A column that narrates conversations and events in the award circuit.
This crazy season is starting to heat up.
The National Board of Review, usually the first in a “normal” season, decided to stay in the background this time, since the Oscar moved so late to April 25, and the same goes for the Indie Spirit Awards, which also offered your nominations this week. Titles like Nomadland, One Night In Miami, Sound off Metal, Da 5 Bloods and Minari they’re all happy campers because most of these films had repeated scores during the Oscar season’s critical list stage. Analysts looking to predict the race based on these early precursors, be careful: many of these groups follow each other like sheep and generally prefer a minimalist film production, not necessarily the taste of voters working in the industry itself, particularly in the various trades. And, in this extended season, we are now at the point where things can take a sharp turn.
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Next week, we will hear about the Golden Globe and SAG, two thermometers with a much closer history than the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences usually choose. They will be followed in turn by the Critics Choice Association, which also has an enviable history of thought, as does Oscar. However, with the pandemic still in full force and the way films are being consumed by industry and the public, all bets are lost on predicting how close the organizations and “committees” of isolated critics previously announced will influence Hollywood more. mainstream groups based on major TV broadcasting deals like Globes, SAG and Critics Choice Awards; its voters are well aware of the nominations that may also have some appeal to the viewer (I have to keep these networks happy, folks).
If at the end of the next 10 days or so we are still talking about the same few films, many of them quiet little dramas guaranteed to make Joe Popcorn’s eyes glaze, then expect trouble in River City. First cow I’m not likely to receive gold Oscar ratings, if you know what I mean.
ARMOND VS AFI
Indiewire
The American Film Institute also agreed this week, launching its prestigious AFI Top Movies of the Year list, which featured many of the same titles that critics have enjoyed so far, an impressively diverse list that included no less than half featuring predominantly black casts. You might think, with all the talk about the lack of diversity in Hollywood award rituals, that this would be welcome news and, in most circles, a sign that “it was about time”.
But, instead of clapping on the sides and sounding more like a far-right Republican congressman who carries weapons to the Capitol, opposing Armond White, an African-American film critic, got an incredible trash can all 10 AFI selections and called the whole list “agreed”. Here’s like him, writing for the conservative National Review, put it:
“Da 5 Bloods it is brainless and unpleasant. Judas and the Black Messiah: in fact, a 2021 film of legend of systemic racism that AFI could hardly wait to promote. Black Bottom by Ma Rainey: ill-informed and gloomy. Mank: cruel, false and superficial. Minari: meloso and banal. Nomadland: uninteresting social alienation. One night in miami: overly invented false story. Soul: numbing cultural indoctrination. Metal sound: dark, but mushy. Chicago Trial 7: anti-American nostalgia ”. Oh, and “Honorable mention: the forgettable Hamilton. “
There, there Armond. What rock did this “critic” crawl on? If you take this guy seriously, consider your favorites on your list of the best of the decade, including Zach Snyder Steel man and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, a 2018 film by Nicolas Cage called Mom and Dad, and Michael Bay Pain & Gain. Contrarian, in fact.
MANK RAINBOW CONNECTION
One of those films that made the AFI’s top 10 list (a film I loved, Armond) was David Fincher Mank, that tells the story of the creation of the 1941 masterpiece Citizen Kane not through the eyes of his genius director Orson Welles, but through his relatively unknown screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz. Before I finally gain respect and share Kane’s single Oscar for Best Screenplay, Mankiewicz has been a hardworking writer (and drinker) on several screenplays since the beginning of the films spoken in the mid-1920s, including Dinner at eight. He also did a lot of uncredited work (and as a Mank programs hardly even received credit for Kane), and the main one of these films was a film that lived until eternity called The wizard of Oz.
So, what was your contribution to this classic? He suggested that once Dorothy crosses the rainbow, the film will transition from black and white to glorious technicolor. And so it was. “He moved away from that [project] saying, ‘That’s all I can come up with,’ ”said director David Fincher, laughing. “It may be the greatest special effect in the history of cinema.”
Fincher’s fantastic film, now permanently giving the credit that this often uncredited writer deserves, is deceptively full of great special effects in itself, something that in a sensible race for awards this year that lacks many blockbuster-style support films who generally dominate the visual effects category, must be recognized. For starters, Charles Foster Kane’s luxurious castle is largely the work of CGI wizards hidden behind his own cinematic magic curtain. A luxurious coffee table book also arrived from Netflix this week with an impressive scene after another in glorious black and white. Netflix loves to send this type of book linked to its competitors, but with this they outdid themselves.
Searchlight images
‘NOMADLAND’, ‘MANK’, ‘MINARI’ AWOL AT WGA AWARDS
The guilds are all starting their voting processes for their own awards now, so we’ll soon be getting the industry to rate the best of the year and, as mentioned earlier, we’ll have a clearer picture of where this Oscar race really is. going. Today, as a longtime member of the Writers Guild, I received the preliminary list of films eligible for the Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted categories and, even more than usual, a large number of films, including some high-profile pioneers, are not eligible for one reason or another.
Unlike other guilds, the WGA has strict requirements and the script must have been written under the WGA MBA or a good faith agreement with sister guilds in several countries. Among those most visible films competing for the Oscars no on the WGA ballot of eligible roadmaps this year are Minari, Mank (written by Fincher’s father, Jack, who died in 2003), Nomadland, The Father, Pieces of a Woman, Ammonite, Soul (and any other animated film), Emma, David Copperfield’s personal story, Let Them All Talk and several others.
Courtesy of Josh Ethan Johnson
Also missing from the dispute for the original script are Herself, Supernova, The Climb, The Assistant, I Carry You With Me, Farewell Amor and Common love. In the Adapted Roadmap, those who also missed the cut are Hope Gap, Penguin Bloom, Martin Eden, Radioactive and Blithe spirit. Meanwhile, Oscar activists have been sending many of the scripts mentioned above to various voting groups anyway, since in addition to the WGA they are still eligible for other contests, and that, of course, includes Oscar, which does not discriminate against films that do not comply with WGA agreements or other conditions.
KRISTEN WIIG GOES TO OSCAR WITH “BOOBIES”
Cate Cameron
On the surface, Lionsgate’s next comedy Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar (opening on February 12) not exactly shout Oscars, but those behind the new comedy starring Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo are dreaming of the golden statuette anyway, not necessarily for their script written by Wiig and Mumolo (although it’s on the WGA eligibility list), which were previously appointed to Bridesmaids, but for the original song the two stars wrote for the film with Mark Jonathan Davis, also known as Richard Cheese. It is called “I Love Boobies” and lyrically contains all the slang variations for a woman’s breast.
Whether this is just a clever advertising hook to draw attention to the film, or a genuine Oscar offer is an open question, but a source close to the action tells me, “Since this is a unique award season, and we love the song, we’re rolling out the dice. ”I heard that there’s another big musical number from the movie that they’re evaluating for possible Oscar attention, but they better hurry up, as the Best Original Song list will be released in February 9.
No matter what you think of the ironic melody, it might be better to remind the filmmakers that it would not be the first time that something as scandalous as this has landed on the Oscar stage. Does anyone remember the uproar when Seth MacFarlane performed the show in 2013 and sang “We Saw Your Boobs”? It didn’t go very well judging by the outraged reactions online the next day, and This one it was in the pre- # MeToo era.
As for Barb and Star In itself, the film was originally supposed to be released in July, but now it opens on Valentine’s Day weekend, although I’m not sure if “I Love Boobies” is destined to be a classic associated with the most romantic holiday of the years to come. . An Oscar wouldn’t hurt – you go, girls!