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Awards Season News

Early Oscar contenders

David Germain of the Associated Press has written a piece about the early Oscar favourites:

Helen Mirren could be crowned best actress at the Academy Awards. Seven-time loser Peter O’Toole may finally win that elusive Oscar. Jack Nicholson could tie Katharine Hepburn with a record fourth win.

And Clint Eastwood may establish himself as one of the winningest directors in Oscar history. Though plenty of Oscar-worthy films will not hit theaters until December, many potential contenders and a few early front-runners have emerged for Hollywood’s big night Feb. 25.

Leading the way could be Eastwood, 2004’s top winner, who won his second best-picture and directing prizes with “Million Dollar Baby.” Eastwood is back with the World War II saga “Flags of Our Fathers,” a sprawling account of the Iwo Jima invasion and the controversial circumstances over the raising of the U.S. flag there, an event immortalized in Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal’s picture.

Still to come late this year are such films as the musical “Dreamgirls,” with Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles and Eddie Murphy, the post-World War II tale “The Good German,” directed by Steven Soderbergh and featuring George Clooney and Cate Blanchett, and “The Good Shepherd,” starring Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie in a CIA saga directed by Robert De Niro.

It might be a few months before the BAFTAs and the Oscars but the awards season is already under way.

It is still too early to come up with any solid predictions but I would think that Helen Mirren in The Queen is already a very strong candidate for Best Actress whilst Clint Eastwood’s World War II dramaย Flags of Our Fathers looks likely to be nominated in a few categories. Of the other early candidfates you would have to say that Dreamgirls, Babel, The Good German, Little Children are also early frontrunners.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Martin Scorcese and The Departed. Despite the rave reviews and solid box office, it is the kind of dark, violent and contemporary drama the Academy normally shuns. But given previous snubs will there be a feeling that they should just give Marty an Oscar to atone for past sins?

> Original article at the AP
> Gurus of Gold at Movie City News
>ย The Envelope at the LA Timesย