Oscar race heats up during holidays
By Scott Bowles
USA Today
On the heels of its record-setting pace at the box office, Hollywood hopes to follow up over the next weeks with a slate of films that puts Oscar on its heels.
And though Academy Award nominations won't be announced until Feb. 11, and the awards aren't until March 23, studios already are talking "buzz" over possible contenders for best picture.
Last year, four of the five best-picture nominees sprang from films released in November and December. Over the past decade, an average of three of the five nominated films were released during the holiday season.
The strategy, analysts and movie experts say, is simple. Studios hold back their highest-caliber films until the end of the year to "keep their movies fresh in the minds of academy members when it's time to vote," says film critic and historian Leonard Maltin. "It usually works."
Expect flurries this season as well. With academy heavyweights such as Meryl Streep, Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg stepping up to the plate, theaters could be packed with contenders.
It wouldn't be Oscar season without plenty of strife, and "Far From Heaven" (released in some Mainland theaters Nov. 8), which reteams "Safe" director Todd Haynes with Julianne Moore, revolves around a housewife facing a marital crisis and mounting racial tensions in 1950s Connecticut.
The film has garnered great reviews and buzz since its festival appearances in Toronto and Venice, and Moore's performance is being hailed as the standout in a strong cast. The question is whether it's too dark — or possibly too obscure for audiences.
Oscar stalwarts return, including Nicholson, who plays a depressed retiree on a road trip in his RV, grappling with his wasted life in "About Schmidt" (Dec. 13). His performance is being hailed as his most complex to date, and a shoo-in for a best-actor nod. The academy's adoration for the veteran could spill over to a best-pic nomination.
While some insiders are already hailing "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (Dec. 18), it faces its own mountains of Mordor — it's a sequel and a fantasy film, two things the academy has been slow to embrace. But it has box office clout, which helps, and "Godfather II" overcame the academy's sequel syndrome and won.
Support has been building for the crime drama "Narc" (Dec. 20) since it showed in Sundance, when Tom Cruise was so impressed he latched on as executive producer and convinced Paramount to pick it up. The Ray Liotta-Jason Patric drama is more violent than most Oscar contenders.
Miramax's "The Quiet American" (Friday) has had buzz since the Toronto festival, particularly for Michael Caine's performance as a British opium addict. Like "Schmidt," Caine's performance may be the necessary ingredient to drive this movie to the elite five.
The academy loves hunks in their directing debuts (Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Mel Gibson), and "Antwone Fisher" (Dec. 20), the Denzel Washington-directed story of a sailor facing his horrific past, may be all it needs to honor Washington again. But the academy still hasn't shaken its reputation for racially biased voting, despite last year's awards.
The historical epic "Gangs of New York" (Dec. 20), about New York's blossoming underworld in the 1840s, is a dream project for director Martin Scorsese, who has never won an Oscar. While plagued by reports of production problems, "Gangs" is garnering praise for powerful performances, particularly from Daniel Day-Lewis.
Leonardo DiCaprio pulls double duty in "Gangs" and "Catch Me if You Can" (Dec. 25), the story of legendary con man Frank Abagnale Jr. While it also features Tom Hanks and director Steven Spielberg, who already need additions to their homes for all their trophies, early buzz has "Catch" leaning toward the action genre, which is tough for a best-pic hopeful.
Fresh off the success of Oscar-nominated "Moulin Rouge", the classic musical-turned-movie "Chicago" (Dec. 27) already has old-time academy members excited. Powered by Miramax's Oscar muscle, it's the front-runner among best-pic contenders.
"The Hours" (Dec. 27), the story of three women in different eras who are profoundly affected by the works of Virginia Woolf, could have the right touch for highbrow voters. But despite a heavyweight cast, including Streep, Nicole Kidman and "Billy Elliot" director Stephen Daldry, Oscar-nominated films usually focus on men.
Roman Polanski ("Chinatown", "Rosemary's Baby") returns to direct "The Pianist" (Dec. 27), the story of a Holocaust survivor in the Warsaw ghetto. While it may be too dark for some Oscar voters, the academy has a history of welcoming back its own from sex scandals (see Charlie Chaplin, Liz Taylor, Ingrid Bergman).
