25 years of Academy Awards

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
As many of you all know, The Academy Awards are one of the top, highly coveted honors in Hollywood, and are presented during a ceremony in which members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences select the winners from their peers. They are held annually and honor the past years performances in film.

From a selection of five nominees, in several categories consisting of all areas of the film industry, one person is selected per category by votes and given the Academy Award for their achievement in film. The awards are lovingly nicknamed "Oscar."

Here at the Raven, there are several Film Buffs, as well as considerable interest in many things related to film. Being that the news on the next Indiana Jones installment is sparse, and timing constraints and collaboration are delaying the Raven 2.0, I thought maybe we could all try to generate some clamor for the up coming Oscars.

But there is a twist, as there always is in my threads. The awards I want you to consider should encompass the last 25 years. :D
(I know this may be confusing, but any longer and it becomes a project for the AFI) Any movie from 1979 forward can be considered for the applicable award. Any actor or actress whose performance falls within the same time frame is to be considered as well. There are 10 categories in this little endeavor, your goal is to pick just 1 winner?


Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Score
Best Cinematography


Have fun
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Here is my list, you can agree or disagree, but I think if nothing else it is a good base for all to use.

Best Picture: BraveHeart encompasses so much and is so well rounded, it wins the honor
Best Director: Spielberg (he had 4 Raiders, E.T, Schindler?s, Saving) OUTSTANDING directoral acheivments, shameful to go to anyone else
Best Actor: Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs
Best Actress: Glen Close in Fatal Attraction
Best Supporting Actor: Jack Palance in City Slickers
Best Supporting Actress: Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction
Best Original Screenplay: The Usual Suspects
Best Adapted Screenplay: Apocalypse Now
Best Original Score: Raiders
Best Cinematography: Dances with Wolves
 

Kate

New member
Hmm... good idea pale horse (but then again everything about you is good :D)! I'll have to think about it and get back to you. Five minutes... j/k
 

Kate

New member
ok, pale horse, I've thought about it. Here it comes.

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Score
Best Cinematography .....
 

Kate

New member
for heaven's sake, my copy-nd-pasting didn't work. ooohhh my I hate my Linux word processor.

i'll try again soon.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Here goes:

Best Picture: Platoon
Best Director: Scorsese (sp?) for Goodfellas (I'm being a little contrarian here)
Best Actor: Sean Penn for Sweet and Lowdown (while Penn got a great character to play, his performance is that movie)
Best Actress: Nicole Kidman for 'The Hours' (coincidentally narrowly edging out Meryl Streep in 'Deer Hunter')
Best Supporting Actor: Beringer/Dafoe in 'Platoon'
Best Supporting Actress: Maureen Stapleton in 'Reds' (her role is critical, she plays against a huge talented cast, and she's playing a historical figure that many people have already formed an opinion)
Best Original Screenplay: Fargo (uniquely American -- it should be in the Smithsonian if it's not)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Silence of the Lambs (clever, with good subplots)
Best Original Score: (?) I'm musically retarded
Best Cinematography: Se7en
 

Attila the Professor

Moderator
Staff member
Best Picture: Unforgiven - perhaps the last truly great film in a great genre, and really struck me
Best Director: Martin Scorcese for Goodfellas - innovative, made Pulp Fiction possible
Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man - brave and not overdone
Best Actress: Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy - the part she had worked a lifetime for
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future - yes, this selection is a bit indulgant, but he did have a great energy
Best Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep in Adaptation - nice to see her acting without an accent, isn't it?
Best Original Screenplay: Pulp Fiction, if only because it makes something that shouldn't work, work
Best Adapted Screenplay: Field of Dreams - defines what a great adaptation can be
Best Original Score: Raiders of the Lost Ark - evocative of a lost age
Best Cinematography: Fargo - piercing morality

I'll put the others in later...

[Edited by Attila the Professor on 02-13-2004 at 09:55 pm]
 

Pale Horse

Moderator
Staff member
Joe Brody said:
Here goes:

Best Picture: Platoon
Best Director: Scorsese (sp?) for Goodfellas (I'm being a little contrarian here)
Best Actor: Sean Penn for Sweet and Lowdown (while Penn got a great character to play, his performance is that movie)
Best Actress: Nicole Kidman for 'The Hours' (coincidentally narrowly edging out Meryl Streep in 'Deer Hunter')
Best Supporting Actor: Beringer/Dafoe in 'Platoon'
Best Supporting Actress: Maureen Stapleton in 'Reds' (her role is critical, she plays against a huge talented cast, and she's playing a historical figure that many people have already formed an opinion)
Best Original Screenplay: Fargo (uniquely American -- it should be in the Smithsonian if it's not)
Best Adapted Screenplay: Silence of the Lambs (clever, with good subplots)
Best Original Score: (?) I'm musically retarded
Best Cinematography: Se7en


Fascinating insight, I love it :)

Attila the Professor said:
Best Picture: Unforgiven - perhaps the last truly great film in a great genre, and really struck me
Best Director: Martin Scorcese for Goodfellas - innovative, made Pulp Fiction possible
Best Actor: Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man - brave and not overdone
Best Actress: Jessica Tandy in Driving Miss Daisy - the part she had worked a lifetime for
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Lloyd in Back to the Future - yes, this selection is a bit indulgant, but he did have a great energy
Best Supporting Actress: Meryl Streep in Adaptation - nice to see her acting without an accent, isn't it?
Best Original Screenplay: Pulp Fiction, if only because it makes something that shouldn't work, work
Best Adapted Screenplay: Field of Dreams - defines what a great adaptation can be
Best Original Score: Raiders of the Lost Ark - evocative of a lost age
Best Cinematography: Fargo - piercing morality

I'll put the others in later...

[Edited by Attila the Professor on 02-13-2004 at 09:55 pm]

Both you and Joe truely demonstrate why you are pure connoisseurs of film. I am humbled.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
I don't know what you're talking about apalehorse, you made great picks yourself.

The one category that gave me fits was adapted screenplay. How do you make a pick like that? What is the best adaptation? Is it the script that stays close to the source material and results in a great film (which I think is easy to dismiss but still takes real skill)? Is it the one that uses the source material as the foundation/inspiration for a great new story? Or is just the best film, period?
 

westford

Member
Joe Brody said:
Best Original Screenplay: Fargo (uniquely American -- it should be in the Smithsonian if it's not)

Pity that poor Chinese (Japanese?) woman didn't know it was an Original Screenplay before she went off looking for the cash... D'oh!
 

Adventurer

New member
"Is it the script that stays close to the source material and results in a great film (which I think is easy to dismiss but still takes real skill)?"

I asked myself the same question. If it's like the way you are suggesting with the quoted above, doesn't that mean every single Academy member should have read the book or source in order to give a qualified vote? Hm. Sounds very time consiming for all the adaptions out there. But what if it isn't that way? Either you give a 'random' vote, because you don't know the original, or it is, as you said, just the best film. Maybe the Academy just wanted to split the category in two, because of better comparableness.
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Hey Adventurer, how about filling out your card?

. . . and Westford, I'm not understanding your reference to the lady and the money regarding 'Fargo'.
 

Kate

New member
Ok pale horse here we go... sorry I made you wait so long.

Best picture... "Moulin Rouge."It's completely unique, and Baz Luhrmann is a genius. There is no other movie quite like this one. An awesome achievement.

Best director.... Spielberg (cliche, I'm sorry. I knew you were hoping I'd be more original). He is THE giant in the business. So many great movies, from "Minority Report" to, of course, Indy. And no misstep but "A.I."

Best actor.... I'm gonna be wierd here and go with Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day." His transformation from selfish to selfless is brilliant. He's the rare man who is funny by NOT being funny!

Best actress.... Kelly McGillis in "Witness." She is better at acting like an Amish woman than a real Amish woman would be! (and palehorse, remind me to tell you my funny Amish story sometime)

Best supporting actor.... Joaquin Pheonix in "Gladiator." A creepy and underrated performance.

Best supporting actress... I love Catherine McCormack in "Braveheart." She is just so beautiful and inspiring. PS: Does anyone else think she looks like Eowyn from "The Lord of the Rings?"

Best original screenplay.... This is the award I want to win someday! My choice for this is unusual: "Moonlight Mile." Kind of obscure, I know, but it's extremely sharp and well-written.

Best adapted screenplay: "Big Fish." This book was effortlessly adapted for screen, so effortlessly that it feels completely original, and not like the writers were trying to be faithful to a text.

Best original score.... "The Last of the Mohicans" wins hands down. I have listened to it countless times, and it never fails to move me.

Best cinematography.... "Girl With a Pearl Earring" has by and far the most lush photography I've ever seen. There is absolutely no comparison. If you haven't seen this movie, you must. It is an incredible experience!

and now for a category of my own....

Best documentary.... "Touching the Void." It's brand-new, but by far the best documentary I've ever seen, and I have seen a lot! It's inspiring and just as thrilling as any suspense movie. I think that Raveners would really enjoy it.

Yes, I know I put a lot of new movies, but in my opinion, movies are getting better, not worse. *ducks to avoid a punch thrown by Ren.*

So there you have it.

:)
 

Joe Brody

Well-known member
Wow Kate -- good pics.

I'll agree that Baz Luhrmann is a genius -- but I've got to go with "William Shakespeare's Romeo+Juliet' as his superior film. For me, 'Moulin Rouge' is 'Thespian's Gone Awry'. If you've seen both, why do you prefer 'Moulin Rouge'?
 

Strider

New member
Bill Murry in Groundhog Day! that's one I don't hear to often! I love that movie, we have a family tradition to whach it every Groundhog Day. :)
 

Adventurer

New member
Best Picture: 'Raiders of the Lost Ark'
Best Director: James Cameron for 'Aliens' (so absolutely perfect, it's kind of scary (no pun))
Best Actor: Russell Crowe for 'Insider'
Best Actress: Emma Thompson for 'The Remains of the Day'
Best Supporting Actor: Tommy Lee Jones for 'The Fugitive'
Best Supporting Actress: That was tough. Helen Hunt for 'Cast Away' (her appearance is soo short)
Best Original Screenplay: John Huges for 'Planes, Trains & Automobiles' (hell yes! :) )
Best Adapted Screenplay: Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar for 'JFK'
Best Original Score: John Williams for 'The Empire Strikes Back' (btw., he was robbed twice; where's that Oscar for Raiders?)
Best Cinematography: Dante Spinotti for 'Insider' (two words: playing golf...)
 

Kate

New member
Joe Brody said:
Wow Kate -- good pics.

I'll agree that Baz Luhrmann is a genius -- but I've got to go with "William Shakespeare's Romeo+Juliet' as his superior film. For me, 'Moulin Rouge' is 'Thespian's Gone Awry'. If you've seen both, why do you prefer 'Moulin Rouge'?

Well, Joe, I really like the music in "Moulin Rouge-" the soundtrack is one of my favorite CDs of all time. I listen to it and listen to it and never get sick of it. My favorite song on the album is one by David Bowie called "Diamond Dogs." Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. I like "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet" a lot as well, but the soundtrack is what makes me prefer "Moulin Rouge." Here's a thought... what if Baz Luhrmann directed Indy 4?
 
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