My "Flick Chick Oscar Picks"

"It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year!"

No...not Christmastime silly. We're done with all that.

It's OSCAR time!

Yep, the wonderful time of year when this Flick Chick dreams of red carpets, beautiful people in beautiful gowns, memorable movie montages, too-long acceptance speeches and short, shiny bald men.

No Danny DeVito, I'm NOT talkin' about you.

Oscar time. I love it.

I must confess, I'm an Oscar Geek from waaaaay back. Not to date myself or anything...but when I was growing up as a major movie and Hollywood-obsessed kid, there was no internet (I know, shocker!). We didn't have Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood OR Joan Rivers and the Red Carpet Fashion Police.

No, aside from attending my favorite local movie theatre each week (which was NOT a 24 screen megaplex, by the way) -- the only time that I could really see big-time movie stars up close and personal (dressed up and out on the town with their peers & significant others, no less!) was on television.....on Oscar night.

That was a BIG deal for a movie geek girl like me.

I've always loved the whole show. The hosts (Johnny Carson. Billy Crystal). The cheesy musical numbers (Rob Lowe & Snow White?). The wacky outfits (Hello Cher! Hello Demi!). The awkward movie star presenters who seriously lacked charisma, couldn't read the teleprompter and made you realize that unfortunately...perhaps they weren't so fabulous after all (So sorry Harrison.)

Good times.

At about 8 years old, I started bargaining with my parents each year to stay up late to watch the whole telecast. All four hours of it.

The show usually ends at midnight, and up until fairly recently....the Oscars were held on a Monday.

Well, I got my wish, as long as I would come home from school on Oscar day and take a nap that afternoon.

A nap? Like a baby? Of course I will. Right away mom.

If that means I'll get to stay up late and see an American Indian accept an Oscar for Marlon Brando, a streaker run onstage past a smiling David Niven and everybody's favorite droids R2D2 and C3PO "live" on stage -- I will most definitely take a nap.

Flash forward to 2011: I am no longer required to take a nap on Oscar day (although, sometimes I do), and with the internet and a mind-boggling array of entertainment-oriented TV shows, websites, magazines, etc. -- Oscar time is more drawn-out than ever and darn near inescapable.

Me.Happy.Girl.

OK, so that's just a little background about my loooong history of love for the Oscars....and why for me, this truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Now it's time for my picks.

I must admit, that after following the Oscars as closely as I have for so many years -- I've become pretty good at predicting the winners. There are usually some surprises here & there (and I LOVE that!), but all in all....my ballot is usually fairly close to what's in those envelopes on Oscar night.

So, without further ado........

My 2011 "Flick Chick Oscar Picks"

(Who I think WILL win, not necessarily who SHOULD win.)

Best Picture

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
*The King’s Speech*
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Best Director

Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
David O. Russell, The Fighter
Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
*David Fincher, The Social Network*
Joel and Ethan Coen, True Grit

Best Actress

Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
*Natalie Portman, Black Swan*
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine

Best Actor

Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
*Colin Firth, The King's Speech*
James Franco, 127 Hours

Best Supporting Actress

Amy Adams, The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter, The King's Speech
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
*Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit*
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale, The Fighter
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
*Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech*

Best Animated Feature Film

How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
*Toy Story 3*

Best Foreign Language Film

Biutiful
Dogtooth
*In a Better World*
Incendies
Outside the law

Best Original Screenplay

Another Year
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
*The King’s Speech*

Best Adapted Screenplay

127 Hours
*The Social Network*
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

Best Documentary Feature

Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job
*Restrepo*
Waste Land

Best Original Song

‘Coming Home’ from Country Strong, Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
‘I See the Light’ from Tangled, Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
*‘If I Rise’ from 127 Hours, Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong*
‘We Belong Together’ from Toy Story 3, Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

Best Original Score

How to Train Your Dragon, John Powell
Inception, Hans Zimmer
*The King’s Speech, Alexandre Desplat*
127 Hours, A.R. Rahman
The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

Best Film Editing

Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
*The Social Network*

Best Visual Effects

Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1
Hereafter
*Inception*
Iron Man 2

Best Cinematography

Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
*True Grit*

Best Sound Mixing

*Inception*
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

Best Sound Editing

*Inception*
Toy Story 3
Tron: Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

Best Costume Design

*Alice in Wonderland*
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

Best Art Direction

*Alice in Wonderland*
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

Best Makeup

Barney’s Version
The Way Back
*The Wolfman*

Best Short Film (Live Action)

*The Confession*
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

Best Documentary (Short Subject)

*Killing in the Name*
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

Best Short Film (Animated)

Day & Night
*The Gruffalo*
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, carnet de voyage

*********************************************

OK, so those are my Oscar picks for this year.

The 2011 Academy Awards air live on Sunday, February 27, 2011 on ABC at
8 pm EST.

If interested, I will be live-tweeting during the red carpet arrivals (on E! network beginning at 6 pm EST) and during the entire Oscar telecast.

You can follow me on Twitter, I'm @KellyGingery.

Hmmm....wonder how good my Oscar knowledge really is?

Stay tuned.

Making A Film in 48 Hours...Big, Crazy Fun!

Only 48 hours to make a movie? Am I a dummy or what?

The 48 Hour Film Project is a wild and sleepless weekend in which teams of aspiring filmmakers make a movie—write, shoot, edit and score it—in just 48 hours.

On Friday night you get a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre, all to include in your movie. 48 hours later, the movie MUST be complete. Then all films submitted screen at a local theater, usually in the next week.

In 2009, nearly 40,000 filmmakers made 3,000 films in 76 cities. This year, the project is even bigger, with filmmakers around the world taking the challenge to make a film in just 48 hours.

Well, you all know I love movies....I am the Flick Chick for goodness sake!

I've been watching movies (a LOT of movies!) my entire life & am now a movie critic and have been creating video reviews for a while now, so how difficult would it be to jump right into trying to create a short 4 to 7-minute movie in a weekend?

Wow. Crazy. Who knew?

Less than a month ago, I formed Team 1 A.M. Films for the 48 Hour Film Project Columbus 2010 with my FlickChick.TV partner Jason Blanton. We became the team leaders and I signed on to write & direct, Jason would executive produce & act as an assistant director as well.

We assembled a fabulous team of friends & colleagues who were as passionate and excited about this project as we were, and had the various skills to make it happen:

Lou Ann Racher - Writer/Actor, Louie Cowan - Assistant Director/Actor, Jay Brooks - Editor, Ken Moss - Cinematography/Composer, Kristie Madden - Writer/Script Supervisor, Caliph Scott - Actor, Elizabeth Cave - Actor, Chris Engebretson - Camera/PA and Jim Bowe - Production Assistant.

(Missing in photo: Elizabeth Cave, Chris Engebretson & Jim Bowe)

A seriously wonderful and talented team, our film was a complete collaboration from beginning to end.

As a first-time writer/director/filmmaker, I must say...the result was a fun, inspiring, creative, tiring, educational, frustrating, hilarious, crazy weekend that I will NEVER forget....and a finished film that I will always be proud of.

As mentioned above, each submitted 48 Hour film had to include a character, a prop, a line of dialogue and a genre.

Genres were chosen at a Friday night kick-off event by the team leaders (me!). I pulled "Mockumentary" out of the hat....and was thrilled because our team was really hoping for comedy. Other possible genres included: Sci-Fi, Horror, Road Movie, Dark Comedy, Musical or Western, Silent Film or Drama.

Every team HAD to include a character named either Sam or Sara Carpenter, and that character had to be a ticket-seller (and had to be shown on camera at some point in the film). The prop everyone had to include this year was a cell phone (pretty easy) and the line of dialogue that had to be spoken at some point in the film was: "All you need is one of these."

So, without further ado....below is POSSIBLE SIDE EFFECTS, our film produced and submitted for the 48 HOUR FILM PROJECT Columbus over the weekend of August 13th - August 15th.

We will be editing a "Director's Cut" version soon, where we can make all of the corrections & edits that we just didn't have time to do under the weekend time constraint. Make sure to stay tuned for that.

As you can imagine, our team ♥'s this finished 7-minute short that we were able to submit ON TIME for the competition -- but only having 48 hours makes it extremely difficult to get everyone's exact vision on film.

We'd love for you to view our submitted film below. Feedback and comments are definitely encouraged, we hope you enjoy it!

"KISS ME c/KATE": 3 Great Actresses, 7 Classic Films

Guess what happens when two life-long film lovers get together over breakfast, discuss favorite flicks and their desire for more film discussion groups here in Central Ohio?

They decide to create one on their own.

That’s the origin of the OSU Theatre and Friends Film-Discussion Group, a newly-formed University and community-based film group that sponsors film series that invite audiences to participate in post-film discussions in person and online.

Thanks to that early morning breakfast brainstorm a few months ago, Central Ohio film lovers are now enjoying the “Kiss Me c/Kate: 3 Great Actresses, 7 Classic Films” film discussion series that kicked off at the Gateway Film Center on The Ohio State University campus on Sunday, May 23rd.

The six-week series features a selection of seven films by three of the silver screen’s most talented actresses, all of whom just happen to be named Kate/Cate:

KATE HEPBURN

KATE WINSLET

and CATE BLANCHETT.

I must disclose that it was yours truly, the Flick Chick, who was dishin’ about movies at that breakfast meetup a few months ago, along with my good friend Clay Lowe.

No ordinary film lover, among his many accomplishments Clay just happens to be an Associate Professor Emeritus in the Department of Theatre at OSU. He also spent eight years discussing film as co-host of “It’s Movie Time” on WCBE-FM and spent many years as the co-host and programmer for the Columbus Museum of Art Film Series.

Let’s just say, “When Kelly met Clay”, this Flick Chick knew she had found a friend and a film series was born.

As series hosts and programmers, Clay and I will briefly introduce the films, and each weekly screening and post-film discussion will include special invited guests from the worlds of film, theatre, art, music, dance, education and the media.

All screenings will be held at 2 pm on Sunday afternoons at the Gateway Film Center located on the OSU campus, with the discussion immediately following. The price is $5 per show and tickets may be purchased online at the Gateway website or at the box office.

In addition to the six Sunday afternoon selections, a special one-time only Tuesday evening screening of a newly-restored The African Queen, starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart, will be held at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, June 1.

If you truly love classic movies and enjoy thoughtful and engaging film discussion, make plans to see these three great Kates/Cates in action and attend the “Kiss Me c/Kate: 3 Great Actresses, 7 Classic Films” series.

Details and dates for the entire series are below:

(Click on film titles for more information)

KATHARINE HEPBURN

May 23 – Sunday at 2 pm

THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (NR 112 minutes 1940)
Director: George Cukor
Writer: Daniel Ogden Stewart (Philip Barry – Play)
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant, James Stewart
Guests: Carolyna Bradford (Actress/Producer), Melissa Starker (Gateway Film Center)

May 30 – Sunday at 2 pm

PAT AND MIKE (NR 95 minutes 1952)
Director: George Cukor
Writers: Ruth Gordon, Garson Kanin
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Charles Bronson, Jim Backus
Guests: Alan Woods (Faculty, OSU Department of Theatre), Jocelyn Nevel (Photographer/Educator)

June 1 – Tuesday evening at 7:30 pm

THE AFRICAN QUEEN
Director: John Huston (NR 106 minutes 1951)
Writer: James Agee, John Huston (C.S. Forester novel)
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Humphrey Bogart
Guests: Alan Woods (Faculty, OSU Department of Theatre), Jocelyn Nevel (Photographer/Educator)

KATE WINSLET

June 6 – Sunday at 2 pm

HEAVENLY CREATURES (Rated R 99 minutes 1994)
Director: Peter Jackson
Writer: Fran Walsh, Peter Jackson
Starring: Kate Winslet, Melanie Lynskey
Guests: Hope Madden (Film Critic, The Other Paper) , George Wolf (Film Critic, The Other Paper)

June 13 – Sunday at 2 pm

ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND
(Rated R 108 min 2004)
Director: Michel Gondry
Writer: Charlie Kaufman
Starring: Kate Winslet, Jim Carrey, Mark Ruffalo, Elijah Wood, Kirsten Dunst
Guests: Jennifer Ntiri (Actress/Dancer), Brad Keefe (Critic/Web Producer Columbus Alive)

CATE BLANCHETT

June 20 – Sunday at 2 pm

ELIZABETH: THE VIRGIN QUEEN (Rated R 124 minutes 1998)
Director: Shekhar Kapur
Writer: Michael Hirst
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Geoffrey Rush, Joseph Fiennes
Guests: Wayne Miller (Board of Trustees, Film Council of Greater Columbus; Chair, Columbus International Film & Video Festival), Audrey Harkonen (Board Member/Juror, Columbus International Film & Video Festival)

June 27 – Sunday at 2 pm

I’M NOT THERE (Rated R 135 minutes 2007)
Director: Todd Haynes
Writer: Todd Haynes, Oren Moverman
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Ben Whishaw, Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Julianne Moore
Guests: Melissa Starker (Gateway Film Center), Bob Ray Starker (Musician – Whoa Nellie!)

Note: Convenient $1 parking (up to 4 hours) is available year round in the Gateway Film Center garage located right next door to the cinema on both 9th and 11th avenues.

Please Join Us: FLICKCHICK.TV Live-Blogs The Oscars!

Hey Movie Lovers,

Hollywood's big night is almost here!


Why not turn your viewing of the Academy Awards on Sunday, March 7th into a fun group experience? (without ever having to leave the comfort of your couch!)

You're invited to join the FlickChick.TV team on Oscar night as we live-blog every exciting Oscar moment (and unfortunate red carpet fashion choice).

Uh....we're talkin' to you, Bjork.


Just click the link below to join in all of the fun:

FLICKCHICK.TV: Oscars Live-Blog!

Stop by & share your opinions, predictions, observations or just plain 'ol snarky comments during the red-carpet pre-shows and Oscar ceremony.

Seriously, it doesn't count if you're rooting for George Clooney, Sandra Bullock or THE HURT LOCKER to win and nobody hears you! Let your picks, pleas and gasps of horror be voiced here amongst others who understand exactly what you're thinking.

Believe us, at FlickChick.TV....we're ALL about the movies. WE understand.



Please click this link (FLICKCHICK.TV: Oscars Live-Blog!) & join us Sunday evening March 7th, from 6:00 to 11:30 pm for this fun & star-filled night.

We look forward to hearing from you soon.....

STAY TUNED!