Yes- with all the sinking inevitability of a scheduled dentist's appointment (and no doubt, for some of you, just as painful)- it's time to turn our attention to awards season.
What's this? I hear (some of) you cry. Awards season? Really? Given everything that's going on in the world? You didn't think that they'd let a little thing like a worldwide pandemic stop this annual festival of self-congratulation, did you?
In June of last year, the Academy decided on an eight-week postponement of the 93rd Academy Awards from February to April, and the majority of awards bodies amended their schedules accordingly.
Despite cinemas worldwide closing, films being delayed or moved to streaming, and various other issues, films have still been released, festivals have still gone on, so there's still some merit (if that's the right word) of my annual prognostication on the films you'll be hearing a lot about over the next few months.
Winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, as well as the prestigious People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Nomadland seems to be one of the frontrunners for this year's awards season. Directed by Chloé Zhao (The Rider, Eternals), the film stars Frances McDormand as a woman who embarks on a journey through the American West as a modern-day nomad after losing everything in the Great Recession of 2011. McDormand will almost certainly get nominated for her lead role and David Strathairn might get a look in for his supporting role as a fellow nomad, while Zhao is also a shoo-in for Best Director.
Aaron Sorkin's The Trial Of The Chicago 7 is in a strong position for some awards love, being a biographical/historical drama about American history full to the brim with strong performances. Based on the infamous trial that followed the violent altercations at the 1968 Democratic Party Convention, the film feels very timely (given recent events). Whilst Best Picture and Screenplay nods are pretty secure, the issue comes with deciding on any acting awards, as the Netflix For Your Consideration page names all ten main actors in the Best Supporting Actor category! Most likely to receive a nod should be Sacha Baron Cohen, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, and Mark Rylance.
British actress Vanessa Kirby won the Best Actress prize at the Venice Film Festival for her lead role as Martha in Pieces Of A Woman, Kornél Mundruczó's heart-wrenching drama about a woman whose home birth ends in unbearable tragedy. Whilst the subject may be a bit raw and intense for some, expect to see Kirby's name mentioned a lot. Also in a strong position for nomination is Ellen Burstyn, whose supporting role as Martha's overbearing mother Elizabeth has also been getting a lot of praise. Fun fact: if Burstyn does get an Oscar nod for her performance, she'll become the oldest actor to be nominated for a competitive acting award (as she is a couple of months older than Christopher Plummer, who currently holds that honour).
The big screen adaptation of August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is bound to see some awards love, especially for the late Chadwick Boseman in Best Actor categories and Viola Davis in the Best Actress races. There's a chance that Glynn Turman could get a surprise nod in the Best Supporting Actor category and I'd say it's got a good chance of featuring heavily in certain technical categories (most notably Costume, Hair & Make-Up, and Production Design). Best Picture nods wouldn't be out of the question either, neither would an Adapted Screenplay nod for Ruben Santiago-Hudson's script.
Boseman might make Oscar history if he also gets a Supporting Actor nod for his role in Spike Lee's war drama Da 5 Bloods (he'd be the first actor to receive two posthumous acting Oscar nominations in one year). He appears in flashbacks as the squad's leader (Stormin' Norman), whilst the main story follows the four Vietnam vets on their return to the country to search for his remains. Again, Best Picture and Best Director nods can be expected, whilst it is Boseman and Delroy Lindo who are garnering a lot of the critical appreciation for their performances.
Hollywood loves films about films, so David Fincher's Mank (despite it's fairly awful title) is bound to get some awards love. Telling the story of screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz as he completes the screenplay for Citizen Kane, you can expect to see Gary Oldman mentioned for his lead performance as the alcoholic screenwriter, with Best Picture and Director nods highly likely too. You may also see Amanda Seyfried getting her first Oscar nod for her supporting role as silent movie actress Marion Davies.
Oscar-winning actress Regina King might be getting a second Oscar nod this year, but it will be for Best Director. She helms One Night In Miami..., a drama which imagines the meeting between four icons. The night in question is February 25th, 1964, when Cassius Clay beat Sonny Liston to become Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World. Clay spent the evening with three of his friends: Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown. One Night In Miami... won the People's Choice Award (First Runner-Up) at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the performances of the four leads- Kingsley Ben-Adir, Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, and Leslie Odom Jr.- have all been praised.
Now, some of you might be wondering if I've lost the plot somewhat by saying that Borat Subsequent Moviefilm has a shot at awards season. Well, first of all, the original 2006 film- Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan- was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar at the 2007 Oscars (losing out to The Departed). Secondly, there's been a lot of praise for the performance of Maria Bakalova who plays Borat's daughter Tutar, so a surprise Best Supporting Actress nod for her might not be out of the question.
Over the last couple of years, several foreign language films (such as Roma and Parasite) have also been nominated for Best Picture. So it's entirely possible that Minari, Korean-American director Lee Isaac Chung's semi-autobiographical drama about a Korean family making a new life in for themselves in 1980s Arkansas, could do the same. Praise has been given both to Chung's direction and script, as well as the performances by Steven Yeun as patriarch Jacob and Youn Yuh-Jung as grandmother Soonja.
There are a couple of LGBTQ+ films which might get some awards attention. Firstly, Ammonite (written and directed by Francis Lee, who wrote and directed God's Own Country) which has Kate Winslet playing nineteenth-century fossil hunter Mary Anning and Saoirse Ronan as Charlotte Murchison, a young woman who Anning meets at the seaside and forms an intense relationship with. Secondly, there is Supernova, written and directed by Harry Macqueen. It features Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci as Sam and Tusker, partners of 20 years, who travel across England in an RV to visit places and people from their past, as Tusker has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia.
Below are several films that have performances that might get nods somewhere along the line:
Promising Young Woman: Carey Mulligan (An Education) plays Cassie, an avenging angel in this timely and fascinating revenge drama, written and directed by Emerald Fennell.Hillbilly Elegy: Ron Howard directs this adaptation of J.D. Vance's best-selling but controversial memoir about the author's life growing up in an Ohio town; you may see Amy Adams and Glenn Close mentioned for their performances as J.D.'s drug-addict mother and his foul-mouthed grandmother respectively.
The Life Ahead: Sophia Loren's performance in this drama, directed by her son Edoardo Ponti, has been getting rave reviews; she plays a Holocaust survivor who takes in a street-kid who has robbed her. Fun fact: if Loren does receive an Oscar nomination for this performance, she will become the person with the longest gap between Oscar nominations (as this would come a full 56 years after her last nod, for Marriage Italian Style in 1965)
(Finding) The Way Back: Ben Affleck has been getting rave reviews for his performance in Gavin O'Connor's sports drama, as a former basketball wunderkind (who has struggled with alcoholism) who reluctantly accepts a job coaching the team at his old school. Judas And The Black Messiah: Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out) and LaKeith Stanfield (Knives Out) could both get some awards love for their performances as Black Panther Chairman Fred Hampton and William O'Neal, the undercover FBI agent who betrayed him, in this biographical drama directed by Shaka King.
News Of The World: Tom Hanks might get a nod for his performance as an American Civil War veteran who has to return a 10 year old girl to her family in this Western adventure drama directed by Paul Greengrass.
Malcolm & Marie: Zendaya (Spider-Man: Homecoming) and John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman) could both be up for awards for their performances in this neat little two-hander written and directed by Sam Levinson. Shot in June and July 2020, the production followed strict COVID-19 safety protocols to ensure the cast and crew worked in a safe environment. Sound Of Metal: Riz Ahmed could get nominated for his performance in this musical drama directed by Darius Marder, as a heavy metal drummer who begins to lose his hearing. Olivia Cooke could see some Supporting Actress nominations for her role as Ruben's singer girlfriend Lou, whilst Paul Raci could get a nod or two as the founder of a commune for the Deaf.
The Father: French playwright Florian Zeller directs this adaptation of his own play, with Anthony Hopkins in the title role as a man struggling with dementia, and Olivia Colman as his daughter.
So what about the two big blockbusters that did get released last year: Tenet and Wonder Woman 1984? Does awards glory await for them? Almost certainly in the technical fields (Visual Effects, Sound and suchlike). Of the two, Tenet has a better chance at major nominations (Best Picture and Director) but lukewarm reviews of both might not do either any good. But in a year where a lot of big budget stuff didn't see the screen, who knows?
The timetable for the major awards in 2021 is as follows:
Film Independent Spirit Awards
Nominations announced: 26th January 2021
Awards ceremony: 22nd April 2021
Golden Globes
Nominations announced: 3rd February 2021
Awards ceremony: 28th February 2021
Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards
Nominations announced: 4th February 2021
Awards ceremony: 14th March 2021
Critics' Choice Awards
Nominations announced: 7th February 2021
Awards ceremony: 7th March 2021
Writers' Guild Of America (WGA) Award
Nominations announced: 16th February 2021
Awards ceremony: 21st March 2021
Directors' Guild Of America (DGA) Award
Nominations announced: 9th March 2021
Awards ceremony: 10th April 2021
BAFTA Film Awards
Nominations announced: 9th March 2021
Awards ceremony: 11th April 2021
Producers' Guild Of America (PGA) Award
Nominations announced: 12th March 2021
Awards ceremony: 24th March 2021
Golden Raspberry Awards (Razzies)
Nominations announced: 14th March 2021
Awards ceremony: 24th April 2021
Academy Awards (Oscars)
Nominations announced: 15th March 2021
Awards ceremony: 25th April 2021
So spreadsheets at the ready, my friends... because...
