2 pressing questions ahead of Tuesday’s Oscar nominations
NEW YORK — Oscar nominations balloting might be finished but Hollywood’s “Me Too” moment has kept right on going.
When Academy Awards nominations are announced Tuesday morning, it might be a brief, celebratory reprieve for an industry enflamed by sexual harassment scandals and gender equality protests.
Or it might just add more fuel to the fire.
Will the motion picture academy, as it has done in 85 out of 89 years, field an all-male field of film directors? Will James Franco squeak into the best actor category after several women made allegations against him of sexual improprieties while filming sex scenes? Franco denied the claims on late-night shows just days before nomination voting closed last Friday.
Either of those outcomes could make the Oscar nominations — a morning often dominated by Harvey Weinstein in the past — one more fraught chapter in the ongoing “Me Too” saga that has already shaped and contorted an Oscar race unlike any before.
Here are two questions in the lead-up to Tuesday:
Is there a frontrunner?
After winning four Golden Globe Awards, including best feature, drama, Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” may have finally taken the Oscar race position that no one wants: favorite. It has the most unblemished score card of all the contenders, including nine BAFTA nods, an ensemble nomination from the Screen Actors Guild (which hands out its awards Sunday), top award nods from the directors and producers guilds, and the often predictive Toronto Film Festival audience award.
But “Three Billboards,” which many have criticized for its portrayal of a racist police officer (played by Sam Rockwell), has proven a lightning rod — both celebrated for the timeliness of a tale about female vengeance and derided as out of touch. If “Three Billboards” is out in front, it’s only by a hair. Nearly its equal is Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” a much admired Cold War fable that may earn the most nominations Tuesday thanks to its lavish craft and celebrated ensemble cast. Yet it crucially missed out on a SAG ensemble nomination, which historically has been a must-have for any Oscar best-picture winner. Every best-picture winner in the last 22 years first landed SAG ensemble nod.
And still just as much in the mix are Greta Gerwig’s “Lady Bird,” Jordan Peele’s “Get Out” and Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk.” Each can stake its own claim. “Lady Bird” is the only top contender made by a woman, and is perhaps the most critically acclaimed movie of the year. “Get Out” is a landmark genre-bending film about racism, and for many a vital film for the Donald Trump era. “Dunkirk” is the lone big-screen, blockbuster spectacle of the bunch. While it has been quiet thus far in awards season, “Dunkirk” will get a boost in the technical categories Tuesday.
How will ‘Me Too’ alter things?
Oscar campaigns from Kevin Spacey to Dustin Hoffman have already bit the dust. Before Franco (“The Disaster Artist”) was awkwardly answering tough questions from Stephen Colbert he was a borderline best actor contender, slotting in behind Gary Oldman (“Darkest Hour”), Timothee Chalamet (“Call Me By Your Name”), Daniel Day-Lewis (“Phantom Thread”), Daniel Kaluuya (“Get Out”) and Tom Hanks (“The Post”). Many Oscar votes had already been cast by the time allegations hit, but, then again, a lot of academy members wait until the last minute to send in their ballots. This year, with such a never-ending stream of revelations, voters would have been advised to wait until the very last second before one final Google search.