Speech, 127 and Network Are Top Oscar Contenders
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The 83rd Academy Awards are more than three months away, and big studios’ top Oscar hopefuls still aren’t in wide release, but Oscar buzz is unmistakably in the air.
To get a feel for how things are shaping up in major categories, I checked recent Oscar predictions at In Contention, Movieline, Indiewire and Entertainment Weekly.
Three films appear certain to be among the nominees for Best Picture: The King’s Speech, 127 Hours and The Social Network.
The King’s Speech is a historical drama starring past Oscar nominees Colin Firth (A Single Man), Helena Bonham Carter (The Wings of the Dove) and Geoffrey Rush (who won a golden man in 1997 for Shine). It goes into limited release Nov. 26.
127 Hours, which EW’s Dave Karger doesn’t quite consider a “best bet” but other sites say is a virtual sure thing to get nominated, stars James Franco in the true story of a hiker who gets stuck with one arm under a boulder. It’s been in limited release for a couple of weeks.
The Social Network, starring Jesse Eisenberg as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, was released in September.
Toy Story 3 also seems a very likely nominee in this category and Animated Feature (where it will probably win).
Firth and Franco are considered very likely nominees for Best Actor.
To say Annette Bening is likely to get a Best Actress nod is an understatement. Many observers consider the three-time nominee (American Beauty, Being Julia and supporting actress in The Grifters) to be the favorite to win this time for her performance in The Kids Are All Right. Movieline, however, has declared Black Swan star Natalie Portman the new front-runner in this category.
There was talk earlier this fall that the acting categories will have no non-white nominees. The prospect of that being true has been lessened now that a Halle Berry drama, Frankie & Alice, is set for release Dec. 17.
The Oscar race is fun to watch, but I’ll concede that the whole thing should be regarded with at least a pinch of skepticism or cynicism. Industry awards reflect quality, sure, but they’re also a reflection of studio promotion campaigns and individuals’ popularity in Hollywood.
The film I thought was the best of last year’s crop, (500) Days of Summer, wasn’t nominated for even one Oscar. So I’ll be careful not to expect too much from Academy voters. The “critics circle” awards seem more credible to me, since they’re less infected by Hollywood politics.
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Having seen all three of those films, I can say with confidence that ‘127 Hours’ is clearly the best of the bunch. Danny Boyle’s directing is nothing short of genius.
Collin Firth’s performance was commendable…but Franco’s is more impressive than anything I’ve seen before.
I loved Social Network. That is the extent of my recent movie going.
I have seen ‘Social Network’ along with ‘Inception’ and ‘The American’ ranks highly in my enjoyable movie outings.
I won’t get to see ‘127 Hours’ or ‘Kings Speech’ unless I do a road trip, movies of that ilk don’t make to Podunkville.
The worst movie I have seen for many years ‘Skyline’ is so bad it could become a cult movie.