Recent flurry of awards news could shape the Oscar race this year more than most



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The Hollywood Reporter Awards Columnist is sorting the stack of award announcements (AFI, NBR, Spirit, USC Scripter Awards) so far this week.

It wasn’t until Tuesday, but this week has already brought a wave of award announcements – AFI’s 10 Best Films, Spirit Award nominations, National Board of Review Awards winners, and USC Scripter nominations. Awards – which individually might not have much of an impact on the Oscar race, but collectively could, especially this year when members of the Film Academy feel disconnected from each other and from the usual “chatter”.

It is not that there is much overlap between Academy members and the AFI selection committee, Spirit Awards nominating committees or the less than a dozen NBR members eligible to vote. vote on behalf of others. There is definitely not.

It’s just that most Academy members are stuck at home wondering which of the many movies on Academy Screening Room, the Academy members-only streaming app, are worth priority. (215 are currently live; more are added regularly.) Usually, interactions with other voters – “word of mouth” – help them make these decisions. But this year, of course, that is not happening.

Up to this point in the season, there have only been a handful of movies that were obvious – word got out everyone, for example, this Searchlight Nomadland and Netflix The Chicago 7 trial are essential. But, beyond that, you’d be surprised at how much Academy members are all over the map.

Some told me that they immediately watched the first films uploaded to the Academy Screening Room when they had heard nothing about them, like the one from IFC. Babyteeth and Swallow. Others have mainly focused on their viewing obligations for specific committees, such as international feature films or documentaries. And still others chose to watch the movies completely until the field whirled around, and instead got lost. The queen’s gambit, Your Honor, the Tiger woods docuseries or a number of other things currently available on television.

So how do this week’s announcements change that? They concentrate a little heat around certain titles, and not around others.

There is no doubt that more Academy members will check out Spike leeof Da 5 bloods, a film with no familiar names in its cast – except for the end Chadwick boseman, which appears in what is essentially a cameo – which dropped in June, now that it has landed in AFI’s Top 10 list (one of four all-time Netflix titles that made the list, the others being Ma Rainey’s black background, Mank and Trial) and received the award for best film and best director by NBR.

Two titles of low-budget art houses are no longer simply anecdotal popular, but actually have some top accolades to add to their screening invitations: Amazon’s Sound of metal and A24 Threatening. Both made AFI’s top 10 versus Universal. World news, although AFI generally gravitates towards the prices of the big studios.

Threatening also rocked the Spirit Awards with the names of Best Feature Film, Director and Screenplay (Lee isaac chung), Main actor (Steven yeun) and supporting actress (both Yeri Han and A Yuh-jung); and NBR, winner of Best Supporting Actress (Youn) and Best Original Screenplay (Chung) and landing in her top 10. Meanwhile, Sound of metal won the award for best actor (Ahmed Rice) and best supporting role (Paul Raci) from NBR, who also included him in their top 10, while the Spirit Awards named Ahmed and Raci in their respective acting categories, and Darius marder for the best first feature.

No doubt more voters will now prioritize Channing Godfrey PeoplesMiss Juneteenth, a little indie from a company called Vertical Entertainment, as its star, Nicole beharie, followed her win at the Gotham Award for Best Actress Nomadlandof Frances mcdormand with one name for Best Actress at the Spirit Awards, to accompany two Spirit Award names for Peoples (Best First Feature and Best First Screenplay) and one for Alexis Chikaeze (Best Supporting Actress). Peoples also won the NBR’s Best First Director award, while the film secured a spot in the Top 10 Independent Films list.

Focus’ Never Rarely Sometimes Always missed the AFI top 10, but was a major player in the Spirit Awards names – best feature, director and screenplay (Eliza hittman), actress (Sidney flanigan), supporting actress (Talia Ryder), cinematography and editing – and got the love of NBR in the form of a Breakthrough Best Performance award (Flanigan) and a spot on the Top 10 Independent list, all on the heels of his New York Film Critics Circle wins for Best Actress (Flanigan) and Screenplay (Hittman).

Other traction winners include the A24s First cow, who added a name for best feature film at the Spirit Award (plus names for best director Kelly reichardt and best supporting actress Orion lee) in the same week that it collected Best Picture New York Film Critics Circle Award, and also landed a Scripter name; Pixar Soul, the first animated film since 2016 Zootopia be part of the AFI top 10; And the list continues.

Conversely, it was a successful week for Focus’ Promising young woman, which was arguably the most anticipated film to make the AFI’s top 10 that didn’t, and also missed out on a Spirit Award best feature name which was considered a giveaway. That being said, he got several other major names at the Spirit Awards, including Best Actress for Carey mulligan and best director and best screenplay for Emerald Fennell. And he made the top 10 for the NBR, which also chose Mulligan as its best actress.

The projection was even darker for Netflix Midnight sky (only recognized with a mention on the top 10 of NBR) and Hulu Palm springs (no AFI mention, no NBR recognition and only a best first script for the Spirit Award Andy Siara). And things were even worse for Warners’ Principle and The way back, Sony Classics’ The father, Netflix Malcolm and Marie, From Amazon Next Borat movie, Apple TV + Cherry, Hulu’s The United States vs. Billie Holiday, which has been completely overlooked.

The advantage for them, if not me? Many more announcements are imminent.



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