I am Reuben Schwartz, Awards Columnist for the Golden Reel Awards, and welcome back to For Your Consideration! This is now the third awards season I have reported on and I look forward to many more. The goal of my column is to cover the major storylines regarding the GRAs and putting them in context of the studio’s illustrious history. So let’s get things started, shall we?
The Storylines
Storylines
Discussing this awards season is nearly impossible without contextualizing it within the season as a whole. To put it bluntly, this season was a bit of a mess - both financially and critically. That is not to say it was necessarily bad but that it simply did not produce many films that fit the typical “awards” mold. There’s a few reasons for that.
The first is that the season was filled with genre fare. Nine of the thirty films were sci-fi related, alone. This included some additions to iconic franchises like Halo and Mass Effect. Outside of that you will see a lot of horror, fantasy, etc. And, again, that’s not a bad thing at all - it just throws the usual awards conversation into a tough spot.
One not need look much farther than the Best Actress category, which includes some fine actresses. However, if you include The Stand, 8 of the 12 potential candidates were from a film with some typical fantasy/sci-fi element. Most years we get a contender or two from those type of films but this is was basically a lock that one would sneak in a nomination out of basically having no other choices. Thus, the likes of Emma Roberts and Michelle Williams likely nabbed a nomination this season when they would’ve been outside of the top 6 or 7 contenders in any other season.
The other roadblock in this year’s awards season is that a lot of prestige-type films that looked good on paper just fell flat. The most notable is The Devil in the White City - a well-known property, established director and stacked cast. Other examples include Beartown and Alex Conn films like Oh Johnny Boy and Isla Vista that face heavy GRA-favorable topics but where something got lost in translation. And so it wasn’t like the studio wasn’t trying to fill that dramatic quota, it just turns out they were betting on films that struggled to deliver.
And so this made my column a little more difficult this year. While I usually like to highlight the returnees and the newcomers, this year feels like virtually ALL newcomers (hold for a few). Even the Best Adaptation category will be won by someone new this season. On one hand, it’s great that fresh blood is getting recognized. And most, if not all, of the nominees are certainly worthy. But that might be because there quite frankly not many alternatives so it had to be them. As a result, both surprises and snubs were hard to select because there wasn’t much in either direction.
The biggest beneficiary of the nature of this season is Buried Child, which broke the GRA nominations record at 10. The Production Design and Soundtrack nominations can always be a bit of a crapshoot (unless there is only four options like for Soundtrack this year) so landing those helped. Not to mention what I believe to be the first time ever a film has landed nominations in all four acting categories. In any other season, Eastwood and Fraser would've likely got recognized. As for Richardson and Lange, it is a bit more questionable. But again, the options were limited on the actress side. And so, even if Buried Child is not as good some of the best we've seen on LRF screens in past seasons, it had luck on its side this time around.
Another major beneficiary was The Stand. As I previously mentioned, it is mostly a drama but does feature some genre elements (it is a Stephen King property, after all). Frankly, I found Emma Roberts to be rather unmemorable (Eric Bana though...). And as I will discuss shortly, it also benefitted this season from having an A-list director guiding it as opposed to some of lesser names directors this season has seen.
A storyline that stands out as I am doing this write-up is that this has been a nice season for returns from the old studio days. Actors like Matt Damon and Michelle Williams show up and garner nominations in their first roles back. Meanwhile, writers like Matt Parker and Mark Newton returned to the studio after extended absences. It feels good to know that they weren’t gone for good.
This is one of those seasons where the Best Picture nominees are succinct in summarizing the major players at this show. All four writers - Chad Taylor, Mo Buck, James Morgan, Lon Charles - are no strangers to the GRAs, although one could argue that none of these films are their respective bests. When you take away Soundtrack and Production Design, those four films all fall within the 7-9 nomination range, which would be the highest amount in any other season. Which means that because of the shallow eligibility pool, this awards season has turned out a little top heavy.
On the bright side, having these contenders share the spotlight means that there is no clear favorite going into the night. And so the lack of flavor in the build-up to the awards should be made up by the spice provided by the anticipation of the actual show itself. We could be in store for another Prisoner-like sweep or a situation like Season 9 where the awards were distributed rather equally. Either way, we don’t know and at least that is exciting!
The Surprises & Snubs
Snub: Mark Ruffalo - While Oh Johnny Boy failed to reach the heights of previous writer-directorial debuts, there were certainly some bright spots. Most of those boil down to the cast really working with what they’ve got, especially Ruffalo. No category this was super strong so he likely had a chance to get into the Supporting Actor category.
Surprise: J.J. Abrams - Again, The Stand was able to take the most benefits from the nature of this field and this another example. Abrams has always had a touch for directing blockbusters but he doesn’t often find his name in awards talk. I think there may have been stronger options this season if we’re pulling from big budget films (Cuaron, Lowery, Rian Johnson come to mind) but J.J. still might have a chance given that him and Eastwood are the only two known names in the category.
Snub: Sabrina Carpenter - While I said that the Best Actress choices were shallow, I’m surprised Carpenter didn’t land a nomination. Coming into this process, I not only thought she had a chance at getting nominated but I also thought she could win. While the other ladies in this category were in better-received films, Carpenter had a classic good-performance-in-a-mediocre-movie and this made her campaign an uphill battle. She’s young and has a long career ahead of her but it is unfortunate for her that couldn’t get nominated in a season like this.
Snub: Channing Tatum & Mary Elizabeth Winstead - There’s not much gravitas to the Starring Couple award and I find it best used when awarding casting directors who discovered a chemistry between two actors that works. I don’t think any of the nominees are undeserving but I found myself liking this Flash Gordon pairing the most out of just about any other couple in the season.
Surprise: To the Other Side - Like last season, the Best Original Story category was weaker than usual and left room for a surprise nomination. You have to feel for Seth Overton as Mass Effect 3 Part 1 would have almost assuredly gotten recognizing in this category but had a tough time breaking into the Adaptation fray. At least To The Other Side is a more deserving than Maximum Max. Perhaps the most surprising omission here was Long Time.
Snub: Ethan Hawke - Almost every year we have a great performance who can’t quite make it into Best Actor and that belongs to Hawke this year. Most of this category is filled with actors who, like Tom Hardy at LRF, are almost assured a nomination if they get a role that’s at least a little juicy. Hawke, meanwhile, has been steadily finding his footing at LRF but this just didn’t seem to be his time yet.
The Returns
Previous Winners:
Alden Ehrenreich - As much as we laud Alden for the name he has established for himself at the studio, it is somewhat surprising that he has only won one solo acting award thus far. Still, he has been nominated 7 different times across categories and won in Season 6 for his performance of Andy Woodward in Death Dream.
Christian Bale - While Christopher Nolan has not been seen since, Mr. Bale took his time to recuperate from the critical/financial flop of Drake and has found himself nominated for Best Actor for the second time this season. He was a winner in Season 4 for playing George Washington in Delaware - a role that has been a little forgotten about as a the seasons roll on.
Haley Lu Richardson - As a part of Buried Child’s representation in all four acting categories, Richardson finds herself back at the GRAs once again in her young career. She came onto the scene hot with her performance in Season 8’s Runaway and is quickly rising up with the likes of Ehrenreich and Mackenzie Foy as homegrown products of LRF’s system.
James Morgan - In the LRF 100, James Morgan made up 3 of the 10 slots in Best Original Story - including #1 and #2. #1, Into Thin Air, won Morgan his only Best Original Story GRA. #2, meanwhile, spawned a prequel: this season’s The Raven, for which he currently finds himself nominated.
Mo Buck - Like Morgan, Mo Buck is no stranger to the Best Original Story category. This is his 7th nomination in that spot. He previously won in Season 5 for Cape Torment and Season 9 with Calamity.
Previous Nominees:
Lon Charles - It may surprise you as it did me that Charles - one of the studio’s most consistent producer of original work - has never won the Best Original Story award. With heavy hitters like Suzanne and Buried Child in the Adaptation field, Newbury Street seems like the favorite here (with The Raven close behind). Could this finally be his season?
Best Adaptation - Three of the four writers in this category have been nominated before. Chad Taylor, nominated twice here, has been in this category four times before but never won. Harry Wright was nominated once before for Grand Theft Auto (which is to say I like his chances more this time around). And, one of the most notable stories of this season, Matt Parker returns to LRF after six seasons off and to the GRAs after TEN whole seasons. He was nominated for Paradise Lost in Season 1 - back when it was still known as Best Screenplay!
Naomi Watts - Watts, like her on-screen husband Billy Crudup, was nominated for supporting work in Long Time. Speaking of Lon Charles, you may remember that she was previously nominated in the same category for her performance as Hillary Clinton in Season 7’s Stained.
Rami Malek - This marks the second straight season where the recent Oscar winner has been nominated in the Best Starring Couple category - and the second time with a male co-star! Last season saw him with Jake Gyllenhaal for Blackbird and now he is with Christian Bale for Radisson.
Eric Bana - The Best Villain nominee had himself quite the season with three different roles. His last GRA nomination came way back in Season 2 for the role of Mr. Nyx in Siren.
The Newcomers
Shia LaBeouf - All four Best Supporting Nominees are first-time nominees, although most are also in their first or second film for the studio. I highlight Shia because he has been around since Season 1 and has seen some interesting parts in the meantime. He probably should have been nominated for Libra but faced some stiff competition in that inaugural season.
Best Actress - We’ve already talks aplenty about this Best Actress race but it should be noted that they are all first time nominees. Jessica Lange and Emma Roberts both made their studio debuts with their respective roles. Patricia Clarkson was last seen in Swim Through the Darkness but this is only her second role. And, similarly, this only the second role for Michelle Williams after Season 3’s Red Planet.
Matt Damon - Like Matt Parker and Shia LaBeouf, this proved to be a good season for people who made an impact in Season 1. Damon’s only previous role was in the Bourne-like Osterman Weekend and now finds himself nominated after his long-awaited return to the studio. And he certainly didn’t get in on name alone after delivering one of the most memorable performances of the season.
Best Director - All the nominees in here are new, as well, but that should come as no surprise. This season saw excellent work from a lot of less-mainstream names - Potter, Field, Mike Mills - and so this category was bound to feel a bit different. There were prestige names like Fincher and Cuaron but their movies didn’t quite merit a nomination. It is surprising that Joe Wright was left out of the running, especially considering some of the love that Radisson got in nominations.
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