Monday, June 28, 2010

AND YOU GET A LIFETIME OF FREE DVD SCREENERS TO BOOT! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has invited 135 new members to join the Oscar electorate. It's heavy on recent nominees (Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidbe, Jeremy Renner, and Anna Kendrick all make the list off their nominations from last year), but a few surprises--Tobin Bell? Adam Sandler? Ryan Reynolds? Bono and The Edge? And then there are people who you would have thought were already in--for instance, Davis Guggenheim, who already has an Oscar, was only asked to join this year, and I would have thought Peter Sarsgaard would have been in long ago. Any other surprises you see?

14 comments:

  1. Joseph J. Finn11:15 AM

    Nick Hornby, eh?  We've had some very nice work off of his novels, but he's only had two screenplays produced.  Seems slightly premature to me.

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  2. He got an adapted screenplay nod this year for An Education, and usually, a nod in the major categories means you get invited.  Sidbe has only made the one film, for instance.

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  3. The Pathetic Earthling11:35 AM

    Are nominees/winners in as members automatically?  Otherwise, I can't quite see such a raw newcomer (however apparently promising) like Gabourey Sidbe. I  mean, one movie, right?

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  4. Adam C.11:53 AM

    Kinda surprised Peter Riegert wasn't already a member many years ago (like by the late 80s, when he had Animal House, Local Hero, and Crossing Delancey under his belt).  

    Tobin Bell is fairly inexplicable, given that his only well known movie roles are in the Saw franchise (I'm not sure too many people remember his not-quite-as-sinister turn in The Firm, for example).  But hey, the Saw movies have made a lot of money, so there ya go.  Maybe he's also a really nice guy.

    That said, although I think of him more as a TV guy, it's nice to see George Wyner, who has been delivering quality supporting performances since at least the Hill Street Blues days, on the list of new members.

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  5. Joseph J. Finn12:40 PM

    You're right, I'd forgotten that he received a nod this year.  And now I kind of want to go home and watch About A Boy for the 15th time.

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  6. Surrpised it took James Gandolfini and Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett this long.

    Yay, Adam Shankman.

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  7. Carrie3:35 PM

    Actors are automatically invited with a nomination or win. I thought directors were too, so I was surprised that Davis Guggenheim wasn't admitted to the Academy until this year.

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  8. I'd thought that was the case, but then why Saoirse Ronan this year rather than after her 2008 nomination?

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  9. Adam C.3:58 PM

    Maybe the automatic invite is not necessarily an immediate automatic invite?

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  10. Adlai4:12 PM

    Why Bono and The Edge but not Adam Clayton or Larry Mullens?

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  11. Genevieve4:36 PM

    Maybe there's a minimum age, and Saoirse Ronan didn't meet it in 2008?  The way to check that, I guess, would be to see when Keisha Castle-Hughes was admitted.

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  12. Heather K7:10 PM

    or Anna Paquin

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  13. Jenn.8:31 AM

    From what I can tell, the entirety of U2 co-wrote and performed Gangs of New York, but Bono and the Edge did a song for GoldenEye, and Bono did a song for another movie.

    The thing that surprised me here was no mention of Michael Giacchino getting admitted.  Unless he already was?

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  14. I'm assuming he was invited after his Ratatouille nod.  And yes, Bono and the Edge co-wrote "GoldenEye," performed by Tina Turner.  Not one of their (or the franchise's) higher moments.  (Also, assuming Spider-Man remains on track, I believe they could get another step closer to an EGOT this year.)

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