In Contention

Tag: Annette Bening

  • OSCAR GUIDE: Best Actress

    Early in the season the lead actress category appeared to be more competitive than ever. An easy list of 10 contenders could be drawn up, many of them admittedly sight unseen, and it was anyone’s guess as to which lady could insinuate herself as the odds-on favorite to win.

    Then the critics began narrowing things down, while certain films began to underwhelm and fall to the wayside. With them went a few of those potential contenders. The critics also began to mold a frontrunner, one who would eventually prove to have the vote of the industry before having that status challenged in the final lap. Indeed, it’s been a wild ride for Best Actress.

    The nominees are:

    Annette Bening, “The Kids Are All Right”
    Nicole Kidman, “Rabbit Hole”
    Jennifer Lawrence, “Winter’s Bone”
    Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
    Michelle Williams, “Blue Valentine”

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  • Pencils down

    As of this moment, all voting polls are closed, all ballots are due, all campaigning is beside the point.  The 2010 Oscar season is over, with just the pesky formality of the actual Oscar ceremony to come.

    So, any thoughts on what tides may have turned in the final moments?  There are more ballots that show up in the final week of voting than you’d think.

    I think the potential beneficiaries would be Helena Bonham Carter (not Hailee Steinfeld) and Annette Bening.  Some think an overall retaliation to the guild dominance of “The King’s Speech” could kick in, but I think that’s highly doubtful.  It would be one thing if a film they just weren’t high on won all those guilds.  It’s another thing entirely when it’s a safe pick.

    I’ll say this, though.  Here is a story (NSFW!) that I imagine some are happy didn’t pop up earlier.

  • Previewing BAFTA

    In the 10 years since they moved up in the calendar to pre-Oscar status, the BAFTAs have hovered uncertainly between complying with awards trends across the pond, thereby establishing themselves as a viable precursor, and stubbornly standing by their own – as in 2007, when they opted out of the Coen Brothers-P.T. Anderson faceoff by picking “Atonement,” despite the film’s only other award coming for Best Art Direction.

    This year, however, offers them the best of both worlds. Rewarding “The King’s Speech” will simultaneously allow them to co-sign a heavy Oscar favourite and preserve their national pride.

    Add in the fact that a vote for the film also represents a vote for the much-mourned UK Film Council – oh, and that it just happens to be a smash hit with British audiences – and the royal biopic would likely have been a lock for the top prize even without the support of major US guilds.

    (More, plus predictions, after the jump.)

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 52 — Nominees Luncheon, Bening vs. Portman to a photo finish, WGA and Scripter awards, Melissa Leo’s personal campaign, BAFTA preview with Guy Lodge

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    Anne is calling from New York today, later on in the show we drop in on Guy in London and I’m in Los Angeles as always, so we’ve got quite the international episode for you today. And with plenty happening between last weekend and today, we’ve got tons to cover, so let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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  • 2/11 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Franco couldn’t care less, love letter to Annette Bening, Hammond polls voters

    • James Franco: “If it’s the worst show in the history of the Oscars, who cares?”  I love this guy. [Screening Room]

    • David Poland on how the Academy is missing a golden opportunity by essentially banning Banksy from the ceremony.  Not that Banksy would even humor his suggestions, but still. [The Hot Blog]

    • Nick Davis writes a big ole’ love letter to Annette Bening.  (More on her in today’s Oscar Talk.) [Nick’s Flick Picks]

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  • ‘Social Network’ tops London Critics’ awards

    By having separate categories for British films and individuals — though Brits compete in the general awards too — the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards generally get to have their cake and eat it. So it was this year: “The King’s Speech” received obligatory recognition in the categories for Best British Film and Best British Director, but lost the night’s big prizes to “The Social Network.”

    Some will find it ironic that it took a group of limeys to put some wind back in Team Fincher’s sails, but it’s not that surprising: British or not, this is still a critics’ award, and “The Social Network” wove as a powerful a spell over journos across the pond as in the States. The film took a leading four prizes, including screenwriting honors for Aaron Sorkin and Best British Supporting Actor for Andrew Garfield — the Oscar snubbee’s second home victory of the week.

    No surprise that Colin Firth took Best Actor, while they spread the love by giving Christian Bale the Best British Actor award — I do wonder if that happened entirely organically. Less expected was Annette Bening’s Best Actress victory, breaking Natalie Portman’s recent sweep; I suspect the somewhat mixed critical reaction to “Black Swan” in the UK might account for this, but Bening does seem to be picking up steam lately.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 51 — The new frontrunner, Santa Barbara tributes and panels, potential Oscar upsets

    Oscar TalkWelcome to Oscar Talk.

    In case you’re new to the site and/or the podcast, Oscar Talk is a weekly kudocast, your one-stop awards chat shop between yours truly and Anne Thompson of Thompson on Hollywood. The podcast is weekly, every Friday throughout the season, charting the ups and downs of contenders along the way. Plenty of things change en route to Oscar’s stage and we’re here to address it all as it unfolds.

    It’s been a little over a week since last we left you, and to say the least, plenty has happened in that stretch. We’re both back in Los Angeles after some festival bouncing and have a number of things to chew on so let’s see what’s on the docket today…

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  • Until Oscar do us part

    A few days ago, a reader responded to a trivia note by Steve Pond, about the number of Best Actor nominees whose Christian names begin with the same letter, with the question, “Is this the point at which we are officially over-saturated with Oscar stats?”.

    Well, if we weren’t there then, we might be now.

    Yesterday, the Huffington Post ran an interview with an academic who has invested far too much time looking into the so-called “Oscar Curse” — the unfortunate trend that has seen many a star headed for divorce court shortly after winning the Best Actress Oscar. Recent examples include Sandra Bullock, Kate Winslet, Reese Witherspoon, Hilary Swank and Halle Berry, but a University of Toronto research project (!) suggests the curse goes further back than that.

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  • SANTA BARBARA: Bening receives American Riviera Award

    The 26th annual Santa Barbara International Film Festival kicked off a week of tributes tonight with the presentation of the American Riviera Award to “The Kids Are All Right” and “Mother and Child” star Annette Bening (with hubby Warren Beatty in tow). The award is given annually to an American actor “who has had a strong influence on American Cinema,” as the literature states.

    Bening, it turns out, is a very good choice for such an honor. And in the year of an Oscar-nominated performance in Lisa Cholodenko’s “The Kids Are All Right,” it’s just the sort of stop along the circuit that could help steer the momentum away from a certain critically-favored young starlet.

    Festival director Roger Durling offered a lovely introduction to Bening, one of his most heart-felt to date, before turning it over to a package featuring her work over the last three decades. The reel was cut to Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and Robert Palmer’s “Simply Irresistible,” with a pivotal scene from Cholodenko’s film dividing the two different assemblages. And it did a great job of reminding you just how versatile Bening is, but also how many of the characters she has portrayed on screen are cut from the same frail cloth.

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  • CINEJABBER: Find a happy place

    Catch up with the idea behind these weekend posts here.

    Three more days.  And then it’ll be five more weeks.  This season is unrelenting.

    It’s also more of a mud-slinging affair behind the scenes than I’m used to.  At least people are more vocal about the mud-slinging than normal (because let’s face it, Oscar campaigns are a bit dirty by necessity).  All eyes are pointed toward inevitability, and inevitability so seemingly secure that it would actually be an embarrassment for the frontrunner to come up short at this point.

    But I’m not going to talk about that.  I’ll save that mumbo-jumbo for the Oscar columns.  Cinejabber is for solace.  And brain leakage.  So let’s see…

    I’ve been pushing through my final predictions and have to say the most troubling categories are below-the-line areas, as usual.  Best Original Score is the biggest head-scratcher, while Best Costume Design is a little troubling, too.  But I’m inching toward that place of, “Screw it, that looks good enough.”

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  • Did Armond White rain on the NYFCC parade?

    As regular readers might know, I tend to fall in the less populated “pro” camp when it comes to notoriously cranky New York Press critic Armond White — as much flak as he takes, from bloggers in particular, for his off-kilter tastes and occasionally aggressive writing style, I think he’s one of a select few writers making readers evaluate criticism as an artform, while I frequently find fillets of perspicacity in his more impassioned arguments.

    Dispensing with social niceties in creative print, however, is more endearing than doing the same in person — particularly when you’re representing not just yourself, but a group of professional peers.

    This Gawker report on White’s acid-tongued emceeing of last night’s New York Film Critics’ Circle awards dinner is too stingy with details and heavy on relayed quotes to pass judgment on, but on what’s supposed to be a celebratory communal evening, perhaps backhanded insults to winners and guests alike can wait for one evening. (UPDATE: NYFCC member Lisa Schwarzbaum says as much in her displeased writeup of the proceedings.)

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  • 1/5 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Paltrow and “singer-as-Oscar-bait,” 80 years of THR, questioning Bening’s, er, overdueness

    • Larry Getlen on Gwyneth Paltrow in “Country Strong” and the “singer-as-Oscar-bait phenomenon.” [New York Post]

    • The this year’s Oscar hopefuls who got their starts as child actors. [Variety]

    • In celebrating THR’s 80th anniversary, Todd McCarthy picks the 80 greatest Hollywood moments. [Hollywood Reporter]

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  • Portman and child

    Put it down to the post-Christmas news lull, but the Oscarweb is rather excited about this morning’s unexpected revelation that surefire nominee (and arguable Best Actress favorite) Natalie Portman is engaged and expecting her first child with French ballet dancer and choreographer Benjamin Millepied. (Could you ask for a much more appropriate surname for a hoofer?)

    My thoughts on the matter don’t extend much further than, “Well, that’s great news for her,” and perhaps, “How unreasonably pretty is that baby going to be?”. But already some are speculating as to what this news means — if anything at all — for her Oscar chances.

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  • ‘Social Network’ adds NYFCC to its tally

    Well, the (rather predictable) steamroller keeps on going today as “The Social Network” adds the New York Film Critics Circle to its tally of early kudos.  The question now and through the next few weeks will be, is it “L.A. Confidential?” That was the question for “The Hurt Locker” last year, though, and we know how that turned out.

    More notable, I think, is the resurgence of “The Kids Are All Right” after a small speed bump in this morning’s BFCA announcement.  The film won Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Screenplay.  Colin Firth, meanwhile, followed yesterday’s LAFCA win for Best Actor with a tip of the hat from the New York crowd, all prelude to an inevitable Oscar win come February.

    Melissa Leo also continues to have a great showing in the precursor season, as she took home the award for Best Supporting Actress.  And…wait, I’m getting bored already just writing this up.  Just have a look for yourself at The Circuit.

    [Photo: Focus Features]

  • 11/8 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Oscar’s misogyny, Gurus back on the case, classifying the 10’s “slots”

    • Rachel Shields on the misogyny of Oscar. [The Independent]

    • Gregory Ellwood reports from Friday’s Britannia Awards. [Awards Campaign]

    • “The King’s Speech,” Colin Firth and Annette Bening top the new weekly Gurus o’ Gold survey. [Movie City News]

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  • The (new) Hollywood Reporter’s actress roundtable

    Featuring Annette Bening, Helena Bonham Carter, Natalie POrtman, Nicole Kidman, Hilary Swank and Amy Adams:

  • Bening to be honored at Santa Barbara fest

    It’s not exactly a precursor, but the news we just received that Annette Bening is to receive the American Riviera Award at next year’s Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a bullish omen for her Oscar chances.

    The prize, a career achievement award given annually to “an actor who has had a strong influence on American cinema,” has coincided with the Academy Award more often than not in the past five years: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Forest Whitaker and Sandra Bullock all scooped it up on their campaign trails, while it presaged nominations for Tommy Lee Jones and Mickey Rourke. Clearly, festival director Roger Durling and his team think Bening’s hour has come.

    Bening has a good relationship with the SBIFF: she was previously honored with their Montecito Award in 2005. The award will presented on January 28, the second day of the fest — accompanied, as is their custom, by an onstage retrospective and Q&A with the actress. As usual, Kris will be attending the festival to bring you the highlights of the occasion. Press release excerpt after the cut.

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  • THE LONG SHOT: Categorical denial

    Wild-eyed, table-banging outbursts — sometimes of enthusiasm, more often of outrage — are an essential part of the floor show at any Oscar viewing party, but I’ve rarely seen one more unhinged than a friend’s reaction to Angelina Jolie’s (widely expected) Best Supporting Actress victory at the 1999 ceremony.

    “Who the hell was she supporting?” she yelled, red wine slopping out of her glass as she pointed an accusatory finger at the TV screen. “The woman only went and swallowed the entire film without so much as chewing once, all but elbowed Winona out of every shot, and she’s rewarded for supporting her?” She was practically spitting now, so blind with fury she hadn’t even noticed the raven-haired Miss Jolie snogging her brother. “If that’s her idea of support, what happens when she’s against you?”

    I should perhaps explain that my friend’s love for all things Winona Ryder ran deep, and not a little frightening, in those days; the Academy’s heartless decision not to nominate Ryder for Best Actress that year already meant she was watching the ceremony under duress. So it probably wasn’t the best time to explain that, well, Jolie did have the secondary role in “Girl, Interrupted” and that, unfair world that this is, there was still no law preventing rising young actors from being much better than their first-billed co-stars. So we let her rant, at least until Phil Collins started singing and she had something new to complain about.

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