Cinematic Concerns

There's no use doing the 'top best' movies list. This time I felt like I needed to list out the films that I feel are worth my time, and not just once but again and again. So this is how I'm going to describe this list.

If I were given the chance to burn ALL OTHER movies just so everyone else cries about their favourites not being available to them and they have to conform to movies that I like, what would I leave out of the fire? Movies that I saw that I liked when I saw them and then forgot about later, does NOT belong on this list. This is a strict list. Only for movies which my heart says yes to.

Here it is.


A Beautiful Mind
A Bug’s Life
Alexander
Aliens
American Beauty
Anna And The King
Apollo 13
Bedazzled
Being Julia
Black Hawk Down
Boy A
Braveheart
Bridget Jones’s Diary
The Bourne Supremacy
The Bourne Ultimatum
Charlie’s Angels
Chocolat
Chicago
Children Of Men
The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe
Cinderella Man
Collateral
Contact
Dead Poets Society
The Devil Wears Prada
Down With Love
Drop Dead Gorgeous
Empire Of The Sun
Ever After
The Fifth Element
Forces Of Nature
The Four Feathers
Fun With Dick & Jane
Galaxy Quest
Ghost
Gladiator
Goldeneye
Gorgeous (HK)
Heartbreakers
Hero (China)
The Holiday
The Hours
Hulk
Independence Day
The Insider
Intolerable Cruelty
Jurassic Park
The Last Holiday
The Last Samurai
The Long Kiss Goodnight
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Malena (Italy)
Mean Girls
Merry Christmas (France)
Monster-In-Law
Mumford
The Mummy
The Mummy Returns
Never Been Kissed
Not Another Teen Movie
Oscar
Peaceful Warrior
The Peacemaker
The Pianist
Pride & Prejudice
The Return (Russia)
Sister Act
The Shawshank Redemption
Syriana
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Titanic
Touching The Void
True Lies
The TV Set
United 93
War Of The Worlds
Win A Date With Tad Hamilton!
The X-Files Movie

2007 has been an average year for quality filmmaking. The actual Oscar nominations have been typical in its unsatisfying choices - half predictable, the other half dull. There were many things not to like about it, and it's partly to do with the weird constraints AMPAS puts on such categories as Foreign Language Film and Original Score, but I do applaud the noms given to Ratatouille, and the (too) few given to The Bourne Ultimatum.

So here goes.


BEST PICTURE
Atonement
The Bourne Ultimatum
Lust, Caution
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood

BEST DIRECTING
Ang Lee (Lust, Caution)
Joe Wright (Atonement)
Marc Forster (The Kite Runner)
Paul Greengrass (The Bourne Ultimatum)
Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
Emile Hirsch (Into The Wild)
James McAvoy (Atonement)
Tony Leung (Lust, Caution)
Will Smith (I Am Legend)

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Anamaria Marinca (4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days)
Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart)
Julie Christie (Away From Her)
Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose)
Tang Wei (Lust, Caution)

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Casey Affleck (The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford)
Hugh Dancy (Evening)
Irrfan Khan (The Namesake)
John Travolta (Hairspray)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson's War)

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)
Cate Blanchett (I'm Not There)
Laura Vasiliu (4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days)
Tabu (The Namesake)
Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Hot Fuzz
Juno
Lions For Lambs
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Atonement
Charlie Wilson's War
Lust, Caution
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
There Will Be Blood

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Atonement
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
The Bourne Ultimatum
Lust, Caution
Sunshine

BEST ART DIRECTION
Across The Universe
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Lust, Caution
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Hairspray
Lust, Caution
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber Of Fleet Street

BEST SOUND (MIXING)
Atonement
The Assassination Of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

BEST FILM EDITING
Atonement
Hot Fuzz
Lust, Caution
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Kite Runner

BEST SOUND EDITING
Beowulf
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
Ratatouille
Sunshine
Transformers

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
I Am Legend
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

BEST MAKE-UP
300
Hairspray
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Love In The Time Of Cholera (Pienso En Ti)
Once (Falling Down)
The Simpsons Movie (Spiderpig)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
The Bourne Ultimatum
Lions For Lambs
Lust, Caution
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie
Surf's Up

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
4 Months, 3 Weeks And 2 Days
The Counterfeiters
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Lust, Caution
Persepolis

I am one of the nominees for the American Cinema Editors (ACE) Student Editing Competition. I got there by cutting a 3-min scene of an unreleased NBC pilot TV show, and am probably the first to be nominated from my school - the other two nominees are from the American Film Institute (AFI).


Anyway, tonight there was a cocktail party held for the nominees, and I was rather excited about meeting the other student nominees, Chung Soojin and Scott Silver. What got me REALLY excited was the chance to be able to talk to Christopher Rouse, who was the editor on The Bourne Ultimatum (as well as Paul Greengrass's previous films including The Bourne Supremacy and United 93). It was perhaps rather embarassing, the way I gushed about the film and Paul Greengrass, the editing, the music, and so on.


Along the way, I also said hi to some other editors and told them I loved the films they worked on (all true), including Michael Tronick for Hairspray, Darren Holmes for Ratatouille and Stephen Rivkin for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Furthermore I talked to Steve Rasch who edits Curb Your Enthusiasm (my producer Lu was practically gushing over him), and said hi to Norman Buckley who edited the first episodes of Chuck, Stewart Schill who edits Dexter, and chatted with Stephen Myers (who edited a documentary called The Pixar Story, self-explanatory) and his wife, who were both really nice. Oh yes, I also spoke to the very feisty Maysie Hoy, who among others edited The Joy Luck Club.

All in all, it was a good night. I received a plaque, which is cool. This is the first film-related nomination I've ever got, so this is special.

The 2008 ACE Eddie Awards will be held this Sunday, on February 17th. For more information, check out the ACE website ... and find my name.