Warner Bros.
The National Board of Review was first up this awards season to announce their winners and their pick for best picture of 2015 is surprisingly Mad Max: Fury Road. What an awesome surprise that is. Critics and audiences loooved George Miller’s singular actioner and many had predicted it’d be thrown in the hat during awards season for at least consideration but fewer thought it’d actually take home a huge award like best film.
It’s not the first time the NBR has picked a long-shot choice for best film though. Last year, J.C. Chandor’s A Most Violent Year was surprisingly selected despite getting completely ignored at the Oscars later that year. The NBR may not be a reliable Oscar predictor, but their choices are truly their own and help bring recognition to films that may have otherwise been forgotten.
Snagging best film at the NBR awards throws Fury Road back into people’s minds and into the Oscar conversation that’s been ramping up. Now is the time when big Oscar contenders like Brooklyn, Carol, and Spotlight will run their “For Your Consideration” campaigns and back in October it was reported that Warner Bros. was boldly planning a campaign of their own for Mad Max, sending fans over the moon. If the studio had any questions over whether a campaign would be worth it, winning big at the NBR should tell Warner Bros. it may be.
Taking home Best Picture at a ceremony like the Oscars though is unlikely. Let’s get that out of the way now. The Academy will go for the more traditional choice. But with room for ten nominees, Fury Road has a shot at a nod. In fact, much of the reason the Oscars bumped the number of nominees for Best Picture from five to ten back in 2010 was due to the ceremony’s ratings slump, which was blamed on the lack of a blockbuster consideration. The blockbuster at that time was The Dark Knight, which as we all know was shut out that year.
This year’s Oscar-worthy blockbuster that’s still fresh in everyone’s mind is The Martian undoubtedly. Sure, The Martian was great…but Mad Max: Fury Road, a blockbuster as well, was pure balls-to-the-wall action and remarkable simultaneously. It’s a non-traditional choice. It’s a sexy choice. And it’d be a joy to see it stand next to nine other impressive films in the Best Picture category, setting a precedent for the future.
For a full list of the winners, look below.
Best Film: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Director: Ridley Scott, The Martian
Best Actor: Matt Damon, The Martian
Best Actress: Brie Larson, Room
Best Supporting Actor: Sylvester Stallone, Creed
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight
Best Adapted Screenplay: Drew Goddard, The Martian
Best Animated Feature: Inside Out
Breakthrough Performance: Abraham Attah, Beasts of No Nation and Jacob Tremblay, Room
0 comments:
Post a Comment