A
Guided
Tour Of This Years Oscar Nominees
By Andrew Z.
Well, this year marks the 76th Annual
Academy Awards ceremony, and while you may not have even heard of some of the
movies nominated, I have, and it's my job to give you some interesting facts,
insight, history and, as always, trivia.
Part 2 - Best Animated Feature
Part 3 - Best Director
Part 4 - Best Actress
Best Actor
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What do a confederate soldier, a pirate, a washed-up actor and two husbands have in common? You guessed it, they're all characters nominated for Best Actor this year.
Johnny Depp earned his first Oscar nomination this year for his portrayal of Captain Jack Sparrow in Disney's summer blockbuster The Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. Depp is not known for playing leads in major hollywood releases, he tends to stick to independent films, but for some reason he chose to do this film...and everyone is glad he did. While Oscar doesn't usually recognize comedic performances, its not too surprising that Depp got this nod seeing as it was one of the funniest performances I've seen in a long time. While his chances of winning seem slim, keep in mind the Academy has surprised us before. Unfortunately voters looking to award a comedic role will most likely choose Bill Murray over Depp (just like the Golden Globes, the New York Film Critics Circle, the Toronto Film Critics Circle and several others.)
When you look up "versatile" in the dictionary, there should be a picture of Ben Kingsley next to the definition. This is Sir Ben's fourth Oscar nominations, the firts was for an Indian, the second a Brit, the third a Jew and now an Iranian. Kingsley won Best Actor in 1982 for playing the title role in Gandhi making him the only one in this category who has ever won an Oscar. In The House of Sand and Fog Kingsley plays Col. Behrani, a man trying to give his family a better life (even if it is at the expense of Jennifer Connolly's Kathy). The acting in this film was about the only redeeming quality. As far as I'm concerned The House of Sand and Fog (or Dude, where's My House? as I've taken to calling it) was the worst movie I saw this year (only because I didn't see My Boss's Daughter or Gigli.) Regardless of that, Kingsley put in a great performance, but will it be enough to win him Oscar gold?
Jude Law has been drawing audiences (mostly young female ones) since at least The Talented Mr. Ripley in 1999. In Cold Mountain, Law plays Inman, a confederate soldier in the middle of the Civil War trying to get back to the love of his life, Nicole Kidman, in Cold Mountain, North Carolina. He faces many perils along the way and plays the role to a quiet perfection. While the ending is utterly predictable (I mean seriously, I called it 40 minutes into the film), Jude Law has definitely outdone himself in what I believe to be his best performance ever. Unfortunately for Law, Cold Mountain didn't get nearly as many nominations as it was expected to, nor has it gotten all the recognition it deserves. His main hope is that Miramax will give him and the films other four nominees the push and the publicity that the studio is so well known for.
And now we come to Bill Murray for Lost In Translation. Murray is nominated for playing Bob Harris, an American film star past his prime who comes to Tokyo to do an ad for scotch. His role is so understated and subtle that you can hardly believe this is the same guy who made a name for himself in films like Caddyshack, Stripes and Groundhog Day. His role is comedic, yet so far from those lowbrow films you'll be amazed. Lost In Translation is one of those films where it's hard to explain just why it's so great, it just is. The Academy loves awarding comics for semi-dramatic roles and this seems to be Bill's year (he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Comedy, he was also named Best Actor by The Boston Society of Film Critics, The Chicago Film Critics Association, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, The National Society of Film Critics, The New York Film Critics Circle just to name a few.) If he wins the Screen Actors Guild Award on February 22nd (which he's up against Depp, Kingsley and Sean Penn for) he'll be a shoo-in. All that said, as it seems like Murray is the "one to beat" this awards season, you can expect the others to have much more agressive Oscar campaigns. But hey, at least his Golden Globes speech wasn't "Thank you for this award and for supporting me all these years...(yells)and now it's on to the AFI Awards, and the Golden Sattelite Awards, and the SAG Awards...and then the Oscars! Grrrrrrrr!!!"
And last, but certainly not least we come to Sean Penn. This is the 4th Oscar nomination for Penn who was previously nominated for Dead Man Walking, I-Am-Sam and Sweet and Lowdown. He portrays Jimmy Markham, a father whose daughter has just been brutally murdered. Despite his many flaws, you really do feel bad for Markham and this is a testament to the power of Sean Penn's superb performance. The Broadcast Film Critics Association gave him their Best Actor award and he won the Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Drama, however he's lost to Bill Murray in almost every other award. He rarely attends awards shows and since Academy members often choose who they would most like to see accepting the award, could that cost him the Oscar? Only time will tell.
WHO GOT LEFT OUT: Nicholas Cage for Matchstick Men, Russell Crowe for Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World, Tom Cruise for The Last Samurai, Peter Dinklage for The Station Agent, Ewan McGreggor for Big Fish, Ian McKellen for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, Jack Nicholson for Something's Gotta Give, Andy Serkis for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King.
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Best Animated Feature
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I know you'd rather I wrote about each of the Best Picture nominees or something, but I've decided to build the suspense a bit. Also I'm stalling because I still have one more to see. Anyways, I'm building up to it like they do at the Oscars. So here goes nothing:
In Brother Bear, Disney's latest traditional (read: non-computer) animated offering tells the tale of an Inuit hunter who seeks revenge against the bear who killed his brother...until the spirits turn him into a bear. Frankly, not many people expected Brother Bear to get nominted. I mean come-on, another animal movie with songs by Phil Collins; a little tired, no? The art of the film is quite enthralling, but the plot is a bit predictable. Brother Bear didn't do THAT well at the box office, it was Disney's lowest-grossing movie this year (of course that's not saying much, their other films were Pirates of the Caribbean, Freaky Friday and Finding Nemo.) On the other hand, if Finding Nemo and Triplets of Belleville split the vote, Brother Bear could sneak by with a win.
Disney and Pixar had their fifth consecutive hit in 2003 with Finding Nemo. In June, Nemo became the most successful animated film of all time. While Finding Nemo is a beautiful example of computer animation, its success really comes from the well written (and Academy Award Nominated) script. This film has had phenomenal pre-Oscar buzz, even generating a lot of speculation that it might get nominated for Best Picture. Going into this, Nemo is the odds on favorite to win. It's not a sure bet however, last year Monster's Inc. looked like a shoo-in but Spirited Away stole the prize. The spoiler this year is...
The Triplets of Belleville is a French animated film like no cartoon you've ever seen. On the surface it is the story of a young man who gets kidnapped during the Tour de France, his grandmother, his dog, and three former vaudeville stars. Under the surface, it's so much more. The art is not realistic like Finding Nemo nor bright and colorful like your typical Disney movie. Each character is a perfectly drawn and conceived caricature. The movie itself is a brilliantly rendered commentary. Sadly, Triplets hasn't been very widely seen. It's just reaching a slightly wider limited release now. Could it be too late to get the buzz it so richly deserves? Remember this category is only in its third year, anything could happen!
WHAT GOT LEFT OUT: Jester Till (Till Eulenspiegel), Millenium Actress, Tokyo Godfathers.
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Best Director
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Comparing the films nominated for Best Director this year is like comparing apples to oranges. One is an epic fantasy, another an understated comedy, still another a foreign crime thriller.
This year, New Zealand native Peter Jackson earned his second Directing nomination in three years for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, the final installment in the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. Many have called this film the greatest epic of all time and most agree it is the best of the three films. In addition, many people feel like they Jackson may get this award as a Best Director for the past two years as well. So far, Jacson has won the Broadcast Film Critics Association Award, Director's Guild Award, Golden Globe and a score of other awards. And guess what: no one has ever won the DGA and Golden Globe and then gone on to lose the Oscar, so he's got history on his side. So how can he possibly lose? Well rules were made to be broken, just because it never happened before, doesn't mean it won't happen this year. Also, fantasies don't usually win the major awards. Add to that the fact that box-office champs usually don't score at the Oscars; voters believe they've been rewarded enough. Going into Oscar Night Jackson is the presumptive favorite, but like the trailer for this year's ceremony says "Anything can happen."
Lost in Translation has won a great deal of attention and acclaim this year, as has it director Sophia Coppola is nominated for 3 Oscars this year, and winning any of them will make her a 3rd generation Oscar winner. (Her father Francis Ford Coppola won several awards for the Godfather films and her grandfather Carmine won for Best Original Score for The Godfather: Part II.) Coppola has had a lot of momentum this awards season, though it seems as though her best chance is in the Best Original Screenplay category. If she wins, she will be the first American woman (and only the third woman overall) ever to win Best Director. A few points in her favor: Lost in Translation has won a lot more of the Best Picture-type awards going into this, and two-thirds of the time, the Best Picture also brings home Best Director. Also, three of the directors nominated have no actors nominated from their films (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, City of God and Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World) only 7 times (out of 75) has someone won Best Director without any acting nominations for the film (1929, '30, '32, '49, '58, '87 and '95).
This year marks the twenty-sixth time a director of a foreign language film has been nominated for Best Director (unless you count Elvish as a foreign language) and all twenty-six have been since 1960. However, to date, none of them has won the prize. So does Fernando Meirelles even have a chance? Well it doesn't look too promising. City of God has been virtually unseen in most of the country. The film tells the story of the gangs in Brazil's infamous Cidade de Deus (City of God). While the film has a decent chance in several categories, this doesn't look like one of them. Historically speaking, don't bet on it: only once has a film not nominated for Best Picture won Best Director, and that was in 1928! Still, it should be pointed out that the race between Coppola and Jackson is close enough that if they split the vote...we could be surprised.
This year, Peter Weir earned his fifth Best Director nomination for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. He's never won before, nor has he won any of the pre-Oscar awards this year. He does have the typical Best Director winning-type movie however. The Academy loves epics, especially at sea. Additionally, his film has the second most nominations, so clearly the Academy loved it. Films with lots of nominations often take home the top awards. Unfortunately for him, everyone else in this category has generated more buzz. Will the four time Best Director loser break his streak? It's doubtful, but as I've said before, anyone could surprise us.
Finally we come to Clint Eastwood. Eastwood is the only former winner in this category, having won an Oscar in 1992 for Unforgiven. Mystic River generated a lot of Oscar buzz when it was released in November, but it seemed to have quieted down some by the time the nominees were announced. That aside, Mystic River managed to rack up 6 nominations, all in major categories. Mystic River has 3 acting nominations (beating out Lost in Translation's 1 and the other 3 nominees in this category's 0) and often the man or woman who directed the most acting contenders has a pretty good chance. That said, most of the buzz seems to be for Jackson and Coppola. While Eastwood did win the London Film Critics Award, The National Society of Film Critics Award and the Golden Coach at the Canne Film Festival (The Golden Coach is a "tribute paid by directors - and only directors - to fellow filmmakers for their courage and intransigence in their art. It is a homage to independence and pure cinematic genius.") he didn't win the DGA or Golden Globe. Historically speaking fates are against him, but at the Oscars, the Directors vote for Best Director, so perhaps the Golden Coach award means more than expected.
WHO GOT LEFT OUT: Catherine Hardwicke for Thirteen, Alejandro González Iñárritu for 21 Grams, Anthony Minghella for Cold Mountain, Vadim Perelman for House of Sand and Fog, Gary Ross for Seabiscuit, Jim Sheridan for In America, Andrew Stanton for Finding Nemo, Edward Zwick for The Last Samurai.
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Best Actress
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This year's Best Actress category is filled with surprises. Perhaps the biggest one is Keisha Castle-Hughes, on January 27th, she became the youngest person ever nominated for Best Actress. Keisha is 13 years old, so she beats the previous youngest by a good 7 years. Keisha Castle-Hughes plays Paikea Apirana, a young girl who really wants nothing more than to be accepted by her grandfather, in the New Zealand import Whale Rider. Paikea is the child who would grow up to be chief of the Maori tribe...if only she were a boy. Her emotional struggle to be accepted and respected by her grandfather is portrayed amazingly. Often we forgive young actors for being kind of corny or vacant in their performances, but we don't have to worry about that with Castle-Hughes. Many were thrilled to see her nominated (i nearly screamed when they read off her name), even though she probably doesn't stand a chance. However, if Naomi Watts and Charlize Theron split the vote, could Keisha win in an upset? Hopefully this nomination will be the first of many in a career that seems to be off to a promising start.
Charlize Theron earned her first Oscar nomination ever for her heart wrenching -- and sometimes gut wrenching -- performance in Monster. Theron plays Aileen Wuornos, a hooker who falls in love with a young woman. After accidentally killing one of her Johns she steals his car, his money and goes on the run. Soon she gets a taste for killing and keeps hooking and killing. Theron portrays the emotional torture of her character to a disgusting perfection. Theron won all the major awards goign into this, so it looks like she's the one to beat. Also, as we learned last year, actresses who make themselves uglier for roles (as Nicole Kidman did last year and as Theron did for this film) the Academy eats it up. The only real point against her is that actors and actresses very rarely win for their film's only nomination.
Naomi Watts flew under the Hollywood radar for over 10 years, but in the past few years all that has changed. From arthouse favorites like Mulholland Drive and Le Divorce to crowd pleasers like The Ring she has been everywhere the past few years. Now, she finally earned her first Oscar nomination for her stunning turn as Cristina Pack in the sadly under-noticed 21 Grams. Peck's husband and two children are killed by an negligent driver who goes free on a technicality. Later she falls in love with the man who received a transplant of her late husband's heart. The emotional rollercoaster her character is on will make you cry. She plays the full range of emotions to absolute perfection. Watts is considered the second favorite in this category, unfortunately, her film went largely unnoticed. She has garnered a handful of awards for this role already, but not nearly as many as Theron.
Another name I was both thrilled and surprised to see on the nominees list is that of Samantha Morton. Morton is nominated for her somewhat reserved role of Sarah, a grieving mother and Irish immigrant in Jim Sheridan's In America. Her character is at times the glue holding her family, still hurting from the loss of their son, together. She is both a fun and supportive mother to her two daughters, and a sexy and supportive wife to her struggling actor husband. She gives a subtle, understated performance and is well deserving of this, her second, Oscar nomination. It doesn't seem as though she stands much of a chance going into this, she hasn't won any of thew pre-Oscar awards and wasn't even nominated for half of them. However, like Keisha Castle-Hughes, Morton has a chance if Watts and Theron split the vote.
Diane Keaton won Best Actress in 1977 for the title role in Woody Allen's masterpiece, Annie Hall. Since then she's been nominated twice more, for Marvin's Room and Reds, but lost both times. She is the only former winner in this category and also the only comedic performance. She is nominated for her gutsy older-woman-in-love role in Something's Gotta Give. She's said herself there aren't many romantic comedies about women in their late fifties, so it's refreshing to see how well this film has done and how much acclaim Keaton has gotten. The Academy doesn't tend to give out acting awards for comedies, however Keaton broke that rule before, 27 years ago. She won a Golden Globe as well as a few others. If Keaton has any edge in this category, it's that hers is the only non-Indie film nominated. Could the larger release of the film help her win her second Best Actress prize?
WHO GOT LEFT OUT: Ellen DeGeneres for Finding Nemo, Scarlett Johansson for Girl With A Pearl Earring and Lost In Translation, Nicole Kidman for Cold Mountain, Alison Lohman for Matchstick Men, Nikki Reed for Thirteen, Uma Thurman for Kill Bill, Vol. 1, Evan Rachel Wood for Thirteen
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