Awards Update Archive for October, 2013
20W2O: Choking On The Tea Leaves

In the last week, there have been a series of attacks on the box office potential of 12 Years A Slave, which is “dirty tricks”-speak for “there is something less than great about this movie about the black people you have no responsibility for to which They are trying to force you to give a Best Picture Oscar.” These two stories ran, by the way, on the front page of the Los Angeles Times, the day before the film’s first expansion to 123 screens, and then in the New York Times, two days after the film’s first expansion.
Read the full article » 6 Comments »David Simon On 12 Years A Slave
“It marks the first time in history that our entertainment industry has managed to stare directly at slavery and maintain that gaze.” David Simon On 12 Years A Slave
Read the full article »Trailering The Wolf Of Wall Street For Christmas Delight
Oh, It’s A Comedy: Trailering The Wolf Of Wall Street For Christmas Delight
Read the full article »20W2O: LA Times A1 Piece On 12 Years A Slave Could Be A Hit Job By An Awards Rival

This story is a textbook example of how to give a hard backhand slap to a movie that someone sees as having vulnerabilities. None of the Oscar Whisperers out there could have asked for anything better, short of a series of stories that people had actually gotten ill or had to run out of the theater to avoid the horrors of this film. It’s a marketing story! Why would that be bad?
Read the full article » 10 Comments »20 Weeks To Oscar: Late October And Still No True Frontrunner

Truth is, We have usually set the field pretty effectively by mid-November. 80%-plus of nominees are pretty well guessed at by then. So then it gets even weirder, as We fight over the last 20% and attempt to “win” by guessing the winners before anyone else. Every minor shift gets overemphasized because it – how dare it! – surprises Us. What started as somewhat rational prognostication turns personal… and sometimes ugly. And the people who have jobs trying to convince Us of this or that get sharper edged, which is often misconstrued as “dirty tricks,” but outside of the bubble is just called “publicity.”
Read the full article » 5 Comments »Consultant Henry Louis Gates Jr. Fact-Checks 12 Years A Slave
Consultant Henry Louis Gates Jr. Fact-Checks 12 Years A Slave
Read the full article »Gurus o’ Gold: Post New York Film Festival

This week, in our last pre-November rankings, The Gurus are looking at the Best Picture race, split into films that have been widely seen by the industry (in theatrical release, wide screenings or at festivals) and those that have not.
Read the full article » 4 Comments »“Blackwater At Sea: The Legacy Of Captain Phillips”
“Blackwater At Sea: The Legacy Of Captain Phillips“
Read the full article »“Gravity is not a “hopeful”: It’s in, because while huge grosses, rapturous reviews, two well-liked movie stars, a respected director from another country, nerdgasms all over Twitter, and bar-raising visuals are not, in themselves, guaranteed roads to an Oscar nomination, the combination of them certainly is.”
“Gravity is not a “hopeful”: It’s in, because while huge grosses, rapturous reviews, two well-liked movie stars, a respected director from another country, nerdgasms all over Twitter, and bar-raising visuals are not, in themselves, guaranteed roads to an Oscar nomination, the combination of them certainly is.”
Read the full article »Yes, That “Space Suspense In 3D” Gravity Is Not A Documentary
Yes, That “Space Suspense In 3D” Gravity Is Not A Documentary
Read the full article »Dargis On The Pungent Subtlety Of Captain Phillips
Dargis On The Pungent Subtlety Of Captain Phillips
Read the full article »Julian Assange’s Letter To Benedict Cumberbatch
Julian Assange‘s Letter To Benedict Cumberbatch
Read the full article »22 Weeks To Oscar: How It’s Looking… OR And Then There Were Five

There are pieces to the puzzle we have pieces that have yet to appear, and mostly, pieces that we have in our hands, but whose fit it is really impossible to know at this time. What will Gravity and Captain Phillips gross? Will The Fifth Estate stir debate or will everyone be too distracted by the government shutdown? Will Ridley Scott’s The Counselor present as an awards movie to everyone’s shock?
Read the full article » 12 Comments »A. O. Scott On Race In This Year’s Movies
“The habit of referring to it as “race” reflects a tendency toward euphemism and abstraction.” A. O. Scott On Race In This Year’s Movies
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