Race for the Oscars

Kate Winslet is in the reckoning for the Best Actress Award Leonardo Di Caprio, a strong contender Clint Eastwood has never been best actor Also in the race: Hillary Swanks

WITH eyes trained on February 27, Oscars night, film buffs are all set to make their choices of films in various categories, the Oscar winners male and female and scan the line-up of likely winners. To start with the bad news the Marathi film Shwaas, the Indian entry for the Oscars, did not find a place in the nominations.

The Best Picture nominations cover a wide variety of subjects from The Aviator to Finding Neverland, Million Dollar Baby, Ray and Hotel Rwanda.

The Aviator is the biography of billionaire Howard Hughes and follows his life from the time of his forays into filmmaking in the 1920s to his battles with the Congress in the 1940s, his pioneering efforts in aviation to his descent into isolation and for film buffs his affairs with actresses Katherine Hepburn and Ava Gardener. If Hollywood decides to honour him in this century, his film may pick a few Oscars. Hughes is played by Leonardo Di Caprio who is also nominated for the Best Actor Oscar.

Finding Neverland is about the creator of the comic strip Peter Pan James N. Barrie and how his meeting with the widowed Sylvia Llewelyn Davies and her four sons was the inspiration for the character. One of the son’s name is Peter.

Million Dollar Baby is about a boxing trainer Frank Dunn and how his protégé a young waitress Maggie Fitzgerald takes up top boxing. Director Clint Eastwood plays Dunn and Hillary Swank of Boys Don’t Dry fame is Maggie and if that 1999 performance is any indication she should pick the Best Actress Oscar. If the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences think the time is ripe to honour former Carmel Mayor Eastwood with the Best Actor Oscar they may also do so. He may have won the Best Director actor for Unforgiven (1992) but has never won the Best Actor Oscar. Last year, his Mystic River picked the Best Actor Oscar (Sean Penn) and the Best Supporting Actor Oscar (Tim Robbins).

Ray is the biography of singer-songwriter Ray Charles from his childhood when his mother refuses to let his blindness lead to self-pity, through his early struggle as a musician, his drug use and his relationships with the many women in his life to his eventual success as a performer and a recording artist. Jamie Foxx who plays the blind singer has also been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar.

The last film in the Best Picture category is Hotel Rwanda, the real-life story of Paul Rosabagina, a resourceful hotel manager (played by Don Cheadle) who saves over a 1000 people during the Rwandan massacre at a risk to his own life.

The Aviator is directed by Martin Scorcese who is also in line for the Best Director Oscar along with Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby), Taylor Hackford (Ray) and Mike Leigh (Veera Drake).

In the running with Hillary Swank for the Best Actress Oscar are seasoned Hollywood nominee Annette Bening (Being Julia), Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the spotless mind), Catalina Sandino Moreno and Imelda Staunton, both comparative newcomers. Kate Winslet plays Clementine, a free-spirited young woman with a touch of amnesia. Moreno plays Maria in Maria Full of Grace which is about drug smuggling and Staunton plays a devoted wife and mother in post-war England in Veera Drake.

As most of these films have not been released in India, it isn’t easy to play the guessing game but the list does not seem as impressive as the ones in previous years. But then Hollywood too is very much on the decline and the uncertainty in the studious is reflected by the closure of Twentieth Century-Fox in India. May be easy access to the medium is one of the reasons for the decline. Whether Hollywood will overcome this, as they have done in the past, time will tell.

Still this does not lessen the suspense and drama of the Oscars night which since the last year has been brought forward to February. For decades, it used to be the last Monday in March and this nearly caught me off guard.

The good news is that Ashwini Kumar’s Little Terrorist has earned a nomination in the Live Action Short Films category. It was shown at last year’s IFFI in Goa and is the story of a Pakistani boy who strays into India and finds shelter in a Hindu house. — E.E.M.

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