Kicking Off the Fall Season

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Okri
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

Post by Okri »

Okay, I kinda get that. But then I wonder - how does an entity like Fox Searchlight do it (acknowledging now Disney)? The comparison that comes to mind for me is Brooklyn vs An Education. Both were Sundance fest-ed, young-female lead, "light" costume dramas (in a way). The Sony Classics one gets a 12 million gross. The Fox Searchlight one more than triples that. I mean, they both ended up with the same oscar tally (Picture/Actress/Adapted Screenplay) so more power to 'em, I suppose.

Ultimately, though, I just don't think I'll get a chance to see a Sony Classics film in theatres 50% of the time.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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Sabin wrote:
Mister Tee wrote
But it is frustrating when their reticence seems to handicap a personal favorite in the Oscar race. I still haven't forgiven them for, in the first Year of the Indie failing to get Lone Star more than a token screenplay nomination.
I forgot that they handled Lone Star. In retrospect, Lone Star should have been able to elbow past Secrets & Lies.
Harvey Weinstein would have turned John Sayles into the most-overdue director ever.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

Post by Sabin »

Mister Tee wrote
But it is frustrating when their reticence seems to handicap a personal favorite in the Oscar race. I still haven't forgiven them for, in the first Year of the Indie failing to get Lone Star more than a token screenplay nomination.
I forgot that they handled Lone Star. In retrospect, Lone Star should have been able to elbow past Secrets & Lies.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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Okri wrote:If Banderas doesn't get nominated, I'd place the blame squarely on Sony Classics. How is Pain and Glory already losing screens? It's at the point where I want to abduct all Classic's executives so they miss the film festivals, thus not acquiring films I want to see. Comparing them to Neon or A24 (or any other mini/indie distributor )and it's really quite startling.
I don't know the Sony Classics folk personally, but I have a good friend who worked with them early in their careers, and their philosophy has been quite consistent down the years. They have no interest in pursuing the big brass ring the way Miramax did (and Searchlight/Focus/lately A24/Neon have) -- they see themselves as small fish, mostly dealing in foreign-language titles and true indies, and their interest in the big Oscar categories is incidental. If they get there without extreme effort, great (as happened with their one big coup -- Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon), but they view pouring massive amounts of money into major-category campaigns too risky to their economic model. And you can make the case that, by sticking to this philosophy, they've managed to stay viable over decades, while so many other entities (Paramount Vantage, Warner Independent Pictures, Weinstein in two different incarnations) have gone boom-and-bust.

But it is frustrating when their reticence seems to handicap a personal favorite in the Oscar race. I still haven't forgiven them for, in the first Year of the Indie failing to get Lone Star more than a token screenplay nomination.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

Post by Reza »

Big Magilla wrote: but that's leaving out Phoenix which probably isn't smart.
Yes, not smart at all. I think Phoenix is going to easily win the Oscar. None of the other actors also in the running have received as many rave reviews as Phoenix. Maybe Driver....but Phoenix is due, and despite the controversy surrounding the film, his flamboyant performance will endear him to the voters.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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Mister Tee wrote:
Precious Doll wrote:I think its worth remembering that whilst Antonio Banderas is in a foreign language film that he has lived in Hollywood for several decades and carved himself out a pretty respectable career not only as an actor but a director in Hollywood alone, without even taking into account in work in Spanish cinema. I think that gives him an advantage over most European actors who have been in consideration for a non-English language film.
If you look at the actors who've been nominated for non-English-speaking performances down the years -- starting with Loren, and including Mastroianni, Ullmann, von Sydow, Deneuve -- they've largely been people who've established some presence in American films (even Benigni had his Jarmusch films prior to Life is Beautiful). Banderas has not just had a career -- thanks to Evita, the Zorro, Shrek and Rodriguez films, he's been a star. This precisely the sort of non-U.S. actor who can get a nomination for a career role such as this.
True, however the films for which Loren, Mastroianni and Ullmann received their first nominations were box-office as well as critical hits that were readily available to the English-speaking public in dubbed versions as well as subtitled ones as was the Benigni. As far as I'm aware, von Sydow's wasn't but he was in a Cannes Festival winner and had won the National Society of Film Critics award (tied with Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man). Deneuve was a dark horse in a weak year.

Now, of course, more Oscar voters as well as the general public, see more films at home than in theatres. Whether or not Pain and Glory is widely seen in theatres should have no impact on Banderas' chances, but will enough voters give his film a fair chance against all the other screeners they have to watch in a short period over the holidays? If just for his performance, maybe not if it doesn't win major critics' awards, but given that the Aldomovar is one of only two major contenders for Best International Film (the new name for Best Foreign Language Film), it should get more play than a subtitled film might ordinarily get with this group but will it be enough against a field of strong potential nominees in higher profile English language films? Right now I'm thinking Banderas, De Niro, DiCaprio, Driver and Pryce, but that's leaving out Phoenix which probably isn't smart.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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Its worth noting that Sony probably had the rights to Pain and Glory long before its Cannes premier. Producers often sell distribution rights to various companies across numerous territories to help shore up funding and Sony has a long-standing relationship with Almodovar. For example Neon picked up the U.S. rights for Parasite in October last year, long before Cannes when the film was in post-production.

But that aside, I would have thought that by 2019 the slow rollout of 'smaller' films would have ceased at least in terms of positioning for Oscars as the Oscars really don't mean anything much box office wise anymore - the best film winner and to a lesser degree actor/actress winning films get a small bump the week after and then just fizzle away.

Also, we now live in a society of instant gratification so to speak so there is a demand for an earlier release for more prolific small films and this staggered release of films within countries and internationally is old hat. But having said that I live in the part of a major and very large city that is where more niche films are shown on a regular basis. If I lived in the suburbs I wouldn't consider travelling for anything unless it was something very special.

There is also the streaming factor which is really going to change things in the future if more streaming services adopt the Netflix model. And if you don't have that streaming service and miss its brief cinema run or its not showing in a cinema anywhere near you you are probably not going to see the film.

I'm also wondering how do they advertise films now? I don't watch any commercial TV so I don't know what is being promoted or not but TV is a dying medium so the impact of that advertising must be lessening as the years roll by. The only advertising I see are trailers at the cinema (I very very rarely watch them on the internet), movie posters and flyers and the cinema and Emails from cinema chains that I am a member of (at the moment I'm getting bombarded about screenings of The Truth with Kore-era presenting his film and engaging in Q&As - I'll wait for its general release next month).

Most of the information I get about new films is from sites on the internet and flicking through the reviews on The Hollywood Reporter.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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I tend to think that foreign language films (and smaller festival films) should already be out now if they want to have Oscar success. And also because I want to see them. I won't rant on this too much, but for basically every SPC film, you can point to a near equivalent that another studio had that actually had broader success because they actually wanted it.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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I think it's supposed to expand onto more screens next weekend. It's scheduled to come to a couple of theaters in the Nashville area, and I may take advantage of the long weekend to try drive up and see it (and Parasite).

I would say that maybe a late November release would've been better, and they could've rolled it out over the December awards season, but they put Call Me By Your Name out in late November, then kept it inaccessible to most of the country when it was one of the most talked-about movies in the country and had genuine momentum (it was on less than 200 screens for its first eight weekends), and when they finally put it out wide, everyone had moved on. Yes a biopic performance is always going to have a leg-up in an Oscar race, but I really believe that a better distributor would've pulled in the Best Actor win for Chalamet, or at least made it a genuinely close race. I still think Julianne Moore's Best Actress win was despite, and not because, Sony Pictures Classics handled the film, especially with that insane one-week-qualifying-release ploy that almost never works. In a lot of years, I don't think she would've even been nominated because of that.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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If Banderas doesn't get nominated, I'd place the blame squarely on Sony Classics. How is Pain and Glory already losing screens? It's at the point where I want to abduct all Classic's executives so they miss the film festivals, thus not acquiring films I want to see. Comparing them to Neon or A24 (or any other mini/indie distributor )and it's really quite startling.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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Precious Doll wrote:I think its worth remembering that whilst Antonio Banderas is in a foreign language film that he has lived in Hollywood for several decades and carved himself out a pretty respectable career not only as an actor but a director in Hollywood alone, without even taking into account in work in Spanish cinema. I think that gives him an advantage over most European actors who have been in consideration for a non-English language film.
If you look at the actors who've been nominated for non-English-speaking performances down the years -- starting with Loren, and including Mastroianni, Ullmann, von Sydow, Deneuve -- they've largely been people who've established some presence in American films (even Benigni had his Jarmusch films prior to Life is Beautiful). Banderas has not just had a career -- thanks to Evita, the Zorro, Shrek and Rodriguez films, he's been a star. This precisely the sort of non-U.S. actor who can get a nomination for a career role such as this.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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I agree that Banderas is a force to be reckoned with this year, and will probably be nominated, but being in a foreign language film that is not a Best Picture frontrunner does somewhat handicap him. If he's not nominated, that will be the reason.

I think this is the toughest year to predict which of six frontrunners will be left off the final list since 1967 when Sidney Poitier was the odd man out on the list that included Warren Beatty, Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman, Rod Steiger and Spencer Tracy.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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I think its worth remembering that whilst Antonio Banderas is in a foreign language film that he has lived in Hollywood for several decades and carved himself out a pretty respectable career not only as an actor but a director in Hollywood alone, without even taking into account in work in Spanish cinema. I think that gives him an advantage over most European actors who have been in consideration for a non-English language film.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

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It seems we're all agreed that there are six contenders for the five Best Actor slots, so much so that I would be genuinely shocked if anyone else muscles in and knocks one of them out at the last minute.

The one I see as least vulnerable, if anyone is, is Jonathan Pryce, a well-respected actor whos has never been nominated. It doesn't hurt that he's on Broadway in a limited run in The Height of the Storm, although it will be gone when awards season kicks into high gear. Antonio Banderas has never been nominated either, but he's in a foreign language film, which could limit his potential among voters.

Adam Driver is the next least vulnerable, a driving force of an almost certain Best Picture front-runner. Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio are also driving forces in their films, but the critical darlings of their films are equally popular actors who will be battling it out in support.

Joaquin Phoenix's performance in a highly controversial film could be the most vulnerable. Major critics' awards might make the controversy irrelevant but after Ethan Hawke's failure to be nominated last year, major critics' awards may not be enough. I think the uncertainty is going to last all the way to Oscar nomination morning.
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Re: Kicking Off the Fall Season

Post by Sabin »

Mister Tee wrote
I think the issue DiCaprio is facing is that, while most would think, sure, he should be among the five nominees, it's hard to imagine many thinking, He's my choice for the win this year -- and the voting is more dependent on number one ballot positions. I think it's not unlike the position Hanks was in for Captain Phillips -- many of us would have been happy with a nomination, to salute Hanks' return to solid acting, but hardly any of us would have thought it worthy of a third trophy. Leo's recent win pretty much rules him out of win contention this year, for that good-but-not-overwhelming role. It's easier to imagine Driver, Phoenix, Banderas and Pryce getting those first-place votes, leaving DiCaprio to joust with DeNiro for a tag-along spot.
That's a very good piece of reasoning. He seems destined to wind up on several ballots but high up on very few. I didn't mention this but DiCaprio's performance is not dissimilar to Michael Keaton's in Birdman. He's playing a quirky, ego-driven has-been Hollywood-player on the verge of a meltdown. "Michael Keaton winning an Oscar" was a driving story that year (even if it didn't carry him across the finish line). DiCaprio (and his funny, quirky performance) doesn't have that driving story.
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(Which occasionally can come through -- somehow, more people thought Johnny Depp deserved the nod for Finding Neverland than Paul Giammatti for Sideways.)
Hindsight being 20/20, I think the Academy of 2004 just wasn't that into Sideways. Best Actor was a crowded field (Liam Neeson didn't make the cut). Thomas Haden Church and Virginia Madsen had weaker competition. Come to think of it, Alexander Payne's biggest competition was Taylor Hackford and Marc Forster. Best Director was so weak in 2004 that Mike Leigh snuck in.
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