Oscar nominations 2014: The complete list

"12 Years a Slave," "American Hustle," "Captain Phillips," "Dallas Buyers Club," "Gravity," "Her," "Nebraska," "Philomena" and "The Wolf of Wall Street" received top honors as the nominees for best picture when Oscar nominations were announced Thursday morning.


"American Hustle" and "Gravity" led the field with 10 nominations each, with both films also earning director nods. "12 Years a Slave" followed with nine nominations.

The 86th Academy Awards, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres, will be held on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood.

No. 1 'Gravity' posts biggest October debut ever with $55.6 million

Sandra Bullock stars in "Gravity," which was a huge hit at the box office this weekend. (Warner Bros.)

"Gravity" took flight at light speed this weekend, soaring past industry expectations as it rocketed to No. 1 at the box office.

Alfonso Cuarón's 3-D space drama launched with a robust $55.6 million, according to an estimate from distributor Warner Bros. Heading into the weekend, pre-release audience surveys indicated that the film would make no more than $45 million in its opening weekend. Meanwhile, "Runner Runner," the only other film that debuted nationwide this weekend, fell short of even the lowest projections with a disappointing $6.6-million start.

The opening weekend tally for "Gravity" — which includes the $1.4 million the picture grossed Thursday evening — marks the biggest October debut ever. Previously, 2011's"Paranormal Activity 3" held that record with its $52.6-million opening.

"Gravity" was so successful largely because of how well it did in 3-D, which accounted for roughly 80% of weekend business. To put that percentage in perspective, James Cameron's "Avatar" — another movie in which the technology was highly touted — did 72% of its opening weekend business in 3-D.

That the film sold so many 3-D tickets is particularly surprising given how resistant moviegoers have been to the format this year. This past summer, it hit an all-time low when only 25% of the opening weekend crowd who went to see the family film "Turbo" were willing to pay to see the movie in 3-D. 

“This gives new hope to exhibitors who have been getting nervous about 3-D,” said Dan Fellman, president of domestic distribution for Warner Bros. “But you’ve got to be careful about which movies you release in the format. One that lends itself to the format like this doesn’t come along often, but when it does, it becomes a cultural phenomenon.”

Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, "Gravity" follows two astronauts trying to navigate their way back to Earth following the destruction of their space shuttle. The film has been beloved by critics, notching a 98% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. And those who saw the film this weekend -- 59% of whom were over the age of 35 — enjoyed it too, assigning the movie an average grade of A-, according to market research firm CinemaScore.

Bullock, 49, is having a strong year at the box office. While "Gravity" marks the biggest opening in the star's career, she also appeared in the hit comedy "The Heat" over the summer. Initially, "Gravity" was set to star Angelina Jolie and then Natalie Portman before the part was offered to Bullock.

"Gravity" was co-financed by Warner Bros. and Brett Ratner's RatPac-Dune Entertainment for $110 million, per a source close to the production. The studio declined to comment on the film's budget.

Overseas, the movie debuted in 27 countries and collected $27.4 million — about 70% of which came from 3-D sales. The picture did well in Germany and Australia but fared best in Russia, where it collected $8.1 million. The film will open in Brazil, South Korea and Mexico later this month.

"Runner Runner" cost far less to produce, but the film's poor start still gives it little chance at financial success. Financed by New Regency for $30 million and released by 20th Century Fox, the movie failed to connect with a younger audience this weekend. Roughly 70% of the film's audience was over the age of 25, and moviegoers didn't like the film, giving it an average grade of C.

Reviewers also responded negatively to the picture about a grad student (Justin Timberlake) who travels to Costa Rica to meet up with a seedy online gambling magnate (Ben Affleck). While Timberlake has done well in the music world as of late, as an actor he has struggled to find his footing. Since his supporting turn in 2011's raunchy comedy "Bad Teacher," every film he has appeared in has grossed less than its predecessor. 

Source: latimes

In 'Gravity,' a cinematic feat amid the cosmos

TORONTO (AP) — It's the 13-minute shot heard round the world.

Festival audiences in Venice and Telluride have been floored by the lengthy opening shot to Alfonso Cuaron's 3-D space odyssey, "Gravity," which plunges moviegoers into space and leaves them reeling in weightlessness. When the film premieres Sunday at the Toronto International Festival, the lore of Cuaron's balletic beginning is sure to only grow.

"It's the idea of trying to create a moment of truthfulness in which the camera happens to be there just to witness, and respecting that moment in real time," Cuaron said in a recent interview.

The Mexican director and his longtime cinematographer, Emmanuel Lubezki, beginning with "Y Tu Mama Tambien" and up to their last film, the gritty science-fiction thriller "Children of Men," have been renown for their propensity for long, unbroken, beautifully choreographed sequences. A four-minute uncut scene in "Children of Men" captured a playful conversation scene in a car suddenly ambushed in a forest by dozens wielding clubs and guns, and then carried on through the escape and beyond. For it, Cuaron built a track inside the car for the camera to move forward and backward.

The shot at the start of "Gravity" similarly moves from banality to mayhem, ending in uncertainty. Several astronauts (Sandra Bullock, George Clooney) are repairing a space station and bantering breezily with their NASA dispatch in Houston (voiced by an unseen Ed Harris). When a cascading storm of satellite debris caused by an asteroid rushes past, the space station shatters and the astronauts are stranded in space.

Cuaron and Lubezki capture it all seamlessly with a camera floating around the characters, moving variously into close-up and wide shots. It's, as Cuaron calls it, "a continuous moment."

"We feel like sometimes the language of close-ups and intercuts abstracts the characters from the environment," says Cuaron. "We wanted the environment to be as important in weight as the characters."

Variety hailed the shot as having "completely immersed us in the beauty and majesty of a dark, pitiless universe." The Hollywood Reporter called the film, which Warner Bros. will release Oct. 4, "the most realistic and beautifully choreographed film ever set in space."

There are several other minutes-long takes in "Gravity" of startling uninterrupted clarity, but the opening shot is the one cinephiles will drool over. Considered bravura feats of filmmaking prowess, long takes are the stuff of filmmaking legend with famous practitioners including Orson Welles ("Touch of Evil"), Alfred Hitchcock ("Rope"), Martin Scorsese ("Goodfellas"), Robert Altman ("The Player") and Michelangelo Antonioni ("The Passenger").

Cuaron doesn't like to draw attention to his long takes, which have been roundly inducted into that cinematic tradition. The director, who claimed not to know how long the first shot of "Gravity" is, fears turning into what he calls "Look, mama! No hands!" filmmaking.

"That's something I worry about sometimes," he says. "If it catches the attention of people, I'm not sure it works."

Advances in digital technology have opened up new realms for long takes (the 2002 film "Russian Ark" was made in one 96-minute Steadicam shot), but Cuaron had particular challenges operating in simulated zero gravity. He and visual effects supervisor Tim Webber created what they called "The Lightbox": a large cube surrounded by LED lights inside of which Bullock and Clooney were rigged to mimic weightlessness.

It was complex work, trying to stay faithful to the reality of movement in space. But Cuaron wanted an immersive experience, partly inspired by documentaries of astronauts on the moon like "For All Mankind" — films that didn't have the luxury of cutting to a close-up.

Instead, Cuaron's camera at times drifts into the perspective of Bullock's engineer character and then floats away "almost as if you're another astronaut following the journey," he says.

Though Cuaron revels in such choreography, even he was surprised by the size of the task. He started expecting to make a simple chamber piece with just two characters. It ended up — as his collaborators often reminded him — taking four and a half years.

Source: Yahoo