The best awards season is coming

What has just begun is, by far, the best awards season in recent years. And I would dare say that this statement goes beyond the problems caused by the coronavirus pandemic since 2020. I don’t remember that in 2019 there were as many successful and critically praised titles as Oppenheimer, Barbie y The Moon Killers.

Those responsible for the Oscar ceremony, that is, those who care about having figures, stars in the stalls of the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, must be rubbing their hands right now.

More than likely they will have Martin Scorsese, Greta Gerwig (who was just confirmed as president of the Cannes Jury, five months before the event, when it is usually announced starting in January) and Christopher Nolan, and the stars of his films, like Cillian Murphy, perhaps, in one of those, Robert Downey Jr., Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling (if only singing I’m Just Kenif the song is nominated), Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert De Niro, Lily Gladstone

Another strange thing this time is that there is a consensus in which any of the nominees who win the statuette are well received by the rest, by the public and by critics. This year there is no Crossed lives winning the Oscar for Secret in the mountaino BugsyWarren Beatty’s who was a favorite and lost with The silence of the inocents in 1992.

When the Oscar rules changed, a few years ago, for the 2010 ceremony and the nominated films went from 5 to a number no less than 8 nor more than 10, the purpose – not at all hidden – was that the Hollywood tanks had their place among the candidates. A year before, Batman: The Dark Knightby Christopher Nolan (now director of Oppenheimer) won two Oscars, for Heath Ledger as supporting actor and for sound editing, it had 8 nominations, but neither the film nor the director nor the script were nominated.

That 2010 there were ten films, many of them high-grossing, Avatar a Upby Pixar, passing through Inglorious Bastards o A possible dream, Sandra Bullock’s. Well, most of the academics chose Live on the edge (The Hurt Locker), giving its director, Kathryn Bigelow (formerly of James Cameron) a prescient Oscar, since she was the first female filmmaker to win the statuette in 82 years.

Then, the closing of the trilogy designed by Nolan (Batman: The Dark Knight Rises) not only did she not win any statuette: she was not nominated in any category.

Previously, the Academy used to sneak among the five films candidates for the Oscar for best picture, at least one blockbuster. That’s how Star Warso Raiders of the lost ark were nominated, until it arrived Titanicwhich broke more than the ship and won almost everything it was nominated for (eleven Oscars), including best picture and direction for James Cameron.

Then, it will be 20 years, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the Kingwould also win the award for best film and another ten statuettes, the same amount as the film with Leonardo DiCaprio freezing to death because Kate Winslet didn’t make a place for him on the board.

But back to this awards season, Barbie, Oppenheimer y The Moon Killers disappear poor creaturesfrom the surely Oscar-winning Yorgos Lanthimos, the controversial Greek director of The favourite, Fangs y The sacrifice of the sacred deer, which won the Golden Lion this year at the Venice Film Festival for the new film in which he once again directs Emma Stone. And Willem Dafoe, and Mark Ruffalo.

Barbie is becoming the film of the year, obtaining the most nominations that any film has ever had for the Critics Choice (18), and 9 for the Golden Globe. Cannes’ invitation to Gerwig, announced when the season starts of awards in the United States, it is more than an accolade.

and it is MaestroBradley Cooper’s return to directing after A star Is Bornhimself playing Leonard Bernstein, the conductor and author of Love without barriers.

And there are more titles that will surely compete: Anatomy of a fallby Justine Triet, and The Zone of Interestby Jonathan Glazer, both with the German Sandra Hüller (Toni Erdmann) as the protagonist, and which won the main awards at Cannes (Anatomythe Palme d’Or).

Meanwhile, we wait what happens with the shortlist, the first preselection that the Academy will make of the 88 films that were sent to it by as many countries to compete for the Oscar for best international film. The Argentine Film Academy sent The criminalsby Rodrigo Moreno, which had its premiere in Cannes and was screened at several renowned festivals.