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Friday, November 5, 2010

More Oscar Grub

Last week we wrote a piece about the 2011 Oscar Race, and since then, more articles have been written about which movies and which actors are generating the most Oscar buzz.
The movies which we had previously heard had the inside track were The Social Network, The King's Speech, Hereafter, The Fighter and True Grit. Add to that list The Kids Are All Right, Inception, Toy Story 3, 127 Hours and Rabbit Hole.


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(colin firth and helena bonham carter in "the king's speech")
.New Summary: The Social Network was an early leader, but now has all but been swept aside by the critics' lovefest for The King's Speech. But wait, True Grit and The Fighter won't even be released until after Thanksgiving and are expecting to be major contenders.
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(james franco in
"127 hours")
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Earlier we mentioned the actors which were getting the most attention by the naked, golden man were Robert DeNiro and Edward Norton for "Stone", James Franco for "127 Hours", Sean Penn for "Fair Game", Geoffrey Rush and Colin Firth for "The King's Speech, Christian Bale and Mark Wahlberg for "The Fighter", Johnny Depp for "The Tourist", Stephen Dorff for "Somewhere", Jeff Bridges for "True Grit", Ryan Gosling for "Blue Valentine".
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(jeff bridges in "true grit")
.New Summary: Add to that list Mark Ruffalo for "The Kids Are All Right" and Javier Bardem for "Biutiful", but it might not matter, Colin Firth is blowing away the competition. At this point, they've practically already engraved Firth's name on the statuette, especially considering that many think he should have won last year. But don't count out James Franco. "127 Hours" opened strongly at the box office and despite the gory nature of the film, many critics are predicting that Franco could challenge Firth. But, we said it before, and we'll say it again, the horse which might take the lead on the final turn is Jeff Bridges for "True Grit". At this point, the Best Actor race is a three man contest.
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(annette bening in
"the kids are all right")
.As for the women, our previous list included Milla Jovovich for "Stone", Gemma Arterton for "Tamara Drew", Minnie Driver for "Conviction", Naomi Watts for "Fair Game", Natalie Portman for "Black Swan", Angelina Jolie for "The Tourist", Elle Fanning for "Somewhere", Hailee Steinfeld for "True Grit", Lesley Manville for "Another Year", Michelle Williams for "Blue Valentine".
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(lesley manville in "another year")
.New Summary: Definitely add to that list Annette Bening for "The Kids Are All Right". After losing Oscar races before, two to Hilary Swank alone, this might finally be her year. Lesley Manville is a film festival favorite, especially at Cannes, but she'll have to get more mainstream attention to seriously challenge. Manville might be the classic example of an actor for which just getting a nomination is considered the reward, while no one expects her to actually walk away with the trophy. One on our previous list which can maybe be crossed off is Minnie Driver; "Conviction" is not exactly wowing the critics. A possible, strong dark horse is Natalie Portman for "Black Swan".
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(natalie portman in "black swan")
.We haven't yet split the actors into "Lead" and "Supporting" categories because, at this point, some of the actors on the buzz list could fall into either category, and into which race they'll eventually enter won't be fully determined until later in the season.
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To read our previous post on the 2011 Oscar race, click on "2011 Oscars" in the Labels list.

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