4. 2013 Won't Be As Vintage As 2012 For The Weinstein Company
It has become an annual tradition at Cannes for Harvey Weinstein to preview his slate of upcoming prestige films in an E3-esque style presentation. Last year, he really stoked the fires and got the salivary glands of cineastes working overtime with his preview of such highly anticipated films as The Master, Silver Linings Playbook, and Django Unchained. This year, his preview mainly focused on the unveiling of clips and trailers for the Nicole Kidman-starring Grace Kelly biopic, Grace of Monaco, and the Idris Elba and Naomi Harris two-hander, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, as well as previews of two films that later premiered at Cannes, Only God Forgives and The Immigrant. While it is obviously somewhat perilous to put too much stock in analysis of a film's awards chances based on clips or trailers, from the sound of it (and this correlates with my gut instinct anyway), Grace of Monaco will most likely end up being nothing more than a play for a Best Actress nomination for Nicole Kidman. Ditto goes for Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, which, with a trailer some said was akin to an action flick in tone, will probably have its best shot at an Oscar nod with Naomi Harris' performance, and maybe Idris Elba too if his category isn't overly competitive. Biopics, such as these two films, often end up being nothing more than vehicles for actors to show off their imitative abilities (i.e. My Week with Marilyn and Hitchcock for two recent examples), and without any big name directors behind the cameras, that is most likely what we will get with these two flicks. Weinstein also showed a few trailers for films that have already been previewed or seen by some, such as The Butler, Grandmasters, Ain't Them Bodies Saints, and Fruitvale Station, but none ignited the anticipatory fever of too many pundits. Now it is true that Weinstein's heaviest awards hitter, August: Osage County, was MIA at the presentation, but even if August ends up sweeping every award in sight, I think it is safe to say that when considered in totality, the lineup of films at the Weinstein Company this year won't be as well remembered as their platter of classic cinematic offerings they brought forth onto cinema-goers last year.
Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.
