Foilball.com » oscars

Oscar Consolation? Black Swan Dominates Independent Spirit Awards

admin — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 09:00:33 +0000

Fox Searchlight

Not even the chill of Winter’s Bone could stop Black Swan from dancing away with four big wins at the 26th Annual Film Independent Spirit Awards.

While the gritty rural thriller came in with a leading seven nods, Black Swan proved to be the big indie darling, taking home Spirit Awards for every category in which it was nominated: best Feature, best Lead Actress (Natalie Portman), best Cinematography (Matthew Libatique) and best Director (Darren Aronofsky).

Check out all the nominees from this year’s Independent Spirit Awards!

Portman, who has proven to be the best actress frontrunner this awards season, continued to blow out the competition with her Independent Spirit Award (she’s already nabbed a Golden Globe and a BAFTA), just a day before the Oscars.

“This is my first time here,” Portman said during her acceptance speech before joking that the ballet-infused film was a veritable independent filmmaking experience indeed. “We had a bond company on set for the last, like two months and it was only a two-and-a-half month shoot. My ballet teachers everyday were like, ‘Sooo, when do we get paid?’ “

Hosted by E!’s own Joel McHale, the Spirit awards had a few more surprises in store than just the Black Swan domination, however.

James Franco, who has been a tad overlooked in the awards department this season (aside from hosting the Oscars), nabbed the award for best Lead Actor for his role in 127 Hours.

“It was a crazy, crazy experience…that I don’t think I’ll ever repeat,” Franco said upon accepting the award (He did have to faux-cut off his own arm, after all).

Winter’s Bone didn’t go home empty-handed, either. Widely reguarded as a favorite going in to the indie awards show, Winter’s Bone took home nods in the supporting-acting categories, for John Hawkes and Dale Dickey, respectively.

Meanwhile, the Kids Are all Right, nominated in five categories, managed to win best Screenplay.

And where was the award-nabbing King’s Speech in the mix?

As was the case earlier this month at the Writer’s Guild Awards, the Oscar-favorite Brit import was not eligible in the main Spirit categories, only best Foreign Film, which it won.

Here’s the complete list of winners:

Best Feature: Black Swan Best Director: Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan Best Male Lead: James Franco, 127 Hours Best Female Lead: Natalie Portman, Black Swan Best Supporting Male: John Hawkes, Winter’s Bone Best Supporting Female: Dale Dickey, Winter’s Bone Best First Feature: Get Low Best Screenplay: Stuart Blumberg and Lisa Cholodenko, the Kids Are all Right Best First Screenplay: Lena Dunham, tiny Furniture Best Cinematography: Matthew Libatique, Black Swan Robert Altman Award: Please give Best Documentary: Exit through the Gift Shop Best Foreign Film: The King’s Speech John Cassavetes Award: Daddy LonglegsAcura Someone to Watch Award: Mike Ott, Littlerock Aveeno Truer Than Fiction Award: Jeff Malmberg, Marwencol Piaget Producers Award: Anish Savjani, Meek’s Cutoff

WATCH: take a look at how Natalie Portman shaped up and slimmed way down for Black Swan.

Oscar Consolation? Black Swan Dominates Independent Spirit Awards

Related Websites

San Diego seeking entree into fine-dining elite

Fri, 14 May 2010 22:00:20 +0000

By Peter Rowe, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, May 12, 2010 at 12:05 a.m.

William Bradley (left), executive chef at Addison at the Grand Del Mar, and fish chef Shawn Gethin.

Has anyone seen San Diego’s reputation as a dining town? Depending on who you ask, it’s:

a) Sinking, dragged down by overhyped and underperforming restaurants.

b) Rising, buoyed by superb produce and a cadre of creative young chefs.

c) Treading water, overshadowed by San Francisco, Portland and — good gravy, has it come to this? — Louisville.

In this year’s James Beard Foundation Awards, the food industry’s Oscars, the Kentucky city took two nominations. San Diego, twice Louisville’s size, earned half as many nominations: a single nod for chef William Bradley and Addison, the Grand Del Mar hotel’s restaurant.

When it comes to fine dining, is San Diego a one-grill town?

“They’ve definitely got good chefs and good produce,” said Kate Krader, restaurant editor at Food & Wine. “But it doesn’t seem like the food is as good as it should be.”

This is changing, Bradley insisted: “San Diego has all the characteristics to make it a beautiful dining destination. we have wonderful produce, wonderful people, wonderful climate. And we have wonderful restaurants.”

Then where’s our wonderful culinary reputation? “It just takes time,” Bradley said. “We’re getting there.”

To become a top restaurant city requires more than great ingredients. Signature dishes are a plus, as is the buzz supplied by TV (“Top Chef Masters,” “Iron Chef”) and cover stories in glossy magazines. you also need a distinctive culinary voice, one that reflects a region’s culture.

San Diego’s food scene has never rivaled that of new York or San Francisco, but how many cities can make that claim? The local culture seems tailor-made for the national culinary obsessions of the moment. Local produce; sustainable seafood; hormone- and antibiotic-free meats; dishes that are casual yet sophisticated — they all fit San Diego like a Padres jersey on an outfielder named Tony Gwynn.

Besides, who doesn’t like a little sunshine on their plate?

“The whole idea of San Diego is active, outdoors, it’s everything that Southern California is supposed to be,” said Trey Foshee, executive chef at George’s at the Cove. “But how we translate that into food is a tough thing.”

It’s been done. Cities such as Portland and Seattle are nationally known for their coffee, cocktails, charcuterie and creative embrace of the Pacific Northwest’s natural bounty.

“I feel that both Portland and Seattle are firing on all cylinders,” Food & Wine’s Krader said.

San Diego, in contrast, needs to rev up its sputtering dining scene: “If it made more noise, we would go there more often.”

That’s not Eastern chauvinism, Foshee insisted. in 1998, when Food & Wine tapped Foshee as one of the nation’s best new chefs, he was working in Sundance, Utah — and he wasn’t the only Westerner in the magazine’s Class of ’98. “Our group, we were a bunch of people from nowhere.”

He stays in touch with the magazine and its San Diego-bound critics. “Honestly, they are usually disappointed,” he said. “A restaurant may have a cute concept, but it’s never quite there yet.”

Much of the country, Kerry Kapich maintained, would disagree. Kapich, an executive at the San Diego Convention & Visitors Bureau, cited a 2007 survey of Phoenix, Dallas and Chicago residents. many mentioned San Diego’s “very healthy” food. these days, tourists ask about our produce and craft beers.

Visitors and locals are ill-served by San Diego media, Foshee said, which hasn’t done enough to spotlight local chefs, such as Jason Knibb of Nine-Ten and Carl Schroeder of Market and the new Bankers Hill Bar + Restaurant, or the farm-to-table movement. “We do not have a critical voice in San Diego,” he said.

But Foshee also criticized his profession, urging local restaurants to nurture homegrown talent. our distinctive cuisine, he predicted, will come from our native sons and daughters. “Someone who grew up in this environment, understands it in his bones — that’s where the better food is going to come from.”

Do we want better food if it’s experimental? Jason Neroni left Solana Beach’s Blanca last weekend after seven months as executive chef. He insisted his return to new York City had nothing to do San Diego’s tepid response to his cuisine. but it didn’t help.

“I like San Diego and, at Blanca, that was probably the best food I ever did,” Neroni said. “But I felt like only 20 percent got it.”

The other 80 percent spurned his nose-to-tail pork dinners and complained about the chicken breast, which looked pale after being prepared sous vide, in vacuum-sealed plastic pouches. “It’s not uncooked,” Neroni retorted. “You’re just used to chicken that has grill marks on it, and has been overcooked.”

Neroni praised the local culinary corps, especially Bradley and Knibb. “But it’s probably going to take a little bit of time for them to hammer away and change things.”

Bradley agreed. The South Bay native guided several Phoenix resort restaurants before coming home four years ago. Under his leadership, Addison is the only Southern California restaurant to win five stars from the Forbes Travel Guide and five diamonds from AAA.

“There are some great chefs here,” he said. “We just have to be patient. it takes time.”

Speaking of time, Rubio’s, the fast-food chain that was sold this week, rolled out San Diego’s signature dish a quarter-century ago. Isn’t it time for something new?

Neroni hopes so. He quickly tired of customers scanning Blanca’s menu, then saying half in jest, “Where are the fish tacos?”

San Diego seeking entree into fine-dining elite

Related Websites

'Eclipse' Trailer Will Be 'Beautiful,' Anna Kendrick Imagines

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 15:00:30 +0000

“Twilight” star Robert Pattinson has seen the “Eclipse” trailer set to premiere during his flick “Remember Me,” out in theaters Friday. And Kellan Lutz promised that the flick itself will be very “badass.” But it seems like Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick has yet to be treated to the trailer for the flick.

At the very least, she knows that it will look “beautiful,” based on the work cinematographer Javier Aguirresarobe did on “New Moon.” “I haven’t actually [seen the trailer yet],” Kendrick told MTV News on the Oscars red carpet on Sunday. “I trust that it will look very beautiful. It’s the same cinematographer as last time, so at least we know it will look beautiful.”

Last month, when MTV News caught up with Kristen Stewart at the red-carpet premiere for “The Yellow Handkerchief,” she had a few scenes she wanted to see make the final cut for the “Twilight Saga: Eclipse” trailer. “Oh my gosh! There’s a really cool thing that happens on a cliff with Jacob that should definitely be in there,” she said. “Battle stuff. I would say the [newborn vampires]. the newborns are going to look awesome.”

Late last year, at the New York premiere of “New Moon,” Stewart said she was really excited for fans to get a chance to see the love triangle between Jacob, Bella and Edward intensify in this next film. “I’m looking forward to seeing the love triangle actually becoming a problem,” she said. “We sort of innocently touch on it in ‘New Moon,’ but it actually becomes something that is very, very real.”

Check out everything we’ve got on “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.”

For young Hollywood news, fashion and “Twilight” updates around the clock, visit HollywoodCrush.MTV.com.

'Eclipse' Trailer Will Be 'Beautiful,' Anna Kendrick Imagines