Every awards season has its independent darling. This year, multiply that times ten.
What we saw on Sunday night at the Golden Globes—where smaller films with a big impact dominated the winner’s circle like it was the Independent Spirit Awards—is a clear sign of the continuation of recent years’ underdog award-grabbing trend.
So, I’m calling it now: David is poised yet again to beat Goliath for the gold on Oscar night.
It’s an appropriate metaphor in a year that brought us such Biblical epics as Noah (which I loved) and Exodus—two grand scale, big budget, megastar-led studio semi-hits that, in the 80’s and before, wouldn’t have even had to say a little prayer to be included in the Oscars conversation; they would have been no-brainer nominees likely to be in a run-off race to the acceptance speech when the envelope was finally unsealed.
And yet, it would take a serious case of divine intervention for either one to make the final cut as one of the best of the past year. No doubt the studio head’s prayer circle is holding hands and lighting candles as we speak.
High-quality films with smaller budgets and limited release have always had some skin in the Oscars game. But since the explosion of the independent film scene in the early 90’s, they’ve taken up increasingly more ink on nominators’ ballots. Proven through wins by such modern classics as Silence of the Lambs (1991), Shakespeare in Love (1998) and American Beauty (1999), this was the era during which the scales really tipped in favor of little-creative-engines-that-could over big studio behemoths.
The timing of the rise of the art house as viable semi-mass appeal entertainment was no coincidence: the nexus can be traced back to the beginning of that long gone-by decade, when Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival pivoted into its current incarnation as an incubator and showcase for emerging artists, giving their edgy, beyond-the-borders-of-the-mainstream work a platform for exposure and—with fingers tightly crossed—distribution by a small studio. Redford and Sundance’s solidification of the indie scene intersected with the rise of Harvey Weinstein and Miramax to create the eye of the perfect creative storm, equally exacting lightening bolts of forward-thinking genius and downpours of drama that came to define—and redefine—the Hollywood movie-making machine from then-on.
(If you’re a geek like me and want the play-by-play of this you-have-read-it-to-believe-it, real-life tale, check out one of my favorite books, Peter Biskind’s retrospective tome, ‘Down and Dirty Pictures.’ Good stuff.)
In a clear game of cause-and-effect, this was also the era that gave rise to Harvey as the shrewdest of awards season campaigners. In fact, it was he and his ruggish team of merry movie muckrakers—and the competing executives inspired by their actions—that truly ignited the boom of indie Oscar winners that still carries on two decades later.
After a notable presence at the podium in the 90’s, this has led to a new wave of elevating the art house, proven by a string of Best Picture Oscar wins that can be debated but not written off: regardless of personal opinion or taste, Crash (2005), No Country for Old Men (2007), Slumdog Millionaire (2008), The Hurt Locker (2009), The King’s Speech (2010), The Artist (2011) and 12 Years a Slave (2013) were all legitimately worthy winners.
And no, it isn’t fair to hold a grudge if their success didn’t exactly equate to yours in your office or Oscar party pool. (Those below-the-line categories will get you every time.)
So, as we stand on the precipice of uncovering which movies will dominate this year’s race with Thursday morning’s first-ever, two-part Oscar nominations announcement, the films that received love from the Independent Spirit Awards seem to be more of a bellwether than ever for predicting Oscar’s roster. With nominees Birdman, Boyhood, Selma, Whiplash, Nightcrawler, Still Alice, Citizenfour, A Most Violent Year and Foxcatcher all at the center of the season’s derby—plus other buzzed about smaller films that didn’t land any nominations, such as Harvey’s hopeful horse, The Imitation Game, and Wes Anderson’s marvelously madcap The Grand Budapest Hotel—the trend of Spirits-meets-Oscars certainly seems poised to continue.
Perhaps not the ideal scenario for the producers of the Oscars telecast, who bank on mass appeal movies to draw massive viewership, but a win for movie lovers everywhere… that is, if you can find these little gems in your local theater before the big night.
In any case, I can’t wait to see host NPH do an interpretive dance about Boyhood while wearing a wrestling onesie in honor of Foxcatcher. Now that’s entertainment.
Find out which movies make the Oscar nominations cut live on Good Morning America and www.oscars.org/live this Thursday beginning at 8:30am EST.