We had three films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

White House Down

Roland Emmerich has had an uneven history with the Academy. His first film to court the Oscars was Independence Day which took home an Oscar for Best Visual Effects and a nomination for Best Sound Mixing. Two films later, he was again on the Oscar radar with The Patriot, which scored nominations for Best Original Score, Best Cinematography and Best Sound. It took eleven years for Emmerich to get in Oscar’s good graces again with a Best Costume Design nomination for Anonymous.

Several films have had the potential for nominations, especially in Best Visual Effects, such as The Day After Tomorrow and 2012. Yet, Oscar hasn’t brought him back to that category. White House Down may look like it has a strong chance at a Best Visual Effects nomination, but it’s very unlikely at this point with its poor box office performance and critical drubbing.

Byzantium

The film has had very little attention visited upon it and critics aren’t particularly excited. The movie, directed by The Crying Game director Neil Jordan. Jordan seemed like a key Oscar player after The Crying Game, and his movies received a decent amount of praise, but never really gained the attention he once attained. Byzantium returns Jordan to the vampire genre he once visited adapting Interview with the Vampire to the big screen. The vampire element of Byzantium would have made it a non-entity in Oscar circles, but its period production design and costuming could have given him an opportunity for at least some Oscar recognition, but the film’s box office isn’t great and with those negative reviews, I doubt it will be much of a player at all.

I’m So Excited

While Emmerich and Jordan quickly fell out of fortune with the Academy, Pedro Almodovar still has some respect among critics and the Academy. Yet, it’s been 7 years since his last Oscar invitation for Volver. Since then, he’s only directed two other films, so the pool isn’t very large for his potential return, but Volver was his third of four films in a row to get Oscar nominations, so skipping two let alone a likely third could put him in the same company as Emmerich and Jordan, which would make for a rather bizarre road trip that only Almodovar would be capable of capturing.