12 Most Desperate Oscar Grab Movies Of 2016
6. Silence
Over his half a century long career, Martin Scorsese’s films have racked up an impressive 80 Oscar nominations and snagged 20 wins and his latest film, the long-awaited Silence, looks set for Academy Award glory too.
A
passion project some 20 years in the making, it’s been stuck in development
hell since the late noughties and while that normally wouldn’t bode too well
for a movie in Scorsese’s talented hands anything is possible and despite only
having a limited release so far, it’s already racking up the glowing reviews.
Based on Japanese author Shusaku Endo’s novel of the same and set in the 17th century, Silence tells the tale of two Portuguese Jesuit missionaries played by Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver who risk their lives by travelling to Japan to rescue their persecuted mentor played by Liam Neeson.
It’s got all the hallmarks of an Oscar grab – it’s historic, a literary adaptation, it’s got a stellar cast and at a derrière-numbingly 161 minutes long it’s got the kind of epic scale Oscar voters seem to love.