It’s December in Southern California, where the nights do indeed get longer, despite the fact that it somehow remains 77 degrees. I won’t complain, even though I want to. It would be obscene since so many of my New York friends are enduring the latest of what will be many frigid spells. The point stands, however, that the weather does not change here, which means the only season that matters in L.A. is awards season.
That’s right, it’s that time of year again when the contenders dust off their suit jackets, prep their best sound bites, and hit the circuit for an ever-longer parade of interviews, industry parties, and awards nights. It’s good work if you can get it, but make no mistake: It is work. Each year, it becomes increasingly clear that the race to the Academy Awards stage is less a sprint than a marathon. And sometimes, it’s less a marathon than a Tough Mudder, leaving everyone bruised, bloody, and beaten. Figuratively, of course. No one wants to get their hands dirty, let alone a $3,000 gown.
The Gotham Awards – the East Coast answer to the Indie Spirits, which we’ll get to in a moment – got things started Monday night with a surprise best feature win for Aaron Schimberg’s arty thriller A Different Man. That was the only prize of the night for A Different Man, which bested Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning Anora, as well as Babygirl, Challengers, and Nickel Boys.
Nickel Boys director Ramel Ross picked up directing honors, while Greg Kwedar’s Sing Sing swept the gender-neutral acting categories with best lead performance for Colman Domingo and best supporting performance for Clarence Macklin. Brandon Wilson scored the breakthrough award for his starring turn in Nickel Boys.
On Tuesday, Ross nabbed another citation for director, this time from the New York Film Critics Circle, who also cited his film’s cinematography. The big winner, however, was Brady Corbet’s epic The Brutalist, which was named best feature. That film’s star, Adrien Brody, earned best actor honors. Marianne Jean-Baptiste was named best actress for her work in longtime collaborator Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths. Kieran Culkin (A Real Pain) and Carol Kane (Between the Temples) won their respective supporting categories.
Then came the National Board of Review, a somewhat loosely defined conglomerate of film fans and critics, which gave John M. Chu’s Wicked the best film and director prizes. You could not swing harder in the opposite direction from dark indie dramas like Nickel Boys and The Brutalist to this cotton candy-light musical. Daniel Craig was named best actor for Queer, Nicole Kidman best actress for Babygirl, and Elle Fanning best supporting actress for A Complete Unknown. Culkin picked up his second award for best actor.
Finally, for our purposes, the Independent Spirit Awards announced their nominees, giving a boost to a number of the above titles and keeping some others in the race. The best feature nominees are Anora, I Saw the TV Glow, Nickel Boys, Sing Sing, and The Substance. A Real Pain is the surprising snub in the top category, though Jesse Eisenberg was nominated for his screenplay, and Culkin, of course, is in the gender-neutral supporting performance lineup.
Sean Baker earned a best director nomination for Anora, which also garnered three acting nominations – Mikey Madison in lead and Yuri Borisov and Karren Karagulian in supporting. All told, Anora finished with six nominations, tied with Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow for most. Schoenbrun was recognized for directing and screenplay, while Justice Smith was cited in lead performance and Brigette Lundy-Paine in supporting. It would not be surprising if Anora is a top Oscars player. It would be surprising if the significantly more avant garde I Saw the TV Glow gained steam with Academy voters.
So where does this all leave us? The Los Angeles Film Critics Association will have its say tomorrow, and the LA critics rarely go the same way as the New Yorkers, so we could see some more names added to the list of contenders. Then, on Monday, the Golden Globes announce their nominees as the Hollywood Foreign Press Association attempts to worm its way back to relevance.
Safe to say The Brutalist, Nickel Boys, and Wicked all had a good week. This was also an important week for the early-year release Sing Sing to stake its claim. In addition to its performance citations, the inspirational prison drama also made the the top 10 lists for both the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute. It can sometimes be difficult for movies released as early as Sing Sing (I saw it in July) to make an impact, so this is good news for a great film.
We didn’t get a lot of direction in the acting races, except for Culkin solidifying himself as the frontrunner for Best Supporting Actor. He is great in A Real Pain, but he is absolutely the co-lead of the film. Hardly the first instance and surely not the last of such blatant category fraud. While not a lead winner anywhere, Madison added to her Indie Spirit nomination a breakthrough performance award from the National Board of Review, a little patronizing for a tremendous performer who seems to “break through” in every movie she appears in (Scream 5 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood jump to mind).
The Globes are almost certain to give a major lift to Wicked, whose box office alone has catapulted it into the race. Also, as noted, it offers a kinder, gentler alternative to what has shaken out to be a largely gloomy lineup. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande are almost certain to be nominated, and the film will absolutely be in the best musical or comedy lineup. Expect to see Chu ride the wave of good will the film is surfing to a directing nomination, as well.
One highly touted film that will need some love in the coming days is Netflix’s Emilia Perez, which was all but shut out this week, with the exception of a lone top 10 nod from AFI. Netflix’s other big would-be contender, Malcolm Washington’s The Piano Lesson – a far superior film – is also going to need a boost to stay in the running. Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II was also nowhere to be seen, but that’s not so much a critics’ movie as an industry movie. So, we’re in wait-and-see mode on that one.
Contenders like Conclave, Dune Part II, and A Complete Unknown, meanwhile, are doing just fine despite not receiving much attention from the critics so far. Conclave was named best ensemble by the National Board of Review, A Complete Unknown landed on both the NBR and AFI top 10s, and Dune Part II will be a crafts juggernaut at the Oscars, which is usually enough to propel a film into the big race.
All in all, the race is just getting going, but now we know the names of some of the major players. A lot can shift, and I personally am excited to catch up with some of the films that I haven’t had a chance to see yet. Nickel Boys and A Complete Unknown are right at the top of the list.
For the fun of it, here are my half-formed predictions for this year’s Best Picture nominees, given where the race stands right now: Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune Part II, Emelia Perez, Nickel Boys, A Real Pain, Sing Sing, and Wicked
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