• Nathaniel Rogers gets delightfully painstaking with Oscar trivia, notes that, should Jesse Eisenberg be nominated for Best Actor, he’ll boot Matt Damon from the list of top 10 youngest nominees in the category. [The Film Experience]
• Speaking of which, Damon has the directing bug and continues to bone up on the ins and outs via collaborations with Clint Eastwood, Martin Scorsese and the Coens. [The Big Picture]
• Roy Greenslade sings the praises of “Made in Dagenham.” [The Guardian]
Already announced, this year’s AFI Fest will be bookended by “Love & Other Drugs” and “Black Swan.” Today, more news. The press release, in part:
AFI FEST 2010 presented by Audi today announced its Centerpiece Galas, featuring ABEL (DIR Diego Luna), BARNEY’S VERSION (DIR Richard J. Lewis), BLUE VALENTINE (DIR Derek Cianfrance), CASINO JACK (DIR George Hickenlooper), THE COMPANY MEN (DIR John Wells) and an ensemble Tribute to THE KING’S SPEECH with director Tom Hooper and actors Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush.
Also announced today are the films that will be presented as Special Screenings: The U.S. premiere of AMIGO (DIR John Sayles), CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS (DIR Werner Herzog) in 3-D, MADE IN DAGENHAM (DIR Nigel Cole) and RABBIT HOLE (DIR John Cameron Mitchell).
The festival will take place at the historic Grauman’s Chinese Theatre, the Mann Chinese 6 theatres, the Egyptian Theatre and the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel from November 4-11. The fest will also once again offer free tickets to all films, including Galas and Special Screenings Learn more here.
[Photo: The Weinstein Company]
A number of people wanted Anne and I to discuss the seemingly thin Best Supporting Actress category on the podcast Friday, but we didn’t get to it. So it seemed an opportune time to dedicate this space to the discussion.
One should keep in mind that the race is still in its early days. This time last year we didn’t even know “Crazy Heart” would be in the mix, and any number of things can change. But while I have been saying for a while now that the supporting actress field is week, it does seem to be taking shape as of late.
There is no hard and fast frontrunner in the field right now. If Lesley Manville’s “Another Year” campaign were to switch gears, that would be a different story, but the only contender that feels right at the moment is Miranda Richardson as the fiery Barbara Castle in the Brit comedy “Made in Dagenham.”
On the next tier, I feel pretty good about Dianne Wiest’s chances in “Rabbit Hole,” where the three-time nominee (and two-time winner) stars as a concerned but affable mother to Nicole Kidman’s grief-stricken housewife. Meanwhile, Helena Bonham Carter could well ride the coattails of “The King’s Speech” to a nomination for the comic relief and emotional support she maintains throughout the film.
Two weeks ago in this space I discussed the precariousness of “frontrunner” status in an Oscar race. At the time, coming off of a big surge in Toronto, “The King’s Speech” was the big dog on the porch. But be warned, I said. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Now that “The Social Network” has released, accompanied by glowing review after glowing review, not to mention a media blitz to make the head spin, that film is looking like an alpha in the year’s awards season. And, inevitably, the race is already being reduced to a generational battle between the two…yet it’s barely October.
Here’s the thing. If you’re a studio still priming your pony, you have to be watching all of this unfold with giddy delight, licking your chops, ravenous. This is the kind of situation easily devoured by savvy marketing in Oscar land, and if I’m a rival contender, I’m remembering my Horace: “Seize the day.”
But it’s a delicate balance. One doesn’t want to charge out and shoehorn into the discussion, lest you be tossed aside as mere garnish to the main course of these two films. However, playing it too cool and quiet isn’t the safest bet either, as an Oscar win is the culmination of built steam and sustained speed (which be in the form of a long drag or a quick burst of energy at the right during the right frame).
• David Poland sits down with “Client 9: The Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer” director Alex Gibney. [Movie City News]
• On the innovative marketing strategy of “Freakonomics.” [New York Times]
• Xan Brooks and Henry Barnes talk “Made in Dagenham” director Nigel Cole and actress Rosamund Pike. [The Guardian]
“You’re the Oscar guys, aren’t you?” asked the spike-heeled PR officer upon eyeing the press badge dangling from my neck, her voice exuding the steely sweetness they teach you on the first day of public relations boot camp. It was midway through the Venice Film Festival and I was too beat — or my mouth just too full of complimentary cheese — to rephrase her blunt description. I nodded in reply: yes, I am indeed “the Oscar guys.” One of them, at any rate.
“Thought so,” she said, eyes darting across the room, perhaps in search of my chart-brandishing entourage. “Not much for you here, is there?”
On the one hand, I could hardly argue, not least since we’d both just emerged from a film — Chilean auteur Pablo Larrain’s brilliant nightmare of a black comedy “Post Mortem” — that stands as much chance of securing an invitation to the Kodak Theater as Kim Kardashian does to the Kennedy Center Honors.
Five days into the festival, and the only film screened that belonged in the Oscar conversation (following the critical belly-flop of Julian Schnabel’s “Miral,” at least) was high-gloss opener “Black Swan,” and even that was generating “too cool for the Academy” conclusions. Oscar-watching at European festivals, even blogger-inundated Cannes, is a pretty spotty sport compared to the FYC frenzy of Telluride and Toronto.
In Nigel Cole’s crowd-pleasing “Made in Dagenham,” we already know Sally Hawkins is a solid contender in a dense lead actress field for her work as Rita O’Grady, a composite character representing a number of ladies who stood up for equal pay in late-1960s England. But one of the fringe possibilities for a Best Supporting Actor nomination is Bob Hoskins as Albert Passingham, a supportive union representative.
Hoskins is well used but sparingly so, and in fact his character’s sudden exit from the narrative (nothing drastic happens to him, he just kind of goes away) kind of makes you wish he was still around when he’s not. But I wonder if it’s enough to really push through here.
Regardless, Hoskins is an actor worth championing and he’ll surely have some kind of presence in the awards season. Recently the UK’s Guardian caught up with him in a “getting to know you” sort of session, and the actor had some insightful commentary on feminism and its place in his preparation.
Okay, so it’s been almost two months since I last offered up some Oscar nomination predictions, so now that the big triple-header of autumn festivals is over, I thought it time for an update. (Remember, you can always access my predictions page at the tail of the right-hand sidebar.) With the season slowly beginning to swing — my first Long Shot column will land on Wednesday — you can expect more frequent revisions.
I’ve marked which contenders have been subbed in and out, though the changes aren’t as numerous as I might have expected — I had a summertime hunch about “Made in Dagenham” that I’m sticking to after its warm Toronto reception, and what reason have we been given yet to doubt the likes of “Toy Story 3,” “Another Year” and “The Social Network?”
As usual, I operate on gut feel, which is a hit-and-miss system: my misgivings about “The King’s Speech” as a major player were obviously unfounded, but until precursors show me otherwise, I’m still not buying “Inception.” As usual, look to Kris for level-headed predictions, but I enjoy trying to spot the snubs. (Last year, my dogged refusal to include “Invictus” in my Best Picture projections all season eventually paid off. Stopped clock, and all that. )
• Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” surprised many by taking top honors at the Venice Film Festival; we took a closer look at the Lido winners.
• Meanwhile, we were considerably less than wowed by the festival closer, Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest.”
• This week’s Off the Carpet column reflected on the unusual depth of this year’s Best Actress race.
• A race that subsequently got even deeper as Lionsgate made the biggest acquisition thus far of this year’s Toronto fest: Nicole Kidman’s comeback effort “Rabbit Hole.”
It seems Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” has become the first significant sell of Toronto (a few things have been picked up here and there already). Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions (which is really stepping it up this year) have nailed down the domestic rights, but go ahead and strike the film from your longlists. It won’t be released until the spring, Deadline’s Mike Fleming reports.
Meanwhile, Patrick Goldstein sat down with Sally Hawkins, who has three films at the festival in “Never Let Me Go,” “Submarine” and “Made in Dagenham.” Andrea Riseborough is in two of those films (as well as “Brighton Rock”) and has been getting similar notices, but it’s Hawkins who could really make a dent on the season.
In his piece, Goldstein offers that for him, “what makes [‘Made in Dagenham’] work so well is that it doesn’t treat its story as a weighty political screed.”
As Kris mentioned earlier, reaction out of Toronto to Rowan Joffe’s “Brighton Rock” has, so far, been on the guarded side, though it has found admirers — Time Out’s Tom Charity among them. Still, however the film lands, it does at least appear to confirm the arrival of Andrea Riseborough, the 29 year-old Brit who is something of a ubiquitous presence at this year’s fest, with supporting roles in “Never Let Me Go” and “Made in Dagenham” boosting her profile.
It’s the plum role of Rose — the merits of which I discussed in Page to Screen — in the Graham Greene adaptation that is getting her noticed, however. You might remember that Kris had her in his Supporting Actress predictions until distribution doubts forced her out, but early notices suggest he was onto something. Writing for The Guardian, David Cox suggests that in Joffe’s adaptation, “Brighton Rock” emerges more as Rose’s story than anyone else’s, and that Riseborough carries the film mightily:
[W]hether Joffé intended it to or not, Andrea Riseborough’s breathtaking performance as Rose soon overwhelms the drama. To say her achievement deserves an Oscar would be somehow to demean it.
It wasn’t by coincidence that the three photos decorating the season’s introductory installment of this column two weeks ago represented lead actress contenders in the 2010 Oscar race. After all the talk of 2009 being “the year of the woman,” owing much to the number of female directors who found themselves in the mix (and inevitably leading to Kathryn Bigelow’s history-making moment at the Kodak), I’m sensing an even better argument for 2010 as a singular season for the fairer sex.
Let’s start with the performances. By my count, there are already eight nominatable offerings from lead actresses this year (which contrasts drastically with a dearth of supporting hopefuls). This is just going by what I’ve seen, mind you.
For starters, Natalie Portman has dazzled the early festival season with her work in “Black Swan.” Lesley Manville, meanwhile (should she remain a lead focus), sets a high bar in “Another Year.” Despite my feelings on the film, Carey Mulligan really settles into a next-level groove in “Never Let Me Go,” and Jennifer Lawrence, of course (like Mulligan last year), has already become the year’s star-in-the-making story in “Winter’s Bone.”
Dovetailing with the performances themselves, there are also films that seem to reflect the theme in narrative. In “Secretariat,” for instance, Diane Lane capably (if a bit histrionically) portrays headstrong Penny Chenery, a woman of virtue in an era when she was expected to keep her head down and clean house. Similarly, Sally Hawkins absolutely kills as the Norma Rae-ish Rita O’Grady in “Made in Dagenham,” fighting for equal pay in a similar time (and she’s likely to be joined in the hunt by co-star Miranda Richardson for a fiery supporting turn). And we can’t forget the palpable feminism apparent in summer indie “The Kids Are All Right,” where Annette Bening and Julianne Moore both bring their “A” game.
More from Toronto tonight, so let’s dive in…
Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator” bowed this evening at a packed gala screening. At Hollywood News, Sean O’Connell brings up the already-getting-tired 9/11 parallels (which started with Patrick Goldstein earlier). He calls Redford’s casting decisions “questionable” but considers the film “a solid effort, a compelling legal drama and a determined character study that will please students of American history, modern and otherwise.”
The Hollywood Reporter’s Kirk Honeycutt says it “feels like a television film” but that Redford “does a good job in developing the drama” and “the film largely rests on a character played with considerable emotional energy by James McAvoy.” It’s a measured approval, in any case. The film is still seeking domestic distribution.
Moving along at Toronto, it seems Mitch Glazer’s “Passion Play,” which was as much for the director since he spent 20 years trying to get it made, was hung right out to dry and that Mickey Rourke can be knocked off of anyone’s list of awards hopefuls.
David Poland calls the film “epically bad” and even suggests that the potential for a Megan Fox nude scene was probably the only thing keeping people from walking out. Cinematical and eFilmCritic’s Erik Childress did just that, however. He couldn’t take it. Meanwhile, at Voice Film, Karina Longworth says “it’s hard to imagine that anyone will take [the film] nearly as seriously as it takes itself.” What can you say? It’s never a happy moment when someone works so hard at something so quickly and summarily dismissed.
On the other end of the spectrum, Danny Boyle’s “127 Hours, continues to be welcomed with open arms. Filmmaker Magazine called it “typically bravura filmmaking from Boyle. Both a celebration and a critique of solitude.” MTV’s Josh Horowitz says it’s “an emotional wallop,” the LA Times’ Steven Zeitchik thinks it “elevated far above [a] typical rescue story by Boyle’s eye for detail and strategically deployed flash” and The Playlist’s Kevin Jagernath calls it “one of the best films of the year.”
In Friday’s Oscar Talk, Anne and I pondered the Oscar potential of Sony Pictures Classics’ typically robust stable of contenders. So far the best bet to have already hit theaters is Aaron Schneider’s “Get Low,” which could be a below-the-line play as well as a Best Actor possibility for Robert Duvall.
Films from Rodrigo Garcia, Atom Egoyan and Jean-Pierre Jeunet all came and went, while Woody Allen’s didn’t inspire much at Cannes. And that’s fine, by the way. The business isn’t all about awards, obviously, and Sony Classics knows how to make money. (There’s a reason the dependent is still standing tall.)
If we properly assume “The Illusionist” will have its day in the animated feature category, while “Inside Job” will be relegated to the documentary field, that leaves three possibilities for Oscar success: Mike Leigh’s “Another Year,” the recently acquired “Barney’s Version” and Nigel Cole’s “Made in Dagenham.” The latter is perhaps the one to watch out for.
This isn’t a revelation, of course. Guy’s first stab at predicting this year’s Oscar set noted that “the Academy frequently likes its Britpics chirpy and digestible” and that Cole’s film was “getting ‘next Full Monty’ buzz on its way to a prominent launch at Toronto.” Having seen the film last week, I have to say, I see his point.
In the last couple of weeks the major fall film festivals have unveiled aggressively competitive line-ups, and the amount of potential awards product landing at Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York is, as usual, vast.
There are plenty of overlapping exhibitions but as for firsties, Venice will get dibs on Darren Aronofsky’s “Black Swan,” Julie Taymor’s “The Tempest,” Julian Schnabel’s “Miral,” Ben Affleck’s “The Town,” and Richard J. Lewis’s “Barney’s Version” before the films make their way to other fests. Sofia Coppola’s “Somewhere” will be exclusive to the Lido.
New York, meanwhile, landed a real coup by boasting the world premiere of David Fincher’s “The Social Network,” which will not be at the other fests.
Toronto is again packed to the gills with product (too much, if you ask me, but it’s a media circus after all). Clint Eastwood’s “Hereafter” will see its first bow there before heading off to New York in October. Tony Goldwyn’s “Conviction” will also debut, as well as John Madden’s “The Debt,” Rowan Joffe’s “Brighton Rock,” Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” and Nigel Cole’s “Made in Dagenham.” World premieres searching for distributors at the fest include Robert Redford’s “The Conspirator,” John Cameron Mitchell’s “Rabbit Hole” and Dustin Lance Black’s “What’s Wrong with Virginia,” any of which could end up being awards season possibilities.
Two weeks ago, when I made my first Oscar predictions of the 2010 season, I went out on a bit of a limb for “Made in Dagenham,” the upcoming true-life Britcom that will have its world premiere at Toronto next month.
I have yet to see the film, but the story material, the talent involved and the promisingly perky trailer (embedded after the jump) combined to suggest one of those undemanding, broadly appealing UK charmers that sneak up on the Academy every couple of years — and that, as “An Education” proved last year, face a gentler climb to a Best Picture nod in a field of ten.
With the Academy’s sizable British voting bloc having often made their presence felt even in the days of five nominees — hello, “Atonement” — the odds do favor at least one British film making the cut in most years. Many see Mike Leigh’s “Another Year” as the prime candidate for that hypothetical slot this year, and it’s certainly a worthy one, but it remains a tough sell in many respects: a quiet, sometimes despairing essay on middle-aged loneliness unlikely to register beyond a rarefied arthouse audience.
Oh, okay then. I’ve held out longer than most, but with the summer mostly played out, and newly unveiled schedules for Venice and Toronto signifying that the fall film season is already breathing down our necks, now is as good a time as any to go on the record with some Oscar predictions.
In years past, I’ve had readers tell me that my predictions are tricky to access on the site — not a problem for me, since the fewer who found them, the more contained the embarrassment when they were proved hopelessly wrong. Nevertheless, we have heard you, and we have acted: at the bottom of Kris’s predictions on the sidebar, you will find a shiny new link to mine. You can’t beat progress.
As usual, if you like your predictions rational, grounded in inside information and frequently accurate, Kris is your man. (He’ll be updating his on August 23, by the way.) At these early stages, I go on a mixture of gut feeling, sudden hunches and a broken Ouija board I picked up for a fiver in a garage sale. I tend to get stronger inklings about what won’t get nominated than what will, which is why some of my picks have a placeholder feel to them.