*UPDATE* – We know there are some difficulties with the podcast. It will be resolved later today!
Sorry for the lateness but certain events had to occur in order to record this latest episode of The Awards Circuit Power Hour effectively. We’re talking four big movies:
As the awards season is underway, multiple scenarios are playing out in my mind suggesting what can occur for the remainder of the year. Films like The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Zero Dark Thirty are still sight unseen with Django Unchained and Promised Land about to get their first set of eyes. Last week Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables debuted a full-length trailer featuring Hugh Jackman, Russell Crowe, Eddie Redmayne, and Amanda Seyfried all showing some singing skills. Supporting Actress frontrunner Anne Hathaway was shown singing “I Dreamed a Dream” for the third time in the Universal Pictures marketing, which leads me to my point of the Oscar Circuit.
The trailer for Les Miserables didn’t do the film any favors. The clunky production design, unnecessary wide-angles, and even the live singing on set didn’t seem as great as I’d thought it’d be. In this latest round of Oscar Predictions, I’ve decided to back from Tom Hooper’s film a little bit. Where momentum and prestige is on the side of Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln and Ben Affleck’s Argo, big stage musicals transferred to film aren’t always safe bets. What makes this notion of the film failing to impress even more compelling is Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master. If Anne Hathaway were to fall out of the Supporting Actress race, who could win the award in her absence? There are arguably three slots taken in Supporting Actress with Amy Adams (The Master), Sally Field (Lincoln), and Helen Hunt (The Sessions). If it’s between those three for the win, Adams will be on her fourth nomination with the other two ladies having Oscars already. Field herself would be 3 for 3 for Oscar nominations, something hard to envision happening. Hunt has had a hard time post-Oscar win and isn’t as beloved as her competitors. This could all work out for the young Amy Adams. Read more on Oscar Circuit – “Master” of Networking?…
We spoke about this possibility on a podcast a few weeks back but it seems that a source as confirmed to Tom O’Neil of Gold Derby that Academy Award Winner Christoph Waltz will be campaigned as a lead actor in Quentin Tarantino’s upcoming Django Unchained. Oscar-winner Jamie Foxx, who plays a slave-turned-bounty hunter that is searching for his wife will compete against Waltz along with the entire roster of the Weinstein Company. Read more on Gold Derby Confirms Christoph Waltz being campaigned as Lead Actor…
When the Lionsgate Awards site went LIVE today and listed their slate of contenders involving Stephen Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Fisher Stevens’ Stand Up Guys, Gary Ross’ The Hunger Games, Nicholas Jarecki’s Arbitrage, and J.A. Bayona’s The Impossible, I started to analyze how this year could pan out for smaller films that are trying to make a play; even more so, the performances in them.
I’ve touted on podcasts for weeks that Nate Parker utterly deserves a citation in Arbitrage, a raw, authentic turn that stands as one of the year’s bests. His co-star Richard Gere is currently being predicted in the Lead Actor top five, mostly on the notion that after years of ignoring and snubbing, voter’s eyes would finally be open to the charm that Gere portrays in Jarecki’s film. As Hugh Jackman remains a mystery of the season in Les Miserables andthe word of Anthony Hopkins’ work in Hitchcock rallies some muted enthusiasm, a first-time nominee is bound to crack the top five. Believe me, Bradley Cooper might have a leg up on Gere given his film’s Best Picture chances and the powerful Weinsteins backing, but perhaps an overdue veteran has the gas to go the distance. Read more on Two Lead Contenders on Lionsgate Awards Plate…
The Warner Brothers Awards Site has had their roster listed for a few weeks now. Big contenders like Ben Affleck’s Argo, Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight Rises, and The Wachowski Siblings and Tom Tykwer’s Cloud Atlas have their respective categories listed. Even Steven Soderbergh’s Magic Mike is pushing a campaign for Matthew McConaughey and the rest of the cast. Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, a film that our own Mark Johnson has stood by all year-long, has started listing their categories for consideration. Read more on ‘The Hobbit’ submits an Original Song for Oscar Consideration…
As Telluride and Venice ended and we sit in the heat that is the Toronto Film Festival, I’m updating Oscar Predictions slowly but surely. Screenings are happening daily and the race could change in a matter of seconds. My solution is to update one category per day for the next 20 days. By then Toronto would have ended, and we would be sitting firmly in the clump of the New York Film Festival. I’ve started with the biggest juggernaut, Best Motion Picture, but most importantly I took the opportunity to update the Oscar Tracker with several films and performances added to their respective categories. Read more on Oscar Circuit: Resistance is Futile…
We’re back with the Awards Circuit Power Hour, our weekly podcast show where we bring you the best in Film, TV, and pure entertainment. The Staff has a great show lined up for you this week. The agenda is listed below:
Trailer Talk (Killing Me Softly, The Paperboy, Skyfall)
Venice Film Festival – We discuss the lineup
Reader Question #1
Did You Know? w/ Mark Johnson
Sight and Sound Polls
Reader Question #2
Box Office from the Weekend w/ Mike Ward
State of the Race: Lead Actor and Supporting Actor
We play, “Give Them an Oscar!”
Reader Question #3
The week ahead! (ACCA: Best of Decades coming Monday)
Cannes is over. We have a possible Best Picture contender in Michael Haneke’s Amour, which you can see added to the Oscar Tracker. In the past month, trailers for big Oscar contenders have dropped like Roger Michell’s Hyde Park on Hudson, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, and even as late as yesterday with Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables. Any talk circling around the notion of an Oscar nomination possibility is mere beguilement and an attempt to satisfy our obsessions during this first half of the fiscal year. But that’s why we read the Awards Circuit, isn’t? Read more on Oscar Circuit: “Right Category, Right Time”…
