In Contention header image 1


← Bruce Springsteen tapped to write original song for ‘The Wrestler’ Another vote of confidence for ‘Button’ →

POLL: Will the two-film release strategy for ‘Che’ help or hinder its Oscar chances?

Posted by Kristopher Tapley · 10:56 am · September 1st, 2008

I’ve been rather low on the Oscar prospects for “Che” for a while.  I’m not sure why.  It was, of course, extremely divisive out of Cannes.  The festival’s jury president had to even step in and defend its value amid the turbulence.  But beyond Benicio Del Toro’s Best Actor bid, I haven’t been able to go along with major awards hopes.

Part of that had to do with distribution.  No takers.  But we always figured on the film being released as two entities (being “The Argentine” and “Guerrilla”).  And with Wild Bunch solidifying the particulars, I can’t help but wonder whether dividing the material will be a hurdle for the film to leap on the way to Oscar.

The film has been absent from our charts for a while as we awaited clarity on the issue, and not that we have it now, I thought I’d offer it up as a chance for you to sound off.  Will giving the Academy two options to vote for Del Toro and company help or hinder its chances in the derby?  Tell us in the poll.

Post to Twitter Post to Yahoo Buzz Post to Digg Post to Facebook Post to MySpace Post to Reddit Post to StumbleUpon


Related Posts

→ 3 Comments Tags: , , , | Filed in: Daily

3 responses so far

  • 1 9-01-2008 at 1:13 pm

    Roman said...

    It will help it, unquestionably. For one thing, at this point this seems to be the only way for the movie to get any sort of distribution at all.

    Let’s face it. The only way for this kind of a project it have any kind of longevity (apart from sweeping the awards circuit – which it doesn’t seem likely to be doing), is by selling well on the DVD. Home medium is where this movie must find life and these theatrical releases will give these movies legitimacy.

    This kind of a distribution will not just help the movies (and yes, I write plural on purpose) find it’s audience it will save them.

    It’s that same old “Grindhouse” vs. “Kill Bill” argument. If a movie can stand on it’s own there is ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE in weighing it down by another, perhaps equally strong but totally homogenious movie.
    And if one movie is better than the other, than greater still. By emphasizing the movies’ differences instead of their common core it would be possible to achieve what Eastwood achieved with “Flags of Our Fathers”/”Letters from Iwo Jima”.

    If I was a distributor of these movies, I would have released them a year apart, with the first movie looking like the only movie.

  • 2 9-01-2008 at 7:38 pm

    Xavi Rodriguez said...

    I don’t know, I have bad feeling of those films… he film received mixed reviews in Cannes, beside the raves for Del Toro. And that question about the release and distributor…

  • 3 9-02-2008 at 6:56 am

    AJ said...

    They’re also releasing it as the whole film…so thats gonna get ugly. Three films?