An Early List of 2008 Oscar Contenders
Prepping for the showdown much earlier than normal
Most years I wait until the end of December to begin taking a look at Oscar Contenders, but this year I am going to try and keep up with them as the year goes on as the RopeofSilicon Oscar Contenders section is will be getting a drastic overhaul in the coming weeks.
Instead of the simple structure you see now it will be customized based on picture and will continue to update as we get closer and closer to the big day. Hopefully this will not only keep the site (and myself) up to date on what films to keep an eye on, but I hope it also gives you another reason to look at films that aren't based on comic books and superheroes.
Of course I can't do this all on my own and I don't intend to. Being the scavenger I am I am going to keep a close eye on three award season specific sites that I continue to go back to year after year. Those three sites are InContention.com run by Kris Tapley, Awards Daily from Sasha Stone and her regular contributors and finally The Envelope from the "Los Angeles Times". Links to these three sites will be available once the new Contenders section is up and running, but if you have room in your RSS feeders get them in there and lets hope this award season is as good as it looks like it may be.
Below is a list of several films I have pegged for just about every category there is outside of the more effects driven categories. Animated titles are listed below, but the major focus will be the top-line categories as always, but I will also do my best to keep you in the loop on some of the more technical categories such as cinematography, costumes, etc.
Take a peek at the list (I apologize for not linking them) and stay tuned as there is more to come very soon.
- Australia
- Body of Lies
- Bolt
- Brothers
- The Brothers Bloom
- Burn After Reading
- Changeling
- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
- The Dark Knight
- Defiance
- Doubt
- The Duchess
- The Fall
- Frost/Nixon
- Frozen River
- Gran Torino
- Happy-Go-Lucky
- Horton Hears a Who!
- Igor
- I've Loved You So Long
- Journey to the Center of the Earth 3D
- Kung Fu Panda
- Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
- Mamma Mia!
- Milk
- Miracle at St. Anna
- Nothing But the Truth
- Rachel Getting Married
- Revolutionary Road
- The Road
- The Secret Life of Bees
- Seven Pounds
- The Soloist
- Star Wars: The Clone Wars
- Synecdoche, New York
- The Tale of Despereaux
- Tropic Thunder
- Valkyrie
- Vicky Cristina Barcelona
- The Visitor
- W.
- WALL•E
- Waltz with Bashir
Showing 10 Comments
~ PLEASE NOTE ~
If, in any way, your comment is an attack on the author of this post or a previous commenter, your comment will be deleted without question.
Add a New CommentNOTE: The Facebook login option has been disabled. We apologize for any inconvenience. |
Click to Read Our Commenting Rules & Guidelines
No In Bruges?
I wish, but releasing that early in the year basically guarantees it no Oscar push. I loved it and it is probably in my top five of the year still, but it won't be taking home any hardware.
Yeah, sad but true.
Solid list, Brad. I've done the same thing at Awards Daily and we hit most of the same titles. Are you waiting for Che to find a distributor before getting your hopes up? Concur with the absence of Indy, but is Igor more worthy than Iron Man? I have a more idealistic (i.e., naive) attitude about In Bruges.
I really don't think Che is going to be able to find distribution, the whole "is it one movie or two" thing is going to cause too many problems I am assuming. As for the Igor vs. Iron Man thing… Iron Man is on my list and so is Indy, but for more technical awards so I kept 'em off this one or it would have been too long. Igor is just on there as one of the animated contenders.
ah, ok Brad. I might've figured that out if I'd thought before commenting (or noticed your avatar staring me down).
Our list and poll today at AwardsDaily is top-heavy with the same handful of titles we've been obsessing about all year. Meanwhile, I try to expand our poll past the usual suspects, and nobody is voting for the dozen titles I added beyond what you have here. So, there ya go.
Predicting at this time year is so… predictable. I'm ready for a stripper with a script to come along and shake things up.
how does star wars: the clone wars get into the picture.. if they oscars had the worst movies of the year these would be in it
-star wars: the clone wars
-semi-pro
-mummy: tomb of the dragon emperor
-the x-files: I want to believe
-meet dave
-superhero movie
-nim's island
-penelope
anyone else have movies to add
Just because it is animated. It won't likely make the cut, but since there are typically so few animated movies I just left it on the list. You gotta remember, both Click and Norbit were nominated for Oscars, hardly two films that scream quality.
What about the Young Victoria? US Distributers are currenlty fighting over it.
A bidding war has broken out over the distribution rights in the US to the Duchess of York’s film The Young Victoria. Flame-haired Fergie served as executive producer on the movie which focuses on the 19th century monarch’s early years when as a feisty, passionate young woman she embarked upon an enduring romance with dashing Prince Albert.
“It has an excellent cast and I gather three companies are fighting for the US rights to distribute it,” says Monarch Of The Glen actor and Gosford Park screenwriter Julian Fellowes, who wrote the script.
Courtesy of Emily BluntWeb.com
That one is on my extended list and I almost included it on this one but without a release date I didn't want to include it. Gran Torino is the only one on the list that doesn't have a solid release date, but it is listed as December 2008 so I felt pretty confident WB is going to release it seeing how it was on their Fall/Holiday schedule.