Did Academy voters just clear a path to the stage for Steven Spielberg and
"Lincoln"?
Or did they indicate that Spielberg's historical drama has unexpectedly
serious challengers, not in the two CIA-themed dramas that were
expected to be Best Picture contenders, but in David O. Russell's delicious
bipolar comedy "Silver Linings Playbook" and Ang Lee's visionary "Life of
Pi."
With a stunning set of nominations highlighted by a Best Director category
that almost no one could have envisioned, Oscar voters upended conventional
wisdom and placed a huge obstacle in the way of Ben Affleck's "Argo" and Kathryn
Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty," as well as Tom Hooper's "Les Miserables."
Those three directors were left out of the Best Director category in favor of
Spielberg, Russell, Lee and two surprises: Michael Haneke for "Amour" and Benh
Zeitlin for his first feature, "Beasts of the Southern Wild."
And that means that "Argo," "ZDT" and "Les Mis" won't be the last film
standing on Oscar night unless they pull off the extraordinarily rare trick last
performed by "Driving Miss Daisy" in 1989, winning Best Picture without getting
a directing nomination.
The shocking selections by the AMPAS Directors Branch seemingly put Spielberg
into the driver's seat, particularly since the rest of the Academy agreed and
gave "Lincoln" 12 nominations, more than any other movie.
Still, one shouldn't overlook the fact that "Silver Linings Playbook," which
took a hit earlier in the week when Russell failed to land a nomination from the
Directors Guild, came back with a vengeance on Thursday morning, landing
picture, director and writing nominations as well as noms in all four acting
categories: Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence in the lead categories, Robert
De Niro and Jacki Weaver in supporting.
The last movie to pull that off: Warren Beatty's "Reds," in 1981.
(Not to put a damper on the high that the "Silver Linings" crew is no doubt
feeling, but "Reds" lost Best Picture to "Chariots of Fire.")
If "Silver Linings" shows unexpected strength, particularly with the huge
Actors Branch, "Life of Pi" also proves to be a formidable contender. Written
off by some as the last of the big six (behind "Lincoln," "Argo," "ZDT," "Silver
Linings" and "Les Mis"), it captured picture, director and screenplay
nomination, and came in second to "Lincoln" with 11 overall noms.
So instead of "Lincoln," "Argo" and "ZDT" leading the charge, is it now
"Lincoln," "Silver Linings" and "Pi"?
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That's the way it looks, but Oscar watchers shouldn't forget that this has
been a strange season indeed. The combination of earlier nominations and a move
to online voting caused confusion and may have depressed the level of voter
participation (we'll never know, but it's safe to assume that AMPAS has asked
for the figures from PricewaterhouseCoopers).
And voters are now settling in for a long stretch in which they can catch up
on movies they might have missed, re-watch ones they've already seen and change
their minds.
After rushing to have their ballots in by Jan. 4, Academy members now have
almost a full month before they can even cast their final ballots; those polls
don't even open until Feb. 8, four long weeks from now.
That's a lot of time for things to change, a lot of time for "Lincoln" to
hold onto its lead or for "Pi" or "Silver Linings" to mount a rally.
And it may even be time enough for "Argo," "Zero Dark Thirty" or "Les Mis" to
use "we wuz robbed!" as a rallying cry for a Best Picture surge.
The first stretch of this truncated Oscar season has been strange and
chaotic, culminating in some startling nominations. The homestretch might be
dull and endless, or it might be spirited and scrappy.
And speaking of scrappy, what is one to make of the unexpectedly strong
showing for "Beasts of the Southern Wild"? That ragged indie, a Sundance
sensation that managed to stick around all year, not only got the writing
nomination that was expected by most, and the Best Picture nom that was expected
by some, but also got a Best Director slot for the 30-year-old Zeitlin and
a Best Actress nomination for 9-year-old Quvenzhané Wallis, who became the
category's youngest nominee ever, and will be up against the oldest, 85-year-old
Emmanuelle Riva from "Amour."
A year ago this month, Zeitlin brought Wallis onstage at the Sundance Film
Festival, where the pint-sized thespian introduced herself thusly: "I'm
Quvenzhané
Wallis, and I like to party!"
She'll have ample opportunity to do just that now -- and if she does, she'll
fit right in with the vibe of a nominations announcement that was part
announcement and part comedy routine between Oscar host Seth MacFarlane and
actress Emma Stone.
The first sign that this wasn't your father's Oscar announcement might have
been the fact that Academy President Hawk Koch had turned the usual prez duties
over to MacFarlane. The second was MacFarlane's minute or so of standup before
he introduced Stone. The third was the fact that Stone's introduction included a
plug for her new movie, "Gangster Squad," this from an organization that until
recently didn't even allow movie ads on the Oscar show because they thought it
would be unseemly.
Other surprises, shocks, snubs and significant head-scratchers:
The Academy showed a distinct lack of affection for Wes Anderson's "Moonrise
Kingdom," which received a screenplay nom but nothing else.
On the other hand, voters showed lots of amour to "Amour," which landed the
expected Best Foreign Language Film nomination but also got into the Best
Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and Best Original Screenplay fields.
In more good news for "Amour," the selection committees narrowed the
foreign-language category down from the nine-film shortlist to the five,
and did not choose "The Intouchables," the French box-office hit and
Weinstein Company release that might have had a chance to upset "Amour" in the
final voting.
In the acting categories, voters failed to recognize John Hawkes ("The
Sessions") and Marion Cotillard ("Rust and Bone"), both of whom were thought to
be in line for nominations.
In the Best Animated Feature category, the giant-slayer wasn't one the usual
foreign-language entries from GKIDS, but Sony Animation's "The Pirates! Band of
Misfits" in place of DreamWorks Animation's big-budget "Rise of the Guardians."
"The Pirates!" joins Focus' "ParaNorman" in a category otherwise owned by
Disney/Pixar, which landed the three other noms for "Brave," "Frankenweenie" and
"Wreck-It Ralph."
And getting back to that wild Best Director category, earlier this week we
wrote about how it would likely feature four former winners squaring off against
each other. But by snubbing past champs Bigelow and Hooper, Academy voters came
up with two past winners, Spielberg and Lee; one former nominee, Russell; and
two newcomers, Zeitlin and Haneke.
That left Best Supporting Actor as the category in which everybody in the
running (Tommy Lee Jones, Christoph Waltz, Robert De Niro, Alan Arkin and Philip
Seymour Hoffman) already has an Oscar at home.
As for what all this portends come the Oscar show on Feb. 24, who knows?
It's safer to predict, based on MacFarlane's performance in announcing the
nominations, that the show will be loose and jokey.
And maybe even, if these nominations are any indication, a little
surprising.
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Lincoln is over rated. I found it boring. I did think the acting was superb. Argo was the best movie this year. Ben Affleck should have been awarded the Oscar for best director.
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