“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” towered over the competition Wednesday night, winning eight of the nine Visual Effects Society awards for which it was nominated. Among TV entries, “Dinotopia” picked up four awards, the only other multiple winner. [More]
Month: February 2003
Pic nabs 8 awards including actor, character animation
By DAVID BLOOM
“The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers” towered over the competition Wednesday night, winning eight of the nine Visual Effects Society awards for which it was nominated. Among TV entries, “Dinotopia” picked up four awards, the only other multiple winner.
Award program was the first for the 6-year-old org, which comprises about 800 f/x specialists worldwide. Four panels of VES members slogged through dozens of entries in movies, TV, musicvideos and commercials in January to pick nominees in 20 categories. Then, roughly 100 members spent the first weekend in February watching demo reels from 56 noms across all the categories.
Towering triumph
The resulting selections were an overwhelming endorsement of the work by New Zealand-based house Weta on “The Two Towers.” Their only loss in nine categories was matte painting in a motion picture, nabbed by Industrial Light & Magic for “Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones.”
“Towers” rung up wins for special effects, effects art direction, visual effects photography, models and miniatures, performance by an actor in an effects film, character animation in a live-action motion picture, compositing and visual effects in an effects-driven motion picture. In most cases, it beat out ILM.
“I’m blown away,” said “Towers” f/x producer Dean Wright, who traveled with effects supervisor Jim Rygiel and models and miniatures specialist Paul Van Ommen from New Zealand to attend the event.
Rygiel, who won an Oscar for the first “Rings” movie and is nominated for the second, said he was stunned when he and others at Weta, which created most of the film’s f/x, had been notified of its nominations. He was named with Weta’s Joe Letteri, Randall William Cook and Alex Funke for the visual effects in an effects-driven picture.
But, Rygiel insisted, “if we didn’t win a single award, I am so proud of this film. The rest is sort of meaningless to me. It’s all about the work.”
Wright quickly chimed in, “That being said, it’s a fantastic honor, and we can’t thank our peers enough.”
Taking spotlight
The two, and others, said they particularly appreciate that the VES kudos honor so many different slices of their industry, so that professionals in different corners of the fast-expanding effects business could have a chance to be honored for their work.
No one from Framestore CFC was present to pick up the awards the London-based house received for work on the “Dinotopia” mini and TV series. “Dinotopia” lumbered to wins for visual effects, character animation, matte painting and compositing.
Other winning projects include the following:
“Stuart Little 2,” and Sony’s Imageworks unit, for character animation in an animated motion picture.
“The Sum of All Fears,” whose work was lead by Rhythm & Hues, for supporting visual effects in a motion picture.
“Firefly” pilot episode “Serenity,” for visual effects in a series.
“Enterprise” episode “Dead Stop,” for models and miniatures in a televised program, musicvideo or commercial.
The Xbox “Mosquito” ad for visual effects in a commercial.
The Adidas “Mechanical Legs” ad for effects art direction in a televised program, musicvideo or commercial.
“So to Speak,” by Astropolitan Pictures, for visual effects in a musicvideo.
(New York City) — Cinemarati: The Web Alliance for Film Commentary today chose *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* as the Best Film of 2002 in the third annual Cinemarati Awards. Winners in 26 additional categories, recognizing the best cinematic efforts of last year, were also named. *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* garnered four awards, including Best Film, Best Ensemble Cast, and Best Director for Peter Jackson. [More]
*THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE TWO TOWERS* WINS BEST FILM IN THE 2003 CINEMARATI AWARDS
(New York City) — Cinemarati: The Web Alliance for Film Commentary today chose *The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* as the Best Film of 2002 in the third annual Cinemarati Awards. Winners in 26 additional categories, recognizing the best cinematic efforts of last year, were also named.
*The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers* garnered four awards, including Best Film, Best Ensemble Cast, and Best Director for Peter Jackson. Also highly honored were Todd Haynes’ *Far From Heaven,* picking up five awards, including Best Lead Actress for Julianne Moore and Best Supporting Actor for Dennis Quaid. Dylan Kidd’s *Roger Dodger* won three awards, including Best Lead Actor for Campbell Scott, and Spike Jonze’s *Adaptation* received two awards: Best Supporting Actress for Meryl Streep and Best Adapted Screenplay for Charlie and Donald Kaufman.
Roberto Benigni’s *Pinocchio* was doubly dishonored, named The Worst Film of the Year and Benigni himself bestowed with The Jar Jar Binks Award, for the “year’s most inexplicable cinematic creation,” for his 50-year-old boy-puppet.
The complete roster of awards appears below.
“I’m delighted that the Cinemarati Awards have recognized some genuinely worthy films of the year that haven’t received the attention they deserved,” said founding member MaryAnn Johanson, of FlickFilosopher.com, “such as our Orson Welles Award to new director Zacharias Kunuk for his wonderful fantasy *Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner).* And it’s great to be able to point out the ascendancy of film criticism online, as with our Best Film Web Site winner, The Onion’s AV Club.”
Unlike other professional awards, the Cinemarati Awards are chosen through Cinemarati’s signature, one-of-a-kind “showdown” process, where nominees go head-to-head in matchups voted on by its Member Critics and held in full public view at Cinemarati’s international home on the internet (http://www.cinemarati.org).
The 2003 Cinemarati Award Winners, as announced on Friday, February 21st, are listed below. Discussion on the winners and also-rans continues at the Cinemarati Roundtable (http://www.cinemarati.org/roundtable.)
2003 CINEMARATI AWARD WINNERS (Available online Friday, February 21st, 8:00AM Eastern at http://www.cinemarati.org/features/awards2003_winners.shtml)
BEST FILM
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
BEST NON-ENGLISH LANGUAGE FILM
Y Tu Mamà También
BEST ANIMATED FILM
Spirited Away
BEST DOCUMENTARY FILM
Bowling for Columbine
THE WORST FILM OF THE YEAR
Pinocchio
BEST DVD AWARD
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
(Platinum Series Extended Edition)
THE JOHN WATERS AWARD For the Year’s Guiltiest Pleasure
Undercover Brother
THE JAR JAR BINKS AWARD Dishonoring the Year’s Most Inexplicable Cinematic Creation
Fifty-year-old Roberto Benigni as Pinocchio
BEST LEAD ACTOR
Campbell Scott, Roger Dodger
BEST LEAD ACTRESS
Julianne Moore, Far From Heaven
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Dennis Quaid, Far From Heaven
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Meryl Streep, Adaptation
BEST ENSEMBLE CAST
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE AWARD
Jesse Eisenberg, Roger Dodger
BEST DIRECTOR
Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
THE ORSON WELLES AWARD Honoring the Year’s Best Directorial Debut
Zacharias Kunuk, Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Pedro Almodovar, Talk to Her
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Charlie and Donald Kaufman, Adaptation
BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY
Dylan Kidd, Roger Dodger
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Edward Lachman, Far From Heaven
BEST FILM EDITING
D. Michael Horton and Jabez Olssen, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
OUTSTANDING DESIGN
Far From Heaven
BEST SONG (Original or Adapted)
“Aaj Mera Jee Kardaa,” Monsoon Wedding
BEST MUSICAL SCORE
Elmer Bernstein, Far From Heaven
BEST FILM WEB SITE
The Onion AV Club (http://www.theonionavclub.com/)
BEST OFFICIAL FILM SITE
Minority Report (http://www.precrime.org/)
EXCEPTIONAL ACHIEVEMENT IN CRITICISM
Amy Taubin, Film Comment
ROUNDTABLE FILM OF THE YEAR
(chosen by the participants of the Cinemarati Roundtable) 25th Hour
From: SeanAstin.com: An exciting new service has been made available by Sean to all of his fans and friends. With his current family and career demands, Mr. Astin regretfully doesn’t have the time to respond individually to all of his fan mail; however, this hasn’t stopped him from going an extra mile to satisfy all incoming requests for autographed pictures. [More]
From: robogeek.com: Actor-director SEAN ASTIN has been confirmed as Guest of Honor for this year’s 10th Anniversary Texas Film Festival, which is currently taking place this week at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. [More]