Reuben Schwartz here. You probably know the gig by now: I will cover the
major storylines of this awards season in an attempt to contextualize
Season 14 within the studio’s illustrious history. I'm always excited by
this time of the year and this season is no different. Let's get down
to business...
The Storylines:
For the first
time this season, I made a mid-season post called ‘The Trades’ that
analyzed where the season was at after Round 5. I made the comment at
the time that the awards races had a lot of question marks as there
weren’t a lot of awards-friendly releases in that first half. However,
when looking ahead to films that had been announced, you might recall I
had this to say about a certain release:
“After helping build up his reputation at the studio to new heights on the television front, Dwight Gallo’s
Born in Brooklyn has been circled on the calendars of a lot of fellow awards prognosticators for a while now.”
I’m not saying me and my fellow awards columnists are modern-day Nostradamus because it shouldn’t be a surprise that
Born in Brooklyn
did so well. It looked good on paper and excelled those expectations.
Going into Season 11, no films had ever reached 10 nominations at one
ceremony. There have been three in the last two seasons alone! And one
could argue that Ben Affleck was in the running for Best Actor, which
would have pushed it into unprecedented territory of 11 nominations. For
what it’s worth, I thought Oleff gave the best performance of the film
so I’m glad he didn’t get overlooked because of his age.
Born in Brooklyn is contending in just about every major category. Right there with it is
A Lost Sense of Heaven,
which is also represented in every major category except for Best
Actor. When it comes to those acting races, you could reasonably argue
all three will feature showdowns between actors from those two films
(although this may be a disservice to Amy Adams). In the actress
categories in particular, it is interesting that both feature a young
actress versus a veteran actress. At the same time, both races also
feature some of the most celebrated actresses in LRF history (Hendricks
and Foy) versus two relative newcomers to the GRA game (Pugh and
Parker).
But just because those films racked up noms in the acting categories doesn’t necessarily make this a two-horse race.
Control
fell a bit behind those two front-runners because of the supporting
categories but it still came away with a healthy 6 nominations. I’d
argue that it probably has the front-runner for Best Director with
Villeneuve looking to win his first trophy in his third try. Thus, Best
Picture could go to any of these three (and I’ll talk about the fourth
later on). This season’s awards race was fascinating because of the
wrench that Round 10 threw into the mix.I’m not sure if there has ever
been two legit awards contenders released in the last season.On one
hand, that makes these things very hard to predict. On the other hand,
it is very exciting!
While those three films are the
three-headed monster at the top, there were some surprising films that
took a hit at the nominations ceremony. I will talk about two former
front-runners (
Germinal and
The Temptations) below.
Harrelson, The Great Beyond and
The Stranger
were also formidable late-season additions that seemed to have a shot
but only came away with 2 nominations each. And despite a hard-pressing
FYC campaign by its writer,
The Letter J only nabbed one
nomination for Best Starring Couple (which might partially be down to
the star power of its pair - more on that later).
I will say
that there were a few categories that were notably weak this year. One
is Best Adaptation. When I tried to predict these categories, I actually
nailed all four of those nominees but it was a bit of a struggle (
Germinal and
Superman
seemed like locks). But that’s because those were the only four films I
even thought were worthy of a nomination (so you won’t be seeing any
Adaptation snubs). However, I’m sure the studio would rather this
category be thin than the Original category. The actress categories were
also not the strongest.
A Lost Sense of Heaven gave this a shot
in the arm with two front-runners but the third and fourth spots in the
field were very thin. This led to some surprise nominations, which I
will cover later.
So let’s get to the special categories, shall we?
The Surprises & Snubs
Snub/Surprise: The Temptations
- “How could this be a snub if it was nominated for Best Picture?” Good
question! In my mid-season post, I mentioned how there were only two or
three serious Best Picture candidates at that point and this was one of
them (I’ll mention the other in a second). However, outside of
Soundtrack, we went a long time in this nominations announcement without
hearing the film’s name. Best Starring Couple, Original Story,
Supporting Actor, Lead Actor were all possibilities. It got to the point
where the biggest surprise was that it was nominated for Best Picture!
Given this circumstance, you may even be able to argue that this is the
biggest Best Picture nominee surprise since Synthetic in Season 5
(despite coming into the ceremony as a favorite).
Surprise: Karen Gillan
- Wow! This fourth spot in Best Actress was always going to be
unpredictable. Elizabeth Olsen, Elle Fanning, Marion Cotillard, Gugu
Mbatha-Raw and Tessa Thompson were some actresses that came to mind. The
key difference between those roles and Gillan’s is that her’s was the
only one where she was definitely the lead of the film. And so while her
nomination might be a surprise, it is nice to see a female-led film get
a spot in this category.
Snub: Germinal - This is
another early season favorite that lost steam as the season went along.
While Pattinson still has a good shot at Best Actor (and it’s is the
favorite in Adaptation by default), the other lack of nominations was
eye-opening. I thought it had its best shot in Ensemble Cast but these
last few rounds really took it over. This was likely Jean-Luc Godard’s
last chance at Hollywood awards glory before the end of his career.
Surprise: David Cronenberg
- Speaking of the Director category, this was the biggest surprise.
However, Walker did have an impressive showing and Cronenberg is
obviously respected in the industry. I actually thought this was a
strong Director field this year. In addition to Godard, other directors I
thought had a chance include David McKenzie, Ang Lee, Clint Eastwood,
Jeff Nichols, and Yorgos Lanthimos. For real, you could pick any four
out of those six and it would be a respectable field. Thus, the four who
did get nominated should be proud of their accomplishments.
Snub: The Devil’s Passage - While maybe not as notable as
Germinal or
The Temptations,
it was a shame that this film’s cast was not recognized. I thought it
was one of the best assembled group of actors of the season.
Surprise: Superman: The Man of Tomorrow -
OK, OK, I know what you’re thinking. “But Reuben, you called this
film’s success in your mid-season post so how can this be a surprise?”
Another good question! At that point in the season, I thought it had a
good chance at standing out amongst a shallow field. But as I’ve already
detailed, the awards races gained strength as the season rolled along
and that makes Superman’s 7 nominations a surprise! A delightful
surprise. It was also a major beneficiary of the weak actress fields as
Frances McDormand got a spot in Best Supporting Actress (I always
thought she was a great choice for that role).
Previous Winners:
Christina Hendricks
- This is Christina’s third Best Actress nomination, tying her for the
most along with Jennifer Lawrence and Brie Larson. Hendricks previously
won in Season 7 for
The Question: The End.
Colin Farrell - Not only has Colin Farrell won Best Actor before but he also did it with the same director in
The Death of an Honest Man. Could the Farrell/Lanthimos pairing prove magical once more?
Best Original Story
- Per usual, this category is stacked and that is accentuated by the
fact that all the nominees have won before. The first two winners of the
award, Dwight Gallo and James Morgan, return after having previously
won for
Blackwater and
Into Thin Air (Morgan also won for
The Raven). Chad Taylor has the most trophies in this category, winning for
Scion, Cascade, Calamity and
Ghost Town. And even the very pairing of Jimmy Ellis and John Malone have won before, having won just last season for
Elysian.
Mackenzie Foy
- Mackenzie Foy is tied for the record of most acting wins in GRA
history with 4 (2 of which are Best Starring Couple). She won Best
Actress for
Kite and Best Supporting Actress for
Lullabies for Little Criminals. It feels inevitable that we see a Mackenzie Foy/Alden Ehrenreich pairing in the future (I’ll keep an eye out on the Trades).
Previous Nominees:
Jake Gyllenhaal - This marks Jake’s fourth time being nominated in the Best Actor category. All four have come since Season 9 (
Batman: The Caped Crusader, Blackbird, Torso). This ties him with Alden Ehrenreich, who has won twice.
Lucas Hedges & Elle Fanning
- I expected our first two-time nominated pairing in the Best Starring
Couple category but this was not the pair I had predicted. Instead of
Control’s top starring couple,
The Letter J gets its one nomination by putting together two of LRF’s biggest young stars who were previously nominated for
Letter to Myself. Could this be LRF’s “it” pairing?
Billy Crudup - After having been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role in
Long Time, Crudup is back in the category for
Born in Brooklyn.
Roy Horne & Matt Parker
- Both of these writers have been nominated before in Best Adaptation
but are yet to win. Parker was nominated in Season 11 for
The Stand while Horne has been nominated twice (two anime adaptations:
Perfect Blue and
Kite).
Frances McDormand & Sarah Gadon - After her acclaimed performance in
Eileen
was snubbed in favor of Joey King, McDormand is back for redemption in
Best Supporting Actress with this famous comic book role. Gadon,
meanwhile, is best known for her blockbuster work in
Halo but was nominated in this category last season with
Blind Faith.
Florence Pugh
- At this point in her young career, Pugh’s batting average at LRF is
pretty good. She racked up Best Supporting Actress nominations with her
first two roles -
The Tower and
One for the Ages - and is now making her step up to Best Actress.
Denis Villeneuve
- Heralded by many as the best of his generation but Villeneuve does
not have much to show for himself when it comes to the GRAs. He was
nominated for
Costa Nostra and
Torso but is yet to win. Could this be the time he finally breaks through?
The Newcomers:
Lynne Ramsay
- While Affleck and Cronenberg are also first time nominees, I just
wanted to point out Ramsay’s persistence. This is her fourth directing
job for the studio. I don’t have director stats so I’m not entirely sure
but that has to be one of the most frequent collaborators with the
studio. So for her to get nominated in her fourth film is definitely a
feel-good story (even if her films often aren’t!). I’m sure Jack Ryder
is somewhere smiling.
Wyatt Oleff - This youngster joins
the likes of Joey King, Pugh, Fanning, Hedges and others as the young
generation who continue to be recognized at the GRAs. I do not believe
he is the youngest by a few months but he and his IT co-star Finn
Wolfhard were both 16 at the time of the ceremony.
Robert Pattinson - He’s come a long way since Edward Cullen and this cements that. He has actually found steady work at the studio (
Germinal was his sixth film at the studio) but this is his first nomination.
Molly Parker
- For Parker, this is not only her first GRA nomination but it’s also
her first film for the studio. That happens from time to time but she is
the only such example this season.
Stephen Dorff - At
the start of Last Resort Films, who would’ve ever thought that Stephen
Dorff would be nominated for Best Actor? His career has certainly seen
its ups and downs but has been on the upswing recently with his Best
Guest Actor win at the Golden Views Awards for his performance of Hunter
S. Thompson in 'Rolling Stone'. Could Dorff become the first combined
GVA/GRA winner? Again, who would’ve ever thought?
BONUS! Season 15 Preview:
When
I made The Trades post, some people were clamoring for it to be a
pre-season thing. While that will not be the case, I thought I could add
on a little bit to this post to look ahead. While there have only been 5
films announced thus far, it sounds like there are already some
possible GRA contenders. Tarantino returns to the studio with an
interesting premise. Tim Burton returns to his comfort zone with a known
property in the Phantom of the Opera. And John Malone continues his
more frequent activity with a new original film with two bonafide movie
stars. And we've got a big Justice League movie to start things off.
Exciting times, eh?
