The Hollywood Reporter award columnist looks at the stack of award announcements (AFI, NBR, Spirit, USC Scripter Awards) so far this week.
It’s only Tuesday, but this week has already brought a flood of award announcements – the AFI’s top 10 films, the Spirit Awards nominations, the National Board of Review Awards winners and the USC Scripter Awards nominations – that individually can not have much impact on the Oscar Run, but collectively it can, especially in this year when members of the Film Academy feel disconnected from each other and the usual “chatter”.
It is not that there is much overlap between members of the Academy and the AFI selection committee, the nominating committees of the Spirit Awards or the less than a dozen NBR members empowered to vote on behalf of others. Decidedly not.
It’s just that most Academy members are stuck at home wondering which movies in the Academy’s screening room, the exclusive streaming app for Academy members, are really worth prioritizing. (215 are currently live; more are being added regularly.) Typically, interactions with other voters – “word of mouth” – help us make those decisions. But this year, of course, that is not happening.
Up to this point in the season, there have been only a handful of brainless films – the word has arrived all, for example, that spotlight Nomadland and Netflix The Chicago Trial 7 are not to be missed. But in addition, you would be surprised at how confused the members of the Academy have been.
Some told me that they immediately watched the first films that were uploaded to the Academy Screening Room, although they had not heard anything about them, like the one from IFC Babyteeth and swallow. Others focused primarily on their viewing obligations for specific committees, such as documentaries or international films. And still others chose to drop the films until the field turns, and instead they got lost The Queen’s Gambit, Your honor, a Tiger Woods docuseries or anything else currently available on TV.
So how do this week’s ads change that? They concentrate a little heat around certain titles, not others.
There is no doubt that more members of the Academy will check Spike Leein Da 5 Bloods, a film with no known names in its cast – except for the latter Chadwick Boseman, which appears in what is essentially a cameo – which fell back in June, now that it landed on AFI’s top 10 list (one of the four unprecedented Netflix titles that made the list, the others being Black Bottom by Ma Rainey, Mank and Attempts) and awarded as best film and best director by NBR.
Two low-budget art titles are no longer just anecdotally popular, but actually have high-profile accolades to add to your display invitations: Amazon Metal sound and A24’s Minari. Both entered the top 10 of AFI compared to those of Universal World News, although AFI generally gravitates towards the large studio fare.
Minari also rocked the Spirit Awards with nominations for best feature film, director and script (Lee Isaac Chung), main actor (Steven Yeun) and supporting actress (both Yeri Han and Youn Yuh-jung); and NBR, winning best supporting actress (Youn) and best original script (Chung) and falling on the top 10 list. Meanwhile, Metal sound won the best actor (Riz Ahmed) and best supporting actor (Paul Raci) from NBR, which also included him in the top 10, while the Spirit Awards nominated Ahmed and Raci in their respective acting categories, and Darius Marder for the best first resource.
There is no doubt that more voters will now prioritize Channing Godfrey people‘ Miss Juneteenth, a small indie from a company called Vertical Entertainment, since his star, Nicole Beharie, followed her winning the Gotham Award for Best Actress Nomadlandin Frances McDormand with a Spirit Award nomination for best actress, to go with two nominees for the Spirit Award for Peoples (best first feature and best script) and one for Alexis Chikaeze (best supporting actress). Peoples also won the award for best debut in the direction of NBR, while the film won a place in the list of the 10 best indies.
Focus’ Never seldom sometimes always lost the AFI top 10, but was a big player in the nominations of the Spirit Awards – best feature film, director and script (Eliza Hittman), actress (Sidney Flanigan), supporting actress (Talia Ryder), cinematography and editing – and won the love of NBR in the form of a best-performing revelation award (Flanigan) and a spot on the list of the top 10 indies, all in the wake of their New York Film Critics Circle wins best actress (Flanigan ) and script (Hittman).
Others gaining momentum include A24’s First cow, who added a nomination for best feature to the Spirit Award (more nominations for best director Kelly Reichardt and best supporting actress Orion Lee) the same week that it received the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best film and also received a script nomination; Pixar’s Soul, the first animated film since 2016 Zootopia to be part of the top 10 of AFI; And the list goes on.
On the other hand, it was a week of successes and mistakes for Focus’ Promising young woman, which was probably the most anticipated film to make the AFI Top 10 list that did not, and also missed out on a Spirit Award nomination for best feature film that was seen as a gimme. That said, there were several others nominated for the Spirit Award, including best actress for Carey Mulligan and best director and best script for Emerald Fennell. And reached the top 10 of NBR, which also chose Mulligan as its best actress.
The display was even darker for Netflix The Midnight Sky (recognized only with a mention in the top 10 of NBR) and Hulu Palm Springs (no AFI mention, no NBR recognition and just a best first screenplay nominated for the Spirit Award Andy Siara) And things were even worse for Warners’ Principle and The way back, Sony Classics’ The father, From Netflix Malcolm and Marie, Amazon’s Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, Apple TV + ‘s cherry, Hulu’s United States x Billie Holiday, which has been completely overlooked.
The advantage for them, if not for me? Many other ads are just around the corner.