'Brokeback Mountain' Gallops to Head of OscarsRrace

Yahoo ^ | 1/22/06 | AFP

[Dr. Scarpetta]

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Gay cowboy romance "Brokeback Mountain" has left its competition in the dust, surging to the front of the Oscars race just as voters cast their ballots for next week's Academy Awards nominations.

Taiwanese director Ang Lee's story of forbidden macho love in 1960s Wyoming got a huge boost by reining in four Golden Globe Awards, Hollywood's second-highest plaudits, just five days before polls were to close ahead of the January 31 unveiling of nominees for the 78th annual Oscars.

The 5,798 Academy members had until Saturday evening to fill out their nomination ballots and hand them in to auditors, who will tally the votes under great secrecy and determine the identity of the nominees in 24 categories.

But Hollywood pundits are already convinced that in a lacklustre awards season, dominated by smaller independent movies rather than major studio productions, "Brokeback" is the unequivocal early favourite for the top Oscars.

"'Brokeback' is way, way out front and was given major momentum by coming out the most honoured movie at Monday's Golden Globes," said Tom O'Neil, writer for the GoldDerby.com and the Los Angeles Times's TheEnvelope.com.

"But the race isn't over yet, and a lot could happen between now and the Oscars ceremony in March," he said of the prospects of the film starring Australian Heath Ledger and American Jake Gyllenhaal.

"Brokeback" is based on a short story by Annie Proulx and tells of two farmhands in rural America who fall in love and maintain an unfulfilled relationship over two decades. Lee won the best director Golden Globe for his interpretation.

The Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line," starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon, is also a hot Oscars contender and is considered by many a favourite for best picture, best actor and best actress nominations, after picking up three Globes, including best musical, best actor and best actress.

"'Brokeback Mountain' and 'Walk the Line' are now the Oscars frontrunners, and I think that 'Capote' is a potential winner with good strength, not only for Philip Seymour Hoffman but also as a potential best picture nominee and winner," said Marty Grove, columnist for the HollywoodReporter.com.

Hoffman won the Golden Globe for best actor in a drama -- beating out Ledger for the prize -- for his startling turn as US author Truman Capote in the story of the circumstances surrounding the writing of his book "In Cold Blood."

George Clooney's politically charged drama "Good Night, and Good Luck," the story of 1950s US television anchorman Edward Murrow's crusade against the communist witchhunt of Senator Joseph McCarthy, is also seen as a likely best picture and best director contender at the Oscars.

Also vying for Oscar nods is Paul Haggis's racial drama "Crash," starring Sandra Bullock, Don Cheadle and Matt Dillon, which O'Neil said could make a strong showing in the Oscars, despite its low awards profile so far.

"Crash" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" could be serious competition down the line for "Brokeback," O'Neil told AFP, warning that the Clooney film may yet snatch the best picture and best director statuettes from "Brokeback" and Lee.

But, experts said, while major studio epics -- including Peter Jackson's much-vaunted remake of "King Kong," starring Naomi Watts, and "Munich," Steven Spielberg's drama about Israel's hunt for Palestinian terrorists -- may win some Oscar nods, they are unlikely to dominate the awards.

Creating additional uncertainty in this year's race is the fact that Oscars organisers pushed back the ceremony to March 5 from February, creating an awards season vacuum in usually frantic February.

"There is this wild card this year, as the season is interrupted after the guild awards in January and then resumes in March, which could give Oscar voters the time to get bored and change their minds about their early favourites before the Oscars," O'Neil said.

The very influential Producers Guild awards will be given out on Sunday, the Directors Guild honours will be doled out on January 28 and the critical Screen Actors Guild awards will be handed out on January 29 -- more than a month before the Oscars.

"We'll have to wait and see whether this will be a boring Oscars year, where the outcome will be clear from the day of the nominations, or whether it will be one full of suspense and surprises," O'Neil said.

[One Proud Dad]

Your are correct in your assumption, I will not read her.

KLV should be KJV ( King James Version ) I cannot type.

[AntiGuv]

Russell Crowe I think is almost definitely gonna get snubbed this year because of the Phone Fling incident. Contenders have been snubbed for far less in the past. If he does make it in for Best Actor, I think it'll be in the fifth spot, edging out probably Terrence Howard who will also I suspect have problems with vote splitting (between Hustle N Flow and Crash). I'm predicting Howard will get the nom for both though. These are my predictions for the major awards, fwiw, in order of likelihood. I've included the sixth contender who I think is most likely to get in if the fifth doesn't:

Best Picture

Brokeback Mountain
Crash
Good Night & Good Luck
Walk the Line
Capote

Munich

Best Director

Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
George Clooney, Good Night & Good Luck
Paul Haggis, Crash
Steven Spielberg, Munich
David Cronenberg, A History of Violence

Bennett Miller, Capote

Best Actor

Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
Heath Ledger, Brokeback Mountain
Joaquin Phoenix, Walk the Line
David Strathairn, Good Night & Good Luck
Terrence Howard, Hustle N Flow

Russell Crowe, Cinderella Man

Best Actress

Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
Felicity Huffman, Transamerica
Judi Dench, Mrs Henderson Presents
Charlize Theron, North Country
Ziyi Zhang, Memoirs of a Geisha

Keira Knightley, Pride and Prejudice

Best Supporting Actor

Paul Giamatti, Cinderella Man
George Clooney, Syriana
Jake Gyllenhaal, Brokeback Mountain
Matt Dillon, Crash
Terrence Howard, Crash

William Hurt, A History of Violence

Best Supporting Actress

Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener
Michelle Williams, Brokeback Mountain
Amy Adams, Junebug
Frances McDormand, North Country
Maria Bello, A History of Violence

Catherine Keener, Capote

Best Original Screenplay

Crash
Good Night & Good Luck
The Squid and the Whale
Match Point
Cinderella Man

Syriana

Best Adapted Screenplay

Brokeback Mountain
Capote
A History of Violence
Munich
The Constant Gardener

Walk the Line

[hattend]

Pretty balmy.

It's -18F this morning which is much better than the -40 to
-50F over the weekend.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

Did you see Crash?

[Dr. Scarpetta]

-50F sounds bad...

[thehumanlynx]

A conservative professor, wow.

Check out www.brain-terminal.com , he is doing a documentary of the left wing bias in universities, free d/l, good little piece, the full film is due out in 06.

I can say that my school USF is the same way, I write tons of letters to the editors about stuff, and I'm constantly snubbed, while some stupid thing is put in the paper. All the stories are slanted and so on...

BBM is a terrible display of what is wrong in America.

[AntiGuv]

I did - it was a wild ride! The acting was exceptional and the storyline kept me fascinated from beginning to end. If I have any criticism, it would be that there was no subtlety, to say the least, in its racial themes, but that won't bother the Hollywood crowd one bit. If there were an Oscar for Best Ensemble Acting, Crash would be a lock I think.

[AntiGuv]

Of the movies on the lists above, I've seen Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Walk the Line, and Memoirs of a Geisha. The last one isn't one I'd ordinarily watch, but I was very, very interested in the Japanese setting.

I didn't care much for Memoirs of a Geisha as it turned out. I never did get into the characters or into the storyline. I just didn't really care about any of it. The film was gorgeous, both the visuals and the score, but there were also innacuracies in the portrayal of Japanese culture that irked me. I haven't read the book, and don't plan to, but from what I gathered the film was a disappointment to fans of the book.

I think Ziyi Zhang will get the 5th nom for Best Actress though because that's a very weak field this year (excepting Witherspoon) and because of esteem for her past works (such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - a far better film!) I wouldn't be slightly surprised to see Keira Knightley or Joan Allen (Upside of Anger) in Ziyi Zhang's place.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I have a liberal friend who recommended Capote to me. LOL
The past few years I've stayed away from R-rated movies for obvious reasons.

IMO 'Phantom of the Opera' deserved recognition, but the critics didn't seem to like it. I liked it enough to buy it, and I don't do that too often.

[outofhere2]

There are no surprises here. Hollywood is so transparent that there is no need to watch the Oscars.

[KC Burke]

I'm waiting for the sequel about these shepards.

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.It will probably have Matt Damom

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.and also Ben Afflec

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.And be called.....

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."This Time, Its the Sheeps' Turn"

[The Foolkiller]

BUT, it's false advertising, no doubt about it and every.blasted.time a studio/distributor resorts to this type of -- even overtly in this particular instance -- misdirecting adverttising, consumers should KNOW they're being misled for whatever other reasons, but that there is certainly some ulterior purpose to a title.

Otherwise, why the false, misleading ad campaign at all? Studios resort to this type of plastic-advertising-surgery to present product that would otherwise be outright passed over by people searching for decent entertainment.

---

They pulled the EXACT same trick with Million Dollar Baby-promoting it as a feel-good, female version of "Rocky". Fortunately, I heard Limbaugh and a few others expose the ending, so I was spared being enraged. That new movie with Sara Jessica Parker is the same thing. The previews look like a toatally different movie. I think this type of false advertising pisses me off more than ANYTHING else about Hollywood.

[Dr. Scarpetta]

I avoided the Jessica Parker movie because I heard it was promoting liberalism. I haven't talked to anyone who actually saw it.

[MillerCreek]

I agree. The false advertising by Hollywood is really, really offensive. Moreso than even Hollywood seems capable of understanding, unfortuantely.

I had the same reaction to "MILLION DOLLAR BABY," and actually did not even like the ad campaign, though, yes, after I eventually saw the film, I agree that it was also misleading. Some of Eastwood's films do advertise in a somewhat indirect fashion -- part of his appeal -- but I'd never seen one that was this inaccurately presented. I only saw the film after I bought the DVD and avoided it in the theatres because I'd read the story line and found it offensive (I still do, but Eastwood as director was incentive to purchase the DVD, which I don't regret but I also don't consider this film to be one of his worthy ones).

About the Parker film, I didn't see it and don't know nor have even heard of anyone who has.

It's like "Sex In the City," I knew no one who even watched that, all those years. The only people I ever knew who loved that series and Parker in it are gays on the internet who assumed everyone else felt similarly (but who didn't). The series was largely written by homosexual males from the perspective depicting females living and behaving as drag queens, for lack of a better expression and I got that pretty early on about the Series and avoided it (what was the point of watching).

Knowing the industry a bit, the homosexual culture is pretty well saturated in the television projects that eventually are produced. It's a noticable and still offensive characteristic to my view and certainly why the industry is flailing.