‘Poor Things’ Cements Itself As An Oscar Contender - Awards Outlook
Photo from IMDb
Awards analysis is provided by Sean from @MathTeacherMovies.
‘Poor Things’ Cements Itself As An Oscar Contender
Update: This article is from last month where I incorrectly had the suspicion that Poor Things could be blanked out of the Oscars. However, after its performance at the Venice Film Festival and its receiving of the Golden Lion Award, the film has catapulted to the top of the charts in buzz with Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe all being considered as possible nominees. The “too weird” argument does not seem to hold as much water as this becomes more and more popular as a populist pick.
Original: The last time a Yorgos Lanthimos film was released it was a huge Oscar play with The Favourite receiving ten nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and a win for Olivia Colman in the Best Actress category.
Before The Favourite, Lanthimos was nominated for Best Original Screenplay for his film The Lobster but other than those accolades, Lanthimos films are often a bit too disturbing and strange to be nominated. Poor Things looks more like the type of film that will be too weird for the Oscars, but with Lanthomos now being on the radar of the Academy and the trend of the Oscars going toward more strange films like Everything Everywhere All at Once, there is a chance that Poor Things could sneak some nominations.
This film's trailer shows this will be more like wild Lanthimos like in The Lobster and not tame Lanthimos like The Favourite. Therefore it seems unlikely that this will hit the one two punch of nominations for Best Picture and Best Director. However, it is wild enough to get a nomination for Best Original Screenplay.
This film is definitely a visual feast in the trailers that have been released and so this has the chance of grabbing technicals like Production Design, Costume Design, and Cinematography as this entire film takes place in a fanciful nature. Also, the brief shot of Willem Dafoe shows that this will definitely be a candidate for Best Makeup.
Emma Stone received one of her Oscar nominations for a Lanthimos film in The Favourite and so there is no doubt that she can do it again. What is working for or against her is the fact that she is playing an absolutely wild character in this film which could be a showcase for a very loud performance, but also could be so strange that it turns voters away.
Of course the greatest elephant in the room is whether or not this film will even be released this year, due to the writers and actors strike. It was just moved to December and while that is a typically Oscar friendly month, there is a chance that it will be delayed further if the strikes continue.
Odds are this will be a film beloved by the cinephiles but passed up by the Academy with the exception of possibly a couple of technical nominations. Poor Things is not the type of movie that is going for awards, but these days that doesn't necessarily mean that it won't be nominated.