WE admit - we were wrong. Last year our Oscars Predictor got 100 per cent, this year it was 86 per cent accurate. To be fair though, we only got one wrong. Our Predictor did manage to correctly forecast the winners for Best Film, Best Director, Best Animated feature and all but one of the acting categories. However, it was Sandra Bullock that brought us unstuck. Her success in the Best Actress category goes to show that momentum is just as important come Oscars time as are previous award wins, nominations and critical reception. Machines are machines after all, and our Predictor made its conclusions from the data we fed it. This information included critics’ ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, the number of nominations and wins from other film awards preceding the Oscars, IMDB user ratings and box office takings. Public voting also influenced the Predictor’s decisions and this year quite a few of you wanted to have a say. There were more than 17,000 votes cast this year over the seven major categories. Even though we got one wrong, we are quite chuffed with the Predictor’s correct picks for the other two close calls of the evening - Best Director and Best Film. By pure weight of box office dollars – not to mention success at the Golden Globes – Avatar at one point seemed almost irresistible as the Oscars favourite. Still, the numbers suggested otherwise. Avatar fans who are crying, ahem, blue murder should note that The Hurt Locker has performed the better of the two films at awards ceremonies leading up to the Academy Awards. If we look purely at the stats, The Hurt Locker was the rightful winner – even if only a tenth of those who watched Cameron’s intergalactic juggernaut will ever bother to watch this year’s Best Film. Who’s hot, who’s not? Yesterday, we also gave you the opportunity to tell us who you thought were the best and worst dressed on the Oscars red carpet. There were many stunning frocks - and several shocks - but in the end you chose Up In The Air’s Anna Kendrick as the hottest. She beat out a field including J-Lo, Rachael McAdams, Carey Mulligan and Amanda Seyfried. But not all dresses can be deemed hot, in fact some were most definitely not. And the worst? That would be True Blood actress Deborah Ann Woll, who’s ensemble just pipped Mariah Carey for the dubious honour. In all, 20,000 votes were cast – 13,000 for best dressed and 7,000 for worst. At a glance Predictor said: The Academy said:How our Oscars Predictor performed and your pick for best dressed
Compare your pick for best and worst dressed to other user votes HERE.
Best Film – The Hurt Locker
Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Actor – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Actress – Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Best Animated Film – Up
Best Supporting Actress – Monique, Precious
Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
Best Film – The Hurt Locker
Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Actor – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Actress – Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Best Animated Film – Up
Best Supporting Actress – Monique, Precious
Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
WE admit - we were wrong. Last year our Oscars Predictor got 100 per cent, this year it was 86 per cent accurate. To be fair though, we only got one wrong. Our Predictor did manage to correctly forecast the winners for Best Film, Best Director, Best Animated feature and all but one of the acting categories. However, it was Sandra Bullock that brought us unstuck. Her success in the Best Actress category goes to show that momentum is just as important come Oscars time as are previous award wins, nominations and critical reception. Machines are machines after all, and our Predictor made its conclusions from the data we fed it. This information included critics’ ratings from Rotten Tomatoes, the number of nominations and wins from other film awards preceding the Oscars, IMDB user ratings and box office takings. Public voting also influenced the Predictor’s decisions and this year quite a few of you wanted to have a say. There were more than 17,000 votes cast this year over the seven major categories. Even though we got one wrong, we are quite chuffed with the Predictor’s correct picks for the other two close calls of the evening - Best Director and Best Film. By pure weight of box office dollars – not to mention success at the Golden Globes – Avatar at one point seemed almost irresistible as the Oscars favourite. Still, the numbers suggested otherwise. Avatar fans who are crying, ahem, blue murder should note that The Hurt Locker has performed the better of the two films at awards ceremonies leading up to the Academy Awards. If we look purely at the stats, The Hurt Locker was the rightful winner – even if only a tenth of those who watched Cameron’s intergalactic juggernaut will ever bother to watch this year’s Best Film. Who’s hot, who’s not? Yesterday, we also gave you the opportunity to tell us who you thought were the best and worst dressed on the Oscars red carpet. There were many stunning frocks - and several shocks - but in the end you chose Up In The Air’s Anna Kendrick as the hottest. She beat out a field including J-Lo, Rachael McAdams, Carey Mulligan and Amanda Seyfried. But not all dresses can be deemed hot, in fact some were most definitely not. And the worst? That would be True Blood actress Deborah Ann Woll, who’s ensemble just pipped Mariah Carey for the dubious honour. In all, 20,000 votes were cast – 13,000 for best dressed and 7,000 for worst. At a glance Predictor said: The Academy said:How our Oscars Predictor performed and your pick for best dressed
Compare your pick for best and worst dressed to other user votes HERE.
Best Film – The Hurt Locker
Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Actor – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Actress – Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia
Best Animated Film – Up
Best Supporting Actress – Monique, Precious
Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
Best Film – The Hurt Locker
Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Best Actor – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
Best Actress – Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Best Animated Film – Up
Best Supporting Actress – Monique, Precious
Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Inglorious Basterds
CéLINE A wool tunic dress with patch pockets. CéLINE A high-neck fleece coat with leather trim. JUNYA WATANABE A fitted khaki coat with topstitching over full pants. JEAN PAUL GAULTIER A wool check coat, a Chinese silk shirt and harem pants. Last season Phoebe Philo, in her debut show for Céline, got the fashion world’s attention with her clean sportswear, and her influence was felt in the fall shows. Every stiff camel coat seemed to have the Phoebe touch. But her new collection, while terrific in parts, didn’t feel satisfyingly her. The dark wool suits and high-neck coats had that sharp minimalist line that she has brought to Céline, and over all she aimed for more sophistication in the styling, but her brand of minimalism doesn’t feel distinctive. And it should. Much of the territory in this collection felt covered by Martin Margiela in his years at Hermès; the sleeveless ribbed-knit tunics with an uneven hem, while good-looking over a white shirt and slim pants, were similar to ones shown in Raf Simons’s men’s show in January. There’s an appetite for clean, good-looking clothes with a masculine edge, and Ms. Philo has the talent to do something fresh. But she is not yet there. Another problem is that the attitude of the clothes may just be a little too severe. Beyond a creamy fleece cape and coat with black leather trim, or a lace top and matching slim skirt, there needs to be a stronger feminine touch. Sometimes new clothes are not as absorbing as the old, the new designers not quite as free in their skin as the older generation. The attitude of a loose-pleated black skirt and a navy bow-knotted shirt in the Yohji Yamamoto show was that of a man distancing himself, for now, from fashion. Mr. Yamamoto has done everything, including reorganize his company. So this was in every sense an academic show. It was held in a drafty school gymnasium, the spectators under blankets. Thick wool skirts and boxy, double-breasted jackets recalled school uniforms. And if it seemed from the more shapeless pieces — long, suspendered wool skirts or pants, a chunky knit all-in-one — that the teacher was daydreaming, that was probably deliberate. Since the feminist movement, designers have rushed to praise and suit the strong woman, and now apparently she is having her day again. But, beyond stilettos and steel-cold tailoring, what form do decades of self-fortifying take? If you literally stuffed yourself on the language of self-empowerment, would it actually produce a bloated, powerless figure? Rei Kawakubo seemed to raise that question in a Comme des Garçons collection that embedded the shapes of muscles and human organs (or so it appeared) in classic jackets and pinstriped skirts. To produce the effect, chests and shoulders of coats were padded in the extreme, while white skirts in a fabric similar to quilt filler were channeled and bunched so that the texture resembled, best I could tell, intestines. “Inside decoration,” Ms. Kawakubo said afterward. Part of the beauty of a Comme des Garçons show is its mystery. You must figure it out for yourself. But if Ms. Kawakubo is enigmatic, she hardly designs in a vacuum. Power women are back in fashion, and she, the strongest of individuals, has something to say about it. Junya Watanabe has used military khaki and camouflage before, so that made his new collection seem recycled. On the other hand, the chic tailoring of olive-drab coats and wool officer’s jackets was so well done that the clothes were hard not to like. The gospel soundtrack also worked its magic as Mr. Watanabe sent out full-cut trousers in olive washed wool; a slim, lightweight ribbed knit coat with nylon sleeves; and leggings made from what looked like strips of old army socks. Paris designers have been colonizing parts of the world for years, so why not build a collection around that? Jean Paul Gaultier’s show on Saturday included Turkish trousers, laced pantsuits with Moorish details, and Chinese silk blouses under houndstooth check coats. It was a finessing attempt to offer a lot of cute pieces without a new direction, and it worked.Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
Multimedia
Related
Fashion Review: Versatility, Sometimes a Little Too Much(March 8, 2010)
Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
CéLINE A wool tunic dress with patch pockets. CéLINE A high-neck fleece coat with leather trim. JUNYA WATANABE A fitted khaki coat with topstitching over full pants. JEAN PAUL GAULTIER A wool check coat, a Chinese silk shirt and harem pants. Last season Phoebe Philo, in her debut show for Céline, got the fashion world’s attention with her clean sportswear, and her influence was felt in the fall shows. Every stiff camel coat seemed to have the Phoebe touch. But her new collection, while terrific in parts, didn’t feel satisfyingly her. The dark wool suits and high-neck coats had that sharp minimalist line that she has brought to Céline, and over all she aimed for more sophistication in the styling, but her brand of minimalism doesn’t feel distinctive. And it should. Much of the territory in this collection felt covered by Martin Margiela in his years at Hermès; the sleeveless ribbed-knit tunics with an uneven hem, while good-looking over a white shirt and slim pants, were similar to ones shown in Raf Simons’s men’s show in January. There’s an appetite for clean, good-looking clothes with a masculine edge, and Ms. Philo has the talent to do something fresh. But she is not yet there. Another problem is that the attitude of the clothes may just be a little too severe. Beyond a creamy fleece cape and coat with black leather trim, or a lace top and matching slim skirt, there needs to be a stronger feminine touch. Sometimes new clothes are not as absorbing as the old, the new designers not quite as free in their skin as the older generation. The attitude of a loose-pleated black skirt and a navy bow-knotted shirt in the Yohji Yamamoto show was that of a man distancing himself, for now, from fashion. Mr. Yamamoto has done everything, including reorganize his company. So this was in every sense an academic show. It was held in a drafty school gymnasium, the spectators under blankets. Thick wool skirts and boxy, double-breasted jackets recalled school uniforms. And if it seemed from the more shapeless pieces — long, suspendered wool skirts or pants, a chunky knit all-in-one — that the teacher was daydreaming, that was probably deliberate. Since the feminist movement, designers have rushed to praise and suit the strong woman, and now apparently she is having her day again. But, beyond stilettos and steel-cold tailoring, what form do decades of self-fortifying take? If you literally stuffed yourself on the language of self-empowerment, would it actually produce a bloated, powerless figure? Rei Kawakubo seemed to raise that question in a Comme des Garçons collection that embedded the shapes of muscles and human organs (or so it appeared) in classic jackets and pinstriped skirts. To produce the effect, chests and shoulders of coats were padded in the extreme, while white skirts in a fabric similar to quilt filler were channeled and bunched so that the texture resembled, best I could tell, intestines. “Inside decoration,” Ms. Kawakubo said afterward. Part of the beauty of a Comme des Garçons show is its mystery. You must figure it out for yourself. But if Ms. Kawakubo is enigmatic, she hardly designs in a vacuum. Power women are back in fashion, and she, the strongest of individuals, has something to say about it. Junya Watanabe has used military khaki and camouflage before, so that made his new collection seem recycled. On the other hand, the chic tailoring of olive-drab coats and wool officer’s jackets was so well done that the clothes were hard not to like. The gospel soundtrack also worked its magic as Mr. Watanabe sent out full-cut trousers in olive washed wool; a slim, lightweight ribbed knit coat with nylon sleeves; and leggings made from what looked like strips of old army socks. Paris designers have been colonizing parts of the world for years, so why not build a collection around that? Jean Paul Gaultier’s show on Saturday included Turkish trousers, laced pantsuits with Moorish details, and Chinese silk blouses under houndstooth check coats. It was a finessing attempt to offer a lot of cute pieces without a new direction, and it worked.Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
Multimedia
Related
Fashion Review: Versatility, Sometimes a Little Too Much(March 8, 2010)
Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
Valerio Mezzanotti for The New York Times
CRICKETER Michael Clarke returned to Sydney to decide if he should call off his two-year engagement to Lara Bingle. The glamour couple, who have been hit hard by the nude photo scandal engulfing Bingle, are at the crossroads, with The Daily Telegraphreporting that Clarke is "confused and lost" and poised to dump the 22-year-old model. Clarke flew into Sydney yesterday after he was given indefinite leave from the Australian team's tour of New Zealand and remained holed up with Bingle all day at the couple's $6 million apartment at Bondi Beach. He is expected to fly back in time for Australia's Test series against the Kiwis next week but wants to resolve his future with Bingle before he returns. For any cricketer, let alone the Australian vice-captain, to take a mid-tour break is remarkable. Last night, fashion sources said Bingle confided she was resigned to the likelihood Clarke may ask her to move out. All Clarke's manager, Chris White, would say was: "Michael has come home to support Lara through this tough time." Sources close to the Australian vice-captain said he was increasingly distressed and angry about the spotlight on his life, which has intensified since Bingle paired up with celebrity agent Max Markson. Clarke's decision to fly home only added to media interest that has boomed since The Daily Telegraph published photos of the couple apparently arguing at the SCG recently. Weekend of misery The Brendan Fevola nude photo scandal is understood to be the last straw and Bingle's decision to sell her side of the story to Woman's Day for $200,000 is believed to have tipped Clarke over the edge. The publicity has fuelled speculation about Bingle's private life - including her links to friends John Ibrahim, Taj Burrow and DJ Carl Kennedy. A weekend of misery prompted Clarke to make the shock decision on Monday night to abandon the New Zealand tour and fly home to sort out his future with Bingle. It is understood that Australian captain Ricky Ponting and coach Tim Nielsen had no hesitation in allowing Clarke indefinite leave. The couple did not leave their luxury Bondi apartment all day but Bingle ventured on to the balcony at noon looking dishevelled and upset about the media presence outside. She gave waiting media the finger before wandering back inside and picking up a set of binoculars to peer out the window. Former Test cricketer Mark Waugh said Clarke's relationship with Bingle has had an effect on his cricket. "I'm sure Michael would like to lead a much quieter life, but it's not possible with the arrangement he's got," Waugh told foxsports.com.au. "I think he's done the right thing. He's going home to fix things up and hopefully he can get back to his normal routine playing cricket."Michael Clarke on the brink of ending engagement to Lara Bingle
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