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Why The Oscars Aren’t Moving Earlier – Analysis

By PETE HAMMOND | Monday March 25, 2013 @ 11:40am PDTTags: Academy Awards, Oscar show date, Super Bowl, The Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Winter Olympics
Pete Hammond

I hate to say I TOLDJA but the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences today announced its Oscar season schedule for 2014 and, predictably, with the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl taking every Sunday in February, the Academy moved the Oscar show to the first Sunday in March, the 2nd, as forecast here in a column on March 4th. I also predicted it would give them the opportunity to allow more time for seeing movies by moving the nominations back a week from where they were this year on January 10th (two weeks earlier than usual), and the Academy has done just that, moving the voting period  back to where it has been in previous years with ballots going out December 27 and due back on January 8th (for 2013 ballots were mailed December 17 and came back January 4).

There were complaints from members that there just wasn’t enough time to see all the movies and then vote in that two week Holiday period, especially with so many other distractions of the season. This gives the Academy a lot more breathing room in making nominations but still allows for a six-week period between the announcement and the due date of February 25 for final ballots. This is important because it gives the public a lot more time to see the nominated movies and pleases exhibitors who have two extra weeks to exploit those nominations. READ MORE »

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Are Winter Olympic Games Forcing 2014 Oscars Into March?

By PETE HAMMOND | Monday March 4, 2013 @ 10:28am PSTTags: Academy Awards, Golden Globes, Grammy Awards, Oscar 2014 date, Seth MacFarlane, Super Bowl, Winter Olympics
Pete Hammond

Are the Oscars moving even later into March next year? All signs say ‘yes’ and the Academy would be wise to announce this sooner than later.

Despite annual (and always wrong) media speculation (including a recent column in a well-knownOscars 2013 show biz trade) that the Academy Awards are planning to move a month earlier into January insiders have repeatedly told me the Academy’s Board has no taste for that, and as at least one former top officer in the organization told me over the weekend, contractually they can’t  do it.

Though they haven’t yet announced any dates for the next Oscar race, the schedule of the Winter Olympics being held in Sochi, Russia February 7 through the 23rd puts a big crimp in any plans to keep the Oscars even on in its current berth on the last Sunday of February where it would run smack into the Closing Night ceremonies. In the past when this has come up the Academy has always moved the Oscar show to the first Sunday in March which would be on the 2nd next year. Quite frankly there is nowhere else for the show to go. Do the math.

With the Super Bowl already claiming Sunday February 2nd and the Olympics taking the remaining three Sundays, the earliest date available would be January 26th and every source with whom I have spoken tells me that is the date CBS is claiming for the Grammys next year (moving two weeks earlier than their February 10, 2013 date). Also getting the message are the major show biz Guilds which have all already staked out their 2014 dates and sprayed the territory. Read More »

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OSCARS: Debate Still Rages About Seth MacFarlane – Is There A Double Standard At Play?

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday February 28, 2013 @ 4:06pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, Amy Poehler, Anti-Defamation League, Seth MacFarlane, Tina Fey
Pete Hammond

The debate rages on about this year’s Oscars. Not about the movies that won or lost, but the host. Poor Seth MacFarlane just can’t seem to catch a break. If you believe what you read he is either a misogynist, a gay basher, an anti-Semite hiding behind a stuffed teddy bear, or someone who is just downright disrespectful to Abraham Lincoln. And you thought hosting the Oscars was going to be all fun and glamour?

Somewhere along the way we seem to be losing our sense of humor. It’s just an awards show, folks.  Even if you don’t think he was funny — and apparently many don’t — it’s no reason to completely eviscerate the guy. For fronting a show that was alternately class (Shirley Bassey, Barbra Streisand, musical numbers) and crass, he has been getting bashed from the right and the left for his Oscar-night performance where his routines, among  many other charges, have been blasted as sexist (particularly for the musical number, “We Saw Your Boobs” which was meant to be a tasteless parody of a bad Oscar song number). For MacFarlane, who is known for edgy humor, this was relatively mild material. Yet critics like Amy Davidson in the New Yorker called it  his “ugly, sexist, racist Oscars” and his performance, “a series of crudely sexist antics led by a scrubby, self-satisfied Seth MacFarlane”. Ouch. The Anti-Defamation League joined the chorus earlier this week protesting the appearance of MacFarlane’s Ted and what they said was anti-Semitic humor. Yesterday a couple of California female legislators even filed a formal protest with the Academy over what they saw as offensive treatment of women.

It’s ironic that several women are now coming to MacFarlane’s defense, including Victoria A. Brownworth today at the Advocate.com, who said his humor was pointing out Hollywood hypocrisy against women and in fact gave his performance a ringing endorsement. The Academy itself got pro-active in sending press members positive statements about MacFarlane’s Oscar gig, offering a strong defense. All of this brings up the point that perhaps a “double standard” was at work here when compared to the media’s effusive praise for Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, the two female hosts of this year’s rival show the Golden Globes — even though some of their comedy bits dealt with some of the same subject matter as MacFarlane’s including women’s difficulties with issues of weight. So is there a real double standard at work? Fey and Poehler gets raves, MacFarlane gets vilified. Read More »

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California Lawmakers Join Chorus Of Oscarcast Complaints

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday February 27, 2013 @ 7:10pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, Oscars, Seth MacFarlane

The Academy leadership may have felt pretty good about the Oscars’ boost in ratings over the 2012 and 2011 ceremonies, but plenty of other folks weren’t too happy with Seth MacFarlane’s hosting. California Assemblywoman Bonnie Lowenthal and Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, both Democrats who lead the Legislature’s women’s caucus, have written Academy President Hawk Koch and requested that the organization disavow MacFarlane’s behavior. “On Oscar night, when Hollywood seeks to honor its best, Seth MacFarlane’s monologue reduced our finest female actresses to caricatures and stereotypes, degrading women as a whole and the filmmaking industry itself,” the lawmakers wrote. “From topical jabs about domestic violence to singing about ‘boobs’ during a film’s rape scene, Seth MacFarlane crossed the line from humor to misogyny.” Author and award-winning creator of HBO’s Girls Lena Dunham wasn’t pleased either. In tweets she suggested that critics who claim Anne Hathaway hurt the feminist “cause” should save their “bad attitudes for the ones who aren’t advancing the cause” who “aren’t always, or mostly, women. Case in point: I saw your boobs“.

Related: Nikki Finke’s 2013 Oscars Live Snark

MacFarlane wasn’t the only source of complaints. The always closely watched “In Memorium” homage to people who have died over the past always leaves people out. Read More »

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OSCARS: Red Carpet Live Stream

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Sunday February 24, 2013 @ 2:00pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, Oscars, Red Carpet

Watch the 85th Academy Awards red carpet parade right here on Deadline beginning at 2:30 PM Pacific via AP’s live feed. Later on we’ll post a full fashion report by Deadline contributor Monica Corcoran Harel. To watch click over to the jump. Autoplay is off for the stream, but the commercial plays when your browser refreshes. We’ll try to get that fixed. Read More »

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OSCARS: Hammond’s Best Director & Picture Picks

By ENTV YouTube | Sunday February 24, 2013 @ 8:11am PSTTags: Academy Awards, ENTV, Oscars

Deadline Hollywood Columnist Pete Hammond talks with ENTV’s Brian Corsetti about who he thinks will capture Oscar’s biggest prizes: Best Picture and Best Director. One film has dominated the precursor awards, but its director/star can’t win for director, leaving a race between two frontrunners whose outcome could reprise a … Read More »

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OSCARS: Picks For Acting Categories

By ENTV YouTube | Saturday February 23, 2013 @ 12:09pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, ENTV, Oscars

Deadline Awards Columnist Pete Hammond talks with ENTV’s Brian Corsetti about his picks for likely winners in the four Oscar acting categories. All the precursor awards suggest that a favorite has largely locked up the win in two categories, Pete says. But the other two categories remain wide open, … Read More »

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Oscars: Original, Adapted Screenplay Picks

By ENTV YouTube | Saturday February 23, 2013 @ 9:09am PSTTags: Academy Awards, ENTV, Oscars

Deadline Awards Columnist Pete Hammond talks with ENTV’s Brian Corsetti about his picks for the likely winners in the hotly contested Oscar races for Best Original and Best Adapted screenplays. With scripts for several highly regarded Best Picture nominees duking it out, Pete has a dark-horse candidate he … Read More »

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OSCARS: Animated Feature Predictions

By ENTV YouTube | Friday February 22, 2013 @ 4:20pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, Animated Feature, ENTV YouTube, Oscars

Deadline Awards Columnist Pete Hammond talks with ENTV’s Brian Corsetti about what pic he thinks is likely to nab the Oscar for Best Animated Feature, a category dominated this year by Disney-made films. Can one of the three stop-motion animated nominees grab the gold, or will it be … Read More »

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OSCARS: Documentary Feature Picks

By ENTV YouTube | Friday February 22, 2013 @ 12:36pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, Documentary, ENTV, Oscars

Deadline Awards Columnist Pete Hammond talks with ENTV’s Brian Corsetti about his pick to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Nominees include four powerful issue-oriented films and one that tracks a long-lost musical star. The winner, Pete says, likely will be not only the year’s best documentary but … Read More »

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OSCARS: Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman Set As Presenters

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday February 22, 2013 @ 6:34am PSTTags: Academy Awards, Dustin Hoffman, Jack Nicholson, Oscars

Oscars producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron have completed their roster of presenters for Sunday’s show with a pair of Hollywood heavyweights. Three-time Academy Award winner Jack Nicholson last presented a montage of previous Best Picture winners at the 80th Academy Awards in 2008. He’ll be back on stage this Sunday as will two-time winner Dustin Hoffman, who last handed out a prize in 2006. The official release follows: Read More »

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OSCARS: Technical Awards Picks

By ENTV YouTube | Thursday February 21, 2013 @ 5:22pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, ENTV, Oscars

Deadline Awards Columnist Pete Hammond talks about his picks for likely winners in several of the more technically oriented categories including cinematography, editing, sound design and sound mixing. For most of them, Pete says, he expects one film to scoop up several victories.

Related:
Best Director, Picture Picks
Picks For Acting … Read More »

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OSCARS: Show’s Ambitious Music Plans

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Wednesday February 20, 2013 @ 6:59pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, Craig Zadan, ENTV, Neil Meron

Deadline Awards Columnist Pete Hammond and ENTV’s Brian Corsetti preview Oscarcast producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron‘s ambitious musical plans for this Sunday’s show:

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OSCARS: Academy Sets Backstage Hosts

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Thursday February 14, 2013 @ 3:03pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, Backstage Pass, Oscars

The Academy and Disney/ABC Television Group’s Digital Media team today announced the hosts for their ‘Backstage Pass’ on Oscar.com and the official Oscars app. Hosts and correspondents include: returning co-hosts, ABC The View’s Sherri Shepherd and ABC … Read More »

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DGA Awards: ‘Argo’ Increases Its Hold On Oscar’s Best Picture Prize With Affleck Win

By PETE HAMMOND | Sunday February 3, 2013 @ 1:19am PSTTags: Academy Awards, Argo, Ben Affleck
Pete Hammond

By all coventional signals, Warner Bros is sitting with a hot hand right now with Argo.

After winning a key SAG award for Cast, a very predictive Producers Guild honor for Best Picture and now tonight an all-important DGA … Read More »

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OSCARS: Nominees Luncheon Monday

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Friday February 1, 2013 @ 2:50pm PSTTags: Academy Awards, Oscar Nominees Luncheon

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – Seventeen of the 20 nominees in the acting categories will be among more than 160 Oscar nominees who will gather at noon on Monday, February 4, at the Beverly Hilton when the Academy honors this year’s

… Read More »

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‘Life Of Pi’ Exclusive Featurettes With Four Of The Multi-Oscar Nominated Film’s Contenders

By PETE HAMMOND | Wednesday January 23, 2013 @ 11:27pm PSTTags: 20th Century Fox, Academy Awards, Ang Lee, Bill Westenhofer, Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Pete Hammond

Ang Lee’s Life Of Pi has turned into a success story for 20th Century Fox which had the Yann Martel book in development for several years but could never crack the supposedly “unfilmable” property until Lee got involved five years ago and figured out a way to bring to the screen this epic story of a young man and a tiger trying to survive after a disastrous shipwreck. Earlier on Wednesday the film passed the half billion dollar mark worldwide for Fox and also just passed the $100 million milestone in America alone. Nevertheless this is a strong international smash and with 11 Academy Award nominations, a remarkable feat since none were for acting, it promises to keep growing the total and has emerged as a genuine threat at the Oscars. If anything Life of Pi stands as a testament to the art and science of motion pictures, a film the director says could not have been made even five years ago. Now it has thanks to the efforts of a group of dedicated craftsmen.  Below Lee talks of the challenges as do the film’s Oscar nominees for Visual Effects, Cinematography and Music in a series of exclusive new featurettes premiering now on Deadline.

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ENTV: Pete Hammond On Oscar Nominations – And Snubs

By PETE HAMMOND | Thursday January 10, 2013 @ 7:20pm PSTTags: Academy Awards
Pete Hammond

Watch Deadline Awards Columnist Pete Hammond talk about Best Picture Oscar nominees with ENTV’s Brian Corsetti, followed after the jump by looks at Best Actor/Actress nominees, Best Animated Feature and other hopefuls plus a discussion of Oscar nominations snubs. After the videos you’ll also find a collection of links to all of Deadline’s Oscar nominations coverage.

Best Picture

Read More »

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OSCARS: TV Ad Prices Rise To Pre-Recession Levels: Ad Age

By THE DEADLINE TEAM | Thursday January 10, 2013 @ 4:10pm PSTTags: ABC, Academy Awards, Oscars

Commercials during this year’s Oscarcast are commanding higher rates than they have for some time. ABC has been getting between $1.65 million and $1.8 million for a 30-second spot, Advertising Age reports. That’s up slightly from the $1.6 million … Read More »

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