While some moved back their deadlines along with the Oscars — including the usual first taste-setter, the National Board of Review, as well as the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards — the two most influential critics groups chose not to wait. As a result, their winners could provide some guidance in this most unusual Oscar season. At a time when theaters in New York and Los Angeles aren’t building word of mouth, good films are hard to find, and FYC campaigns often fall into the ether, the critics groups help to steer voters toward must-see films. As screeners start to arrive, Academy voters are stuck at home like everyone else, either glued to the news or escaping from it. Put producer Lynda Obst in the newshound category:
— Lynda Obst (@LyndaObst) December 16, 2020 That’s one point of view. But as many awards voters starve for strong movies to sample, the critics are steering them toward frontrunners like “Nomadland” (Searchlight), which won the Venice Golden Lion (as “Joker” did last year), the Toronto People’s Choice prize (won by “Jojo Rabbit” in 2019), IndieWire’s critics poll, and Chloé Zhao as Best Director in both New York and Los Angeles. With the two-month Oscar delay, it’s early for a movie to be a frontrunner, but sometimes a gathering snowball picks up so much momentum that it never slows down. Roaming the margins of America’s arterial highways, “Nomadland” hits the zeitgeist this year in a powerful way. Courtesy of Fox Searchlight
Similarly, neither New York nor Los Angeles chose to boost any of this year’s submissions for the Best International Feature Film Oscar. Instead they gave their foreign-language prizes to films that are not Oscar-eligible: Brazil’s “Bacarau” and last year’s Russian entry, “Beanpole.” (Notably, both movies also made Barack Obama’s list of 2020 viewing highlights.) But some of the critics group prizes went to films that could certainly use the boost. Los Angeles went big for “Promising Young Woman” (Focus), awarding Carey Mulligan with Best Actress and giving rookie feature director Emerald Fennell Best Screenplay. This could turn the new release, which debuted back at Sundance, into a must-see after it dropped off viewers’ radars months ago. NYFCC’s Best Film winner was “First Cow,” from writer- director Kelly Reichardt, an independent production that has already been nominated for the Gotham and will likely score Independent Spirit Awards nods as well. (Another Gothams and Spirits target is Radha Blank, writer-director-star of Netflix’s “The 40-Year-Old Version,” which took New York’s Best First Film award and LA’s New Generation award.) It’s hard to imagine “First Cow” as a big Oscar contender as well, but these awards can work wonders for more modest productions. In New York, Eliza Hittman’s Sundance and Berlin breakout “Never Rarely Sometimes Always” (Focus) won both Best Screenplay for Hittman, and Best Actress for newcomer Sidney Flanigan. In LA, the film was runner-up for Screenplay. The writers Branch often nominates auteurs like Greta Gerwig, Jordan Peele, Bong Joon Ho, Spike Lee, Barry Jenkins, and Taika Waititi. In light of that, it’s quite possible that Zhao, Reichert, Fennell and Hittman could follow. Heading toward the Oscars, the crowded Supporting Actor category is competitive, and every win helps push that contender forward. Boseman will become the first late actor to compete against himself at the Oscars, and is a favorite to win Best Actor.
AppleTV+, GKIDS Among the crafts, Los Angeles gave Best Editing to Florian Zeller’s “The Father” (Sony Pictures Classics) which is playing well with Academy voters. Production Design went to David Fincher’s elegant period biopic “Mank” (Netflix). But “Mank” composers Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross won for “Soul” instead. In other words, while critics group voters don’t try to predict the Oscars, expect many of these wins to stay in the conversation in the months ahead. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
