Oscar-nominated Makeup Symposium with Rick Baker

On Saturday, February 26 at 2:30pm, at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater (8949 Wilshire Boulevard, Beverly Hills, CA), the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents its fifth annual symposium examining the nominees in the category of makeup and hair styles. This year’s event will be moderated by Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch Governor Leonard Engelman. This year’s nominees include Rick Baker and Dave Elsey for their work on THE WOLFMAN. Also nominated are Adrien Morot for BARNEY’S VERISON and Edouard F. Henriques, Gregroy Funk, and Toylanda Toussieng for THE WAY BACK.
Admission is free, but advance tickets are required. Tickets will be available starting February 1.
From the website:

For the fifth year, Oscar Week’s culminating public event celebrates the achievement of the nominees in the Makeup category. This year’s nominees (schedules permitting) will discuss their creative processes and present film clips, photographs and models of their work.

wolfman baker

Chiller-Eyegore Awards Red Carpet Interviews

2009 Winners include Rob Zombie, Tobin Bell, and Rick Baker

Every October, on the night they launch their theme park’s Halloween Horror Nights, Universal Studios conducts the Eyegore Awards, honoring filmmakers in the horror genre. For 2009, the awards presentation was re-named “Chiller-Eyegore Awards,” a bit of corporate synergy between the movie studio and NBC (both owned by GE) – the network’s new “Chiller” channel will air the awards sometime in October.
2009’s winners included director Rob Zombie (filmmaker of the year for HALLOWEEN II), Tobin Bell (for starring as Jigsaw in the SAW franchise), Noah Segan (Best Villain), and Drew Daywalt, who took home a statutte for his short film “Bedfellows,” which won Chiller’s Scary Good Film Competition.
Rick Baker (a six-time Oscar winner for his makeup work) received a Jack Pierce Lifetime Achievement for his contribution to the horror genre; the award is named after the artist who created Universal’s classic movies monsters: Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Wolf Man. Appropriately enough, Baker’s latest work is on a remake of THE WOLF MAN, starring Benicio Del Toro in the role made famous by Lon Chaney in the 1941 original.
The Chiller-Eyegores are a pretty much a press event – designed to get coverage for the opening of Halloween Horror Nights, which took place on October 2 this year. During weekends in October, Universal’s theme park features walk-through mazes based on SAW and HALLOWEEN, so it makes sense to have Tobin Bell and Rob Zombie appear in person, drawing representatives from websites like Bloody Disgusting and Dread Central who are likely to write favorable notices of the Halloween attraction.
Lest we sound cynical, we will point out that we were pleased with several of the awards this year. Young Noah Segan was excellent in the wonderful cult horror film DEAD GIRL, and deserves recognition. And it was wonderful to see Rick Baker receive an award named after a man whose work inspired him to get into the movie makeup profession.
Before the awards presentation, winners and other guests paraded down the red carpet, answering question from the press. Cinefantastique Online was there to grab video interviews with Baker, Daywalt, Tenedra Howard (on hand to present an award to her SAW VI co-star Tobin Bell), and Gadi Harel and Marcel Sarmiento, who co-directed DEAD GIRL.

See a larger version of the video below. Read a review of Halloween Horror Nights at Hollywood Gothique.

Rick Baker will add Eyegore to his awards collection

It seems that makeup maestro Rick Baker – a six-time Oscar winner – will need to find room on his shelf for a Chiller-Eyegore Award; Baker will be a recipient at this year’s event, which will be broadcast later on NBC’s Chiller channel (devoted to horror, naturally). The annual awards presentation (formerly known simply as the Eyegore Awards) is a publicity event that Universal Studios uses to kick off their Halloween Horror Nights event at their theme park in Universal City, Los Angeles. This year’s ceremony takes place on opening night, Friday, October 2. Corey Feldman (THE LOST BOYS, FRIDAY THE 13TH: THE FINAL CHAPTER) will host.
Universal Studios has a long history with horror, dating back to the black-and-white era of classic films like THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, DRACULA, FRANKENSTEIN, and THE WOLF MAN, so it is ghoulishly appropriate that they would host most elaborate annual Halloween event in the Hollywood area. Perhaps not coincidentally, THE WOLF MAN is the subject of an upcoming remake (scheduled for release in February 2010), featuring werewolf designs by Baker (who previously worked on AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON).
You can read the text of the official announcement at our affiliate website, Hollywood Gothique, which covers Halloween events in Los Angeles. Hollywood Gothique also has information on Halloween Horror Nights.