By ALEX
FUNG
Last updated: 2001/12/16
New York Film Critics Circle ReactionsThe New York Film Critics Circle's selection of David Lynch's atmospheric Mulholland Dr. as the Best Picture of 2001 appeared to catch many in the media off-guard. "N.Y. critics pick left-field choice for best film" blared one headline. "A shockeroo!" exclaimed one pundit. To be frank, I'm at a loss to imagine why this pick has been greeted in some circles with such surprise -- Mulholland was clearly a film which received strong critical support from major critics in key markets (albeit with some notable naysayers), and it's certainly more of a critic's darling than a conventional audience-friendly picture; it was bound to perform more strongly in critical circles than its market reception would suggest. Additionally, this ain't the Hollywood Foreign Press Association -- mainstream accessibility and/or the presence of A-list stars need not be a factor with the NYFCC. (Their selection of Tom Hanks last year was more of a surprise than this year's Mulholland Dr. pick, if you ask me.) From my perspective, the Lynch film was a very viable contender for the NYFC Best Picture prize, and its victory among Gotham critics doesn't remotely begin to signify some major paradigm shift in this year's awards race.
However, as I mentioned in Oscar Column #2, I remain somewhat dubious that Mulholland Dr.'s NYFCC Best Picture win will translate into a probable Academy award Best Picture nomination; I continue to believe that the film's surrealism and narrative loopiness may prove to be problematic with AMPAS members, thereby impeding its Oscar prospects. The film's a possibility, but I consider it pretty much a longshot. On the other hand, the NYFCC victory will prove to be a significant boost in the picture's Academy Award hopes in other categories -- namely, Lynch for Director (I'd definitely upgrade his chances at this point), Naomi Watts, the crisp cinematography by Peter Deming, and Angelo Badalementi's score, among others. The film's high-profile accolade from the New York-based critics will ensure the picture gets play with voters, thereby potentially generating a bigger pool of support for its series of individual achievements.
Although Mulholland Dr. walked away with the NYFCC's top prize, the two films which may have gained the most as a result of Thursday's ballotting may have been the (unofficial) runner-ups, USA Films' Gosford Park and Miramax's In The Bedroom, each of which walked away with multiple awards. Robert Altman's upstairs-downstairs ensemble murder mystery took three prizes (Supporting Actress, Director, and Screenplay), while Todd Field's debut feature snared the two top acting prizes for Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek, who also shared acting accolades almost a year ago from the Sundance Film Festival jury for their performances in the film.
The NYFCC accolades confirm that Gosford Park should now be taken seriously as a major Oscar contender, with the potential of snaring multiple nominations come February 2002. Featuring a fantastic ensemble cast which can only be classified as an Anglophile's dream -- among the many involved are Helen Mirren, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Kristen Scott Thomas, Emily Watson, Maggie Smith, Stephen Fry, Richard E. Grant, Charles Dance, along with new blood like Jeremy Northam, Clive Owen, and of course that consummate Brit Ryan Phillippe -- the picture's cachet exhudes an aura of classiness (the bumbling trailer notwithstanding) to which AMPAS has traditionally warmed, and Gosford Park has been getting tremendous early buzz; Todd McCarthy's Variety review from London was rapturous, and the film is being described from all corners as Altman's best in years (arguably faint praise, although I found some of his post-Short Cuts efforts to be respectable works), and by some as being as good as Nashville (not faint praise). Gosford Park seems to be positioned to pull a Woody by fielding multiple strong contenders in the supporting categories, as well as threatening in both the Director and Original Screenplay categories.
At this point, I would suggest that Miramax seriously consider retooling their Oscar strategy to focus on In The Bedroom as their main gun. While I know that they have obligations (contractual and otherwise) to stump for the star-ladened Lasse Hallström picture The Shipping News (zilch from the critics' groups so far aside from the split Cate Blanchett NBR Supporting Actress win), and unfortunately it's still far too early to pull the plug on Amélie, the amount of attention Todd Field's picture is receiving from critics' groups bodes very promisingly should they decide to push the film hard for a Best Picture nomination. Aside from stars Wilkinson and Spacek obviously finding their Oscar chances augmented by the film's success with the NYFCC, Marisa Tomei will likely be a beneficiary in her bid for a Supporting Actress nomination as the film becomes a must-see amongst AMPAS voters and her solid performance consequently receives additional exposure. Obviously, it isn't inconceivable for a studio to score multiple Best Picture nominations, but should Miramax conclude that they need to focus on a couple of films for the big prize instead of spreading their focus across several pictures, at this point it would seem that In The Bedroom would make for a saleable candidate.
(As an aside, call me crazy, but I don't see why The Others would not make for a viable Best Picture candidate. In fact, as I wrote in an early-August e-mail to a colleague, "If this movie catches fire Sixth Sense-style, I don't see why this couldn't get a Best Picture and Best Director nomination, although this film plays much more in the classical sense than Shymalan's more commercial bent." While the film did prove to be a sleeper hit -- to my surprise and delight; I wouldn't have guessed that contemporary audience's attention spans would've abided Amenábar's languorous, deliberate pacing -- Miramax doesn't appear to be very interested in pushing this Dimension Films product for the big categories.)
Anyways, back to the New York Film Critics Circle awards. After being edged out through strategic voting in the Best Picture category, In The Bedroom handily took the Best First Film prize from the NYFCC over Terry Zwigoff's Ghost World. I should come out and say that the decision to qualify Ghost World as eligible in this category constitutes wanton obtuseness by the film's supporters -- in short, it's really pretty lame -- given that this obviously was not Zwigoff's first film. (Hell, the NYFC even gave him their Best Non-Fiction Film prize in 1995 for his acclaimed Crumb.) That the group erred in 1995 by awarding Babe's Chris Noonan the Best First Film prize despite it also not being his debut feature, thereby setting the precedent utilized by the Ghost World buffs, is really besides the point -- this is not a court of law dependent upon precedents, and the point ought to be to get it right, not to conclude that mistakes made earlier are an excuse to perpetuate them in the future. If the NYFCC wants to officially change the name of the category to "Best First Narrative Film", I'm all for them voting for stuff like Ghost World, but given that the category is still titled "Best First Film", the only logical way to classify Ghost World as eligible would be to conclude that Crumb was not a film. Poor form, NYFCC.
As mentioned, Tom Wilkinson took the NYFCC Best Actor prize for his work in In The Bedroom, beating out Iris's Jim Broadbent and Denzel Washington for Training Day. The victory by the veteran character actor should greatly boost his Oscar prospects and elevate his profile accordingly; overshadowed by press coverage to date by his better-known American co-stars Sissy Spacek and Marisa Tomei, Wilkinson is probably best known by AMPAS members for his performance in the ensemble of The Full Monty (and by audiences at large for his villainous turns in Rush Hour and The Patriot). I'd wrote in my Oscar Column #1 that I'd hoped he be given consideration as a legitimate Best Actor candidate, so I'm vaguely pleased by his NYFCC selection; it isn't remotely my favourite male performance of the year, but Wilkinson's performance was the film's anchor, and besides, an Oscar nomination might improve his lot so he won't have to do stuff like Black Knight. Although placing first runner-up with the NYFCC, Jim Broadbent is actually being touted as a Supporting Actor candidate for Iris, so he theoretically won't be a factor in this year's Best Actor Oscar race, while Training Day's Denzel Washington will probably be a finalist come February.
Sissy Spacek matched co-star Wilkinson by grabbing the NYFCC Best Actress prize, beating out rivals Naomi Watts of Mulholland Dr. and Tilda Swinton of The Deep End on the second round of ballotting in this category. After I caught In The Bedroom at the Toronto International Film Festival, I opined to a colleague that both Spacek and Wilkinson were Oscar possibilities for their respective turns, but I had not anticipated that Spacek would start snapping up critics' kudos. (I also figured that a Miramax push for Amélie's Audrey Tautou and The Others's Nicole Kidman might cut into her push.) At this point, Spacek seems like a solid contender for a Best Actress nomination, particularly when one takes into account her name factor as a respected veteran actress with previous Academy Award attention. Given the paucity of award-potential performances earlier in the year (which arguably persists to this day), The Deep End's Tilda Swinton had been much-bandied about as a probable Best Actress possibility for her semi-Mildred Pierce-esque turn as a mother desperately protecting her child; she appears to be facing tougher competition than earlier anticipated by most pundits, but her (unofficial) second-runner-up position with the NYFCC is a somewhat reassuring sign. (Given the luminous Scottish actress' relatively low-profile -- most audiences would probably know her from, err, The Beach, or perhaps the newly-released Vanilla Sky rather than her Jarman work, The War Zone, or Orlando -- her Oscar prospects would be significantly aided by a critics' award win somewhere down the line.) As for Naomi Watts, her bid for a Best Actress Oscar nomination for Mulholland Dr. would be aided by her runner-up NYFCC selection if only...
Watts?!
... she was being promoted as a Best Actress candidate. Instead, Universal Focus incredibly seems to be touting her as a Best Supporting Actress candidate, which strikes me as particularly disingenuous. I can see her co-star Laura Elena Harring being touted as a Supporting Actress performance (and even that can be debatable), but based upon what's on the screen, it's hard to buy Watts as being a supporting player in the Lynch film. The intent, it would seem, would be to get Watts out of the way of a potentially tough field of Best Actress candidates -- Spacek, Dench, Blanchett, Swinton, Tautou, Kidman vs. Kidman, Zellweger, Berry, Channing et al -- by putting her in the less-contested Supporting Actress category; while I can see the logic behind it, this does seem like a conspicuously forced classification.
Okay, back to the New York Film Critics Circle Reactions
Meanwhile, Steve Buscemi scored the NYFCC Best Supporting Actor prize for his work as the sadsack record-collecting introvert in critical darling Ghost World (although I'm not certain how the vote-talliers could've been sure that he wasn't scoring support for, say, his work in Monsters, Inc.), toppling Ben Kingsley's thug turn in Jonathan Glazer's Sexy Beast and Brian Cox's acclaimed work in L.I.E.. Kingsley seems on target for a Supporting Actor AMPAS nomination, while I still remain cautious about Buscemi's chances -- I wonder if his performance and Ghost World in general will resonate with AMPAS members as much as it has with film critics in general -- but acknowledge that this NYFCC victory definitely makes his bid viable; he's "in play", as they say. I can't really comment about Cox's chances -- I've yet to see the film (hopefully soon), but based on my understanding of the film's content and its degree of accessibility, I am not especially confident about his Oscar prospects.
In the Supporting Actress category, Gosford Park dominated the field, with some five of its actress tallying votes. (This immediately brings to mind the possibility that the film's AMPAS fans might split their across multiple performances come March -- but obviously I'm thinking far too early about this scenario.) Helen Mirren wound up prevailing over Maggie Smith by a score of 49 points to 34 on the second ballot, with Ghost World's Scarlett Johansson placing third with 26 points. (I can't really fathom Johansson's strong showing here -- I thought her performance was decidedly unremarkable [I actually liked her better in a more limited turn in The Man Who Wasn't There] -- but I ought not to complain. And besides, doesn't she have a great movie star name?) Obviously, both Mirren (who plays the country house's head housekeeper) and Dame Smith (the imperious Aunt Constance) are highly-respected and much-admired actresses, and their support from the NYFCC bodes most promisingly for eventual recognition from the AMPAS voting base. Can Gosford Park tie up two -- or even three -- Best Supporting Actress nominee spots?
Robert Altman scored the Best Director prize from the NYFCC for the third time in his career (Nashville and The Player being the other two) for Gosford Park, and I imagine that he has to be considered a genuine possibility for a fifth Best Director Oscar nomination. Mulholland Dr. director David Lynch placed a close second, with NBR winner Todd Field finishing in third for In The Bedroom. Field's strong showing with both the NBR and the NYFCC positions him for a viable run at a Best Director Oscar nomination; he would be the first debut director to score a nomination since Sam Mendes took the statuette for his first turn behind the helm with American Beauty.
In the cinematography category, Christopher Doyle and Lee Ping-bin's lensing of the Tony Leung/Maggie Cheung affair in Wong Kar-wai's In The Mood For Love won the NYFCC's fancy, beating out Roger Deakins' luminous B&W (well, technically .. or not) work in the Coens' The Man Who Wasn't There and Peter Deming's evocative achievement in Mulholland Dr. Deakins -- inarguably one of the best cinematographers working today -- is a lock to grab his fifth Oscar nomination, while Deming deserves serious consideration for his work in David Lynch's film. (Additionally, while I found this year's From Hell to generally be a pretty weak film, it looked terrific in no small part because of Deming's ace work there.) The question would be whether Doyle and Lee's mesmerizing work in In The Mood For Love will get Academy attention; on the surface, I see no reason why they shouldn't -- cinematography nominations are voted upon by fellow cinematographers, and surely Doyle's work is well-known among fellow D.P.ers. Unless I'm misinterpreting the AMPAS rules, I believe that In The Mood For Love is eligible for consideration in the major categories -- while it was submitted by Hong Kong for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category last year, AMPAS guidelines indicate that "submitted films not selected as (Foreign Language Film) nominees" -- In The Mood For Love wasn't chosen as a finalist -- "are eligible for Academy Award consideration in other categories in the subsequent year, provided the film has its Los Angeles opening in that subsequent calendar year." Given that the Wong Kar-wai film made its L.A. bow in February 2001, I would definitely expect that Doyle and Lee's cinematography (as well as Leung and Cheung's performances, Wong's direction, etc.) be considered eligible for consideration, although the lack of supporting trade advertisements by USA Films or explicit campaigning on the company's web page (which currently flogs The Man Who Wasn't There and Gosford Park, among others) makes me pause. Does anyone know for certain whether In The Mood For Love is officially in the running or not?
Over in the NYFCC's Best Foreign Language Film category, In The Mood For Love handily took their accolade, almost doubling the point total of first runner-up No Man's Land. Amores Perros, which was nominated for an Academy Award in the Foreign Language Film category last year and hence will not be a factor in this year's race, placed third. As In The Mood For Love was submitted last year by Hong Kong for consideration in the Foreign Language Film category, one can disregard it for the purposes of this year's contest. Currently, Danis Tanovic's picture seems like a solid bet at this point for an Oscar nomination. Conspicuous by its absence (hooray!) is Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Amélie, which not only failed to crack the NYFCC's list of top 3 foreign-lingo films -- it didn't even make the top ten. One ought not to read too much into this -- while critical kudos for the film would've been nice and certainly couldn't have hurt, it's clearly the sort of picture whose Oscar prospects was going to be driven by audience sentiment and glowing word-of-mouth rather than accolades from critics groups. Still, I'm heartened by the degree to which Gotham critics appear to have rejected the film. I hope he doesn't mind me quoting him, but a recent comment which made me chuckle was by N.Y.-based critic Steve Erickson, who vitrolicly wished that the film's "nauseatingly 'charming'" heroine were magically transported into Baise-Moi. I sense sequel possibilities -- how about A2: Amélie Gets Auditioned?
Meanwhile, Agnès Varda's The Gleaners And I dominated the NYFCC Non-Fiction category, nearly winning on the first ballot. Chris Hegedus and Jehane Noujaim's Startup.com and George Butler's The Endurance: Shackleton's Legendary Antarctic Expedition placed in the runner-up positions. Among these three, I particularly hope that Startup.com might make the final five with the AMPAS documentarians -- it's a truly fascinating examination of the dot-com phenomenon, with a true-life narrative arc with enough twists and turns to rival any fictional film; at this point, it's definitely bound for my year-end Top 10 list. I think it's already out on video -- check it out.
The Best Animated Film category was the group's most contentious of the day, with Richard Linklater's Waking Life squeaking past the Adamson/Jenson hit Shrek and the latest Pixar film Monsters, Inc. to win the NYFCC honor in what could be considered a mild upset. If nothing else, this recognition probably nails the door shut on the Oscar nominee list for the inaugural Best Animated Film category -- in the wake of its instant credibility-cementing victory here, Waking Life has to be considered the favourite to join Shrek and Monsters, Inc. as an AMPAS nomination. (Tellingly, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within garnered nary a single vote from the Gotham group.)
As it turns out, my musings about possible NYFCC selections in Oscar Column #2 were mostly on the mark -- I cited Mulholland Dr. as a Best Picture possibility, referenced Ghost World's Thora Birch (fourth-place in the actress ballotting) and eventual Supporting Actor winner Steve Buscemi, and picked runner-ups Christopher Nolan (Memento's screenplay), Startup.com (non-fiction film) and Shrek (animated film). I also picked Mulholland Dr.'s Naomi Watts; although I accurately mused that she'd either win or place second in the Actress race, I was still somewhat surprised to learn that Sissy Spacek outpointed her -- I was fairly confident that she would score the win from this group. On the other hand, although I figured Ghost World was well-liked amongst the Gotham scribes, I hadn't counted on Johansson placing, and I overestimated the popularity of Memento and understimated the support which In The Bedroom and Shrek would receive in the Best Picture category.
For what it's worth, my favourite NYFCC votes of this year (I am not making these up):
Best Non-Fiction Film: Pearl HarborBest Animated Film: Amélie (well, it is pretty cartoonish)
Genie Nominee Reactions
I realize that these have zero chance of affecting the Oscar race in any shape or form, but as a proud Canadian -- that is, a dweller from the land which has replaced Osama bin Laden as a threat to the United States and is a cultureless wasteland, according to Joel Joseph of the Made In The USA Foundation and Brent Swift; thanks, you arrogant sons-of-... -- I thought I'd quickly comment on the recently-announed list of Genie nominees, Canada's equivalent to the Academy Awards. (Believe it or not, Canada does actually have a film industry.)
This year's Genie nominee list had a few glaring omssions and/or underrepresented films. I was startled that Piper Perabo failed to receive a Best Actress nomination for her performance in Lost And Delirious. (Actually, truth be told, it was even more startling that Perabo didn't get nominated while Delirious screenwriter Judith Thompson did.) The film's a bit of a mess -- it's maudlin and clunky, bogged down with TV-movie trappings (mawkishness, awful song interludes between events representing the emotional state of the characters, a dripping score, oversymbolized plotting) and a sappy script which had the audience I saw it with giggling aloud at its italicized nature, but Perabo attacks her role with utter sincerity and emotes her little heart out. While Perabo's an American actress, she's in service to a Canadian film, and it isn't as if other non-Canadians have never previously been nominated -- consider the likes of Ralph Fiennes, Bob Hoskins, Tilda Swinton, James Whitmore, Ian Holm, Mary-Louise Parker, etc. I'm at a loss to explain how she didn't make the cut (and also a little chagrined, as I'd earlier guaranteed The World's Biggest Piper Perabo Fan that she'd certainly receive a nomination -- err, sorry).
I was also taken aback by the relatively minimal Genie acknowledgement received by John Fawcett's teenage-werewolf film, Ginger Snaps. While the picture was a commercial disappointment in Canada (despite a remarkably un-Canadian aggressive marketing push -- this film actually had TV spots!), it received terrific reviews both at home and in the U.S. during its brief theatrical run and was a solid piece of filmmaking; aside from the Camera D'Or-winning Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner), Ginger Snaps may have been Canada's most acclaimed feature film of the year. In spite of this, the film failed to score a Best Picture nomination and perplexingly received only three technical nominations. It probably wouldn't be accurate to chalk the film's underrepresentation to its genre trappings -- Ginger Snaps is too shrewd and smart of a picture to be lumped in with exploitative teen horror fare -- and besides, vampire film Karmina scored a dozen Genie nominations in 1997, so it's difficult to fathom where the film went wrong with voters. Screenwriter Karen Walton, hyped by no less than Variety as one of the "10 Screenwriters To Watch", was expected to be a lock for her script linking the menstruation cycle with lycanthropy, but was shut out alongside director John Fawcett, whose underrated work was deserving of attention. I was also hopeful that star Emily Perkins (beautifully cast; I felt like cheering when she first appeared onscreen) would've scored an Actress nomination. What happened?!
I don't want to be overly skeptical -- I like Marya Delver and Molly Parker, at least -- but some of these exclusions are rather disconcerting. I'm not sure what was going on with the Genie voter pool this year, but I'll say this: if Guy Maddin's The Heart Of The World -- the year's best five minutes of cinema as far as I'm concerned -- doesn't win the Live-Action Short Drama category hands-down, these guys are completely out to lunch. (Hey, is Heart eligible for Oscar consideration in the Live Action Short category? Must look into this...)
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Reactions
Whew, more awards. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association cast their ballots on Saturday the 15th, mostly reinforcing the selections issued earlier by the New York Film Critics Circle. In the Best Picture category, the LAFC went with Todd Field's In The Bedroom, with NYFC-winning Mulholland Dr. placing in the runner-up position. Whether this selection prompts Miramax to focus more strongly in pushing Bedroom in the major Oscar categories is yet to be seen, but their $1 million investment in acquiring the film now looks to be a outright steal. With its strong performance with the critics' awards to date -- #2 with the National Board of Review, #3 with the New York Film Critics' Circle, and now the LAFC victory -- the film could hardly be better positioned for a serious run at a Best Picture nomination.
Training Day mentor Denzel Washington scored the Best Actor prize from the West Coast critics, beating out NYFC-victor Tom Wilkinson of In The Bedroom. I was delighted with his against-type performance -- I'd always maintained that he'd make for a spectacular villain due to his immensely magnetic charisma and considerable acting prowess; he sure didn't disappoint -- and am very confident that he'll score an Oscar nomination come February. Wilkinson's solid standing with the LAFC makes for another positive indicator for his Academy Award prospects.
As with the New York critics, In The Bedroom's Sissy Spacek edged out Mulholland Dr.'s Naomi Watts for the LAFC Best Actress prize to snare her second critics' award of the season. While this accolade obviously indicates that Spacek is en route to another Oscar nomination (it would be her sixth but her first since 1986's Crimes Of The Heart), I'm not yet ready to declare her a lock (perhaps because of the level of competition in the category, or possibly because I was not inordinately wowed by her performance). At this point, it would be difficult to call Watts a contender in the Actress race given her promotion in the Supporting Actress category by Universal Focus; however, the critical accolades she's received in the leading category may prompt them to reshuffle their strategy and move her back into the Best Actress contest.
Jim Broadbent took the LAFC prize for his supporting work in both Iris and Moulin Rouge. Given his previous standing with the New York Film Critics Circle, he should be probably be considered a genuine possibility for a Supporting Actor Oscar nomination (between the two, an Iris nomination seems more likely than one for his ostentatious turn in Moulin Rouge). Sexy Beast's Ben Kingsley was the Los Angeles runner-up, and continues to look like a sure Supporting Actor nominee.
Perennial Oscar bait Kate Winslet made her first impact in this year's award race in taking LAFC honours for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of the younger version of Iris Murdoch in the Richard Eyre biopic on the late British novelist. Miramax appears to be focusing on pushing Iris for its performances -- Dench, Broadbent, and Winslet -- rather than the film as a whole, and as such Winslet must be considered a threat. Helen Mirren placed in the runner-up position for her performances in both Last Orders and Gosford Park.
(A quick aside: Was anyone else besides me amused by the press coverage greeting the domestic theatrical release of Charles Shyer's[!?] The Affair Of The Necklace which kept describing Hilary Swank as 'Oscar bait'? Um, no. Longtime readers may recall that I was very positive about Swank's work in Boys Don't Cry and that I championed her over close rival Annette Bening of American Beauty fame in the Best Actress race two years ago -- hers was not a gimmick performance -- but she hasn't achieved Oscar bait status, even though she's already won an Academy Award. Much like the indescribable "it", it's a difficult term to define, but whatever Oscar bait may be, Swank isn't it yet (which in no way is meant to disparage her commendable achievement in the Kimberly Peirce film). Kate Winslet, who has never won an Oscar, is Oscar bait. Emily Watson, who's also sans Academy Award, is Oscar bait. Meryl Streep, of course, is the Empress of Oscar bait. Hilary Swank is not Oscar bait. To declare Swank Oscar bait at this moment would be akin to those who instantly began describing Elisabeth Shue as Oscar bait in the wake of her Leaving Las Vegas performance; now, of course, applying the label thusly just looks silly.)
David Lynch took the LAFC Best Director prize for his helming of Mulholland Dr.; he previously won similar accolades (in a shared capacity) at the Cannes Film Festival. This is another major boost for his Oscar chances in the Best Director category, and he is now positioned to be a viable contender. (My earlier musings about his chances in previous columns may have been overly conservative.) Robert Altman, the NYFCC winner for Gosford Park, placed in the runner-up position in LAFC voting, and continues to be a strong possibility for the Academy Awards race.
The Christopher Nolan screenplay for Memento won the script award from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, beating out Terry Zwigoff and Daniel Clowes' adaptation of the latter's graphic novel for Ghost World. If Memento is to score an Academy Award nomination -- and despite its challenging, convoluted structure, I'd figure that its avid cult following and its extraordinarily strong performance at the box office for an indepdently-distributed indie film would make it viable -- it would be for its screenplay; I'd definitely consider Nolan to be a legitimate possibility.
Danis Tanovic's No Man's Land continues to make strides towards a Foreign Language Film Oscar nomination by capturing the equivalent prize from the LAFC, outballotting Wong Kar-wai's In The Mood For Love. Still missing is Amélie: "Have You Seen Me?" posters featuring the spoon-wielding pixie should be going up on walls soon. Agnès Varda followed up the NYFCC Best Non-Fiction Film accolade by scoring the LAFC's Documentary award for her picture The Gleaners And I; should this film be under consideration for the Academy Awards, these two victories would likely be very beneficial to its prospects.
The Man Who Wasn't There's d.p. Roger Deakins took the LAFC Best Cinematography prize over the Doyle/Lee teaming in In The Mood For Love; Deakins should be considered a sure thing for an Oscar nomination while, as mentioned earlier in this column, I'm not entirely certain whether Doyle and Lee are in fact eligible for consideration for their luminous work in the Wong Kar-wai film.
Catherine Martin scored the LAFC's Best Production Design for her spectacular envisioning of Moulin Rouge; I fully expect her to pick up an Oscar nomination for either her art direction in the Baz Luhrmann film or, along with co-designer Angus Strathie, the picture's flamboyant costume designs (or both!) As of this writing, The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring has yet to bow, but based on the film clips released to date it isn't particularly difficult to buy LAFC runner-up Grant Major's production design as being potentially award-calibre; he also won the NBR's Production Design/Art Direction accolade earlier last week. Meanwhile, Canadian composer Howard Shore scored the LAFC's Best Musical Score category, beating out an interesting choice in Stephen Trask's Hedwig And The Angry Inch.
Finally, Shrek was named the year's Best Animated Feature by the LAFC over Monster's, Inc.. Both are clearly bound for Oscar nominations, and the DreamWorks film seems positioned as the favourite at this point. Based on the rivalry/acrimony between the two companies -- is Lord Farquaad a tweak on Eisner? You be the judge! -- should we expect to see fierce campaigning between the two camps going down to the wire?
The Memento Screenplay
I received a great letter from Mr. Norman Shetler, who picked up on a remark I made in Oscar Column #1:
I was under the impression that the short story by Chris Nolan's brother was actually published AFTER the film had been made, which would make it an Original Screenplay, at least if you go by the official full name for that category "...based on material previously produced or published".I did some investigation on this matter, and Mr. Shetler appears to be on the money. While Christopher Nolan's screenplay was based on the short story by his brother, Jonathan, and hence would generally be considered as an 'adapted' script, the original short story was not published until March 2001 (in Esquire magazine, apparently), the same month the film received its theatrical release, and (obviously) well after the picture had been shot and put in the can. As such, given that the official title of the Academy Awards category is "Best Screenplay Based On Material Previously Produced Or Published" (emphasis mine), it's difficult to see how the Memento screenplay could fall into this category; the script was indeed on based on other source material, but it hadn't been published at the time the screenplay was written. As such, it follows that Memento's screenplay should probably be under consideration in the "Best Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen" category. (One should remember that the "Best Original Screenplay" and "Best Adapted Screenplay" terms bandied about are loose short-form [and occasionally inaccurate] versions of the aforementioned actual category titles, which ought to be interpreted literally.)As Mr. Shether pointed out later in his letter, this isn't an unprecedented scenario. In 1968, the screenplay for 2001: A Space Odyssey was penned by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke before Clarke's novel hit the printing press, and as such the 2001 script wound up with a Best Original Screenplay nomination that year (eventually losing out to Mel Brooks' The Producers).
If I'm interpreting the Academy rules correctly, then, the Christopher Nolan screenplay ought to be a contender in the "Best Screenplay Written Directly For The Screen" category (a.k.a. "Best Original Screenplay"). Of course, it would be easy to confirm this if there were any For Your Consideration trade advertisements in support of the script -- they've touted Joe Pantoliano for Supporting Actor so far, but litle else as far as I know. Can anyone in the know confirm that Memento will be an Original Screenplay for the purposes of the Academy Awards?
Argh, the Boston Society of Film Critics have just weighed in with their awards -- I guess I'll have to postpone my reactions on their selections, along with the Mailbag section (some interesting Best Song candidate suggestions -- thanks) to the next column. Thanks for reading.
Do you think Mulholland Dr. has a chance at a Best Picture nom? Anyone else think The Others should be given a shot? Surprised by the NYFC or LAFC picks? Wasn't Emily Perkins good? Feedback or inquiries are welcome -- e-mail me. (Please indicate if you wish to remain anonymous; pseudonyms are also acceptable.)
Alex Fung (aw220@freenet.carleton.ca)
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