2023 Festivals/Awards Thread

[Buscemi2]

They have to find some way to get the "Netflix is dying" crowd to shut up, even though I'm sure those people still have a Netflix account for their Bill Burr/Ricky Gervais/Dave Chappelle/insert shock value comedian here fix.

[Buscemi2]

Early word on The Book of Clarence is mixed to light positive. Not too surprised Sony decided against an Oscar run, though I believe the real reason was that they didn't want it overshadowing their other forthcoming religious film, Journey to Bethlehem.

[Screen203]

While things could turn around in the months to come, it seems like Sony is kind of dumping The Book Of Clarence. They don't really seem to know how to sell it, as it is allegedly more in favor of Christianity than the trailer would imply, but the subject matter/tone will probably turn off the audience that frequents religious films.

[Buscemi2]

Sony is all in on religious cinema. They seem to be in competition with Lionsgate on which studio is the most pious.

[transformers2]

A late entry into the awards fray has emerged: Ketchup Entertainment has acquired the North American rights to Memory and will release it theatrically sometime in late December. While it probably won't end up getting any nominations, Peter Sarsgaard does have an outside chance of riding his Venice win to a Best Supporting Actor nom.

[Buscemi2]

Pretty sure Venice is the only place that actually likes Michel Franco's movies. New Order and Sundown didn't do any business at the box office.

[transformers2]

Initial wave of reviews for Napoleon are pretty strong on the whole. Not sure if it'll be able to gain enough momentum at this point to be a major player, but consideration in the technical categories should be on the table and Vanessa Kirby-who has been labeled the standout by many-could end up getting involved in the Best Supporting Actress race.

[Buscemi2]

I think Apple's more focused on Killers of the Flower Moon while Sony probably won't do a big push as they only got distribution and therefore, don't have much investment in Napoleon.

Of note is that while European critics love Napoleon, American critics aren't as glowing with praise on it. Which is similar to how Joker, Phoenix's last big Oscar bait film, was received. It might perform decently at the box office though as it's got the 70mm factor.

[transformers2]

Aren't Napoleon's 70mm runs super limited?

[Buscemi2]

I imagine it will be three or four prints but it seems like nearly every movie that gets a 70mm run either does extremely well or does better than expected.

Napoleon is also getting IMAX auditoriums so even if you can't see it in 70mm, you will be able to get that big, movie palace-like screen experience.

[Buscemi2]

Proof that it might be time for Ridley Scott to hang it up: in a response to Napoleon's reception from French critics, Scott basically resorted to a "the French are rude" cliche as his defense.

I'm surprised it's okay for a director to not respect someone else's opinion in 2023. But comments like this might be why Scott is still among filmbros/"true cinema" proponents.

[Buscemi2]

New York Film Critics Circle results.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_New_ ... cle_Awards

Looks like Killers of the Flower Moon isn't winning Best Picture at the Oscars.

Meanwhile, here are the the previous times AMPAS and the NYFCC agreed on winners in said categories (the NYFCC has a category for a Best First Film of which there is no Oscar counterpart):

Best Picture: 2011 (The Artist)
Best Director: 2021 (Jane Campion)
Best Actor: 2016 (Casey Affleck)
Best Actress: 2013 (Cate Blanchett)
Best Supporting Actor: 2022 (Ke Huy Quan)
Best Supporting Actress: 2019 (Laura Dern)
Best Screenplay: 2016 (Manchester by the Sea, Original Screenplay)
Best Cinematography: 2018 (Roma)
Best Animated Film: 2018 (Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse)
Best Foreign Film: 2019 (Parasite)
Best Non-Fiction Film: 2016 (O.J.: Made in America)

In short, expect at most one or two matches, which isn't great news for Killers of the Flower Moon, Oppenheimer, or May December, the last of which has really surpassed Maestro as Netflix's big awards film in the past few weeks.

[numbersix]

Killers is definitely not winning Best Picture, though I think Lily Gladstone has a good shot at Supporting Actress (even though she's the lead)

Oppenheimer is still the obvious winner, and past stats are never good at predicting the future.

[transformers2]

Gladstone is being campaigned for Best Actress

[numbersix]

Actuallly, looking at the competition, she does have a good chance for Best Lead Actress