schmiggens
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Registered: Apr 2003
Local time: 11:49 AM
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Best-picture Oscar picture is fuzzy this year
Sensing that the Academy Awards race for best picture is up for grabs, studios are pushing films that don't normally get Oscar's attention.
Foreign-language films, animated movies and a documentary are making a run for Oscar's grand prize. And in some cases, they are shirking the specialized categories created for them.
The foreign films The Motorcycle Diaries, A Very Long Engagement and Bad Education are getting serious studio pushes for best picture. Two animated films, The Polar Express and The Incredibles, are emerging as Oscar candidates. And Fahrenheit 9/11's Michael Moore did not submit his film in the documentary category, hoping to be considered for best picture instead.
The Academy Awards nominations are announced Tuesday, Jan. 25. The awards show airs on Sunday, Feb. 27.
The unusual mix of hopefuls stems partly from these movies blurring the lines of classification. In Express, which arrives in theaters Nov. 10, Tom Hanks (news) plays five roles, but his characters are digitized, and the academy has yet to define it as an animated film. The deadline for submitting films for the animated category is Monday.
Diaries is certainly a foreign film, though no country has claimed it: It is in Spanish, stars Mexican actors, takes place in South America and was directed by Brazilian Walter Salles.
The eclectic assortment also speaks to the sense that this year's more traditional, big-budget fare is weaker than usual. No titans are seen as certain nomination-grabbers as in previous years with A Beautiful Mind, Gladiator and The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
"There are no clear-cut front-runners this year," says Debbie Miller, executive vice president of marketing for Warner Bros., which is releasing Express. "The academy is starting to open itself up to things that weren't traditionally seen" as best-picture candidates in the past.
Privately, executives say the specialized best-film categories don't have the prestige of the best-picture prize, particularly best animated film. A best-picture Oscar can add millions of dollars to a movie's box office take.
Both Disney and Warner say they plan to compete in both best-picture categories. 1991's Beauty and the Beast is the only animated film nominated for the top prize. No foreign-language film has taken a best-picture Oscar.
"There are a lot of movies that are coming in different shapes and sizes this year," says Dennis Rice, senior vice president of publicity at Disney, which is releasing Incredibles. "They just happen to be foreign language and one that's animated. A great movie shouldn't be precluded from being considered just because it's in animated form."
- USA Today
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11-04-2004 04:52 AM
