'Babel' rises further up, wins Eddie in tie with 'Departed'
"Babel" editors Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise tied "The Departed" editor Thelma Schoonmaker for the Eddie Award (American Cinema Editors) last night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in L.A. The last time that two films tied in the category for dramatic features was back in 1989 when "Rain Man" tied "Mississippi Burning." "Dreamgirls" (Virginia Katz) took the musical/comedy category and "Inconvenient Truth" (Jay Lash Cassidy, Dan Swietlik) claimed the docu slot.
Thus "Babel" earns its first guild award and it's a doozy. Many Oscarologists believe that the Eddie Award is one of the best tea leaves we have to foretell The Biggie on Oscar night. Last year it DID foretell the "Crash" upset for best picture. However, two years ago "The Aviator" claimed the Eddie over "Million Dollar Baby." Over the past 10 years, the Eddie has foreseen the ultimate Oscar champ 6 times ("Crash," "Lord of the Rings: Return of the King," "Chicago," "Gladiator," "Titanic" and "The English Patient"). The guild chose "The Matrix" over "American Beauty" and "Black Hawk Down" over "A Beautiful Mind" for an obvious reason: they were more frenetic, full of more zip-zip chop-chop, just what editors like to see. Neither was nominated for the best picture Oscar. So its two bum calls over the past decade were "Aviator" and "Saving Private Ryan." Both had cinematic attributes that obviously appealed to editors over "Million Dollar Baby" and "Shakespeare in Love."
So where does this leave us with "Babel" and "The Departed" at the Oscars?
With a big, fat "I told you so!" (Read more!) The top Oscar battle is between those two pix, NOT "Departed" and "Little Miss Sunshine." I remain in "The Departed" camp.
Photo: While serving as an awards presenter, "Babel" director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu described a film editor as "a doctor and a psychiatrist who saves the director from committing suicide."
(L.A. Times photo by Tom O'Neil)
Jackson....I got the premise of the whole film and still found it a stupid, unfunny, freakish, treacly film not worthy of any Oscars. Your love for unfunny, freaky kiddie porn like LMS shows your bad taste in movies...I'm sure you'll be caught live on TV on the next TO CATCH A PREDATOR program...LMS is truly the worst choice for Best Picture...while other worthier films were cheated from the Best Picture slot over this crappy film...stupid people like you love stupid films like LMS... I'm sure you thought Basic Instincts II was an awesome film....LMS sucks big time!!
Posted by: Frankie R. | February 21, 2007 at 09:18 AM
"I say anything for Best Picture except LMS--the freakish Jon Bonet kiddie porn, lame movie which isn't really Oscar worthy--LMS would be the dog of all choices to ever win Best Picture...listen up Academy!"
big looool to that one. "Jon Bonet kiddie porn," as you call it, is precisely what LMS satirizes in its rollicking 3rd act.
frankie r.: you're stupid.
Posted by: Jackson | February 20, 2007 at 03:00 PM
Want some stats? Here you go... in the past 20 years the ACE Editor's Award came from the Oscar's Best Pic 70% (14 out of 20). But for the same time frame the DGA lined up 75% of the time, which is the best percentage of any of the Guild Awards.
Posted by: steveh212 | February 20, 2007 at 02:25 PM
The Departed seems to be safer bet for Best Picture--top-notched performances from a top-notched casts, Marty at the helm and shoo-in for Best Director and looks like it will win the Adapted Screenplay category as well, but over all an entertaining box office winner as well--a film easily to like/appreciate even though it's smothered with violence. But hey so was THE GODFATHER pts.1 & 2 & 3. Babel still has a chance if the Academy feels artsy and bold or cutting-edge, but I don't think many members really connected with it. I say anything for Best Picture except LMS--the freakish Jon Bonet kiddie porn, lame movie which isn't really Oscar worthy--LMS would be the dog of all choices to ever win Best Picture...listen up Academy!
Posted by: Frankie R. | February 20, 2007 at 08:41 AM
I can actually see Babel losing every award BUT best picture. But if it has a chance to win any other award in addition to best pic, I wouldn't be surprised if it wins editing and perhaps score. Other than that, I dunno. This year, I'm kind of stumped, and not as emotionally invested as in the past. Which is kind of exciting, actually. I will enjoy watching this year's ceremony and frankly not giving a rat's ass who wins (although Scorcese wining would be a nice win).
Posted by: P-Vee | February 19, 2007 at 09:47 PM
Wasn't The Departed the underdog here? Wasn't Babel expected to walk away very easily with this and then it ties with The Departed. This helps The Departed, not Babel, in fact it may have hurt Babel.
Posted by: AJ | February 19, 2007 at 05:43 PM
I'm with you, Tom: "Babel" might be up-and-coming, but I think that only cements "The Departed" as Best Picture; I suspect the "Babel" votes for Best Picture will all be at the expense of "LMS", and will be just enough to assure victory for "The Departed".
As I've said before: "LMS" has no chance because its directors weren't nominated; "Letters" has no chance because there's no way on earth Clint Eastwood could win again. Most Best Picture winners are either director-driven or actor-driven; that suggests "The Departed" and "The Queen", with only a slim shot for "Babel" (mostly because, yes, it's "Crash" on a global scale). But while Helen Mirren has had her Oscar in the bag since November (and thankfully didn't lose it at the BAFTAs like Russell Crowe did), "The Queen" is going nowhere fast in this race; so that leaves "The Departed" as the only logical choice for Best Picture.
Posted by: RBBrittain | February 19, 2007 at 04:22 PM
I think your wrong about Babel. If Babel had any steam, it would have easily walked away with the Ace, like Crash did. Especially since Schoonmaker had just won this award two years ago. If it had any of the Crash steam from the acting branch, it would have won the Sag award. They didn't even nominate Brad Pitt (for his lackluster performance in my opinion.) Though they did nominate two actresses for supporting, it was a pretty sparce supporting actress year, the only two poseing something of a threat being Cathrine O'Hara and Emily, and possibly Vera Farmiga, but they were all far off the bubble anyway.
Babel also isn't that good, and I think the academy sees that. The worst thing for Babel's chances would be if the academy members watched it a second time.
Posted by: BBats | February 19, 2007 at 01:31 PM
Although I'm not a trained expert in assessing the quality of an editor's achievements, Ms. Schoonmaker's work in "The Departed" seems to represent -- as always -- skill of the highest quality. Her recent victory in the Oscar editing category, however, may slightly diminish her chances for the award this year.
Two additional factors support such a result:
1) Demographic differences and subjective preferences may affect the vote: Academy membership is comprised, of course, of many branches other than just film editors. Although Academy members as a whole often follow the lead of a particular guild and cast their corresponding Oscar vote with the guild's choice in mind, history shows that this is hardly the rule. Sometimes the Academy's choice appears less-informed (in terms of technical expertise) than that of a craft guild. Other factors, as well, may influence the rationale of the voting member, such as the effect of overriding sentiments for another film in a different Oscar category. (An example might be "Dances With Wolves," though this mention is not intended to dismiss that film's achievements in editing).
2) In a year when a greater number of films share the nomination tallies on fairly equal ground (ie, when no particular film dominates the field), Academy voters may tend to be more judicious in making their final selections. Many prognosticators have suggested a causal relationship between the best director and best editing categories. Data generally support this notion in some way, but the nature and extent of this phenomenon are less clear.
Because of these factors, "Babel" may have a slight edge for this year's editing Oscar. In a year when the best-picture nominee's chances of winning may depend on recognition in only a few other categories, the nominee with the broadest overall support within the academy may have a statistically better chance of winning the editing award, as well. This year such a film appears to be "Babel" because of its status as frontrunner in terms of number of total nominations.
As mentioned earlier, because Schoonmaker won an Oscar recently -- and also because that wasn't her first win -- Academy voters may be more inclined to recognize Stephen Mirrione and Douglas Crise for their dramatically effective work in "Babel." Supporting this reasoning is the fact that -- despite previous wins for Schoonmaker -- the films for which she won did not go on to win the best picture Oscar.
Posted by: Pierre de Plume | February 19, 2007 at 10:32 AM