Oscar Week in Review: September 25 – October 1, 2010

Oscar News

The official deadline for submissions for Best Foreign Language Film was Friday, so we should be able to expect an official list of eligible films very soon.
HitFix is reporting that the first screeners of the year were sent out to Academy members this week: Mother and Child and Animal Kingdom.
The Gotham Awards announced their winners of this year’s Career Tribute Awards: Oscar winners Robert Duvall and Hilary Swank, Oscar nominee James Schamus and director Darren Aronofsky. The awards will be presented at the Gotham Awards on November 29.
Another acclaimed play will be adapted for the screen next year, with the Weinstein Bros. producing a film adaptation of Tracy Letts’ August: Osage County. Meryl Streep will play the mother (which won a Tony Award for Deanna Dunagan), while Julia Roberts will play the oldest daughter (which garnered Amy Morton a Tony nomination).

The Best Reviewed Film of the year is officially upon us, with The Social Network cementing it’s front runner status with a Metacritic score of 97 as well as a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. With words like Masterpiece and Citizen Kane being bandied about in reviews, this has to be a formidable contestant from here on out.
Let Me In is the rare remake of a beloved foreign film to garner positive critical support, with an 85% on Rotten Tomatoes and an 80 on Metacritic. Stephanie Zacharek says it “surpasses its predecessor” while Lou Limenick calls it “the scariest, creepiest and most elegantly filmed horror movie I’ve seen in years.”
Most documentaries need a strong critical support to make it to the Oscars, and Freakanomics isn’t getting the support. Critics seem to agree the multiple directors cause a messy anthology.

Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps was the winner last weekend, garnering a respectable $19 million.
The Town held on for third place last weekend, but only dropped 34%.
Looking for Superman had a per-screen average of almost $35,000 in it’s opening weekend, a high number for a documentary and a possible sign of good things to come.

True Grit: Only one Oscar contender released a trailer this week, but it was the highly anticipated new film from four-time Oscar Winners The Coen Brothers. Starring Best Actor Jeff Bridges in the role that won John Wayne his only Oscar, and co-starring Oscar Winner Matt Damon and Oscar Nominee Josh Brolin, this is a fantastic trailer that shows signs of a strong contender come December.

Oscar nominee and Hollywood legend Tony Curtis passed away this week at the age of 85. Curtis was nominated for Best Actor in 1958 for The Defiant Ones, and starred in such movies as Some Like It Hot, Spartacus, The Great Race and The Sweet Smell of Success. He is the father of actress Jamie Lee Curtis, whose mother is Oscar nominee Janet Leigh.
Arthur Penn, the formidible film director who was nominated for three Academy Awards, died at the age of 88. Penn was nominated for directing The Miracle Worker, Bonnie and Clyde and Alice’s Restaurant, and guided Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke and Estelle Parsons in the Oscar-winning roles.
Joe Mantell, the recognizable character actor who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Marty, died at the age of 95. Mantell also starred in opposite Jack Nicholson in Chinatown, where he muttered the famous line “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”
Gloria Stuart, the oldest person ever nominated for an acting Oscar, died on Tuesday at the age of 100. Stuart was a mainstay in silent Hollywood, and was “rediscovered” by James Cameron for Titanic, for which she was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in 1997.
Respected film editor Sally Menke, best known for her collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, passed away on Tuesday. She was 56. Menke was Oscar nominated for her editing work on Pulp Fiction and last year’s Inglourious Basterds.