THE FRONT RUNNER : Awards Talk

[jo]

Indiewire thinks box office power may influence Best Actor race --


www.indiewire.com/2018/10/bradley-cooper-ryan-gosling-christian-bale-clint-eastwood-8-major-actors-dominate-oscars-1202010751/


Excerpts --

From Bradley Cooper to Clint Eastwood: How Box Office Could Impact the Best Actor Race
This is a year when the Academy could look to honor A-list stars; with the current Best Actor contenders, there's plenty of opportunity.

Tom Brueggemann
2 hours ago


October sees the wide release of two studio films starring actors vying for Oscars: Bradley Cooper (“A Star Is Born”) and Ryan Gosling (“First Man”). A win for either would fit within Academy tradition: Actors like Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Denzel Washington, and Russell Crowe were honored for mass-audience Oscar movies after establishing themselves as commercial successes.

But what is unusual this year is that Cooper and Gosling are just two of at least eight blockbuster veterans who could factor in the upcoming race. In fact, it’s possible all five Best Actor nominees could be actors familiar to moviegoers worldwide, and starring in films that grossed $100 million or more. At a time when the Academy is anxious about audience interest, that’s got to make Academy president John Bailey and CEO Dawn Hudson happy. It’s a year when many industry folks are rooting for a big studio hit to win.

Hugh Jackman, “The Front Runner”

Release Date: November 7

Career domestic gross (adjusted): $3.117 billion (excluding voiceover roles)
Best Picture nominee: “Les Miserables”

Jackman portrays U.S. Senator Gary Hart in Jason Reitman’s latest film. Positioned with prime festival showings at Telluride and Toronto, and opening as an initial platform release, Jackman might qualify as a default nominee. That’s particularly true after the stunning success of “The Greatest Showman” last year, which opened Christmas week and wasn’t on the radar of Academy prognosticators. “The Front Runner” is his first film since. Its early November date is meant to reactivate initial (and somewhat lukewarm) festival notice, with a spotlight on Jackman’s performance likely its most marketable aspects.

[jo]

Jason Reitman was among the panel discussants in Contenders-London ( Contenders is a yearly panel discussion sponsored by Deadline.com to look deeper into the movies that may have awards potential), this time during the festival time in the UK.

Reitman's clarificatory comments are very articulate and gives one a direct perspective on how the movie should be viewed.

deadline.com/2018/10/donald-trump-the-front-runner-jason-reitman-gary-hart-hugh-jackman-1202482313/

Jason Reitman On ‘Front Runner’ & Gary Hart: ‘A Great pH Test On What Flaws We’re Willing To Put Up With In Our President’ – The Contenders London

by Anthony D'Alessandro
October 13, 2018 1:54pm


“It’s not a biopic, it’s not a movie about a person, it’s a movie about a moment,” says filmmaker Jason Reitman about his latest film The Front Runner which opens on Election Day.


In the film, Hugh Jackman plays embattled U.S. Presidential Democratic candidate Gary Hart. Though the Hart scandal occurred when Reitman was a ten-year-old kid, he became fascinated by the Colorado senator’s derailed run at the presidency when news broke that he was having an extramarital affair with Donna Rice. Within a week’s time after the news happened, Hart was out of the 1988 race.

Here’s a guy “who was favored to be the president of the United States,” said the director at Deadline’s London Contenders, “He was 25 points ahead of every Democrat and ten points ahead of George Bush.”

“Hart was prescient. This was a guy who, in 1987, was already saying America is addicted to oil, that addiction is going to take us into the Middle East where we will encounter Islamic terrorism, we will not know how to fight it,” Reitman told the audience.



In an era where some believe President Donald Trump gets away with plenty, especially his inflammatory rhetoric and offensive comments about women (read the Billy Bush Access Hollywood tape that dropped before his election), Hart is an ironic subject for a movie in these controversial political times. It was a moment “in which American politics shifted,” Reitman explains.

“Our relationship with public and private shifted, obviously there’s a gender politics story which has roots of where we are in 2018, and our relationship between journalists and politicians shifted as well” adds Reitman, who co-wrote the Sony/Bron Studios movie with New York Times magazine journalist Matt Bai (based on his book All the Truth is Out) and Jay Carson, former press secretary for Hillary Clinton and Howard Dean.



“The Hart story is a great pH test on what flaws we’re willing to put up with in our President. There’s no good guys or bad guys. The movie is a mirror,” continues Reitman. Hart was a politician, who, when this occurred, was conflicted over whether the press should know about his private life or strictly his platform. “It was a true inner conflict unlike certain modern politicians who are shameless and have no inner conflict at all,” says Reitman hinting about Trump, but not mentioning him by name.

“I’ve seen people in the audience argue: One person will say ‘Oh, wow that’s a president I wish we could have had’ but the other person says ‘No, this is the first moment of the #MeToo moment’ and there’s truth-to-power,” continued Reitman.
“It was an incredible moment in American history where in the middle of the night, in an alleyway, behind Hart’s townhouse, he came in contact with these three journalists and nobody knew what to do because nobody had been in this position before. And within a week, Hart left politics forever and when I heard the story, it sounded like a movie: A western standoff in the midst of a film noir,” says the director.

“We want to know our politicians as people, we don’t want to know them as simply ideas,” says Reitman, “once we decide we want to know them as human beings, how do journalists decide what is important, and what is relevant? That’s the question the movie is asking audiences.”

[jo]

Updated forecast from Scott Feinberg of THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER --

www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/feinberg-forecast-oscars-4-1151986/item/best-original-screenplay-feinberg-forecast-oscars-2019-4-1152254

Hugh Jackman is 5th-ranked of the frontrunners for BEST ACTOR --

FRONTRUNNERS
Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born)
Viggo Mortensen (Green Book) — podcast
Lucas Hedges (Ben is Back)
Ryan Gosling (First Man)
Hugh Jackman (The Front Runner)

MAJOR THREATS
Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) — podcast
John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman)
Steve Carell (Beautiful Boy)
Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther) — podcast
Ethan Hawke (First Reformed) — podcast
Willem Dafoe (At Eternity's Gate) — podcast

POSSIBILITIES
Robert Redford (The Old Man & the Gun)
Ben Foster (Leave No Trace)
John Krasinski (A Quiet Place)
Lucas Hedges (Boy Erased)
Lakeith Stanfield (Sorry to Bother You)
Steve Coogan (Stan & Ollie)
John C. Reilly (Stan & Ollie)

STILL TO COME (alphabetical)
Christian Bale (Vice)
Clint Eastwood (The Mule)

Also, Vera Farmiga and The Front Runner are listed as POSSIBILITIES under the Best Supporting Category and Best Adapted Screenplay.

[jo]

For the GOLDEN GLOBES predictions --

culturedvultures.com/2019-oscars-at-a-glance-2nd-golden-globe-2018-nomination-predictions/


Hugh Jackman's name is aligned among Best Actor potential contenders in the DRAMA category.

Although it might be interesting if the movie is classified otherwise, since Jason Reitman first described it as " a political comedy"

[jo]

Hey, Mr. Oscar --

Lest people forget that the true star was born 50 years ago!




Jo

[jo]

A subtle FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION ad/poster featuring HUGH JACKMAN in an exclusive new publicity material for THE FRONT RUNNER


www.hollywoodreporter.com/race/see-front-runner-poster-featuring-hugh-jackman-as-gary-hart-1152958

Sony will begin rolling out Jason Reitman's drama on Election Day, Nov. 6, and will release it nationwide on Nov. 21.

Thirty years after Gary Hart's quest to win the presidency was derailed by a sex scandal, a film about his campaign-gone-wrong is headed to theaters: The Front Runner, which was co-written and directed by Oscar nominee Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air) and stars Oscar nominees Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables) and Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), had its world premiere at September's Telluride Film Festival and will be released by Sony in New York and Los Angeles on Nov. 6. Election Day!, then expand on Nov. 16 before opening nationwide on Nov. 21.


The official poster, just making its debut, features Jackman as Hart, caught before a microphone, at an apparently critical moment in his campaign.

In some ways, The Front Runner feels as timely as ever — ever since Hart's personal life became public fodder, politicians have consistently dropped like flies when their sex scandals were exposed by the media. On the other hand, aspects of it feel like a quaint period piece, since the current occupant of the White House was elected even after being caught on tape bragging about doing far worse than anything anyone ever accused Hart — an intellectual with big ideas — of doing.

Though Jackman doesn't look anything like Hart did, he captures the politician's charisma and stubborn refusal to recognize and react to the new tabloid-media culture, resulting in some of the best reviews of his distinguished and varied career. Though other acting commitments are keeping him from doing much campaigning this awards season, he still seems to be the film's best bet for recognition, although nominations can't be counted out for the film itself, its screenplay (adapted by Matt Bai, Jay Carson and Reitman from Bai's 2014 book All the Truth Is Out, The Front Runner) or Farmiga (an actors' actor who makes the most of her limited screen time).


Scott Feinberg
[e-mail]
ScottFeinbe

[jo]

Awards-related schedule -- reported by Anne Thompson ( Indiewire)

www.indiewire.com/2018/09/awards-calendar-2018-2019-oscars-golden-globes-indie-spirits-1201991232/

The calendar is already full as publicists and awards wranglers hustle to meet submissions deadlines and voting groups try to cram as much content as they can.



October 2018

11 – Cinema Audio Society online submissions open
15 – Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations announced
16 – International Documentary Association Series, Wolper, and Features Short List announcement
18 – Gotham Award nominations announced
25 – Cinema Eye Fall Lunch, first CEH19 awards announcements
26 – Britannia Awards Gala (BAFTA LA)
31 – Deadline for Golden Globe motion picture and television entry forms
31 – British Independent Film Awards nominations announced



November 2018

TBD – ASC Honorees Announcement: Lifetime Achievement Award, Career Achievement in Television Award
1 – ASC TV Awards eligibility period ends
5 – IDA Documentary Awards features and shorts nominations announced and member voting begins
5 – ASC deadline for TV entries
8 – Cinema Eye nominations announced
9 – Final documentary ballots due from BFCA/BTJA members
10 – European Film Awards nominations announced
10 – Critics’ Choice Documentary Awards Show
13 – ASC Student Awards winners announced
15 – SAG nomination ballots open
15 – IDA Best Audio Documentary (Radio/Podcast), Best Music Documentary and Creative Recognition nominations announced
16 – Deadline for WGA submissions: Theatrical + Documentary Screenplays and Videogames
16 – Independent Spirit Awards nominations announced
18 – AMPAS Governors Awards
20 – PGA documentary nominations announced
21 – Golden Globe nomination ballots mailed out to to HFPA members
26 – Gotham Awards
26 – DGA Feature Film online nomination voting opens
27 – National Board of Review winners announced
29 – Screen Awards
29 – NYFCC winners announced



December 2018

TBD – ASC Board of Governors Award recipient announced
1 – Final screening date for Golden Globes
2 – Golden Globes deadline for ballots
2 – British Independent Film Awards
3 – Critics Choice nominating ballots go out to BFCA members
3 – ASC Spotlight Award submissions due
3 – IDA member voting period for Best Feature and Best Short ends
3 – Annie Award nominations announced
4 – AFI Awards nominations announced
5 – Online nomination voting begins for Art Directors Guild feature film and television
6 – PGA nomination polls open television programs
6 – Golden Globes nominations announced
6 – WGA TV, New Media, Radio, News, Promo Writing, Graphic Animation noms announced
7 – DGA online voting for TV noms opens
8 – IDA Documentary Awards Ceremony
10 – ASC feature film nomination ballots mailed
10 – Critics’ Choice Awards TV nominations announced
10 – Critics’ Choice Awards Film nominations announced
10 – SAG nominations voting closes at 5PM PST
10 – Makeup & Hairstyle Guild nominations voting begins
10 – ACE Eddie Awards nominations ballots mailed
12 – SAG nominations announced
13 – Cinema Audio Society nomination ballot voting begins
13 – PGA nominations poll open for motion pictures and animation features
14 – Round one BAFTA nominations voting begins
15 – European Film Awards announced
17 – Golden Globes final ballots mailed
17 – Academy announces all nine shortlists — foreign-language films, animated and live-action shorts, documentary short and features, makeup and hairstyling, visual effects, original scores and songs




January 2019

1 – Annie Award online voting opens
2 – Deadline for receipt of final Golden Globe ballots from HFPA members
2 – ASC nomination polls close (Feature Film)
2 – BAFTA Round One voting closes
3 – Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala
3 – ACE Eddie Awards nominations ballots due
3 – BAFTA EE Rising Star Award nominees announced
3 – PGA nominations polls close for motion pictures and animated motion pictures and television programs
3 – Cinema Audio Society nomination ballot voting ends
4 – Voting ends for Art Directors Guild nominations
4 – AFI Awards luncheon
4 – PGA Awards TV, animated, motion pictures and digital nominations announced
6 – Golden Globe Awards
7 – Academy Award nominations voting opens at 8AM PST
7 – NYFCC awards dinner
7 – ASC nominations announced
7 – Art Directors Guild nominations announced
7 – ACE Eddie Awards nominations announced
7 – Makeup and Hairstyle nominations voting closes
7 – DGA online voting for feature films closes
7 – WGA theatrical, documentary and videogame screenplay nominations announced
7 – Oscar nomination voting opens
7 – DGA TV, Commercial and Documentary nominations announced
8 – Final Online Voting Begins for ADG awards
8 – WGA online voting for final screenplay and series begins
8 – National Board of Review gala
8 – Cinema Audio Society nominations announced
8 – DGA feature film and first-time feature nominations announced
9 – BAFTA nominations announced
10 – Cinema Eye Honors Award Ceremony
10 – Final ballots go out to BFCA members
10 – Final ballots go out to BTJA members
11 – Deadline for BFCA returning final ballots
11 – Deadline for BTJA returning final ballots
13 – Critics’ Choice Awards
14 – Academy Award nominations voting closes at 5PM PST
18 – PGA final voting closes
19 – PGA Awards
19 – SAG final voting closes
20 – Annie Award final voting closes
21 – Makeup & Hairstyle final voting begins
22 – Academy Award nominations announced
24 – Cinema Audio Society final voting begins
27 – SAG Awards
31 – Art Directors Guild Awards final online voting ends
31 – WGA deadline for final screenplay and series online voting




February 2019
1 – DGA online voting ends
1 – ACE Eddie Awards gala
2 – Annie Awards
2 – ADG Awards Gala
2 – DGA Awards
4 – Oscar Nominees Luncheon
6 – BAFTA Round Two voting closes
6 – Cinema Audio Society final voting ends
8 – Makeup & Hairstyle final voting closes
9 – USC Scripter Awards
9 – Scientific and technical Oscars
9 – 33rd Annual ASC Awards
10 – BAFTA Awards
12 – Academy Award final voting opens at 8AM PST
16 – Makeup & Hairstyle Guild Awards Gala
16 – Cinema Audio Society Awards
17 – WGA Awards
19 – Academy Award final voting closes at 5PM PST
23 – Independent Spirit Awards
23 – BAFTA Tea Party
24 – 91st Oscar telecast

[jo]

A "FYC" ( For Your Consideration ) screening of THE FRONT RUNNER in Hollywood, with especial mention of Hugh Jackman.

Right on Sunset Blvd - is this open only to SAG/AMPAS members?

[jo]

Jason Reitman will be given the JOHN CASSAVETES Award for his work in film-making at the Denver Film Festival. John was a former actor who eventually moved to and distinguished himself in directing movies.

variety.com/2018/film/news/jason-reitman-john-cassavetes-award-denver-film-festival-1202989071/

[jo]

The first major appearance for AWARDS CONSIDERATION -- with SAG ( Screen Actors Guild), whose AMPAS members vote on nominations for acting honors (The entire AMPAS membership vote on the final Best Actor award only after the nominations have for the best 5 candidates have been chosen by the SAG Nominations Committee) --

members.sagfoundation.org/programs/10421

Hugh Jackman

Program Type:
Conversations

Location:
Los Angeles

Title:
Hugh Jackman
Featuring:
Hugh Jackman

Date:
Saturday, November 3, 2018
Time:
5:00 PM
Check-in begins at: 4:30 PM

Status:
You must be signed in to view status
Program Rules:
Read Program Rules


Screening of THE FRONT RUNNER followed by a 90-minute Career Retrospective with Hugh Jackman.
Moderated by Jenelle Riley, Variety.

GUEST BIO
Hugh Jackman currently stars as Gary Hart in THE FRONT RUNNER. Jackman is an Academy Award®-nominated, Golden Globe- and Tony Award-winning performer who has made an impression on audiences of all ages with his multi-hyphenate career persona, as successful on stage in front of live crowds as he is on film. From his award-winning turn on Broadway as the 1970s singer/songwriter Peter Allen, to his metal claw-wielding Wolverine in the blockbuster X-Men franchise, Jackman has proven to be one of the most versatile actors of our time.

The Australian native made his first major U.S. film appearance as Wolverine in the first installment of the “X-Men” series, a role he reprised in the enormously successful X2 and X-Men: The Last Stand. He then starred as the title character in X-Men Origins: Wolverine, a prequel to the popular series which grossed an outstanding $85 million domestically in its first weekend of release. Audiences once again went to see Jackman in the popular role in the next chapter titled The Wolverine, which grossed over $400 million worldwide. In 2014, Jackman and the X-Men team reunited for X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Jackman garnered his first Academy Award® nomination, for Best Actor, for his performance in Tom Hooper’s Les Misérables, based on popular stage show created from Victor’s Hugo famous novel of the same name. Jackman’s standout performance as protagonist Jean Valjean also earned him a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical, as well as Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Award® nominations, for both Best Ensemble and Best Male Actor in a Leading Role, and a BAFTA Award nomination. Most recently, he was nominated for Golden Globe for his role as P.T. Barnum in The Greatest Showman. In addition to the extraordinary success of the movie musical, sales for the soundtrack to the film have broken records the world over … reaching multi-platinum status in many countries including the UK and America.


In 2009, Jackman took on host duties at the 81st Annual Academy Awardsâ, earning an Emmy Award nomination for his work. This wasn’t, however, Jackman’s first foray into awards show hosting. Previously, he served as host of the Tony Awards three years in a row, from 2003 to 2005, earning an Emmy Award for the 2004 ceremony, and an Emmy nomination for his appearance at the 2005 ceremony.

Jackman starred in Logan, the final iteration of his Wolverine character, alongside Patrick Stewart. Additional film credits include Prisoners, Shawn Levy’s Real Steel, Baz Luhrmann’s Australia, Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige, Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain, Woody Allen’s Scoop, Deception, Someone Like You, Swordfish, Van Helsing, and Kate & Leopold, for which he received a 2002 Golden Globe nomination. In addition, he lent his voice to the animated features Happy Feet, Flushed Away and Rise of the Guardians.


On Broadway, Jackman most recently received rave reviews for his performance as The Man in the “The River.” In 2011, he made a splash on the Great White Way in his one-man show, “Hugh Jackman – Back on Broadway.” Backed by an 18-piece orchestra, the revue, which previously opened to rave reviews during its limited engagements in San Francisco and Toronto earlier that year, was comprised of both Broadway hits and a selection of some of his personal favorite standards. Jackman’s continued dedication to the Broadway community was fêted at the 2012 Tony Awards, where he received a Special Award from the Tony Awards Administration Committee, recognizing his accomplishments both as a performer as well as a humanitarian.

In 2009, Broadway audiences could see Jackman in the Keith Huff-penned “A Steady Rain,” in which he starred with Daniel Craig. For his portrayal of the 1970s singer/songwriter Peter Allen in “The Boy From Oz,” Jackman received the 2004 Tonyâ Award for Best Actor in a musical as well as Drama Desk, Drama League, Outer Critics Circle and Theatre World awards. His additional theater credits include “Carousel” at Carnegie Hall; “Oklahoma!” at the National Theater in London, for which he received an Olivier Award nomination; “Sunset Boulevard,” for which he garnered Australia’s prestigious ‘MO’ Award; and “Beauty and the Beast,” for which he received a ‘MO’ Award nomination.

Jackman’s career began in Australia in the independent films Paperback Hero and Erskineville Kings. His performance in the latter earned him an Australian Film Critics’ Circle Best Actor award and The Australian Film Institute Best Actor nomination. In 1999, he was named Australian Star of the Year at the Australian Movie Convention.


Following The Front Runner, he is in production for the feature film Bad Education, co-starring Allison Janey and Ray Romano.
11 10 Email

Note: Photos shown include from the current film for discussion (The Front Runner) and for which he is being presented for acting honors consideration. His iconic Wolverine persona is also shown. His movie musicals ( Les Miserables, for which he received an Oscar nomination, and his recent worldwide hit The Greatest Showman) complete his acting credentials which is now evolving into one of Hollywood's most versatile performers!

I wonder if actors other than Hugh Jackman will be presented together with Hugh to compete in the Best Ensemble Award ( presumably the top acting SAG acting award)?

[jo]

Handicapping the BEST ACTOR race --


www.theringer.com/movies/2018/10/30/18041910/best-actor-academy-awards-2019-bradley-cooper-star-is-born-rami-malek-ryan-gosling-clint-eastwood

We’re About to See the Most Competitive Best Actor Oscars Race in Years
The field is crowded with stars in their prime, young guns, and old guys who’ve been waiting decades for their moment. The winner could tell us a lot about the rest of the Academy Awards.

By Sean Fennessey Oct 30, 2018, 10:42am EDT


I have a theory about the Academy Awards’ Best Actor category: Tom Hanks ruined it. Hanks, of course, is the last actor to win an Oscar in back-to-back years. In 1994 and then 1995, he won statuettes for his roles as Andrew Beckett in Philadelphia and then as Forrest Gump in Forrest Gump. At the time, it felt like a foregone conclusion, Hanks’s confirmation as America’s Most Agreed Upon Human. But after that double triumph, Best Actor got weird. The next year, Nicolas Cage—an admired performer best known for taking on strange roles and acting strangely in them—won the award for small addiction drama Leaving Las Vegas. Then, Shine’s little-known Australian star Geoffrey Rush beat Tom Cruise doing Peak Tom Cruise for his performance in the massive crowd-pleaser Jerry Maguire. In 1998, Roberto Goddamn Benigni won the Oscar for his Holocaust comedy (?) Life Is Beautiful. A year later, Kevin Spacey won for American Beauty just four years after he’d won Best Supporting Actor for The Usual Suspects. In doing so, he defeated Denzel Washington, Sean Penn, Russell Crowe—all of whom had yet to win the award—and Richard Farnsworth, who at 78 years old, was dying from prostate cancer. Things had gotten out of hand. An overcorrection had set in. Best Actor had gone rogue.

Tom Hanks summarily solved the Best Actor category by 1994, seemingly forcing the Academy to make odd choices. By the time Crowe won for portraying Maximus in Gladiator (not his best role), Denzel won for playing a crooked cop in Training Day (not his best role), and Penn won for operatically screaming “Is that … my … daughter … in there?!!?” in Mystic River (not his best role), the category had lost its way. And after Adrien Brody and Jamie Foxx stepped on stage at the Kodak Theatre to accept their Oscars, it was clear something had to change.

Then things started to even out. Perhaps too much. Celebrated veterans began to collect their career achievement awards for solid work in admirable films. Forest Whitaker. Jeff Bridges. Colin Firth. Two for Daniel Day-Lewis. Another for Penn. McConaughey. Leo, finally. Earlier this year, the least interesting race at the 90th Academy Awards—one that had been all but decided months in advance—was Gary Oldman’s coronation for his role as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour. Oldman completed a masterfully managed glad-handing tour that resulted in the prize. He went to every luncheon, sat for every roundtable, glazed every fellow nominee with praise. And it was so boring. This is not how Best Actor should play, not the category that gave us Peter Finch in Network over Sylvester Stallone in Rocky and Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver. Not the category that made Sidney Poitier the first black actor to win the award 54 years ago, three months before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 passed in the U.S. Senate. Not the category that once featured Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Laurence Olivier, Charlie Chaplin, and Raymond Massey playing Abe Lincoln … all in the same year. Best Actor is a fickle beast, one that has awarded Lee Marvin, Art Carney, and Roberto Goddamn Benigni, but never legends like Warren Beatty (four nominations), Albert Finney (four nominations), Richard Burton (six nominations), or Peter O’Toole (eight nominations). It ought to always be compelling.



So it is with some relief that I report we have a real barnburner this year, as unpredictable as it is intriguing. That is strange in some respects because many of the year’s best and most anticipated awards season films—among them The Favourite, Roma, and Widows—don’t have a lead actor performance to speak of. That’s to say nothing of Mary Queen of Scots, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Suspiria, and Crazy Rich Asians, all of which also lack a potential Best Actor candidate.

And this isn’t a typical year. Not all of the usual types are here. There’s no Daniel Day-Lewis in this race, no undeniable purveyor of Method craft. There’s also no wizened genius finally ready for his due, not exactly. Instead, there are several established early-to-late middle-aged men, all well-regarded but none who have reached the pantheon of all-timers. These are actors with one or two or perhaps even three nominations to their name, but not the body of work that, say, 12-time nominee Jack Nicholson would bring to a race. There are also no virtual unknowns here either, which cannot be said for this year’s Best Actress race, which may be disrupted by the marvelous 24-year-old first-timer Yalitza Aparicio in Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma.

In other words, there are no behemoths here and also no wunderkinds. Which is exciting, in its way, but hell on a prognosticator. By my count, with just two months left before the calendar turns, there are 14 potential nominees (from 15 movies). Many will ultimately seem like ridiculous long shots. But we’re in the waning days of hope. So let’s do some hoping.



The Leaders

Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born (Three Acting Nominations, No Wins)
Ryan Gosling, First Man (Two Nominations, No Wins)
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody (No Previous Nominations)

The past 30 days have given this race a focus that I must admit Ethan Hawke could not harness all by his lonesome. For months and months, Hawke carried the category with his work in First Reformed. But the dam has burst, and now there are three heavy favorites. They are toplined by Bradley Cooper, who has conjured all the narrative forces—write-direct-produce, live singing, Hollywood classic remake, weird accent, fraternal anxiety, high-pitched love story—for his work in A Star Is Born. Cooper is, right now, the favorite. Not a lock. But certainly out front. As is his movie, which slowly rounds into a juggernaut with each passing weekend at the box office, and each stream of “Shallow” on Spotify. Cooper’s press tour has been a fascinating experiment in telling the same three stories as many times as possible to as many people as possible for as long as possible. It’s going to be a long four months.

Joining Cooper’s Jackson Maine are two diametrically opposed performances of real-life figures: Ryan Gosling’s tense, unblinking role as Neil Armstrong in the technically magnificent, but emotionally inert First Man and Rami Malek in a vamping, vainglorious turn as Queen’s Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody. They are dueling examples of Good Work in an Iffy Movie. First Man has been well-regarded with little to be ashamed of, but it has been a modest performer at the box office, and the momentum many expected it would ride all the way to February has already begun to falter. Gosling is unshowy though not uninteresting in the role—but he’s often uninterested in doing the baby-kissing work that sustains the race. That could be a problem.

By contrast, Bohemian Rhapsody, which was directed by controversy-racked filmmaker Bryan Singer until he was fired for failing to show up to set for three days, is a messily arranged and historically inaccurate standard operating biopic—ordinary type rises to greatness, foibles exposed to the world, before extraordinarily burning out on the biggest stage. We’ve seen it before. It’s weak tea. It’s also hackneyed to say that an actor transforms into a real-life person, but Malek does just that as Mercury, perfectly emulating his propulsive performance style, his luxurious speaking voice—all those purred daaaahlings—and disappearing behind those profound teeth. It’s a truly astonishing accomplishment in a pretty lousy movie. Will that be held against him? History often says yes.

To continue --

The Shape of What’s to Come

Hugh Jackman, The Front Runner (One Nomination, No Wins)
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate (Three Nominations, No Wins)
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book (Two Nominations, No Wins)


Real men are all the rage this season, whether a flamed-out presidential candidate, a historically celebrated painter who died by suicide, or a chauffeur you’ve never heard of. Fun fact: 11 of the past 16 winners in the category were actors portraying real men. It’s a crutch and a carrot for voters, with evidence against which to be judged and rewarded.

And while Malek’s work makes us remember what we loved about Freddie Mercury, Hugh Jackman makes us wince over the memory of Gary Hart, the idealistic but flawed Colorado senator whose presidential dreams—and, it’s argued in Jason Reitman’s film The Front Runner, the future of a nation—are derailed by a scandal-hungry press. Hart is an incidental victim of a radically changing political media, the movie insists, and Jackman plays him like a sighing contradiction of terms—a civil civil servant who also demands a measure of privacy in personal (extramarital) matters that seems virtually unimaginable in 2018. Jackman doesn’t quite look like Hart, but he feels like him, an avatar of lost innocence and male arrogance.


Not every essence is so rare. Willem Dafoe is 63 years old. And Vincent van Gogh killed himself at 37. So there are aspects of Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate that feel like a bit of a stretch. And yet, it was 62 years ago that Kirk Douglas was nominated for playing van Gogh in Vincente Minnelli’s Lust for Life. And Dafoe, well-liked and passed over just last year for his wonderful work in The Florida Project, is the kind of actor who can slowly tilt a race in his favor. Our memories—not of van Gogh, but the more than 100 Dafoe roles over the years—tend to help in cases like this. From Platoon to Shadow of the Vampire to, um, John Wick, there’s a deep well of Dafoe to pull from.

But something tells me the actor who’s going to pull off that memory maneuver this season is Viggo Mortensen, a classical Oh yeah, I like that guy. After the Toronto International Film Festival, Adam Nayman wrote for The Ringer that Mortensen’s work in Peter Farrelly’s Green Book feels like a likely nominee, “that is, if voters recognize the expertise of his comic turn as a goon-for-hire chauffeuring an African American musician on a concert tour through the 1960s Deep South. Always a brilliant physical actor, especially in his performances in David Cronenberg movies, Mortensen here offers a sly, ethnically distinct variation on his Eastern Promises badass.” The name Tony “Lip” Vallelonga may not ring out like van Gogh or Hart, but it may soon have recognition all its own.




The Big, Bad Known

Christian Bale, Vice (Three Nominations, One Win)

Fear Bale. He might be, barring Day-Lewis, the world’s best living and working actor. There is a Dick Cheney–shaped space earmarked for him on every pundit’s list, and early looks at Adam McKay’s portrait of the former vice president have not waved anyone off that notion. Assuming McKay carries the antic-but-gravely-serious tone of The Big Short into this life-spanning vision of the infamously severe veep, Bale is assured room. Maybe more.



The Old Guy

Robert Redford, The Old Man and the Gun (One Acting Nomination, No Wins)
Did you know Robert Redford, 82, has only one Oscar nomination for acting, and that it came 44 years ago for The Sting? He’s a two-time nominee as a director with one win, but that factoid is nevertheless shocking. Redford is an iconic film star and steward of the movies. He’s also a damned good actor. And he is at a kind of personality-performance apex in David Lowery’s The Old Man and the Gun, a small but charming fable that might have dominated a different sort of Oscar season once upon a time. Alas, Redford may not even make the cut in what could be his last performance.



The Even Older Guy

Clint Eastwood, The Mule (Two Acting Nominations, No Wins)
Clint Eastwood is 88 years old. He’s older than Rupert Murdoch, Alice Munro, and Willie Mays. And he’s still making movies. The drug-trafficking drama The Mule is his 37th film as a director and his second this year, after The 15:17 to Paris. (Remember that?) No one’s really seen the movie—it arrives on December 14. So no one knows anything. Maybe it will be quietly wonderful, like Sully, a stately sendoff. Or maybe it will be another Gran Torino, grouchy and violent and weird. Either way, Clint can win, in large part, because he’s never won this award. And there isn’t much else we can say he hasn’t done at this stage.



The Sentimental Favorite

Ethan Hawke, First Reformed (Two Acting Nominations, No Wins)
I’ve written at length about Hawke, interviewed him, and sung his praises. He’s my favorite actor without an Oscar. (Barring John C. Reilly.) I have yet to hear a decent case for why he shouldn’t get it this year for his wrenching, ecstatic work as Reverend Ernst Toller.


The Young Gun

Lucas Hedges, Boy Erased / Ben Is Back (One Nomination, No Wins)

Three months ago, Hedges felt like a shoo-in. The 21-year-old who emerged in Manchester by the Sea and Lady Bird, appears in three movies this season, and two lead roles, in Joel Edgerton’s Boy Erased and his father Peter Hedges’s Ben Is Back. Perhaps it was a few roles too many. There appears to be a distortion field working against Hedges, with other films with “b” words starring young men clogging ballots and brain space. I feel him receding. Not to worry, Hedges could have a special career ahead of him. Hanksian, even.


The Suspiciously Unmentioned

John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman (No Previous Nominations)
Stephan James, If Beale Street Could Talk (No Previous Nominations)
Chadwick Boseman, Black Panther (No Previous Nominations)

Do you sense a trend here? Washington, James, and Boseman currently rate 11th, 13th, and 16th on Gold Derby’s expert odds lineup this week. And for all of the inroads the Academy has made to be more inclusive and in light of the increasingly diverse returns in some categories, Best Actor remains shockingly white. There have been just four black winners in category history. (Not to mention one Latin American winner, José Ferrer in 1951; and one Asian winner, Ben Kingsley in 1983.) The three films in which these three actors appear are in contention for Best Picture. The same Gold Derby metric lists the films’ chances at 8, 6, and 7, respectively. So why aren’t these three in the mix? It’s a new kind of category fraud: leading man lies.

[jo]

[jo]

Hugh Jackman is invited again to be part of Deadline's THE CONTENDERS assemblage of awards-potential talents. This will be held in LA, preceding another session in NYC in December.


deadline.com/2018/11/deadline-the-contenders-los-angeles-2018-date-time-lineup-1202494922/

[jo]

Sometimes looked down upon by the movie press, but the Hollywood Film Awards are the first official recognition of the season's acclaimed talents and film achievements. Hugh and Glenn and recent Oscar winner director Damian Chapelle lead the awardees! This is good for Hugh, given the recent rash of social media negativity.


www.goldderby.com/article/2018/hollywood-film-awards-2018-complete-list-of-winners-sunday-ceremony-black-panther-glenn-close-timothee-chalamet-news/

[jo]

Hugh was in LA as part of DEADLINE's awards-oriented discussion panel THE CONTENDERS --

He is also scheduled to be at 2 Q&A's for SAG/AFTRA -- the actors guild, whose nominating committee will decide on the best 5 actors to be considered for the Oscar awards.


Jo

[jo]

[jo]

At the SAG/AFTRA screening - Hugh at his charming best

http://instagram.com/p/BpvxTflgr-x

http://instagram.com/p/Bpv0aC5nrG3

[jo]

Jason and Hugh -- formidable campaign team!

http://instagram.com/p/BpvOWcFlsV4

[jo]

She gets to vote on the Best Actor Nominees recommendations -- a Member of the SAG Nominating Committee for this season!

http://instagram.com/p/Bpvzc70nM6_

Keep swiping to the right for Hugh's solo photo.

[jo]

These two filmmakers do not need an awards campaign team -- they are already very formidable as such! And very easy on the eye, too

[jo]

Pete Hammond interviewed Hugh and Jason for Deadline's THE CONTENDERS Panel --

[jo]

http://instagram.com/p/BpyZQX5g17U

[jo]

Here's SONY PICTURES's list of award categories for which an FYC ( For Your Consideration) list has been presented!


www.sonypictures-guilds.com/the-front-runner


Please click on "FYC" on top to get the full listing.



For acting honors, here are the names submitted --

BEST ACTOR
Hugh Jackman

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Vera Farmiga

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
J.K. Simmons
Alfred Molina

[jo]

Remember that insightful conversation between Hugh Jackman and Willem Dafoe last year?


Hugh will be featured again in VARIETY's ACTORS ON ACTORS discussions --

variety.com/2018/biz/news/variety-pbs-socal-variety-studio-actors-on-actors-season-9-lineup-1203029322/

November 15, 2018 8:00AM PT

Variety, PBS SoCal Announce Lineup for Ninth Season of ‘Variety Studio: Actors on Actors’
By Variety Staff


CREDIT: Katie Jones/Variety/REX/Shutterstock

Variety and PBS SoCal have announced the actor lineup and schedule for the ninth season of “Variety Studio: Actors on Actors.”

The first two episodes of the Emmy Award-winning series will premiere on PBS SoCal on Tuesday, Jan. 8 at 7 p.m. with episodes three and four set to premiere on Thursday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. All episodes will stream on pbssocal.org following their premieres.

This season will feature the following actor pairings and conversations: Lady Gaga (A Star is Born) with Lin-Manuel Miranda (Mary Poppins Returns); Mahershala Ali (Green Book) with John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman); Emily Blunt (A Quiet Place / Mary Poppins Returns) with Hugh Jackman (The Front Runner); Emma Stone (The Favourite) with Timothée Chalamet (Beautiful Boy); Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) with Lupita Nyong’o (Black Panther); Nicole Kidman (Destroyer/Boy Erased) with Amy Adams (Vice); Charlize Theron (Tully) with Michael B. Jordan (Black Panther); Armie Hammer (On the Basis of Sex / Sorry to Bother You) with Dakota Johnson (Suspiria); Glenn Close (The Wife) with Sam Elliott (A Star is Born); Viggo Mortensen (Green Book) with Chadwick Boseman (Black Panther); Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) with Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Kindergarten Teacher); John Krasinski (A Quiet Place) with Rosamund Pike (A Private War); Felicity Jones (On the Basis of Sex) with Constance Wu (Crazy Rich Asians).



“In only a few years, Variety’s Actors on Actors has become a become a crucial stop on the road to the Oscars,” said Ramin Setoodeh, New York bureau chief, Variety. “We are delighted to be partnering again with PBS SoCal for a series of illuminating conversations with the bravest actors at the movies this year.”

“Variety Studio: Actors on Actors” will air on PBS stations across the nation starting in January (check local listings). Variety’s Actors on Actors issue will hit newsstands on Dec. 4 with clips appearing on variety.com starting at the beginning of December presented by Amazon Studios.

“We are proud to once again partner with Variety Studio: Actors on Actors to bring Southern California audiences as well as viewers across the country into the hearts and minds of Hollywood’s most acclaimed talent,” said Andrew Russell, president and CEO, Public Media Group of Southern California. “Being in the business of telling stories that matter, PBS SoCal has a passion for creating smart, original content that captures the spirit of the region. We look forward to bringing viewers these intimate conversations from this incomparable lineup of actors included in this season whom we admire for their work and contribution to their craft.”

[jo]

The Jackman-Blunt conversation may prove to be very interesting, as they do share some similarities in their backgrounds:

*Emily is English, but also carries a second passport ( American) while Hugh has English parents and also carries a second passport (UK). Emily was born and started her career in the UK while Hugh while Australia-born became internationally famous with his role in the Royal National Theatre revival of Oklahoma!

*Both started their careers in the theatre.

*Both have movie musicals backgrounds, but are also both known for dramatic acting. Hugh has live theatre musicals in his resume.

*Both reside in NYC.


Jo