It's no surprise that one of the biggest shocks regarding this year's crop of
nominees was Keisha Castle-Hughes' inclusion among the Best Actress contenders.
The fact that she was able to edge out bigger names like Nicole Kidman (in an
admittedly inferior performance) and Jennifer Connelly suggests that the bias against
younger actors is slowly being lifted. That's great, but it's not really news.
The real benefit of this practice for next year's Oscar race, though, is that studios
may be less worried to place performers in their appropriate categories when devising
campaigns. Evan Rachel Wood, for instance, probably just missed the shortlist this
year for "Thirteen" (my guess is that she was #7 or #8). But Fox Searchlight took the
high road and campaigned her rightly in the Best Actress category despite her age and
Holly Hunter's bigger starpower.
Focus, on the other hand, tried to convince voters that Scarlett Johansson's role in
"Lost in Translation" was worthy of a Best Supporting Actress nod, thereby confusing
voters about which race she belonged in and which film she should be nominated for.
(Did anyone really think she had a shot with "Girl With a Pearl Earring"?)
Although Keisha Castle-Hughes was also wrongly campaigned for a supporting
slot, voters felt otherwise and promoted her to lead status -- which says more about the
love for her performance than about the faulty campaign. With the admiration the
Academy showed for "Lost in Translation" overall, there's no doubt Johansson
would've gotten a nod had she been correctly publicized as a Best Actress contender.
With the Oscar nod for "City of God's" Fernando Meirelles, we can add him to
the long list of left-field but usually worthy choices the directors' branch makes on a
semi-annual basis. Pedro Almodovar (2002's "Talk to Her"), David Lynch (2001's
"Mulholland Drive"), Stephen Daldry (2000's "Billy Elliot"), Atom Egoyan (1997's "The
Sweet Hereafter"), Krysztof Kieslowski (1994's "Red"), Robert Altman (1993's "Short
Cuts" and 1992's "The Player"), John Singleton (1991's "Boyz N the Hood"), Kenneth
Branagh (1989's "Henry V"), Martin Scorsese (1988's "The Last Temptation of
Christ"), pre-Miramax slush Lasse Hallstrom (1987's "My Life as a Dog"), David Lynch
(again, for 1986's "Blue Velvet"), and Akira Kurosawa (1985's "Ran") also fit this bill.
These nominees don't have a corresponding Best Picture nod, but they all
represent the critical favorites that were otherwise overlooked in key precursor races.
What this means is that -- for at least two decades -- the directors' branch is not afraid
to go out on a limb and reward controversial material and overlooked gems during the
awards season. I don't think I'm going out on a limb to suggest that Mel Gibson (for
"The Passion of the Christ," despite anti-Semitic complaints) and Lars von Trier (for
"Dogville," despite anti-American complaints) could be on the shortlist at this time in
2005.
--Anthony
February 20, 2004
