Not much going on today, so I’ve added a few new buzz pages to the collection: “Blindness,” “Gran Torino,” “I’ve Loved You So Long,” “Synecdoche, New York,” and “The Wrestler.”
As always, you can take a look at all pages by checking out the Contenders page, or by clicking on various links in the predictions sidebar. Still a little ways to go, but we’re almost complete.
There has been so much hype around Kristin Scott Thomas’ apparently devastating performance in Philippe Claudel’s “I’ve Loved You So Long” that a lot of the press I’ve read tends to sideline the film itself.
Now Jeff Wells has rectified that with a piece in which he declares it the best film of the year so far:
The film itself is a landmark-level achievement. It’s remarkably tight, absorbing and affectng every step of the way — a genuinely profound growth journey taken with quiet and gentle steps. Whatever happens on the Oscar nomination front, this film has immediately shot to the top of my list of the year’s best films.
Not that he neglects to discuss the film’s esteemed British star. Indeed, he thinks she’s a shoo-in for an Oscar nod — and possibly more:
She’ll definitely land a Best Actress nomination, and she just might win, considering that she achieves so much in ILYSL with very little “acting” plus the fact that she’s been around for a couple of decades.
• Mark Olsen counts down Toronto’s must sees. It’s an indie dominated list (and fest, really) with more than a few surprises. [The Envelope]
• Pete Hammond talks to Tom O’Neil about the Telluride success of “Slumdog Millionaire” and “I’ve Loved You So Long,” as well as the whole “Button” footage dust-up from yesterday. [Gold Derby]
• Regarding the dust-up, Jeffrey Wells defends himself. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• Then he slams Anne Thompson’s cinematographical skills. [Hollywood Elsewhere]
• But Brad Brevet, in nicely rounding up the whole mess for your reading pleasure, wonders whether the damage has already been done. [Rope of Silicon]
• Which, digging through all of that, is there more to the Paramount/Fincher friction than we might know? [The Playlist]
• In happier news, Nancy Kriparos introduces herself as Sasha Stone’s Toronto correspondent this year. [Awards Daily]
• Michael Cieply previews Toronto from the angle of ’70s New York nostalgia dominating a number of films playing the fest. [New York Times]
Compared to the drought of previous years, where the five nominees have been all but pre-determined for months in advance, the Best Actress race is looking rather crowded at this point. (It’s certainly the major category that gave me the most pause when I updated my predictions this morning.)
What’s gratifying to see is that the field features so many contenders from independent films, including the much-discussed Sally Hawkins, Charlize Theron (coming off a lot of Venice buzz), Anne Hathaway, Melissa Leo and Michelle Williams.
But perhaps the darkest horse of all is Kristin Scott Thomas, an actress whose star has dimmed somewhat Stateside since receiving her only Oscar nomination twelve years ago. In that time, she’s been working more and more frequently in her adopted homeland of France, and she now returns to prominence with the French-language “I’ve Loved You So Long,” a dark domestic drama in which she plays a woman reconnecting with her family after fifteen years in prison.
Scott Thomas has been garnering steady acclaim since the film bowed at Berlin in February. Now, in the wake of its Telluride screening, and in the midst of a rave review declaring the film a “rare masterpiece,” Cinematical joins the chorus with this bold assertion:
Thomas’s performance here has been generating Oscar buzz for a while now, and deservedly so; she will almost certainly garner a Best Actress Oscar nod for this film.
Variety carries details of the first official entry that I’ve heard of in the Best Foreign Language Film derby – Denmark has put forward “Worlds Apart,” from director Niels Arden Oplev. The country has a pretty good track record in this category, having won back-to-back in the 80’s with “Babette’s Feast” and “Pelle the Conqueror,” while Susanne Bier’s popular “After the Wedding” nabbed a nomination two years ago.
“Worlds Apart,” which has already secured US distribution, is a small-scale pic focusing on a teenage Jehovah’s Witness forced to make a difficult choice when she falls in love with a non-believer. It all sounds terribly earnest, but that’s right up the Academy’s alley when it comes to this category. Reviewing the film at the Berlin festival back in February, Variety called it a “provocative, well-turned drama,” and speculated that a US remake could be on the cards.
Apparently, the Academy has invited 96 countries to enter the race this year, with the submission deadline looming large on October 1. They should be looking to regain some credibility in this category after the embarrassing fiasco of last year’s race, which saw a banner year for world cinema reduced to the most tepid slate of foreign-language nominees in recent memory, as landmark pictures like “4 Months, 3 Weeks, 2 Days,” “Lust, Caution” and “Persepolis” were, one by one, either snubbed or disqualified.
Stealing this from Jeff Wells, but Kristin Scott Thomas’s performance in the upcoming “I’ve Loved You So Long” has made an early splash in the industry as the awards season looms on the horizon.
Here’s a look at the new trailer:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlMPS_qcRaM