For Your Consideration with Reuben Schwartz (Season 27)

 

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:

Season 27 is the type of awards season that I love. I look out on this field and don’t see many strong favorites. Instead, this is a collection of solid films and performances that could end up resulting in a wildly unpredictable night.

Two films lead the way in nominations: Time Out! and Territory, two crime films of a different kind. The latter feels like it could be a contender in the four top categories. Zahler might be the favorite in Director while Vince Vaughn and Grace Dove are certainly in contention for the main acting categories. The former is missing from the Best Actress category but that doesn’t make it any less of a threat. The two films will first go head-to-head in Best Original Story, although that has sometimes gone a different way than Best Picture in the past so a win there doesn’t guarantee anything.

That is especially true because there is a crop of films just below that upset the apple cart. The other Best Picture nominees - Batman: Knightfall and Pompeii - each come in with five nominations each. Batman would be the first superhero film to win Best Picture, a crowning achievement for a genre that has dominated the cinematic landscape in and outside of LRF. Pompeii, on the other hand, would be the first non-Bond novel adaptation to win the award and a rare Best Picture winner with no nominees in the main four acting categories.

Speaking of those acting awards, they all feel like they could be anyone’s game. You’ll see in the previous winners/nominees section below but this crop features a lot of new faces to the GRAs. Could it be a career achievement night for the likes of Vaughn and Patrick Wilson? Could we see a new starlet crowned in the Best Actress category? There are a lot of interesting subplots everywhere you look. And I, for one, am excited to see how they play out!


The Surprises & Snubs:

Snub: Tomato Can - This turned out to be a tough showing for Tomato Can, which notched an 80 critical score but only one GRA nomination. Can Vikander help redeem the film's performance with a Best Actress win?

Surprise: Taylor Russell - Speaking of Best Actress, this was an impressive nomination for Russell considering she beat bigger names like Emma Watson, Michelle Williams, and Elizabeth Olsen. 

Snub: Antonio Banderas - Wonder Woman: Labyrinth is another film that feels woefully under-reperesented here, but especially Banderas as the film's villain. As we'll get to later, the Best Villain category is fairly tough but I would've liked to see Banderas find a spot there.

Surprise: The Passenger - This was a pleasant surprise, all things considered. Novel adaptations have had a poor reputation at LRF but this one got a nomination over bigger IP adaptations.

Snub: Territory's Soundtrack - This might be the biggest surprise for me of the whole ceremony. The Bob Seger soundtrack was a key ingredient in making this film click and I thought it was a shoo-in for a nomination here.

Previous Winners:

Kyle Chandler - Of the main four acting categories, Kyle Chandler is the only nominee who has previously won one of those. He's won Best Supporting Actor twice (Death Dream, Ghost Town) and is looking to break his tie with Revival co-star Tom Hanks for most wins in that category.

Eric Bana - Bana left a memorable impression as Randall Flagg in The Stand back in Season 10, resulting in a Best Villain win.

Mads Mikkelsen - Bana's competitor in that category, Mikkelsen, is also a previous winner — 24 seasons ago for Season 3's Blood Countess.

Previous Nominees:

S. Craig Zahler - Zahler is still trying to break through with a win in this category. This is his fourth nomination since season 10 (and his third for a Dwight Gallo-penned film).

Jessica Biel - There are not many actors in the main four categories who have been nominated before. Biel is an exception but she was last named all the way back in Season 1 for Invisible Monsters.

Wyatt Russell - The Hippie Preacher marks Russell's fourth nomination in an acting category, his second in Best Actor (Everything Will Be Alright in Season 24).

Joseph Kosinski - Knightfall marks the second time Kosinski has been nominated for Best Director for a Batman film. The last time was the second film in the franchise, Caped Crusader.

Francis Lawrence - Three of the Best Director nominees have been nominated before as Lawrence was nominated in Season 4 for Synthetic — another Mark Newton collaboration.

Vince Vaughn - This is actually Vaughn's first main acting nom, although he was previously nominated for Best Villain for his role of Kingpin in The Black Cat Strikes Again!

The Newcomers:

Mark Newton - One of LRF's longest-tenured writers, Pompeii marks Newton's first appearance in the Best Adaptation category. 

The Safdie Brothers - The odd men out in the Best Director category, this is their first nomination in their fourth appearance at LRF.

Everybody Else - There is a good amount of Best Ensemble nominations among this years acting crop but outside of Chandler, Russell, and Biel, they are all nominated for the first time in one of the main four acting categories.