86th Academy Award Nominees

Best motion picture of the year:

American Hustle Captain Phillips Dallas Buyers Club Gravity Her Nebraska Philomena 12 Years a Slave The Wolf of Wall Street

2014 Oscar
Best motion picture nominees

Preview

The 86th Academy Awards ceremony, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, airs 7 p.m. March 2 on ABC

86th Academy Award Nominees

Achievement in directing:
American Hustle, David O. Russell Gravity, Alfonso Cuarn Nebraska, Alexander Payne 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen The Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese

Best animated feature film of the year:

The Croods Despicable Me 2 Ernest & Celestine Frozen The Wind Rises

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Her

Gravity

Nebraska

Philomena

12 Years a Slave

The Wolf of Wall Street

Great stories come to life with animated films

The Croods

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song):

Alone Yet Not Alone, Alone Yet Not Alone, Bruce Broughton and Dennis Spiegel Happy, Despicable Me 2, Pharrell Williams Let It Go, Frozen, Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez The Moon Song, Her, Karen O and Spike Jonze Ordinary Love, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen

Performance by an actor in a leading role:

Christian Bale, American Hustle Bruce Dern, Nebraska Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club

Directing is all about getting emotion out of actors but animation directors have to get emotion out of a drawings.
Butch Hartman

By Gina Joseph gina.joseph@macombdaily.com @ginaljoseph on Twitter

Performance by an actor in a supporting role:

Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips Bradley Cooper, American Hustle Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street Jared Leto Dallas Buyers Club

Performance by an actress in a leading role:

Amy Adams American Hustle Cate Blanchett Blue Jasmine Sandra Bullock Gravity Judi Dench Philomena Meryl Streep August: Osage County

Oscar is warming up to Frozen. Having taken in the animation award at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and nearly a billion dollars at the global box office, Disney Animation also could win the Academy Award for best animated feature with its Frozen tale inspired by Hans Christian Andersens The Snow Queen. Still, surprises are a given at the Academy Awards ceremony, which this year airs live at 7 p.m. March 2 on ABC (WXYZ-TV). I think its going to be a close race, said Butch Hartman, creator and executive producer of Nickelodeons popular cartoon series, The Fairly Oddparents and T.U.F.F. Puppy, and a graduate of Anchor Bay High School. Also nominated for top honors in the animation category which was created in 2001 - are The Croods (20th Century Fox), Despicable Me 2 (Universal), Ernest & Celestine (GKIDS) and a second Walt Disney lm The Wind Rises. Im really pulling for my friends but Im also excited for the others who are all multitalented, said Hartman, during a phone interview from his ofces in Burbank, Calif. Those friends are Chris Sand-

Frozen

ers, co-writer and director of Croods, and Cinco Paul, cowriter of Despicable Me 2. I went to school with Sanders, Hartman said, of the prestigious California Institute of the Arts that they attended along with other renowned animators like Tim Burton. Hes (Sanders) one of the best artists Ive ever seen. Sanders also directed How to Train Your Dragon, and Lilo & Stitch, both successful features which Hartman attributes to Sanders ability to convey his visual style to his team of artists and voice actors. Directing is all about getting emotion out of actors but animation directors have to get emotion out of a drawings. Hartman said. So what might have started

out as drawings of funny prehistoric characters soon beame a moving story about the Croods family, who are forced to embark on a journey of a lifetime when the cave that has always shielded them from danger is destroyed. The Despicable Me 2 sequel marks the return of the formerly villainous Gru (Steve Carell), who becomes a doting father to his three adopted daughters. The talents he once employed for evil are largely wasted in his new role as a jamand-jelly maker. Then there are the storytelling talents of Hartmans friend Cinco Paul, who teaches improvisation at the California high school attended by Hartmans daughter. Hes an amazingly talented guy, Hartman said.

Hes great at telling jokes and has a fantastic imagination. He created all those yellow guys. He thought of that. Hartman, who just nished lming the ninth season of his beloved cartoon Farely Oddparents and the third season of T.U.F.F., said its really hard to say who will win the Oscar this year as all the nominated lms feature great stories. Ernest and Celestine is a heartwarming story about an unlikely friendship. It starts beneath a village inhabited by bears where there exists a subterranean community of mice who steal from their ursine neighbors and particularly value their teeth. When Celestine, an orphaned mouse studying dentistry but dreaming of

art, meets a sensitive, talented bear named Ernest, the interests they share lead to a bond between them that challenges the traditional enmity between their species. Then theres Frozen. Its a very old story about an ice queen thats been updated, Hartman said. Sisters Elsa and Anna enjoy an idyllic life in the enchanted kingdom ruled by their parents until Elsas magical ability to create ice and snow around her proves a threat to those she loves. Emerging for her own coronation after several years of self-imposed isolation, Elsa ees her home in distress when her uncontrollable powers transform the kingdom into a frozen realm. A studio is always going to buy a movie rst, based on the story. Thats why this race is going to be close. Theyre all very popular stories.

Adapted screenplay:
Before Midnight, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke Captain Phillips, Billy Ray Philomena, Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope 12 Years a Slave, John Ridley The Wolf of Wall Street, Terence Winter

Original screenplay:
American Hustle, Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell Blue Jasmine, Woody Allen Dallas Buyers Club, Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack Her, Spike Jonze

M a c o m b d a i l y. c o m / D a i l y t r i b u n e . c o m / T h e O a k l a n d p r e s s . c o m

Nebraska, Bob Nelson

Movie fans are celebrities at MJRs Oscar party

By Gina Joseph Gina.joseph@macombdaily.com @ginaljoseph on Twitter

Oscar Trivia
Courtesy of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and MJR Digital Cinemas:

Best documentary feature:

The Act of Killing Cutie and the Boxer Dirty Wars The Square 20 Feet from Stardom

Performance by an actress in a supporting role:

Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle Lupita Nyongo, 12 Years a Slave Julia Roberts, August: Osage County June Squibb, Nebraska

The movie stars will shine on screen but its the fans wholl get celebrity treatment at the Red Carpet Extravaganza at MJR Southgate Digital Cinema 20 on Oscar night, March 2. For the past 15 years, MJR has hosted a live ABC broadcast of the Academy Awards ceremony. The gala event benets local charities including the Southgate Community Players, the Overture Society, Ballet Americana and the Downriver Council for the Arts. Movie fans get star treatment by getting to watch the ceremony on a brilliant and

very large screen and enjoy a selection of food that would even get awards from Oscar chef Wolfgang Puck. This is one of our biggest fundraisers, said Chris Rollet, who sits on the board of directors for the Southgate Community Players and helps out annually with the event. This year we have 20 restaurants participating. That means folks will be dining on everything from chicken wings and pizza to caramelized French toast and a chocolate fountain. Last year guests enjoyed mashed potatoes - served in champagne glasses and dusted with such toppings as bacon and cheese, selected from the mashed potato bar. The party is always a sell-

out and lots of fun, said Rollet. What would a red carpet event be like without costumes of some kind? There have been all kinds. We had a couple Lincolns and someone from the Bridesmaids and Silver Linings Playbook said Rollett, whos a contest judge this year. Prizes include MJR gift cards: $100 for rst place; $50 for second and $25 for third. This years party is likely to see a few wolves from Wall Street and perhaps an American hustler. We enjoyed starting this party 15 years ago with the News Herald and every year it has grown better and better, said Michael Mihalich, president and founder of MJR Digital Cinemas. It is the next best thing to being there.

Tickets for the Red Carpet Extravaganza at MJR Southgate Digital Cinema 20 are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. To charge by phone, call 734-282-4727 and online at scponstage.com.

Pop Thirsty audiences purchased 1,305,558 ounces of Pepsi Popcorn Audiences purchased 8,553,600 ounces of popped popcorn Candy Plain M&Ms (16,322 bags) outsold peanut M&Ms (9,962 bags), while Sour Patch Kids outsold both at 28,018 packages The first color film to win best picture? Gone with the Wind (1939)

The only brothers nominated for acting Oscars? River Phoenix (1988) Joaquin Phoenix (2000, 2005, 2012) The only sequels to win best picture? The Godfather Part II (1974) The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) Most Oscar nominations for any living person? John Williams got his 49th nod for best original score for The Book Thief (2014)

Best foreign language film of the year:

The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium The Great Beauty, Italy The Hunt, Denmark The Missing Picture, Cambodia Omar, Palestine

Watch for the Grand Opening MJR Troy Grand Digital Cinema 16 Opening May 2014 SE corner of 15 Mile & Livernois

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