Artist Spotlight: The Art Of . . . Matt Needle

Showcasing art from some of my favourite artists, and those that have attracted my attention, in the field of visual arts, including vintage; pulp; pop culture; books and comics; concert posters; fantastical and imaginative realism; classical; contemporary; new contemporary; pop surrealism; conceptual and illustration.

The art of Matt Needle.

#CoolArt: 'Ex Machina' by Matt Needle

'Ex Machina' by Matt Needle, part of his 'Oscar Bait' series of minimal alternative movie posters inspired by Oscar nominated movies.

It's an A3 sized (297mm x 420mm) High Quality Digital Matte Print 280gsm print, in a limited edition of 30 for £25.

Go here to buy.

#CoolArt: 'Oscar Bait 2016' Print Series by Matt Needle

'Oscar Bait' by Matt Needle, a series of minimal alternative movie posters inspired by the 2016 Oscar nominated movies.

Available as prints from his website.

The 86th Academy Award Oscars Winners

The Academy Awards Oscars have been announced. Big winner on the night was 'Gravity' with seven awards including Alfonso Cuarón for Best Director, Steven Price for Best Original Score Soundtrack and bagging the technical awards for cinematography, editing, sound mixing and visual effects. '12 Years A Slave' walked away with the Best Picture Oscar, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay and Lupita Nyong’o as Best Supporting Actress. Matthew McConaughey topped off a great year by picking up the Best Actor Oscar. And as expected, 'Frozen' scooped the Best Animated Feature Oscar plus the award for Best Original Song with 'Let It Go'.

Check out the full list of winners below.

Best Picture
12 Years a Slave

Performance By An Actor In a Leading Role
Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club

Performance By An Actor In a Supporting Role
Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club

Performance By An Actress In a Leading Role
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine

Performance By An Actress In a Supporting Role
Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave

Best Animated Feature
Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho

Achievement in Cinematography
Gravity – Emmanuel Lubezki

Achievement in Costume Design
The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin

Achievement in Directing
Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón

Best Documentary Feature
20 Feet from Stardom – Morgan Neville, Gil Friesen and Caitrin Rogers

Best Documentary Short Subject
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life – Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed

Achievement in Film Editing
Gravity – Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger

Best Foreign Language Film
The Great Beauty – Italy

Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club – Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
Gravity – Steven Price

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
Let It Go from Frozen – Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

Achievement in Production Design
The Great Gatsby – Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn

Best Animated Short Film
Mr Hublot – Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares

Best Live-Action Short Film
Helium – Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson

Achievement in Sound Editing
Gravity – Glenn Freemantle

Achievement in Sound Mixing
Gravity – Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro

Achievement in Visual Effects
Gravity – Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould

Adapted Screenplay
12 Years a Slave by John Ridley

Original Screenplay
Her by Spike Jonze

86th Academy Awards Nominations Announced

The Academy Awards Oscars nominations were announced today. The winners will be announced in a ceremony hosted Sunday, March 2 by Ellen De Generes.

Check out the categories below.
[EDIT] Added the rest of the categories.

Best Picture
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
12 Years a Slave
The Wolf of Wall Street

Performance By An Actor In a Leading Role
Christian Bale in American Hustle
Bruce Dern in Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave
Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club

Performance By An Actor In a Supporting Role
Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper in American Hustle
Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave
Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street
Jared Leto in Dallas Buyers Club

Performance By An Actress In a Leading Role
Amy Adams in American Hustle
Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock in Gravity
Judi Dench in Philomena
Meryl Streep in August: Osage County

Performance By An Actress In a Supporting Role
Sally Hawkins in Blue Jasmine
Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave
Julia Roberts in August: Osage County
June Squibb in Nebraska

Best Animated Feature
The Croods – Chris Sanders, Kirk DeMicco and Kristine Belson
Despicable Me 2 – Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin and Chris Meledandri
Ernest & Celestine -Benjamin Renner and Didier Brunner
Frozen – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee and Peter Del Vecho
The Wind Rises – Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki

Achievement in Cinematography
The Grandmaster – Philippe Le Sourd
Gravity – Emmanuel Lubezki
Inside Llewyn Davis – Bruno Delbonnel
Nebraska – Phedon Papamichael
Prisoners – Roger A. Deakins

Achievement in Costume Design
American Hustle – Michael Wilkinson
The Grandmaster – William Chang Suk Ping
The Great Gatsby – Catherine Martin
The Invisible Woman – Michael O’Connor
12 Years a Slave – Patricia Norris

Best Documentary Feature
The Act of Killing – Joshua Oppenheimer and Signe Byrge Sørensen
Cutie and the Boxer – Zachary Heinzerling and Lydia Dean Pilcher
Dirty Wars – Richard Rowley and Jeremy Scahill
The Square – Jehane Noujaim and Karim Amer
20 Feet from Stardom – Nominees to be determined

Best Documentary Short Subject
CaveDigger – Jeffrey Karoff
Facing Fear – Jason Cohen
Karama Has No Walls – Sara Ishaq
The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life – Malcolm Clarke and Nicholas Reed
Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall – Edgar Barens

Achievement in Film Editing
American Hustle – Jay Cassidy, Crispin Struthers and Alan Baumgarten
Captain Phillips – Christopher Rouse
Dallas Buyers Club – John Mac McMurphy and Martin Pensa
Gravity Alfonso – Cuarón and Mark Sanger
12 Years a Slave – Joe Walker

Best Foreign Language Film
The Broken Circle Breakdown – Belgium
The Great Beauty – Italy
The Hunt – Denmark
The Missing Picture – Cambodia
Omar – Palestine

Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling
Dallas Buyers Club – Adruitha Lee and Robin Mathews
Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa – Stephen Prouty
The Lone Ranger – Joel Harlow and Gloria Pasqua-Casny

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
The Book Thief – John Williams
Gravity – Steven Price
Her – William Butler and Owen Pallett of Arcade Fire
Philomena – Alexandre Desplat
Saving Mr. Banks – Thomas Newman

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)
Alone Yet Not Alone from Alone Yet Not Alone - Music by Bruce Broughton; Lyric by Dennis Spiegel
Happy from Despicable Me 2 - Music and Lyric by Pharrell Williams
Let It Go from Frozen – Music and Lyric by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
The Moon Song from Her - Music by Karen O; Lyric by Karen O and Spike Jonze
Ordinary Love from Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom - Music by Paul Hewson, Dave Evans, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen; Lyric by Paul Hewson

Achievement in Production Design
American Hustle – Production Design: Judy Becker; Set Decoration: Heather Loeffler
Gravity – Production Design: Andy Nicholson; Set Decoration: Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woollard
The Great Gatsby – Production Design: Catherine Martin; Set Decoration: Beverley Dunn
Her – Production Design: K.K. Barrett; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena
12 Years a Slave – Production Design: Adam Stockhausen; Set Decoration: Alice Baker

Best Animated Short Film
Feral – Daniel Sousa and Dan Golden
Get a Horse! – Lauren MacMullan and Dorothy McKim
Mr. Hublot – Laurent Witz and Alexandre Espigares
Possessions – Shuhei Morita
Room on the Broom – Max Lang and Jan Lachauer

Best Live-Action Short Film
Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me) – Esteban Crespo
Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just before Losing Everything) – Xavier Legrand and Alexandre Gavras
Helium – Anders Walter and Kim Magnusson
Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?) – Selma Vilhunen and Kirsikka Saari
The Voorman Problem – Mark Gill and Baldwin Li

Achievement in Sound Editing
All Is Lost – Steve Boeddeker and Richard Hymns
Captain Phillips – Oliver Tarney
Gravity – Glenn Freemantle
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Brent Burge
Lone Survivor – Wylie Stateman

Achievement in Sound Mixing
Captain Phillips – Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith and Chris Munro
Gravity – Skip Lievsay, Niv Adiri, Christopher Benstead and Chris Munro
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick and Tony Johnson
Inside Llewyn Davis – Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland
Lone Survivor – Andy Koyama, Beau Borders and David Brownlow

Achievement in Visual Effects
Gravity – Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, Dave Shirk and Neil Corbould
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug – Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3 – Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Erik Nash and Dan Sudick
The Lone Ranger – Tim Alexander, Gary Brozenich, Edson Williams and John Frazier
Star Trek Into Darkness – Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann and Burt Dalton

Adapted Screenplay
Before Midnight by Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke
Captain Phillips by Billy Ray
Philomena by Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope
12 Years a Slave by John Ridley
The Wolf of Wall Street by Terence Winter

Original Screenplay
American Hustle by Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell
Blue Jasmine by Woody Allen
Dallas Buyers Club by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack
Her by Spike Jonze
Nebraska by Bob Nelson

Movie: The Movie: 2V

After the 2012 Oscars Jimmy Kimmel unleashed the greatest film the world has ever seen – 'Movie: The Movie'.

And now Kimmel has unleashed the sequel – 'Movie: The Movie: 2V', starring: Rachel Weisz, Armie Hammer, Topher Grace, Jessica Chastain, Jude Law, Gerard Butler, Bryan Cranston, John Krasinski, Oprah Winfrey, Bradley Cooper, Kerry Washington, Guillermo Rodriguez, Jason Schwartzman, Chris Rock, Salma Hayek, Bruno Mars, Amanda Seyfried, Channing Tatum, Samuel L. Jackson, Wolf Blitzer, and even Matt Damon.

And The Oscar Goes To . . . The Winners

Here's the list of winners from last night's Oscars.

Best Animated Short, Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score are the awards I usually keep an eye out for. And can't really complain about the choices for the animated awards, I loved 'Paperman' and really enjoyed 'Brave' although it was up against some good animated films too ('Wreck-It-Ralph', 'ParaNorman' amongst others). I would've probably gone with Thomas Newman's 'Skyfall' score though.
via

Supporting Actor
CHRISTOPH WALTZ (Django Unchained)

Animated Short Film:
PAPERMAN

Animated Feature Film:
BRAVE

Cinematography:
CLAUDIO MIRANDA (LIFE OF PI)

Visual Effects:
LIFE OF PI

Costume Design:
ANNA KARENINA

Makeup and Hairstyle:
LES MISERABLES

Live Action Short Film:
CURFEW

Documentary Short Subject:
INNOCENTE

Documentary Feature:
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN

Foreign Language Film:
AMOUR

Sound Mixing:
LES MISERABLES

Sound Editing:
SKYFALL and ZERO DARK THIRTY (tie)

Supporting Actress:
ANNE HATHAWAY (Les Miserables)

Film Editing:
WILLIAM GOLDENBERG (ARGO)

Production Design:
LINCOLN

Original Score:
LIFE OF PI

Original Song:
SKYFALL

Adapted Screenplay:
CHRIS TERRIO (ARGO)

Original Screenplay:
QUENTIN TARANTINO (DJANGO UNCHAINED)

Best Director:
ANG LEE (LIFE OF PI)

Best Actress:
JENNIFER LAWRENCE (SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK)

Best Actor:
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS (LINCOLN)

Best Picture:
ARGO

Cool Art: Mondo's Oscar Posters

Last night Mondo dropped more posters featuring Oscar nominated films. Check them all out below.
via

'Brave' by David Petersen

Cool Art: Second Oscars Poster Series From Mondo

Mondo celebrates this year's Oscars with a second poster series featuring some of the nominated films in select categories.

Check out a preview of three of the posters that will be available in the series by artists Olly Moss, Laurent Durieux and DKNG. More posters will be unveiled during the awards show broadcast.

via

Les Miserables by Olly Moss
24 x 36 Limited Edition of 380. $50

Cool Art: 'One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest' by Brett Parson

This poster by Brett Parson is for Hero Complex Gallery's 'Oscar Legends' show that opens tonight, hosted by SOMArts at 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA.

Cool Art: '85th Annual Oscars' by Olly Moss

Gallery1988 and Olly Moss have teamed up to produce this stunning official poster for this year's Oscars, featuring 85 Oscar® statuettes, each one distinctly inspired by past Best Picture winners, from 1927 through 2012..

The poster is available to buy here for $35.
You can see each Oscar statue in much more detail here.

Short Film: 'Head Over Heels'

Another Oscar-nominated Short Film is now online. Directed by Timothy Reckart, this was produced as a graduation project at the UK’s National Film & Television School. The film won the Best Student Film award at this years Annie Awards.

After many years of marriage, Walter and Madge have grown apart. They don't even bother to argue anymore, even though they can't agree which way is up—literally. Walter lives on the floor, and Madge lives on the ceiling; or if you ask Madge, it's Walter who lives on the ceiling. They live separate, parallel lives in the same house, never talking, barely even looking at each other.

via

Short Film: 'Adam and Dog' by Minkyu Lee

Nominated for this year's Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, and winner of the 2012 Annie Award for Best Animated Short Subject; 'Adam And Dog' by Minkyu Lee.

“This is a short film that me and a group of my close friends made. It was put together by artists who work at various studios, including Disney Feature, Dreamworks and Pixar; The animation is done by myself, Jennifer Hager, James Baxter, Mario Furmanczyk, Austin Madison, and Matt Williames. Glen Keane also helped by being a consultant on the film, and also doing some visual development. It is a completely independent film without any major studio involvement. We are really excited for people to see it, and wanted to share.” – Minkyu Lee

via

Cool Art: 'The Oscars Best Picture Movie Poster Series' by Gallery 1988

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences and Gallery1988 commissioned a small group of artists, which I've featured a lot on this blog and are some of my favourites, to create original screen prints inspired by this year’s nine Best Picture Oscar nominees.

Take a look below at these stunning prints.
via

'Beasts Of The Southern Wild' by Rich Kelly

Short Animation: Disney's 'Paperman'

Directed by John Kahrs, Disney's 'Paperman' short animation, which is up for the Best Animated Short Film at this year's Oscars, is now online.

The short follows the story of a lonely young man in mid-century New York City, whose destiny takes an unexpected turn after a chance meeting with a beautiful woman on his morning commute. Convinced the girl of his dreams is gone forever, he gets a second chance when he spots her in a skyscraper window across the avenue from his office. With only his heart, imagination and a stack of papers to get her attention, his efforts are no match for what the fates have in store for him.

'Paperman' seamlessly merges computer-generated and hand-drawn animation techniques.
via

And the Oscar goes to ...

The list of winners :
BEST PICTURE
The Artist

BEST ACTRESS
Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)

BEST ACTOR
Jeam Dujardin (The Artist)

BEST DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash (The Descendants)

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Woody Allen (Midnight In Paris)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
Man Or Muppet (The Muppets)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Ludovic Bource (The Artist)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christopher Plummer (Beginners)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Octavia Spencer (The Help)

BEST FILM EDITING
Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
A Separation

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Rango

BEST ART DIRECTION
Dante Ferretti and Francesca Lo Schiavo (Hugo)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Robert Richardson (Hugo)

BEST SOUND MIXING
Tom Fleischman and John Midgley (Hugo)

BEST SOUND EDITING
Philip Stockton and Eugene Gearty (Hugo)

BEST COSTUMES
Mark Bridges (The Artist)

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Rob Legato, Joss Williams, Ben Grossman and Alex Henning (Hugo)

BEST MAKE UP
Mark Coulier and J Roy Helland (The Iron Lady)

BEST ANIMATED SHORT
The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr Morris Lessmore

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Undefeated

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
Saving Face

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT
The Shore

Cool Art: Mondo Academy Awards Series

I really love the artwork by the guys at Mondo and they've now announced their first ever Academy Awards poster series, featuring limited edition prints of their favourite nominated films in select categories.

There will be four posters from four different categories in all and the first two include Hugo by artist Kevin Tong and Rango, one of my favourite films from last year, by Tom Whalen:

Hugo (Regular Print) by Kevin Tong

HUGO (Best Picture category) 24×36, regular edition price is $45 while the variant costs $70

Rango by Tom Whalen

RANGO (Best Animated Film category) 18×24, price is $40

The other two posters in the series will be revealed next week. It was announced last year that Mondo has partnered with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences to archive all prints for their research library. Posters for all four films will be sold during the Academy Awards on Sunday, February 26.

Follow @MondoNews for the sale announce time.

(via Collider)

The Fantastic Flying Books Of Mr Morris Lessmore

Here's a nice little short video 'The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr Morris Lessmore' by Moonbot Studios that more than reminds me of the films by Pixar. Also one of five animated short films considered for this year's Oscars.

The Blurb:
Inspired, in equal measures, by Hurricane Katrina, Buster Keaton, The Wizard of Oz, and a love for books, “Morris Lessmore” is a story of people who devote their lives to books and books who return the favor. Morris Lessmore is a poignant, humorous allegory about the curative powers of story. Using a variety of techniques (miniatures, computer animation, 2D animation) award winning author/ illustrator William Joyce and Co-director Brandon Oldenburg present a new narrative experience that harkens back to silent films and M-G-M Technicolor musicals. “Morris Lessmore” is old fashioned and cutting edge at the same time.

“The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” is one of five animated short films that will be considered for outstanding film achievements of 2011 in the 84th Academy Awards ®. 

To date, “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore” film has drummed up fans all over the world taking home the following awards:
· Cinequest Film Fest: Best Animated Short
· Palm Springs International ShortFest: Audience Favorite Award
· SIGGRAPH: Best in Show

via This Is Not The Six Word Novel

Oscar 2012 Nominations Announced

And so the nominations for this years Oscars have now been announced, with 10 noms for 'The Artist' and 11 for 'Hugo' the main recipients. Lots of what you'd think are glaring omissions, like no noms for 'Drive', only in the Music (Score) for 'Tintin'!

The 'Best Animated Feature' and 'Music (Score)' are my main areas of interest. A bit surprised that there's no nom for Tintin in the Animated Feature category though, hoping 'Rango' pulls it out of the bag, one of my favourite films of last year!

All in all, it looks like this year's Oscars are playing safe! No staying up late to watch this, next month. Meh!

Full list after the jump.