AUGUST, 4

By Charlie Kiggs

First, the unpleasant news. According to CMP’s sources this has been the GMA edition with the lowest number of voters. It may have been the change of the CMP’s forum. The truth is that everyone at CMP feels a bit disappointed about it. CMP’s Executive Board is debating if moviegoers have lost interest for the GMAs and some voices have even mentioned the possibility of not going on with these awards in the future. But, for what I know, Harry Stark won’t take such drastic decision by the moment. Introducing some changes in the GMA’s voting rules is also being considered.

Well, whatever happens in the future, the 10th edition’s nominees are here and it’s time for my usual comments about it.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

A duel between epic sci-fi and epic historical adventure is the headline of the edition. ‘Devil Trigger’ has confirmed itself as a major event becoming not only a record breaker at box office but also an awards’ favourite. ‘The Gunpowder Plot’ has proved that adult audience oriented movies still have a room in CMP. Two very different movies face to face with 6 nominations each.

Anyway, probably no GMA record will be broken this time. None of this Season’s movies reached the 7 nominations. A record still kept by ‘Pompeii’, ‘Lyra’ and ‘Sherlock Holmes’. And it will be very difficult for the three main candidates to reach the 5 awards got by ‘Carousel’, the most awarded CMP’s movie ever.

Box office and nominations have not gone as hand in hand as it may seem. Out of the 13 movies that broke the 100 millions barrier in box office this Season, only 7 of them get at least one nomination. But, this time, no movie with net losses will win the Best Picture award, as it happened with ‘Nagasaki Daydreams’ or ‘The 6th Avenue Castaways’.

Some talents get two nominations for the same work this time: Angelina Jolie (also nominated twice back in Season 3 for ‘Westworld’), Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson. Only Catherine Z. Jones for ‘Fools Game’ and Bill Murray for ‘Life And Facts Of A Dirty Mind’ were capable of taking two statues home in only one edition.

A woman is back to the Best Villain category, usually reserved to men. Angelina Jolie (‘Westworld’) and Kirsten Dunst (‘Misplaced Affection’) were the two precedents. And neither of them won.

And two debutantes at the Best Screenplay category: David Makalaster ad Dawson Edwards reach their first nomination. John Daws is back there after being previously nominated for ‘1066’.

THE IGNORED

‘Stanley & Livingstone’ seemed like a production specifically designed to win awards. Epic story, exotic locations, allstars cast and prestigious director and producer. Classic elements to become an awards’ winner. It had it all. But voters have completely ignored it. I personally think it deserved some recognition and not such indifference.

Again, the two most active CMP’s writers have not seen their names in the Best Screenplay category. Matt Kubrick and Josh Collins have put their names in almost half of this Season’s releases. But not on the nominations’ list.

The Avengers’ movies keep making big money but being ignored at the GMA. As it happened with ‘The Avengers 2’, ‘The Avengers 3’ didn’t even reach what could have been considered as a logical nomination at the Most Wanted Sequel category.

Why voters have remembered Joseph Fiennes and Jennifer Connelly and have forgotten the superb work of Ewan McGregor in ‘Human Axis’? A mystery to me.

By the way, this is obviously Makalaster’s edition. But I personally preferred ‘Human Axis’ – in fact, my favourite movie of this Season – than ‘Devil Trigger’. Thank God Makalaster’s presence in the nominations’ list is not due to ‘Hawkeye. The Prey’.

The innovative, successful and brilliant experience of making the first CMP’s 3D animated feature, ‘He-Man and Masters of the Universe’ has not got any recognition. Unfair. As it happened with ‘The Ice Princess’, Andrew Adamson does not get nominated despite his undisputable creative talent.

Voters have not supported as much as usual the low budgets quality movies this time as they usually do. Nice little big movies like ‘Weigh Anchor’, ‘United I Stand’ or ‘Check, Please’ won’t star this GMA’s edition. Voters have gone this time for big budget productions.

THE RETURNS

As usual, many of the nominated talents have been there before:

ANGELINA JOLIE: For the second time, she gets two nominations for one work. It happened before in Season 3 for her creation of an evil Lara Croft’s clone in ‘Westworld’. That time, she went for Best Starring Couple (with David Duchovny) and Best Villain.

DANIEL DAY-LEWIS: Nominated before as Best Supporting Actor for ‘Quadrophenia’, where he played Jaime Bell’s father.

DUSTIN HOFFMAN: Second appearance in the nominees’ list in a row for him. Past edition, he fought for Best Supporting Actor for ‘Dare To Be Perfect’. That makes three nominations in only two editions for him.

MATT DAMON: He was nominated for Best Actor back in Season 3 for his work in another Matt Kubrick’s movie: ‘Home’.

MERYL STREEP: She was nominated as ‘Best Supporting Actress’ back in Season 2 for ‘Cathedral’.

JULIA ROBERTS: Third nomination for her. She has looked before for Best Starring Couple – together with Tom Hanks, for ‘Court Appeal’ – and also for Best Actress (‘Warland’).

JENNIFER CONNELLY: Already a GMA Winner. She won the Best Actress award for ‘Smoke Signals’ back in Season 3. If she wins again, Connelly would become the first actress to have two statues for Best Actress.

RIDLEY SCOTT: He also may become the first one to win twice the Best Director award. His first win was back in Season 2 for ‘Uncommon Valour: The Frigate Captain’.

THE PREDICTIONS

I hate this part. I already have some well known mistakes making predictions. But, hey, who said awards are always predictable?

Ok, I’ll try again.

And remember these predictions are made right after nominations were announced but before voting for the winners begun so don’t expect to find any trustable hints in them.

BEST VILLAIN

MERYL STREEP
In Favour: She played a wild and funny evil grandma, a most original and very ‘comic style’ villain.
Against: A bit overacted. Maybe it wasn’t pretended to be that funny after all.
All in All: Meryl is perfect for any role. But it looks strange watching her winning an award for this eccentricity.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON
In Favour: He was scary and disturbing, just what a villain is supposed to be.
Against: Jackson’s prestige has been damaged after watching him in so many bad movies during the last years.
All in All: He will take the conservative votes. His rivals played two too peculiar characters.

SETH ROGEN
In Favour: The obese and childish Bloat is a great and very original villain different from any other.
Against: As it always happens with comedians, it’s hard to imagine him as an acting award winner. But, hey, Jack Black overcame all prejudices with ‘Life and Facts..’
All in All: No matter if he was, nobody will consider Seth a better villain than Streep or Jackson.

BEST STARRING COUPLE

ANGELINA JOLIE & DANIEL DAY LEWIS
In Favour: Two big stars together. Two intense dramatic roles. Scorsese directing them. Can they lose?
Against: The Let’s-Not-Be-Predictable Factor?
All in All: The only Man & Woman couple of this edition would look glamorous at the ceremony’s stage.

DUSTIN HOFFMAN & SPENCER BRESLIN
In Favour: A different kind of starring couple: a 111 years old man and a teenager. And the chemistry worked!
Against: The rivals. Too hard to beat them.
All in All: As I say, it would mean awarding a different kind of starring couple. But I would not bet my money for them.

MATT DAMON & SAMUEL L. JACKSON
In Favour: The whole movie was based on their works…
Against: …but, hey, that also happened with John Cusack and Scarlett Johansson in ‘The 6th Avenue Castaways’ and they didn’t win this award.
All in All: Their splendid acting work in ‘Foul Karma’ will be remembered no matter if they win or not.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

AMY ADAMS
In Favour: I think she played a lead and not a supporting role. Anyway, she was so funny and contributed a lot to the success of the funny ‘Woodland Creatures’.
Against: An actress with a fox’s costume can win an acting award? Let’s be serious.
All in All: Comedy works DO win awards at the GMA. So she has a chance.

JOAN CUSACK
In Favour: Everybody loves Joan.
Against: She only appears on screen for 10 minutes in one of the segments of the movie. But, hey, something similar happened with Jodie Foster in ‘Things I Forgot To Tell You’ and she won!
All in All: Repeat with me: comedy works DO win awards in CMP. So, yes, she has a chance.

MICHELLE WILLIAMS
In Favour: The only nominated here for a dramatic work…
Against: …but, remember, comedy works DO win awards in CMP.
All in All: It will be a fight between Amy and Joan.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

AARON ECKHART
In Favour: His work in the interesting ‘Blood Meridian’ was full of screen presence.
Against: ‘Blood Meridian’ hasn’t got as much recognition as it deserved.
All in All: Big chances. Eckhart is a respected talent in CMP.

JAY HERNANDEZ
In Favour: His work was one of the nicest surprises of ‘Fallen Kings’
Against: Lack of prestige. Eckhart and Fiennes may be medium weights but still both are better known than him.
All in All: He should enjoy the nomination. It will be the most he’ll take.

JOSEPH FIENNES
In Favour: Again, I think he played a lead character and not a supporting one. Anyway, an impressive work.
Against: Aaron Eckhart
All in All: I think this is the main chance ‘Human Axis’ will have of winning at least one award.

BEST ACTRESS

ANGELINA JOLIE
In Favour: She got what undoubtedly was the most interesting female character of the Season.
Against: Do moviegoers love her or hate her? It seems like there is no middle land for her.
All in All: As past edition’s Best Actor winner, Brad Pitt will present the Best Actress award in the ceremony. So wouldn’t it be sweet to see the family together on stage?

JULIA ROBERTS
In Favour: People feels more sympathy for her than for Angelina. And her paranoid wife was a great creation.
Against: Has her time as an audiences’ favourite passed?
All in All: It’s her third nomination at the GMA. She is beginning to deserve the statue.

JENNIFER CONNELLY
In Favour: She’s always been a CMP’s favourite.
Against: We have three heavy-weights here. Hard to choose.
All in All: Who knows… Looking at the three nominees, I think this is the toughest category to bet.

BEST ACTOR

CHRISTIAN BALE
In Favour: He is a regular CMP’s favourite. Bale has worked with almost every CMP’s author. So that should count for him.
Against: Hard to think of some reason why he shouldn’t win.

All in All: His first nomination after so many brilliant acting works in CMP. Deserved.

DUSTIN HOFFMAN
In Favour: His recreation of a wacky eccentric 111 years old man was a top class work.
Against: Make up helped him as much as acting to create his character.
All in All: It seems like good old Dustin is becoming a CMP’s favourite lately, so he may have a chance.

JOSEPH GORDON-LEVITT
In Favour: He played the kind of sentimental, tormented, nice and honest young man every female voter would support.
Against: Christian Bale
All in All: Being nominated looks as reward enough. And better enjoy it, cause he looks as one of those One Hit Wonders in CMP.

BEST SCREENPLAY

DAVID MAKALASTER
In Favour: ‘Devil Trigger’ is THE movie of the Season.
Against: The success of the movie is more based on its visual power than on its screenplay.
All in All: If Makalaster was here for ‘Human Axis’, my vote would go for him.

DAWSON EDWARDS
In Favour: Audiences love good cops stories. Remember ‘The Funeral Drum’, Best Screenplay winner.
Against: Are voters capable of forgetting he is also the author of ‘Aquaman’?
All in All: Edwards has proved he’s a solid adult stories writer, no matter what Jackie O’Callaghan may say.

JOHN DAWS
In Favour: A brilliantly built up historical story. Daws has grown up as screenwriter since he begun his career in CMP many Seasons ago.
Against: Young voters won’t choose this one having there ‘Devil Trigger’.
All in All: Maybe the time to win this award has finally come for this prestigious and experienced CMP’s author.

BEST DIRECTOR

LARRY & ANDY WACHOWSKI
In Favour: The success of ‘Devil Trigger’ is based almost a 99% in their visually powerful directing style.
Against: The abuse of visual tricks in their directional style.
All in All: I can’t forgive them for destroying Matrix with those horrible sequels. Not voting for them will be my revenge.

RIDLEY SCOTT
In Favour: He can direct almost any genre. His sense of epic shined in ‘The Gunpowder Plot’.
Against: A too classical work against the cool and modern Wachowski’s style.
All in All: Putting up a big historical production and making it work in box office is such an achievement, awarded or not.

TERRY GILLIAM
In Favour: Every award ceremony must have a surprise. And Gilliam has an own movie language that perfectly adapted to the peculiar story of ‘Borgel’.
Against: Too underdog.
All in All: He won’t win. But it’s nice to see him here.

BEST PICTURE

DEVIL TRIGGER
In Favour: This mix between Matrix and Jason Bourne’s movies has already entered in CMP’s History.
Against: Isn’t it becoming a bit overvalued?
All in All: Usually sci-fi blockbusters do not win Best Picture awards. But, hey, ‘Star Wars: New Order’ made it.

FALLEN KINGS
In Favour: A solid movie any way you look at it (and my personal favourite).
Against: The two rivals are tough ones.
All in All: It has my vote. But it would not be the first time that most of the voters disagree with me.

THE GUNPOWDER PLOT
In Favour: It is the classic big budget prestige production perfect to win awards.
Against: GMA voters are not as conservative and classic as Oscar’s voters.
All in All: It might ruin Devil Trigger’s night.