Saturday, June 25, 2011

On The Scene: The 37th Annual Saturn Awards

Crossposted on Film.com


 I attended the Saturn Awards for a fifth time this year, and once again we Firefly vodkaed-chickened-cheesecaked our way through a two-hour ceremony celebrating the best in science fiction, fantasy, and horror. This year saw special career awards given to Bert I. Gordan, Michael Biehn, Frank Darabont, Kevin Feige, and Dean Devlin, and honored both Inception and Fringe with multiple wins. Here is our rundown of the evening.

Most Heartfelt Speech
Andrew Connolly, accepting on behalf of The Lieutenant of Inishmore, which nabbed Best Local Stage Production, Drama, or Comedy. His speech was well written, thought out, and paid nice respect to the Academy and event itself. Very classy, Connolly.

Most Inspiring Speech
From a winner, Marc Scott Zicree, who wrote The Twilight Zone Companion and co-accepted for the Blu-ray release of seasons one and two, spoke of his love for The Twlight Zone, how difficult it was to get the anthology made, how amazing it is that 50 years later the show is still winning awards, and how we should never give up on our dreams no matter what.

From a presenter, veteran actor Monte Markham, who before presenting Best Science Fiction movie to Inception, talked about how the Emmys were grand fun for about four years until the audience got over it and started not caring about the ceremony anymore. He went on to profess how happy he was to finally get to attend the Saturns and be in a room with people truly passionate about what they are celebrating, all of whom respect each other. He was extremely well-spoken (and looked amazing for 75) and made us all pause what we were doing and truly listen. Except for one person.

Most Inappropriate Behavior
During that same speech about respect, Salt screenwriter, Kurt Wimmer, who may or may not have been utterly wasted, started talking to a producer at his table in his outdoor voice. Ten “SHHHHs” later and he managed to shut up. Not cool, dude. I don’t care how much you don’t know who the person on stage is, you still give him respect. And also, you wrote Salt, so stfu.

Best Intentioned Inappropriate Behavior
After host Jeffrey Ross made a somewhat crude joke about Michael J. Fox, Michael Biehn took the audiences’ groans one step further and started vehemently booing. Ross, having no idea the disapproval was coming from a major award recipient of the night, still responded with class — sort of — with “Thanks for the support!” and as the boos continued, “That’s my writer.” Biehn then calmed down and the evening continued, but those of us who were seated near his table now happen to know that for whatever reason, Michael Biehn is a stark defender of Michael J. Fox. Awe.


Most Hilarious Presenters
Doug Jones should host this thing, I’m telling you. In a fabulous steam punk floor-length jacket, Jones brought smiles and warmth to the show as he presented the Visionary Award to Kevin Feige.  Such a doll, he is.

When French Stewart and Whitney Abel presented Best Cable & Network TV Show, Stewart opened with a joke that Abel had just confessed to him backstage that she was highly intoxicated. While this was no doubt a joke and on top of that, one Abel wasn’t expecting, she responded perfectly, as if it WAS true, naturally blushed, filled with giggles, keeping the audience in stitches. Who knew these two would end up pulling off such a delightful routine?

Most Energetic Acceptance Speech
Vince Gilligan for Breaking Bad excitedly named every single person in the audience from Breaking Bad — two and a half tables worth. He also referred to Aaron Paul’s date as Paul’s “soulmate” which elicited many “awes” from the audience.

Coolest Tidbit
During Kevin Feige’s video acceptance speech from the set of The Avengers, we got a little sneak peak at something I don’t believe has been previously alluded to anywhere. At two different points in the video, a PA walked through the background, trying to find a place to put a giant gold glove amongst all the other Avengers props laying around. At one point, Feige turned around and exclaimed, “Put that away, it’s a secret!” Cue hum of the audience, trying to figure out how the Infinity Gauntlet will fit into The Avengers.

Also appreciated Frank Darabont informing us that he was directing a second unit for The Walking Dead in Georgia that very morning before making his way to L.A. for the awards.

More after the jump!

Weirdest (and Best) Speech
John Noble, who won Supporting Actor for Fringe, an honor also bestowed upon him a few days ago at the Critic’s Choice Awards. Fingers crossed this means one of the greatest actors working today AT LEAST gets an Emmy nomination. Especially after his adorably bizarre acceptance speech, which needs to be repeated on national television. With his Australian accent up and running, speaking in an almost hushed tone, Noble carefully detailed why both Walter and Walternate didn’t think it would be appropriate for them to accept the award, so they decided to send him to accept on their behalf. Much like Edward James Olmos’ a few years back, the speech was simultaneously strange and heartwarming and like Mark Rylances’ at the Tonys, helps demonstrate that the greatest actors are always a bit on the eccentric side. Noble also talked about loving the show, loving the cast, and loving being at that event, natch. All in all, funny, odd, classy, and so, so deserved. I adore him. Emmy please.


Most Drastic Appearance Change
Chloe Moretz, present to accept for Best Younger Actor, who went from tiny kid to full-grown woman overnight. She looked absolutely stunning.

Get This Kid Another Movie Stat
Ryan Lee from Super 8 came on stage to announce the winners that couldn’t be present or weren’t able to send a video message, and completely owned the room with his stage presence and comic timing.

Best Case of Knowing Your Audience
Sam Witwer, who spoke of his role as a vampire on Being Human in a charmingly self-deprecating way, commenting “‘Cause there weren’t enough of us already.”

Worst Case of Knowing Your Audience
Teen WolfTyler Hoechlin & Dylan O’Brien from Teen Wolf, who tried to convince the audience to give their show a chance because we were pissed when, excuse my parapharsing, “Battlestar Galactica made Starbuck into a girl. And now we have Katee Sackhoff, who is really hot.” Yes, we love BSG and yes, we love Katee, but you know what we don’t love? Pandering. O’Brien saved the moment from complete failure by noting how hot Hoechlin is, which led to a humorously awkward moment of him staring at the leading man for just a liiiittle too long.


Most Confusing Set Of Awards
Best Guest Starring Role on TV went to Joe Manganiello for True Blood, who accepted via video, but later when Ryan Lee announced which winners couldn’t attend, Richard Dreyfuss for Best TV Guest Star for Weeds was mentioned. Huh?

Best Video
The cast of The Walking Dead, who sent in a video clip to congratulate Frank Darabont for the George A. Pal award he was accepting. The love that cast and crew seem to have for each other is infectious.

Coolest Geek Girl
Gale Anne Hurd, accepting with Darabont for The Walking Dead winning Best Television  Presentation, who impresses me more and more every time I see her.

Brandon RouthSweetest Shout-out
Brandon Routh, who took a moment out of presenting to say, “It’s really cool to be in the same room as Mel Brooks.” Always nice to see people let their fan flag fly.

Not sure if this counts as a shout-out per se, but props to Aaron Paul for being one of the first to lead a standing ovation for Life Career Award winner Burt I. Gordon.

Best Accent
John Noble and Anna Torv take third, simply because it’s so unexpected every time they ever speak. Second place goes to James Frain, the best part of True Blood last season, who could make a person melt with his rough-and-tumble British accent. First place, of course, goes to Roland Emmerich, who is the most quintessentially German-sounding person I’ve ever heard in person, to the point of hilarity.

Favorite Quotes
“I promise I will give him my number to make sure he gets this” – Lance Reddick, after presenting Best Screenplay to Chris Nolan that Nolan wasn’t able to accept

“I wanted to be here…. to the support the idea…. of Saturn.” Maybe insane event regular Thomas Jane, before presenting the Pal award to Darabont

“We never win awards for Fringe that aren’t from our parents.” – Fringe producers Jeff Pinkner and Joel Wyman after winning Best TV Show

All in all, a great evening filled with awards both meaningful (Let’s go Fringe! Let’s go Fringe!) and silly (Jeff Bridges won Best Actor for … Tron: Legacy?), I’m already counting down the days until next year’s ceremony.

For more exclusive photos from the event, head here, and for a complete rundown of the evening’s winners, head to the Saturns’ official site.

2 comments:

Eleni said...

Thanks for the recap. Very cool.

Yay Fringe! Fingers crossed for the Emmys.

I think I may be going insane, but I swear right now the saturnawards.org website says
Best Director:
JONATHAN NOLAN (Inception)
Best Writing:
JONATHAN NOLAN (Inception)
which seems, well...wrong. Please tell me I'm not crazy (or tell me I am, so I can go do something about it).

Anonymous said...

I work 19 hours per day in xl pharmacy , for that reason sometimes I can know about the news, thanks for sharing this review about these awards !