Oscar Watch: Post-Cannes

Well, it's about that time again, time to check back in for the 2010 Oscar Season. A few weeks back was the international Cannes Film Festival held all the way over in France, often considered by many to be one of the first real events that one can add to the Oscar discussion of the upcoming year. Not to mention, we're now in the thick of the Summer movie season with May already under our belts. So in all, this is really just an update on how this year in Award's cinema is shaping up. There are some new titles that have risen to produce some intrigue on their behalf, so let's not waste any time, cause the road to the 83rd Annual Academy Awards starts right now!

Most notably is the events at Cannes a few weekends back with the Palm d'Or going to Uncle Boonme Who Can Recall His Past Lives that has little to no shot at Oscar next year, but the real films with Oscar hopes coming out of Cannes didn't really even win any awards at the Cannes ceremony, save for Javier Bardem as Best Actor in a tie for Biutiful. The real contenders out of Cannes are: director Mike Leigh's latest, Another Year; Babel director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Biutiful; Sundance hit Blue Valentine, starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Willaims; and finally, Fair Game starring Sean Penn, Naomi Watts, and directed by Jumper director Doug Liman, of all people.

I'd say Another Year is the strongest Oscar hopeful out of the whole Cannes crowd, most notably in Best Picture and Best Actress for Lesley Manville, though I think Leigh himself will get in for Best Screenplay and Best Director, possibly, cause he was overlooked two years prior for his film Happy Go Lucky. The others from Cannes aren't on as solid of ground. Biutiful's critical response has been mixed to say the least, with really only Bardem to go for Oscar in Best Actor, the film itself proving to possibly be too dividing for Best Picture, and the same could be said for Blue Valentine's such dark portrait of married life, though both Gosling and Williams are threats in Actor and Actress (respectively). One that has me on the fence is Doug Liman's Fair Game. The film was well-received at Cannes, and looks like typical Oscar bait, and I definitely wouldn't count out Watts or Penn when it comes to Oscar, but Liman just isn't the kind of director who usually does this type of stuff, and if anything that may hold both him and the film back when it comes to Picture and Director.

Other than that, here we are. Pretty much every film I've seen so far this year has underwhelmed and disappointed. Shutter Island, Iron Man 2, the list goes on and on. The only well-liked film that has any shot at an Academy Award released thus far this year is How To Train Your Dragon, and that's a Best Animated Feature bid at best. So now we must look forward and try to gaze into the future to try and fill out the Oscar race for next year.

Looking at this Summer, two Sundance hits are making way to theaters, Winter's Bone (Grand Jury Winner) and The Kids Are All Right. The Kids Are All Right's politically charged subject matter is so hot right now in Hollywood that I don't see how it can't be at the Oscars next year, but Winter's Bone might just be too low-key for the Oscars to get in.

But moving on, this Summer only holds one blockbuster that even has any remote shot at potential Oscar glory and that is Inception. Director Chris Nolan skyrocketed to A-list status after The Dark Knight, so all eyes in the Academy will be watching that film closely to fill the populace spot at the Oscar ceremony come next year. And I'll just say it, I've got a vibe about Zac Efron's new drama coming out later this Summer called Charlie St. Cloud. I'm not counting it out. May be this year's The Blind Side.

That takes us to fall where more Oscar hopefuls will potentially emerge out of Toronto or Telluride Film Festivals, though there are a fair few studio films and indies coming out later in the year that do have Oscar potential, such as: Clint Eastwood's Hereafter, an intriguing supernatural thriller; Terrence Mallick's The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt that makes no sense to me; The Fighter starring Mark Whalberg and Christian Bale in a period boxing film; Peter Weir's big return after the disappointing Master and Commander, coming back with a film called The Way Back; then Edward Zwick has good buzz coming out of his new comedy Love and Other Drugs about a viagra salesman. Still, I'll say it, watch out for the Coen Brother's remake of True Grit. One final note, I don't buy into all the hype about David Fincher's latest, The Social Network, about the founder of facebook.

So that's just a small rundown of the films in contention, time to give my predictions for Best Picture:

Hereafter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
Another Year
Love and Other Drugs
True Grit
Fair Game
The Tree of Life
The Fighter
Charlie St. Cloud

And that does it for now. Till next time!