Biography
Pete Hammond is film critic for Maxim Magazine and Maximonline.com. He contributes to "Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide" and hosts Q&A screenings with top Oscar contenders for KCET Cinema Series and Variety. He appears frequently on TV as a pop-culture pundit and has been a producer for "Entertainment Tonight," "Extra," "Access Hollywood" and AMC - American Movie Classics network. Pete's "Note on a Season" column appears weekly on Thursdays exclusively on TheEnvelope.com.
Telluride provides lofty Oscar peeks
September 2, 2008
With the triple whammy of the Venice, Telluride and Toronto film festivals, the awards season has kicked into high gear. Following it all is the Notes on a Season column, which returns on a regular basis to track the progress of the awards contenders to the stage of the Kodak Theatre on Feb. 22.
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Cannes '08: It's over, but what just happened?
May 27, 2008
In the end, it was entirely appropriate that "What Just Happened" got the last flicker of light from the projector at this year's Festival de Cannes. It's about a troubled movie, starring Sean Penn, that plays to a rainy Cannes within a real-life troubled movie that closes a rainy Cannes. This in a year when the fake film's star (Penn) served as president of the official selection jury, and the real film's star, Robert De Niro, presented the Palme d'Or -- all during the wettest Cannes in years.
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Cannes '08: First stop for Oscar?
May 12, 2008
Just two days away from the official start of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival and we find ourselves roaming the tiny island of Saint Honorat, a hidden gem and home to a monastery where for 15 centuries French monks have been living and praying in silence.
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The Oscar hits just keep comin'
February 28, 2008
Some final notes on The Season and most of them revolve around the beating the academy is taking critically and ratings-wise -- for its 80th annual show last Sunday night.
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International house of Oscar
February 24, 2008
Until "No Country for Old Men" took the final two awards of the evening, it was beginning to look like the U.S. was "No Country for Oscar Winners."
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The season of upsets
February 20, 2008
So here's the thing, naysayers, party-poopers, safe-bettors.
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Will Coens Make Oscar History?
February 13, 2008
Random notes on the blissfully strike-free Oscars as less than a week of voting remains and there is evidence of some races tightening:
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Peek into Oscars crystal ball
February 7, 2008
"Oh my God, this is a disaster. Now what are we going to do?" lamented one studio publicist handling a bunch of nominees and potential winners.
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A season with a silver lining?
February 3, 2008
Now it's really starting to look like an awards season we can place bets on.
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Sunny SAG stars cut through strike clouds
January 28, 2008
It's been raining hard in Hollywood, but it was as if the storm clouds lifted and the sun started shining just in the nick of time at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday.
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Oscar's seasonal switch
January 22, 2008
In The Season of surprise, it turns out Oscar had a few of his own.
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Blood, Enchanted scores booted from Oscars
January 21, 2008
Two music scores have reportedly been nixed from consideration for tomorrow's Academy Award nominations in the Best Original Score category.
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Oscar won't ask for waiver
January 17, 2008
The long, unpredictable path of this unusual awards season is set to take a turn toward its final act with the 80th Academy Awards nominations announcement set for Tuesday morning.
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The plot for the season thickens
January 14, 2008
In the wake of the disaster known as the 65th Annual Golden Globe Awards comes the last of the key guild indicators today, the list of five nominees for the top award of the Producers Guild Of America.
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The season without reason
January 11, 2008
First-round Academy Award ballots are due back by Saturday at 5 p.m. but judging from the activity around town you would think the race for nominations is really just beginning rather than ending.
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The season of our discontent
January 8, 2008
The envelope holding the ticket for the show stated, "Awards Season Starts Here."
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Indecision reigns on Oscar circuit
January 3, 2008
Uncertainty is in the air as the race of all races heats up to the boiling point.
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Actresses make the most of it
January 2, 2008
EVEN as the men's acting Oscar categories are overflowing with strong contenders, the actress races, as usual, reflect the paucity of opportunities for women.
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Ballots are in the mail, but is Oscar stuck in limbo?
December 27, 2007
Awards ballots are in the mail to Oscar, Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild voters this week, but bigger questions remain in this baffling year.
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SAG nods spell bad news for 'Sweeney Todd,' 'Atonement'
December 20, 2007
In case you even have to ask, the awards race is still wide open.
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He may be 'Legend,' but what about Oscar?
December 16, 2007
Can this weekend's astounding box office for "I Am Legend" actually make a positive last-minute impact for Will Smith in the Oscar race for best actor?
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Golden Globe noms: Upsets, shoo-ins and favorite sons
December 13, 2007
Don't let anyone tell you that this year's awards season is anything but a nail-biter.
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Broadcast film critics shine light on 'Into the Wild'
December 11, 2007
With critics groups chiming in from New York, L.A., Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., this week, a predictable pattern is emerging.
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Screenings shine bright with stars
November 29, 2007
Jack is back!
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Clooney stumps for 'Clayton'
November 20, 2007
With Thanksgiving shortening the workweek, Notes is being posted a little earlier than usual.
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Is the reign of indies at the Oscars over?
November 15, 2007
This has been a fairly dismal time for independent movies.
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A dark horse could win the actor race
November 14, 2007
In the race for best actor in 2002, four Hollywood Goliaths -- Daniel Day-Lewis, Michael Caine, Jack Nicholson and Nicolas Cage, all previous Oscar winners -- were pitted against a lone David. He was then a little known, 29-year-old first-time nominee who most prognosticators thought had little chance against the field: "The Pianist" star Adrien Brody.
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Long shots, sharp shooters and sneak attacks
November 8, 2007
Julie Christie, the certified icon and 1965 Oscar winner, has been in town making the awards season rounds thanks to her starring turn in Sarah Polley's "Away From Her."
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Oscar gets in 'toon
October 31, 2007
Today is 'toon day at the Academy.
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Oscar's Build-a-Buzz Workshop
October 25, 2007
The Season felt like it was ramping up into high gear this week.
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Contenders attempt to stifle the hype
October 4, 2007
Didn't we just do this thing?
