Thanks for coming back to join me for this week's Oscar Eye, particularly after last week's Thanksgiving-induced hiatus-- in my defense, there wasn't that much going on anyway. But this week everyone has hit the ground running, with the last batch of films hitting theaters, parties thrown right and left to celebrate the ones already out there, and the first awards of the season already being handed out. Between Monday's Gotham Awards, Tuesday's announcement of the Independent Spirit Awards, the first group of reviews for the Coen Brothers' True Grit, the forthcoming announcement of the National Boar of Review awards and the giant stack of screeners on my desk, there's a lot to talk about. Let's go!
Anne Hathaway and James Franco are hosting this year's Oscars. It's not so unusual to have two hosts for a ceremony-- Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin did a great job with it last year-- but having hosts as young as Hathaway and Franco (28 and 32, respectively) is definitely unheard of, not to mention the fact that Franco is very likely to be a nominee himself for his role in 127 Hours. It will be an interesting balancing act, and it's hard to know if these two will accomplish the Academy's assumed goal of bringing in younger viewers. But all the unorthodox things about this choice have pulled off at least one thing marvelously-- they've got everyone talking.
Winter's Bone tops the Gotham Awards. The indie-centric, famously idiosyncratic Gothams don't have that much impact on the Oscar race usually, but the two wins for Winter's Bone are a strong sign that the Sundance hit is sticking the minds of the people who matter; the publicity will also help critics remember the movie as they vote on their awards and pick their Top 10s over the coming weeks. Winter's Bone has been hovering around a 9th or 10th spot in the Best Picture lineup for weeks now, and this kind of late-breaking publicity can only help it inch a little further past its competition.
Independent Spirit Award nominees announced. In addition to Winter's Bone-- I'm telling y'all, this thing is on a roll-- top nominees included Fox Searchlight heavyweights Black Swan and 127 Hours, plus Focus's offerings The Kids Are All Right and Greenberg, the latter of which is a bit too divisive to take this buzz to an Oscar. The Indie Spirits don't necessarily reflect the Oscars either, but I'm most interest in the Best Actress lineup-- with the exception of Greenberg's Greta Gerwig, the list looks like a very possible Oscar Best Actress list: Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman and Michelle Williams. Williams is the iffiest of the bunch-- Lesley Manville, Julianne Moore, and Sally Hawkins among others all want that spot-- but the heat on Blue Valentine will only rise as it nears a December 31 release date.
True Grit reviewed. The embargo has finally lifted, and unsurprisingly, pretty much everyone loves this film-- though there's not quite as much "Best Thing Ever!" enthusiasm as I might have expected. We'll have to wait for a lot more reviews to come in before we can make any promises about its Oscar chances, but for now the spot everyone's been reserving for it in the Oscar Top 10 seems safe-- and Hailee Steinfeld seems like an even bigger threat in the Supporting Actress category. That might be my favorite news of all, given how empty that category has been so far, and how much we need a good up-and-comer Oscar narrative this season.
Black Swan reviewed, faces eligibility concerns. This is less of a breaking news thing than a slowly rising tide, but with the movie receiving mostly raves and suddenly feeling like a mainstream critical success rather than some oddball horror ballerina movie, I feel even more confident about its chances to get a Best Picture nomination, and for Natalie Portman to win Best Actress. It came down to this-- when I vote in my critic's group in two weeks, I can't imagine voting for anyone besides Portman, and can't imagine how anyone else could either. Much as I love Annette Bening, and much as she's overdue, Portman seems to have the heat. Separately, I'm getting pretty verklempt about the movie's score from Clint Mansell, which director Darren Aronofsky confirmed to me will likely not be Oscar eligible because it borrows so much from Tchaikovsky's original Swan Lake score. The Oscar Best Original Score category is notoriously nitpicky about using previously existing work, and this one seems like a no-go, which is a real shame given that it's brilliant. Like, crazy brilliant. I guess it's another reason to get less worked up about the Oscars.
National Board of Review winners coming Thursday. Here is your annual reminder not to take these too seriously, even less seriously than you would take the Golden Globes. Not to say we won't be parsing over these tomorrow of course.
OK, now on to the charts, where I-- deep breath-- am starting to predict the list of 5 or 10 nominees. I figure now's as good a time as any to start putting my foot down on predictions, though you'll notice even the ones I've highlighted in red still aren't mortal locks-- that's because these are just predictions, not a knowledge of what will actually happen. I mean, none of this is actual knowledge, but you know what I mean. Just because I predict Winter's Bone as a nominee this week doesn't mean I will the next, whereas Inception feels like a steady lock.
| BEST PICTURE |
The highlighted 10 are the ones I've had in the top categories for weeks now, with Another Year now the odd man out; though it's totally possible to see things shifting in the next few weeks as critics speak up, the American competition like Winter's Bone and Black Swan are really picking up steam. Out of the lower levels of competition I've also taken out How Do You Know? and The Tourist, two forthcoming films that, if they were real Oscar competition, would have spoken up by now.
The King's Speech
Inception
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
127 Hours
Another Year
Black Swan
The Fighter
The Kids Are All Right
True Grit
Winter's Bone
Fair Game
How To Train Your Dragon
Made in Dagenham
Rabbit Hole
Shutter Island
The Way Back
Blue Valentine
Biutiful
Conviction
Country Strong
The Ghost Writer
Hereafter
Secretariat
The Town
| BEST DIRECTOR |
I love this category right now because it's still fairly tricky to figure out beyond those top two, especially now that True Grit really is a contender and puts the Coens in play. I think with Tom Hooper also guaranteed a spot, it's now Aronofsky, Nolan and the Coens duking it out for two final spots-- I give the edge to Aronofsky right now sheerly because of Black Swan momentum, and perhaps my own personal hopes. It seems equally likely that Nolan will get in instead.
Danny Boyle, 127 Hours
David Fincher, The Social Network
Darren Aronofsky, Black Swan
Joel and Ethan Coen, True Grit
Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
Christopher Nolan, Inception
David O. Russell, The Fighter
Lisa Cholodenko, The Kids Are All Right
Clint Eastwood, Hereafter
Mike Leigh, Another Year
Peter Weir, The Way Back
Ben Affleck, The Town
Alejandro Gonzalez Innaritu, Biuitiful
John Cameron Mitchell, Rabbit Hole
Roman Polanski, The Ghost Writer
Martin Scorsese, Shutter Island
| BEST ACTOR |
Right now Michelle Williams seems like a likelier acting nominee from Blue Valentine than her co-star Gosling, but I haven't seen Get Low yet and I'm not quite sure what to make of the Duvall buzz there (the buzz on Barney's Version and Giamatti, for what it's worth, seems to be practically nonexistent at this point). Truth be told, I'm wondering if Leonardo DiCaprio might jump up at the last minute-- he's not in one of the year's biggest movie's for nothing, after all.
Colin Firth, The King's Speech
James Franco, 127 Hours
Javier Bardem, Biutiful
Jeff Bridges, True Grit
Robert Duvall, Get Low
Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network
Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version
Ryan Gosling, Blue Valentine
Leonardo DiCaprio, Inception
Aaron Eckhart, Rabbit Hole
Mark Wahlberg, The Fighter
Jim Broadbent, Another Year
Stephen Dorff, Somewhere
Kevin Spacey, Casino Jack
Ben Stiller, Greenberg
| BEST ACTRESS |
Going with what I said earlier, I think the Indie Spirits lineup is the Oscar one as well, unless Sally Hawkins, Lesley Manville or Julianne Moore makes a serious move up in the next few weeks. Manville is the biggest threat of all, I think, which means it'll be her and Williams duking it out for Tragic Indie Heroine character to be included
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right
Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Sally Hawkins, Made in Dagenham
Nicole Kidman, Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence, Winter's Bone
Lesley Manville, Another Year
Julianne Moore, The Kids Are All Right
Michelle Williams, Blue Valentine
Anne Hathaway, Love and Other Drugs
Diane Lane, Secretariat
Hilary Swank, Conviction
Reese Witherspoon, How Do You Know?
Gwyneth Paltrow, Country Strong
Tilda Swinton, I Am Love
Naomi Watts, Fair Game
| BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR |
There's a lot of forward movement happening here right now, with early buzz on True Grit heaping praise on Matt Damon and Jeremy Renner hitting the circuit again for The Town, while Justin Timberlake steals some thunder from his Social Network co-star Andrew Garfield and Sam Rockwell seems to have disappeared entirely. According I've bumped up Damon and put him alongside Garfield for those last two slots, though really, with Bale and Rush likely to suck up all the prizes from critics, there's a lot of room for movement here.
Christian Bale, The Fighter
Mark Ruffalo, The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush, The King's Speech
Matt Damon, True Grit
Andrew Garfield, The Social Network
Justin Timberlake, The Social Network
Michael Douglas, Wall Street 2: Money Never Sleeps
Colin Farrell, The Way Back
Ed Harris, The Way Back
John Hawkes, Winter's Bone
Dustin Hoffman, Barney's Version
Bob Hoskins, Made in Dagenham
Sean Penn, Fair Game
Jeremy Renner, The Town
Sam Rockwell, Conviction
Josh Brolin, True Grit
Vincent Cassel, Black Swan
Armie Hammer, The Social Network
| BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS |
I can't call Hailee Steinfeld a mortal lock yet because I haven't yet seen True Grit-- changing within the week, I hope-- but she's now my favorite to win, based sheerly on buzz and the fact that it would be fun. Not to mention the totally mess this category is turning out to be-- nobody seems all that enthusiastic about Bonham Carter anymore, even though they love the movie, and the ladies from The Fighter are both getting overshadowed by the men at the center of the movie. Then you've got Made in Dagenham and Barney's Version slipping away, far too few people talking about Barbara Hershey in Black Swan and… yeah. A mess. The predictions here are almost definitely going to change before this is done.
Helena Bonham-Carter, The King's Speech
Amy Adams, The Fighter
Barbara Hershey, Black Swan
Melissa Leo, The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit
Jacki Weaver, Animal Kingdom
Dianne Wiest, Rabbit Hole
Rosamund Pike, Made in Dagenham
Rosamund Pike, Barney's Version
Miranda Richardson, Made in Dagenham
Kristin Scott Thomas, Nowhere Boy
Marion Cotillard, Inception
Saoirse Ronan, The Way Back
Sissy Spacek, Get Low
Mia Wasikowska, The Kids Are All Right
