It's the same thing every year: Mediocre movies, usually big-budget sequels or star vehicles, clog the cinemas for the first 10 months. Then, around November, the buzzed-about films start trickling in. Suddenly, there isn't enough time to see all the critically acclaimed, prestige pictures and performances that everyone is raving about. And by Christmas the multiplexes are flooded with the serious heavyweights jockeying for a position on the box office charts.
It's called Awards Season, and every movie company mounts a campaign for its pictures, whether or not they like to admit it. Studios tend to save the prestige pictures for the end of the year so they'll be fresh in voters' minds. It's a strategy that doesn't always work: Who can forget the year Silence of the Lambs, a February release, swept the Oscars? Or more recently when May release Gladiator took home awards? But more often than not, the big prizes go to a film that comes out late in the year.
This year, however, several films that are coming out early stand a chance of being serious contenders. Some, such as Focus Features' Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, have already been released. Others will be opening in theatres this summer and run the gamut from quiet independents to big-budget epics.
Leonard Maltin, film critic and host of the syndicated Hot Ticket, observed that it's almost impossible to predict what voters will remember at the end of the year. "The problem is, we can't project ahead to December, and we don't know what certain performances will be up against and whether they'll be eclipsed in people's memories or not," he said. "There's always something the first half of the year, and they're always hoping that early-summer releases like [Warner Bros.'] Troy—only in Hollywood is mid-May early summer—will stick and last. But that's what DreamWorks thought about Saving Private Ryan. It seemed like a lock until Miramax revealed Shakespeare in Love and all bets were off."
Most studios contacted declined to comment for this story, usually saying it was too early to remark. "It sounds crass, so they don't like to be quoted on it," said Maltin of touting awards-worthy performances. "And it's too early in the year. Not that they don't think about it, I'm sure. But they too don't know what's going to happen. They're still playing chess at this time of year and continue to right through the fall. Even right through the winter sometimes. I think they lay out stratagem and everything is subject to change."
As expected, many studios are playing it safe with summer fare. Universal has big-budget action films, such as the current release Van Helsing; the Pitch Black sequel, The Chronicles of Riddick (June 11); and The Bourne Supremacy (July 23) on their slates. 20th Century Fox will be rolling out the disaster epic The Day After Tomorrow (May 28); I, Robot (July 16), Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story (June 25); and Garfield: The Movie (June 11). And Sony has the comedies White Chicks (June 23) and Cheer Up (July 23) along with the surefire blockbuster Spider-Man 2 (June 30). But some of the other studios are daring to release smaller fare to keep an eye on—and it's not just the independents.
MGM already has strong buzz on its film De-Lovely, a musical biography about Cole Porter set for a June 25 release and starring Kevin Kline, Ashley Judd, and Jonathan Pryce. It's a project the studio considers particularly special, considering its long relationship with Porter himself. New York Post columnist Liz Smith had nothing but praise in her recent piece, calling it "heartbreakingly beautiful" and stating, "And remember this—Kevin Kline and Ashley Judd, Oscar nominees in 2005." A musical can be a hard enough sell, and De-Lovely might tell us if Chicago and Moulin Rogue! were flukes or the start of a new trend. Aside from its cast, there are power players behind the scenes, as well. The director is Irwin Winkler, who won an Oscar for producing Rocky, and the writer is Jay Cocks, who penned the scripts for Gangs of New York and The Age of Innocence.
Lions Gate Films had some success with The Cooler last year, which earned SAG nominations for supporting actors Alec Baldwin and Maria Bello and an Oscar nom for Baldwin. This year the company has two films with early releases that also have performances to watch: A Slipping Down Life, opening this week, features a stunning turn by Lili Taylor, and the March release Dogville contains a tour-de-force performance by Nicole Kidman. Dogville, directed by controversial filmmaker Lars Von Trier, has a love-it-or-hate-it response from critics and filmgoers, but nearly everyone is unanimous on Kidman's performance. Although she previously won an Oscar for The Hours, she has never won a SAG Award. Whether or not enough people saw Dogville or will remember her work remains to be seen. The film could find a second life on video if released in time, and more voters might be able to see it closer to voting season. President of Lions Gate Films Releasing Tom Ortenberg, the spokesperson for awards requests, did not return BSW's calls for comment.
Warner Bros. is likely considering a campaign for its historical epic Troy, although a spokesperson said it was too early to comment. The film, which opens this week, is already garnering comparisons to another big-budget spectacle, Gladiator, which won Oscars for Best Picture and Actor for star Russell Crowe. But instead of stars Brad Pitt or Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana, a great deal of the attention might end up going to the supporting players. "Just to name one performance, I think Brian Cox would be someone people would remember," noted Maltin. "And Peter O'Toole is another real possibility." Both are revered actors who have never won SAG Awards or Oscars, although O'Toole received an honorary Oscar in 2003. And as the supporting categories tend to favor character actors who have put in time in Hollywood, both could be serious contenders.
DreamWorks might have the most pedigreed picture of the summer—The Terminal, a collaboration between Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, co-starring recent SAG and Oscar winner Catherine Zeta-Jones. It opens June 18. As Spielberg and Hanks are probably Hollywood's most bankable and honored director and actor, respectively, it's safe to assume The Terminal will be part of DreamWorks' Oscar roster. The last time Spielberg directed Hanks in a lead role, after all, was in a 1998 film called Saving Private Ryan, another summer release that managed to stay in viewer's minds come awards season. According to Terry Press, head of marketing at DreamWorks, "Nobody who sees the movie will forget the movie. And nobody will forget Tom Hanks' performance. That much I know." But The Terminal could also suffer the fate of another Hanks prestige picture, 2002's Road to Perdition, which was released in July to solid reviews but ended up only garnering an Oscar nomination for Paul Newman in the acting categories.
However, there is an advantage to having the movie come out earlier. "The commercial DVD will be available at the end of the year," said Press. "So it helps with the Academy campaign." Press also spoke frankly about why the film is set for summer releases instead of being held until the end of the year. "It's too crowded in awards season," she observed. "Like Forrest Gump, this is a very audience-pleasing movie. There's never enough for grown-ups to go see in the summer. And there's always too much for grown-ups to go see at the end of the year."
DreamWorks also has the Michael Mann–directed thriller Collateral, starring Tom Cruise. According to Press, Cruise has a good chance of being recognized for his role as a contract killer. "Tom Cruise's performance is so wildly entertaining that he owns the movie," said Press. Asked if Cruise had a shot at being remembered come awards season, Press replied, "Yes, because he's playing this very dry and very funny psychotic killer. Yet it manages to incorporate all the things about Tom Cruise that you like." Of course, there's always the concern that performances could get lost in the shuffle. "There's a Darwinian type of thing that there are always great performances that don't get what they deserve," said Press. "But our job at the end of the year is to make sure that people remember the quality of the performances."
Miramax, notorious for its successful awards campaigns, normally pushes a year-end release, such as last year's Cold Mountain. However, it will likely put some weight behind Uma Thurman's work in Kill Bill: Volume 2. She was pushed for the first film, and the second features less bloodshed and more scenes of emotional drama, which could increase Thurman's chances. In addition, Emily Mortimer delivers a powerful performance in Dear Frankie, which is getting a slow release over the summer. But it's likely that Miramax will save the big guns for the winter, such as Lasse Hallström's An Unfinished Life, starring Robert Redford, and Martin Scorsese's The Aviator, with Leonardo DiCaprio.
New Line Cinemas, still flush from the awards season victories of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, isn't likely to repeat that massive success this year. In fact, their big December release is Blade: Trinity with Wesley Snipes reprising his role as the vampire hunter. But it has The Notebook, based on the bestseller by Nicolas Sparks and starring up-and-comers Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams and revered greats James Garner and Gena Rowlands. This romantic drama will open June 25, and while a New Line spokesperson said it was too early in the season to comment, Rowlands could be a serious contender. Widely regarded as one of the best living actresses today, Rowlands has never won an Oscar, despite two nominations. She has never been nominated for a SAG Award.
Finally, Focus Features, which enjoyed great success last year with Lost in Translation and 21 Grams, has two films with impressive rosters. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind won acclaim for stars Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet. And the upcoming Door in the Floor features SAG and Oscar winner Kim Basinger and multiple nominee Jeff Bridges. Focus mounted stellar campaigns for its films last year, resulting in SAG and Oscar nominations for Benicio Del Toro, Naomi Watts, and Bill Murray. And of course it was the studio responsible for Adrien Brody's surprise win for The Pianist the year before. As James Schamus, co-president of Focus Features, told BSW, "Audiences that want original and smart movies deserve to be able to see them all year round—not just during a small period of frenetic Oscar politicking. In its first two years of existence, Focus has learned to trust the judgment of our peers in the industry, and that trust has paid off handsomely for films like The Pianist and Lost in Translation. We don't expect it to be any different this year for Eternal Sunshine or for any of the other great films we're releasing before Thanksgiving."
There is one performance Maltin has already seen that he suspects will be lost in the year-end shuffle. "I wouldn't mind seeing Kurt Russell being touted for Miracle," said Maltin of Disney's true story about the 1980 Olympic hockey team, which was released in February. "I thought he was wonderful in it. That's the kind of thing I would like to see remembered … but history says, 'Not likely.'"