PopcornTreeCt

Entertainment - Reuters
Reuters
'Finding Neverland' Wins First Award in Oscar Race


By Claudia Parsons

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Finding Neverland," a fictionalized account of the creation of children's classic "Peter Pan," was named best film of 2004 by The National Board of Review (news - web sites) on Wednesday in the first major award of the Oscar season.


Oscar hopeful Jamie Foxx (news) was named best actor for "Ray," director Taylor Hackford's film about legendary singer Ray Charles, while Annette Bening (news) won the best actress award for her role as a 1930s stage diva in "Being Julia."

The awards, voted on by about 150 members of a screening committee along with a 12-member awards panel, are sometimes an indicator of what to expect in the race for the Academy Awards (news - web sites) in February, though frequently its choices are more esoteric than the Oscars (news - web sites).

"Finding Neverland" director Marc Forster, who was shopping in a supermarket store when he heard news of the award, said his film offered an optimistic tale of mortality and growing up.

"We live in very dark times right now," he said.

The film is a fantasy about Scottish author J.M. Barrie and his friendship with a family of children including Peter, who is the model for Peter Pan, in Edwardian London.

"Whatever happens from here on out I'm happy," Forster added, declining to speculate on the race for Oscars. "I learned not to have expectations because if you have expectations you can be disappointed."

'A LOT OF BIOPICS'

Michael Mann was named best director for his thriller "Collateral," starring Tom Cruise (news), while "The Incredibles," about a family of superheroes, won best animated feature, beating out big studio films "Shrek 2" and "Polar Express."

Alejandro Amenabar's "The Sea Inside" ("Mar adentro") won best foreign language film, a category dominated by Spanish language films. Pedro Almodovar's "Bad Education" was second, "Maria Full of Grace" about a Colombian drugs courier was third, and "The Motorcycle Diaries," based on the journals of a young Che Guevara, came in fifth.

The board's list of top 10 films of the year had in second place "The Aviator," starring Leonardo DiCaprio (news) as a young Howard Hughes, followed by Mike Nichols' "Closer," Clint Eastwood (news)'s "Million Dollar Baby" and "Sideways."

Rounding out the top 10 were "Kinsey," the biopic of sex researcher Alfred Kinsey, in the sixth spot followed in order by abortionist drama "Vera Drake," "Ray," "Collateral" and genocide drama "Hotel Rwanda."

"What we noticed with our top 10 is there were a lot of biopics," said board spokeswoman Megan Henry Pilla. "The board was drawn to films about real people."

Two big names omitted from the main lists but picked out for "Special recognition of films that reflect the freedom of expression" were Mel Gibson (news)'s "The Passion of the Christ" and Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11."

"Born into Brothels," a film about children of prostitutes in Calcutta, India, won in the documentary category.

The board, whose membership includes film professionals, educators, students and historians, gave a career achievement award to Jeff Bridges (news), and honored Clint Eastwood for special filmmaking achievement for producing, directing, acting and composing the score for "Million Dollar Baby."

The next date in the U.S. awards calendar is Dec. 13, when the New York Film Critics Circle (news - web sites) names its selections and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association announces its Golden Globe nominations. All those help narrow the contestants for the Oscars, which will be awarded on Feb. 27.

fryinpan1

Why was Finding Neverland not given a large initial national release?

DGibFen

The article forgot this list, some of which would make better top ten entries:

Special Recognition For Excellence In Filmmaking

The Assassination of Richard Nixon
Before Sunset
Door in the Floor
Enduring Love
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Facing Windows
Garden State
A Home at the End of the World
Imaginary Heroes
Since Otar Left
Stage Beauty
Undertow
The Woodsman

DGibFen

Here's the complete list.

Best Film
Finding Neverland

Top Ten Films
Finding Neverland, The Aviator, Closer, Million Dollar Baby, Sideways, Kinsey, Vera Drake, Ray, Collateral, Hotel Rwanda

Best Foreign Language Film
The Sea Inside

Top Five Documentaries
Born into Brothels, Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, Paper Clips, Supersize Me, The Story of the Weeping Camel

Top Foreign Films
The Sea Inside, Bad Education, Maria Full of Grace, The Chorus (Les Choristes), The Motorcycle Diaries

Best Actor
Jamie Foxx, Ray

Best Actress
Annette Bening, Being Julia

Best Supporting Actor
Thomas Haden Church, Sideways

Best Supporting Actress
Laura Linney, Kinsey

Best Acting By An Ensemble
Closer

Breakthrough Performance Actor
Topher Grace, In Good Company and P.S.

Breakthrough Performance Actress
Emmy Rossum, The Phantom of the Opera

Best Director
Michael Mann, Collateral

Best Directorial Debut
Zach Braff, Garden State

Best Adapted Screenplay
Sideways, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor

Best Original Screenplay
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Charlie Kaufman

Best Documentary
Born Into Brothels

Best Animated Feature
The Incredibles

Career Achievement
Jeff Bridges

Special Filmmaking Achievement
Clint Eastwood, for producing, directing, acting, and scoring Million Dollar Baby

Outstanding Production Design
House of Flying Daggers

William K. Everson Award for Film History
Richard Schickel

Producers Award
Jerry Bruckheimer

Freedom of Expression
Fahrenheit 9/11, The Passion of the Christ, Conspiracy of Silence

Special Recognition For Excellence In Filmmaking
(Listed alphabetically)
The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Before Sunset, Door in the Floor, Enduring Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Facing Windows, Garden State, A Home at the End of the World, Imaginary Heroes, Since Otar Left, Stage Beauty, Undertow, The Woodsman

jaeufraser

Well, the slow release is how a lot of studios like to release Oscar bait type of movies. It allows a movie to garner word of mouth, starting usually in LA and NY, and then go wide in a few weeks. It's not like this is the type of movie that's going to open to 30 million dollars, so this type of release strategy (if the movie gets the reviews) can be financially more successful, with some awards helping that along. Lots of films follow this release pattern, usually more artsy and less mainstream fare.

Rogue588

I was going to ask if Jamie Foxx accepted the award, but then I realized this wasn't a Dalvin thread..

Seeker

I just saw Finding Neverland yesterday and thought it was an excellent art film.

PopcornTreeCt

Happy to see Collateral is getting the recognition it deserves.

Fahrenheit 9/11 getting the shaft on Top 10 Films and Top 5 Documentaries.

If it means anything, Mystic River won Best Picture last year, Sean Penn and Diane Keaton won for Best Actor & Actress respectively.

bsktballDude1

After seeing Ray, Kinsey, and Finding Neverland in three consecutive days over my Thanksgiving break, I can say they all deserve the acclaim they receive. I still can't believe I saw three great films all in one weekend.

RyoHazuki

Kinda odd that none of the winners for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress and Original Screenplay are the same movie.

Third Baseman

Ohhhh, Indeed!

Tarnower

I would not be surprised to see "Finding Neverland" (almost typed in "Nemo" instead) eventually winning the Best Picture Oscar. It has pretty much everything a typical Best Picture winner contains. I think Scorsese's "The Aviator" may be the favorite at this point, but if it stumbles "Neverland" could easily win the trophy.

Trigger

how do we know who won the oscars before the show happens? I'm confused. Can I use this information to bet on the oscars with people who don't know about this site?

Jaymole

Next week PopcornTreeCt/Oscar Clairvoyant will post the announcment of the best picture winner of 2005!

Geofferson

Glad to hear Finding Neverland taking the Best Picture award (because I think this is the only time it'll happen).

Giles

that's because Born Into Brothels is a vastly superior film to Fahrenheit 9/11

Special Recognition For Excellence In Filmmaking
(Listed alphabetically)
The Assassination of Richard Nixon, Before Sunset, Door in the Floor, Enduring Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Facing Windows, Garden State, A Home at the End of the World, Imaginary Heroes, Since Otar Left, Stage Beauty, Undertow, The Woodsman.

hooray! Facing Windows got recognition (boo, Andrei Zvyagintsev's The Return should have been in that list as well).

Tarantino

What Giles said is correct.

Too bad Spider-Man 2 wasn't on there for anything!

Grimfarrow

Actually, I thought BORN INTO BROTHELS is the most wholesale manipulative piece of filmmaking this year - even moreso than F9/11.

REPATRIATION or SOCIAL GENOCIDE are vastly superior documentaries than either of those two.