Ella's Oscar Picks and Predicks.

Hah. I had way too much fun with such a silly title.

So, for as far back as I can remember, my little family and I have watched the Academy awards every year in its entirety, routing for certain artists, predicting wins, and saying "I knew it" after every single award is announced, even when we got it wrong. And because of that, I cannot ignore them. I don't care if they're a little bit rigged: it's the only race I ever watch (in fact, it's the only television I ever watch), so I take it quite seriously. In a fun way.

So, without further ado...

MY PREDICTIONS (who will win):

BEST PICTURE: 'ARGO' (Ben Affleck, George Clooney, Grant Heslov)

BEST ACTOR: DANIEL DAY-LEWIS (Lincoln)

BEST ACTRESS: JESSICA CHASTAIN (Zero Dark Thirty)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: CHRISTOPH WALTZ (Django Unchained)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: ANNE HATHAWAY (Les Mis)

BEST DIRECTOR: STEVEN SPIELBERG (Lincoln)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER: CLAUDIO MIRANDA (Life of Pie)

BEST COSTUME DESIGNER: JACQUELINE DURRAN (Anna Karenina)

 BEST EDITING: WILLIAM GOLDENBURG (Argo)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: AMOUR (Austria)

BEST HAIR AND MAKE UP: LES MISERABLES

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: ALEXANDRE DESPLAT (Argo)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: SKYFALL (Adele)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: LIFE OF PI

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: ARGO (Chris Terrio)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: ZERO DARK THIRTY (Mark Boal)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: LES MISERABLES

I can't give my picks and predictions to categories in which I haven't seen all of the nominated films (e.g. short films, documentaries, foreign language film).

...and, MY PICKS (who I want to win):

BEST PICTURE: BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD

Consider that one of the criteria for 'best picture' is the level of magic in the film.

BEST ACTOR: JOAQUIN PHOENIX (The Master)

This character didn't exist before. Now it does, curtesy of Joaquin. You could say the same for Bradley Cooper's 'Pat' in Silver Linings but, unfortunately, Joaquin Phoenix blows everyone else out the water.

BEST ACTRESS: MARION COTILLARD (Rust and Bone)

Hands down brilliance and not even nominated!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN (The Master)

Because he made it happen for himself.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: ANNE HATHAWAY (Les Mis)

I genuinely didn't want to like Les Mis or its performances, but Anne Hathaway gave me no choice.

Try to dispute me after watching her rendition of I Dreamed A Dream. I'm not even going to bother.

BEST DIRECTOR: DAVID O RUSSEL (Silver Linings Playbook)

Because he saw the good actor in Bradley Cooper and showed it to the world.

And because he seems to extract great performances from actors I'd otherwise have overlooked.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHER: ROGER DEAKINS (Skyfall)

Mainly because of his work in Bardem's opening scene.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMEN

I could be completely wrong but I think a lot of Charlize's costumes were made out of brilliantly recreated animal parts?

BEST EDITING: ZERO DARK THIRTY

(Co-edited by William Goldenberg from Argo!)

Particularly in the last 30 minutes of the film. Gripping.

BEST HAIR AND MAKE UP: LES MISERABLES

I so want Hitchcock to win something but the aging and the character in Les Mis was just too good.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: THOMAS NEWMAN (Skyfall)

Maybe I'm just a sucker for the 007 theme.

Also, his IMDB profile is so much more impressive than his google images.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: SKYFALL (Adele)

It isn't over 'til Adele sings. Then it's over.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: THE HOBBIT

I think creating that world must've been a lot of fun and hard work.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: LIFE OF PI

The CGI in this film made me think it deserved best cinematography. Tricky and brilliant.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK

(Matthew Quick - David O Russell)

Because I don't often want to read the book once I've seen the film and I'm sure that counts for something.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: DJANGO UNCHAINED (Quentin Tarantino)

Because although it may just be an American remake of Inglorious Basterds, I love the satisfaction that Tarantino writes into his hilarious, clever revenge stories. And his rhythm is just perfect. Even without Sally Menke (bless).

And that's it. Until next year. And then one day I'll be at the ceremony.

Promise.

Fleur du Cap Nominee List 2013

Wow. Here is the list of nominees for the annual Fleur du Cap Theatre Awards. I think there are a great number of very strong actors, students, directors and productions this year and I am so far beyond excited to be a part of such a talented group.

Best Performance by an actor
Bongile Mantsai for Mies Julie as John
Elton Landrew for Boesman & Lena as Boesman
Gideon Lombard for The View as Young Man
Jeremy Crutchley for Sacred Elephant as Everyman.

Best Performance by an actress
Anthea Thompson for Kingdom of Earth as Myrtle
Bo Petersen for Statements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act as Frieda Joubert
Hilda Cronjé for Mies Julieas Julie
Quanita Adams for Boesman & Lena as Lena.

Best Supporting Actor
Adam Neill for Champ as Waldo
David Dennis for A Midsummer Night's Dream as Nick Bottom/Pyramus
Gideon Lombard for Special Thanks to Guests from Afar as Markus Weitig
Mbulelo Grootboom for Just Business as Mabuso.

Best Supporting Actress
Ella Gabriel for The View as Various Characters
Emily Child for King Lear (This Time it Hurts) as Regan
Jennie Reznek for Autopsy as Madam Shu and Others
Thoko Ntshinga for Mies Julie as Christine 

Best Performance by an actor in music theatre and/or a musical
Danny Butler for Kat and the Kings as Kat Diamond
Dean Balie for Kat and the Kings as Young Kat Diamond
Jonathan Roxmouth for Topsy Turvy as Various Characters
Sasha Halhuber for Cabaret as Emcee

Best Performance by an actress in music theatre and/or a musical
Aviva Pelham for Santa's Story as Various Characters
Kate Normington for Menopause the Musical as Soap Star
Samantha Peo for Cabaret as Sally Bowles
Sivan Raphaely for From the Mouths of Babes as Herself.

Best Performance by a supporting actor in music theatre and/or a musical
Carlo Daniels forKat and the Kings as Ballie
Grant Peres for Kat and the Kings as Bingo
Peter Court for Cabaret as Herr Schultz
Zakariyah Toerien for Kat and the Kings as Magoo

Best Performance by a supporting actress in music theatre and/or a musical
Amy Trout forKat and the Kings as Lucy Dixon
Charon Williams-Ros for Cabaret as Fräulein Schneider
Kate Normington for Cabaret as Fräulein Kost
Londiwe Dhlomo for Cabaret as Texas.

Best Performance in a cabaret/revue/one person show
Daneel van der Walt for Big Girl as Big Girl
James Cuningham for Sunday Morning as Mat
Jeremy Crutchley for Sacred Elephant as Everyman
Lynita Crofford for An Audience with Miss Hobhouse as Emily Hobhouse and Others.

Most Promising Student Award
Ella Gabriel (UCT)
Roelof Storm (UCT)
Chrisma Van Zyl (University Stellenbosch)
Stefan Erasmus (UCT). 

Best Director
James Ngcobo for Boesman & Lena
Mandla Mbothwe for Did We Dance: The Sinking of the SS Mendi
Matthew Wild for The Comedy of Errors
Yael Farber for Mies Julie.

Best Lighting Design
Faheem Bardien for A Midsummer Night's Dream
Kobus Rossouw for The Comedy of Errors
Patrick Curtis for Did We Dance: The Sinking of the SS Mendi
Paul Abrams for Mies Julie. 

Best Set Design
Fred Abrahamse for Kingdom of Earth
Leopold Senekal for Did We Dance: The Sinking of the SS Mendi
Patrick Curtis for Doodsnikke
Patrick Curtis for Mies Julie.

Best Costume Design
Angela Nemov for The Comedy of Errors
Illka Louw for Sacred Elephant
Marcel Meyer for Kingdom of Earth
Neil Stuart-Harris for Cabaret.

Best Original Score and/or Sound Design
Charl-Johan Lingenfelder (original score) for Kingdom of Earth
Charl-Johan Lingenfelder for A Midsummer Night's Dream
Daniel Pencer and Matthew Pencer (original music) for Mies Julie
David Kramer and Taliep Petersen (original score) for Kat and the Kings.

Best New SA Script
Bench by Brent Palmer
Champ by Louis Viljoen
Mies Julie by Yael Farber
Sunday Morning by Nick Warren

Rosalie van der Gucht Prize for new directors - Greg Karvallas for Champ; Kim Kerfoot forStatements after an Arrest under the Immorality Act; Michael Kirch for Bench; Philip Rademeyer forThe View

And, you can now vote for the People's Choice Award by texting 'FDC' to 33783. Click on the link and select your favourite play of 2012. R1.50 for the text.

I do hope that soon the theatre making students will be recognized for their work by the Fleur du Cap awards, too.

I feel a little like this today:

Thank you, FDC.

Double-Wammy (Actors Studio Audition Results)

So, what a crazy weekend.

Yesterday I got into Harvard's MFA in Acting, and today I did my audition for THE Actors Studio (affiliated with Pace University)...

...AND GOT IN!

Once again, beyond happiness and excitement and disbelief. They told me straight away - minutes after I walked out the room. Said they wanted "something nice for me to fly home with" and offered me a position starting this fall.

Whaaaat!?

So happy. The course co-presidents of the school are Academy Award Winners Al Pacino (Glengarry, The Godfater), Harvey Keitel (Reservoir Dogs, Thelma & Louise), and Ellen Burnstyn (Requiem for a Dream, The Exorcist).

The curriculum is so focused on Acting - without any particular focus on a specific medium (TV, Film or Theatre) - which is what I've been hopelessly searching for in the theatre-crazed city.

AND students take part in the famous James Lipton Series: Inside The Actors Studio, of which, this is one of my all-time favorites:

(Oh, and two Alumnimunimni are nominated at the Oscars this year: Bradley Cooper and Sally Field).


So, dreams are coming true.

Hahvahd!

I GOT INTO HARVARD's MFA IN ACTING!

So excited. Can't deal. I still have to think about things and blahblah but for today I'm just happy. And the love and support from home is ridiculous.

Thanks, almal.

Know what they say: 

HAHVAHD MAKES YOU SMAHDAH.

Acting Advice from Jessica Chastain to the drama school graduate.

Today, I had a life-changing experience.

To update you first: I have done 3 out of 6 auditions. All of them have taught me much more than I could've asked for. Especially Juilliard - which I didn't get into. I've since realized (and it's taken me the full week to realize it completely) that it's probably a blessing in disguise. I was bruised and battered and buried under the reality of it my 'failure' and guess what? I'm still here. I'm still alive. And I will win if you bet I haven't learnt one of the most important lessons for an actor to learn:

"Right after The Tree of Life (2011) came out, I started hearing about strategies for my career. And I made a decision that I wasn't going to do anything based on a strategy. If I don't continue to challenge myself and risk failure, I have no business being an actor. I'm not an actor to be a personality. I want to see every part I take like a master class. And you know what? I'm going to fail sometimes. And that's OK. Because when you fail, you learn more."

-Jessica Chastain.

Since my Juilliard audition, I've had a lot of ups and downs trying to figure out what I can do to be better. And so many ideas run through my mind but I can't do it all and I have to be clever when it comes to designing my 'practice' because another thing I've learnt up here at the 'centre of the universe' is that there are millions more just like me trying to do what I want to do.

By the way, beautiful brainiac, Jonathan Sierck recommended this book to me and it's brilliant and if you nodded your head even subconsciously while reading that last sentence, you should read it:

So, here I am, left with trying to work out how to do this because I am hell-bent on doing it and doing it properly. I joined Juilliard's mailing list (before the audition... awkward) and a few days ago I got a mail from them advertising an exclusive 'Conversation with Jessica Chastain' at Lincoln Centre, Friday 3pm.

Wow. I went on my own today to experience (because 'listening', 'observing', or 'attending' would not do this justice) Jessica Chastain speaking about everything from going to Juilliard, through her many incredible films, her methods and challenges, to fellow actors and directors, projects, theatre and work ethic. At the end there was a short Q&A and without preparing or deciding to actually ask a question, my hand shot up and they selected me to ask her - best actress nominee - anything I wanted.

And the first question that came to mind (probably because of how much thought I'd given it for the past week) was at 52:30 in this live recording of the conversation. And the answer, so simple and brilliant, has catapulted me psychologically to where I need to be to make it happen for myself.

"Do the work when no one's watching."

And I will thank her to her face on the other side of the work.

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