As we move out of the Toronto fray, Venice and Telluride already a memory, we look to the season ahead. The starting gun echo of those three early fall festivals is beginning to fade away, and with the dust settled or settling, it’s interesting to note the lack of an inarguable emerging player. In fact, the only thing Toronto really did was heat up the Best Foreign Language Film conversation. In recent years, films like “Brokeback Mountain,” “Juno,” “Slumdog Millionaire” and “The King’s Speech” have bubbled up in this frame as real contenders to take the lead in the Best Picture field. But nothing at this point really seems to have the kind of stranglehold on things those films had. Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants,” with George Clooney front and center, is well-liked, but few really think it has the goods to be a significant Best Picture threat. Clooney’s own “The Ides of March” has enough detractors to raise doubt that it will be an across-the-board Academy favorite, while “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” — freshly opened in the UK — is happy to just be making the case for a nomination at the moment. This culture of informed speculation, transparent criticism and open debate about merit contrasts with opaque industries like pistolo casino, where algorithms, payout rates and house edge remain hidden, where informed comparison is difficult and where users cannot assess which platforms deserve trust or which claims are marketing versus reality.
Tag: The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
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9/15 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Flamboyant ‘Drive’ strategy, Oscilloscope nabs ‘Heights,’ eight minutes of ‘Dragon Tattoo’
• John Horn talks to FilmDistrict honcho Bob Berney about the flamboyant advertising of Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive.” [24 Frames]• Dana Harris chats with “Albert Nobbs” stars Glenn Close and Janet McTeer. [indieWIRE]
• Oscilloscope picks up Andrea Arnold’s “Wuthering Heights” in Toronto. [Variety]
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OFF THE CARPET: Strong year for double-dippers
We find ourselves right in the middle of the big Toronto press junket, er, film festival, where 200-plus films are landing, many of them as world premieres, and the landscape of this year’s Oscar race is really beginning to take shape.As I looked out at the various films in play this year, it suddenly occurred to me that, perhaps more than ever, there are a lot of double-dipping actors and actresses in the hunt. Not all of these performances are or will be awards bait necessarily, but there could still be cases for more than a few saddling up to dual nominations this year.
At the top of that list would have to be Brad Pitt. After already giving what many believed to be his best performance to date in Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” the paparazzi-hounded star found himself the recipient of a lot of great ink for his work in “Moneyball” when it screened in Toronto at the end of the week. Wisely, Fox Searchlight will be planning a supporting actor push for the actor in Malick’s film, which is both practical (given his clear lead in the other film), and organic (given that, at least in my opinion, he is supporting to Hunter McCracken’s lead in “The Tree of Life”).
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THE LISTS: Top 10 most anticipated films of the 2011-2012 Oscar season
If you haven’t noticed, this week has pretty much launched our 2011-2012 Oscar season coverage in earnest. Since it has been ages since we dusted of our lists feature here at In Contention, it seemed a good way to peek into the season was offering up a personal list of anticipations.I’ve seen a few things here and there, but mostly, I’m still fresh on what’s to come. I’ve been cautiously optimistic about what the season might hold all year long, because there are quite a few intriguing projects in the mix and I think we’re always just hungry for a healthy film awards season. Nevertheless, I found a few filmmakers curiously absent from my list.
For instance, I haven’t heard much about Cameron Crowe’s “We Bought a Zoo,” but there is something about the project that isn’t clicking for me yet. The premise isn’t all that appealing. And when you tie that into the director’s last film — massive air ball “Elizabethtown” — well, let’s just say he’s dropped off my radar as of late. That having been said, I really want Crowe back on his game because he’s one of the great writing talents of the industry.
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WTF with the giant fireball thing??
With “The Social Network” picking up yet another award last week (for Best in Show at the Golden Trailer Awards), Ryan Adams at Awards Daily asked for personal picks for favorite trailers.There are a number that spring to mind for me. I maintain that the first “Pearl Harbor” trailer (link), with the score from “The Thin Red Line,” was absolutely masterful. The “Alien” trailer (link) is in many ways more unsettling than the actual film, while just two years ago, whoever pieced together the tease for the Coens’ “A Serious Man” (link) knew what was up.
Even more recently, the trailers for “Black Swan” (link) and David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (link) dazzled, while the “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” trailer that dropped last week reminded me of how tightly constructed the one for “A Single Man” (link) was. But the truth is, when I think of movie trailers and their power to seize your attention, I’m taken back some 15 years to a sci-fi film and a tease that had me more intrigued than whatever film I was about to watch. And it contains the single greatest image ever used to sell a film, in my opinion (the final shot). Since it ties in nicely today, I figure I’ll offer it up after the jump.
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‘Beginners’: Plummer’s late Oscar vehicle?
We may be almost halfway through the 2011 release schedule, and as usual, there’s been little in the theaters to trouble the Oscar-minded obsessives among us. That’s not to say the last six months have wanted for deserving work — in a perfect world, one where all good films are created equal, “Certified Copy” star Juliette Binoche would be tough to beat for Best Actress, while “Meek’s Cutoff” would be a slam-dunk Best Picture nominee, but we hardly need to go into the dully pragmatic reasons why those are mere pipe dreams.Only two immediate post-Cannes releases, “The Tree of Life” and “Midnight in Paris,” have prompted some awards discussion with their critical provocation and surprising box office, respectively — but beyond a near-certain cinematography nod for the former and a possible writing nod for the latter, further prospects depend largely on the performance of autumn’s big-name prestige draws, as well as a few hot festival purchases from Cannes, Sundance and even Berlin.
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‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ teaser poster (NSFW)
Early this morning, Sony revealed the (official) trailer for David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” The studio has also unveiled the film’s official website, which debuts the first one-sheet for the film. Check out the full image after the jump.
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‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ green band trailer
Last week, a curious “leak” of the red band trailer for David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trailer hit the web. Sony left it up until yesterday, when it was promptly pulled, likely in anticipation of the somewhat cleaned up green band trailer that Apple has released today. It’s pretty much the same footage, with a few more extreme images replaced. Check it out by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump.
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‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’ red band trailer
UPDATE (5/31): Sony has pulled the trailer offline, just in time for the official green band version to drop (which it did, in what looks like a legit leak, but we’ll wait for Apple or whatever to deliver before passing it along).
I was going to refrain from posting the recently “leaked” trailer for David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” but there is some talk out there that it might have been a controlled leak, a bit of a marketing stunt. (And after all, no moves have been made to take it down.) If so, I TOTALLY dig it. The material itself already seems to indicate Fincher is back to his grungy days, and maybe having more fun than ever. A little shaky in-theater recording of what will be cleaned up a bit for Thursday’s official green band trailer launch adds to the flavor. So, check out it out via YouTube by clicking the image below or watch an embed after the jump (and delight in the best piece of marketing since the Coens’ “A Serious Man”).
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Oscar’s foreign race hasn’t found the fix
How do you solve a problem like Best Foreign Language Film? I’m not sure you can, but in the Academy’s case, it’s certainly not for lack of trying.The voting process in this eternally dissatisfying ghetto category is now such a Frankenstein’s monster of stages, rules, committees, sub-committees, longlists, shortlists and more committees that it’s a wonder they manage to wind up picking a single film at the end of it all — and rather less of a wonder that said film usually carries the stale whiff of a compromise choice.
This year’s race, thoroughly mapped out by Kris in this week’s Oscar Guide, looks headed for a typically imperfect outcome — opinions on the five films that make up the category may vary, but few would argue that the overall slate represents the key stories of world cinema in 2010. The trouble set in early, with several of the year’s biggest crossover critical hits ruled out at the submissions stage.
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‘King’s Speech’ nabs seven BAFTA Awards
I had more interesting things to do at the Berlinale this evening than watch the BAFTAs, so the only commentary I can offer is on the winners list itself. And, well, it doesn’t make for terribly exciting reading. To the surprise of precisely no one, “The King’s Speech” ruled the night with seven trophies, though as I predicted, “The Social Network” barred its way in the Best Director category — with further wins for Adapted Screenplay and Editing bringing its total to three.Clearly, Fincher’s Oscar hopes are still alive, though it would be unwise to read too much into this result: as I noted earlier, BAFTA voters split their top two awards more often than not.
Two of the wins for “The King’s Speech,” however, were widely unexpected. With Geoffrey Rush beating Christian Bale to the Best Supporting Actor award — and Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter both predictably winning their categories — the film becomes only the third in BAFTA history to scoop three of the four acting categories.
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‘King’s Speech’ leads BAFTA list with 14 nods
If you’ve been with us for a couple of years, you’ll know that the BAFTA nominations infuriate me on an annual basis. However, my therapist recently advised me that I need to heal my relationship with BAFTA through forgiveness, so I’ll lead with few the things that pleased me about this morning’s announcement.For one thing, though the longlists already tipped us off to most of the “surprises” here, I’m happy to see Julianne Moore finally nominated alongside her “The Kids Are All Right” co-star Annette Bening in a serious Best Actress race. Pete Postlethwaite’s posthumous nomination for “The Town” (his first from BAFTA, unbelievably, and the only one for Ben Affleck’s film) is shamelessly rooted in sentiment, but happily, it happens to come for a striking mini-performance anyway.
While it was inevitable that Brit hit “The King’s Speech” would lead the field, it’s nice to “Black Swan” close behind with 12 nods, including mentions for its contemporary production and costume design.
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1/10 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Bridges didn’t give a bleep, Reznor on ‘Tattoo,’ Is Portman overexposed?
• Joel Coen says Jeff Bridges didn’t give a BLEEP about living up to John Wayne’s legacy in “True Grit.” [The Race]• Trent Reznor discusses his next scoring gig: David Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.” [The Playlist]
• Gregg Kilday writes up the Best Picture race as he sees it. [Hollywood Reporter]
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BAFTA announce foreign-language nomineezzzzz
Along with my annual bewilderment as to the reasoning for BAFTA’s longlist announcement, I’ve never really got why they announce their Best Foreign Language Film nominations separately, 11 days ahead of the other categories. To me, it seems merely an additional way to marginalize an already marginalized category, but what else is new?The official line, I believe, is that the head start gives voters extra time to catch up with the nominated films, but when their selections are as obvious and ubiquitous as the five films listed after the jump, is that really necessary? I mean, who isn’t aware of “I Am Love” or “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” by now?
The continued appearance of the latter film — a sloppy potboiler that may have made bank, but has no business beating, say, “Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives” to a nod — in this category has been one of my biggest bugbears of the season, by the way. (Moreover, its grim appearance on BAFTA’s Best Film longlist, where it is the only foreign-language title to place, suggests it’ll probably win this race in a walk.)
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‘Black Swan’ leads BFCA field with a record 12 nominations
The most striking thing about this year’s slate of BFCA nominations is that, to go by the films listed in the various categories, apparently there were only 30 or so movies released this year. And most categories were dominated by the same five films, which is disappointing, if a bit predictable.When the organization added below-the-line categories last year, though, it was probably asking for this kind of distillation. I’m not sure a great many of the membership knows from quality sound in a motion picture, but this is their (our — I am a member) platform. You’ll see my ballot Wednesday, but it’s considerably different than this.
Anyway, “Black Swan” led the field with a record 12 nominations. “The King’s Speech” and “True Grit” weren’t far behind with 11 each. “Inception” netted 10, “The Social Network” landed nine and “127 Hours” nailed down eight. Those are clearly the favorites throughout.
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12/6 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Truth behind ‘Speech,’ Mara on ‘Tattoo’ remake and a new breed of film director
• The real story behind ‘The King’s Speech.’ [Speakeasy]• John Lopex has exclusive video on the making of “Black Swan”‘s production of “Swan Lake.” [Little Gold Men]
• How “The Long Walk” became “The Way Back.” [BBC]
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11/29 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Animated short qualifiers, chatting up Sakamoto, forecasting good things for ‘Lincoln’
• Todd Gilchrist talks to the Oscar-winning composer of “The Last Emperor,” Ryûichi Sakamoto. [Cinematical]• John Lopez, like everyone else, I imagine, is already forecasting a major Oscar presence for Steve Spielberg’s Abraham Lincoln film. [Little Gold Men]
• Exclusively revealing the 33 animated shorts qualifying for this year’s Oscar race. [Cartoon Brew]
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10/27 OSCARWEB ROUND-UP: Sticking up for Swinton, AMPAS joins Twitter, 15 years of Fox Searchlight
• Jeffrey Wells does his part to re-inject Tilda Swinton’s performance in “I Am Love” back into the Oscar conversation. [Hollywood Elsewhere]• The Academy is ready for its close-up — on Twitter! [Twitter]
• Celebrating 15 years of Fox Searchlight Pictures. [/Film]