In this morning’s roundup of Oscar news ‘n’ notes from around the web, Gwyneth Paltrow pulls a Jeff Bridges, while other actresses look for those elusive Oscar attributes.
As its relaunch approaches, the Hollywood Reporter has made more decisions about its awards coverage. Contributors to its weekly awards column, which Anne Thompson says will be called The Race, will include THR film editor Gregg Kilday, features editor Stephen Galloway and a newcomer, film reporter Tim Apello. Given the folks involved, that likely means it’ll be reporting-based, not personality-based. (Thompson on Hollywood)
Working her way through a series of essays on the main categories, Sasha Stone has arrived at Best Actress. She thinks that Annette Bening and Natalie Portman are the strongest contenders at the moment (just about everybody seems to agree), and that Jennifer Lawrence is a likely nominee for “Winter’s Bone” (I really, really hope she’s right). This leads into a discussion of the factors that go into a Best Actress contender: “popularity, likability of star and character, great publicists, how much they ‘work the line,’” and a steamier attribute that you’ll have to go to her site to read about. (Awards Daily)
Speaking of Best Actresses, 1999 winner Gwyneth Paltrow is about to do something that last year’s Best Actor winner Jeff Bridges also did: after making a movie in which she plays a country singer (“Country Strong”), she’ll perform live on an awards show. In his case it was the Spirit Awards; in hers it’ll be next month’s CMA Awards from Nashville. She’ll be doing her movie's title track, and getting a hand from Vince Gill. Doing the rest of what Bridges did last year – i.e., winning every acting award in existence, up to and including the Oscar – may prove to be a bit more problematic. (The Hollywood Reporter)
Guy Lodge considers the supporting categories – not to breakdown this year’s field, but to ruminate on positioning, the definition of “supporting,” and the history of the categories that, he said, gave birth to the Oscar tradition of “category fraud” more than 70 years ago. (In Contention)
Here’s the kind of story you usually don’t see until February: Joel D. Amos picks the “most memorable Oscar moments.” You can probably guess at least half of them: “you really like me,” Rob Lowe and Snow White, “I’m the king of the world!,” etc. Halle Berry figures in two of them, as does “The Pianist.” Amos could have used a fact-checker, though: Marlon Brando, for instance, is not the only person to refuse an Oscar: George C. Scott did, too. And Roman Polanski didn’t “accept … from Europe” – the Academy accepted on his behalf. (She Knows)
Nathaniel Rogers says he’s not going to write a review of “Conviction,” but he nonetheless spends a good deal of space considering Hilary Swank and her Oscar chances for the film. He thinks this is her third-best performance, behind her Oscar-winning turns in “Million Dollar Baby” (number two) and “Boys Don’t Cry” (“her peak”). He thinks that if she’d stayed in television, she’d be starring in a procedural drama and would have won a bunch of Emmys – though I’d wager that Swank would just as soon have her two Oscars. (The Film Experience)
Writers Guild Awards 2024: Winners List