fly away with me

as many of you know, i love film. to an insane degree. i love the advertising aspect of films, the joy of a friday night opening and of course, award season. each year, my whole five-year old self comes out to play and like a kid in the sand, i go nuts. i watch what everyone wears, i listen to their speeches and i approve or judge who won.

lately, i have wanted to have some changes - some shake-ups and surprises when the awards are handed out and even those who are nominated. while i am (sadly!) not a voting member of the academy, i hope the voting members are not easily swayed by the media and the "for your consideration" ads found in the trade magazines. meaning, i hope everyone allowed to vote actually watches the films that are nominated. ps, i would love to join the academy. it would be a dream come true. seriously.

so, this also makes me wonder why some people are nominated, while others are not. i don't know the whole nomination process (it's lengthy i've come to find out per my research) and it intrigues me that some people are not nominated though i often think they should be. examples would be this years documentary race, where the hilarious "joan rivers: a piece of work" and interesting "waiting for superman" were not nominated - even though both were critical darlings in the film community and general public.

another example (but there is a reason!) would be the costume design for darren aronofsky's "black swan." the dark film has costumes designed by kate and laura mulleavy - and i know most people will not know who those are. but the sisters are the creative duo behind the fashion line 'rodarte' which i hope many of you have heard of. if you have seen the film, you know the costumes are a major component of the film (as well as the score which gives it a nice off-key tone and the art direction) - the sisters handmade the ballet costumes and the crown. long story longer, they were not eligible by the academy.

and here is the reason: it's about getting credit where it is due. meaning, the sisters didn't negotiate being credited in the final cut of the film and only the official designer of the film will get the nomination. which hurts the sisters and the general costumers because sometimes, and "black swan" being an example, the costumes helped make the picture. and in my naive world, i feel they did the most work and helped give the film a feeling.

i wish they would take a play from the tonys, which awarded all three leads for "billy elliot" the tony for best actor. normally, the tonys nominate the individual who acted the part on opening night - but the organization overruled and it was for the better.

so any thoughts? any people you actually wished was (or have been) nominated that wasn't?