Part three arrives and it comes with 20 more films to keep an eye on this year as potential Oscar candidates. If you missed parts one and two, the links for both of those can be found on the bottom of page two of this post.
With today’s list of films it brings the total previewed thus far to 60 early Oscar contending films and already one reader has sent in a potential new candidate I am looking into further to see if the list again will grow from it’s current total of 73 films to 74 and what may amount to a fifth film for Helen Mirren. With no films this year for Meryl Streep, it looks like Mirren is stacking the deck.
I will again remind you, this is merely a guide to potential nominees, not a guarantee, not a lock, but simply films that could potentially go on to be remembered at the year-end Oscar race. A few of these films may not even be released in 2010. Several of these films still don’t have distribution. A few of these films just started production. Suffice to say, this list, as the headline says, is preliminary.
Please remember when commenting, the list is in alphabetical order, which means tomorrow’s part four will pick up exactly where this list leaves off. So, if you inquire about a film that comes after The Social Network alphabetically, you may have to wait until tomorrow to see if it made the list. Otherwise, if you believe a film has been overlooked in parts one, two or three please comment below. I will have the fourth and final installment tomorrow and on Friday I will publish the entire list once again, in its entirety.
I have not yet finished work on the new “The Contenders” section and once I open its doors I hope to have as comprehensive a list as possible. As the year goes on several of these films will drop off the list, others will be added and just like last year we will ultimately end up with our front-runners.
With all that said, let’s get started with part three, which includes yet another 20 films…
Quick Thoughts: There’s a question mark surrounding everything in the now defunct name of Miramax as there’s no telling when these films will hit theaters, but that doesn’t mean we should dismiss the films as a result. One of those films is Massy Tadjedin’s Last Night starring Keira Knightley, Guillaume Canet, Eva Mendes and Sam Worthington. It’s quite the international cast and one of the first films we’ll see Worthington working with something not in the action epic genre since breaking out in 2009.
Quick Thoughts: Ed Zwick’s Love and Other Drugs is already earning plenty of buzz with many saying Anne Hathaway is a surefire Best Actress nominee. Hathaway plays a woman who has Parkinson’s and co-stars opposite Jake Gyllenhaal who’s character falls in love with Hathaway. Many will see it’s another one of those performances gaining attention due to the fact it involves a handicap or disease, and with Hathaway’s continued support among the Academy ranks if the performance holds up it could be her first win, which many thought would come in 2009 when she lost to Kate Winslet for The Reader. It’s a reunion for the two Brokeback Mountain stars and with the film’s supposed critical eye of the pharmaceutical industry it could earn additional sympathy from all corners. It will be interesting to see what screenwriter Charles Randolph can pull off considering his previous screenplay for The Life of David Gale and The Interpreter weren’t exactly praised.
Love Ranch is inspired by the story of Joe and Sally Conforte, proprietors of the Mustang Ranch, the first legalized house of prostitution in Nevada, and Helen Mirren and Joe Pesci are going to star as said proprietors with Mirren’s Oscar-nominated husband Taylor Hackford (Ray) directing the film. On top of sounding like an entertaining picture it also has serious Oscar prospects. Paul Hirsch, the Oscar-winning editor of Star Wars will edit the feature and considering we are talking about a film set in the mid-1970s I would expect art direction and costumes will be up for grabs.
