Interesting Oscars

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The Oscars and Your Winners

Who did you vote for? Read on to see the results of our 2013 Oscar Survey and who SynopsiTV users have voted Best of the Best! 

This has been a huge year in movies. Each film nominated for Best Picture deserves it, and there were many great movies in 2012 that were inevitably passed over (Skyfall, The Dark Knight Rises, and Moonrise Kingdom…not to mention the amazing indie films from this year). It has been speculated that this is one of the best awards seasons in recent history. 

This Sunday, February 24th, is the 85th Academy Awards. We will finally find out which of these nominees will take home the little gold Oscar.

So let’s first take a look at what the Oscars are, how they work, and who we expect to win.

What is an Academy Award anyway?

The Academy (of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) is something like an honor society for professionals in the business. Members of the Academy make up highly successful individuals from all fields of production, invited in only by existing members.

The purpose of the Academy is to encourage excellence, and their yearly award ceremony (commonly known as the Oscars - a nickname given to the award statue itself) does just that, by honoring filmmaking achievements from the previous year.

How do they decide? 

It’s a complicated process of nomination and voting done by members of the Academy. So actually, winners are not based on a populous vote - rather they are chosen by experts in the field.

To be eligible for nomination, the movie must be longer than 40 minutes (excluding the Shorts category), premiered in a movie theater during the appropriate calendar year in 35 or 70mm format or 24-frame digital, and must have played within L.A. County for at least one week. 

Films submitted are made available to Academy members and typically only members from each field can submit nominations for the corresponding award category (directors nominate Best Director, etc). Members submit 5 nominations for both Best Picture and their category.

Interesting facts about nominations:

• Each foreign country may only submit one film per year.
• Actors are nominated for their performances, the category of Best Actor or Supporting Actor is determined later.
• Accounting firm PrincewaterhouseCoopers collects the nominations and announces the final ballot.

Once final ballots are sent out, members have two weeks to send in their votes. Most categories are chosen by a simple preferential ballot, but Best Picture voting is a different process.

There will be between five and ten nominees for Best Picture, to get a bid the film needs to be #1 for at least 5% of the voters. Once a #1 film hits 10% over the 5% threshold, the #2 film on those ballots gets a portion the vote, called the surplus rule. Or, the #2 film on ballots whose #1 film does not reach 5% gets the vote.

• Only films with at least 1% of first place votes are considered.
• The maximum number for contenders is 10.
• To increase voter turnout, this year ballots could be sent in electronically as well.

This year SynopsiTV conducted it’s own Oscars, and our process was much more simple than that!

So who will win?

There is almost more hype leading up to the Oscars than there is during the event itself. The Academy Awards happen at the end of the award season, and are regarded the most important of them all. Speculations abound, and although results are not based on the box office, public opinion, or critical review, over the years there have come about trends in voting patterns that the media and fans love to dissect. 

What are the variables?

• the Hollywood Stock Exchange
• box-office success
• critical and popular response
• success in earlier award ceremonies

The Huffington Post has done an amazing job producing a statistical model of these variables (check it out here) and it has been interesting to watch their predictions change over the past two months. 

Les Miserables dreamed a dream in times gone by, when hope was high that Best Picture was theirs. 

“There was a time when the world was a song, And the song was exciting. There was a time, Then it all went wrong.”

What went wrong? Lincoln.

Lincoln’s resolution to succeed became more important than any other one thing.

But “if you can look into the seeds of time and say which grain will grow and which will not, speak then to me” about how the current forerunner snuck past them.

Argo. The fake movie.

Without a nomination for Best Director, Argo for Best Picture was “the best bad plan we have, sir.” There were “suicide missions in the army that had better odds than this” one to win the night.

But turns out, Argo, “the whole country is watching you.” With a box-office gross of $128 million and an audience rating of 93 (only topped by Django Unchained’s 94), the critical factors in Argo’s rise to the top are the seemingly endless wins at other award ceremonies this season. 

Okay, so we’ve heard what probably will happen, but what about you? Throughout January and February we ran a survey to find out what SynopsiTV users and followers felt about the nominees. 

Here are our results!

Django. The D is silent.

Our survey has Django Unchained ahead of Argo 4:1. “Gentlemen, you had my curiosity. But now you have my attention.”

No matter what happens, let’s hope we dont have is not a sore losers … or abysmal winners.

So tuck in and watch it, or check back with us for the results next week. 

Auf wiedersehen. Bullseye.

- Christy from your SynopsiTV team

Bruce Lee was so fast they had to slow down the film so we can see his ninja awesomeness.

What Does She Really Want?

With Valentine’s Day a week away, you might start to consider how to make that special someone happy. 

Maybe it’s a romantic weekend getaway, maybe it’s wearing black and scorning the ridiculous and phony holiday. Either take you have, inevitably February 14th WILL arrive and unless you sleep though the whole day you will have to do something.

Watch a movie.

Movies set the mood. You can find a movie to validate your hatred of all things romantic and sappy (see our list - The Anti-Valentine’s Day), get things going under the blanket (see our list - Movies that Make It Happen), or find company in your loneliness (see our list - For the Hopeless Romantic).

Our new profile feature lets you see what movies your partner absolutely hated so that you know what to avoid.

Find something similar to their favorite movies, or check if you have Watch Later movies in common in your Watch With results, and choose the perfect movie to create the perfect evening.

Increase your movie compatibility with your lover this month, it’s time well spent.

Most Cliche Soundtrack Ever

Some songs fit so perfectly into their movie soundtrack that you don’t even notice what’s playing. 

Some songs come on during movies that are so cliche you must roll your eyes.

Unfortunately for Eddie Murphy, the 2003 soundtrack for Daddy Day Care falls almost 100% into that second category.

It’s not that (all) the individual songs that are bad, it’s that hitting your audience with one after another is simply unforgivable.

1. Walking On Sunshine – Katrina & The Waves 

2. Takin’ Care Of Business – Bachman-Turner Overdrive 

3. I Want You Back – Jackson 5 

4. Coconut – Harry Nilsson 

5. Rhinestone Cowboy – Glen Campbell 

6. I Wanna Be Sedated – The Ramones 

7. Kung Fu Fighting – Carl Douglas 

8. Dream Weaver – Gary Wright 

9. Ballroom Blitz – Sweet 

10. Surrender – Cheap Trick 

11. ABC – Jackson 5 

12. I Want Candy – Bow Wow Wow

All that we’re missing in this soundtrack is maybe Skynyrd’s Sweet Home Alabama, Steppenwolf’s Born to Be Wild, or Free Fallin’ by Tom Petty. 

Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) was the first movie to have an official soundtrack.

How to Watch and Rate on SynopsiTV

Mark as “Watched” any movie you have seen.

We merged Just Watched and Already Watched so you can rate all movies you have seen - from today, last week, or 5 years ago.

Share your thoughts and give it a rating, each time you watch it, even if it’s for the 100th time. We’ll track how your opinion changes and we’ll reflect the change in your recommendations.

So maybe as a kid you were fascinated by the fantastical world of David Bowie in Labyrinth. You’ve watched it every year.

At first it was Amazing for you, but as you got older you noticed how creepy the premise of a spandex-clad Bowie signing and stealing children in fact is. It became just OK, and last year after listening to “Magic Dance” for the final time you realized in fact the Labyrinth is Terrible. 

Don’t want to clog your Facebook timeline with movies you watch over and over or that you watched a long time ago?

You may turn off timeline activity and public sharing for each movie you rate. The settings you choose will remain saved on the device you’re using.

So now you don’t need to be embarrassed about all of those romantic comedies. 

Finally, for a quick and easy way to to build up your Already Watched list, we introduce you to our “Seen It?” page, found on the drop-down menu.

Movies are randomly generated and you automatically skip the rating option to get straight down to business. You may come back to this feature anytime.

What’s New and What’s Next

Take at look at your best friend’s SynopsiTV profile. We’ve got many new and coming-soon features for you!

First of all - Ever curious about what your friend likes to watch? Check out what they have rated as amazing, okay, or terrible directly from their profile page. You can also see your own ratings on your personal profile.

Secondly - our Compatibility Rating has moved from the headline to the sidebar, so you can easily compare your taste in movies with your friend’s taste. Soon we will make this clickable so you can view exactly which 8 movies you and your BFF have rated the same way.

Finally - the headline of the profile now includes the movies you have most recently rated as amazing. Soon you will be able to pick your all-time favorite movies to feature on your profile page as Top Movies. Also soon you can personalize a tagline to identify yourself to your followers.

Django Pony Unchained

Here at SynopsiTV we are really huge fans of Django. 

We mean both the python framework and Tarantino’s latest hit! Without the framework, SynopsiTV wouldn’t be as fast and agile as it is, and without the film we’d have nothing to do after work. 

But why have one when you can have both? As devoted fans of both Djangos, we decided to bring them together. 

Meet the Django Pony (the unofficial framework mascot), Unchained!

Download it as a Wallpaper for your Desktop (1024x768, 1280x800, 1440x900, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, 2880x1800), iPhone (3, 4, 5), iPad (1-2, 3-4), Android (480x640, 720x960).

Django & Django Pony Unchained
 

Download it as a Wallpaper for your Desktop (1024x768, 1280x800, 1440x900, 1920x1080, 2560x1600, 2880x1800), iPhone (3, 4, 5), iPad (1-2, 3-4), Android (480x640, 720x960).

We have even made nice T-Shirts.
 

The Best of the Best 2012

The Oscar nominees have been announced, so if you’re looking for a good movie to watch don’t look farther than this playlist. Check out the nomination info and trailers below then vote for your favorite.

Up for Best Picture (in alphabetical order) are:

Amour

The bonds of love are tested in the dusk of a cultivated life.

Emmanuelle Riva, at 85-years, is the oldest ever nominee for Best Actress at the 85th Academy Awards. The numbers are in her favor. Director Michael Haneke also gets a chance at taking any of the titles Best Directing, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Foreign Language Film.

Read my review for Amour here. 

Argo

A based-on-reality undercover op to free American hostages from Revolutionary Iran.

Best Supporting Actor might go to Alan Arkin, and the group got nods for Best Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Original Score. Affleck seems to have done a great job with this one, despite his absence in the nominations for Best Director, one of the biggest shocks of this season.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Life in South Louisiana in the not-so-distant future.

9-year old Quvenzhané Wallis is also up for Best Actress for Beasts. This year we see Wallis, the youngest nominee ever, up against Riva, the oldest. I, for one, hope she pulls it off. Director Benh Zeitlin deserves huge credit for getting the nomination for Best Director with his first feature film ever. Beasts is also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay.

Read my review for Beasts of the Southern Wild here.

Django Unchained

Slavery, bounty-hunters, and the wild west…Tarantino style.

Christoph Waltz gets a nod (over Samuel L. Jackson) for Best Supporting Actor while Tarantino is up for Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Sound Editing with his highest grossing film ever. Poor Leo.

Les Miserables

Film adaptation of the classic novel by Victor Hugo, set in Revolutionary France.

Les Miserables has huge potential to dominate this year’s Awards with 8 nominations. Hugh Jackman for Best Actor, Anne Hathaway for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Original Song, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound Mixing and Best Production Design. What do you think about Hathaway?

Life of Pi

Learning, humility, and survival amidst mind-blowing cinematographic beauty.

Les Miserables might be miserable in the face of this contender, with an overwhelming 11 nominations. Ang Lee takes one for Best Directing and Life of Pi is nominated also for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. While flying under the radar at the box office, this one might be worth a screening.

Lincoln

Politics and humanity with a Lincoln-as-hero approach to history.

Forget 11, Mr. Lee, Spielberg and Lincoln have 12, the most nominations this year for any single film. Steven Spielberg for Best Directing and Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor (and he’s already won twice!). Tommy Lee Jones for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Sally Field for Best Actress in a Supporting Role, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Production Design, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Film Editing.

Silver Linings Playbook

Not-your-average love story.

Jennifer Lawrence is considered a favorite for Best Actress after her win at the Golden Globes, however Silver Linings Playbook hosted an incredible cast that was not overlooked. Bradley Cooper is nominated for his first Academy Award as Best Actor, Robert De Niro his 7th nomination for Best Supporting Actor, Jacki Weaver for Best Supporting Actress, David O. Russell for Best Directing, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Film Editing. 

Zero Dark Thirty

Mission Accomplished? A portrayal of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden.

Jessica Chastain has a nomination for Best Actress and the film got nods for Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing, and Best Film Editing. Let’s see if “all publicity is good publicity” in this film’s chance for scoring Best Picture.

These films are as good as any this year, but which of them deserves to take home the Oscar? Watch them all then vote for your favorite on our Academy Award Winner survey.

- Christy from your SynopsiTV team

Oscars a la Synopsi

Why does every election seem to hinge on an elite group of voters, rather than the people?

Rather than waiting for the Academy to tell us who takes home the Oscar awards this year, a year with some of the best nominees we’ve seen this decade, let’s take it into our own hands. 

Who do YOU think deserves to win? Tell us here! 

Find a full playlist of Oscar Contenders here. 

We’ll get back to you with the results and our 2013 Oscar Predictions.

Golden Globe Winners 2013

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