Wisdom of the Crowd

As promised, here’s your collective wisdom on who’s going home with statues tomorrow night.

In cases where the runner-up was within 5% of the number of votes, I’ve included both to account for margin of error. That happened on only two categories: Best Actor, where people were nearly perfectly split between Hoffman and Ledger, and Best Live Action Short, where people were clearly pulling decisions out of their asses.

Interestingly, the most unanimously decided category was Best Documentary Short, and I’m fairly certain no more of you have seen those shorts than the live action ones. Still, stick ‘Rwanda’ in the title (as in God Sleeps in Rwanda, which garnered 78% of your votes) and it’s got to be an Oscar contender.

Check back on Monday to see how we did together, and to determine which wise voter led the pack.
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Best Picture: Brokeback Mountain (71%)

Best Director: Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (70%)

Best Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote (52%), Heath Ledger for Brokeback Mountain (48%)

Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (63%)

Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney for Syriana (44%)

Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener (51%)

Best Original Screenplay: Crash – Paul Haggis (41%)

Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain – Larry McMurtry (45%)

Cinematography: Brokeback Mountain (56%)

Editing: Crash (48%)

Art Direction: Memoirs of a Geisha (37%)

Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha (59%)

Original Score: Brokeback Mountain (41%)

Original Song: “Travelin’ Thru” – Transamerica – Dolly Parton (40%)

Best Makeup: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (66%)

Best Sound: King Kong (49%)

Best Sound Editing: King Kong (71%)

Best Visual Effects: King Kong (69%)

Best Animated Feature Film: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit (67%)

Best Foreign Language Film: Paradise Now (Palestine) (48%)

Best Documentary Feature: Murderball (42%)

Best Documentary Short: God Sleeps in Rwanda (78%)

Best Live Action Short: Our Time Is Up (32%), Cashback (30%), Six Shooter (27%)

Best Animated Short: Moon and the Son (33%)

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Cyan Updates

The Cyan Pictures First Annual Oscar Pool closes tonight at midnight; if you’ve been meaning to throw your vote into the fast-growing pile, here’s your last chance. Go! Go now! And don’t forget to give your full name, or I won’t be able to track you back down when you win, as we’re not collecting emails.

In other news, as our having two company names – Cyan Pictures and Long Tail Releasing – was apparently too confusing for most agents and producers, we’re sadly dropping the Long Tail name, and calling everything (both production and distribution) Cyan.

So, with that in mind, the latest distribution-side news from Cyan: two new films we acquired just earlier this week, which we’ve slated for mid-summer and early fall theatrical release, respectively.

1. The Oh in Ohio, starring Parker Posey, Paul Rudd, Danny Devito, Mischa Barton, Heather Graham and Liza Minnelli. A smart and very quirky comedy, “The Oh in Ohio tells the story of Priscilla Chase (Posey), a young Cleveland woman who seems to have it all – the perfect job, the perfect house, the perfect husband – except for in bed, where sex has always left her a bit short of the finish line. When the problem drives her husband (Rudd) to unexpectedly leave her for one of his high school students (Barton), Priscillaís idyllic world is shattered. She sets out on a quest to become just as good at sex as she is at everything else in life – a wild journey that leads her into the arms of the man she least expected (DeVito), and to the discovery that satisfaction often comes from the most unlikely places.”

2. We Go Way Back, an indie drama that won both the Grand Jury prize and Kodak Vision Award for best cinematography at Sundance’s sister festival Slamdance, a month back. Loglined as “a funny, tender character study about a young actress named Kate whose refusal to admit to her romantic and professional dissatisfaction leads her to a surreal confrontation with her own past,” it’s also the best, most subtle look at quarter-life crisis I’ve ever seen on film. Plus, it’s beautifully written, shot and acted, and scored by indie-rocker Laura Veirs with a slew of The Decemberists’ music in as well.

I’m unequivocally excited about both films, and think you all should be, too. More details on these, and the handful of other similarly cool post-Sundance acquisitions we’re still chasing down, over the next few weeks.

Oh, and final note: both of these films will be part of the Oscar Pool prize pack. Further incentive to put on your best Academy thinking caps.

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On Bygone Days

My senior year in high school, AP US History fell during the same period as jazz band. And, Louis and Miles being nearer and dearer to my heart than any dead president, I opted for jazz.

While I’ve never regretted that choice, I’ve often regretted the deep hole in my knowledge that resulted. What was, for example Truman’s legacy? Or Harding’s? I have absolutely no idea.

Over the years, in fits of self-improvement, I’ve therefore picked up a slew of US history texts. I’ve tried to slog through Loewen and Zinn. I’ve even resorted to Davis’ much maligned Don’t Know Much About History. Because, as I’ve said, I don’t.

But, despite my best intentions, I’d never make it more than fifty pages through any of these tomes. I’d sit down to read and my eyelids would droop before I could even crack the volume open to the right page.

So, it was with some trepidation that I picked up Erik Larson’s The Devil in the White City, which retells the story of the 1893 World’s Fair by intertwining the perspectives of Daniel Burnham, the fair’s lead architect, and Henry Holmes, a serial killer who used the fair to lure in his victims.

As one reviewer commented, Larson seems a historan with a novelist’s soul. Several other reviewers called the book ‘engossing’; I couldn’t agree more, having, in less than three days, devoured three hundred and forty-some pages – more, perhaps, than I’ve read of all my prior history reading attempts combined.

So, if you like history books, I highly recommend The Devil in the White City. And if you don’t, I recommend it even more.

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