Lesley Manville joins Javier Bardem as snubs o' the year, and "The King's Speech" picks up an unexpected fan.
Is "The King's Speech" the Oscar movie of choice for the old guard, and "The Social Network" the one for the younger crowd? Here's a tweet that argues otherwise: director Kevin Smith, never one to take the conservative stance, wrote this on Thursday night: "Holy f___, I loved THE KING'S SPEECH. Laughs, tears & a heart as big as any Pixar flick's. Rush, Firth & Bonham Carter crush it. Find & see." Well, the first sentence of that isn't exactly what he wrote, but you get the idea. (Twitter)
I made my case on Thursday decrying the snubs of Javier Bardem by the Globes and SAG voters, and Dave Karger, bless him, agrees that it's something of a travesty not to recognize a performance that is, he says, "nothing short of devastating." One nice tidbit in his piece: Globe nominee (and SAG snubee) Ryan Gosling was baffled and troubled by the omission of Bardem as well. Says Karger, "[I]’s a film — and a performance — that’s as life-affirming and inspirational as it is sad. Here’s hoping more people realize that." Amen, brother. (Entertainment Weekly)
Jeff Wells (also an avid Bardem booster) looks at the major female snub at the Globes and SAG Awards: the omission of Lesley Manville (above) from "Another Year." Wells argues that Sony Pictures Classics blew it by campaigning for Manville in the crowded Best Actress category rather than the more open Supporting Actress category, where he thinks she'd have a real chance to win. I agree with much of his argument – in fact, I'm quoted doing just that in his piece – because I think Sony could have made an entirely reasonable case for Manville in Supporting. I also have a sneaking suspicion that the Academy will correct one of these snubs by nominating either Bardem or Manville. Hope so, anyway. (Hollywood Elsewhere)
Gregory Ellwood looks at the SAG nominations to see what they might mean for Oscar, and decides that they point toward a three-way race for Best Picture between "The Social Network," "The King's Speech" and "The Fighter." And the last two films, he says, got the biggest boost from SAG, while the lack of a Supporting Actor nod (particularly for Andrew Garfield) hurt "Social Network." As for the surprise Best Actress (or, technical, Best Female Actor) nominee, he's blunt: "[Hilary] Swank is not going to get an Oscar nod. It's just not gonna happen." (Awards Campaign)
The Golden Globe snub may have come as a surprise to most people, but Matt Damon knew it was coming. That's what he tells Amy Kaufman, at any rate: "I actually heard beforehand that [the HFPA] didn't like it," he says of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's take on the Coen Brothers movie. As for why they didn't embrace the movie, a source of Kaufman's says they didn't think it was funny (though it was competing in the drama category), but Damon says he really doesn't know. (Awards Tracker)
