The Oscar Week: post-nominations, the campaigns rev back up.
Friday, January 27, 2017 at 4:00PM In this weekly feature from Murtada we follow Oscar contender appearances and interviews. After taking a week off, contenders are back to the grind for Phase 2.
Supporting Actress
The warmest presence on the Oscar campaign trail is undoubtedly Octavia Spencer. She’s as delightful in interviews and appearance as her Hidden Figures character is on screen, except of course when she’s dealing with Kirsten Dunst’s racist boss. No wonder she’s so popular. On Twitter she acknowledged her nomination by mentioning not only her director and producers, but also her friends from The Help (and fellow nominees this season) Viola Davis and Emma Stone. Then she went further in by congratulating Barry Jenkins, Ava DuVernay, Dev Patel and Denzel washington. How lovely is she?
This week she was honored as Woman of the Year by Harvard’s Hasty Pudding Theatricals group. She looked delighted throughout the parade through the streets of Cambridge, to the roast and the presentation of the traditional prize, the pudding pot. That pot, she quipped, was harder to get than an Oscar...
That pot was hard to get. It was difficult to get, but it was one that will be forever indelibly etched in my memories. This has just been so much fun today.
Foreign Language Film
It seems we can’t escape from the current occupant of the White House even when following Oscar news. This week we got our first boycott of the ceremony and it was in response to the executive order announcing a visa ban against refugees and others from certain African and Middle Eastern countries as a precaution against terrorism. Or so he claimed. Taraneh Alidoosti, who stars in Asghar Farhadi’s foreign language nominee The Salesman, announced on social media that she's skipping the Oscars next month because “Trump's visa ban for Iranians and others is a racist move and unacceptable”. We certainly agree with her that it’s blatantly racist and as with every decision he makes self serving, since none of the predominantly Muslim countries in which he has business ties are on this ban list.
Best Actress
Meanwhile in the marquee category, the hard sell continues. SAG could decide once and for all this Sunday who the winner is. Most think it will be Emma Stone, who continues her non stop press tour. Not only was she on the cover of Vanity Fair this week, but scored yet another cover, The Hollywood Reporter. In the accompanying interview she talked about the long, seemingly never-ending campaign.
I've never been part of anything like it. I mean, we went to Venice with Birdman, but nothing like this. This is a new world. I'm not complaining because I love this film — it's fun to talk about it — but I've been doing interviews about this movie for almost six months.
Natalie Portman though is not taking it lying down. She joined Stone on the front fold of the Vanity Fair cover. Then she one-upped everyone with her photo inside the magazine, showing her in all her pregnant glory. Hey use all the arsenal you have. It’s a striking and memorable photo, even if it has been done before by VF and Annie Leibovitz.
Ever the magnanimous team player - remember her Oscar speech in which she thanked everyone from her director and co-stars to the camera operator and her dressers - Portman released one of the better thank you statements on nominations day. She not only mentioned her fellow Jackie nominees Mica Levi and Madeleine Fontaine and their director Pablo Larrain, but also the other best actress nominees by name.
I am also humbled to join Isabelle, Meryl, Ruth and Emma — all incredibly accomplished women I admire very much.
Emma and Natalie are working hard for the win. Your move, Isabelle.
Reader Comments (16)
If Adams wins, Huppert has the Oscar bagged and boarded.
I voted for Adams last night (which means her chances are not good).
Does anyone think that Meryl could surprise and win the SAG?
Emma's going to take SAG and lose Bafta to Portman but ultimately win the Oscar.
Since Isabelle didn't even get nods for the two, I understand she couldn't get a Bafta, it seems unlikely she has a legitimate shot.
@Jordan - I don't see Portman winning BAFTA - the film Jackie wasn't much of a hit in the UK. I think Stone is much more likely.
I doubt Meryl will even attend, let alone win. Emma Stone for the win.
I wanna say SAG will be interesting, but honestly it'll probably be Emma.
I could see Meryl winning as a sign of support for her anti-Trump speech. But nah, it's gonna be Emma.
Something tells me it's going to be Amy Adams who will take the SAG. It might be as a redress of her Oscar snub, not to mention she is outstanding in Arrival. If that happens, the Best Actress Oscar race is going to be truly exciting. Almost like a 3-way tie between Huppert, Portman and Stone.
I'll still hope for an Isabelle win at the Oscar. But that's just probably me. Everyone seems to think Emma or Natalie (SAG notwithstanding) will get it.
I remember not being thrilled during Octavia's dominance of the 2011 supporting actress race, and yet on this year's nomination morning, she was the person I was happiest for. She proved me so wrong in the type of career she went on to have after her Oscar win. She's becoming quite a supporting actress MVP. Seriously, she makes hit after hit and finds time to also do cool indies, all in important supporting roles that don't steal the movie, but rather magnify the work the actors around her are doing.. Her characters are always so rich and warm and funny.
And she gets to watch her two friends from The Help, Viola Davis and Emma Stone, accept Oscars next month, and you know how excited she will get over that.
Godspeed, Octavia, and continue proving me wrong.
Having seen Hidden Figures the other night Spencer's citation is entirely justified. Henson's role was too restrictive and Monae as awesome as she is was too lightweight to break in the competition. At least with Spencer you have a sense of her refining everything she did in The Help. The Help is a really horrible movie the more I think about civil rights era set movies we've gotten recently.
Might we quit misusing the term "racism?" 'Iranian' is not a race - it's a nationality. 'Muslim' is not a race - it's a religion. This is islamophobia and nativism, this is not racism.
Just ended watching "The Nice Guys" for the first time... now, remind me why Gosling is nominated for "La La Land" and not for this one... or how Crowe has missed the nom. Or the noms for Screenplay, Production Design and Costume. I mean, what a great fun film. More Shane Black, please.
KBJr - the term was first used by Alidoosti in her statement. We are reporting the statement, we didn't originate it.
However we agree with what she said, because the ban not only affects Iran but other countries in Africa and Middle East whose population is most definately not the same race as the guy who issued the order. So yeah it's racist.
I agree that it's not racist for several reasons, the main one being that "racism" itself is an all too convenient social divider. There is only one (uppercase if you will) Race, the Human Race, and the sooner we realize that, the better off we all will be. But in this case, we are talking about people whose ethnicity--not their lowercase "race"--differs than DJT. It's not racism, it's xenophobia (and Islamphobia and nativism and nationalism and fearmongering).
I dun tink Adams will win the SAG (It's gonna b Emma) but I'm hopin she will win the BAFTA (her 6th nom).
Portman's chance of replicating her win (at SAG or BAFTA) has evaporated the moment Huppert won GG over her. Her best chance now I believe is at Indie Spirits Award, if they dun go for Huppert or Bening.
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