The Storylines:
I would be remiss if I didn't mention the momentum that this ceremony has been building upon since early in the season. True, the studio's slate this season lacked mega-hits or well-familiar franchises and it resulted in a low overall box office. That being said, I think this season has been far from a failure. Seventeen of the studio's thirty releases notched a meta-score over 70 and ten of those were over 80! I don't have the stats in front of me but a third of the studio's slate being labeled "must see" seems like a high water-mark to me. And the critical aspect is only one part of it. Again, the overall box office may have been down to a lack of established franchises but a lot of audiences still went to see these lauded films. Mid-budget movies like The Birds, Oklahoma!, Coma, McCain, The Wonder, and Excalibur all made a great profit for the studio. So while we may not have seen as high of highs as we have in the past, I think this season has still been truly remarkable.
And how has that trickled down to the GRAs? I think the clearest indicator is how spread out the nominees are amongst these quality films. For the last 8 seasons, either 16 or 17 films have been nominated at the ceremony. This season saw that number jump to 19 (!) - the highest since the 21(!!) in Season 6 and, thus, the second most in the 4-nominee era. And it is not as if the categories were totally dominated by the 4 Best Picture nominees. Instead, some films that did not reach that mark still made up for it with four, five, and even six (in the case of Oklahoma!) nominations.
Naturally, Excalibur might stand out amongst the crowd due its ten nominations (making it the fifth film to do so). As we will discuss, there are a few things working in the film's favor (including multiple returning GRA winners). However, it is tough to call Roy Horne's dark fantasy adventure film a sure thing as those type of films are not typically awards darlings. So does that mean something more traditional - like McCain or Heights - have a better shot? It is difficult to say.
In the writing categories, one of the things that stands out is the strength of the Best Adaptation category. Most of the time when I write this feature, it is the case that Best Original Story is the stronger category while Adaptation struggles to reach four worthy contenders. Not this time. The Birds, Coma, Excalibur, and Oklahoma! are all four stories that have previously been told on film and found a new, exciting way to get that story told. And even still, you could almost make up a second set of nominations from the highly-rated scripts that were on the outside looking in: The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches, Gambit and Rogue, and The Wonder.
And finally we turn to acting, where each main category is very strong this season. I'd mentioned in my mid-season post that this Best Actress class was shaping up to feature a lot of heavy-hitters and boy does it ever. In terms of storylines, that category might have the most interesting one (which I will get to when we reach the "Previous Winners" section). Meanwhile, all four Best Actor nominees came from the second half of the season and that is not a big surprise as that area felt a bit weak in the first half. Either way, there should be two very worthy winners in those categories.
The Surprises & Snubs:
Surprise: George MacKay - Speaking of the Best Actor field, this is probably the most surprising entrant. Again, it shouldn't be too big of a surprise given the amount of overall love that Excalibur got. And still, MacKay is still a relative unknown after getting his first big leading role in 1917 last year and making only his second and third films at LRF this season. If I had my guess, Bill Hader and Billy Magnussen were the fifth and sixth options in that category with MacKay sneaking in. Perhaps the Silver Star award helped propel him to this spot?
Snub: Revelations, The Wonder, The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches - These are all victims of just a strong overall field. Any other season, I think these films would get more nominations. Part of it may be the familiarity of their formats and topics - novel adaptations or, in the case of Revelations, films about religious families/cults (of which it is a few seasons behind compared to other notable LRF films on that subject).
Surprise: Damien Chazelle - While Chazelle is certainly a celebrated modern filmmaker, it was still surprising to see him get a director nomination over some more notable names.
Snub: The Coen Brothers, Steven Soderbergh - Speaking of those more notable names, these are the two that stick out (along with Clint Eastwood). I think dark comedies are bit difficult for awards voters to deal with, even if Soderbergh and the Coens are some of the best in the business at executing them.
Surprise: Julia Louis-Dreyfus - And on the topic of dark comedies, seeing JLD pop up in the Best Supporting Actress category felt a bit out of the blue. She is a respected comedienne with decades of good work so this may be a bit of a career nomination but it was still surprising to see someone from the No Laughing Matter ensemble land an individual nom.
Snub: Richard Gere, Karl Glusman - Per usual, the Best Supporting Actor category was stacked. Gere had a strong comeback performance in Coma and at least was nominated for Best Villain. Glusman, meanwhile, lost out to his co-star Daniel Craig but it is hard to call that much of a surprise.
Previous Winners:
The Actresses - Folks, this is a really special actress crop this year. Almost like an LRF All-Star game. Let's break down this special occasion even further:
--Margot Robbie - Robbie won Best Supporting Actress in Season 9 for Calamity but this would be her first Best Actress win. She has been nominated twice before for Adr1ft and Crimson.
--Christina Hendricks - This is the third straight season where Christina has been nominated. This the first time the 2-time Best Actress winner has been nominated for Best Supporting Actress. If she wins, it would propel her into unprecedented territory of a third win in one of the acting categories. However, she's not the only won with that chance...
--Brie Larson - Another LRF icon, Larson returns to the GRA stage for the first time since Season 10. She won the two very first Best Actress awards (in addition to winning the Oscar for Best Actress for her previous collaboration with Lenny Abrahamson). The 14-season gap between wins would be the longest in GRA history to this point.
--Mackenzie Foy - Finally, the 19-year-old starlet gets her fifth major acting nomination after having been nominated for Lead and Supporting twice each and winning each of those once.
Nicholas Winding Refn - This marks the fourth time Refn has been nominated for Best Director. He previously won Crowley in Season 8.
Chris Pine & Ben Foster - A win in Best Actor would mark quite the one-two punch for Pine after having won Best Supporting Actor last season for Of Rocks and Sand. Meanwhile, Foster has a chance to do the same except that he won Best Actor last season and could win Best Supporting here. Could you imagine if we have the same two winners as last season?!
Previous Nominees:
Elizabeth Olsen - Olsen is the one actress in the Best Actress slate that has not won an individual GRA before, although she was nominated for her role in one of LRF's biggest films: The Prisoner.
David Fincher - This marks the third time Fincher has been nominated for Best Director although he has yet to win. He was previously nominated for Cold and Survivor (what is it with this guy and one-word titles?!).
Jeff Nichols - While he has been successful at the box office with hits like the Scion series and Superman: The Man of Tomorrow, Nichols has yet to win Best Director (he was nominated once for Scion 3).
Shia LaBeouf - This is the third time Shia has been nominated after Best Supporting Actor noms for The Raven and Our Father. This is his first time in the Best Actor category (although it could be argued he deserved to be there way back in Season 1 for Libra).
Jeremy Irons & Daniel Craig - These two Best Supporting Actor nominees are both no strangers to the GRAs, although this would be their first win in one of the main acting categories.
The Newcomers:
Tom Cruise - Tom Cruise! The mega-star has been nominated for his first official GRA - although he did win the first Lifetime Achievement Award back in Season 5.
Best Supporting Actress - Outside of Hendricks, the other three nominees in this category are first-timers. Petsch has been a frequent presence in the successful Batman franchise while Sarandon was nominated for the Runaway ensemble. This is JLD's first LRF role.
George MacKay & Damien Chazelle - I previously mentioned these two but it is also their first time at the GRAs.
Adam Driver - It was a successful season for the experienced actor after the successful reboot of The Crow franchise and now his first GRA nomination for Oklahoma!.
Alex Conn - This is the first season where Conn has been nominated for a writing nomination (twice, in this case, with Haunted and Heights with John Malone).
Season 16 Preview:
A brief little preview here before I check in again with The Trades. Thus far, the main headlines of the early part of the season seem to be the first-ever pairing of Cruise and Tom Hanks in The King of Hearts and the return of Ripley to the Alien franchise (albeit played by a new actress). There is also a new Alex Conn drama lined up - has his recent success elevated his future work? I will say I am intrigued by Meirad Tako's 1965, as it sounds like a more personal piece and, at the very least, different from most of what we get at LRF. And while talking about different - an animated comedy about the life of the Whammy from Press Your Luck? OK! Looking elsewhere, it seems as though we will have plenty of big properties in the form of more DC & Marvel heroes, as well as the famed Mario franchise making its way back to the big screens (in some manner). That's it for me know - I'll see you all in a couple of months. I hope you enjoy the GRAs as much as I will!
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