Epics outshined in Oscar race
2006-02-27 08:36
Los Angeles - A stellar pack of small-budget and independent movies have left traditional big-studio epics out in the cold in this year's Oscars race, even if most moviegoers have not seen the top films.
Once the sole domain of Hollywood's major studios, next week's Academy Awards will be dominated by the "little films" that far outnumber the usual multimillion-dollar blockbusters on the 2006 nominees' list.
"It's very unusual to see that four out of five of the best picture nominees are independent or low-budget films, whereas it used to be the other way round," said Marty Grove, columnist for the Hollywood Reporter online.
"If they are not truly independently made, they are at least made by the independent divisions of big studios and stand out by their subject matter as well as low budgets," he said.
Universal Studios' $75m epic Munich, directed by Steven Spielberg, is the only exception, as all of the other contenders - Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Good Night, and Good Luck and Capote - were relatively cheap to make and were at least partly financed by private investors.
No need to break the bank
Oscar smiled on independent films, as the big Hollywood studios' box office returns dwindled amid an avalanche of remakes and sequels.
The favourite in this year's race, the provocative gay cowboy love story Brokeback Mountain, is armed with eight nominations, including best picture, director and actor, and leads a pack of unusually thoughtful contenders.
Ang Lee's film, which stars Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, cost just $14m to make and was co-financed for Sony Independent Pictures by the co-owner of the Minnesota Twins baseball team.
Director George Clooney's $7.5m story of political repression and freedom of speech, Good Night, and Good Luck, was co-financed by production firms owned by the Dallas Mavericks basketball team's owner and by Jeff Skoll, one of the founders of online auctioneer eBay.
Paul Haggis's imaginative and racially charged story Crash - which won six nods, including best picture, best director and best supporting actor for Matt Dillon - was truly independent, with its $6.5m cost financed by a real-estate mogul.
The Truman Capote story Capote - which cost $7m but won six nods, including best picture, best actor for Philip Seymour Hoffman, best supporting actress for Catherine Keener and best director - was co-financed by independent Canadian production firm Infinity Media.
Oscar nominations not drawing crowds
Other small-budget films also pepper the nominees' list, including Hustle and Flow, Syriana and Transamerica, the story of a transsexual played by best actress nominee Felicity Huffman, which cost just $1m.
The big-budget offerings among the year's 10 most-nominated movies include Sony's $85m Memoirs of a Geisha, with six nods; Munich, with five; the $29m Walk the Line, with five; and King Kong, which cost more than $200m and won four nods.
"The award-giving bodies in Hollywood have multiplied and no longer celebrate the same things that they did a few years ago, and are now inclined to honour more serious films rather than epics," Grove said.
In addition, many filmmakers and actors, such as Clooney, frustrated by movies being offered by the big studios, have formed their own companies and have the star power to win investments for sometimes risky pet projects.
But while independent and low-budget films may rule the roost at Hollywood's many awards shows, it is still the big studios that are pulling in the big audiences.
The five best picture nominees have only notched up a combined total of about $190m in ticket sales, compared with about $130m taken by the top 10 studio movies at the US box office last weekend alone.
Previous best picture winners, including Million Dollar Baby, Chicago and A Beautiful Mind, took more than $100m each before their Oscar triumphs.