Robert Altman is the undisputed king of films where everyone talks at the same time and nothing really happens and things go on for a little bit longer than expected. And he’s being rewarded for that.
For this March, Robert Altman will be on the receiving end of an honorary Oscar – a kind of ‘we’re sorry we didn’t give you one of these for M*A*S*H, which was quite good, but quickly have this before you die’ award – at the 78th Annual Academy Awards in Hollywood.
Robert Altman (DVDs), slightly unbelievably, has never won a Best Director
Oscar in any of the 80 years he’s been alive. He’s had plenty of
nominations, for Gosford Park, Short Cuts, The Player, Nashville and
M*A*S*H, and he’s won just about every other award going for his
distinctive style of putting loads of famous people in a room together
and making them all talk about nothing at once. But the Best Director
Oscar has always eluded Robert Altman.
To make up for it, the board of governors of the Academy of Motion
Picture Arts & Sciences chose to award Altman this year’s honorary
Oscar. They told Altman yesterday, with Academy President Sid Ganis
announcing:
"The board was taken with Altman’s innovation, his redefinition of
genres, his invention of new ways of using the film medium and his
reinvigoration of old ones. He is a
master film maker and well deserves this honour."
Not
that Robert Altman is taking the honorary Oscar as his cue to stop
making films. His latest movie, A Prairie Home Companion, will be
released later this year and will feature Woody Harrelson, Meryl
Streep, Kevin Kline and definitely not bulimic Lindsay Lohan all talking at once for five hours.
Read more:
Robert Altman to Receive Honorary Academy Award® – Oscars.org
[story by Stuart Heritage]
Emily says
Short Cuts.
nutbushy says
Short Ends? I believe it’s called Short Cuts, although “short” is a bit of a misnomer. Movie highlight – Julianne Moore’s beaver shot.