it's by alexander payne, the director, four films up until then. all of them are really great. "sideways." "election." >> one of the best political movies ever made. >> it was an opportunity to work with him. he handed me the screen play, it was as good as anything i have worked on. >> anger and grief come together. you have just found out, you are being confronted by your wife's father. >> oh. >> she gave you everything, man. good, happy home, two beautiful daughters. >> what is your point, scott? >> she wanted her own boat. she wanted her own boat. have she wasn't driving her boat. it was somebody else's boat. it wouldn't have mattered. >> quibble about the details. she was a fateful, devoted wife, she deserved more. >> you're right. she deserved more. >> a lot going on there. >> yeah. that's robert forester. good to see him. >> so good. you have such an amazing cast. to deal with, not only robert forester. we had shailene woodley here. her first film. she blew it away. >> there's times you work with someone in the beginning of their career, you recognize this is going to be

alexander payne is known for that. we've been celebrating "the descendants." >> thanks for having me. >> it's great to have you. we all love this movie. george clooney was here. we talked about it yesterday. the mix of emotions and the situations you put your main character in. the guy dealing with extreme grief and anger at the same too many -- time. >> he's having a bad week. a separate family crisis at the same time. >> an easy life that gets turmoil and chaos. you bring in so many gems of characters. he has to meet -- his daughter's new boyfriend. >> dad, this is sid. >> hello, sid. >> what's up, bro? >> don't ever do that to me again. get ready. we're going go see your grandparents. and scotty, auntester is going to come stay with you. >> sid's going to come. >> what's going on this week is family matter. he's going to be bored stiff. >> dad, i told you he was going to be with many. i'll be a lot more civil with him around. >> what can i say? >> sid nailed it. >> we all of us, even in the most -- especially in the

jim burke, alexander payne and jim taylor, producers. "the tree of life," nominees to be determined. "midnight in paris." leddy aaronson and steven tenenbaum, the producers. "the help." "hugo," graham king and martin scorsese, producers. and "extremely loud & incredibly close," scott rudin producer. >> please join us on february 26th when we celebrate the magic of the movies. thank you. thank you, jennifer. ♪ >> were you at home like we were just scribbling? we know, 11 for "hugo." ten for "the artist," six for "moneyball." six for "war horse." five for "the descendants," five for "girl with the dragon tattoo." four for "the help." immediately, what jump out at you? >> leonardo dicaprio. staying home he won't be there for "j. edgar." and "extremely loud & incredibly close." finally getting a best picture nomination. there were seven of those and one for max von sydow. >> there was a lot of love for that. that was surprising. also surprising, "girl with the dragon tattoo" left off the best picture list. >> and no best director either fo

really good movie directed by alexander payne who i think is one of our best filmmakers. >> so spielberg had that criticism a while back. everyone's making blockbusters and cg and everything else. is that changing at all now >> well, i don't know if it's changing. it's hard to figure out what's going on in the movie business but it does seem to happen that every spring and summer, people are complaining about the blockbusters and sequels and all the action movies and grown-up people are just more curious audience members do a lot to go and see. but then in the fall -- this happened last year you know when there was spielberg's own "lincoln" and "django" and "argo." this fall we have a ton of really interesting, good movies of all different kinds to see, from "gravity" to "12 years a slave" to "nebraska." so, it does seem like it's possible. i think it's hard sometimes for these movies to find a big enough audience. i think that's really the challenge. they do seem to get made. >> i surrender that i'll ever see a romantic comedy in the theater any time soon, but i want to ask you about th

alexander payne directed it. an interested thing about what would happen in a current future where you could be reduced to -- >> five inches. >> five inches tall which means you're say 30,000less, $40,000 you're struggling with actually values out to be millions of dollars a year when you're that small. you can live in a mansion. you can have everything you want. [ laughter ] >> we have a little clip, right? >> is there a clip? okay. >> let's do it. >> welcome, everybody. i'm jeff lenoski, happy homeowner the leisure. land he date states. having a good time. what do you think of my place? just wait till you see what's inside. ♪ [ applause ] >> i was up till midnight watching it and think the trailer and think it's one thing but it's very much what you're talking about. a deeper message to. >> absolutely, it's not meant to be a broad comedy. it's not "honey, i shrunk the kids." it's alexander payne who directed it and getting a lot of critical response and it brings up some thought-provoking ideas of society and

. >> it st alexander payne who is one of my favorite directors and have i been desperate to work with him. >> stephen: the descendants, sideways, election. >> about schmilt, he has just-- he never made a movie that wasn't fantastic. and so he came to me with this idea b okay, so norwegian scientists found a way to shrink humans down to five inches in height and six percent of the global population decides to do this as a way to offset climate change and i just looked at him and i just didn't think he was being serious with me. i thought he was-- it was lake a test. but then he gave me this script that he and jim taylor, his cowriter had been working on. and they had it for ten years. and it was fantastic. and he described it to me as he wanted it to be a hal ashby movie with great special effects and that is really-- hal ashby was a brilliant film maker who made in the 1970s kind of in the wheelhouse of american cinema made some incredible movies and this movie to me feels like it is a giant sattire, feels like it could have been made in the '70s. i am enormously proud of it and would

. >> had you worked with alexander payne before. >> no, i had been chasing him for like 20 years. >> he's amazing. >> he's amazing. he never made a movie i didn't love and he directed "sideways" and "about smartphone -- schmidt." >> "ocean's eight." >> i do appear in the movie but this is the women's movie so, you know, it's a cameo and, in fact, somebody asked me yesterday said there's this text chain going around with all the women, you know. are you on it? and i said, no, i guess the boys aren't on the text message. did you guys used to do that and i said we didn't have texting. [ cheers and applause ] >> what! >> we made that movie, you know, we made that movie a hundred years ago. >> pony express back then. >> exactly. we mailed each other letters. [ laughter ] >> but you know what, we love having you here, man. lucky to have you in your regular size, not downsize. >> still not as big as you, man. >> but i got to say -- [ applause ] >> listen, i'm just saying has anyone seen "magic mike xxl"? i'm just saying. >> you know what, i'll get you back for that one. don't you worry bit