1. It Fills The Oscar “Blockbuster” Slot
Ever since the Academy made the controversial decision to allow between 5-10 films to be nominated for Best Picture, the field has indeed widened out, allowing for some more populist fare to sneak in, and while some of this is turgid, condescending garbage – The Blind Side and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, anyone? – a lot of it is accounted for by intelligent blockbuster films that previous Academy prejudices – as well as a limited 5-film field – would not allow entry. 2010 saw District 9 be nominated for Best Picture, 2011 saw Toy Story 3 make the cut, and 2012 saw Spielberg’s War Horse trot into the mix (even if initially it was considered a “serious” Best Picture contender), noting a trend of smart blockbuster movies crashing the Oscar party.
How does this fare for 2013? There are three big-hitter blockbuster films that were also big commercial hits – Skyfall, The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises – though going by the quality of the craft and prior trends, it is only Skyfall of the three that stands a shot at securing a Best Picture nomination, while the other two will be relegated to below-the-line crafts nominations. Therefore, Skyfall is the blockbuster pick for the year, the one unabashedly “mainstream” pic that the Academy, as something of a back-patting exercise, will allow into the nominees club, even if it hasn’t got a hope in Hell of winning.
Do you think Skyfall will be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar? Let us know in the comments below.
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5 Comments
it should, since it has brilliant performances, beautiful cinematography and an extremely well chosen cast and crew, but it won’t :(
I agree – it should get nominated, and I am convinced that it will be nominated for the best picture. It will secure 4-5 other nominations as well. Great job on the article by the way.
I think the obvious point here are the comparisons to TDK, which was robbed in the Oscars for “best Pictures”. The reason? Hollywood is simply obsessed with itself. It cannot fathom a picture winning an award bast on modern merits, but rather they want movies to “remind them of the Golden Years”. So, like TDK I would putmoney down on Bardem or Dench winning ‘Best Supporting Actor’ but some boring movie that no one except really rich condescending people will like will win.
Don’t forget about Albert Finney!!
It will probably snag the technical nominations (Sound, Sound Editing) maybe a nomination for Editing and hopefully some Deakins love. I don’t think a Bond song has been Oscar nominated in quite some time, but this one might do it. Dench had a great role, and of course the Academy loves her, but if any one could get an acting nomination it will be Bardem. It will definitely be the dark dark horse Best Picture contender this year. If the BAFTA gives it a Best Film nom that will probably be enough of an achievement for a Bond film.
it’s laughable that anyone thought Skyfall was worth a damn for anything but its cinematography. bardem for best supporting? wow…