Academy Awards

I wonder how Apple's feeling since their expensive award bait films got nothing.

I have a soft spot for Past Lives, and appreciate the minimalism of it all — just three decent people in an awkward situation. I don't know if it makes my top 10 of the year, but it is in my top half of the 10 films that ended up nominated for Picture. I do agree with both its nomination and loss in Original Screenplay.

Past Lives was weird. It felt like a short film with a 100-minute runtime. Which isn't to say it was stretched, or padded, but that it just had the... feel of a short film. It was a very basic idea executed very competently. Possibly almost flawlessly, barring one particular shot I hated. But at the same time it just didn't seem to have a lot to say past its thesis statement which it made pretty clear from the getgo.

Ironically, I found a lot of its worldbuilding to be really interesting (ie stuff with Nora's family) which was intentionally not focused on because the movie wasn't about that. But it meant that (for me) it had the cardinal sin of a piece of fiction where I was more interested in parts of the characters' lives that they weren't showing us.

I had someone tell me that my criticism comes from the movie not being for me, but I liked it better than my wife, who is a 36 year old Asian immigrant previously involved in filmmaking and is married to an American man but previously had a long-distance relationship with a man in Vietnam while she was in the US studying and she just felt nothing from it. I wouldn't go that far, but... yeah.

... makes me want a Macbook Air, though.

Edited by Larkmarn on Mar 12th 2024 at 12:38:30 PM

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It's two years in a row now that my personal movie of the year has won Best Picture, and my top two this year were the most awarded. (Oppenheimer was my Number 1 and Poor Things was my Number 2.)

Probably the first time I EVER saw the winner months before the awards season actually too. That's particularly special. Oppenheimer came out in JULY and it rode that wave of hype—though I first saw it in October for the record. Haha.

Yeah I know Everything Everywhere All at Once came out earlier than July last year (quick check: it was March). That I didn't see until the actually awards season though.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Mar 13th 2024 at 9:29:33 AM

This year was actually the first time I've seen every Best Picture nominee before the ceremony.

I'm getting better at predicting the nominees every year certainly—even if I don't always nail it 100%.

I wondered which of the likely upcoming nominees would top Oppenheimer at the time I saw it and then it turned out, none of them did. Once I saw how well it did at the Golden Globes, I had a strong feeling it'd be unbeatable moving forward. I looked at how the other award shows played out too though of course just to be sure and yeah, Oppenheimer at each of them was always the one to beat.

I wonder if the accusations of plagiarism are gonna get The Holdovers Oscars rescinded.

Never trust anyone who uses "degenerate" as an insult.

That would be a weird move since the award went to an actress that has nothing to do with the story writing.

If anything, I can see Payne getting kicked out like Will Smith after the slap.

The Owl House and Coyote Vs Acme are my Roman Empire.

What accusation of plagiarism?

Fan-Preferred Couple cleanup thread

Here ya go.

Rundown: The writer of Pixar's Luca wrote a screenplay that has been making the rounds since 2013 that is practically identical to The Holdovers. There's also evidence that it reached to both the screenwriter and the director at some point.

Edited by Akirakan on Mar 15th 2024 at 12:46:04 PM

The first and last I heard of this, it was being regarded as something of a nothingburger.

Variety in particular was called out for trying to make a story out of a non-story.

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I've actually heard of instances of this happening to authors, where their book gets turned down by a literary agent, but then that agent later subconsciously remembers details they did like and contribute them to one of their clients' stories who might have a similar plot.

As a struggling writer still querying, I do find that unfortunate. At least one website I found for querying agents, actually had a disclaimer saying that by submitting my story idea, I'm agreeing that the company has a right to turn it down, but if they pick up another author that submits a similar story with similar details, I'm not allowed to say anything about it. 😒

With all the memes about women choosing a bear over a man, Hollywood might wanna get on an 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' adaptation

I'm very skeptical of the plagiarism allegation, especially because when I looked up the French movie that Payne cited, Merlusse, it sounds very similar to The Holdovers. Like the strict teacher having a bad smell and weird eye is straight from there as is the Christmas setting. I do get the sense though that the students are younger in the French movie and that unlike The Holdovers, multiple students are present throughout the film.

So as I see it, Payne couldn't have been plagiarizing the Luca guy because he was already plagiarizing someone else.

I read through the whole thirty-three page document linked to the article, and the specific similarities cited with side by side script comparisons feel dubious at best. Things like four establishing shots opening the story, the character picking up a book once, etc.

This honestly reminds me of the "Is The Lion King a ripoff of Kimba?" 'debate'.

Jason has come back to kill for Mommy.

I had the same thought.

As much as people like to claim otherwise, it really has nothing in common with it but has a lot of influence from Shakespeare.

Screenplay plagiarism cases are famously difficult to prove and typically not worth the effort. "Scenes a Faire" is part of copyright law and affirms that content matters more than ideas, so you have to provide not just substantial evidence but sequential evidence and proving the timeline of your own script. Some have argued too that if the script was really good it takes more time and money to alter that script (which typically makes it worse) to avoid plagiarism accusations than it would be to just buy the script. That said, ideas that are shared in pitches are frequently stolen, but you have even less evidence and it may have been accidental and not malicious.

Do you not know that in the service one must always choose the lesser of two weevils!

Now thinking of the time we got two movies within a year about two friends becoming sex buddies (and both films starring the opposite lead actresses from Black Swan, Natalie Portman and Mila Kunus).

Or when we got two movies about mall cops in 2009.

Edited by Brandon on Mar 15th 2024 at 7:02:10 AM

With all the memes about women choosing a bear over a man, Hollywood might wanna get on an 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' adaptation

Also two movies—both animated—in 1998 about insects—though that situation's a bit more dubious admittedly—and two movies in 2013 about a certain historic DC landmark being taken over by terrorists. Ideas can actually be more common than one realizes. Also, movies all the time can take inspiration from other movies and form their own identities too.

Not sure if this would be Yack Feat or not: If Animated Feature had existed before 2002 (movies from 2001), which movies would've won each year? Toy Story easily would've gotten it in 1996 (1995) and Beauty and the Beast 1991 easily in 1992.

The Lion King for sure, and I would hope Nightmare Before Christmas.

Perhaps Bluth's Secret of NIMH.

With all the memes about women choosing a bear over a man, Hollywood might wanna get on an 'East of the Sun and West of the Moon' adaptation

I would agree with you on both of those for 1995 (1994) and 1994 (1993) respectively. Part of me wonders if they would've considered the latter animated at the time or not. Probably.

Other years:

• 1991 (1990): The Rescuers Down Under
• 1993: Aladdin 1992
• 1997 (1996): Hunchback probably
• 1998: Anastasia 1997 (sorry Hercules 1997)
• 1999 (1998): Antz or The Prince of Egypt (sorry Mulan 1998, A Bug's Life and Rugrats Movie)
• 2000 (1999): Toy Story 2 (small chance it could've been Tarzan 1999)
• 2001 (2000): Emperor's New Groove or Rugrats in Paris

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Mar 15th 2024 at 10:48:42 AM

While I think movies like Aladdin, Toy Story and The Lion King seem like shoe-ins, I find it hard to argue Hercules or Anastasia would win in 1998 over Princess Mononoke or Perfect Blue.

2000 could potentially go for The Iron Giant.

Not likely. I could see The Iron Giant getting nominated, I can't see it beating Toy Story 2 though. With 1994 (1993), whether or not it won, I would hope Batman: Mask of the Phantasm would at least get nominated too—especially with it being well-received critically despite not being a financial hit.

Edited by futuremoviewriter on Mar 16th 2024 at 8:42:32 AM