Annual blockbusters vie for the Oscar
Craig ManningStaff Reporter
Early Tuesday morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled the nominations for the 84th annual Academy Awards. This includes the announcement of which films will compete for the coveted Best Picture Oscar. The Best Picture field this year includes nine 2011 films, a curious number for a category that, for most of its existence, has consisted of only five.
The Academy switched the nomination process for the category three years ago, opening the field to ten nominees in hopes of acknowledging more popular cinema, from action blockbusters to comedy films to big box office hits. After two years with ten films in the mix, the Academy has altered the rules yet again. This time allowing anywhere between five and ten nominees, depending on the percentage of votes a film received in the first phase of voting.
The second phase of voting will decide the winners in each category, which will be announced on Sunday, Feb. 26 starting at 7 p.m.
Martin Scorsese’s “Hugo” led the morning with 11 nominations, including Best Picture and key mentions in the Best Director and Best Film Editing categories. however, “The Artist,” a French love letter to silent cinema, is the film currently favored to win the big prize.
The remaining nominees range from the predictable (“The Descendants,” starring George Clooney in a Best Actor nominated performance) to the less expected (“The Tree of Life,” Terrence Malick’s massively ambitious art house picture).
Perhaps the biggest surprise of the morning was the nomination of the September 11 themed drama “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” whose 48 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating and 46/100 Metacritic score do not only indicate a lack of critical support, but rank it as the most poorly reviewed Best Picture nominee in Oscar history. then again, perhaps critical acclaim is not what matters to Academy voters.
“For better or worse, these nominations show ample evidence of a large group of voters who unafraid, indeed unashamed, of telling us what they like,” said Guy Lodge, a writer for In Contention, a respected Oscar blog. “With no precursor foundation for “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” it is clearly there for no other reason than that enough voters were honestly affected by it, and couldn’t care less what the critical majority thought.”
Perhaps equally evident from the announcement were which films the Academy liked but did not love. David Fincher’s darkly atmospheric adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” scored a Best Actress nomination (for Rooney Mara), but failed to convert its critical acclaim and precursor award recognition into a Best Picture or Best Director nomination. Similarly, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” a densely plotted espionage thriller, earned Screenplay and Best Actor nods (for Gary Oldman), but was left out of the Best Picture field.
Surprises and snubs aside, film distributors and local theaters alike are hoping for a boost in attendance in response to the Academy’s announcement. two years ago, the Oscar nomination for “Avatar” yielded a 45 percent increase in Fandango online ticket sales the following weekend, helping the film to its eventual crown as the high grossing film of all time. Rave Cinema in Downtown Kalamazoo is hoping for considerable Oscar traffic, finally giving Kalamazoo residents a chance to see “The Artist” (the film is slowly expanding after a limited release) and resurrecting “Hugo” (which released at Thanksgiving), in addition to continuing runs of more recent films.
Other contenders, such as “War Horse,” “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” and “The Descendant,” also stand to gain a substantial boost from the prestigious nomination. those three films are currently playing at several local theaters, including Rave, Celebration and Goodrich.
The remaining Best Picture nominees (“The Help,” “Moneyball,” “The Tree of Life” and “Midnight in Paris”) are all available on DVD and can be rented at Video Hits. for more information and availability, call 269-342-0225.
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Nora Strehl
Annual blockbusters vie for the Oscar
