Movie Master

After entering the 21st century, the rise of independent films has become one of the important phenomena in the awards season, especially small-format independent films, not only the depth of thought, but also the story structure, shooting techniques, narrative methods and other aspects. The excellent completion has really changed the pattern of the awards season every year.

In the past few years, starting with American Beauty, Never Compromise, Drug Network, Memory Fragments, Mulholland Drive, Far From Heaven, About Schmidt , Lost in Translation, 21 Grams, City of God, The Devil, Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Fahrenheit 9/11, Hard Candy, Kinsey/Sex/ Professor of Science, Hail Mary, etc. are all independent films, which seem to have become the most important force in the awards season, with five to six Oscar-worthy works appearing every year.

But this year, independent films have experienced a rare downturn.

Generally speaking, independent films will be the first to appear in major film festivals to accumulate enough popularity and reputation, so as to gain an advantage in the upsurge of the awards season in December. Stepping on the deadline for Oscar registration, choose December Almost all of the shows are works by big companies. In other words, after halfway through November, the top-ranked independent works should have already appeared, but the current trend is really not optimistic.

Among the independent works that have appeared so far, the only dark horse comes from Fox Searchlight, Little Miss Sunshine.

In the field of independent films, Fox Searchlight and Focus Features have been vying for the leading position. After experiencing the heavy blow of Brokeback Mountain last year, Focus Features appears to be somewhat underprepared this year. The production right of Little Miss Sunshine is in the hands of Focus Pictures, but after many discussions, Focus Pictures still gave up the investment because the script was too dull, so Fox Searchlight took over. Repeatedly underestimated and unrecognized, Fox Searchlight bought the adaptation rights for just $250,000.

Little Miss Sunshine chose to debut at the Los Angeles Film Festival in July, and then held a small-scale public screening. However, in the wave of summer holidays, this work hardly received any attention, so the crew began to explore the world. Well, not everyone can enter the three major European film festivals, so the crew chose other small film festivals and traveled almost all over Europe and Asia. After being nominated for the Tan Independent Film Awards, the British Independent Film Awards, and the Independent Spirit Awards, it stood out in one breath and became the most watched independent work of the awards season so far; subsequently, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Association also successively gave nominations , It makes Little Miss Sunshine the same for a while.

It must be admitted that the quality of the finished product of Little Miss Sunshine is really good. The road trip connects the turmoil of a family. Everyone has their own problems and troubles, and everyone has their own defects and shortcomings. But everyone needs someone they can rely on to support them through difficulties. Maybe the problem needs to be solved by themselves after all, at least not alone. The kind of trivial details touch the depths of the heart and bring a touch of warmth and reflection, which is really commendable.

Many people compare Little Miss Sunshine with Lost in Translation and Sideways, and believe that this small-format work will be the biggest highlight of this year's awards season.

However, it is unknown how much potential the explosive power and staying power of independent works have, and whether Little Miss Sunshine can continue the strong situation of independent films in the past few years. Judging from the current situation, Little Miss Sunshine can't stand alone, and other independent works can't form an effective group advantage at all. The success of a work can't cover up the overall downturn of independent films. This is not good news——

Brokeback Mountain and Fruit Candy lost to Crash, and Crash only gained two statuettes. Such a bad situation has finally tasted the bitter fruit. It can be clearly felt that last year's seemingly innocuous plagiarism gate and the resulting chaos of the entire awards season are now quietly affecting the entire industry. , in a way that people don't understand. Maybe it’s the opposite of things, maybe it’s a causal cycle. No one knows what impact the overall decline in the quality of independent films this year will have on the future, but at least it is certain that this year is undoubtedly good news for the six major film companies.

Especially Warner Bros.

After Warner Bros. suffered a big setback this summer, it has shown good momentum in the awards season. The excellent word-of-mouth of The Departed has suddenly emerged, and it has seized a lot of attention as a commercial film, which has sounded the clarion call for Warner Bros. to show its ambitions in the awards season; The screening received rave reviews, and the director Edward-Zwick (Edward-Zwick), who once directed The Burning Years and The Last Samurai, once again contributed a masterpiece.

Blood Diamond is also a commercial work, costing 100 million US dollars. The entire crew arrived in Africa to complete the filming in person. and The Last Dictatorship. The overall completion of the work is very gratifying, and the core excavation is highly recognized. Most importantly, Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the leading role, received a lot of praise. In the internal preview, many Professional film critics believe that this is an Oscar-level performance, which really surprised Warner Bros.

Although Blood Diamond still has to wait for its release to be tested, Warner Bros. has already sniffed out an opportunity. Both The Departed and Blood Diamond have a high degree of completion, and Leonardo has completed both. Excellent performance - they can focus on the firepower public relations best actor award, maybe this year is the time for Leonardo to realize his dream, and of course, Martin. At that time, whether to promote The Departed or Blood Diamond will become a happy worry for Warner Bros.

This is just the beginning.

The real highlight of Warner Bros. awards season this year is actually Clint Eastwood. After completing Million Dollar Baby, Clint devoted himself to the shooting of a new work - a magnificent work reflecting World War II, Clint Eastwood Ambitiously set two works, Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, will focus on the same battle, but filmed from the perspective of the United States and Japan, this feat is unprecedented Yes, Clint hopes to show all aspects of war in this way in an all-round way, and then dig out deeper connotations.

In fact, before the release of Flags of Our Fathers, Warner Bros. was slightly worried-who should they support for the second confrontation between Clint and Martin? No one will forget that at the Oscars two years ago, Clint defeated Martin to win his second Oscar for Best Director. Martin's lost and depressed back became one of the most important portrayals of the night. The two big directors faced off once again. Leaving aside the trend of the awards season, Warner Bros.'s internal resources are also bound to make a judgment. This is really a difficult choice, especially after the release of The Departed. Martin's Prize calls have unexpectedly started to move higher, adding more uncertainty.

Flags of Our Fathers was released a full two weeks later than The Departed, but unexpectedly, the word-of-mouth of the film was far from satisfactory. The feedback from professional film critics generally believed that the completion of the work was not satisfactory. It was even disappointing, which really caught Warner Bros. off guard.

As the most Oscar-favored director in the past two decades, Clint's influence has surpassed that of Steven Spielberg. Warner Bros. has placed high hopes on Clint. According to the original plan, Flags of Our Fathers will be released this year, and Letters from Iwo Jima will compete in next year's awards season. It is their only goal; but now, the plan has been disrupted, the word-of-mouth of Flags of Our Fathers is far less than expected, and it is too difficult to hit the best picture, Warner Bros. suddenly panicked.

Afterwards, Warner Bros. began to closely ask for more professional opinions. Everyone was not optimistic about Flags of Our Fathers, not only for the best picture, but also for the best screenplay, best director, best editing and other small links. Nominations, hopes are gradually declining, the situation is very bad.

Not only does this have an impact on Warner Bros., but it will also have an impact on their work with Clint. Warner Bros. acted decisively and decided to release Letters from Iwo Jima ahead of schedule, a full year ahead of schedule, and hastily set the date on December 20th. Although such a crisis response was a bit hasty, Warner Bros. was still ready quickly. Corresponding to the strategy, the preliminary publicity of Letter from Iwo Jima has gradually started.

Although there was a little accident, Warner Bros. is still the most champion-looking company in this year's awards season. After entering December, other works will appear one after another, but the overall comprehensive strength of Warner Bros. is far ahead, The Departed, Blood Diamond, Flags of Our Fathers, Letters from Iwo Jima will work together to impact this year's Oscars. In the current situation, Babel and Little Miss Sunshine really cannot form effective competition.

This kind of situation just reflects the weakness of this year's awards season. The overall momentum has reached the lowest point since 2000. Even in a small year like last year, it was even more lively. In this downturn, the Road of Fury that swept thousands of troops this summer is still the only topic. This is luck and misfortune at the same time. As time goes by, Road of Fury hits 600 million in North America and gradually catches up. , The voice of the awards season has also begun to rise quietly!