White House Correspondents Insider

Behind the scenes of the most powerful city in the world — Washington, D.C. — and those who cover it.

Washington Filmmakers Sean and Andrea Fine Win at Oscars

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The Oscars had a few D.C. surprises last night ranging from the White House to Best Documentary Short. Michelle Obama came in from a remote shot to announce the Best Picture winner, Ben Affleck‘s snubbed-yet-beloved Argo. Keeping the presidency in spirit, Daniel Day-Lewis took home Best Actor for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. The full list of Oscar winners can be found here, but the other local surprise comes from a prominent Washington famil with a long film tradition. Sean and Andrea Fine won for Inocente taking Best Documentary Short.

Sean is the son of famed documentarians Paul and Holly Fine whose award-winning work was on 60 Minutes, Nightline and 20/20 as well as WJLA-TV. Paul Fine’s father Nate was the Washington Redskins photographer.

2008 White House News Photographers Dinner with Andrea Nix Fine, Sean Fine, Holly and Paul Fine, Bryce Fine

Co-directed by Sean Fine and his wife Andrea Nix Fine, the short follows a young undocumented girl struggling to become an artist in Los Angeles. They sourced funding through Kickstarter, making this the first project from the crowdfunding service to win an Academy Award. Fine truly rocked out his D.C. pride thanks to his RG3 socks. Fine tweeted out the photo at RG3 post-win:

And in case you thought social media wasn’t relevant, there were 8.9 million related Oscar tweets. As for how FLOTUS even became an idea as a presenter, it all goes back to–who else in Hollywood–Harvey Weinstein according to Deadline:

“The idea of getting the First Lady on the show first came from Lily Weinstein, who mentioned it to her big Obama contributor dad Harvey, who suggested it to the Oscar producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and Academy president Hawk Koch. The group flew to DC a week and a half ago to put the logistics together with the White House. The Oscar producers told Deadline’s Pete Hammond earlier this week that they “were being like the CIA” about a couple of surprises on the show, keeping things top secret. In towns like Hollywood and DC where people love to talk, they pulled it off. There was no indication on the show’s rundown and most of the people on the Oscars had no idea who the secret guest would be. ‘I knew we could do it and we did it,’ Koch told Deadline tonight about keeping Obama’s name under wraps.”

This came after FLOTUS and POTUS were at the National Governors Association’s Ball, complete with Chris Christie still recovering from his “hugfest.”

Nate Silver vs. The Academy

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Google Talk with Nate Silver

The Academy Awards have been as mysterious as the electoral college, but perhaps no more? Nate Silver, flexing his mighty 2012 election data, announced today that he’d take a third try at figuring out why little gold men go to certain people and not others.

“My track record? Nine correct picks in 12 tries, for a 75 percent success rate. Not bad, but also not good enough to suggest that there is any magic formula for this,” he wrote. Even a 75 percent standing is impressive when many self-proclaimed “oscar gurus” are on par with their politico cousins in D.C. Sure, saying a democrat will take California is just as easy as saying that a Steven Spielberg film could get Best Picture or Daniel Day-Lewis is convincing as Abraham Lincoln.

Silver instead relied on the same formula from the election: taking a variety of data from insider (e.g. The Directors Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild) and outsider (e.g. Chicago Film Critics Association, Golden Globes) sources that’ve chosen their favorites. The data does appear to be skewing heavily for Argo to take Best Picture while Lincoln sweeps up the rest. But it’s the Best Supporting Actress category that will make or break Silver’s future chances at Oscar:

“There is considerably less reason for last-minute campaigning in this category: Anne Hathaway as about as safe a bet to win for “Les Misérables” as Mitt Romney was to win Utah. If Sally Field or Amy Adams wins instead, it will probably be time for me to retire from the Oscar-forecasting business.”

We’ll find out on Sunday whether Nate Silver can ever show his face in Hollywood ever again.