Oscars voters shun blockbusters
2006-02-02 09:20
Los Angeles - Oscar voters took the lead from bored movie-goers when picking the 2006 nominees, shunning studio blockbusters in favour of small-budget films that tackle thorny topics from gay love to race tensions.
Following a year of falling cinema ticket sales, only two big-budget movies from Hollywood's powerful studios featured among the six most-nominated films for the 78th annual Academy Awards when contenders were unveiled on Tuesday.
Unmoved by flashy special effects and big productions, the 5 856 Oscar voters picked thoughtful, low-budget movies led by gay cowboy tale Brokeback Mountain with eight nods, the race drama Crash, (six nods), the political film Good Night, and Good Luck (six) and the biopic Capote (five).
"When you look at 2005, which overflowed with remakes and sequels, I think that the Academy recognised that the best films came from independent filmmakers not the big studios," said Gitesh Pandya of Boxofficeguru.com.
Only Sony Pictures' Geisha, from Oscar-winning Chicago director Rob Marshall, and Universal's Munich by Steven Spielberg featured in the six most-nominated movies of 2005, scoring six and five nods respectively.
Quality versus quantity
Peter Jackson's epic $200m remake of King Kong was shut out of the major categories, managing only four nods, while Oscar-winner Ron Howard's boxing tale Cinderella Man, also from Universal Studios, got three.
"I think this shows a growing divide between the expensive Hollywood films, which make a lot of money, and the artistic lower budget films which are made more from quality," said Pandya.
Last year Martin Scorsese's $110m Howard Hughes biopic The Aviator swept the Oscar nominations, taking 11, while in 2004 the $270m Lord of the Rings trilogy dominated.
But as audiences last year turned their backs on the major studios, with the US box office falling 5% from 2004 to $8.9m, so have the industry insiders who make up the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
"The pendulum in Hollywood is coming back to story-telling," said Bobby Moresco, who won a best original screenplay Oscar nod for co-writing the racially charged Crash.
And the winner is?
Ang Lee's $14m Brokeback Mountain tells the story of two farmhands who fall into a conflicted two-decade affair in rural America and won nominations including best picture, best actor for Heath Ledger, best supporting actors for Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams and best adapted screenplay.
George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck, which tackles the press's role as a watchdog over government abuse of power, cost $7m and won six nods including best director, best picture and best actor for David Strathairn.
The Constant Gardener and Syriana, co-starring Clooney, had bigger budgets but told of drug company corruption in Africa and oil industry machinations in the Middle East.
And the intellectual Capote, which cost $7m, won nominations for best picture, best actor for Philip Seymour Hoffman, best director for Bennett Miller and best supporting actress for Catherine Keener.
But while Brokeback Mountain and the other smaller pictures may be early leaders in the race to grab Oscars when the statuettes are handed out on March 5, they are not home yet.
Awards pundit Tom O'Neil said: "It's a long way until the Oscars and their voters are notorious rascals and love to shake things up at the last minute."