Oscar nod 'more likely' for drama

Julie Christie is expected to be nominated for best actress this year
Monday, 21 January 2008, 10:38 GMT


Performers who appear in a drama rather than a comedy are nine times more likely to be nominated for an Oscar, a study suggests.
And women were twice as likely to be nominated as men, it found.

The joint study by the University of California Los Angeles and Harvard University examined thousands of Internet Movie Database records.

Meanwhile, the show's producer says this year's event is "not going to be cancelled" despite the writers' strike.

The odds of being nominated for an Academy Award are so much greater for performers who appear in dramas that it really pays to be a drama queen
Co-author Gabriel Rossman
The authors of the study used the online database's records to look at every Oscar-eligible film made between the first year of the awards, in 1927, and 2005.

They examined records of 171,539 performances by 39,518 actors in 19,351 films.

Study co-author Gabriel Rossman said: "The odds of being nominated for an Academy Award are so much greater for performers who appear in dramas that - at least this time of year - it really pays to be a drama queen."

Fellow author Nicole Esparza said the "underrepresentation" of women in films worked in their favour when it came to nominations.

"Because there are fewer female than male performers in films, and both are eligible for the same number of awards, actresses stand a better chance of being nominated than actors," she added.

"It's a simple matter of arithmetic."

Picket lines

Other factors that made nominations more likely included previous Oscar nominations, having a high spot in the pecking order in earlier movie credits and working on a film with a major distributor.

Meanwhile, Oscars producer Gil Cates has told the Los Angeles Times this year's Oscars would take place with or without the actors.

There are fears that, if the ongoing Hollywood writers' strike is not resolved before the Oscars - due to be held on 24 February - the usual ceremony will be called off or scaled down like last week's Golden Globes.

I don't want to say 'read my lips' but it's not going to be cancelled
Oscars producer Gil Cates
Ahead of the Golden Globes, actors had said they would not cross picket lines in support of writers.

But Mr Cates said: "There are enough clips in 80 years of Oscar history to make up a very entertaining show.

"We'd have a lot of people on stage. Much as this is shocking to people, there are a lot of people who don't act.

"I just hope the actors are there. I pray that the actors are there. I'm planning that the actors are there."

He added: "I don't want to say 'read my lips' but it's not going to be cancelled."

Sets for the show at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood are already being built and nominations will be announced on Tuesday.

According to trade newspaper Hollywood Report, writers are to meet later this week to discuss holding informal talks with studio bosses.

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U2 concert film debuts in 3D at Sundance

By RAQUEL MARIA DILLON, For The Associated Press

PARK CITY, Utah - After a career playing to sold-out stadiums, U2 did what their fans have done for years — stood in line to see U2 perform.


That concert was "U2 3D," a film of the band's 2005-06 Vertigo tour, shot at several shows in South America with new 3-D technology.

"I was really hoping we weren't crap after all these years. Luckily we weren't," guitarist The Edge told The Associated Press before the band donned plastic glasses to watch the movie's premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday night.

The Edge, joined by singer Bono, drummer Larry Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton, joked about the absurdity of seeing themselves perform after playing together for more than 30 years.

"It's kind of horrific," to see himself on stage in 3-D, said Bono. "It's bad enough on a small screen. Now you get to see the lard arse 40-foot tall."

The Edge said the 3-D technology allowed "the songs to shine through," though he was surprised to see the chemistry of the band in the details on screen, and how far apart his bandmates were on stage.

"Are you saying you felt lonely up there?" said Bono, smiling.

"No, I felt lonely for Larry," The Edge replied.

"He likes being on his own," said Bono. "Didn't you bring him back a bottle of water?"

Bono said he loved playing to the enthusiastic audiences of Mexico City, Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro.

"Irish people are essentially Latin people who don't know how to dance," he said. "When people are screaming and roaring and shouting, the humbling thing is to realize it's not really for the band or artist on the stage. It's for their connection with the songs. A song just can own you ... . I think that's why concerts are so powerful. If that song is such a part of your life, and you hear it, it's too much almost."

Bono also expressed hope that the film would allow more people to experience their music, especially teenagers and college students who might not be able to afford the pricey tickets to their sold-out shows.

The band is working with longtime producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno on a new album that will merge Lanois' respect for traditional music and Eno's futuristic sound.

"Music like the band had formed on Venus, and somewhere between that is our next album," Bono said. "Where they join, where something feels always existing but you never heard it before, that seems to be what the two of them bring out in us."

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