"Lincoln" Film Award Nominations & Wins

[RJNorton]

I know nothing about awards shows - does this portend that Lincoln may not do as well at the Oscars as we hope? Is there a connection?

[BettyO]

I agree, Roger.....I don't watch award shows either..... I was wondering the same thing.

[Rob Wick]

My understanding is that the Golden Globes are voted on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, so I could see a movie about Lincoln not do as well as some others. They are looked on by many as a barometer of the Oscars, but I don't know what the correlation is between the two.

Best
Rob

[Linda Anderson]

"The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is a fancy name for a group of 87 mostly freelance, often part-time scribes who, asserts Deadline Hollywood’s acerbic Nikki Finke, 'won’t grant membership to the real foreign journalists at the prestige media outlets across the world. … And even though the entire entertainment industry ridicules the awards, it props them up because they’re a useful marketing tool for the studios and networks.'"

Read more: http://entertainment.time.com/2013/01/14...z2HxGu4jvj

According to Wikipedia, since 1991 the Oscar went to Golden Globe winners ten times: Schindler's List, Forrest Gump, The English Patient, Titanic, American Beauty, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Slumdog Millionaire.

[Linda Anderson]

Daniel Day-Lewis made an interesting comment after he won the Golden Globe. He is famous for inhabiting the roles that he plays.

"Day-Lewis revealed backstage that near the end of filming he had a strange feeling that if Lincoln, the 16th American president, had not been assassinated he still would not have survived to lead the country through post-war reconstruction."

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/13/showbiz/go...index.html

[Liz Rosenthal]

"The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is a fancy name for a group of 87 mostly freelance, often part-time scribes who, asserts Deadline Hollywood’s acerbic Nikki Finke, 'won’t grant membership to the real foreign journalists at the prestige media outlets across the world. … And even though the entire entertainment industry ridicules the awards, it props them up because they’re a useful marketing tool for the studios and networks.'"

Read more: http://entertainment.time.com/2013/01/14...z2HxGu4jvj

According to Wikipedia, since 1991 the Oscar went to Golden Globe winners ten times: Schindler's List, Forrest Gump, The English Patient, Titanic, American Beauty, Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and Slumdog Millionaire.

So there was a Golden Globe - Oscar correlation about half the time. I guess that's somewhat comforting - that there is still a 50% chance that Lincoln could win Best Picture and Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay (besides Best Actor) at the Oscars. (Or maybe the chance is greater, since Ben Affleck was not nominated for a Best Director Oscar.) I especially felt badly about Tony Kushner's loss. I'm a big fan of his, anyway, but he did such a wonderful job of distilling Lincoln's character into 2 hours and 25 minutes - and providing a broad overview of the challenges America faced in getting the amendment passed and in dealing with post-emancipation issues. Certainly, between Argo and Lincoln, the Lincoln movie had much more relevance to the issues we continue to face today. Oh, well.

[Thomas Thorne]

Looking at Oscar entrails, I think Steven Spielberg has a virtual lock on winning Best Director and his "Lincoln" should win Best Picture as well. The 2 awards have gone to the same film for 42 of the last 50 years.

Since the AMPAS started nominating 5 directors for the AA for Best Director in 1936,only one picture has ever won Best Picture without its director being nominated for Best Director. That was "Driving Miss Daisy in 1989.

What was stunning this year according to some observers was the failure of 3 of the directors who won Directors Guild of America nominations to win Academy Award nominations. These were the 2 men and 1 women who directed "Argo","Les Miserables" and "Zero Dark Thirty" respectively.

I understand that these films were considered to have the only chance to beat "Lincoln" and their failure to have Best Director nominations might be their doom. Modern Hollywood might find it difficult to give their highest honors to pictures such as "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" whose heroes are CIA agents. "Argo"-which I love-is the best neo Alfred Hitchcock movie since the death of the Old Master in 1980. It has the bubbly joy of the greatest Hitchcocks in its craftmanship but that very quality denied Alfred Hitchcock any competitive Academy Award during his long career.

Academy Award voters love to give awards to serious pictures and sometimes give them to films that are serious,stately and dead.

"Les Miserables" is the only one of these four pictures I have yet to see. I gather its defects derive from the greatness of its material. One would have to really try to make a bad "Les Miserables" but it is equally difficult to make a "Les Miserables" equal to or better than its story. I have also read that the singing sequences involve uncomfortable close ups.
Tom

[Linda Anderson]

Daniel Day-Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones won the Screen Actors Guild award for their performances in "Lincoln."

In his acceptance speech, Day-Lewis said, "And it occurred to me that it was an actor that murdered Abraham Lincoln, and therefore somehow it's only fitting that every now and then an actor tries to bring him back to life again. I'm terribly proud to be allowed to carry the baton for a while and now to pass it on."

[Liz Rosenthal]

I'm disappointed that "Lincoln" didn't win a Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Ensemble - that award went to Argo! Between Argo winning a Golden Globe for Best Picture and then receiving the highest SAG award, I'm all the more concerned that "Lincoln" will not be taking home the top prizes at the Oscars. Somebody talk me down....

[BettyO]

Same here, Liz ---

Guess that Lincoln doesn't have enough things blowing up in it.....what is Argo about? Don't know a thing about it -- unfortunately the American audience is seemingly enthralled about car chases, gun fights and stuff exploding in films..... pure action.

[LincolnMan]

The think the most important thing is that Day-Lewis is winning awards for his portrayal of Lincoln. When Day-Lewis wins-Lincoln wins. He has brought Lincoln to the screen-and hence-to the public viewing eye in a way that is sorely needed. For that alone, we are all winners.

[Linda Anderson]

The think the most important thing is that Day-Lewis is winning awards for his portrayal of Lincoln. When Day-Lewis wins-Lincoln wins. He has brought Lincoln to the screen-and hence-to the public viewing eye in a way that is sorely needed. For that alone, we are all winners.

Day-Lewis was so gracious in his speech, too, thanking Leonardo DiCaprio and Liam Neeson for their "great support and encouragement." Neeson was Spielberg's original choice to play Lincoln. Day-Lewis also mentioned that he was sorry that Joaquin Phoenix was not with them that evening.

Day-Lewis thanked the cast and said, "have no doubt that this is an ensemble award."

[LincolnMan]

Why the thanks to DiCaprio?

[Linda Anderson]

Why the thanks to DiCaprio?

He said they were friends. Perhaps DiCaprio supported him when Day-Lewis was trying to decide if he would take the role.

[Rob Wick]

Here's what Spielberg said:

Steven Spielberg has said that Leonardo DiCaprio helped convince Daniel Day-Lewis to sign up for Lincoln.

Spielberg revealed that he made an unsuccessful approach to secure the Oscar-winning There Will Be Blood star for the high-profile political biopic.

"He said, 'I could never play Abraham Lincoln,'" the director recalled to USA Today. "That it was just too intimidating. 'What if I don't succeed? I don't want to bring down the image of a great man'."

Spielberg added that his Catch Me If You Can star DiCaprio was instrumental in recruiting his Gangs of New York co-star Day-Lewis to play Lincoln, a role that was initially earmarked for Liam Neeson.

"Leo DiCaprio was at my house for dinner one night," Spielberg said. "It was just myself, my wife and Leo. And he says, 'Hey, what's going on with your Lincoln project?' I told him the sad story.

"I had one shot at Daniel and he had declined. And that was that. Leo just listened. And then the next morning he called me at my office. He said, here's Daniel's cellphone number, he's expecting your call.

"Leo has never told me to this day what he said to Daniel. But that began this wonderful journey."

Best
Rob