In Contention

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  • Sony Classics (busy, busy) also nabs ‘Get Low’

    (from left) Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek in Get LowJust an hour maybe after I finished writing about why I had to take Robert Duvall out of the lead actor predictions (his film, “Get Low,” didn’t have a distributor yet), the news drops that someone has taken a bite: Sony Pictures Classics.

    Talk about priming the stable with ponies.  Sheesh!  Here’s the release, in part:

    Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired the North American rights for Aaron Schneider’s debut film, GET LOW. Schneider previously received an Academy Award for Best Live Action Short for his film, TWO SOLDIERS. The film is a co-production between Zanuck Independent, David Gundlach Productions, Lara Enterprises and TVN and produced by Dean Zanuck and David Gundlach. Chris Provenzano (THANK YOU, GOODNIGHT) and C. Gaby Mitchell (story by credit on BLOOD DIAMOND) penned the script…

    “GET LOW is one of the great films about the American South. Brilliantly written, directed and shot, GET LOW has career best performances from Robert Duvall, Sissy Spacek and Bill Murray. This is the kind of independent film the American audience loves to embrace. We are thrilled Dean and Aaron have chosen us as their partner,” said Sony Pictures Classics.

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  • PGA goes to 10

    In a move entirely expected, the Producers Guild has expanded its tally of nominated films to 10, just like AMPAS.  Key quote from the release:

    “The PGA board approved the expansion of our Best Produced Picture category nominations to support our colleagues at the Academy, but also because we feel it better represents the unprecedented diversity of films being produced today,” said PGA President Marshall Herskovitz in a statement.

    Sure.

    The PGA nominees will be announced January 5, four weeks before the Oscar announcement. The awards ceremony will take place January 24.

    Your thoughts?

  • POLL: What did you think of Matt Damon in ‘The Informant?’

    It’s been a LONG time since our last poll (and that “Avatar” trailer intriguingly split the readership right down the middle).  So I figured this weekend’s biggest awards-flavored release, “The Informant!,” was a good point of entry.

    One of our loyal readers asked in the Sunday Cents column whether Matt Damon’s performance had enough steam to make it into Oscar contention once the rest of the field has shown itself, and I think that’s a fair enough question.  I personally think it’s the actor’s best work to date and will have more than enough gas to get him there, but I’d like to know what readers thought of the work in general.

    So have your say in this week’s sidebar poll.  What did you think of Damon’s performance?  Expand further in the comments section if you like.

  • Sony Classics nabs ‘Lebanon’

    LebanonSamuel Maoz’s debut film “Lebanon” already won the Golden Lion in Venice and was probably on track to be a foreign language film contender before Sony Classics stepped up to the plate.  Now the trajectory seems all the more refined, and at the end of the day, SPC could wind up with three films in the mix (along with “A Prophet” and maybe “The White Ribbon”).

    The press release, in part:

    Sony Pictures Classics announced today that they have acquired all US rights to the Israeli film, LEBANON from Celluloid Dreams. The film is written and directed by Samuel Maoz, a co-production between Metro Communications and Ariel Films and produced by David Silber, Ilann Gerard and Benjamina Mirnik. This is Maoz’s first feature film.

    LEBANON joins the classic body of films and the growing collection of recent Israeli films in which filmmakers look at experiences of young people at war and try to make sense of it. Set almost entirely inside an Israeli tank, four young men set out on a mission in what turns out to be a trip filled with fear, anxiety and ultimately death and the revelation of what makes life worth living. Recently included in the recent Toronto Film Festival where the film played to great acclaim, LEBANON will also be included in the prestigious New York Film Festival.

    “LEBANON is of those important films that will last forever in the marketplace. We are honored to be bringing LEBANON to the American public,” said Sony Pictures Classics.

  • OFF THE CARPET: Suiting up

    George Clooney in Up in the AirYou might have noticed this morning’s round-up reverted back to “Oscarweb.”  The big late-summer festival trilogy wrapped up with Toronto’s kudo-dishing over the weekend and on the other side, we face the long haul.  The season is officially here.  You ready?

    As punishing as it feels, I’m still excited for our weekly coverage.  Punishing because monthly diagnosis is so liberating, but we’re at that stage where the nuances of the season are worth tracking closely, the layers of the race peeled back slowly but surely.  Today’s Off the Carpet column kicks all of that off for us at In Contention.

    Tomorrow we’ll have a list dedicated to the best of the Academy’s chosen.  Wednesday, Guy will launch “The Long Shot,” a new weekly awards column that will consider things from afar without the dizzying insider silliness you find in this space every Monday, and I’m really excited for that.  Gerard comes back Thursday for another series of Tech Support columns, and, of course, Anne and I will continue the conversation Friday in our weekly Oscar Talk podcast.  I think we’re covering all bases.

    So, as we go into the season, what do we know?  And do we think we know more than we actually do?  Probably.

    “Up in the Air,” for instance, was the story of September if only because any goodwill toward “Precious” was already a known commodity.  Jason Reitman’s “Juno” follow-up comes along at just the right time for the country, taps into actor George Clooney’s movie star quality to find other insights and pretty much nails a tone, a vibe, an overall sense of things.

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Cloudy’ clears up box office

    Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs(EDITOR’S NOTE: My fault on the belated nature of Chad’s column.  Back on track next week.)

    *All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars.

    It had been almost two months since a PG-rated film hit the marketplace and parents were desperate for something to take their kids to. The result is “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” topping the chart with $30.1 million and the seventh-biggest September debut of all time.

    It also tops the $25.9 million of “Open Season” to become the biggest animated debut ever for Sony, which is not really considered a major player in that arena. The real money here should be in fast food tie-ins, though. Why haven’t I seen a correlative toy in my happy meal? Somebody dropped the (meat)ball there.

    A distant second place is where “The Informant!” landed with a $10.5 million gross. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 2009 is the year of the mustache and the proof is in the pudding. Anyway, this performance is more or less identical to the $10.8 million debut of “Michael Clayton” and I see no reason why this can’t perform with similar legs, reaching $40-$50 million total. That’s plenty enough to buy Matt Damon some Slim-Fast shakes and keep him on the lips of Oscar voters come January.

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  • 9/21 Oscarweb Round-up

    Paul Bettany in Creation• Zooey Deschanel is off the market. [CNN]

    • “Creation”: “One of the most robust defenses of atheism and agnosticism ever to appear in a mainstream film.” [The Guardian]

    • The 10 principles of hybrid distribution. [indieWIRE]

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  • ‘Precious’ takes Toronto’s People’s Choice

    I’m a bit out of pocket down south so a fleeting post is all I can offer the history-making moment that is ‘Precious’ winning Toronto’s audience prize. No other film has taken the audience award at both Sundance and Toronto, I believe, but this miraculous film’s Oscar trajectory has been written for months. Congrats to all involved, and onward…

  • ‘Harry Brown’ trailer

  • Can’t stop, won’t stop

    In the wake of this week’s Kanye incident, I said “Imalitchoofinish” was destined to become the new “I Drink your milkshake,” and, well, let’s just say people are having fun with it.  This one is pure genius:

    Imalitchoofinish

  • A conversation with Mira Nair

    Speaking of “Amelia,” the film may or may not be a factor in this year’s awards race.  The jury is still out there, but over at MakingOf, director Mira Nair talks about the job of a director and her process in making a film.  Take a look:

  • New ‘Amelia’ images

    Hilary Swank in Amelia

    More at Fox Searchlight.

  • TORONTO: Wrap up

    TorontoAnd so it ends. The last of the press screenings have winded down, the final Gala is tonight, and the awards are on the way, ending this year;s Toronto International Film Festival.

    This year’s fest was terrific, one of the better festivals, though still not as strong as 2007, which for me was the greatest ever. Once again you can feel the Oscar buzz happening around several of the films and performances that have been screened here, just as you can hear and see the buzz around films without distribution. At the end of it all, it was a great time.

    I sit here today exhausted, with aching legs, tired of coffee, and not really wanting to see a film for a few hours. There is nothing worse than attending a festival and struggling to find good films, but that has never happened to me in Toronto.  Montreal is a different story…

    The best film I saw at this year’s festival was the searing “Precious,” a stunning piece of cinema that is a work of art. Demanding, difficult, full of hate and rage, yet ultimately hope, “Precious” is extraordinary. Over the course of the festival I encountered many folks in the lines and on the streets asking me which film I thought stood out most, and each time I answered this one. Those who had seen it agreed wholeheartedly, and I met only one person who did not care for it.

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  • WEEKLY WRAP: Swayze passes, Venice wraps, Toronto runs

    Patrick Swayze• Patrick Swayze left us this week, passing away of cancer at the age of 57.

    • The Venice Film Festival drew to a close, with Israeli war drama “Lebanon” taking top honors.

    • It was Colin Firth, however, who emerged with Oscar buzz for the Weinstein-acquired “A Single Man.”

    • Across the Atlantic, we kept you up to date with Toronto goings-on, as buzz for “Precious” continues to build.

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  • OSCAR TALK: Ep. 3 — ‘A Serious Man,’ business in Toronto and unacquired hopefuls

    Oscar TalkThe third installment of Oscar Talk lands as Toronto winds down and, seemingly, the season’s biggest questions are being answered. Or are they?

    I’m joined by Anne Thompson of indieWIRE as always and we discussed the following:

    • The Coen brothers’ “A Serious Man,” Anne’s thoughts, my thoughts, the Coens doing Woody, etc.

    • The first sell of Toronto, “A Single Man” (not to be confused with “A Serious Man”), and the Oscar prospects of Colin Firth and Julianne Moore.

    • Business at the fest and a shifting acquisition paradigm in the industry.

    • Anne gives her thoughts on Annette Bening and Samuel L. Jackson in Rodrigo Garcia’s “Mother and Child,” great performances, but will it be picked up?

    • Robert Duvall’s Oscar-worthy work in “Get Low,” a film that has yet to be picked up when it’s the sort of film that may have ignited a bidding war in years past.

    • Thoughts on other films that bowed at Toronto, including “Capitalism: A Love Story,” “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans” and “Jennifer’s Body” (leading to a conversation about Megan Fox’s talents that will put each of us out on a limb).

    • Anne loved Edward Norton in Tim Blake Nelson’s “Leaves of Grass” but found the film on the whole to be a missed opportunity.

    But nothing seems to be decided even with a bulk of the season’s offerings having been screened in Venice, Telluride and Venice. Onward!

    As always you can subscribe to the podcast via iTunes here.  (If you have some audio issues with the levels, my apologies — with Anne in Toronto and me in North Carolina, we had some technical difficulties.)

    [display_podcast]

  • ‘Get Low’ poster

    Get Low

    [Source: IMP Awards]

  • INTERVIEW: Steven Soderbergh

    Steven SoderberghToronto Film Festival

    Steven Soderbergh freely admits how much luck has played into his career, beginning with winning the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes in 1989, the victory that launched his career and his first major work, “sex, lies and videotape.”

    “First of all the film was not supposed to be part of the competition but when another film was removed they bumped mine into that category,” he explains, “and then Francis Ford Coppola, who was supposed to be head of jury, couldn’t do it, so Wim Wenders took over. Without those two sets of circumstances would anything good have come out of Cannes for me? You have to ask yourself those things. Luck was with me, and I am fine with that. It’s knowing what to do with that luck.”

    Soderbergh is a relaxed guy in this posh hotel suite. For some reason Warner Bros. chose the Royal York Hotel for their press days, away from festival village, and a cab (or subway) ride away from the action. I don’t mind the break, and frankly I admire Soderbergh very much, so I was looking forward to meeting him and speaking with him about his film “The Informant!” (opening today) and his career.

    At this stage in his life, as he nears 50, Sodebrergh smiles and says he sees so much comedy in the world around him these days.  “You have to see the humor in things don’t you,” he asks.  “When I read ‘The Informant’ for the first time I saw it as a comedy, which many other people did not. But think about it, there have been films like this done as drama, Michael Mann’s ‘The Insider,’ which I like very much, so I chose not to go in that direction.

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  • Just a friendly reminder…

    Gregoire Colin and Mati Diop in 35 Shots of Rum… to any American readers privileged with access to a good arthouse cinema, that Claire Denis’s wondrous “35 Shots of Rum” finally bows Stateside this weekend. I’ve been raving about the film — a sweetly melancholy, impeccably detailed study of a devoted Parisian father and daughter gradually separating their lives — since I saw it at the Edinburgh fest in June, and it remains in my top three for 2009 thus far.

    You don’t have to take my word for it, though: as much as I dislike people who quote Metacritic stats as some kind of inarguable gospel, it’s fair to say that a film with an MC score of 96 is likely to quite good. To jog your memory, my brief Edinburgh take on “35 Shots of Rum” is here. (With the benefit of hindsight, that 3.5 star rating would certainly get bumped up.)

    Meanwhile, with the similarly excellent “Disgrace” also opening in limited release today, discerning New York moviegoers have a rich selection before them. I just got off the phone with the film’s breakthrough star Jessica Haines (watch out for our interview in the next few weeks), and she discussed the tortuous path the film has taken to finally reach American screens after debuting on the festival circuit a full year ago. Same goes for the Denis film.

    So it’d be nice if some people bothered to see them. Take a chance.