Movie Poster a Day with JayDee

Going with a couple of record holders for today. Only two men have ever won consecutive acting awards in the Academy's history. The first was Spencer Tracy, and the second was Tom Hanks. Following his win for Philadelphia, Hanks made it back-to-back successes with Forrest Gump. Though Hanks' victory was far from the only accolade awarded to the film. In total it received 13 nominations, winning 6 of them. And this poster just makes me feel happy. There's just something very warm and comforting about it. And I think having Forrest's pearls of wisdom as the backdrop is very fitting given that the film is amongst the most quotable in history




As far as directors winning consecutive Oscars goes, there have been three men who have accomplished the feat. John Ford and Joseph L. Mankiewicz back in the 40s and 50s and then just recently, Alejandro G. Inarritu managed it with the combination of Birdman and The Revenant. As I've already featured a poster for Birdman I've decided on The Revenant, and in particular this poster. In addition to just being a great piece of illustrative work I think it also captures the mood and feel of the film quite well. It just feels very harsh, gritty and grimy

Back with the first poster of this Oscar theme I talked about the Big Five winners in the Academy's history; films to have taken home the prizes for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. Well one of the only three films to have accomplished the feat is Milos Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. And once again it's off to Poland for this vivid, impressionistic work. It would appear this poor fellow's head isn't screwed on quite right




And secondly, a film that came up just short of joining the exclusive Big Five club. Many people had expected the 50th Academy Awards to be dominated by Star Wars. While George Lucas' film swept the technical categories it was actually Woody Allen's Annie Hall that snuck on and grabbed up most of the major awards. It completed four legs of the Big Five but Woody Allen was pipped to the Best Actor prize by Richard Dreyfuss.

The battle for the Best Picture prize at the 49th Academy Awards has to have been one of the toughest and tightest contests ever, and one that still inspires debate and arguements amongst film fans to this day. Of the five nominated films, four still have a big reputation and a large following. All the President's Men, Network and Taxi Driver were all nominated but were eventually beaten by the plucky underdog that was Rocky. The fifth film in the category was Hal Ashby's Bound for Glory which certainly by comparison seems to have been all but forgotten.




And today's second poster has been chosen just because it made me laugh the first time I saw it. Following its Palme d'Or win at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival, The Tin Drum went on to win the Best Foreign Language Film Oscar at the 52nd Academy Awards

The 55th Academy Awards were dominated by Richard Attenborough's epic biopic, Gandhi. It picked up both the most nominations (11) and the most wins (8). To represent the film? Yes that's right, it's Poland again! I think this design works really well but I'm not sure I can quite articulate why. I think the unusual design of Gandhi himself gives the character an ethereal, spiritual, transcendent vibe; which feels quite fitting for the man and how he was seen/thought of. Well it's either that or he's in the middle of being beamed up to the Enterprise by Scotty!




Several years previously at the 51st Academy Awards it had been a big face-off between The Deer Hunter and Heaven Can Wait with both films receiving 9 nominations. The big winner on the night was The Deer Hunter which scooped 5 awards while Heaven Can Wait only managed to scrape a single win in the Best Art Direction category

Another couple of posters for this year's nominees. First up it's the feel-good pick of the Best Picture nominees, Hidden Figures. I wasn't a fan of the film itself but this is a rather lovely little poster I think




And poster no.2 of the day is for Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi flick, Arrival, which has accumulated 8 nominations at this year's Oscars. Now I wouldn't have this poster up on my wall or anything, it's not exactly easy on the eyes. However I think there is something about it that captures the mood of the film. When I watched the film I personally found it to have quite a quiet, tranquil tone. There was something strangely peaceful about it. And I think the minimalism of this poster works towards that.

Well it's the Oscars tonight so I thought I'd just chuck a bunch of posters at all of you, perhaps dispensing with the intros somewhat. The big winner tonight seems set to be La La Land so here's another poster for that.

Well I thought today I'd just throw out another batch of Oscar-related posters, this time to honour some of last night's winners. There's not a huge amount of material out there to choose from. As such I've ended up with 3 posters from just one artist. I hadn't even realised until I went to get the information.

Anyway, we of course we start with the film that scooped the Best Picture award. That's right ladies and gentlemen, it's La La L-- wait, what? Moonlight? Really? Well that's just embarassing isn't it?


The Best Visual Effects award went to The Jungle Book as it beat out the competition that included Doctor Strange and Star Wars - Rogue One.



And lastly, just for our esteemed President, the great and all-powerful Miss Vicky, a poster for the winner of the Best Animated Short Film - Piper. Done in the style of a biological illustration you might find in an encyclopedia or birdwatching manual I think it's a rather clever little design. Some nice little details hidden in there as well such as it's date of release, the fact that it's the 18th (XVIII) original short they've made and the location of Pixar's headquarters (Emeryville, CA).

As there's only one day left in the month I'm just going to stick with the Oscar-themed posters before moving on to something new. I'm pressed for time so will largely dispense with introductions today

Blood and picket fences; a perfect summation of the suburbia featured in American Beauty. It was the winner of 5 awards inlcuding Best Picture at the 72nd Academy Awards


Winner of Best Foreign Language Film at the 36th Academy Awards - 8 1/2

The first poster is for the film that placed at #100 - Rian Johnson's Looper. A fairly simple but clever design that will work especially well if you've actually seen the film

Then at #96 it was Dredd. Nothing particularly clever or deep about this design. It's just a straight-up bad ass poster for a bad ass movie