Well, that was fast.

On Geoffrey Gilmore's last day as director of the Sundance Film Festival - as he leaves to become chief creative officer of Tribeca Enterprises, the parent group of the Tribeca Film Festival - Tribeca's creative director, Peter Scarlet, announced he's leaving the eight-year-old festival.

Though Tribeca insists the timing is coincidental, according to Daily Variety, one can't help but sense a "only room for one sheriff in this town" vibe over the job change.

"The term 'Seven-Year Itch' always evokes that famous still of Marilyn Monroe," Scarlet said in a brief statement. "But as my seventh Tribeca Film Festival loomed, I realized simply that it's time for me to seek new challenges."

Between vacation and the studios' decision to hide large chunks of this month's release schedule from critics, the Cricket will go the entire month of February without setting foot in a movie theater.

Last week, "Madea Goes to Jail" and "Fired Up" were not screened for Utah critics. Today, two more studio films join the ranks of the unwatched: "Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience," whose title is self-explanatory; and "Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li," an action movie based on the video game. (Also opening at a few Carmike theaters, but not shown to critics, is the documentary "A Man Named Pearl," about a self-taught topiary artist who used his craft to battle racist stereotypes.)

Two movies opening in Utah were screened for critics. One of them is worth your time.

"Waltz With Bashir" is an amazing hybrid of animation and documentary, as director Ari Folman explores the memories of himself and his comrades who served in the Israeli army during the 1982 occupation of Lebanon. The mix of nightmarish dreams and cold reality, filtered through hazy memory, could only be depicted through animation - and the movie's haunting images will stick with you for a long time. ("Waltz With Bashir" lost the foreign-language Oscar to the Japanese drama "Departures," and according to those who have seen both movies - such as Scott Foundas at the L.A. Weekly - Folman was robbed.)

The other new movie is "The Velveteen Rabbit," a loose adaptation of Margery Williams' children's classic about a toy bunny who comes to life. The movie, earnestly directed by Michael Landon Jr. and distributed by Murray-based Feature Films for Families, is leadenly paced and the mixture of live-action and animation is choppy at best.

The Murray-based Feature Films for Families could be in trouble with the law, over the way the company is selling its new title, "The Velveteen Rabbit."

According to this item from PC Magazine, Verizon Wireless has filed a lawsuit in New Jersey against Feature Films for Families, claiming the company illegally used an auto-dialer to contact Verizon's cellphone customers to sell the movie.

Verizon claims using the auto-dialer violates fraud and privacy laws in New Jersey, as well as a federal ban on using auto-dialers to call wireless phones.

The Consumerist, a blog that tracks consumer complaints, reported complaints about the telemarketing tactics being used for "The Velveteen Rabbit" - including the use of a nonprofit group to skirt the federal "Do Not Call" list.

By the way, "The Velveteen Rabbit" - a live-action/animation hybrid inspired by the Margery Williams children's book - opens in theaters Friday, and hits DVD shelves in March.

If you think Eliza Dushku is nothing more than a pretty young actress, playing a malleable fantasy object in the new series "Dollhouse" or showing off her undies to Maxim, think again.

Dushku is stretching her muscles as a movie producer, having just announced plans to make a biography of famed photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

According to Daily Variety, Dushku secured exclusive rights from Mapplethorpe's estate, and has hooked documentary filmmaker Ondi Timoner - a two-time winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize, in 2004 for "Dig!" and this year for "We Live in Public" - to make her feature directorial debut.

MovieMaker magazine has named the top 25 cities to make independent movies - and Salt Lake City ranks No. 17.

Here's the list of criteria the magazine used in their survey: "Cost of living, average salary, unemployment rate, job growth, median home price and crime rate. Next, we added in the number of film schools, festivals, movie-related vendors and local movie theaters. We then factored in the current production scene, i.e. production days, size of talent pool. Extra credit was given for cities doing something unique—like special 'green' efforts. Finally, we tallied in the financial incentives for shooting in a particular area."

Chicago topped the list, followed by Atlanta and New York. Salt Lake City beat out neighboring cities Boise and Denver - as well as the popular filming location of Wilmington, N.C.

The long saga of making "The Green Hornet" movie just added another chapter.

In the last decade or so, it seems like everybody has been attached to this adaptation of the classic action character (famously adapted for a '60s TV series starring Van Williams and Bruce Lee, pictured).

At one point, Kevin Smith had written a screenplay and was planning to direct George Clooney in the title role of playboy newspaper editor-turned-vigilante Britt Reid. (Bonus trivia: Britt Reid is the grand-nephew of the character John Reid, a k a The Lone Ranger).

The current holder of the role is Seth Rogen, who has slimmed down substantially (did you notice during the Oscars?) for the action movie. (Rogen and his writing partner, Evan Goldberg, wrote this latest version of the script.)

Last year, the plan was for Hong Kong action star Stephen Chow ("Kung Fu Hustle") to play the Green Hornet's chauffeur/sidekick Kato - as well as direct the film. But Chow dropped out as director, putting the project in limbo again.

Now comes word that Michel Gondry - who directed "Be Kind Rewind" and "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind," as well as videos for The White Stripes and Bjork (among others) - is in talks to direct Rogen and Chow, and have a movie ready by summer 2010.

Stay tuned.

On the same weekend that the Academy Awards showed the range of international filmmaking - by rewarding a movie filmed in India, directed by an Irishman and centering on a British-born game show - one of the country's longest-serving distributors of international films closed up shop.

New Yorker Films left this terse message on its web site: "After 43 years in business, New Yorker Films has ceased operations. We would like to thank the filmmakers and producers who trusted us with their work, as well as our customers, whose loyalty has sustained us through the years."

New Yorker Films boasted an array of great directors that it championed in America, including Pedro Almodovar, Bernardo Bertolucci, Luis Bunuel, Claude Chabrol, Federico Fellini, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Akira Kurosawa, Louis Malle, Eric Rohmer, Agnes Varda, Wim Wenders and Zhang Yimou.

IndieWire reports on the distributor's closure, and Richard Brody at The New Yorker (the magazine and the film company are not related) contemplates the difficulties of getting the distributor's back catalog - which includes such classics as Godard's "Breathless," Herzog's "Aguirre, the Wrath of God," Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah" and Ousmane Sembene's "Moolaade" - out of financial limbo.

Hey, "Slumdog Millionaire" kids! Your movie just won eight Oscars, including Best Picture. What are you going to do next?

You guessed it ...


The Huffington Post has more photos of the "Slumdog" kids' trip to Disneyland here.

Labels: Oscars

Word from blogger Gary Scott (a former newspaper reporter in California, now a producer at public-radio station KCRW in Santa Monica) is that the Los Angeles Daily News is cutting its entertainment staff to the bone.

Among other things, this means that veteran movie critic Bob Strauss has been reassigned to the city desk and TV critic David Kronke has been laid off. (The Daily News' other movie critic, Glenn Whipp, was laid off earlier this year.)

Strauss did live-blog the Oscar ceremony Sunday night.

(By the way, the Daily News is owned by MediaNews Group, the company that owns The Salt Lake Tribune.)

Labels: disappearing critics

It didn't stay within its three-hour schedule, but who really expects an Oscar ceremony to come in on time?

Overall, it was a dynamic and energetic show for TV. Producers Laurence Mark (a producer whose credits include "Jerry Maguire") and Bill Condon (the director of "Dreamgirls") gave it plenty of flash, and the friendly ambience of a '40s nightclub.

Most Oscar ceremonies put up a window between the stage and the Kodak Theatre audience. The window this time was between the Kodak Theatre and the home audience, and through it we could watch what turned out to be a fun party.

With the stage thrust out into the front rows, the stars sitting in the seats were part of the show -- as when host Hugh Jackman pulled nominee Anne Hathaway up for a duet extolling "Frost/Nixon," or when Kate Winslet asked her father (who she couldn't see from the podium) give out a whistle. When Dad obliged, the whole room -- and all of America -- took part in a tender family connection.

With his Broadway chops, Jackman sold the ceremony's musical numbers with bravado. But even he couldn't save Baz Luhrmann's overbaked "The Musical Is Back!" number. He paired well with a Beyonce Knowles - dripping in siren-red sequins - on a few songs in the medley. But asking young stars Amanda Seyfried ("Mamma Mia!") and Vanessa Hudgens ("High School Musical") to try to be sexy next to Beyonce was a disastrous example of why you never send two girls to do a woman's job.

Ultimately, an Oscar show is about the winners - and the joy of the "Slumdog Millionaire" crew trickled through the Kodak and out to America.

Labels: Oscars

The Cricket broke his own record, scoring 20 correct predictions out of 24 categories in Sunday's Academy Awards.

Correct: Picture, all four acting awards, director, both screenplay awards, both music awards, cinematography, film editing, art direction, make-up, visual effects, sound mixing, costume design, animated feature, documentary feature and live-action short.

Incorrect: Sound editing, foreign-language film, documentary short, animated short.

Labels: Oscars

Best Picture - "Slumdog Millionaire"
Director - Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"
Actor - Sean Penn, "Milk"
Actress - Kate Winslet, "The Reader"
Supporting actor - Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"
Supporting actress - Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
Original screenplay - Dustin Lance Black, "Milk."
Adapted screenplay - Simon Beaufoy, "Slumdog Millionaire."
Cinematography - Anthony Dod Mantle, "Slumdog Millionaire."
Art direction - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
Costume design - "The Duchess."
Make-up - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
Film editing - "Slumdog Millionaire."
Visual effects - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."
Music - Original score - A.R. Rahman, "Slumdog Millionaire."
Music - Original song - "Jai Ho," from "Slumdog Millionaire."
Sound mixing - "Slumdog Millionaire."
Sound editing - "The Dark Knight."
Foreign-language film - "Departures," Japan.
Animated feature - "WALL-E."
Animated short - "La Maison en Petits Cubes."
Live-action short - "Spielzeugland (Toyland)."
Documentary feature - "Man on Wire."
Documentary short - "Smile Pinki."

Labels: Oscars

Just a reminder that the Movie Cricket will be serving up running commentary on the Academy Awards via Twitter, starting Sunday at 6 p.m. Mountain time. Be there, aloha.

Labels: Oscars

Hollywood studios are doing their part to boost the ratings for Sunday night's Oscar telecast - by not opening movies they think anybody will want to see.

Only two studio movies are being released today, and neither one was screened for critics.

"Fired Up!" has the contours of a teen-sex comedy - two jocks (Nicholas D'Agosto and Eric Christian Olsen) sign up for cheerleading camp - but it can't be too raunchy because it's PG-13. "Madea Goes to Jail" is Tyler Perry's latest round with his drag-grandma character, who Entertainment Weekly described as "the new Ernest."

So if you want a good movie this weekend, catch one of the Best Picture Oscar nominees, all of which are playing in downtown Salt Lake City. ("Frost/Nixon" and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" are at Brewvies Cinema Pub, and "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Milk" are at the Broadway Centre Cinemas. "Button," "The Reader" and "Slumdog" are playing elsewhere.) Also, the animated and live-action short film nominees are screening this weekend at the Tower Theatre.

Or you can see all five in one shot, at the Layton Hills 9 in Layton. On Saturday, the multiplex will screen all five - starting at 10:30 a.m. and running 'til about midnight - for $30, which includes all the popcorn you can eat. Plus bathroom breaks.

Like the Oscars themselves, there's not a lot of suspense in the Cricket's predictions for the major categories.

As the Cricket wrote in his analysis in today's Mix section, It seems like the winners have been pretty well known for weeks, so the only surprises Sunday night will be what the ceremony's producers, Lawrence Mark and Bill Condon, have in store to jazz up the usually slow-moving proceedings.

If you aren't planning an Oscar night party yet, the Cricket offers two suggestions.

The first is to attend the Utah AIDS Foundation's annual Oscar Night America gala, which starts at 6 p.m. Sunday in the 23rd Floor Events Center of the Wells Fargo Building, 299 S. Main St., Salt Lake City.

The second is to watch the ceremony at home, following along with the Movie Cricket's running commentary on Twitter. (The Oscars will air live on ABC - KTVX, Ch. 4, in Utah - starting at 6 p.m. Mountain time for the red-carpet preview, with the ceremony proper beginning at 6:30 p.m.)

So, without further ado, the Cricket's predictions:

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Best Original Screenplay

The nominees are: "Frozen River," written by Courtney Hunt; "Happy-Go-Lucky," written by Mike Leigh; "In Bruges," written by Martin McDonagh; "Milk," written by Dustin Lance Black; "WALL-E," screenplay by Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon, original story by Andrew Stanton and Pete Docter.

Who will win: Black's heartfelt biography of Harvey Milk hits all the right political notes for Hollywood, especially in the wake of the Prop. 8 battle over gay marriage in California.

Who should win: As much as I admired Black's treatment of "Milk," the writing on "WALL-E" was funny and poignant -- a beautiful example of great screenwriting without dialogue.

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Best Adapted Screenplay

The nominees are: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," screenplay by Eric Roth, screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord; "Doubt," written by John Patrick Shanley; "Frost/Nixon," screenplay by Peter Morgan; "The Reader," screenplay by David Hare; "Slumdog Millionaire," screenplay by Simon Beaufoy.

Who will win: Beaufoy has been nominated before (for "The Full Monty"), and his "Slumdog" screenplay shares that underdog spirit the Academy loves.

Who should win: Beaufoy's script of "Slumdog Millionaire" deftly bounces between the lead character's hard-knock life and the tension of his game-show appearance.

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Best Supporting Actor

The nominees are: Josh Brolin, "Milk"; Robert Downey Jr., "Tropic Thunder"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Doubt"; Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight"; Michael Shannon, "Revolutionary Road."

Who will win: Ledger has been the favorite since he died in January 2008, even before anyone saw the movie. His maniacal, controlled portrayal of The Joker just confirmed it.

Who should win: Ledger's Joker toyed with Batman and the audience for two hours, a brilliant final curtain call from an actor who shouldn't be gone.

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Best Supporting Actress

The nominees are: Amy Adams, "Doubt"; Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"; Viola Davis, "Doubt"; Taraji P. Henson, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Marisa Tomei, "The Wrestler."

Who will win: Cruz, as the unstable artist in a love triangle, will be the latest in a long line of beautiful women who will thank Woody Allen for getting her a gold statuette.

Who should win: Davis, as a mother who deals with a sex-abuse accusation with surprising practicality, only has 11 minutes of screen time. But in that time, she manages to own the movie and give Meryl Streep a lesson in acting.

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Best Actor

The nominees are: Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor"; Frank Langella, "Frost/Nixon"; Sean Penn, "Milk"; Brad Pitt, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Mickey Rourke, "The Wrestler."

Who will win: Rourke's comeback performance is riveting, but Oscar voters may not be able to differentiate the role from the actor. They'll probably go for Penn, both for his upbeat portrayal and for the movie's political activism.

Who should win: Rourke and Penn are good, but Richard Jenkins - as a morose professor who finds immigrants in his apartment - brought gravity and soul to his performance.

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Best Actress

The nominees are: Anne Hathaway, "Rachel Getting Married"; Angelina Jolie, "Changeling"; Melissa Leo, "Frozen River"; Meryl Streep, "Doubt"; Kate Winslet, "The Reader."

Who will win » Winslet, who has five previous nominations and no wins, seems like a lock - even though it's not even her best work this year (that would be "Revolutionary Road"). Oscar often rewards actors to make up for ignoring them earlier in their careers.

Who should win: As a recovering addict who brings the drama to her sister's wedding, Hathaway risked being flinty and unsympathetic - and, in the end, bared her character's soul.

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Best Director

The nominees are: Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"; Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"; David Fincher, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Ron Howard, "Frost/Nixon"; Gus Van Sant, "Milk."

Who will win: Boyle, an edgy director who has avoided pigeonholing (his résumé includes "Trainspotting," "Millions" and "28 Days Later"), has momentum behind him.

Who should win: In "Slumdog," Boyle drew amazing performances from his cast of unknown actors, melded a variety of movie styles and created a uniquely thrilling experience.

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Best Picture

The nominees are: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk," "The Reader," "Slumdog Millionaire"

Who will win: "Slumdog Millionaire" has become the Little Movie That Could, charming audiences, critics and the industry alike. Will it win the Oscar? It is written.

Who should win: "Slumdog's" mix of gritty realism and Bollywood fantasy, like a global update on Depression-era Busby Berkeley musicals, is a celebration of hope over adversity.

(Oscar: copyright AMPAS)

Labels: Oscars

The Cricket will be watching the Oscars on Sunday night, of course - and, thanks to Twitter, we can watch together.

Yes, the Cricket is leaping into the new technology by Twittering during the Oscars. Go here to follow along.

It's just like having the Cricket on the couch next to you - except without his entourage and their exorbitant demands for catering. (Brown M&Ms? Who's responsible for this?)

Labels: Oscars

Today's installment of the Cricket's fearless Oscar predictions covers the races where "Slumdog Millionaire" doesn't have a chance of winning - the specialty fields of animation, documentary, shorts and foreign-language films.

Some of these categories are tougher to handicap, because of the Academy rules that require voters actually watch the darn things. (This rule applies to the three shorts categories, and the documentary and foreign-language feature categories - not the animated feature category.) It's the one time where quality is sure to count more than studio politics in determining a winner.

The major categories - Picture, Director, the four acting and two screenwriting divisions - will be covered Friday and in the Mix section.

By the way, it's not too late to cast your vote and make your predictions in The Salt Lake Tribune's 11th annual online Oscar Poll. Score well on the predictions and you could win a night at the movies.

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Animated Feature

The nominees are: "Bolt," "Kung Fu Panda," "WALL-E."

Who will win: Since many thought "WALL-E" should have been competing for Best Picture - and it's the only one of the three with nominations in other categories (original screenplay, score, song, and sound editing) - Pixar will probably take another one.

Who should win: As much as the Cricket laughed at "Kung Fu Panda," he smiled more at "WALL-E."

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Documentary Feature

The nominees are: "The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)," "Encounters at the End of the World," "The Garden," "Man on Wire," "Trouble the Water."

Who will win: "Man on Wire," about Phillipe Petit's 1974 wire-walk between the World Trade Center towers, is the favorite - though the 2008 Sundance winner "Trouble the Water," a harrowing account of Hurricane Katrina might pull an upset.

Who should win: Of the four the Cricket has seen (all except "The Garden"), "Trouble the Water" was the most touching.

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Foreign-Language Film

The nominees are: "The Baader Meinhof Complex," Germany; "The Class," France; "Departures," Japan; "Revanche," Austria; "Waltz with Bashir," Israel.

Who will win: "The Class," about the life of an inner-city school teacher, won the Palme d'Or at Cannes, while "Waltz With Bashir" won critics' awards all over the place. The groundbreaking mix of documentary and animation in "Bashir" will probably put it over the top.

Who should win: The Cricket has only seen one of the five, "Waltz With Bashir," which opens in Utah on Feb. 27. ("The Class" opens in March, the others don't have Utah release dates yet.)

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Animated Short

The nominees are: "La Maison en Petits Cubes," "Lavatory - Lovestory," "Oktapodi," "Presto," "This Way Up."

Who will win: One never bets against Pixar, so go with "Presto" - a five-minute battle between a magician and his rabbit (which played with "WALL-E" in theaters).

Who should win: "Presto" was lots of fun, and so were the 2-minute chase of "Otkapodi" and the funeral slapstick of "This Way Up." But the combination of humor, romance and New Yorker-esque line drawings of "Lavatory - Lovestory" won the Cricket over. (See for yourself: The shorts are playing in a program at the Tower Theatre, and there's no language barrier because none of the five animated shorts have dialogue.)

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Documentary Short

The nominees are: "The Conscience of Nhem En"; "The Final Inch," "Smile Pinki," "The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306."

Who will win: "The Witness," a look at the days leading up to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Who should win: The Cricket has not seen any of these films.

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Live-Action Short

The nominees are: "Auf der Strecke (On the Line)," "Manon on the Asphalt," "New Boy," "The Pig," "Spielzeugland (Toyland)."

Who will win: At the risk of being cynical, "Spielzeugland (Toyland)" will likely win just on its subject matter - The Holocaust.

Who should win: Alas, "Spielzeugland" is also the most shamelessly manipulative of the five. Best of the bunch is "Auf der Strecke," a mournful tale of a lonely security guard faced with unrequited love and guilt over inaction.

Labels: Oscars

For the first time in nearly two decades, the Sundance Film Festival will have to go on without its most vocal crusader - festival director Geoffrey Gilmore.

Gilmore (pictured) will leave Sundance at the end of the month to take a job in New York as chief creative officer to Tribeca Enterprises, the parent company of the Tribeca Film Festival.

The Cricket isn't sure what Tribeca will be like with Gilmore in the mix - though many bloggers, including Jeffrey Wells and David Poland, speculate on this.

It seems pretty clear, though, that whoever replaces Gilmore at Sundance (if Robert Redford & Co. do replace him - they could decide to shuffle Gilmore's duties around and go without a full-blown director) could learn a few lessons from the festival's departing leader:

Lesson No. 1: It's the films, stupid - Sundance gets a bad rap sometimes for the celebrity quotient, but Gilmore frequently bucked that tide. In the last decade, two of the festival's opening-night movies were documentaries ("Riding Giants" and "Chicago 10"), and this year's was a stop-motion animated tale whose most recognizable voice actors - Toni Collette and Philip Seymour Hoffman - were no-shows in Park City.

Lesson No. 2: You'll never walk alone - Gilmore's team of programmers is the best in the business - and all of them will likely stay around. (Did anyone else notice that Gilmore's right-hand man, programming director John Cooper, was more front-and-center this year? Coincidence?)

Lesson No. 3: Keep your friends close and the "gifting lounges" closer - Festival organizers did something very smart this year: Instead of fighting the "ambush marketers" who give swag to celebrities, they hired one of the "gifting lounge" creators to do the same thing for Sundance's official sponsors. This move made the sponsors happy (since the celebs were photographed with their products, not somebody else's) and quieted the Turkish-bazaar aspect of Park City's Main Street substantially.

Lesson No. 4: Copy editors are your friends - Gilmore, God love him, had one weakness as a festival director: His descriptions of movies in the Sundance film guide often had the opaque wordiness of an art-gallery pamphlet. (In past years, the Tribune published a "Sundance-to-English" translation guide - noting that a phrase like "eschews traditional narrative" actually meant "the movie's ending comes somewhere in the middle.") An effort toward simpler prose would be welcomed by filmgoers everywhere.

Labels: Sundance

On the same day the Sundance Film Festival's Geoffrey Gilmore announced he was New York-bound, a different Sundance-Big Apple connection unraveled a bit.

Sundance spokeswoman Brooks Addicott told The New York Post's Lou Lumenick that the festival's 10-day mini-fest at the Brooklyn Academy of Music - "Sundance at BAM," launched in 2006 - would "take a break" this year.

Don't blame the down economy, Addicott said, but the strain the program puts on Sundance's programmers. Instead, a smaller event - featuring New York filmmakers whose works premiered in Park City in January - is being contemplated at BAM in June.

Labels: Sundance

Today's installment of the Cricket's fearless Oscar predictions covers the craft categories: Cinematography, art direction, costume design and the two music categories - original score and original song.

Thursday, this space will cover the specialty fields (animated and documentary features and shorts, live-action short and foreign-language film), while the major categories - Picture, Director, the four acting and two screenwriting divisions - will be covered Friday and in the Mix section.

By the way, it's not too late to cast your vote and make your predictions in The Salt Lake Tribune's 11th annual online Oscar Poll. Score well on the predictions and you could win a night at the movies.

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Cinematography

The nominees are: Tom Stern, "Changeling"; Claudio Miranda, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Wally Pfister, "TheDark Knight"; Chris Menges and Roger Deakins, "The Reader"; Anthony Dod Mantle, "Slumdog Millionaire."

Who will win: Mantle's Indian streetscapes will bring home another win for "Slumdog."

Who should win: Mantle's work was colorful and electric - and shot on HD, which would be a first for Oscar.

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Art Direction

The nominees are: "Changeling" - art direction: James J. Murakami, set decoration: Gary Fettis; "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" - art direction: Donald Graham Burt, set decoration: Victor J. Zolfo; "The Dark Knight" - art direction: Nathan Crowley, set decoration: Peter Lando; "The Duchess" - art direction: Michael Carlin, set decoration: Rebecca Alleway; "Revolutionary Road" - art direction: Kristi Zea, set decoration: Debra Schutt

Who will win: "Benjamin Button," for covering 80-plus years of furniture and knick-knacks with precision.

Who should win: The suffocating suburban house in "Revolutionary Road" was not just decoration - it was a presence.

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Costume Design

The nominees are: Catherine Martin, "Australia"; Jacqueline West, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Michael O'Connor, "The Duchess"; Danny Glicker, "Milk"; Albert Wolsky, "Revolutionary Road."

Who will win: Oscar voters love anything in a corset, so "The Duchess" wins.

Who should win: "Milk," because a movie set in the 1970s is as much a period piece as one set in the 1770s - and putting wide lapels on Sean Penn and Josh Brolin without making them look silly is some kind of miracle.

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Music - Original Score

The nominees are: Alexandre Desplat, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; James Newton Howard, "Defiance"; Danny Elfman, "Milk"; A.R. Rahman, "Slumdog Millionaire"; Thomas Newman, "WALL-E."

Who will win: Rahman's the king of Bollywood - and, after Sunday, the king of Hollywood, too. Another "Slumdog" win.

Who should win: As catchy as Rahman's work in "Slumdog" was, Newman's "WALL-E" score was the perfect accompaniment for a noble little robot.

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Music - Original Song

The nominees are: "Down to Earth" from "WALL-E" - music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, lyric by Peter Gabriel; "Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire" - music by A.R. Rahman, lyric by Gulzar; "O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire" - music and lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam.

Who will win: "Jai Ho," the song used in "Slumdog's" end-credits dance number.

Who should win: "Jai Ho" is celebratory Bollywood pop, but the pop-rap mix of "O Saya" is fresher and more alive. Besides, you have to root for Arulpragasam, better known as M.I.A., to win an Oscar after getting passed over at the Grammys - even after the woman went into labor during the freakin' ceremony!

Labels: Oscars

After 19 years of having Robert Redford for a boss, Geoffrey Gilmore is going to work for Robert DeNiro.

Gilmore, the director of the Sundance Film Festival, is leaving Redford's organization to become chief creative officer for Tribeca Enterprises - the parent company of the DeNiro-founded Tribeca Film Festival - officials at both organizations announced Tuesday.

Gilmore's last day at Sundance is Feb. 28.

"I believe that Tribeca Enterprises is well positioned to develop a film organization that can create a new paradigm for the future," Gilmore said in a statement issued by Tribeca.

Tribeca co-founder Jane Rosenthal called Gilmore "one of the most accomplished creative forces in our industry," adding that Gilmore's experience will help Tribeca with its global strategy -- including development of a Tribeca-sponsored film festival in Doha, Qatar.

In his statement, Gilmore said he was grateful to Redford for a "wonderful 19 years."

Redford made a statement expressing his "personal fondness" for Gilmore and "a deep respect for his encyclopedic knowledge of and total commitment to independent film."

"Our festival's 25th anniversary has been a time of candid reflection," Redford said. "I support completely his decision. The timing is right to move on. We wish Geoff only the best as he embarks on the next phases of his life and career."

Labels: Sundance

It's time once again to boldly go where every other movie critic will go this week: Into the void of prognosticating the Oscars.

In a year bereft of surprises - "Slumdog Millionaire" seems to be the consensus favorite (Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild of America, plus the editors' and cinematographers' groups) for Best Picture - it may seem like predicting this year's Oscar winners would be a snap. But the lesser-watched categories could yield some dramatic moments.

Today, the Cricket will handicap the five technical categories. The craft categories - cinematography, art direction, costumes and music - will be handled on Wednesday. On Thursday, it's the specialty categories of short films, animated, documentary and foreign-language features. And on Friday, both on the blog and in the print edition, the Cricket's predictions in the major categories.

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Film Editing

The nominees are: Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Lee Smith, "The Dark Knight"; Mike Hill and Dan Hanley, "Frost/Nixon"; Elliot Graham, "Milk"; Chris Dickens, "Slumdog Millionaire."

Who will win: The propulsive action of "The Dark Knight" is a strong contender, as is the sheer volume of film in "Benjamin Button." But Dickens' work in "Slumdog Millionaire" captured the energy of Mumbai's mean streets.

Who should win: "Slumdog Millionaire" - get used to hearing that name a lot Sunday.

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Make-up

The nominees are: Greg Cannom, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; John Caglione Jr. and Conor O'Sullivan, "The Dark Knight"; Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz, "Hellboy II: The Golden Army."

Who will win: "Button," for the subtle old-age make-up on Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett.

Who should win: All three films were notable for the CG-augmented make-up work (such as Aaron Eckhart's Two-Face mask), but the inventive work bringing Guillermo Del Toro's creatures to life in "Hellboy II" was astonishing.

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Sound Editing

The nominees are: Richard King, "The Dark Knight"; Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes, "Iron Man"; Tom Sayers, "Slumdog Millionaire"; Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood, "WALL-E"; Wylie Stateman, "Wanted."

Who will win: Both Mumbai and Gotham City were brought alive by their sounds, but if there's an upset of the "Slumdog" juggernaut on Sunday, it's the "WALL-E" crew.

Who should win: "WALL-E," because the veteran Burtt, as he did three decades ago with Artoo Detoo, used chirps and pings to give a little robot a personality.

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Sound Mixing

The nominees are: David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick, "The Dark Knight"; Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty, "Slumdog Millionaire"; Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt, "WALL-E"; Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montano and Petr Forejt, "Wanted."

Who will win: Combining the street sounds of Mumbai with the bells and whistles of a game show should make "Slumdog" a winner here.

Who should win: A tough call, as "Dark Knight," "Slumdog" and "WALL-E" were all notable for their sound work. But give it to "Slumdog."

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Visual Effects

The nominees are: Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron , "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"; Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin, "The Dark Knight"; John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan, "Iron Man."

Who will win: The variety of subtle effects - recreating World War I and a moon shot, and putting Brad Pitt's head on a tiny body - will probably make "Benjamin Button" a winner in this category.

Who should win: Forget subtlety - the flying stunts in "Iron Man" were freaking cool.

(Oscar statuette: Copyright AMPAS)

Labels: Oscars