Oscars are here again

Life, at least in the West, seems to be returning to near normal. Award ceremonies which were either canceled or streamed, are now opening doors of venues and letting people in. Nominations have been received for the 2022 Academy Awards and the ceremony itself which is all glitter, glamour, celebration, and even tears of victory, is scheduled to be in the Dolby Theater Hollywood, on March 27.

The people who vote for the Oscars are members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for the five best in the various categories of films newly screened from March to December 31 the previous year. Foreign films, documentaries and cartoon films are included. Since a revamp in 2016, members number 8,000. These results are collated to give the final results which until announced are kept secret and divulged as the suspenseful words are intoned: “And the Award for …..goes to ….’

Netflix

Time was when only film producing companies, mostly in the US and UK, were in the running. Now BBC, Netflix , Amazon and Apple TV to name but four non purely film production companies are competitors and Netflix has actually had great success in Oscar winning. It is an American subscription streaming service and production company; launched in August 1997. It offers a library of films and TV series through distribution deals as well as its own productions known as Netflix Originals.

My son gave me the set-up to watch Netflix films via my TV set. Something went wrong in it as much technology goes haywire in my hands. He shared his membership so I now watch films on my computer screen with no setback felt of a small screen. The range offered us is a mite different from what an American in his country can access, with us having more Indian films on our list. “We set out to build a great film studio by empowering great filmmakers to tell great stories and I am proud that we’re going it across disciplines and teams, including animation and documentary short,” announced Scott Stuber, Netflix’s film chief, quoted in a NY Times Review.

On Tuesday February 6 Oscar voters reviewing films of 2021, rewarded Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon films with nearly 40 Oscar nominations; 27 for Netflix alone. Netflix’s The Power of the Dog earned 12 nominations. It is a Western drama directed by Jane Campion—the first woman to be nominated twice for best director—and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, who was nominated for best actor in a leading role. The film also nabbed a best-picture nomination.

Don’t Look Up

— Adam McKay’s apocalyptic, satirical comedy on climate change nabbed four Oscar nominations, including best picture, original score and original screenplay. It was produced by Hyperobject Industries and sold by Paramount Pictures to Netflix. Leonardo DiCaprio stars in it as an eminent astronomer and Meryl Streep as the woman President of the US. She is superb.

Coincidentally or inadvertently, long before Oscar nominations, I watched Don’t Look Up and a day or two later The Power of the Dog. I had read a snippet on the former film and of course the two main stars attracted me to watch it and I was extremely interested. It was an excellent film on the apocalypse of a huge meteor traveling towards the earth. Reported to the US President it is almost laughed off. The meteor hits the earth and the young woman astronomer who first detected the approaching catastrophe and her family dine with DiCaprio and his family. The table first shakes violently as the meteor crashes into earth and destroys it. The US Prez escapes in a space vessel with many chosen others, which travels for long and then lands in an inhabitable planet only to have her attacked and killed by a huge animal. The impact of the film being a satirical comment on how the world accepts threatening global warming is obvious, but not thrown in your face.

The prime Oscar nominated film and Director

I hardly ever watch Westerns except admiring greatly the 1953 film High Noon starring Gary Cooper and a very young Grace Kelly. Its theme song was so haunting and lives in memory. Also Brokeback Mountain was fine with homosexuality its major theme.

Thus when I sat for my afternoon two hours on Netflix I had The Power of the Dog appearing on screen. The scene of rounding up cattle by horse-riding cowboys put me off, except that the producer being Jane Campion made me continue watching. Soon I was enthralled and fully in the film; the power of direction, photography, unfolding story and revelation of the sadistic personality of the younger, cowboy brother holding me in tight thrall.

The story revolves around two brothers: George Burbank (played by Jesse Piemons), almost effeminate, riding horses in coat and tie while the younger – Phil Burbank (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) is a typical rabble rousing cowboy who swears, drinks and leads his men as he does horses and cattle. He is seen brutally castrating bulls. The brothers share a bedroom when in the family homestead and when out in inns etc.

On a business trip, they stay in an inn run by widow Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) who is helped by her teenage son, Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) who is extremely sensitive and shy. His handcrafted paper flowers are ridiculed and torn to bits by Phil. George marries Rose and the bullying of the boy and his mother too by Phil continues. Tables are turned at the end mostly by Peter’s maneuvering. Phil dies gruesomely. The swaggering bully of a popular cowboy finally falls prey to the young boy who he befriends in cruel derision. Themes and truths are subtly conveyed, so also most of the personality clashes.

Director of the film, Jane Campion, is a woman to be admired. A New Zealander, she is Dame Elizabeth Jane Campion (DNZM), born 1954, well known as director, screenwriter and producer of films. She has the honour of being the only woman in the Academy Awards’ 94 year history to receive double nominations for the Academy Award for Best Director: 1994 – for The Piano and 2022 for Power … She is also the first woman filmmaker to receive the Palme d’Or at the Venice Film Festival in 1993 for Best Original Screenplay for The Piano. At the 78^th Venice Film Fest in 2021, she won the Silver Lion for directing The Power of the Dog.

Two other nominated directors are Steven Spielberg – West Side Story (remake); Kenneth Branagh – Belfast. A heavily campaigned for film, Amazon Prime Video’s Being the Ricardos about the relationship between Lucille Ball and Dezi Arnas (not on local Netflix so far) starring Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman, received three nominations.

On March 28 we will know how many Oscars the two films written about will win.