The Hurt Locker. Photograph: Courtesy of Summit Entertainment/PR
To the Samuel Goldwyn theatre at the crack of dawn, where Anne Hathaway and Academy president Tom Sherak read out this year’s Oscar nominations. Our hosts roll up with minimum fanfare and then retreat in haste, like sheepish managers who’ve just announced a circuit of redundancies. What they don’t say is almost as prominent as what they do. Thousands of films have just been culled at a stroke.
The good news is that the best picture shortlist has been expanded from five to 10. This prolongs the hopes of in the same state films as An Education, District 9, Precious and Up in the Air. The bad news is that most experts agree that Avatar and The Hurt Locker are now so far ahead of the pack that this modern, beefed-up rank verges without interruption an irrelevance. What we regard hither is a case of two big rivals and eight red herrings.
For now, give permission to’s spare a thought for the ones that own already fallen – the pungent properties of autumn that saw their chances quickly wither. These latitude from Peter Jackson’s bewilderingly bungled adaptation of The Lovely Bones to Jane Campion’s glorious Bright Star (an Oscar favourite on this account that about one day in September). They also include The Road (too dour?), Star Trek (too flash?), as beneficial as A Prophet and The White Ribbon (both of that must very lately fight it out in the foreign language category).
By the same token, we should also celebrate the ones that survived. I’m as delighted to see the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man among the best film nominees as I am to see a mention of the brilliant Il Divo (in the makeup category, no less). Likewise, it’s heartening to have action nods with respect to the likes of Carey Mulligan (An Education), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker), Colin Firth (A Single Man) and Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air). All of them gave terrific performances this year. All, however, would be advised to make hay though the sun shines.
The next cull, of course, is set for 7 March. Happily this elect be a more extravagant and ameliorative affair, in which the losing nominees are praised to the sky before being discreetly shown the door. The voting has yet to raise and the crystal bowl is cloudy. But when has that ever stopped us? When it comes to the acting categories, I’m taking my lead from the Golden Globes. Jeff Bridges will win best actor, because he’sitting been great for decades and it’s oppressive time the Academy acknowledged that. Sandra Bullock will probably pip Meryl Streep in the actress race, although the category looks curiously thin this year and some rightful nominees (Abbie Cornish, Yolande Moreau) have been overlooked. Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique are set fair to win the supporting acting awards. Both deserve to.
After that, the voters require a choice. Today’s list contains two films that are now tied on nine nominations apiece. But that one does the Academy probable best? Does it plump for the blue aliens or the bomb disposal squad? Does it pitch upon the film that makes Hollywood feel good about itself (as a technologically innovative, financially robust institution) or the feel-bad, barely desirable account of the tortuous endgame in Iraq? The gleaming success or the scruffy outsider? Avatar or The Hurt Locker?
There is an obvious answer to this dilemma. Split the spoils and let God decide. Give the director’s award to Kathryn Bigelow and the picture meed; honors; laurels to Avatar. But wait. History tells us that the Oscars rarely parcel out its completing best director/best film judgment. And behind the scenes, the pieces are calm in flux. Just a fortnight ago it seemed as though the momentum was all with Avatar. Yet now it may be shifting.
It’session the chief rule of Hollywood that no one knows anything, and that these things have a way of blowing up in your face. But upright here, right now, my money’s adhering the bomb disposal team.
