Star Trek One Of Paramount’s Films For Award Season Consideration

JJ Abrams Star Trek has been doing well with the ‘popularity contest’ type of awards (Scream Awards & Hollywood Awards), but now it is time to get serious. With the end of the year comes the beginning for awards season. This is now being kicked off by the "For Your Consideration" promotional campaigns from the studios. For 2009, Paramount has around 20 eligible films, and they have selected four for their awards campaign, including JJ Abrams Star Trek.

 

Consider Star Trek
Paramount has launched a ‘for your consideration’ website at paramountscreenings.com. The site is currently promoting four films, two typical high brow films coming out in December, and two of its Summer tent poles:

  • "Up in the Air" (directed by Jason Reitman, starring George Clooney, based on novel by Walter Kim)
  • "The Lovely Bones" (directed by Peter Jackson, starring Rachel Weisz & Susan Sarandon, based on the novel by Alice Sebold)
  • "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" (directed by Michael Bay, starring Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox and giant robots, based on Hasbro toy line)
  • "Star Trek" (directed by JJ Abrams, starring Chris Pine & Zachary Quinto, based on TV series created by Gene Roddenberry)

Paramount has not yet put up its list of which awards it is suggesting for Star Trek, but it would not be surprising if it included the traditional big awards, like Best Picture and Best Director for JJ Abrams. The film was well received by critics and has already been mentioned as a possibility for Best Picture now that the Academy has extended the rules to allow ten nominations. The site does have its list of ‘considerations’ for Transformers 2. 2007’s Transformers picked up three Oscar nominations for technical awards, but this time Paramount is suggesting members consider the sequel for many of the big awards (including Best Picture, Best Director for Bay and Best Adapted Screenplay for Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman). Transformers 2 was Paramount’s biggest film of the year, although it did not garner the same kind of critical praise as Star Trek.

Of course, with the expanded Best Picture list, other studios are also coming up with some interesting suggestions. Warner Brothers is proffering the comedy hit The Hangover for Best Picture, and Sony has followed suit with their Summer comedy Bruno.

A Star Trek first?
No Star Trek film has won an Academy Award, however there have been a number of nominations. The last Star Trek feature film to get an Academy Award nomination was Star Trek First Contact, for Best Makeup.  Star Trek VI was nominated for Best Makeup and Best Sound Effects Editing. Star Trek IV had four nominations: Best Cinematography, Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Original Score, Best Sound. Star Trek: The Motion Picture had three noms: Best Set Decoration, Best Visual Effects, Best Original Score. For the Golden Globes (which has fewer categories), the only nomination was for The Motion Picture for Best Score.

The campaign begins
The next step for Paramount will likely include advertising in Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and other places where potential Academy members can be found. More importantly, Paramount will be arranging screenings for the Star Trek movie for Academy members and guild members as well.

 

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It Deserves it!!

How cool would it be if Star Trek got an Oscar?

Best Picture for Transformers?? Hmmm.

Would be nice to see one of the films finally get some sort of award

I’d wish that Paramount expended less effort in promoting Transformers 2 for the top awards. The stuff that Transformers 2 is going to get nominated for (effects, sound, etc.) doesn’t really need a big push by the studio.

#2: It can’t hurt to try. Although I suspect TF2 will have a much larger presence at the Raspies than at the Oscars.

Let’s hope they actually do hold some screenings for Trek since all they have now is a placeholder telling people it’s on home video (i.e. go watch it somewhere yourself). A lot of the other studios have been holding screenings starting back in Sept/Oct. and Paramount is just starting.

As far as I’m concerned, they should give EVERY Academy Award this year to ST2009.

Yes, I am THAT much of a fanatic about this movie. ;-)

Seriously, though — Best Picture, please? Pretty, pretty please?

If no awards, then — harumph — who needs ’em, anyway?

Seriously, what Oscars could this film win? Best makeup? No. Because I’ve seen better. Best score? No. Because I’ve heard MUCH better. Best screenplay? Yeeeaaah…ha-ha-ha…heh…. Woo…. *wipes tear from eye*

Nominations are abound, I’m sure, but is this Trek film really that worthy of any of these wins? TMP was robbed of the “Best Score” Oscar, TUC was robbed of the “Best Sound Editing.”

Now, if this film is nominated for “Best Picture,” then I’ll have lost faith in humanity and in the film industry.

Yeah, Paramount’s push for Star Trek would have a lot more credibility if they weren’t also pushing for Transformers 2.

Looking at the list of awards for TF2, it probably has a shot at Visual Effects (and may win that one, the effects on the Transformers were fantastic), Sound Mixing and Sound Editing. It doesn’t get a whiff on any of the others.

At least they weren’t delusional enough to submit any acting ones.

And the winner for Best Use of Lens Flare in a movie – JJ ABRAMS! WOOO!!

#8. It might get Visual Effects and Sound nods (hard to say since there are a lot of other impressive films out this year to compete against – Transformers, Avatar, 2012, etc). The makeup was generally unimpressive as nothing stood out, and a lot of the good makeup work they did ended up in scenes cut from the film (Vulcan/Romulan ears and an Orion ain’t gonna cut it). Costume Design is possible. As time has gone by and the buzz over Trek has died done, and the buzz over a lot of other movies have increased, I think its chances at nominations for the big awards have diminished significantly.

#9. “At least they weren’t delusional enough to submit any acting ones.” — That would have been hilariously awesome if they put Megan Fox for Best Actress.

I don’t care. One thing is certain, however: trekmovie.com deserves the award for the best film fan site of the year. Thank you for your awesome work.

If Trek will win something, it will probably be for the visuals. As for the screenplay, I rather watch the movie with the MUTE option set to ON.

+ 1

Great job trekmovie.com and great work JJ & company.

12, all I can say is that ST2009 is by far and away the best movie I’ve seen this year. Sure, I’ve only seen about two movies this year, but still….

Okay, okay — so let’s look at the other contenders:

Harry Potter: Lost interest in it about two sequels ago.

Ice Age: Ditto.

Transformers: Ditto. (Even though it IS the second sequel.)

2012: Come on.

Up: Kid’s movie.

Angels & Demons: Superstitious much? (No offense to the religious, and BTW, A&D ain’t religion.)

New Moon: Oh, come ON!

The Hangover: Look — I’ve done Vegas, and this ain’t Vegas.

NATM: Smithsonian: See “Up.”

So, of the top ten grossers, this leaves ST2009, which is by far and away the best of the bunch.

And let’s not forget:

Wolverine: Panned.

Watchmen: Good, but not as good as ST2009.

Terminator: A CGI Arnie just doesn’t cut it, dude.

Race to Witch Mountain: See “Wolverine.”

Land of the Lost: Lost.

Fame, Amelia, Other Chick Flix: No reason to think they’re Oscar-worthy.

So, what about the “arty” films, you ask?

Someone help me out here?

All in all — 2009’s best film of the year can only be: ST2009.

Q.E.D.

;-)

@ 16

Go and watch “Moon”, then go and watch “District 9”. Two of the best Sci-Fi movies of the year.

“Starring Shia [Le]Beouf, Megan Fox and giant robots“…

Wow, how old were the people writing this proposal…5?

As long as Watchmen is ignored, I’ll be good.

Okay, I’ll grant you that if I see them, they might register significantly on the intellect-o-meter. But as far as cultural significance, they lose.

Best Picture has never been about intellectual rigor, or how would you explain LOTR: ROTK (2003), Shakespeare in Love (1998), not to mention Slumdog Millionaire (2008)? (Or Rocky (1976) or Oliver! (1968) or ….)

Let’s face it: Best Pic is about popularity of a different kind, and maybe cultural significance.

That said, they’ll probably give this year’s to UP.

Oy.

Noms.
We want nom noms.

I don’t think it will win best picture, but it has a great shot of being nominated in that category. JJ has a great shot as best director nom. Even though the actors were good, I don’t think they will be nominated. I alos think that Gianchino will be nominated against himself for Up as well.

@Hat Rick

Ok, you clearly didn’t see UP. It was the most emotionally resonant and mature films I’ve seen all year. Just being animation does not guarantee it will be a “kiddie flick”.

As for the article, I think Star Trek has a significant shot at a Best Picture nom. There haven’t been many other obvious choices this year, and there are ten slots! However, someone at Paramount must have been high out of their MINDS to ask the Academy to consider Transformers 2 for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay! Whatever he was smoking, I want some! :)

Anyway, here are the films I could see getting a nomination.

Up
Star Trek
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus

Those films are all being talked about, and with 10 slots, are almost guaranteed. These final 6 are films that probably will be nominated.

District 9
The Lovely Bones
Where the Wild Things Are
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
Moon

I’ll give Best Actor to Sam Rockwell in Moon, Best Actress to Vera Farmiga from Up in the Air, Best Supporting Actor to Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds, and Best Supporting Actress to Monique in Precious. Best Director will probably go to either Tarantino, Eastwood, or Reitman, but I’d vote for Tarantino.

As for Best Animated Feature, it had better go to Coraline. It was one of the best films I saw all year, and if it loses to some mediocre craphill movie that only got nominated because it happened to be animated and was halfway decent, or UP, then I will lose all hope in humanity. UP deserves Best Picture. Let Coraline have its day.

Remember, these are just educated guesses, but still…

Ahaha if Transformers wins best picture I’ll dye my blood green!

Yeah, they’re damned good guesses, 23, I would say. I hope that you’re right about Star Trek. The others… meh. Whether those other ones get nominated or not is unimportant to me.

Esteemed Academy folk: If ST2009 doesn’t win BP, then at least it should be nominated for it. I’m not asking for the Moon, here. Sheesh.

;-)

I love the movie, it’s great! BUT it’s not worthy of a nomination. At least best picture. Technical, make-up, score (i was personally disappointed by Giachinno’s score) definitely. It’s not to say Star Trek wasn’t better than some past Oscar winners i.e. Crash, but if we’re basing this on the best of the best…..it doesn’t cut it. I’m sorry.

First off there’s nothing really original about this movie and there were many faults that I found with it. Nero to name one (underdeveloped) It’s not even my favorite Trek movie, maybe 4th or 5th on the list. There are many other movies more worthy than Star Trek.

As a huge fan, I hate to say that, but it’s the truth.

Excellent film, but it’s not gonna get nominated or win for any of the major categories. Stuff like set design, effects, ect, its got a good chance, though.

transformer could go all the way and win all 13 i feel its the best picture of the year if fact i dont re- call seeing a better movie in the last ten or so years or as mccoy might say in a pigs eye

If UP wins Best Picture, I know the Oscars are rigged, because PIXAR is so effing overrated.

26, as a fan of the franchise, I would pick the cultural significance angle, at least, and run with it. There’s no reason that ST2009 should not win if Rocky could win.

Let’s face it: If JJ had never made the movie he made, the Trek franchise would be in the state that the Trek novels have been (ouch, I know, ouch) relative to the SW novels — or even Halo, etc., mass market paperbacks. I mean, every time I go to B&N or Borders, I look for how much shelf space Trek novels have and, over the years, it has shrunk — and shrunk, and shrunk. Even now.

And that’s bad.

But it’s 180 degrees different with respect to the movies. These days you can’t swing a sehlat without reading some kind of laudatory praise for the movie, the DVD/BD release, and the new originals that ST2009 created. (Yes — CREATED. Because these were new versions of classic characters … interpretations, as it were, of archetypal icons. And interpretations are creative …. so say I.)

And because of the movies, Kirk is no longer remembered as a man in his fifties or sixties, but a man of action, a figure of dynamicism, Ethan Hunt in space, as it were. And so it is, also, with the rest of the Classic crew. It is a new spring — an advent, a renewal, a renaissance, if you will.

Culturally, there is nothing this year that came close, is my argument.

Quick — what was the name of the protagonist in UP? In Moon? In District 9?

Betcha can’t remember. But now everyone remembers Kirk, Spock, and Bones.

ST2009 deserves Best Picture.

Star Trek has deserved a good half dozens Best Score awards if nothing else.

I liked star trek 2009 a lot, but every thing i didn’t like about the movie can be summed up in one name: JJ Abrams. Lens flares. budwiser, all him. So best director? I’ll choose transformers over star trek. Best picture (im assuming this means over all movie and not video) Definately star trek.

Hey there this might be nitpicking but Bruno was released by Universal Studios not Sony pictures.

The Oscars are fading rapidly as a significant indicator of what is or is not a good film. As the show becomes increasingly tedious to watch, and the financial power of the Oscar to boost film revenues dissipates, the amount of attention paid to it by the studios will continue diminishing.

The Academy Awards are a storied institution for sure, but it seems as if contemporary film has become blockbuster oriented, and all-too fixated on launch slots like TV networks.

Let’s face it. With the Sopranos, dramatic TV made a major leap forward in quality. Yet, regardless of the message of “Dark Night,” that filmgoers can handle darkness and sophistication, and will spend a billion dollars on it, Hollywood has yet to up the ante. “Land of the Lost,” and “Year One” were horrid star vehicles for past-their-prime comedians. “Transformers 2,” “Terminator 4,” and “Wolverine” were all bad movies but made money because of the genre/franchise power. “Watchmen” was dark, but too long, gratuitously violent and, honestly, a bit silly. “Up” was this year’s Pixar entry (yawn already), and Harry Potter was Harry Potter.

“Star Trek” breaks the mold somewhat by introducing superior newbie ensemble acting into a fast-paced sci-fi environment, with a decent, but choppy story, and a large dose of nostalgia. It’s also upbeat regardless of the massive tragedy depicted in seeing two populated planets decimated. Regardless of what some here think of JJ Abrams, he’s a gifted young director with an incredibly bright future.

Give “Trek” a shot. If the Oscars begin trending toward lower-budget, arty, or foreign films for Best Picture contenders, they will be relegated to YouTube in a few years.

IMO, only District 9 stands in the way of an ST2009 Oscar victory.

36 D9 will not be nominated for anything aside from technical awards. The Academy hates anything Sci Fi.

I can definitely say that, of all the films I’ve enjoyed this year, Star Trek is definitely in my personal Top 30 (saw it twice). Heck, maybe even Top 25.

I will lose all faith in the Oscars if Transformers takes ANY win before Star Trek. The special effects were cool but overdone and the story was lost in all the action. That is just a couple of problems with the movie to me.

Star Trek may not win best picture because I hear the Oscars hates Sci-Fi, but I think Paramount should “give it all they got, Cap’n” for Star Trek. This movie was a mold breaker and should be given it’s due-

Sorry, but Transformers 2 doesn’t deserve a single nomination, let alone one for Best Picture. It was among the worst movies of the summer, right there alongside Wolverine and Terminator Salvation.

I would really like to see Star Trek nominated for Best Pic; it would deserve. I don’t think it should win, though. A great film though it was, I certainly wouldn’t call it the best one of the year. One of the best, certainly, but *the* best?

Transformers 2 was junk .

The jokes were pathetic and racist.

JJ Abrams does, indeed, have a bright future ahead of him. He is a very young 43 and, I think, will make movies that will shake the world.

It’s interesting to think of how old the various actors involved in Trek were when they began their roles.

Kirk:

William Shatner: 34
Chris Pine: 28

Spock:

Leonard Nimoy: 34
Zachary Quinto: 32

McCoy:

DeForest Kelley: 46
Karl Urban: 37

Uhura:

Nichelle Nichols: 33
Zoe Saldana: 31

Sulu:

George Takei: 29
John Cho: 37

Chekov:

Walter Koenig: 29
Antonin Yelchin: 20

Two obvious outliers here are John Cho, who is much older than his character as well as the character of James T. Kirk, and Antonin Yelchin, who, at 20, is three years older than his character, which would make his character 12 years younger than Walter Koenig.

Nimoy and Quinto, on one hand, and Nichols and Saldana, on the other, are the two actors who are most closely matched in age.

In any event, all of the new castmembers strike me as energetic and vigorous, and, in the case of Saldana, sizzlingly hot. They, too, have great futures ahead of them.

As much as I love all incarnations of Trek, ST2009 has changed the face of Trek, and the world is better for it.

For the future of Trek … is bright.

The future is indeed bright, Paramount has renewed Star Trek for another 25-40 years with these guys. I just hope Star Trek wins as many awards as possible, fueling more kick ass future films and larger audiences. Would be crazy to see them sweep, Best Picture, Director, Music etc.

Indeed, 43, indeed.

Also, I unintentionally omitted Scotty:

James Doohan: 46
Simon Pegg: 39

#23. You’ve overlooked “Up in the Air,” “The Hurt Locker,” “Nine,” and “Invictus” … four movies which are almost certain locks for Best Picture, especially the first two.

Anyone think Paramount promoting Transformers 2 for this might actually hurt Star Trek? They could look at Transformers 2 and think “Are you seriously suggesting that movie to us for best picture?” and then not look at Star Trek because Paramount was so stupid for suggesting Transformers.

#23 best animated picture will go to Princess and The Frog, which is an excellent return to form for Walt disney feature animation.
I had the pleasure of watching it last weekend and it ranks right up there alongside Aladdin, the Lion King and the Little Mermaid.

#37 if thats case please explain how it was that Star Wars was nominated for best picture best director best supporting actor and how Sigorny Weaver was nominated for best actress for Aliens.

46, since you asked, I do think that it’s somewhat counterproductive to field both films for the “fratricidal” reason you mentioned. However, perhaps the studio believes that having two chances is better than one. Further, I believe that one of the heads of the studio said that he believed that both Trek and Transformer were “tentpole” properties, and it might thus be deemed to be slighting one if the other were not equally honored with a consideration tender.

37. Yes, they were nominated, but did they win? Star Wars was never nominated for major awards after the first one was. You also missed that Alec Guinness was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but he never won.

@Bob Orci, Alex Kurtzman & JJ Abrams

This is a little random, I know, but from time to time i’ll pop one of the older Star Trek movies into the DVD and invite my daughters to join me, suggesting that they may enjoy it as they have some of the other movies they enjoyed at my suggestion (For example Back-to-the-Future). My suggestion is usually followed by a certain hesitant-revulsion So i’magine my shock when my two daughters asked me yesterday (after having recently purchased the ST2009 DVD), “So when are we going to watch Star Trek?” At that question, I was in serious danger of needing to change my shorts. I am now officially dumbfounded as my older daughter is watching ST2009 for a second time, while my wife & younger daughter are watching it right now. Apparently my older daughter has made up her own Star Trek Theme complete with words that go something like, “Star Trek … Star Star Star Staaarrr Treeekkk” or something like that.

For me, having my wife & daughters enjoying Star Trek for the first time is akin to the Apollo Moon Landings or the Inaugeration of Barac Obama. I’ll always remember where I was the day my daughters asked, “So, when are we going to watch Star Trek?”

I know most of us Trekkies (that’s right, some of us OGs still call ourselves Trekkies) can be a knit-picky & obsessive bunch, however It gives us all great joy to see our families and friends enjoying for the first time, that which (as obsessed Star Trek fans) we have all been enjoying for decades. I even had a work buddy of mine say that after having watched the movie, he was planning on buying the original series for the first time (I suggested the remastered version BTW & mapquested for him, the closest location for him to purchase them at LOL).

I know the pressure must be on with regards to the sequel. Most of society generally believes that sequels are never as good as the original with certain exceptions (ie – Empire Strikes Back, Godfather-2, Star Trek-2: The Wrath of Khan), but I think we all believe that Star Trek is in good hands (Leonard Nimoy amongs them) and pray for a sequel that is in that rare category of “Better Than The First”.

Everyone … What stories do you have to share about Family & Friends that have seen Star Trek for the first time?