Naked Gold Man: And We're Off! Are We?

Restoring the Sunday Oscar series (or: season 2. episode 1) in which we pen the the Oscar focused topics into Sundays so as to prevent Oscar fatigue before the pre season madness begins...

Where are the future Oscar nominees?

Last year by this time -- 4 months and one week into the year-- we had seen three of our eventual Oscar nominees, and two of them were biggies: Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress candidates (Away From Her) and [gulp] a Make Up nod (Norbit). Apart from Iron Man's visual f/x (you can probably ink that down) and maybe sound... is there anything out there that AMPAS could remember by year's end? Will Iron Man's jet-pack ignite the very earliest of the early bird nods? What else is there?

Best Picture, Director, Screenplays? Zilch. The Academy has previously shown a liking for the great playwright Martin McDonagh who wrote and directed the crime comedy In Bruges but despite winning somewhat surprised fans, it didn't make enough waves. Stop-Loss (my review) had the heavy-weight topic you need for awardage but not the reviews or audiences. That's a no go, too.

Performances? There's two leads playing (or about to) that we could conceivably see as eventual Oscar ...um... Indie Spirit nominees? Richard Jenkins for The Visitor and Famke Janssen for Turn the River (see previous post) will have their fans but Oscar bids remain far fetched. Even to make it all the way until the Spirits, they'll need a committed team and a heap of luck. We'll see.

Otherwise
Young @ Heart is a real crowd pleasing documentary but it's always risky to assume that any particular film will show up in the documentary race... it's not always even clear which films will prove eligible. I suppose Horton Hears a Who could land itself in the animated feature three-spot but the year is young and much ballyhooed contestants are still to come.

Finally, there's the off chance that an early contender could score in Costume Design. That branch of the Academy isn't as beholden to the rest of the competitive Oscar field as some others. To paraphrase Fleetwood Mac 'they can go their own way... go their own waay--ayy-aay'... The candidates thus far: Louise Frogley did 20s work on Leatherheads. George Clooney loves her --she's provided his threads in five films already. On the other hand, the Academy has yet to notice her strengths; There's period gowns and even a lingerie fashion show from Michael O'Connor (never nominated) in Miss Pettigrew Lives For a Day; Most likely given previous track records, AMPAS could opt for the great Sandy Powell's royal and elaborate gowns from The Other Boleyn Girl...Best Most Costume Design!

Slave driving two-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell forces ScarJo to mend her
own gowns on the set of The Other Boleyn Girl.

Do you see any early birds within Oscar's eventual nominees or do you think Iron Man's cocky "oh yeah. I can fly" visual and/or sound effects will be the only contender from 2008's releases to date?