10 Big Surprises of Nomination Morning: From Batman to Ben
Thursday, January 10, 2013 at 11:28PM Before you can ever delve deep into the nominated fields, you have do the requisite double takes to process the surprises. Herewith the most shocking turns of events this morning. If I haven't included something you found truly eyebrow-raising and faith-shaking ('how can I ever turst the pundits again?!') make sure to share it in the comments.
10 The Supporting Actor List is All Previous Winners
In the entire history of the Oscars, I can't recall any acting category having been composed entirely of men or women who already had Oscars. At least one newbie always manages to join the celebrated. Other than that it's not a surprising list really given that all five of the men had precursor support (typical) and two are leads masquerading as supporting (typical) and all are veterans (typical). This is the kindest category to acting veterans and the most impervious to actual excitement. Year in and year out, it's the dullest major Oscar category even when the field to choose from is brimming with electricity. And to think we could have had a rising star playing an android, a rising star singing and crying his heart out, a rising star shaking what his mama gave him while stoned in Mexico, an A list reaching a career peak with nothing but a G string and a great great performance, and a baker turned actor among the dozens of possibly more thrilling choices.
The Legend Ends... and so do Batman Oscar Dreams09 The Dark Knight Rises with Zero Nominations
It's a beautiful symmetry. Batman f***ed Oscar over by sending them into a tizzy of low-confidence voting rule changes after the infamous 2008 snub (presumably to include more populist choices in Best Picture) and now Oscar has f***ed Batman over by ignoring The Dark Knight Rises altogether -- this despite the series being very popular with voters since long before Chris Nolan took over.
Eight more increasingly startling morning alarms after the jump.
08 The Pirates! A Band of Misfits in Animated Feature
Many pundits assumed that this was a locked up studio quintet of Brave, Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, Wreck-It Ralph and Rise of the Guardians and that if anything could squeeze one of them out, it'd be a foreign film like The Painting. But nope. It was Aardman's mild comic adventure about a useless pirate captain and his prized dodo bird that most armchair pundits had totally forgotten about.
07 Lincoln snubbed for makeup and hair
I can't wrap my head around this one. It had everything: old age makeup, prosthetics, wigs galore... and it all looked realistic and of a piece. What went wrong?
06 Benh Zeitlin in for Best Director
...Not that I'm complaining! For the longest time at Oscar functions I would get blank looks if I brought up this beautiful movie so I assumed it was too outsider an option to really hope for. Zeitlin, who is only 30 years old, joins an esteemed list of 15 men nominated for their feature debut that includes powerhouse legends like Orson Welles, Sidney Lumet, and Mike Nichols and contemporary lauded filmmakers like Sam Mendes (Skyfall, who won for American Beauty). He's also now the 8th youngest director ever nominated! John Singleton (Boyz n the Hood, 1991) who was also nominated for his debut, remains the youngest. He was nominated at only 24 years of age.
05 Flight in for Best Screenplay
Sure, I had it just outside the prediction list at #6 but those top five looked set in stone and there are plenty of people who groused about Flight's lack of focus which traces back to the screenplay
04 The Intouchables out of the Foreign Film Competition
We might have called this given that France's crowd-pleaser never really took off in the States (where the bulk of AMPAS voters are from) like it did in virtually every other country it played in. But many people thought it might be the feel good through entertainment alternative to Amour's feel brutalized by truth once it came time to vote for a Foreign Film winner.
03 The Master only loved for its Actors
At first glance this isn't a shocker at all since one might well consider The Master's three principle roles to have plenty of scenery chewing hooks. But when you remember that SAG (made entirely of actors) snubbed both Joaquin Phoenix in lead and Amy Adams in supporting (and it was hardly a late year release they didn't have an opportunity to see) it's strange that the trend was totally reversed come Oscar time with The Master scoring ONLY in acting... and for all three of them no less!
02 Jacki Weaver nominated for Best Supporting Actress
Though Jacki Weaver had zero precursor support during the whole process of Oscar balloting she managed her second nomination in three years (her first was for Animal Kingdom for which she totally deserved the Oscar). While she's wonderful as the concerned mother, the film gives her very little to do other than try to calm her highly excitable husband and son down. To win the nomination she beat Ann Dowd in Compliance (who some were calling the Jacki Weaver of this year ironically), and Globe & SAG nominees Nicole Kidman in Paperboy and Maggie Smith in Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.
Weaver's nomination makes Silver Linings Playbook the first film since Warren Beatty's classic Reds (1981) to win acting nominations in all categories. How about that? This has to equal Playbook being the real threat to Lincoln's presumed "ensemble" win at SAG on the 27th.
Inarguably the biggest shock this morning. Two frontrunners weren't nominated!
01 Ben Affleck and Kathryn Bigelow both snubbed in Best Director.
Many people thought one or both of them was in the fight for the actual win and not vulnerable at all really to the darkhorses. But neither managed a nomination which makes Directing Oscar #3 a super easy get for Steven Spielberg now. It's hard to know what happened with Ben Affleck since so the director's branch is hardly averse to nominated actors who make that crossover. With Bigelow was it the torture controversy, her much-discussed partnership with Mark Boal. One wonders...
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Reader Comments (74)
THE GOOD
Joaquin!!!
“Amour” galore!
Zeitlin!
THE BAD
no (PT) Anderson
Weaver
no Greenwood
THE UGLY
no Kidman
no “Perks”
no Bigelow
Remember when a highly acclaimed Spielberg film went into the race as the frontrunner and then lost to a comedy that had a lot of detractors but was pushed hard by Harvey Weinstein? Yeah, that could never happen again. God, I hope it doesn't, and I'm not even that big on Lincoln.
Ever since the Academy expanded their Best Picture field, it's still been pretty obvious what the nominees would have been in a 5-nominee year. In 2009, they were Hurt Locker, Avatar, Basterds, Precious, and Up in the Air. In 2010, they were King's Speech, Social Network, Black Swan, True Grit, and The Fighter. Last year they were The Artist, Hugo, The Help, The Descendants, and Midnight in Paris.
This year, though...I have no frickin' clue. Lincoln, Life of Pi, and Zero Dark Thirty, of course. But would Argo and Zero Dark Thirty be nominated in the top 5 without Director nominations, causing a 3/5 split like in 1995 or 2001? And does that mean Les Miz wouldn't have made the top 5 after all? Or is there actually a chance that Amour or Beasts of the Southern Wild would have been a surprise Best Picture nominee in a year of 5 nominees? We'll never know, but it's kind of interesting to wonder.
I had similar thoughts this morning about supporting actor. To me, the nominated performances themselves aren't very interesting compared to those that might have been nominated (Redmayne, Henry, Bardem)...and I would have included the never-nominated consistently-strong workhorse searching for his kids and Oscar-nominated wife. It COULD have been such an exciting category.
Also had been hoping that more films with best actress nominations would also get into best picture, so pleased with that. Frustrating that there's typically such a weak relationship there relative to the men.
In my above comment, I meant to say that Lincoln, Life of Pi, and Silver Linings Playbook would have been the sure things, not Zero Dark Thirty.
I'm hurt for THE MASTER and Paul Thomas Anderson. What kills me about the Bigelow — this will hurt Chastain. I rather the new Jessica Tandy or the black Tatum O'Neil wins instead of Jennifer (Cher Tomei) Lawrence.
Fun fact
w his nom for Argo, Alan Arkin almost ties Katharine Hepburns (very hard to break) record of longest span between first and last nomination (48 years).
Alan Arkin is now good second w 46 years before Peter O'Toole and Paul Newman 44 years - if I havent forgotten anyone..?
If Maggie Smith would have got a nod (boohoo :( ) she would have have been second w a span of 47 years.
And yet another year I can't feel excited about anyone in the acting categories. Maybe the excitement will be in guessing who's repeating in the best supporting actor category and in the best actor. I think maybe, and it's only maybe, there's something interesting in the best actress race. The "lack" of so much love for ZDT as it was expected, may mean Chastain is in danger, and I don't see them crowning someone as young as Lawrence. So, in that scenario Riva could pull a Jessica Tandy, but can an unknown foreign actress do that? My conclusion is that Watts nomination as the only big nomination for her film means she's got a great shot at winning. And I could live with that, given the absence of Ewan :(
@iggy - actually, since The Impossible didn't get much support elsewhere besides Actress, that means Watts probably won't win as there's not a lot of love for the film there. While that's a good point about Riva, the fact thatAmour is nominated in so many other big categories means it's a well-liked or -loved film and Actress may be the category they reward it. (Having said that, I've only so far seen Lawrence and Wallis).
But Actress definitely is the most exciting category.
I know Day-Lewis seems like a lock, but will they really give him his 3rd so soon after winning his 2nd? The consensus seems to be yes, and I can see why, but still...
Can you explain the part " Batman f***ed Oscar over by sending them into a tizzy of low-confidence voting rule changes after the infamous 2008 snub (presumably to include more populist choices in Best Picture)"?
edwin -- interesting. hadn't thought of that.
joel -- that's in reference to the widely held belief online that all the oscar rule changes. 10 best pictures! no anywhere from 6 to 10! was a rule change frenzy that started to happen because of the mass hatred of the academy in the media (but mostly online) when The Dark Knight was not nominated. Things have been haywire ever since with rule changes to try and stay "relevant" though for me... if everyone is still arguing about their relevance every year, they're obviously goddamn relevant, you know?
My fear: I'd like to think that we can keep up the unpredictable nature of this season forever, but (IMO) today's results mean that any group trying to match the Oscars will be forced to go for Lincoln. It's like a self-fulfilling prophesy at this point.
Also, I'd say the top five would be Lincoln, LoP, SLP, Argo, and Les Mis. They have two nominations or more over ZDT.
Evan -- i think you're right on both counts. with a 3/5 split with best director which happens not totally infrequently.
"Flight" is an over rated movie of the week- with a very obvious script that you know exactly were it's going. How can "Lincoln" not be nominated for best make - up?
I think Haneke is the real threat to Spielberg now, not Russell. As a matter of fact, with a BP and BD nomination, Sony should go for broke to steal both wins.
Evan: Beasts and Amour are slot six and seven. ZDT is position 8 and Django is 9.
Category fraud with PSH being nominated as Supporting Actor. He definitely had a lead role.
Happy for Amour love. I predict Riva will win.
Disappointed with SLP love (although I am thrilled that DeNiro was nominated for his work).
three films accounted 50% of the acting nominations - those oscar voters can be awfully myopic
I wrote a novel - apologies - but I wanted to share!!
The lead acting categories are kind of fascinating to me, simply because I don’t have a clear read on either one just yet.
See, I know where the smart money is going, and I can’t dispute that Daniel Day-Lewis is probably the one to beat. If he hadn’t won his second Oscar a scant five years ago, I’d say, yeah, sure, it’s money in the bank. But doesn’t professional jealousy have to enter into the equation at some point? Isn’t there a reason no one else has won a third acting Oscar until they’ve entered the emeritus phase of their careers? Ingrid, Jack and Meryl were all 60 plus. There’s ample room for an upset – it’s just hard to figure out who the most logical upset candidate might be.
Jackman is the most popular guy in the room, and he will campaign like crazy for it. Les Miz has more fervent partisans (and more fervent detractors) than any other flick in town. Cooper’s a strong candidate, whether or not he wins the Globe (which I think he won’t.) Clearly, there is a lot of love out there for Silver Linings, and if they’re leaning Lawrence, then why not vote for what is truly (as Nathaniel correctly points out) the best performance in the film, and the one which anchors it?
Finally, there’s the mad monk, Joaquin Phoenix. Hasn’t there always been an element of fascination attached to the unpredictable? They voted for George C. Scott, even when they knew he was going to throw it back in their faces. They voted for Brando, even when they knew what would follow would test the limits of sanity. They voted for Fonda and Redgrave, even when they didn’t know what the hell to expect. I truly wonder if Phoenix’s anti-Oscar stance might not wind up helping much more than it hurts. Be honest – aren’t we all dying to hear that speech?
I wasn’t sure where I was leaning with Lead Actress…until the nominations came out.
Silver Linings is the only film nominated in every major category. It’s incumbent on them to recognize it somehow, and this is the most logical place.
I suspect that the film is not simply liked – it is loved. Its paltry box office only makes it that much more of a lovable underdog…about lovable underdogs. I suspect Zero Dark Thirty – a less accessible film, if no less impressive in its own right – may be more respected than liked.
The age thing was always a red flag for me. Lawrence is 22 years old – that’s 13 years younger than Chastain. Heck, Watts is old enough to be her mother. So the “But let’s not give it to the kid” factor was always something to be considered. I think Quevenzhané Wallis’ surprise nomination negates that concern. Jennifer ain’t the kid of the bunch any more.
Then again…Jessica Chastain is coming off one of the single most impressive years for any actress ever recorded in the annals of film. Her 2011 rivals Streep’s ‘79, Stanwyck’s ‘41, Grace Kelly’s ’54…possibly, it even exceeds those benchmarks. Isn’t some of the goodwill accrued bound to pay dividends? Honestly, if it weren’t for her 2011, I’m not sure what I’d make of her chances. While I think she’s very good in Zero Dark Thirty, it is a subtle performance, without a lot of the flashy acting moments that make Oscar salivate. I love the film, but I don’t know that you can make a case for it as being character-driven. We’ve seen understated performances get the shaft before. Still and all…there’s that 2011.
Gonna be interesting how it all shakes out.
I guess this got overlooked amid the hubbub, but as weirdly over-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild is, how did it not get one for Best Original Score? I can't imagine the film without it, and that soundtrack has become, like, defining for it. Whereas I can't remember the score for any of the other nominees, some of which were perfectly superfluous. (The score for "Lincoln" is like a parody of a John Williams score. He probably composed it before breakfast.)
I skipped the replies because - gah! - too many, but can I just say that I totally predicted Jacki Weaver's nomination. Like, I have it written down for all to see, too, not just in my mind. I also predicted Anderson wouldn't get nominated for THE MASTER's screenplay.
The Affleck/Bigelow thing is just a world of crazy. I can only imagine what the best picture nominations would have been with only 5 nominees. Would ARGO/ZD30/LES MIS all missed or would there be a director split? Crazy times, that.
I seriously think the animation branch has a higher percentage of Brits than we expect. It would explain PIRATES, and it'd also explain the Irish SECRET OF THE KELLS a few years back. Well, partially. The PIRATES nomination is just weird. That movie was a dud, didn't everybody agree on that?
TED for Best Song... hmmmm
Amanda -- totally agree on AMY. I actually don't think this nomination helps her case. But then, I don't like the performance very much.
Glenn - wow. good job. did you go 5 for 5 on supporting actress then?
I think Michael Haneke will take the best director price because 1) The AMPA loves Amour 2) kind of a lifeachievement award for his entire work
Supporting Actor makes me wanna go to sleep. No McConaughey, No Henry
Anne Hathaway will get this
Daniel Day-Lewis will get this
Riva and Watts its between them. If Lawrence win its really undeserved same with Chastain. Wallis have already won by getting nominated