We had one film release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Jason Bourne

When the Bourne Identity was released, no one thought it was going to be an Oscar contender. It was well-received, but was a simple modern spy thriller. As expected, the film didn’t earn Oscar nominations, nor did its sequel The Bourne Supremacy. However, something strange happened with the third film, The Bourne Ultimatum.

Ultimatum received ecstatic reviews and Paul Greengrass’ second attempt at the franchise ended up not just with three Oscar nominations for Film Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing, but it won all three. That immediately set the franchise up as a possible nominee for each outing.

Greengrass stepped away, though and when Tony Gilroy came in for him, the fourth film in the franchise, accompanied by a new lead (Jeremy Renner), failed to perform comparably at the box office. We’re even further down the line now and Greengrass is back, but the critics weren’t as ecstatic and the film seems to be performing under its predecessor, which won’t give it a boost. Still, as with all films in this franchise going forward, the three categories it won for 2007 will be the three we always talk about as possibilities, even remote ones.