...and explains why the Best Foreign Language Film category is something of a, well...a joke this year. [Cinematical]

(A piece regarding last night's ACE awards will be on the way later in the afternoon.  Lots of fun, lots to discuss.  Sorry for the delay.)

The American Cinema Editors handed out a slew of awards this evening that included top honors for "The Bourne Ultimatum" and "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" in the drama and comedy categories for narrative features.  Michael Moore's "Sicko" won out in the documentary field.

"Bourne" was sliced and diced into one of the summer's most successful actioners by Christopher Rouse, a longtime collaborator of director Paul Greengrass, while Tim Burton alumn Chris Lebenzon managed editorial duties on the December musical "Sweeney."  Geoffrey Richman, Chris Seward and Dan Swietlik edited Moore's health care doc.

Norman Jewison received the ACE Golden Eddie Filmmaker of the Year Award, as previously announced.

The occassion marks only the second miss for "No Country for Old Men" during the guild circuit (the other being with the cinematographers last month) as the Coen brothers' composite "Roderick Jaynes" has yet to be embraced by the editing community.

"Bourne" is largely seen as the favorite to win the editing Oscar as well.

(I am at the event presently and will report on the evening's goings-on later tonight.)

Another day another awards show.  I will be at the ACE Awards dinner this evening at the Beverly Hilton and will report back on the festivities later tonight.

The feature film nominees:

Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic):
"The Bourne Ultimatum," Christopher Rouse, A.C.E.
"Into the Wild," Jay Cassidy, A.C.E.
"Michael Clayton," John Gilroy, A.C.E.
"No Country for Old Men," Roderick Jaynes
"There Will Be Blood," Dylan Tichenor, A.C.E.

Best Edited Feature Film (Comedic):
"Hairspray," Michael Tronick, A.C.E.
"Juno," Dana E. Glauberman
"Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," Craig Wood & Steven E. Rivkin, A.C.E.
"Ratatouille," Darren Holmes, A.C.E.
"Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," Chris Lebenzon, A.C.E.

Best Edited Documentary:
"Darfur Now," Edgar Burcksen, A.C.E. & Leonard Feinstein
"The Pixar Story," Leslie Iwerks & Stephen Myers, A.C.E.
"Sicko," Geoffrey Richman, Chris Seward & Dan Swietlik

Well, fresh off of winningat the Cinema Audio Society this evening, it seems "No Country for Old Men" also won in the contemporary category at the Art Directors Guild Awards.  The only guild award the film has conceded to another pic thus far is the ASC trophy, which went to Robert Elswit and "There Will Be Blood."

Speaking of "Blood," Jack Fisk and company won in the period category, perhaps on the way to doing the same at the Oscars, while "The Golden Compass" won in the fantasy category.

Variety reports.

So, if you haven't already heard, "No Country for Old Men" took down the motion picture award at tonight's Cinema Audio Society Awards, and to be truthful, it was something of a surprise.

Sure, much has been made of Kevin O'Connell and Greg P. Russell's streak of losses at the Oscars, but they've also put up a goose egg with their peers.  It's really difficult to deny a sound job like that of "Transformers," and yet here it sits, winless, staring at the same possibilities for Oscar.

There is also no denying the creativity of the mix on "No Country," so let's not miss my meaning.  I spoke with re-recording mixer Craig Berkey before the show and had to tell him "bravo" for making the tracks on this guild-dominating film another character in the pic.  The clip the Society chose (and boy did they get risque with these clips) is probably one of the best examples of this team's work on the film: Javier Bardem's chilling Anton Chigurgh ambushes a hotel room full of Mexican thus as Josh Brolin's Llewelyn Moss listens from a nearby room.

It's just a different kind of "good," as I told one of mixers seated at my table tonight.  So it goes.

Berekey, who also, coincidentally enough, did some recording work on "Transformers," said he was encouraged that the media is slowly but surely turning its gaze toward the craft achievements.  It's something Gerard Kennedy and I have been fairly passionate about for two years now, and indeed, these individuals deserve the coverage.  Dorothea Sargeant, the CAS' publicist, has made some considerable strides since she took the organization on as a client.  Here's hoping the exposure continues.

Bill Condon received the Society's Filmmaker Award.  It was good to talk it up with him outside of the awards frenzy of last year, to be sure, and his speech was a hoot.  CAS member Michael Minkler presented the trophy to Condon, who offered a biting but comedic salute to "Dreamgirls" producer David Geffen as he accepted.

Meanwhile, the great Dennis Sands won the Lifetime Achievement Award,.  Sands has left his signature on everything from "Back to the Future" to "Predator," "Contact" to "Forrest Gump."  Composer Alan Silvestri presented the award, a longtime friend of Sands going back nearly three decades.

Greg P. Russell, in presenting the TV award this evening, gave his own touching tribute to Sands before going back to the script.  He recalled walking into the sound mix of "Romancing the Stone" way back in 1984 and how the technology at the time was like nothing he'd ever seen.  He said he was honored to call Sands a mentor, a colleague and a friend.

Off the topic of sound mixing, Tom O'Neil was bouncing around with his one-man camera show, grabbing an interesting video podcast with Kevin O'Connell out in the lobby.  We chatted about this Tilda Swinton craziness that has been spreading through the Oscarweb like wildfire since the BAFTA awards and, to be truthful, he almost made me rethink my position on the matter.  Almost.

Here are some images from the show:


Kevin O'Connell (left) and Bill Condon chat in the ballroom lobby.



The most surreal shot I've ever taken: Condon, ever the sport, films
Tom O'Neil's video podcast with O'Connell.  Only on the Oscarweb.



The strike has taken its toll on poor Mr. Condon, moonlighting
anonymously as an Envelope employee.  (I kid the Times.)



Condon accepts the Filmmaker Award.



The "No Country" sound crew reigns victorious.  O'Connell
and Greg P. Russell look on from the table directly in front of the stage.

I'll be attending tonight's Cinema Audio Society Awards at the Millennium Biltmore downtown and will try to post some commentary and pics from the event later this evening.

Greg P. Russell and Kevin O'Connell, of course, are trying not only for their first Oscar win this year, but for their first embrace from their peers in the society.  However, "No Country for Old Men" has become a popular choice in the guild circuit and, indeed, has been championed for its creative aural touches by the sound community as a whole.  So it'll be interesting to see how things play out.

Tomorrow the American Cinema Editors dish out their kudos.  From what I'm hearing, "The Bourne Ulatimatum" should reign triumphant there and not the Coens' Roderick Jaynes composite, believe it or not.  I think the Oscars might follow suit there.

And finally, the Art Directors Guild will hand out awards in three categories.  The period field will be the one to watch, where three Oscar nominees square off against one another: "Atonement," "Sweeney Todd" and "There Will Be Blood."

New York Magazine's Vulture blog points us to this intriguing Reuters story above Oscar obsessiveness gone too far.  No such thing, I know, but it seems the head chef of New York's Carlyle hotel has whipped up a five course meal representing each of the year's Best Picture nominees.

No, seriously.  Take a look:

The dinner will begin with roasted parsnip tart, fresh shaved black truffle and perigourdine sauce. It is a creation stemming from what Sakatos described as "Ellen Page's fun and somewhat tarty portrayal of Juno."

Black ink risotto, mushrooms, cuttlefish and blood orange foam make up the "There Will Be Blood" second course.

"The black ink brings to mind the film's oil gushers, with blood orange foam to remind diners of the struggle and, of course, the title," Sakatos explained.

He chose Dover sole for "Michael Clayton" after "George Clooney's morally conflicted lawyer found his 'sole' and ultimately did the right thing," while "No Country for Old Men" is "plenty of manly beef -- and true grits to boot."

A passion fruit creme brulee ends the meal, reflecting the great passions of "Atonement," from "the young lovers' embrace to the little girl's jealously that caused her false accusation and ultimately the final passionate moment of atonement."

Read the rest.

I didn't come across this until yesterday, but Sasha Stone keyed in to something pretty interesting in one of her "State of the Race" columns a few days ago.

In this final week of balloting, could the consistency of award wins for "No Country for Old Men" deter voters who long for something fresh this Oscar season?

Take a look at what Stone was thinking:

The year began with No Country for Old Men and is poised to end with No Country for Old Men. It is a film that has withstood all criticisms like teflon. But that was before it met the Academy. AMPAS has their own way of doing things, which is probably the reason No Country for Old Men, despite winning virtually every major guild award so far, stands to be upset by either Juno or Michael Clayton or the darker horse, There Will Be Blood. It stands to be upset for no other reason than this: by the time the ballots are turned in, boredom has set in.

Boredom is the thing that will often get a child into a trouble, lead an otherwise respectable woman astray, put a sensible man in harm’s way, not to mention what it can do to Academy voters and the fans who watch them. Boredom is the only thing that can derail No Country of Old Men, which is headed for the biggest awards win since American Beauty. Return of the King lost the WGA, Brokeback Mountain did not win the SAG ensemble.

I think it is a valid point.  What's more, at this moment, you can see the wheels turning and the campaign in action.  Agression is good, but with all of Paramount Vantage's milkshakes and all of Fox Searchlight's "'Juno Jargon Jenerators,'" Miramax is devouring the publicity circuit for its film like no other competitor.

Immediately after the nominations were announced, the studio set up a crafts Q&A with key below-the-line players.  Just two days ago, NPR was canvassed with a three-way as interviews for Javier Bardem, Scott Rudin and Joel and Ethan Coen seemed to dominate the station's programming.

The campaign is so out in the open, in fact, that David Poland recently called the film "the Cynthia Swartz Lovechild of the season."  When a film's Oscar strategist is spotlighted like that -- and I'm no expert here -- I don't think that's a good thing.

Poland went on to note that "'Lord of the Rings:  Return of The King,' 'Titanic,' 'American Beauty,' 'Schindler's List,' and 'Forrest Gump' are the only start-to-finish frontrunners to survive in the last 20 years."  So is "No Country" the start-to-finish frontrunner?

Not exactly, because the media blew a lot of hot air into the "Atonement" balloon early on.  But aside from that, the Coens' film has been considered, in some quarters, "the one to beat" since its October release and was championed as a critical fave contender since way back at Cannes.

Variety's own Anne Thompson covered the film's release plan last week in an article that, frankly, seemed a bit "right place, right time."  It was a great read from Anne, as always, but a column like that really pulls back the curtain and shows the strings.  A film that didn't reflect the awards push template suddenly seemed like an awards push from the beginning, no?

All the while, the film has been taking award after award after award.  "No Country" doesn't even need the ACE's Eddie Award to tie a record with the industry, as only one other film has ever won the DGA, PGA, WGA and SAG Ensemble awards ("American Beauty" in 1999).  Add to that the USC Scripter Award and the critical kudos and it becomes quite obvious that the film is in no short supply of laurels and acclaim.

Neither was "Brokeback Mountain," which, ironically enough, lost out in the end to another "Cynthia Swartz Lovechild" -- Lionsgate's "Crash."

No one can take away what "No Country" has accomplished this season.  If nothing else, it is important for the Coen brothers, two of the country's finest craftsmen, to finally get the awards recognition they deserve.  But an Oscar race is a funny thing, and the Academy has shown us time and time again that it will not be told what to write on that ballot.

You can't stop what's coming.  But there are also no clean getaways.

•  Kristin Thompson gets into the milkshake thing.  It's here to stay, folks. [DavidBordwell.net]

•  Jeffrey Wells points us to the Coen brothers' Wikipedia page, revealing the helmers' penchant for writing "the archetype of unstoppable evil" into their films. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Sasha Stone offers a "This is your life" look at the work of film editor "Roderick Jaynes."  Hear, hear! [Awards Daily]

•  Gina Piccalo talks to Gil Cates about "Plan A," safely underway with that pesky strike done and over with. [The Envelope]

•  The Coens "don't understand" the awards success and Oscar trajectory of "No Country for Old Men." [Los Angeles Times]

•  David Carr reviews "Atonement" in that bubble-wrapped state of aural diffusion he's making so wildly popular. [The Carpetbagger]

•  David Poland sticks up for poor Julian Schnabel, getting picked on for his eccentric pajama wearing.  I still don't understand why's he's become such an easy target.  I love the guy! [The Hot Blog]

•  William Keck sits down with SAG winner and Oscar nominee Ruby Dee. [USA Today]

•  Sasha Stone points us to the "No Country" campaign, teeth-bared, determined to win the big cheese, reaching full-blown overexposure as three -- count 'em -- three interview run on NPR (with producer Scott Rudin, directors Joel and Ethan Coen and Javer Bardem). [Awards Daily]

•  Gerard Kennedy chats it up with 20-timer Kevin O'Connell (nominated this year for "Transformers," as you surely know by now). [In Contention]

•  Jeffrey Wells was a little bummed at that mPRm BAFTA viewing party because of the -- well -- lack of suspense.  The winners, o course, were leaked earlier in the day. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Anne Thompson responds to the winners, gives her account of the night's festivities. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  Ever the authority on what we "learn," David Poland kicks off the ten lessons of the 2007-08 Oscar season. [Movie City News]

•  A pie chart representing release dates and their representation in Oscar's ultimate nominees throughout the years. [The Film Experience]

•  Robert Downey, Jr. calls it a "crime" that Joe Wright was snubbed for "Atonement" during a set visit of the director's upcoming "The Soloist." [Guardian]

•  The London Film Critics' Circle taps "No Country" year's best.  Will BAFTA follow? [Variety]

•  Jeffrey Wells takes a solid jab at Paramount Vantage regarding yesterday's milkshake promotion with a hilarious note from Toronto Star critic Peter Howell. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Ryan Adams points us to The New York Times Magazine and its 2008 "Oscar portfolio." [Awards Daily]

•  Tom O'Neil previews Sunday's BAFTA Awards. [Gold Derby]

•  Stu Van Airsdale gets some saucy comments from "Counterfeiters" director Stefan Ruzowitsky regarding the Oscar snub of "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." [Little Gold Men]

•  Jeff Anderson, meanwhile, thinks "The Counterfeiters" has a play at worst film of 2008 so far. [Cinematical]

•  Anne Thompson reacts to the imminent "revamp" of the foreign language committee. [Thompson on Hollywood]

•  The new Oscar set reminds Nathaniel Rogers of something interstellar. [The Film Experience]

•  New York Magazine forecasts "The Hottie and the Nottie" for 2009 Oscar glory. [Vulture]

•  David Carr retires to his oxygen chamber to review a silent "Juno." [The Carpetbagger]

•  "Ratatouille" dominates the Annie Awards. [Variety]

This opening anecdote from Ethan Coen regarding the neck-and-neck shooting of "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" outside of Marfa, Texas just kills.  From Entertainment Weekly's latest issue:

"We ran into Paul [Thomas Anderson] once while we were shooting,'' says Ethan Coen. ''When we were shooting a scene with Josh Brolin tracking a blood trail, we had one very wide shot of Josh in the frame. He was just walking in this most remote place in the United States, and then behind Josh [arose] this big plume of black smoke over the ridge. We thought, Son of a bitch, the scene is ruined. We sent a grip over to see what was happening. It turned out it was Paul, testing an oil-well fire. We had to wait for the smoke to dissipate."

Read the whole story.

Finally I came across the panels for the crafts behind "No Country for Old Men."  Miramax has put each of them up as a handomse effort to generate buzz and support for the cinematography, sound and art direction of the piece.  Check it out.

•  Ryan Adams posits the Oscars as a repeat of the Super Bowl, with "No Country" repping the undefeated Pats and "Atonement," should it take down a BAFTA victory, standing in for those Cinderella G-Men. [Awards Daily]

•  The sound crew from "No Country" continues to make the rounds. [Variety]

•  Jeffrey Wells chimes in on the Weinstein strategy for Cate Blanchett in "I'm Not There" -- free "reel" in copies of yesterday's Variety. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Sasha Stone ponders the evergreen question: Who really marks up these ballots every year? [Awards Daily]

•  Todd Martens looks at the year's Grammy nominated film music, including work from Glen Hansard ("Once") and Eddie Vedder ("Into the Wild"). [The Envelope]

•  Speaking of Vedder, New York Magazine isn't keen on Pearl Jam's latest pro-Obama track. [Vulture]

•  The Buzzmeter favors "No Country," save a select few holdouts. [The Envelope]

•  Tom O'Neil takes note. [Gold Derby]

•  Yes, the biggest Hollywood party of the year has been cancelled. [New York Times]

•  Mark Olsen sits down with Oscar nominee (and dark horse supporting actor contender) Casey Affleck. [The Envelope]

•  Donn Freydkin sits down with Javier Bardem in one of a slew of interviews the actor has been giving in recent weeks. [USA Today]

I didn't expect back-to-back "No Country" posts, but regardless, David "The Carpetbagger" Carr proves again why only he can do what only he can do.  As part of a new series he's taking a look at the five Best Picture contenders from the pure angle of the visual (I'll let his words explain why).

He kicks things off today with a oxygenlaced review of "No Country for Old Men," and I gotta say, I think the pink elephants got to him just a bit.  But it's a fascinating read nonetheless:

At its most elemental, “No Country” is something of a super-hero epic, the twist being that the hero in this case represents indifferent evil. “No Country” is Javier Bardem’s movie. After a time, it seemed as if the Bagger was watching one of those amazing shows on the Nature Channel that features, in colossal close-ups, a reptile going about its business. All snakes are carnivorous and Anton Chigurh is simply hungrier than most.

Chigurh owns the space he ambles slowly through, unbound by social mores or cultural conventions. He moves with a deliberate attention to his needs that is freaky scary. For example, he doesn’t rob a drugstore for the supplies to tend to an injury — he create a diversion and then shops at his leisure.

To Chigurh, murder is a kind of courtship and he always takes the time to enjoy it. Slowly, it is revealed to each of his intended victims that they are in a new and dangerous place. There is a moment in each interaction when he takes custody of another human’s fate, which is not so much about showing them that he is God as demonstrating that, at least in this time and this place, there isn’t one.

Read the rest!

Gerard Kennedy took some time this week to speak with two of the nominated sound mixers from "No Country for Old Men": Craig Berkey and Peter Kurland.  The aural qualities of the Coen brothers film have been a talking point for some time, substituting thematically relevant room tone and production sound for original musical accompaniment.

The film was nominated for both sound mixing and sound editing, the latter being a surprise even to those of us obsessive enough to follow the crafts races.

Here's a quick look at Kennedy's piece:

Kurland has been working with the Coens for nearly 25 years (he was the boom operator on “Blood Simple”) and loves their joint efforts.

“There’s never any hysteria or screaming on the set,” he says. “They are exceptionally well prepared. It isn’t that there aren’t surprises but there are very few completely unexpected elements.”

Berkey adds to the notion that the helmers know exactly what they want to do, having “the whole thing laid out as they’re writing the script. But they also listen to new ideas regarding sound, having the confidence to have a minimal score in a film like this.”

Having been on the set with the brothers on many occasions, Kurland says new challenges still manage to arise on each shoot. He says this was definitely the warmest set apart from “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” and that, being out in the desert, wind was a large problem (as it always is for production sound). But the work was particularly pivotal in this film and had to be recorded just right. He also notes a new and somewhat bizarre element on the production called “dusk panic.” Only about 10 takes were done in the daylight and the rest were done during sunset or sunrise, with very little time to get those shots right.

Also, I particularly liked this bit of insight into building the character of Anton Chigurgh with sound elements:

Berkey also says he and his colleagues attempted to keep the mix quiet, at the same time trying to create a “theme” of sound for Bardem’s character akin to what might be present in a score, notably in the fact that the sound of a train almost always accompanies, or slightly precedes, his presence. “We wanted to get the idea that a big bad freight train is coming,” he recalls.

It is probably worth noting that this film is the biggest competition for Kevin O'Connell and greg P. Russell at the moment, and the infamous 32 nominations they claim between them.  But there is no denying the sheer complexity of the sound work in "Transformers," so at least we're looking at a race between equally deserving candidates rather than finding a musical in the mix that keeps the Academy from actually THINKING about this section of the ballot.

Check out the rest of Kennedy's column.

Cinematical points us to the news that AMC Theaters will be showcasing this year's five Best Picture nominees on Feb. 23, starting with "Michael Clayton" at 11:00 in the morning and wrapping up at 9:00 in the evening with "No Country for Old Men."  So if you missed them the first time around, you've got a chance to play catch up!  The screening fee is a rather inexpensive $30 and that'll get you in for the duration.  You also apparently get a large popcorn with that and free refills all day long.  All...day...long.  But make sure you fit in some protein, friends.

A week or so after David Carr fought off awards season fatigue/boredom by messing around with the initial letters of "No Country for Old Men," Nathaniel Rogers chimes in with anagram fun with the title "Michael Clayton."

There's "All Icy Omen Chat," "Thy Local Cinema," "Mythic Ole Canal" and the title of this entry, "Conceal thy mail."  Boy, we've hit our wall, folks.  But it's fun stuff nonetheless.

What can be done with the remaining two Best Picture contenders at this point?  "No Country" has the NCFOM schtick, "There Will Be Blood" gets the milkshake phenomenon, and now this for "Clayton."  Somebody step up for "Atonement" and "Juno" already.

The Hollywood publicity machine is well-oiled at the start of this week, to be sure.  I count at least four studios with events lined up this evening, and who knows what shin-digs I haven't been invited to today.  We all make our blacklists.

First, there's Picturehouse's celebration of Marion Cotillard, Oscar nominated for "La Vie en Rose," if you're into a poolside gathering at the Chateau Marmont.

If a nuts and bolts dialogue is more your speed, Paramount Vantage has set up the "There Will Be Blood" crew for a screening and Q&A over at the Harmony gold Theater on Sunset.  Film editor Dylan Tichenor, cinematographer Robert Elswit, sound designer Chris Scarabosio, supervising sound editor Matthew Wood, and set decorator Jim Erickson -- nominees all of them -- are expected to attend.

Down the street at Book Soup, screenwriter Christopher Hampton is participating in a book signing of his Oscar-nominated adaptation, "Atonement," while Ariana Huffington will be hosting a screening of Charles Ferguson's "No End In Sight" at the Paley Center for Media out in Beverly Hills, for those really jonsing for a political experience, what with Super Tuesday right around the corner.  Huffington just hosted a similar "No End" event over the weekend at the Hotel Plaza Athenee in New York.

Oh, and Tamara Jenkins was just at Book Soup yesterday reading from her "Savages" screenplay.

All of these events come on the heels of last weekend's spotlight of the below the line nominees from "No Country for Old Men" -- coverage of which I've yet to stumble across, by the way.  Come on.  Somebody was there, right?

Anyway, lots of media exposure for lots of deserving contenders this season.  Some might think no more than usual, but the agression on the part of campaigners and strategists seems to have slid up a notch to me this year.  Lucky us, eh?

•  Derek Peters writes up Saturday's Scripter Awards in house. [Variety]

•  Susan King does the same at the LA Times. [The Envelope]

•  Jeffrey Wells runs a second hand item conveying Julian Schnabel's response to the Sean Young heckling episode.  The eccentric director comes off like the baby face to say the least. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Sasha Stone talks with "No Country for Old Men" and "There Will Be Blood" money man Scott Rudin. [Awards Daily]

•  Vanity Fair lies out the year's Ultimate Badass Awards. [Little Gold Men]

•  Pete Hammond rattles off a Dear Diary of the weekend's evets, including an Angelina Jolie tribute at the Santa Barbara Film Festival and a Sunday Brunch with "Sicko" helmer Michael Moore. [The Envelope]

•  Tom O'Neil catches up to the video packages running on Oscar.com. [Gold Derby]

•  David Poland live blogs the Super Bowl of all things.  And let us take a moment here:  God bless the New York Football Giants. [The Hot Blog]

•  Lou Lumenick responds to the PGA win for "No Country" and the juggernaut status the film has achieved this awards season.  [New York Post]

•  Oh, and by the way, David took out Goliath. [ESPN]

•  Sasha Stone thinks "No Country for Old Men" is on the "Return of the King" trajectory.  Well, it's also kind of the "Brokeback Mountain" trajectory, so let's not do summersaults yet. [Awards Daily]

•  Jeffrey Wells responds to the "news" that the WGA Stike might be very close to a thing of the past. [Hollywood Elsewhere]

•  Michael Cieply is hot on the case at the Gray Lady. [New York Times]

•  Tom O'Neil has the skinny on who's skipping Oscar's nominees luncheon. [Gold Derby]

•  Breaking down one of the visual effects shots from "Transformers." [The Envelope]

Joel Coen couldn't be bothered to speak more than, oh, 40 seconds at tonight's USC Scripter Award ceremony before taking his seat at stage left and finishing his meal.  But I guess it makes sense that he'd keep things brief, sense he scooted on out of the Doheny Library in order to go accept another award -- the PGA's highest honor -- and the third major guild win for "No Country for Old Men."

Ethan Coen, by the way, was "on the tarmac," according to Coen's presenter.  Maybe that was just a joke, but perhaps Ethan may have been either en route or already at the PGA ceremony.  Whatever the case, Joel was there as sole representation for the film.

Cormac McCarthy wasn't in attendance, though that is no shock, seeing as the author's only public appearance in support of the film has been an interview on "Oprah" and a showcase in Time Magazine.  Christine Lahti graciously accepted on his behalf, struggling with the teleprompter all along.  But hey, she wasn't alone on that front.

Then again, by all accounts, the evening's festivities were a major step up from years past, with Jason Alexander taking over for Henry Winkler as the Master of Ceremonies.  Alexander was actually a hell of an emcee, full of more than a few guffaw-enducing zingers and keeping the mood light and breezy enough throughout.  And, God bless him, one solitary strike joke and that was it (though talk was lingering through the crowd, including a long-gestating rumor that the whole nightmare will be over within the week).  Depending on how much the Friends of the USC Libraries are willing to allow their host to poke fun at the organization, I could see Alexander being a staple.  We'll see.

Steven Zaillian later accepted the Literary Achievement Award, by the way, which he said he would like to please refrain from calling a "lifetime achievement award."  Zaillian is a three-time Scripter winner, for "Awakenings" in 1990, "Schindler's List" in 1993 and "A Civil Action" in 1998.  A true vet with the group.

Oh, and students from the university's school of music performed a lovely melody of scores from past Scripet winners.  I picked out "L.A. Confidential" and "Schindler's List" immediately.  The others kind of blurred together, but they sure sounded great.

I'll try to upload a mp3 of Coen's speech if I can, but in the meantime, you can actually check out the entire ceremony for yourself at the USC website.  They held a live webcast, and of course, it isn't the most professional of things, but they're on their way.  Biggest "doh!" moment of the night had to be the use of the logo for "The Zodiac," rather than the logo for the film that was actually nominated.  Two completely different films, folks.

Here's a couple of shots from the ceremony.  I'm no photo journalist, mind you, but I try: