Awards
Season Begins

The
end of the calendar year brings with it a host of tried-and-true
rituals: the shortened hours of wintry daylight, the long inky darkness
of night, the frenzied shopping spree that has replaced religious
feeling, the endless recycling of sound bites and video clips and
the crystal-ball contemplation by "experts" of what the New Year
has in store.



In the film world, end of the year means only one thing: a flurry
of critics awards and "ten best" lists, all building momentum to
the grand kahuna of them all: the nominations for the Academy Award.
Forget the recent rancor over the choosing of the President of the
United States, dismiss the disintegration of peace talks in the
Middle East, disregard the signs that the world economy is headed
towards recession, the talk at cocktail parties and street corner
gatherings is whether Tom Hanks will win his third Oscar for his
bravura performance in Robert Zemeckis' Cast
Away, set to open on Christmas Day.



With theater attendance in the US at its lowest level in years,
the disturbing announcements of bankruptcy by some of the most prominent
theater chains, the continued competition from television, video
games and the Internet, it is remarkable how film (and I do mean
films that are projected on to a screen in a darkened theater) regains
its cultural prominence at this time of the year as the most important
cultural product. Whether it is the lead critic of the New York
Times or the self-styled pundit with his own Internet website, the
debate over the quality of this year's crop of movies is the stuff
of lively conversations, strident arguments and even the occasional
fist fight. Who would have thought that a 100-year-old art form
could inspire such intensity in our technologically sophisticated
age?



This year's awards season comes after a year that has been widely
acknowledged as one of Hollywood's weakest in years. Yes, Ron Howard's
The
Grinch has crossed the $200 million domestic box office
mark, Ridley Scott's Gladiator
showed its muscle in the US and overseas and Adam Sandler continues
his puzzling winning streak as the world's most unlikely movie star,
but no film has captured the public's imagination on a par with
James Cameron's Titanic
or Steven Spielberg's Saving
Private Ryan.

The
weakness of the big Hollywood product has opened the doors to a
number of smaller American independent and foreign language films
to dominate the upcoming awards season. So far, the critics prizes
that have been announced point in this direction. The National Board
of Review, an amalgam of film critics, teachers and executives,
gave its Best Picture nod to Phillip Kaufman's Quills, a
modestly-budgeted film largely made with German money, being released
by an American indie distributor (Fox Searchlight), starring an
Australian actor (Geoffrey Rush) in a story about a decadent French
aristocrat (the Marquis de Sade). Javier Bardem, a Spanish actor
making his English language debut in Julian Schnabel's Before
Night Falls, was the Board's choice for Best Actor, and
suddenly an actor virtually unknown in the US has become the one
to beat for the Academy Award.

The
New York Film Critics Circle, one of the most prestigious opinion
makers in the US but also known for their eclectic tastes, gave
Best Picture honors to Steven Soderbergh's Traffic, a multi-character
tapestry of a film about America's failed anti-drug war that features
an all-star cast headed by Michael Douglas, Dennis Quaid, Catherine
Zeta-Jones and Benicio del Toro (whose performance as a Mexican
border cop has emerged as a leading contender for Best Supporting
Actor). The film, which has not even opened yet in the United States,
is also being distributed by an independent studio (USA Films) and
is certainly not a surefire box office hit, considering its gritty
subject matter and its Robert Altman-esque mix of stories and personalities.

Laura
Linney, an unassuming rather "anti star" actress who has been appealing
in supporting film roles in the past, was acknowledged by the New
York Critics as Best Actress for her subtle work in You
Can Count On Me, one of the few breakout American indie
films of the year. This very modestly budgeted film, written and
directed by theater veteran Kenneth Lonergan, has been on the map
since it shared a Best Picture Award at last year's Sundance Film
Festival, but has steadily been building up steam as it has been
the one film to appear on all major Ten Best Lists.

Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the rousing Ang Lee martial arts film
that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival was chosen by the Los
Angeles Film Critics Circle as the Best Picture of the Year, the
first time in its 25 year history that the Critics group awarded
a foreign language film its top honors.

Aside
from the personal triumphs of winning awards and the boost to individual
careers, the most important element of this awards season is that
it has the potential to bring much needed exposure to the smaller
films that must often struggle to get noticed by the public. In
the current theatrical marketplace, where a film is judged a hit
or a miss on the virtue of its opening weekend box office gross,
films that require a "word-of-mouth" build up of recognition often
are overlooked and, more seriously, dumped by theaters at the first
sign of weakness. Not every film can emerge as a surefire hit on
its first weekend, particularly when it does not have major stars
or a mega advertising budget. If such films are given a bit more
breathing room to build, indeed everyone from the film's producers
to the theaters that have the good taste to show them, will eventually
benefit. And no one will benefit more than film audiences.

Sandy
Mandelberger