In Contention

Tag: Dale Dickey

  • FIRST-HALF FYC: Best Supporting Actress

    It’s an Oscar complaint as unfailingly annual as telecast overlength and foreign-language category blunders: with the season so geared towards the glut of prestige titles released in the year’s final quarter, standout contenders from the mist-shrouded months of spring and the previous winter have to fight that much harder to be heard – that is, if anyone is listening at all.

    Year after year, numerous early-seen gems slip through the cracks as critics and voters alike rush to crown never, shinier attractions. With that in mind, welcome to First-Half FYC: a new weekly feature at InContention, wherein I’ll shine a light on the worthiest Oscar possibilities (or impossibilities) from the first six months of the 2010 release calendar.

    Each week, a different major category will be covered with alternative ballot of five potential nominees – some serious, others playful, some widely celebrated, others largely buried. All, however, are films or individuals that would breathe some fresh air into their respective races.

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  • Not just Lawrence

    With indie darling “Winter’s Bone” beginning to sidle out of American theaters, the most important gain it leaves with — besides its not-inconsiderable $4 million gross — is a healthy head of Best Actress buzz for breakout star Jennifer Lawrence.

    Sure, recognition for the screenplay may be on the cards too; even a filler Best Picture nod isn’t inconceivable, should critics rally for the film in December the way they did for “Frozen River” two years ago. But its awards hopes begin with its 19 year-old lead: she’s the story, the bright young thing whose achievement even the film’s detractors can agree on.

    But should she be getting all the glory? Not so fast, says Nathaniel Rogers. In this week’s instalment of Best in Show, a self-explanatory weekly column for Tribeca Film, Rogers argues that Lawrence, fine as she is, may not even be the film’s most valued player. That position, he says, is held jointly by older character actors John Hawkes and Dale Dickey.

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