OSCAR: Critics Keep Friending 'The Social Network' While Picture Rivals Keep Fretting

In an era where review aggregation sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic have erased individuality and replaced it with a percentage statistic that can be quoted? more easily than the words of Roger Ebert or other?name reviewers, we are seeing a pack mentality emerge with critics groups come awards time. No matter which region of the country, they all seem to be moving in step with each other for the most part. For David Fincher this has to be especially sweet. Just two years ago he sat on the sidelines as nearly all these groups lined up?for Danny Boyle and Slumdog Millionaire against his highly touted The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. When Oscar time rolled around there was no question which film would win. Now it’s hard to find a single critics group that doesn’t want to friend The Social Network -- and rivals in this still very fluid race are feeling the pain, no doubt trying to figure out how to counter it all before it’s too late.

While most Hollywood offices are shutting down for the holidays,?Sony Pictures'?awards campaign?crew are working overtime?for contender The Social Network?in advance of next week's mailing of Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences nomination ballots.?That’s why director?Fincher, who was supposed to be on a 2-week holiday break from shooting the studio’s?The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo in Sweden, actually?isn’t getting much of a break at all. Last week, he was in New York doing a Q&A moderated by?pal Spike Jonze. And now Tuesday and Wednesday he is on the Sony lot in Culver City for 3 more sessions?aimed at actors, editors, sound designers, cinematographers, and other various voting groups who are still in town and not preoccupied by the?holiday. I am told Fincher only agreed to do these Q&As in order to support various crew and cast members who will be appearing with him.

An evite "Save The Date" notice also went out? for a January 6th DVD/Blu Ray “launch event” for The Social Network -- although some voting groups already got a taste of it when Sony sent yet another For? Your Consideration DVD, this time featuring the movie and a 2-hour second disc full of supplementary features. Even though groups like the BFCA and HFPA have already received screeners, this seems like a smart move; it?freshens the film and adds extras to give it another whirl in the player over the holidays timed just before final voting gets underway. Sony can’t do the same for the Academy, however:?sending anything other than the movie is against the rules.

Why such a hard?sell??While it made a huge splash when it opened?on October 1st, The Social?Network?maybe?faded a bit in Hollywood's awards firmament when other later entries like The King’s Speech and The Fighter hit the spotlight. Now it’s roaring back with help from the same critics groups who first championed?No Country For Old Men, Slumdog Millionaire, and The Hurt Locker?creating a consensus and perhaps influencing the vote?for the last 3 consecutive Best Picture Oscar winners. Time Magazine’s selection for 2010 Person Of The Year of Mark Zuckerberg, the real life inspiration for Aaron Sorkin’s script,?certainly also hit just at the right time for Sony’s?re-energized awards campaign.

No film has been honored more this season or won more critics groups' Best Picture awards than The Social Network in what has been the most wide-open race in years.?In fact, no other movie has won any Best Picture award from critics (okay, except the San Diego?reviewers who courageously broke ranks to give it to Winter’s Bone). Whether it? has been critics orgs in Boston,?Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Detroit, Florida, Houston, Indiana, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, New York,?San Francisco, St. Louis, Toronto, Washington DC, online, offline, or at the “Satellite” awards, the result is always the same: The Social Network = Best Picture. Of course not every friggin’ state or city with a “critics society” has weighed in yet. But how much do you wanna bet that Phoenix, Iowa, Kansas City, Oklahoma, and Vancouver??follow like lemmings. Anyone wanna guess which way Central Ohio and Utah are leaning?

It all started at the beginning of the month when the National Board of Review named?The Social Network?its Best Picture -- and they don’t even call themselves critics. We’re not sure who they actually are but they jumped on board first. Most recently,?the London Film Critics showered it with nominations. And of course?the high profile televised awards shows --?NBC’s Golden Globes from the?Hollywood Foreign Press Association and VH1’s?Critics Choice Movie Awards of the Broadcast Film Critics Association (I am a member there) --??also have it in contention big-time for their January ceremonies. Even the African American Film Critics Association which?handed out its main acting awards to Halle Berry, Michael Ealy, and Kimberly Elise and included films like Frankie & Alice, For Colored Girls, Blood Done Sign My Name, and Night Catches Us in its Top 10 list -- but still fell right in line when it came to naming Social Network its Best Picture?despite not much?diversity in its cast, as I recall.

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'Social Network' Wins LA Film Critics Award

LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 12, 2010 – “The Social Network” was voted Best Picture of the Year, it was announced today by Brent Simon, President of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA). The runner up was “Carlos”.

The 36th annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards ceremony will be held Saturday, January 15 at the InterContinental, Los Angeles. As previously announced, Paul Mazursky will receive the 2010 Career Achievement Award.

Award winners are:

PICTURE: "The Social Network"; Runner-up: "Carlos"

DIRECTOR: Olivier Assayas, "Carlos," and David Fincher, "The Social Network" (tie)

ACTOR: Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"; Runner-up: Edgar Ramirez, "Carlos"

ACTRESS: Kim Hye-ja, "Mother"; Runner-up: Jennifer Lawrence, "Winter's Bone"

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Niels Arestrup, "A Prophet"; Runner-up: Geoffrey Rush, "The King's Speech"

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Jacki Weaver, "Animal Kingdom"; Runner-up: Olivia Williams, "The Ghost Writer"

SCREENPLAY: Aaron Sorkin, "The Social Network"; Runner-up: David Seidler, "The King's Speech"

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: "Carlos"; Runner-up: "Mother"

ANIMATION: "Toy Story 3"; Runner-up: "The Illusionist"

DOCUMENTARY / NON-FICTION FILM: "Last Train Home"; Runner-up: "Exit Through the Gift Shop"

CINEMATOGRAPHY: Matthew Libatique, "Black Swan"; Runner-up: Roger Deakins, "True Grit"

MUSIC/SCORE: Alexandre Desplat, "The Ghost Writer," and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, "The Social Network" (tie)

PRODUCTION DESIGN: Guy Hendrix Dyas, "Inception"; Runner-up: Eve Stewart, "The King's Speech"

NEW GENERATION: Lena Dunham, "Tiny Furniture"

DOUGLAS E. EDWARDS INDEPENDENT/EXPERIMENTAL FILM/VIDEO: "Film Socialism"

LEGACY OF CINEMA AWARDS: Serge Bromberg, "Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno," and the F.W. Murnau Foundation and Fernando Pena for the restoration of "Metropolis"

CAREER ACHIEVEMENT: Paul Mazursky

Founded in 1975, The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) is comprised of Los Angeles-based, professional film critics working in the Los Angeles print and electronic media. Each December, LAFCA members vote on the year’s Achievement Awards, honoring screen excellence on both sides of the camera. Plaques of recognition are then presented to winners during LAFCA’s annual awards ceremony, held in mid-January.?Please also find the winners via Twitter @lafilmcritics (http://twitter.com/LAFilmCritics) or visit www.lafca.net.

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Aaron Sorkin, the "social network" women

Here's a glimpse behind the scenes in why Hollywood depicts women, how it does on the big screen. IRAS it is blog posted a comment complaining about the social network "lack of a decent picture of women." that winning an Emmy writer-producer-director keV Levine except for 1 or 2 of them (Rashida Jones included), they were essentially objects sexual/stupid groupies... one makes me think that Aaron Sorkin (although I love writing) does not have the women of this script. Type of injury because it is written for women large characters as c.j. Cregg! "SI writer of peak Aaron Sorkin replied:

"Believe me, I get it." It is not difficult to understand how bright women might be shocked by what they saw in the movie, but you must understand that it was the very specific world, that I wrote. Women are both an equal price. Blogs of mark that we hear in voiceover as he drinks, hacks, creates a Facemash and dreams of the type of party, be sure it is absent, came directly from Marc blog. With the exception of a few cuts and tightening (and I can promise you that nothing I cut would change your perception of the people or the path of history by the same one inch) I used blog Marc verbatim. Mark said: "Erica Albright is a bitch" (Erica is not his real name - I changed three names in the film when it is unnecessary to embarrass anyone more), "think it's because all the B.U. girls are bitches." Facebook was born to an evening of incredibly misogyny.The idea of comparing women with farm animals and then to each other, based on their appearance and then publicly ranking their .c ' was a revenge, Slacker aims firstly to the woman allegedly more recently his heart (which should get some kind of Medal for not breaking the head), and then to the whole of the female population of Harvard.

More generally, I wrote about a group of people very angry and deeply misogynist.These are not the nerds mellow made films on years 80.Ils are very angry leader wants to still go out with the shift instead (boys) men running as early as now the universe .the women that they surround themselves with are not women challenging them (and frankly, any woman who could challenge them would be interested in any location near their).

And this very disturbing attitude of women is not only limited to the guys who cannot obtain dates.

I invented the "F - k truck", it is true - and final clubs (boys) men think that is what they deserve to be who they are.(It is only fair to note that women - autobues in other schools for the "hot" parties are waiting online to get on the bus without that person pointing guns at their head.)

These women - both young girls who are happy to take off their clothes and dance for boys or psycho-small friend Eduardo are real. I am really mean real.(In the case of Christy, Eduardo girlfriend so beautifully played by Brenda Song, I met two characters - once again, I hope that you'll trust me that this has nothing to change our gaze on the événements.Christy was the second of three characters which I changed the name.)

I invented two characters - Rashida Jones was "Marylin", the youngest lawyer team and far other women that see us in the film.Elle is clearly serious, competent and, where requested, has no problem speaking the truth, as it considers the mark .the ' other was Gretchen, lawyer Eduardo (actually there are a great team of litigators, have taken turns third witnesses but I wanted to familiar us with only one person - a woman who is once again, the trophy of person.)

And Erica Rooney Mara a class act.

I wish I could go from door to door and make this explanation and apology to any woman offended by things you've pointed out but it is clear that it is unrealistic, so I thought the least I could do was to speak directly to you.?

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