2012 Awards Season Guide: 7 Oscar Contenders to Look Out for in November

The toast of this year’s film festival circuit was Michel Hazanavicius‘ throwback feature, the black-and-white silent film The Artist. I saw the film in Cannes and gave it.

The story centers on life in Hollywood as talkies soon move in, edging out not only silent films but silent film stars and George Valentin (Jean Dujardin) begins to fall on hard times just as Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo) bursts on the scene and talks over the box-office in a world where audiences want to hear just as much as they want to see their favorite movie stars.

Hazanavicius has managed to capture the hearts of critics and audiences alike as the film has done well not only in early reviews, but has won audience awards at both the Hamptons and Chicago Film Festivals, a noteworthy feat for a silent film in this day and age.

Potential Oscar Nominations for… Best Picture, Best Director (Hazanavicius), Best Original Screenplay (Hazanavicius), Best Actor (Dujardin), Best Actress (Bejo), Best Cinematography (Guillaume Schiffman)

David Cronenberg‘s A Dangerous Method didn’t necessarily fare too well during the fall film festival circuit though no one was necessarily too harsh on the film as much as it comes across as a bit too dry as he explores the relationship between Dr. Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and Sigmund Freud (Viggo Mortensen) just as the troubled Sabina Spielrein (Keira Knightley) becomes a patient of Jung’s beginning in 1904.

I saw the film in Toronto (read my review Best Actress, the more competitive of the two, which means she could very easily shift to Supporting. We’ll see.

Potential Oscar Nominations for… Best Actress or Supporting Actress (Knightley)

Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo is a bit of a question mark. A work print of the film screened at the New York Film Festival and had people calling it a “love letter to cinema” and an ode to the silent film era as Georges Melies’s classic 1902 feature A Trip to the Moon plays into the film’s plot. Interestingly, unlike The Artist, which is also a clear ode to the silent film era, Scorsese’s Hugo is the complete opposite as it embraces all of today’s technological advances and will be released in 3D.

I don’t see too much of a chance for major awards for this one but it would have felt wrong not to include it.

Potential Oscar Nominations for… Best Cinematography (Robert Richardson), Best Adapted Screenplay (John Logan)

The early reviews for this one were strong, boasting comparisons to The King’s Speech and even those that were a bit sour on it complimented Michelle Williams as she takes on the role of Marilyn Monroe in a story in which she spends one week with 23 year-old Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), an assistant to Sir Laurence Olivier (Kenneth Branagh) who is directing Monroe’s latest film, The Prince and the Showgirl.

The supporting cast includes Judi Dench, Julia Ormond, Dougray Scott, Emma Watson, Toby Jones, Philip Jackson, Derek Jacobi and Dominic Cooper and while the film may fall short of winning at the Oscars, the chances for nominations are plenty.

Potential Oscar Nominations for… Best Picture, Best Actress (Michelle Williams), Best Supporting Actor (Kenneth Branagh), Best Adapted Screenplay (Adrian Hodges)

Only recently was it announced that Millennium Entertainment would bring Oren Moverman‘s Rampart to limited theaters in New York and Los Angeles on November 23 before expanding on January 27, 2012. I saw the film at the Toronto Film Festival (read my review here) and was quite high on it calling it “an art house version of Training Day” as it centers on Dave Brown (Woody Harrelson), a chain-smoking renegade cop, and his metaphorical dissent into Hell.

If the Academy was always about awarding the best film in most categories Rampart would have a strong chance in a lot of places, but as it stands Best Actor will probably be its best bet.

Potential Oscar Nominations for… Best Actor (Harrelson), Best Original Screenplay (Moverman and James Ellroy), Best Cinematography (Bobby Bukowski)