… as “Waltz With Bashir” helmer Ari Folman beat James Marsh in the Documentary category at the DGA Awards. Not that it means anything really in the grand scheme of things but, y’know, interesting.
(I’d say it seals up “Bashir”‘s probable victory in the foreign-language race, but if there’s one Oscar category that’s resistant to the notion of a ‘sure thing,’ it’s that one.)
The nominations announcement is, oh, 18 hours away (yeah, we count minutes at this stage). Even though I’m well on the record as being a prognosticative pussy this year, I can’t shake the feeling that we’re in for our share of surprises. I doubt I’m alone.
You can go back over Oscar history and write a whole book on the nominations that blind-sided everyone. Sometimes the contender in question might have popped up briefly during the season, though they were forgotten in due time. Other times, they simply manifested from thin air and smacked Oscar watchers in the face. But they’re always there, lingering, waiting to plant that seed of doubt in the viewer the next year. And the year after that.
It’s enough to pull your hair out.
Earlier today, John posted an interesting thought about Benicio Del Toro’s chances in the lead actor category, which followed a recent musing on Woody Allen’s chances as a lone director nominee. This is the kind of stuff I’m talking about.
So with that in mind, I’ve collected a brief list of four contenders that I legitimately think could pop up tomorrow and join that lineage. Some of them are certainly more plausible than others, but none of them, I feel, are terribly out of bounds. I don’t have the cojones to predict them, of course. But this is what I’m thinking.
(By the way, if I DO happen to change any of my predictions at the last minute tonight, I’ll be sure to offer a post indicating as much.)
My thoughts on the left field…
It’s an event that keeps on getting better and better, a little awards show that’s escalated into one of the hallmarks of the film awards season, whether the “we’re one of the best Oscar predictors” stuff is annoying or not (which it is).
The night had a number of surprises, but in a sense, one of those surprises became a foregone conclusion half-way through the show. The whole room could tell — “Slumdog Millionaire” was going to walk away with the first clean BFCA sweep since “A Beautiful Mind” in 2001. Nothing for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” Nothing for “Frost/Nixon.” Nothing but the usual for the slowly-becoming-silver-medal-bound “The Dark Knight.”
Two big wins for “Milk” were nice. Sean Penn’s victory as Best Actor might have been inevitable, even though Mickey Rourke’s portrayal was probably the year’s most critically acclaimed of the year. I couldn’t help keeping an eye trained on Mickey two tables over, one of the wandering cameras crammed in his face as Penn delivered his acceptance. Clearly the “Wrestler” gang was a bit disheartened, nabbing only one win — for Bruce Springsteen’s title track. But Fox Searchlight was beaming nonetheless with it’s five “Slumdog” trophies.
I did as much mingling as the two minute commercial intervals would allow, but I did manage to finally meet the lovely Kate Beckinsale, nominated tonight for her criminally underseen performance in “Nothing But the Truth.” She’s a real sweetheart, happy for the few pockets of support she’s been able to find for the film, which was essentially avalanched by the Yari bankruptcy last month. There’s still Santa Barbara in a couple of weeks.
I have to say, being in the middle of Heath Ledger’s standing ovation was somewhat emotional. The win wasn’t surprising in hindsight, but as Laura Dern was opening the envelope, I couldn’t help but think the idea of major awards was suddenly a pipe dream for this performance. But it all went away quickly and Christopher Nolan gave a touching, spot-on acceptance speech on behalf of the actor.
(More, plus the full list of winners, after the jump.)
• Lou Lumenick thinks “Revolutionary Road” might be too grim to resonate this Oscar season. [Lumenick on Film]
• Tom O’Neil chats with “Last Chance Harvey” star Emma Thompson. [Gold Derby]
• Todd Leopold wraps up the year in a meandering piece that touches on Heath Ledger, Sarah Palin and…Niels Bohr. [CNN]
• Steve Weintraub sits down with “Wrestler” star Mickey Rourke, thankfully puts a leash on his itchy “exclusive” trigger finger. [Collider]
• The 50 films that defined the year, across the pond. [Empire]
• “Anyone Who Doesn’t Choose This As The Best Movie of the Year is Just Being a Jerk” [Premiere]
• Dave White wonders why we love movie Nazis. [MSNBC]
• Andrew O’Hehir talks to Ari Folman about the “bad acid trip” of “Waltz with Bashir.” [Beyond the Multiplex]
• Tom O’Neil responds to the “Milk” trailer. [Gold Derby]
• So does Seth Abramowitz. [Defamer]
• “Appaloosa” director Ed Harris will receive the 3rd annual Kirk Douglas Award at this year’s Santa Barbara Film Festival. [Variety]
• Peter Sciretta wonders whether “Slumdog Millionaire” stole “Happy-Go-Lucky”‘s thunder at Telluride this year. [/Film]
• James Rocchi begins his sure-to-be-insightful Toronto coverage. [Cinematical]
• John Horn looks at acquisition hopefuls in Toronto this year. [Los Angeles Times]
• Sam Adams profiles “Waltz with Bashir” helmer Ari Folman. [The Envelope]
• Susan Wloszczyna seems to think Toronto isn’t its Oscar-forecasting self this year. [USA Today]
• Similarly, in addition to contending that “award-winning contenders appear to be fewer and far between this year,” Anthony Kaufman indicates that “recent market forces” could dampen the buying and selling of films at this year’s fest. [Wall Street Journal]
I didn’t exactly love Ari Folman’s “Waltz with Bashir,” which was received quite favorably at this year’s Cannes International Film Festival and will play Toronto in a week’s time.
However, I do have a loads of respect for the director’s cathartic process. And any animated endeavor that successfully creates this sort of introspective atmosphere deserves laurels above and beyond the typical animated product we see in cinemas year in and year out.
I find myself recalling similar sentiments for Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier’s “The Five Obstructions” five years ago. (Five years? Wow.) “Bashir” doesn’t entirely connect with me, doesn’t fend off the tendency toward repetition despite a tight running time (though that is certainly a point), but the sheer creativity of its approach makes it difficult to deny on numerous levels.
Using something resembling a documentary format, Folman places himself in the unfolding events of his narrative as a man who can’t recall the circumstances of his military involvement as an Israeli soldier in the first Lebanon War. When one night a friend recounts a chilling recurring dream that seems to have its roots in the conflict, Folman sets out to interview comrades that might shed some light on the black hole in his memory
The final sequence, of course, is when the fantasy of animation fades into the numbing sting of live action reality. The Sabra and Shatila Massacre would send a shock wave throughout the world, and certainly throughout Israel. A Defense Minister would be found guilty of neglegence, only to rise to power as Prime Minister of the region 20 years later.
How soon we forget. And perhaps that is the ultimate point of “Bashir”: Memory can be a mysterious thing, yes, but remembering is the active component in any healing process.
Well, I missed that one badly. As is so often the case, the Cannes jury threw a curveball, handing their top prize to a late-breaking film that had generated very few column inches. Admittedly, I should have paid more attention to “The Class,” French auteur Laurent Cantet’s school-based docudrama.
I was a huge fan of Cantet’s 2001 film “Time Out,” an ingeniously constructed character study, and while his 2005 follow-up “Heading South” was a major disappointment, Cantet’s name on the competition list should have rung more bells – not least when the very warm reviews started rolling in yesterday. Variety called it “one of the most substantive and purely entertaining movies in competition at Cannes this year.”
Congratulations to Cantet then, and to France, scoring their first home victory at Cannes since “Under Satan’s Sun” triumphed in 1987. The other awards threw up fewer surprises, with Benicio Del Toro taking Best Actor as I, and many others, predicted. Meanwhile, “Three Monkeys” and the Italian one-two punch of “Gomorra” and “Il Divo” all took home major silverware, if not necessarily in the categories that I anticipated.
I must admit to being shocked that the widely beloved “Waltz With Bashir” went home empty-handed; an omission for which Sean Penn and fellow juror Natalie Portman seemed almost apologetic. No matter: Ari Folman’s animated war documentary leaves the festival with a dedicated following, and I’m certainly putting it on my Best Animated Feature shortlist.
The full list of competition winners follows:
Palme d’Or: “The Class”
Grand Jury Prize: “Gomorra”