Room for much Oscar talk has been few and far between this year leading up to this point, but finally there seems to be a little bit more to discuss beginning with Steve Pond’s account of the National Association of Theater Owners’ ShowEast conference in Orlando, Florida. He is careful to note the films at ShowEast are “judged for their box-office potential rather than their awards-worthiness,” but there is still some chatter to be heard and see what we can take from it.
First off, the film that seemed to make the biggest splash was Paramount’s The Fighter and it’s worthy of discussion since this is the first time anyone outside of Paramount had seen it. Pond’s report describes the film as “a likely Best Picture nominee, with a pair of performances that will definitely figure into the Supporting Actor and Actress races.”
The two standout performances are said to be Christian Bale as the meth-addicted brother of the film’s lead character, boxer “Irish” Mickey Ward (Mark Wahlberg), and Melissa Leo as the mother of Bale and Walhberg. Leo also has roles in Conviction and Welcome to the Rileys this season, but based on release date timing and current reactions, if The Fighter can live up to this early praise it would seem the film for her to focus on for awards consideration.
Another film receiving high praise was Disney’s animated feature Tangled and I continue to hear great things about this film leading me to believe it sounds like one of the certain Animated Feature Film Oscar nominees.
Pond has been keeping close tabs on the number of animated films that will be eligible for submission this year and whether or not the category will have five nominees or only three. Should it be only three we can safely assume there is only room for one more as Toy Story 3 and How to Train Your Dragon have already pretty much secured two spots with Toy Story 3 already being considered a certain Best Picture nominee. (Depending on who you read, even Dragon has been receiving some consideration for a Best Pic nod in some corners.)
Pond’s latest report shows there are currently 13 films that will be up for consideration for Best Animated feature based on films with release dates, past present and future. The category needs 16 contenders for five nominees. Here’s how Pond currently lays out the race for those already having secured a release date:
- How to Train Your Dragon (DreamWorks Animation, release date 3/26)
- Shrek Forever After (DreamWorks 5/20)
- Toy Story 3 (Pixar/Disney 6/18)
- Despicable Me (Universal 7/9)
- Alpha and Omega (Lionsgate 9/17)
- Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue (Disney 9/21)
- Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (Warner Brothers 9/24)
- My Dog Tulip (New Yorker Films 10/22)
- Idiots and Angels (Plymptoons 10/29)
- Megamind (DreamWorks 11/5)
- Tangled (Disney 11/24)
- Yogi Bear (Warner Bros 12/17)
- The Illusionist (Sony Classics 12/25)
Films with question marks include the Japanese anime Summer Wars (watch the trailer here), the Spanish-language AFI Fest 2010 participant Chico and Rita (watch the trailer here) and Cat Tale from Imagi Studios. None of those three films have release dates yet, though Pond has heard Summer Wars will be getting one. Should they manage limited releases in LA they would bring the total to 16.
Another film that could help matters would be Cats and Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore, a film that mixes live-action and animation just as did Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakuel last year when it was on the list of 20 animated contenders.
Of course, things could also get tricky if the newly filed lawsuit asking the court for an injunction of Sony Classics’ planned Christmas Day release of The Illusionist holds up. The lawsuit comes about as The Illusionst LLC, the sales agent behind The Illusionist, the 2006 Ed Norton feature, claims releasing a film under the same title infringes on their exclusive trademark and wish for the title to be changed. Frivolous.
Having not seen Tangled just yet (and I won’t until November 9) my current top three films for nomination are Toy Story 3, How to Train Your Dragon and The Illusionist. Have you any thoughts on the matter?
This ends part one of today’s two part Oscar Update, click here for part two where I discuss recent updates to my Best Picture predictions and stay tuned as I’ll be discussing my updated predictions to the acting races all week.
