In Contention

Author: Guy Lodge

  • Guess again

    Meryl Streep in It's ComplicatedI realized yesterday I hadn’t updated my own Oscar predictions since July, so a spring-clean was in order. I should really wait for the end of Toronto, but I’m off on vacation on Saturday, so there’s no time like the present.

    Needless to say, a lot can change in two months — particularly when those two months include the start of the festival season. Back in July, “Shutter Island” was still a fall release, Colin Firth wasn’t even on my radar and I still expected “Up in the Air” to be a minor-key adaptation of a minor-key novel. It was a more innocent time.

    As always, if you want sensible, well-reasoned, informed predictions, you’re better off looking to your right.

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  • France enters ‘A Prophet’ in Oscar race

    Tahar Rahim in A ProphetNews has just come in that France has selected Jacques Audiard’s critically lauded prison drama “A Prophet” as their official entry in the Best Foreign Language Film competition. (Thanks to reader Ali for the tip.)

    The film was chosen by a panel including actress Jeanne Moreau, Cannes festival director Thierry Frémaux and filmmakers Jean-Jacques Annaud, Costa-Gavras and Régis Wargnier. Classy.

    The choice comes as no surprise whatsoever: many have regarded it as a virtual fait accompli since the film’s sensational debut in Cannes, where it won the runner-up Grand Prix. (It will, of course, once more face its Cannes conqueror, “The White Ribbon,” in the Oscar race.)

    Meanwhile, for the last two years running, the French have gone with comparatively edgy Cannes winners as their Oscar ponies (“The Class” was nominated, “Persepolis” infamously snubbed), so the selection of “A Prophet” continues that pattern.

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  • Foreign film watch: Finland, Serbia … and Cyndi Lauper

    Cyndi LauperThree more to add to the growing pile of official Best Foreign Language Film submissions:

    Finland (a nominee in 2002 for Aki Kaurismaki’s “The Man Without a Past”) has opted for Klaus Hero’s “Letters to Father Jacob,” a reportedly gentle drama about a paroled murderer who finds redemption working as a secretary to a blind rural priest.

    Sounds Academy-friendly so far; Variety’s rave review, which lauds director and cast alike for making “something fresh and heartrending out of predictable material,” further suggests this could be one to keep an eye on.

    Serbia, still seeking a first nomination in the category, has decided to appeal to American sensibilities by picking the partially New York-set “Here and There,” which follows the trials of an American saxophonist and a Serbian immigrant, each struggling to get by in the other’s country. (Is there enough non-English dialogue to qualify?)

    Well-received at the Tribeca fest earlier this year — Variety makes a charitable comparison to “The Visitor” — where it won a pair of awards including Best New Filmmaker for director Darko Lungulov, it also has the unusual distinction of featuring Cyndi Lauper and her real-life husband in the cast.

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  • Could ‘Mother and Child’ corner the female vote?

    Mother and ChildOne of the surprises of the TIFF coverage I’ve read so far has been the notably enthusiastic reception for Rodrigo Garcia’s “Mother and Child.” It’s a film I confess hadn’t been on my radar at all until now, despite my high regard for Garcia’s quiet, character-oriented work in film and especially television.

    “Mother and Child” seems to further carve his cinematic niche of tasteful, female-focused ensemble dramas, so I was expecting the same kind of warm, if slightly reserved, critical reaction that greeted “Nine Lives” and his underrated debut “Things You Can Tell Just By Looking at Her,” but so far, “Mother and Child” seems to be aiming higher than that.

    Jeff Wells was eager to be first on Monday, gushing that it was “a super-sensitive, perfectly acted and exquisitely written adult drama” and “a Best Picture contender — guaranteed, hands down, take it to the bank.” He then rather spoiled his own party by later admitting that he’d skipped the film’s last half-hour, which he later found wanting — but still generally stands by the film.

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  • New ‘Wild Things’ poster, character banners

    The “Where the Wild Things Are” marketers continue to demonstrate their chronic inability to put a foot wrong. Cinematical has unveiled another superb poster, this time for the IMAX release, and a further four character banners.

    Where the Wild Things Are

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  • Kidman, Alfredson get ‘Danish Girl’ on track

    Nicole KidmanSay what you like about Nicole Kidman, but the lady’s taste in directors is beyond reproach. Fresh from having imaginatively recruited John Cameron Mitchell to guide her pet project “Rabbit Hole,” she’s teaming up with another arthouse maverick looking to cross over — Tomas Alfredson of “Let the Right One In” fame.

    Alfredson will direct Kidman in “The Danish Girl,” another project the actress has been nurturing for some time, but one that seemed to have stalled for a while. I’ve been intrigued by this one ever since it first popped up on the radar, offering as it does a major thesping opportunity for the actress.

    Kidman will play Einar Wegener, the male Danish artist who in 1931 underwent the world’s first sex-change operation. (The film will, however, be proceeding without Charlize Theron, who was earlier attached to play Wegener’s wife. Pity, that — sounded like a plum role for her, too.)

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  • One blogger’s word over another

    Colin FirthI must say, when I saw and loved Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” at Venice last week, I obviously picked up on the awards possibilities for Colin Firth’s career-best work. Hard not to.

    What I didn’t quite anticipate is that it would be the talk of Toronto only a few days later. It’s encouraging to see such a niche film garnering so much attention. That’s what Harvey Weinstein will do for ya.

    So, is Colin Firth decisively in the Oscar pack? Well, it depends who you choose to listen to. Anne Thompson says a big “hell yeah”:

    Firth, who just turned 39 [sic], is a slam dunk for his first Oscar nomination. While the actor has delivered in many strong roles over the years, including BAFTA-nominated performances in Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones Diary, he’s never single-handedly carried a movie like this.

    David Poland, meanwhile, offers an equally emphatic “hell no”:

    Colin Firth is excellent … It’s the kind of performance in the kind of movie that could draw an Oscar nod in the thin list of actress contenders each year. But Best Actor is a 1000 to 1 shot. In fact, Julianne Moore has a better shot at Supporting, which might be why The Weinsteins bought the film.

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  • Foreign film watch: Spain snubs Almodóvar again

    Penelope Cruz and Pedro Almodovar on the set of Broken EmbracesKeeping up our watch on the Best Foreign Language Film race, one of the category’s regular players, Spain, has come one step closer to making its official submission — having revealed the final three films in contention for the spot.

    Some will be surprised that Pedro Almodóvar’s “Broken Embraces” — the year’s most globally-discussed Spanish production by a long shot — isn’t on the list. They shouldn’t be. Contrary to what some may expect, Almodóvar and the Spanish Academy selectors have an on-and-off relationship.

    Five of the auteur’s films have previously been submitted for the award — though only two (“Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” and “All About My Mother”) were ultimately nominated. The latter, of course, won the 1999 race. But Almodóvar has been prominently sidelined before — as in 2002, when the selectors unwisely decided against submitting “Talk to Her,” the film that eventually won the director a screenplay Oscar in spite of the snub. (D’oh!)

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  • SAG to honor Betty White

    Betty White87 year-old Betty White has been named as next year’s recipent of the Screen Actors’ Guild’s lifetime achievement gong, which apparently honors both career achievement and humanitarian work. (Are both those two factors always prerequisites? Just asking.)

    Anyway, you go, Rose … you’ll be 88 when you collect the prize, lest we forget. Thank you for being a friend, etc, etc. Here’s the press statement by SAG head Alan Rosenberg:

    “Whether creating some of television’s most indelible characters, plunging into film roles with joyous gusto or perfecting the art of the quip as a television panelists and host, Betty White has entertained audiences with her impeccable comic timing and remarkable with for more than 60 years.

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  • Weinsteins grab ‘A Single Man’

    Colin Firth in A Single ManI meant to get to this earlier, but sometimes, you know, real life gets in the way.  Anyway, the big news of the day is that The Weinstein Company has snapped up the U.S. distribution rights to Tom Ford’s stunning debut “A Single Man,” with plans for a 2009 Oscar-qualifying run, marking the first really newsworthy deal of the Toronto fest.

    This is just the kind of fate I hoped might await the film when I saw it last week at the Venice Film Festival. It’s a delicate, esoteric piece that needs the attentive handling of a smaller outfit — but, at the same time, has significant, clearly designated awards prospects that need some savvy campaigning to help realize. I can’t see a better fit for this film than the Weinsteins, frankly.

    The long and short of it is that you can firmly pencil Colin Firth in on your list of Best Actor prospects. It’s a prominent, immensely moving performance that, following his recent win in Venice, should gain critical traction in what looks like an unusually lean field so far. Add the fact that Firth is a popular, well-established star still looking for his defining career role — for critics, at least; for the female public, he’ll always be Mr. Darcy — and the Weinsteins’ campaigning muscle, and he’s firmly in the mix.

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  • THE LISTS: Top 10 Steven Soderbergh films

    Steven SoderberghThis Friday sees the release in American theaters of “The Informant!,” the nimble Matt Damon-starring corporate caper which, depending on the format in which you saw last year’s “Che,” is either the 20th or the 21st feature from one Mr. Steven Soderbergh. (I say 21st, given that “Che” clearly comprises two films utterly distinct in tone and structure, but 20th does sound more momentous for the purposes of a list. Oh, well.)

    This year also marks the 20-year anniversary of Soderbergh’s game-changing debut feature “sex, lies and videotape,” which made the then 26 year-old novice the toast of Cannes and the American indie scene alike, and set the course for one of the most (delete according to taste) fascinating/diverse/infuriating/rich/productive/exciting auteur careers of the last two decades. (It also earned Andie MacDowell a deserved, everlasting defense against an increasingly hostile barrage of criticism, but that’s neither here nor there.)

    On balance — he started slower, after all — it’s a work rate that matches Woody Allen’s for consistency of output, and inconsistency of content. No filmmaker today better manages the track of juggling a “one for me, one for the studios” routine, and what keeps Soderbergh’s career so intriguing is that there’s no set law as two which of these two categories might house his stronger works.

    So it seemed a suitable point to take stock of this most idiosyncratic career, bisecting his filmography to evaluate the ten Soderbergh films that have delighted and/or enriched me most over the years. As a child growing up with ambitions of working in this industry, Soderbergh was — and, to a large extent, still is — one of my heroes, so his is a filmography that I’ve grown and changed with over time.

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  • Justice for ‘Lourdes’

    Sylvie Testud in LourdesAs I wrote in my reflection on the Venice festival awards yesterday, the biggest surprise (and by no means a pleasant one) of the jury’s winners list was the complete lack of recognition for Jessica Hausner’s excellent, quietly subversive religious drama “Lourdes,” a favorite of critics and pundits alike.

    Happily, FIPRESCI is there to set things right. The international critics’ organization, which hands out its own awards at every major festival (and many minor ones, too), has honored “Lourdes” as the best film at Venice this year.

    It’s a prestigious citation, often given to films with broader arthouse appeal than those the jury might select: recent Venice FIPRESCI honorees include “The Queen,” “Good Night, and Good Luck” and “The Secret of the Grain” (or “Couscous,” to my fellow Brits). They’re not always contrarian, either: they matched the Cannes jury this year by picking “The White Ribbon.”

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  • Chile joins foreign-language fray

    Dawson, Island 10 Chile is the latest country to formally join the Best Foreign Language Film race, having selected true-life political drama “Dawson, Island 10” as their official submission.

    To go by the trailer, the film, which tells the story of a group of political prisoners held captive on the titular island after a 1973 military coup in the country, looks suitably large and ennobling. At the very least, that should make it more to the Academy’s taste than last year’s ballsy Chilean selection, the superb black comedy “Tony Manero.”

    Catching up on older news, we should also add a trio of Eastern European titles to the mix: Slovenia’s “Landscape No. 2,” Hungary’s “Chameleon” and Bulgaria’s imposingly titled “The World is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner.” (I bet Tyler Perry’s mad he didn’t think that one up first.)

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  • Thoughts on the Venice winners

    Colin FirthOkay, so I was mainly off the mark. When it comes to guessing festival awards, I usually am. But at the same time, few of the selections revealed tonight by Ang Lee’s jury at the closing ceremony of the Venice Film Festival really surprise me.

    It was clear that Samuel Maoz’s “Lebanon” would walk away with something (I had it pencilled in for Best Director), given its combination of political currency and personal investment on the part of the director. (The film is an autobiographical reflection on his own experience in the First Lebanon War.) Personally, I think giving it the Golden Lion is a tad generous for a debut that, while very accomplished, never quite hits home emotionally, but it’s a reasonable winner.

    I have more of a problem with the runner-up Grand Jury Prize going to Fatih Akin’s “Soul Kitchen,” though I saw it coming. The film is a sweet but slipshod effort that hardly represents the director’s strongest work; with several more deserving films in competition going unawarded, its selection feels like a nod to the more mainstream contingent of the competition. (The absence of critics’ favorite “Lourdes” from the winners list, meanwhile, is the biggest shock here.)

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  • VENICE: Who will take the gold … and who should

    The Golden Lion at the Venice Film FestivalAnd so it comes to this. Ten days of blazing sunshine, free-flowing Prosecco, occasionally “Brazil”-style administration and – oh, right – a few films too, will come to a head tonight as Ang Lee and his merry band of jurors will name the supposed best of the fest.

    I’ve written before about the near-futility of predicting festival awards. Unlike the Oscars, the voting body is different every time, so you’re never quite sure what they’re looking for. We persist because it’s fun, thought it actually becomes more difficult when you’ve seen most of the films in question, as personal reservations (or fondnesses) keep getting in the way.

    If I were back in London, for example, I’d be more open to the whispers that Fatih Akin’s cheery but slight crowdpleaser “Soul Kitchen” is a serious contender for the Golden Lion, effectively serving Marco Müller’s more populist programming direction; having actually seen the film, my gut reaction is more in the “you’ve got to be kidding me” vein.

    If no clear-cut frontrunner has emerged from this year’s lineup, it’s because no film has united critical opinion and mainstream media interest the way “Brokeback” or last year’s champ “The Wrestler” did. Some are plumping for Michael Moore, though that would seem a bit old-hat five years after Cannes laurelled “Fahrenheit 9/11.”

    (More thoughts, and my will win/should win picks, after the cut.)

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  • ‘A Single Man’ trailer

    The more I think about Tom Ford’s debut feature “A Single Man” (not to be confused with “A Serious Man” — keep up!), which unspooled yesterday to a very warm Venice reception, the more I like it. I wrote my review on the fly, so I’m not sure if my full admiration for the film’s extraordinary craft and marvelous Colin Firth performance came through, but this is a special piece of work.

    Thanks to diligent reader Tim for digging up the trailer, which captures the film’s woozy, moody beauty perfectly.

  • Joe Dante’s ‘The Hole’ wins Venice 3-D award

    The HoleI missed yesterday’s screening of Joe Dante’s kiddie horror film “The Hole” — and hardly regret it, having caught Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” instead — so I can offer little commentary to the news that the film has won the festival’s inaugural Persol 3-D Award.

    The prize, determined by judges Scott Foundas, Dave Kehr and Nadia Ranocchi, is given to the film that “best explores (the) new cinematic frontier” of 3-D.

    It’s a fairly obvious winner, given that it was the only official Venice selection on the nominee list, which included such formidable challengers as “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth in 3D.”

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Festivals, festivals and festivals

    George Clooney in Up in the Air• After weeks of hype, “Up in the Air” landed in Telluride, and delivered. (And finally got a trailer too.)

    • Meanwhile, as some compare director Jason Reitman to Billy Wilder, we interviewed him at the festival.

    • We also got chatty with possible awards contenders Paul Schneider and Venice prize-winner Mark Boal.

    • On the other side of the Atlantic, our Venice coverage continued, including a first look at Michael Moore’s “Capitalism: A Love Story.”

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