Movie Master

Throughout the long awards season in 2003, "Cold Mountain" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" kept pace with each other. The first group in the Oscar race. However, on the whole, the advantages of "Cold Mountain" and "The Return of the King" are relatively obvious, especially the latter. From the release stage to the awards season stage, the topic has never cooled down, and it is vaguely heading towards the final of this year's Oscars. Throne strides forward.

However, in the second half of the awards season, "Lost in Translation" has risen strongly, and its momentum has become more and more prosperous. As a literary film with a small format, whether "Lost in Translation" can take a step closer to the Oscars has become one of the biggest highlights in the nomination stage.

On January 27, 2004, Michelle-Pfeiffer, accompanied by Academy Dean Frank-Pierson, announced the nominations for this year's Oscars.

In the much-anticipated Best Picture scramble, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King," "The Return of the King," "Mystic River," "Lost in Translation" and "City of God" rounded out the final five. The final grand prize hits.

As soon as the nomination list came out, everyone was in an uproar. The absolute favorite "Cold Mountain" unexpectedly dropped out, and in the awards season, it was highly praised by the first lady Laura-Bush (Laura-Bush). "Also fell short on the one-yard line after running the entire length of awards season. Instead, there are two independent films: "Lost in Translation" and "City of God".

This is not just as simple as an upset, but also disrupted the chess game of the entire awards season.

Although "Lost in Translation" has received rave reviews, as an independent film, a literary film, and a small-format film, it once again replicated the feat of "Love in No/Lun" that completed the counterattack two years ago, ranking among the most The top five nominees for best film have continued the momentum of independent films since the 21st century, which is really a huge surprise. More importantly, Sofia Coppola, as a new female director, became a blockbuster, which made people applaud.

Relatively speaking, the final counterattack of "City of God" made everyone exclaim. In the history of the Oscars, the last time a foreign language film was nominated for the best picture was "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" three years ago, and the last time it was "Life is Beautiful" at the 71st session. This time, "City of God" once again replicated such a feat, and under the circumstances that everyone was not optimistic about, it won with an absolute dark horse. The Postman" and the seventy-first edition of "Life is Beautiful".

Both "The Postman" and "Life Is Beautiful" both went unnoticed and didn't even win any Golden Globe nominations, and finally achieved a counterattack at the Oscars, and received multiple nominations-including the final Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor and Best Screenplay and other heavyweight awards.

Among them, "Life is Beautiful" has written a myth. After winning seven nominations, it won the three statuettes of Best Actor, Best Foreign Language Film and Best Soundtrack!

Obviously, the dark horse this time is the "City of God".

Although people were in an uproar about the upset nomination of "City of God", in fact, there were already signs in the circle. After entering 2004, the popularity of "City of God" in small-scale releases has remained unabated, and it has earned nearly 3 million US dollars in the box office in more than ten weeks, which made the cumulative box office of the film as of May from 4,500 to 4,500. 10,000 U.S. dollars climbed further and began to approach the threshold of 50 million U.S. dollars. Such a feat is really rare.

At the same time, the influence of two top film critics, Roger Ebert and Lawrence Topman, has gradually exerted its effect. More and more professionals in the circle began to go to the cinema to watch or re-watch "City of God". ". Unexpectedly, driven by the "New Yorker", literary and artistic figures in New York expressed great enthusiasm for "City of God". It was even rumored that Woody Allen was quite optimistic about this movie.

As a leading figure in the New York art circle, Woody's influence is beyond doubt. Therefore, after the nomination list for the Golden Globe Awards was released, the word-of-mouth of "City of God" has been steadily rising. Quietly became the top five favorable competitors.

Interestingly, the "New York Times" called "City of God" Ocean Biscuit - the old horse that inspired countless people in "The Pentium Era" was called Ocean Biscuit. And "City of God" obviously replaced the "Pentium Era" in the final nomination list.

"Ocean Biscuit has joined this year's Oscar competition in another form, let us wait and see where Ocean Biscuit's Oscar journey will end!" Javier Ulliel said.

Among the nominees for the best picture, "Cold Mountain", which led the entire awards season, and "The Pentium Age", which accompanied the entire awards season, both fell. The two independent films "Lost in Translation" and "City of God" The representative work successfully entered the final competition, which immediately raised the visibility of the 76th Oscar to another level.

The last time two independent films were shortlisted for the best picture Oscar at the same time was the 69th session, when both "Fargo" and "Shiny Presence" were shortlisted, and witnessed the success of "The English Patient". climb to the top. The reincarnation of history always has amazing deja vu.

The nominations of "Lost in Translation" and "City of God" can be said to be unpopular, but they cannot be called unpopular, because they also won nominations in the best director department. After 1981 and 1981, it was the fourth year in which the five nominations for Best Picture and Best Director matched perfectly. This is also the best affirmation of the strength of the five works and the five directors.

Peter Jackson, "The Return of the King," Peter Weir, "Crown," Clint Eastwood, "Mystic River," Sofia Coppola, "Lost in Translation," "City of God" Lancelot-Strello, these five directors form this year's best director Oscar competition, which is a very interesting situation.

Peter Weir and Clint represent the older generation of directors, Peter Jackson can be regarded as the Mesozoic directors, and Sophia and Lancelot are undoubtedly the new generation of directors. The most amazing thing is that Lance, the youngest among them, just celebrated his 31st birthday not long ago-for a director at such an age, it is like winning a best actor nomination at the age of 20. In history, only five people under the age of 35 have won the best director statuette!

Of course, Sofia became the third female director to win an Oscar nomination after Lina-Wertmuller and Jane-Campion, and she still had an extremely low age of 32. The age is even more appalling.

It is no exaggeration to say that in this list of nominations, "Lost in Translation" and "City of God", Sophia and Lance, almost stole everyone's attention and became the most shining stars of this awards season. After all, accidents are always more eye-catching than "Return of the King", "Raging Seas", and "Mystic River", which are naturally shortlisted.

Especially Lance, who did not show his face at the Golden Globes, almost caused a surprise and fell through everyone's glasses.

But obviously, this is not the end. Looking at the list of nominations, "The Return of the King" unquestionably leads with 12 nominations, reminiscent of the 13 nominations of the first film in the series; After that, it replaced "Cold Mountain" and became the strongest competitor to challenge "The Return of the King" at the 76th Oscar.

The advantages of "The Return of the King" are obviously in the technical department. The main awards received three nominations for best picture, best director and best adapted screenplay. The technical department unexpectedly missed the best cinematography award, and all other departments received The nominations, including the all-important Best Film Editing Award, are well-deservedly the biggest winners in the nomination stage, and they are also the strongest contenders for this year's Oscars.

The ten nominations of "The Return of the King" can be said to be almost completely suppressed by "The Return of the King". Except for the best cinematography award, all the other nine departments are in direct confrontation with "The Return of the King", and they missed the best original screenplay The decisive nomination, which is not a happy thing for "Raging Seas".

In addition to these two works, "Cold Mountain", "The Pentium Age" and "Mystic River" all received six nominations and tied for third.

After missing the best picture and best director, both "Cold Mountain" and "The Pentium Era" seemed a bit sluggish. "Cold Mountain" was nominated for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Soundtrack and Best Original Song, however, "Cold Mountain" dominated the Best Original Song department. It was a pleasant surprise to get two nominated seats.

The most important nomination of "The Pentium Age" is undoubtedly the best adapted screenplay. In addition, the five nominations for best photography, best art direction, best costume design, best sound mixing, and best film editing all come from In the technical sector, under the pressure of "Return of the King" and "Raging Seas", the outlook is not optimistic.

Relatively speaking, although "Mystic River" also only received six nominations, the nominations are very solid, with Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted to the screenplay, except for the best actress award that was missed due to the plot setting, the decisive award in the main department, "Mystic River" has received nominations. Such a gesture is jaw-dropping, and even surpassed "The Return of the King" and "Raging Seas", becoming the biggest winner in the main department.

Even though missing out on Best Film Editing dents "Mystic River"'s chances of winning Best Picture, no one can deny that it's the one that could rival "The Return of the King" at the nomination stage. Perhaps, there is one more:

"City of God".

Also receiving six nominations, there is another work, "City of God"! This also makes it an out-and-out dark horse at this year's Oscars! This horse "Ocean Biscuit" is super powerful and attracts everyone's attention!