My weekend A&E was focused on watching as many films as possible.
Why?
Well, for pleasure, of course. But also because I'm a voting member in the Indiana Film Journalists Association and this is when we pick our annual awards.
I'll be writing about the winners, the process, and my choices in next week's IBJ.
For now, here's what resulted from our multi-hour debate at Sahm's Tavern (remember, these are the results of the group debating and voting):
Best Film of the Year
Winner: “The Artist”
Runner-up: “The Descendants”
Other Finalists: “Coriolanus,” “Drive,” “Hugo,” “Martha Marcy May Marlene,” “The Muppets,” “The Skin I Live In,” “Super 8,” “The Tree of Life.
Best Animated Film
Winner: “Rango”
Runner-up: “Winnie the Pooh”
Best Foreign Language Film
Winner: “The Skin I Live In”
Runner-up: “13 Assassins”
Best Documentary
Winner: “Project Nim”
Runner-up: “Into the Abyss”
Best Original Screenplay
Winner: Thomas McCarthy, “Win Win”
Runner-up: J.C. Chandor, “Margin Call”
Best Adapted Screenplay
Winner: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash, “The Descendants”
Runner-up: Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, “Moneyball”
Best Director
Winner: Michel Hazanavicius, “The Artist”
Runner-up: Terrence Malick, “The Tree of Life”
Best Actress
Winner: Elizabeth Olsen, “Martha Marcy May Marlene”
Runner-up: Tilda Swinton, “We Need To Talk About Kevin”
Best Supporting Actress
Winner: Viola Davis, “The Help”
Runner-up: Amy Ryan, “Win Win”
Best Actor
Winner: Paul Giamatti, “Win Win”
Runner-up: Ralph Fiennes, “Coriolanus”
Best Supporting Actor
Winner: Christopher Plummer, “Beginners”
Runner-up: Albert Brooks, “Drive”
Best Musical Score
Winner: Ludovic Bource, “The Artist”
Runner-up: Howard Shore, “Hugo”
Original Vision Award
Winner: “The Tree of Life”
Runner-up: “The Artist”
The Hoosier Award
Winner: Lindsay Goffman, producer of “Dumbstruck”
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Principal horn Dave Poncar had several nice solo moments, the favorite for the audience being his rendition of the IU fight song about ten minutes before the concert when the score of the IU and Kentucky game was known. Angela Brown is an Indy native and IU grad who has become a major international star in opera. She recently finished a run of Aida in Hamburg and now resides in Paris after a recent marriage. Her voice was splendidly lush and full, and her Mary Did You Know and O Holy Night were really memorable. She showed her pop side in a hip-hop version of Little Drummer Boy. The concert ended with a soaring soprano solo arrangement of Angels We Have Heard On High. It was a glorious send off into the Christmas season.
And as far as films go, I am living for Christmas Day and "War Horse"!
Sally-in-Indy, I saw "Boogie Woogie Holidays" at the Athenaeum a couple weekends ago and enjoyed it very much, too. Beautiful voices, beautiful instrumental music, lovely collection of Christmas nostalgia.
Speaking of that show, Director Bob Harbin invited his Twitter followers (including me) to live-tweet a "Twitter Preview Night" in exchange for free admission. I accepted the invitation because a)free show with several of my favorite "destination performers" but also b)I thought it would be fun to hang with some other #indystage tweeters in person at a show, especially the ones I had never met before in person, and c) I admire the tweeters I follow that are able to make live-tweeting an art form all its own.
The in-person social aspect was indeed a lot of fun, but I know now that live-tweeting a show is not something I really enjoy. What I enjoy most is giving the full attention of my mind, body, and spirit to a piece of live performance art...and immediately AFTERWARDS sharing a little something about it in writing.
Actually, I miss writing a large something about it afterwards but I am not ready to return to blogging yet. Micro-blogging (tweeting) will have to sustain me for a while longer.
Anyway, I appreciate Bob Harbin giving me the chance to experience live-tweeting a show without offending anyone.
This past weekend I saw "Our Goose Is Cooked" at the Phoenix Theatre. It is the best yet of their quirky holiday collections! A just-right mix of irreverence and resepect...and a just-right mix of story, music, and dance, all offered via a strong, well-balanced ensemble of performers and a strong design team.
My favorite piece was called "The Teacher," written by Matt Hooverman and performed by Chuck Goad and Scot Greenwell. I was surprised to find myself weeping during it. I guess it just pushed (in a good way) a lot of my buttons related to storytelling, writing, and teaching.
But I laughed a lot during the Phoenix show, too, and I was moved to tears at other points as well. I left feeling SO GLAD that I had made time for it.
My only disappointment was that Claire Wilcher didn't have a whole song all to herself. I admire her ability to be an ego-free asset to any kind of ensemble (musical or comedic) and I was not disappointed AT ALL by any of the other singers in the Phoenix show, but I also just really love to hear Claire sing and I don't get to as often as I would like.
Hope Baugh
Indy Theatre Habit
@IndyTheatre
Glad to hear you enjoyed Our Goose Is Cooked - we're going to try to catch that one yet this season, too.