Welcome back to For Your Consideration with Reuben Schwartz! In this post, I will recap the nominations for the latest Golden Reel Awards, the various storylines going into the ceremony and look back to locate its place within LRF's history.
The Storylines:
If I were to label the 25th edition of Last Resort Films, I’d call it the Season of the Sequel. Seven of the top twelve highest-grossing films at the domestic box office were installments in existing franchises. This is reflected in the batch of GRA nominees as well, Punisher: Last Exit and Carte Blanche being near the top of nomination totals.
Carte Blanche appears to be the one to beat. Its predecessor, Risico, won the trifecta of Adaptation, Director, and Picture. Despite having less nominations than that film, some are saying Carte Blanche is better than the first, so you have to imagine it’s in contention for all of those awards again. You have the additional narrative of the film’s massive box office success, which helped save Season 25 from being an all-time low for the box office.
Punisher: Last Exit, on the other hand, is—appropriately enough—out for revenge. The first film, like Risico, nabbed nine nominations but only won three (Soundtrack, Sequel, Supporting Actress) as it lost out on Best Picture, Director, Actor, and Adaptation. This sequel has come locked and loaded to contend in all four of those categories again, with the addition of a serious contender in Best Actress through breakout star Raffey Cassidy.
Outside of those two, Revival is also a top contender this season. The film certainly has a pedigree behind it with multi-time acting nominees Kyle Chandler and Tom Hanks, writer Chad Taylor, and the director-author combination of Frank Darabont and Stephen King. Like The Punisher, and Carte Blanche to a degree, Revival is a dark film and so you have to wonder how much that will hurt its chances.
Particularly in comparison to the fourth Best Picture nominee: Believe It Or Not!. Seth MacFarlane’s film, on the other hand, had a rather circuitous route to Best Picture. Like Shoe Dog last season, the film’s four nominations rank the lowest among the Best Picture nominees but could have a chance at landing Best Actor and Original Story, which would certainly give it momentum heading into the biggest award of the night.
One element of this awards race I wanted to point out is that season marks one of the strongest Best Adaptation races we’ve ever seen. Three Best Picture nominees come from that category while the fourth, Batgirl, certainly has its fans amongst the crop of comic book films this season. For a category that is usually overshadowed by Original Story, this is certainly the year of the adaptation. Another strong category is Best Villain. Most nominees either were (in the case of del Toro) or could’ve been nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category while a handful of snubs could’ve easily made it into the mix (Rhys Wakefield, Gary Oldman, Kate Winslet, etc.).
The Surprises & Snubs:
Surprise: Melanie Lynskey - Admittedly, there are not a lot of surprises in this season’s batch of nominees. One that stood out was Lynskey’s nomination for Nineteen Minutes, a film that had little awards buzz coming into the ceremony. For what it’s worth, this is certainly deserved but a surprise nonetheless.
Snub: Kate Winslet - On the other side of the coin, we have Lynskey’s Heavenly Creatures co-star, who missed out on a Best Supporting Actress nomination. Acting nominations for roles in superhero films are relatively rare but, given Sink’s nomination in Best Actress, it was somewhat surprising to see Winslet miss out here.
Surprise: Jonny Lee Miller - This is a peculiar one. Miller’s celebrated performance as Lucifer in the second Sandman film did not get nominated in the Best Villain category but instead landed a surprise nomination in Best Supporting Actor. Once again, perhaps that speaks to the strength of the villain category this season.
Snub: Seth MacFarlane - I imagine Seth, Lon, and company are quite content with the nominations the film got. Nonetheless, for a Best Picture nominee, you’d have to think Best Director was also a distinct possibility.
Surprise: Katherine Langford & Evan Peters - It’s always nice to see a film grab a surprise nomination and that’s the case with Skin here. While some were critical of the script, the film’s acting was celebrated and that bears fruit in the Best Starring Couple category here (although I imagine they have little chance to win).
Snub: Andrew Garfield - It seems like just about every season we have the case of a Best Actor contender being the odd man out of the nomination field. That’s the case for Garfield here, a nominee last season who some considered to be a possible winner here.
Previous Winners:
Denis Villeneuve - The Best Director category has three multi-time nominated directors but none moreso than Villeneuve, who has now been nominated for his last four films (all but his first for the studio). He won back in Season 14 for Control.
Sam Mendes - Mendes is a two-time nominee, having won it back in Season 17 for The Glass Menagerie—although some argued he was snubbed for his two most recent outings, Klondike and The House of Romanov.
Emma Stone - Stone also has a fairly strong track record in terms of getting nominated when she shows up at LRF. With a total of six films, she’s now been nominated for Best Supporting Actress once and Best Actress twice, having won for Under Pressure.
Tom Hanks - Despite being the lead star in most of his films, Hanks now finds himself back in the Best Supporting Actor category, an award he won back in Season 17 for The King of Hearts.
Kyle Chandler - As previously discussed, Hanks’ co-star is one of the most celebrated actors in LRF’s history and his two Best Supporting Actor trophies (Ghost Town and Death Dream) are considered to be some of the best performances the studio has seen. But Best Actor remains elusive, after arguably being snubbed for his performance in Walker and losing out to Chris Pine after his appearance in Poison Ivy.
Mo Buck - Special mention is deserved for Mo Buck’s return to the Best Original Story category. Buck has been nominated for the award 11 times and has won it three times (Don’t Hang Up, Calamity, and Cape Torment).
Previous Nominees:
Sadie Sink - As if there were any question, Sadie Sink is a bonafide star at LRF. She’s now been nominated for Best Actress for her last three performances, but the award itself remains elusive. Could Scarlet be the breakthrough?
Saoirse Ronan - As for Sink’s fellow Best Actress nominee, Saoirse has had to wait much longer than Season 24 to be nominated in the category again. She was last nominated way back in Season 3 for Amelie (which is also the last time Wes Anderson worked for the studio before this season).
Mel Gibson - This marks only the second time in the Best Actor category that an actor has been nominated twice for the same role. The other person to do it? Leonardo DiCaprio for playing Julius Caesar, the first time beating…Mel Gibson for The Punisher. Perhaps second time’s the charm for Mel.
S. Craig Zahler - Meanwhile, Gibson’s Punisher director has now been nominated for Best Director three times, first for his LRF debut 7 Days and the second time for the first Punisher film.
Ryan Gosling - While it’s been a while since we’ve seen a Mo Buck film before this season, it’s been even longer since Gosling has been at LRF. He was last seen in Season 17 as The Question in Justice League Dark. He’s been nominated for Best Actor once, back in Season 14 for The Killings.
The Newcomers:
Best Supporting Actress - This category is full of all first-time nominees. Screen legends Sally Field and Helen Mirren have both made a handful of LRF films but this is their first to get awards recognition. It’s Newton, however, who is the most tenured at the studio as Tinseltown is her tenth LRF film and first awards nomination.
Best Supporting Actor - Outside of Hanks, this category is also populated with first-time nominees. Yahya Abdul-Mateen II will happily take a GRA nomination alongside the starring role in mega-hit Man Made Machine. Benicio del Toro has worked infrequently at the studio over the years but this could mark a big comeback. And Jonny Lee Miller nabs a nomination with his LRF debut.
Raffey Cassidy - While she has had some work with LRF in the past, The Punisher: Last Exit marks an immediate star-making turn for first-time nominee Cassidy. Studio sources tell me that she is already being circled for a supporting part in a major Season 26 release.
Seth MacFarlane - While not his first LRF venture (he’s made multiple films with Jacob Jones), MacFarlane is in good graces with awards voters after his buzzed about performance as Robert Ripley.
Andrew Doster - A few seasons back, long-time LRF writer Doster was nominated for the first time in Best Adaptation for Odysseus - Part One. He can now cross Best Original Story off of his list after a nomination for Tinseltown.
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