THE AWARDS EDITION 2011-2012

08 The Awards Edition 2011-2012 Issue 01DRIVEMIDNIGHT IN PARIStinker TAILOr SOLDIEr SPYMarcy May Marlene with a breakout performancefrom Elizabeth Olsen, who they hope will be this year’sJennifer Lawrence. And Oscar © winner AlexanderPayne (for Searchlight’s Sideways) is back with the GeorgeClooney family drama The Descendants (Nov. 16),already a sizeable hit on the festival and screening circuit.Searchlight picked up the controversial, sexually chargeddrama, Shame (Dec 2) from director Steve McQueenout of its successful Venice, Telluride and Toronto premiereswhere it drew critical raves. It has been slapped with an NC-17rating but there is lots of buzz, particularly for star MichaelFassbender and supporting actress Carey Mulligan.Then there is Terrence Malick’s Cannes Film FestivalPalme d’Or winner, The Tree of Life, which has a lotof passionate supporters, but does it have enough to getenough first place votes to gain a best picture nomination?It still has a strong shot to take the cinematography prizeand Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain are in the runningin supporting slots. Malick could well pull off directingand writing nods as well.Sony Pictures ClassicsSPC co-presidents Michael Barker and Tom Bernard seemto be banking on world-class directors to put them back inthe Oscar © race, where they seem to be every year.There’s Pedro Almodóvar’s creepy but terrific TheSkin I Live In, which should have won him somethingat Cannes. There’s David Cronenberg’s perioddrama A Dangerous Method (Nov 23), starring thevery hot Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen and KeiraKnightley. And there’s Roman Polanski’s adaptationof the Tony © -winning comedy God of Carnage, now simplyrenamed Carnage, with a cast including Jodie Foster,Kate Winslet, John C. Reilly and Christoph Waltz.With superstar directors like that on your slate, who needsWoody Allen? But of course Allen’s Midnight in Parishas been a prime contender since it opened the CannesFestival in May. It is Woody’s most successful film everand SPC’s second-highest grossing film of all time ($55.5million domestic B.O.), making it a prime candidate for abest picture nomination.Another SPC film, Take Shelter, was a Grand Prizewinner during Critics Week in Cannes. Unheraldeddirector Jeff Nichols’ feature is just as accomplishedas some of SPC’s other directors this year and he couldfigure in the Indie Spirits. The company also has its usuallist of strong foreign language contenders: from Lebanon(Where Do We Go Now?), Poland (In Darkness),Israel (Footnote) and Iran (A Separation).SummitEntertainmentWith one best picture (The Hurt Locker) already in its younghistory, Summit’s big fall play is The Twilight Saga:Breaking Dawn Part 1 (Nov. 18), the beginning of theend for the series. While not a likely Oscar © contender, itshould figure heavily, like its predecessors did, in the TeenChoice, People’s Choice and MTV Movie Awards.But in addition to its timely political hot button illegalimmigrant summer release A Better Life and a possibleBest Actor bid for star Demián Bichir, Summit couldfind serious awards traction in the honest, touching andsurprisingly funny cancer dramedy 50/50, which offersaward-level work from Joseph Gordon-Levitt andAnjelica Huston, among others.Roadside AttractionsWith its first best pic nominee Winter’s Bone and foreignlanguage and best actor nominee Biutiful, Roadsideannounced last year it was a major new indie force inthe Oscar © race (it won best documentary feature for TheCove two years ago). This year its hopes are pinned on theSundance pickup Margin Call (which bowed on Oct.21), starring Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons and othersin a riveting drama that may hit too close to home forstock market investors. Their ace player though will be itspickup, Albert Nobbs, in which Glenn Close reprisesher 30 year old Obie wining Off Broadway role as awoman who must disguise herself as a man in order tosurvive in 19th century Ireland. The five-time nomineelooks to be back in the race for the first time since 1988.LionsgateStill a true indie, Lionsgate hasn’t been able to replicateits 2005 best picture heist with Crash, one of the all-timegreat Oscar © -campaign success stories. Last year, it quicklyturned around its Toronto buy of Rabbit Hole to get NicoleKidman a best actress nod. Failing that kind of quickstep again, its hopes seem to ride on the Sept. 9 releaseof Warrior, an emotional drama from director GavinO’Connor set in the world of mixed martial arts thatwas a box office disappointment ($13.7 million domesticB.O.). Still, stars Joel Edgerton and Tom Hardy aregreat and Nick Nolte as their ne’er-do-well father couldland a supporting nod.FilmDistrictGraham King’s new FilmDistrict could have the stuff fora few Oscar © nominations. With its Cannes-winning (bestdirector for Nicolas Winding Refn) noir Drive, RyanGosling is great, and Albert Brooks is definite supportingfodder, uncharacteristically cast as a heavy. Critics love it.Their other contender comes from Angelina Jolie, whomakes her directorial and writing debut with the BosnianWar-set drama In the Land of Blood and Honey. We’llhave to wait until Dec. 23 to find out if Jolie can be the firstfemale acting superstar to pull off a directing nomination.OscilloscopeThis boutique company landed a couple of nominationsfor The Messenger in 2009 and now has its Cannescompetition pickup We Need to Talk About Kevin(Dec. 9) to carry its banner this year. Oscar © winner TildaSwinton’s performance was critically praised, althoughthe film deals with heavy subject matter (her son goes on ahigh school shooting rampage) and got a mixed reaction.She could turn up in a very competitive best actress race.Magnolia PicturesMagnolia is charging ahead with its beautifully shot endof-daysdrama Melancholia despite the Hitler and Nazirantings of its director Lars von Trier in Cannes. Thefilm still went on to win best actress there for star KirstenDunst, and Magnolia plans to make sure awards votersremember her. Magnolia quietly qualified the VOD filmalready in a one-week run deep in the San Fernando Valley.Millennium FilmsMillennium decided to get into the game very late thisyear with its Toronto Film Festival pickup of the grittycorrupt cop drama Rampart, from director OrenMoverman who scored an original screenplay nod forhis little indie, The Messenger a couple of years ago. Thatfilm also won Woody Harrelson a supporting actorbid and he stars here with buzz good enough to gain himserious recognition in the best actor race. •we need TO TALK about kevinALBert nobbsEXtrEMELY LOUD and incrEDIBLY CLOSEthe deSCenDAnts