Life of Pi is a 2012 American
adventure
drama film based on
Yann Martel's
2001 novel of the same name. Directed by
Ang Lee,
the film is based on an
adapted screenplay by
David Magee, and stars
Suraj Sharma,
Irrfan Khan,
Gérard Depardieu,
Tabu, and
Adil Hussain.
The storyline revolves around a 16-year old boy named Piscine Molitor
"Pi" Patel, who survives a shipwreck in which his family dies, and is
stranded in the
Pacific Ocean on a lifeboat with a
Bengal tiger named
Richard Parker. The film had its
worldwide premiere as the opening film of the 50th
New York Film Festival at both the
Walter Reade Theater and
Alice Tully Hall in
New York City on September 28, 2012.[3]
Upon release, Life of Pi was met with favorable reviews and
earned eleven
Academy Award nominations, including
Best Picture,
Best Director,
Best Visual Effects, and
Best Adapted Screenplay. It has also been nominated for three
Golden Globe nominations, including
Best Picture - Drama and
Best Director.
Plot
Pi Patel, an immigrant from
Pondicherry in
India
living in
Montreal,
Canada,
is approached by a local novelist who has been referred to him by his
"uncle" (a family friend), believing that Pi's life story would make a
great book. Pi relates an extended tale:
His parents had named him Piscine Molitor after
a swimming pool in France. He changes his name to "Pi"
(the mathematical symbol, π) when he begins
secondary school, even repeating numerous digits of pi, because he
is tired of being taunted with the nickname "Pissing Patel". His family
owns a local zoo, and Pi takes an interest in the animals, especially a
Bengal tiger named
Richard Parker because of a clerical error. Pi tries to feed the
tiger, endangering himself to being attacked, and to teach him the
reality of the tiger's nature as a
carnivore, Pi's father forces him to witness it killing a goat. He
is raised
Hindu and
vegetarian, but at 12 years old, he is introduced to
Christianity and then
Islam,
and starts to follow all three religions as he "just wants to love God."
When asked if he is also Jewish, he replies that he lectures in
Kabbalah at the university.
When Pi is 16, his father decides to close the zoo and move his
family to Canada, and sell the zoo animals, to ensure a good future for
his children. They book passage with their animals (to be sold in North
America) on a Japanese freighter named the
Tsimtsum. On board the ship, Pi's father gets into an argument
with the ship's cook when he speaks to Pi's mother rudely. One night,
the ship encounters a heavy storm and begins to sink while Pi is on deck
marveling at the storm. He tries to find his family, but a crew member
throws him into a
lifeboat; from the rough sea, he watches helplessly as the ship
sinks, killing his family and its crew.
After the storm, Pi finds himself in the lifeboat with an injured
zebra,
and is joined by an
orangutan who lost her offspring in the shipwreck. A
spotted hyena emerges from the tarp covering half of the boat, and
kills the zebra. To Pi's distress, the hyena also mortally wounds the
orangutan in a fight. Suddenly Richard Parker emerges from under the
tarp, and kills and eats the hyena.
Pi finds emergency food and water rations on the boat. He builds a
small raft of flotation devices so that he can stay at a safe distance
from the tiger. Realizing that he must feed the tiger to protect
himself, Pi begins fishing, with some success. He also collects rain
water for both to drink. At one point, he makes a board ladder for the
tiger to climb back into the boat after it had jumped off to hunt fish.
In a nighttime encounter with a breaching
whale, Pi loses much of his supplies. Faced with starvation, he eats
raw fish. After many days at sea, Pi realizes that he can no longer live
on the tiny raft and trains the tiger Richard Parker to accept him in
the boat. He also realizes that caring for the tiger is keeping him
alive.
After weeks longer at sea, near the end of their strength, they reach
a floating island of edible plants, supporting a forest, fresh water
pools, and a large population of
meerkats.
Both Pi and Richard Parker eat and drink freely and regain strength. But
at night the island transforms into a hostile environment, with the
fresh water turning acidic, digesting all the dead fish that died in the
pools. The tiger returns to the lifeboat at night. Pi finds a human
tooth inside a plant flower and concludes that the
plants are carnivorous, requiring them to leave the island.
The lifeboat eventually reaches the coast of
Mexico.
Finally back on land, Richard Parker stumbles away from Pi and stops at
the edge of the jungle. Pi expects that the tiger will turn toward him
and acknowledge him, but instead he looks into the jungle for a while
and goes in. Pi, too weak to follow, lies in the sand. He is rescued by
a group who carry him to hospital, but he weeps that the tiger had
walked away without him.
In hospital,
insurance agents for the Japanese freighter come to hear his account
of the incident. They find his story unbelievable, and ask him to tell
them what "really" happened, if only for the credibility of their
report. He answers with a less fantastic but detailed account of sharing
the lifeboat with his mother, a sailor with a broken leg, and the cook.
In this story, the cook kills the sailor to use him as bait and food. In
a later struggle, Pi's mother pushes him to safety on a smaller raft,
and the cook stabs her as she falls overboard to the sharks. Later, Pi
returns to grab the knife and kills the cook.
In the present, the writer notes parallels between the two stories:
the orangutan was Pi's mother, the zebra was the sailor, the hyena was
the cook, and Richard Parker, the tiger, was Pi himself. Pi asks him
which story the writer prefers; he chooses the one with the tiger
because it "is the better story", to which Pi responds, "And so it is
with God". Glancing at a copy of the insurance report, the writer
notices a closing comment about the remarkable feat of surviving 227
days at sea, especially with a tiger: the insurance agents chose that
story as well.
Cast
-
Suraj Sharma as Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, age 16
-
Irrfan Khan as Pi, adult
- Ayush Tandon as Pi, age 13
- Gautam Belur as Pi, age 5
-
Tabu as Gita Patel, Pi's mother
-
Adil Hussain as Santosh Patel, Pi's father
-
Gérard Depardieu as the Cook
- Po-Chieh Wang as the Taiwanese Sailor
-
Rafe Spall as the Writer
- Shravanthi Sainath as Anandi, Pi's teenage girlfriend
-
Andrea Di Stefano as the Priest
- Vibish Sivakumar as Ravi Patel, Pi's older brother, age 18
- Mohamed Abbas Khaleeli as Ravi, age 15
- Ayan Khan as Ravi, age 7
Production
Development
Life of Pi is directed by
Ang Lee
and based on a screenplay by
David Magee. The screenplay is adapted from the 2001 novel of the
same name written by
Yann Martel. Before Lee, the project had numerous directors and
writers attached, and the
Los Angeles Times credited
Fox 2000 Pictures executive Elizabeth Gabler with keeping the
project active.[4]
Gabler in February 2003 had acquired the project to adapt Life of Pi
into a film. She hired the screenwriter Dean Georgaris to write an
adapted screenplay. In the following October, Fox 2000 announced a
partnership with
M. Night Shyamalan to direct the film. Shyamalan was attracted to
the novel particularly because its protagonist also comes from
Pondicherry (Puducherry) in India. The partners anticipated for
Shyamalan to direct the film adaptation after completing
The Village. Shyamalan also replaced Georgaris as the
screenwriter, writing a new screenplay for the film.[5]
Ultimately, Shyamalan chose to film
Lady in the Water after The Village, and Fox 2000
Pictures decided to find another director. In March 2005, they entered
talks with
Alfonso Cuarón to become the director.[6]
Shyamalan said in 2006, "I was hesitant [to direct] because the book has
kind of a twist ending. And I was concerned that as soon as you put my
name on it, everybody would have a different experience."[7]
Cuarón decided to direct
Children of Men instead, and in October 2005, Fox 2000 Pictures
hired
Jean-Pierre Jeunet to direct the film. Jeunet began writing the
adapted screenplay with Guillaume Laurant, and filming was scheduled to
begin in mid-2006, partially in India.[8]
Jeunet eventually left the project, and in February 2009, Fox 2000
Pictures hired Ang Lee to direct the film.[9]
In May 2010, Lee and the producer Gil Netter proposed a reported budget
of $70 million, at which the studio balked,
placing the project's development on hold for a short time.[4]
David Magee was hired to write the screenplay, as Lee began to spend
several months looking for someone to cast as Pi.
Pre-production
After 3,000 men auditioned for the film's lead, in October 2010 Lee
chose to cast
Suraj Sharma, a 17-year-old student and an acting newcomer.[10]
Upon receiving the role, Sharma underwent extensive training in ocean
survival, as well as in yoga and meditation practices to prepare for the
part.[11]
Two months after Sharma was cast, it was announced that
Gerard Depardieu would play the role of the Chef,
Irrfan Khan would play the adult Pi. Aalif Surti, Development and
Production head at
Fox Star Studios, later revealed via Twitter that Bollywood
superstar
Shah Rukh Khan had been highly recommended and seriously considered
for the role, but was not approached in the end as he was too
recognisable and his superstar presence would break consistency with the
other casting choices. It was also announced that
Adil Hussain would play Pi’s father, while Bollywood star
Tabu was in talks to play the role of Pi’s mother.[12]
In April 2011, it was announced that
Tobey Maguire would be joining the film in the role originally
referred to as "a reporter."[13]
However, in September 2012, it was announced that Lee had cut Tobey
Maguire from the film. Lee justified the cut by stating that he did it
"to be consistent with the other casting choices made for the film, I
decided to go with an entirely international cast."[14]
Like
Shah Rukh Khan, Lee described Maguire's presence also as "too
jarringly recognizable." He reshot the scenes with
Rafe Spall in the role later referred to as the Writer.[14]
Production
Principal photography for the film began on January 18, 2011 in
Pondicherry, India at the Holy Rosary Church in
Muthialpet. Filming continued in Pondicherry until January 31 and
moved to other parts of India, including the popular hill station of
Munnar
in Kerala,
as well as
Taiwan. The crew filmed in Taiwan for five and a half months in
Taipei Zoo, an airport in
Taichung, and
Kenting National Park, located in
Pingtung County where Lee was born.[15][16]
Over there, the ocean scenes of the film were shot at a giant wave tank
built by the crew in an abandoned airport.[17]
The tank is known as the world’s largest self-generating wave tank, with
a capacity of 1.7 million gallons.[18]
After photography was completed in Taiwan, production moved back to
India and concluded in
Montreal, Canada.[10]
Post-production
The lead
visual effects company for Life of Pi is
Rhythm & Hues Studios (R&H) which has its corporate headquarters in
El Segundo, California. 3D effects for the film were created by a
team of artists from all of the R&H divisions, including locations in
Mumbai
and
Hyderabad (India),
Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia),
Vancouver (Canada),
and
Kaohsiung (Taiwan).[19][20][21][22][23][24]
Artist Abdul Rahman in the Malaysian branch underscored the global
nature of the effects process, saying that "the special thing about
Life Of Pi is that it was the first time we did something called
remote rendering, where we engaged our cloud infrastructure in Taiwan
called CAVE (Cloud Animation and Visual Effects)."[25]
The R&H Visual Effects Supervisor
Bill Westenhofer said that discussions of the project began with Ang
Lee in August 2009.[26]
Westenhofer noted that Lee "knew we had done the lion in the first
Narnia movie. He asked, 'Does a digital character look more or less
real in 3D?' We looked at each other and thought that was a pretty good
question."[27]
He also stated that during these meetings, Lee said, "‘I look forward to
making art with you.’ This was really for me one of the most rewarding
things I’ve worked on and the first chance to really combine art with
VFX. Every shot was artistic exploration, to make the ocean a character
and make it interesting we had to strive to make it as visually stunning
as possible.”[28]
Rhythm & Hues spent a year on
research and development, " building upon its already vast knowledge
of CG animation" to develop the tiger.[29]
The
British Film Institute's
Sight & Sound magazine suggested that, "Life of Pi can be
seen as the film Rhythm & Hues has been building up to all these years,
by taking things they learned from each production from Cats & Dogs
to Yogi Bear, integrating their animals in different situations
and environments, pushing them to do more, and understanding how all of
this can succeed both visually and dramatically."[30]
Additional visual effects studios that worked on the film include
yU+co,
Buf, Crazy Horse Effects, Look Effects, Christov Effects, Lola VFX,
Reliance Mediaworks, and Stereo D.[28]
The film's
musical score was composed by
Mychael Danna, who previously wrote the music to Lee's films
The Ice Storm and
Ride with the Devil. A
soundtrack album of the music was released by
Sony Music on November 19, 2012.[31]
The album features the track "Pi's Lullaby," which was co-written by
Danna and
Bombay Jayashri, who performs the song in the
Tamil language.[32]
The nomination marks the first ever Tamil language song to be nominated
for a Best Original Song Oscar.
Distribution
Marketing
Due to the film's holiday release, Life of Pi's
financial success had been under review. Dorothy Pomerantz of
Forbes
said, "It looks like chances are very slim that the film will earn back
its production and marketing costs let alone turn a profit." Pomerantz
attributes this to the fact that film is not led by a big name star and
faces other winter blockbusters.[33]
John Horn and Ben Fritz of
The Los Angeles Times compared the film to
Martin Scorsese's
Hugo, a large-budget 3D film that opened during the 2011
Thanksgiving week. They said that Life of Pi could have ended up
like Hugo by "failing to connect with moviegoers" and become a
"financial failure."[34]
Similar speculation had been made by other news sources.[35][36]
Whether or not
Hurricane Sandy would affect the film's publicity was also a
question. Because the film includes a massive storm, it was speculated
that the recent storm may result in lower box office revenue due to the
unintentional overtones of Sandy's devastation. A Fox spokesperson made
note that there were no plans to change the film’s marketing approach.[37]
During the marketing campaign for Life of Pi, the film was
promoted as "the next
Avatar" in
trailers and
TV spots.[38]
James Cameron, the director of Avatar, later became the
subject of two featurettes that focus on the film's 3D and
computer-generated imagery.[39]
In addition, the original novel was re-released in a movie tie-in
edition.[40]
This was later followed by the release of The Making of Life of Pi: A
Film, a Journey, a book by Jean-Christophe Castelli that details how
Life of Pi was brought to the big screen.[41]
Theatrical release
Life of Pi had a
wide release in the United States on November 21, 2012 in both
traditional and
3D
viewing formats. It was originally scheduled to be released on December
14, 2012, but when
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey was announced for the same
release date, Life of Pi was postponed a week. It was then
shifted a month in advance.[42]
Home media
Life of Pi will be released on DVD and Blu-ray, on March 5,
2013.[43]
Reception
Box office
A commercial success, Life of Pi has earned an estimated
$451,098,000 worldwide.[2]
During its opening on the extended Thanksgiving weekend, the film
debuted in 2,902 theaters throughout the United States and Canada and
grossed an estimated $30 million.[44]
The film did well internationally and is among one of the few Hollywood
films to earn more in China than in the United States.[45]
Critical reception
Life of Pi received mostly favorable reviews from film
critics. It has an 89% approval rating on the review aggregator website
Rotten Tomatoes based on 209 reviews.[46]
On
Metacritic, the film had an average score of 79 out of 100, based on
44 reviews, indicating "Generally favorable reviews."[47]
Roger Ebert of the
Chicago Sun-Times gave Life of Pi 4 out of 4 stars,
referring to it as "a miraculous achievement of storytelling and a
landmark of visual mastery" as well as "one of the best films of the
year." He particularly praised the film's use of 3D that he described as
"deepen[ing] the film's sense of places and events."[48]
Comparatively,
Peter Travers of
Rolling Stone highlighted the use of 3D in the film suggesting
that "like
Hugo, from
Martin Scorsese, Life of Pi puts 3D in the hands of a
worldclass film artist. [Ang] Lee uses 3D with the delicacy and lyricism
of a poet. You don't just watch this movie, you live it."[49]
Parmita Borah of
Eastern Fare says, "There is this one scene in particular where
the entire ocean is covered with jelly fishes which makes you feel like
'this is what heaven must look like'."[50]
The
Los Angeles Times critic Betsy Sharkey referred to the film as a
"masterpiece," stating that
"There is always a poetic aesthetic that Lee brings to his best
work — the brutal martial arts ballet of
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or the homophobic hatred
against the backcountry grandeur of
Brokeback Mountain, which would win him an Oscar for
directing in 2006. In Life of Pi, certainly given its
technological achievements, the filmmaker has raised the bar. Not
since
James Cameron's breathtaking blue
Avatar in 2009 has 3-D had such impact."[51]
In an interview with the
Los Angeles Times, the director
James Cameron highlighted the use of 3D in the film stating that
"Life of Pi breaks the paradigm that 3-D has to be some
big, action fantasy spectacle, superhero movie [....] The movie is
visually amazing, inventive, and it works on you in ways you’re not
really aware of. It takes you on a journey, and unless you’ve read
the book -- which I hadn’t -- you have no idea where that journey is
going. It does what good 3-D is supposed to do, which is, it allows
you to forget you’re watching a 3-D movie."[52]
According to French journalist Marjolaine Gout, the movie is "a
philosophical tale where
Noah’s Ark metamorphoses into 'The
Raft of the Medusa'". She adds that it is "a visual masterpiece" in
which "Ang Lee proves, once again, his talent as a universal
storyteller". She also writes about the visual poetry of the movie
reminding viewers of the works of classical painters and the symbolic of
kolams.
The film got 8 out of 10 stars, the readers gave 7 stars.[53]
Yann Martel, the author of the novel on which the film is based,
found the film to be a "delightful" adaptation, saying,
"I’m happy it works so well as a film. Even if the ending is not
as ambiguous as the book’s, the possibility that there might be
another version of Pi’s story comes at you unexpectedly and raises
the same important questions about truth, perception and belief."[54]
A. O. Scott of the
The New York Times was critical of the film's narrative frame,
arguing that "the movie invites you to believe in all kinds of marvelous
things, but it also may cause you to doubt what you see with your own
eyes - or even to wonder if, in the end, you have seen anything at all."
Scott further criticized the film for repressing the darker themes of
the tale, "And also, more disturbingly, to repress the darker
implications of the story, as if the presence of cruelty and senseless
death might be too much for anyone to handle."[55]
Nick Schager of
The Village Voice also panned the film stating "A stacked-deck
theological inquiry filtered through a Titanic-by-way-of–Slumdog
Millionaire narrative, Life of Pi manages occasional spiritual
wonder through its 3-D visuals but otherwise sinks like a stone."[56]
Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian gave the film 2 out of 5 stars, and states "despite
some lovely images and those eyepopping effects, it is a shallow and
self-important shaggy-dog story - or shaggy-tiger story."[57]
On his Twitter page, Actor
Russell Crowe has praised the film, calling it "amazing" and a
"beautiful film".[58]
In an interview with
People, President
Barack Obama said the film "was good - because we had read that book
together."[59]
Controversies
A trust named after Carnatic musician
Irayimman Thampi has accused
Bombay Jayashri's Oscar-nominated song 'Pi's Lullaby' of not being
an original composition. The trust has alleged that it is a word-by-word
translation of composer Thampi's renowned lullaby in Malayalam
Omanathinkal Kidavo. However Jayashri has denied the allegation.[60][61]
Accolades
List of awards and nominations
| Award |
Category |
Winner/Nominee |
Result |
|
85th Academy Awards[62] |
Best Picture |
Ang Lee, Gil Netter, David Womark |
Pending |
| Directing |
Ang Lee |
Pending |
| Adapted Screenplay |
David Magee |
Pending |
| Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Pending |
| Production Design |
David Gropman (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set
Decoration) |
Pending |
| Film Editing |
Tim Squyres |
Pending |
| Sound Editing |
Eugene Gearty, Philip Stockton |
Pending |
| Sound Mixing |
Ron Bartlett, D. M. Hemphill, Drew Kunin |
Pending |
| Visual Effects |
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron,
Erik-Jan de Boer and Donald R. Elliott |
Pending |
| Original Score |
Mychael Danna |
Pending |
| Original Song |
"Pi's Lullaby" from Life of Pi, Music by Mychael Danna;
Lyric by
Bombay Jayashri |
Pending |
|
AFI Awards[63] |
Movies of the Year |
Ang Lee, Gil Netter and David Womark |
Won |
|
Producers Guild of America Award[64] |
Outstanding Producer of Theatrical Motion Pictures |
Ang Lee, Gil Netter and David Womark |
Pending |
|
Art Directors Guild[65] |
Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Film |
David Gropman |
Pending |
|
Writers Guild of America Award[66] |
Adapted Screenplay |
David Magee |
Pending |
|
Directors Guild of America Awards[67] |
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film |
Ang Lee |
Pending |
|
American Society of Cinematographers Awards[68] |
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Pending |
|
66th British Academy Film Awards[69] |
Best Picture |
Ang Lee, Gil Netter, David Womark |
Pending |
| Director |
Ang Lee |
Pending |
| Adapted Screenplay |
David Magee |
Pending |
| Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Pending |
| Production Design |
David Gropman, Anna Pinnock |
Pending |
| Editing |
Tim Squyres |
Pending |
| Sound |
Drew Kunin, Eugene Gearty, Philip Stockton, Ron Bartlett, D.
M. Hemphill |
Pending |
| Special Visual Effects |
Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron,
Erik-Jan de Boer |
Pending |
| Original Music |
Mychael Danna |
Pending |
|
2nd AACTA International Awards[70] |
Best Film |
Ang Lee, Gil Netter, David Womark |
Pending |
|
Best Direction |
Ang Lee |
Pending |
|
Visual Effects Society Awards[71] |
VES Visionary Award |
Ang Lee |
Won |
| Outstanding Visual Effects in a Visual Effects - Driven
Feature Motion Picture |
Thomas Fisher, Susan Macleod, Guillaume Rocheron, Bill
Westenhofer |
Pending |
| Outstanding Animated Character in a Live Action Feature
Motion Picture |
Richard Parker - Erik De Boer, Sean Comer, Betsy Asher Hall,
Kai-Hua Lan |
Pending |
| Outstanding Created Environment in a Live Action Feature
Motion Picture |
Open Ocean - Jason Bayever, Sho Hasegawa, Jimmy Jewell, Walt
Jones |
Pending |
| Outstanding FX and Simulation Animation in a
Live Action Feature Motion Picture |
Storm of God - Harry Mukhopadhyay, David Stopford, Mark
Williams, Derek Wolfe |
Pending |
| Ocean - Jason Bayever, David Horsley, Scott Townsend, Miles
Vignol |
Pending |
| Outstanding Compositing in a Feature Motion Picture |
Storm of God - Ryan Clarke, Jose Fernandez, Sean Oharas,
Hamish Schumacher |
Pending |
|
Annie Awards[72] |
Character Animation in a Live Action Production |
Orangutan - Erik de Boer, Amanda Dague, Matt Brown, Mary
Lynn Machado, Aaron Grey |
Pending |
| Tiger - Erik de Boer, Matt Shumway, Brian Wells, Vinayak
Pawar, Michael Holzl |
Pending |
|
Palm Springs International Film Festival[73] |
Frederick Loewe Award |
Mychael Danna |
Won |
|
Online Film Critics Society[74] |
Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Nominated |
|
Alliance of Women Film Journalists[75] |
Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Won |
|
Chicago Film Critics Association[76] |
Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Nominated |
|
Houston Film Critics Society[77] |
Best Cinemaography |
Claudio Miranda |
Nominated |
| Best Original Score |
Mychael Danna |
Nominated |
| Technical achievement |
|
Nominated |
|
Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards 2012[78] |
Top Ten Films |
|
Won |
| Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Won |
|
18th Critics' Choice Awards[79] |
Best Picture |
|
Nominated |
| Best Director |
Ang Lee |
Nominated |
| Young Actor |
Suraj Sharma |
Nominated |
| Best Adapted Screenplay |
David Magee |
Nominated |
| Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Won |
| Best Art Direction |
David Gropman/Production Designer; Anna Pinnock/Set
Decorator |
Nominated |
| Best Editing |
Tim Squyres |
Nominated |
| Best Visual Effects |
|
Won |
| Best Score |
Mychael Danna |
Nominated |
|
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards[80] |
Best Director |
Ang Lee |
Won |
|
70th Golden Globe Awards[81] |
Best Motion Picture – Drama |
|
Nominated |
|
Best Director |
Ang Lee |
Nominated |
|
Best Original Score |
Mychael Danna |
Won |
| International 3D Society[82] |
Harold Lloyd Award |
Ang Lee |
Won |
|
Las Vegas Film Critics Society[83] |
Best Picture |
|
Won |
| Best Director |
Ang Lee |
Won |
| Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Won |
| Best Visual Effects |
|
Won |
| Best Score |
Mychael Danna |
Won |
| Youth in Film |
Suraj Sharma |
Won |
|
12th New York Film Critics Online Awards[84] |
Top 10 Films of 2012 |
|
Won |
| Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Won |
|
Phoenix Film Critics Society[85] |
Top Ten Films |
|
Won |
| Best Director |
Ang Lee |
Nominated |
| Best Live Action Family Film |
|
Won |
| Best Original Score |
Mychael Danna |
Nominated |
| Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Won |
| Best Film Editing |
Tim Squyres |
Nominated |
| Best Visual Effects |
|
Won |
| Breakthrough Performance On Camera |
Suraj Sharma |
Nominated |
|
17th Satellite Awards[86] |
Best Picture |
|
Nominated |
| Adapted Screenplay |
David Magee |
Won |
| Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Won |
| Best Sound Mixing & Editing |
Drew Kunin, Eugene Gearty, Philip Stockton |
Nominated |
| Best Visual Effects |
Bill Westenhofer |
Nominated |
|
St. Louis Film Critics[87] |
Best Film |
|
Nominated |
| Best Director |
Ang Lee |
Nominated |
| Best Adapted Screenplay |
David Magee |
Nominated |
| Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Nominated |
| Best Visual Effects |
|
Won |
|
Washington D. C. Area Film Critics Association[88] |
Best Adapted Screenplay |
David Magee |
Nominated |
| Best Cinematography |
Claudio Miranda |
Won |
|
Women Film Critics Circle |
Best Family Film |
Life of Pi - Tied with
Rise of the Guardians |
Won |