The Oscar Categories Less Spoken Of
It’s Oscars season, and with it comes the usual amount of pre-show speculation. Which is more likely to win Best Male Actor, Christian Bale or Matthew McConaughey? Will American Hustle prevail as Best Picture? Those who haven’t seen the movies are clued in quickly as to the film’s major plot points and principal actors, and the debate continues, the names of famous thespians, directors, producers, screenwriters, and movies thrown out to be considered and picked upon.
But wait a minute. Those aren’t the only recipients of awards during the Oscars, because movies are made of more than that. So here, for your personal enjoyment, are the details on a few awards categories that aren’t discussed quite as frequently.
First up – Cinematography, or the art of motion picture photography. This award goes to the production with the most appealing visual element, hence the nickname “the pretty picture award”. The winners of this category bear witness to some of the huge advances that the movie industry has made in the past century, given that the first recipient in 1927 (Charles Rosher, Sunrise) used a manually operated camera, whereas computer-generated images and three-dimensional movies are of common occurrence today.
This year’s nominated cinematographers are Philippe Le Sourd (The Grandmaster), Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity), Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis), Phedon Papamichael (Nebraska) and Roger A. Deakins (Prisoners). Many Oscar prediction articles agree that Gravity will win. “Gravity‘s immersive quality is a product of cinematography, design, editing and technology working in a way that put us in outer space,” said Scott Beggs of filmschoolrejects.com. “Will you please just give him the Oscar already?”
Next up – the award for Best Sound Editing, which is presented to a film exhibiting the finest sound editing or sound design. The question here is, what is the difference between the award for sound editing and the award for sound mixing? “Typically, a sound editorial crew will bring a lot of material to the mixing stage, particularly if it’s a complex project,” said Governor of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Sound Branch, Curt Behlmer. “At that point, the sound mixers will start going through the material and deciding what to use.”
This year, the nominees are Steve Boedekker and Richard Hymns (All Is Lost), Oliver Tarney (Captain Phillips), Glenn Freemantle (Gravity), Wylie Stateman (Lone Survivor), and Brent Burge and Chris Ward (The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug). Tim Ryan and Alex Vo, writing for rottentomatoes.com, named Gravity as the most likely victor, describing it as “a movie whose sound bank of mechanic noises feels just ‘mundane’ enough to be utterly terrifying when splattered against the backdrop of space.”
Lastly is Best Hair and Makeup. Though not always a high priority on viewers’ conversational hit lists, the variation of nominated movies is interesting. This year’s nominated hair and makeup artists are Adruitha Lee and Robin Matthews (Dallas Buyer’s Club), Stephen Prouty (Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa), and Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny (The Lone Ranger). Peter Knegt of indiewire.com said, “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, Oscar winner? That’s what we’re betting on for now.”
What is also worth noting about the nominated movies is that all three have been praised for their makeup, while hair took a backseat. The same thing happened during last year’s Oscars, when the elaborate braids of The Hobbit were snubbed in favor of Les Miserables.
No doubt the buzz generated by awards for actors and directors will be enough to send shivers up any Oscar viewer’s spine, but movies are made of more than that. So who shall prevail at the awards this Sunday, for categories mainstream and obscure? Only time will tell.
