Almost There: Class of 2020

by Cláudio Alves

In this odd awards season, predicting the acting categories with accuracy was a difficult task. Many contenders seemed to vie for the limited spots and several actors garnered support from important precursors. The amount of legitimate "Almost There" cases is truly immense, especially when one considers such unexpected nods as that Supporting Actor citation for Lakeith Stanfield. In any case, with such a wealth of potential case studies, here goes an unusual entry in this series, one focused on multiple actors…

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"The Mauritanian" for the Oscar Race?

by Eric Blume

Yesterday, Variety leaked word that STX will provide a late-entry film into the Oscar race.  The Mauritanian, which was formerly titled Prisoner 760 (going from one bad title to another), is The Last King of Scotland director Kevin Macdonald's latest film.  It stars A Prophet's leading man Tahir Rahim as a tortured captive in Guatanamo Bay and Jodie Foster as his lawyer. Variety critic Clayton Davis claims that Rahim and Foster deliver electrifying performances, and that they could find themselves in the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress races, respectively.

Macdonald has had a bit of an erratic career since he directed Forest Whittaker to an Oscar back in 2006.  His last film, the documentary Whitney, profiled the singer with limited depth but curiosity and sympathy.  It'll be good to see him return to the arena of global politics, which seems to be his strength...

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