OK everybody,
It seems that I still have work to do in the off season, since festival season never seems to end.
So, after a bit of lagging, here we are, a few weeks out of Cannes, and although we can't watch ANY of the movies yet (except Gatsby if you count that), we can still start to think about the upcoming potential "for your consideration" films we may NEED to see.
Not to begin the Oscar predictions too early, but in each of the last two years we've seen the Palme D'or winner garner major critics awards, propelling them to a Best Picture and Best Director nomination at the Oscars. The films are The Tree of Life in 2011 and Amour in 2012, both of which happen to be my favorite films of those respective years.
Something tells me this year will be different...
The Golden Palm was given to a three-hour long French film, Blue is the Warmest Colour, based on an ultra-popular french novel. The film's director Abdellatif Kechiche is no stranger to the film festival circuit, and his fifth feature was a surprise winner, garnering the attention of the jury including Nicole Kidman, Christoph Waltz and last year's Best Director winner Ang Lee, all headed by Best Director loser Stephen Spielberg.
Kechiche's film beat out films by all-time greats Roman Polanski, the Coen brothers, Steven Soderbugh and, oh yes, Takashi Miike, the badass Japanese thriller director.
As the year goes on, and the endless amount of crap releases into theaters, we should follow the American films that were in contention. Inside Llewyn Davis was a highly-anticipated Coen brothers film that was originally scheduled for release last season, but due to distribution problems, the Coens decided to take their sweet time, and now Coen fans have to wait a whole...nother...year for the next release (December).
The Immigrant is another Weinstein-backed indie that remains to really be seen how the critics respond to the film across American before they push it for award season. the Jaoquin Phoenix drama still has no release date, and if it was as painfully over-the-top as The Master, then we can hope it stays that way. The film was directed by James Gray (no, not the boxing ringside reporter), who has worked with Phoenix a number of times before.
Behind the Candelabra will not be in American theaters, catch that on HBO, if you can stand the blended and ever-changing, eye-soring color tints which seem to plague most HBO films.
The final film to look at is Alexander Payne's Nebraska, which made huge press at the fest. Bruce Dern won Best Actor for playing the old father in the touching father-son story. Also, Alexander Payne has been nominated for five Oscars, and has won Best Screenplay twice, however, this is his first film he did not receive screenplay credit on. He has also directed five of his actors to Oscar nominations and, although none have won, each film he does certainly brings a huge weight to the Oscar race.
More prospecting to come, let me know what everyone thinks!
