Gollum not nominated for an Oscar? tough luck

[Akuma]

i just lost respect for the Academy.

[Array]

If Serkis was even nominated for this award, I think it would've cheapened all of the work done by thw VFX team at WETA. If anything, the academy needs to make a special category for just this kind of thing. Best CG actor?

[G Nilsson]

there are houndreds of actors in films every year and two of them are cg so why be surprised?
why not nominate 2danimated characters for an oscar too then?
/G

[playmesumch00ns]

not to diss WETA's awesome work, but when I was in the cinema, the audience roared with laughter at Gollum's first monologue. Was this intentional?

[Zastrozzi]

NO i don't think it was although I to must say that it was a little amusing the first time i saw it. the more i see it the more sorry i feel for Gollum. I think that as a society we need to look at what we find amusing. His (gollums[serkis + Animators]) performance was amaxzing with tremendous feeling and showed a character that was deeply troubled and abused by the ring

[red_oddity]

I think it has more to do with people being afraid of showing their feelings (or seeing it as a weakness...long live western society), so instead of showing we actually feel sorry for Smeagol/Gollum we laugh.

As for the Academy, it's one big friggin' hoax, ment to sell to television companies, sell expensive clothing and jewelry and to streak the ego's of people who like their ego stroked, where as the real people behind the industry remain in the shadows...

[raffael3d]

you shouldn't see the oscar the most important thing for the vfx industry. A prize like the new one founded by the Visual effects socitety which has categories like "best visual effects, "best supporting visual effects" (those you don't see but are there) "best animated character" . there you see honoroed that work.

[playmesumch00ns]

With regard Gollum's monologue, I think it may well have been to do with such a strange-looking character giving such an emotional performance. I think the first time everyone saw it, it was just so bizarre that they laughed! Certainly on the second one, the cinema was silent, and my own response had become darker

[Peter Reynolds]

pretend it was NOT a cg character and look to the EDIT.

There you will find the answer.

[jackman]

Its not for the untrained eyes !!

[Hookflash]

Frankly, I don't think Gollum/Serkis deserved an Oscar. Yes, he was probably the most convincing digital character to date, but there are still many, many real actors who gave better performances last year.

[Joviex]

Originally posted by Hookflash
Frankly, I don't think Gollum/Serkis deserved an Oscar. Yes, he was probably the most convincing digital character to date, but there are still many, many real actors who gave better performances last year.

UH, YEAH!

Think those vying for his nomination are a little myopic on this topic.

At least a hundred performances I have seen this year in dozens of movies, much better than Serkis. This is not to say his wasn't good, but not in the caliber it should have been to be nominated for BEST actor of the YEAR.

As for the technical accomplishment, WETA deserves it all the way. The VFX team definately raised the bar.

[gabe28]

I have to admit that it's a tough call for me. I was really entranced by Gollum.... but.... I don't know where the line between being completed floored by the animation technical achievment and being engrossed with the character's performance is. I know that the same technical prowess would have been much flatter on an inferior performance.... but I'm not sure that the same performance would have held me as tight if it had been live action... yes... perplexing this is.

At any rate, I could give a rats ass about the Oscars. I am perfectly content forming my own opinions on the movies I choose to watch.

[The Cross]

Truthfully, All round, i think the only ones that reconize the indepth tallent in Gollum is us animators.

The Motion capture aspects of this character was undoubtably unique, and i feel the acadamy fears nominating Gollum up against live actors....I think they know that Gollum would smoke most catagories, and maybe they are afraid of getting acused of cheating actors...Gollum is after all, a puppet with a master behind the curtain plus animated edges with superior enhancments.


It's just dosn't seem fare come to think of it.

[Hookflash]

Originally posted by The Cross
....I think they know that Gollum would smoke most catagories

Which categories would he smoke? I think we need to differentiate impressive technical achievement from Oscar-worthy acting. Gollum was an impressive technical achievement, but, on the whole, a very mediocre actor, imo (especially compared to the other actors in the film). If he had been a live actor in a rubber "gollum suit", noone would have even considered nominating him for... well... anything.

[googlo]

yeah, I agree hook

[Peter Reynolds]

When it comes to assessing an actors performance, isn't it always subjective?
Isn't that why there is always some debate over Oscar nominations and oscar winners? Which is exactly what the Academy wants. Its probably a healthy thing for a society to debate the merits of performance and not just blindly follow what a critic or award show tells them is a good performance.

I don't think many would argue that Pacino doesn't know what he is doing.

But for me, the sad thing is, that there definitely seems to be a bias against other forms of performance.

Over the years people like Frank Oz have delivered performances that have sometimes felt more convincing and character driven than many flesh and blood actors. But these performances are so quickly dismissed.

Every time I have seen the TT, I could feel the audience reacting and empathising to Gollum, in a way I have not felt for any other CG character. When they first laughed at the monologue (which has happened every time I've seen it), I could feel it was a warm laugh - they were not laughing at the performance, they were laughing with it. Gollum as a character was entertaining them, and by the end of it, he could have had them eating out of the palm of his hand. (Make sure you see Meet the Feebles if you're not familiar with Peter Jackson's use of humor)

Would I put Gollum in a room with Pacino and expect him to hold his own? Maybe not (yet).

But agains a LOT of other actors, Gollums performance easily stands up.

As a man in a suit, I still think the performance would have worked. If you think it wouldn't - fair enough - subjectivity right? But it would be nice to expand as to why it wouldn't and how YOU might have played it different.

There are many actors performances that are really poor that go unchecked every year. These actors keep getting work. Why? I think it has something to do with the fact that people are much more willing to accept a human in front of them and so the human performances often come under less scrutiny - which means a CG character has to go that extra mile if it has any chance.

I think the Weta team behind Gollum, as well as Serkis, went that extra mile.

Could I compare that performance to another actor is some other role? Well the academy does, but I couldn't. For me, its too subjective.

[googlo]

Well, I think there is bias. There are a lot of sci-fi shows that NEVER get recognized for their acting or story ideas, and it's mainly because sci-fi isn't accepted as a real art, unless a super famou actor does something in sci-fi.

[The Cross]

The Motion in Gollum/Smeagal was highly dramatic and very believable. On the whole is credited to the Actor. The character had much reason to be as "expressive" as he is. And either way it still is a performance.


Not most catagories, But a couple he can be a contender in.


It has been said over and over that Gollum is no ordinary Computer Generated character. And yes he's made the same way we make our characters. Only difference is the motion capture and the exstensive amount of work put in other area's.


Toy Story is pure CG, and it has an Oscar. There is no Doubt that Gollum is ahead of other performances in it's nature. Like i said before, Appearantly the only ones that see Gollum as he is, are us animators. So there is no surprise that alot of animators will be shocked, because a benchmark achievement such as our subject got absolutly nothing.

[Spankenstein]

Originally posted by Akuma
i just lost respect for the Academy.

Wtf? Titanic didnt handle this for you many years ago??


ANYWAY, they need a new category called BEST COLLABORATED CHARACTER for characters that require the work of many talented people, such as Gollum and... teehee... JARJAR. To be eligible, the character would have to be performed and voiced by a human, and actually interact in the film as a normal actor would.

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