Frozen
DIR. Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee /November 27
I felt I should pick at least one animated film with a shot at Best Picture and with Pixar going the sequel route with Monsters University and the original not exactly being of Toy Story caliber, I’m going with Disney’s Frozen. Granted, this will most likely be just one of the Best Animated Feature contenders, but it never hurts to keep your options open.
STUDIO: Walt Disney Pictures
VOICE CAST: Kristen Bell
SYNOPSIS: When Anna is cursed by her estranged sister, the cold-hearted Snow Queen, Anna’s only hope of reversing the curse is to survive a perilous but thrilling journey across an icy and unforgiving landscape. Joined by a rugged, thrill-seeking outdoorsman, his one-antlered reindeer and a hapless snowman, Anna must race against time, conquer the elements and battle an army of menacing snowmen if she ever hopes to melt her frozen heart.
Fruitvale
DIR. Ryan Coogler /October 18
If there’s a film coming out of Sundance with a lot of heat it’s Ryan Coogler‘s Fruitvale and with The Weinstein Co. picking it up you better believe people will be thinking Oscar for this one. Based on a true story and with high marks for up-and-comer Michael B. Jordan the sky is the limit for this one.
STUDIO: The Weinstein Co.
CAST: Michael B. Jordan, Melonie Diaz, Ahna O’Reilly, Chad Michael Murray, Kevin Durand and Octavia Spencer
SYNOPSIS: Oscar Grant was a 22-year-old Bay Area resident who loved his friends, was generous to strangers, and had a hard time telling the truth to the mother of his beautiful daughter. He was scared and courageous and charming and raw, and as human as the community he was part of. That community paid attention to him, shouted on his behalf, and filmed him with their cell phones when BART officers, who were strong, intimidated, and acting in the way they thought they were supposed to behave around people like Oscar, shot him in cold blood at the Fruitvale subway stop on New Year’s Day in 2009.
Grace of Monaco
DIR. Olivier Dahan /December 27
From La Vie en Rose director Olivie Dahan we have another Weinstein acquisition in Grace of Monaco in which Nicole Kidman stars as Grace Kelly, which is to say we instantly have a Best Actress contender. I do have a feeling this one may go the way of The Iron Lady and largely be looked at as an acting contender with Tim Roth playing Kelly’s husband, Monaco’s Prince Rainier III, as another potential nominee, but I won’t count out additional categories just yet.
STUDIO: The Weinstein Co.
CAST: Nicole Kidman, Tim Roth, Frank Langella, Parker Posey and Derek Jacobi
SYNOPSIS: Grace Kelly (Kidman), a former Oscar winner and mother of two, had already spent six years as the monarch of a European nation when the retired starlet was called upon to save Monaco from an escalating situation regarding its standing as a tax haven, with French leader Charles de Gaulle giving her husband, Monaco’s Prince Rainier III (Roth), six months to reform its tax laws.
Gravity
DIR. Alfonso Cuaron /October 4
This one could go either way. The delays have me wary, but it’s impossible not to anticipate Alfonso Cuaron‘s Gravity given the anticipation throughout the years. Biggest problem is the lack of knowledge on just what exactly we’re going to get.
STUDIO: Warner Bros.
CAST: Sandra Bullock and George Clooney
SYNOPSIS: Dr. Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) is a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (George Clooney) in command of his last flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone–tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth…and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left. But the only way home may be to go further out into the terrifying expanse of space.
