Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Actress Psychic Contest

Holla'.

Just a quick note before I run back to hit the books (with a stick, naturally). Nathaniel Rogers of The Film Experience has opened the floodgates for his annual Actress Psychic Contest.
If you're at all interested in the Best Actress contest, have a masochistic streak or are a compulsive gambler, head on over and make your predictions. The entering criteria are simple; pick 5 women who have films opening in 2008 and throughout the year there'll be a running tally, with points being allocated for awards, publicity, critical buzz and a whole host of other bits 'n bobs. It's all very mathematical and complex, but all we have to do is send off an email with 5 names and then start praying that our picks will amount to something. For those of us who need a little reminder of what's to come in the cinematic year ahead, Nathaniel has helpfully provided a comprehensive list of 50 or so women who could be making waves with their coming films. My 5 names are listed below:

Anne Hathaway - Dancing with Shiva
Rachel McAdams - The Time Traveller's Wife
Julianne Moore - Blindness
Naomi Watts - Funny Games
Kate Winslet - Revolutionary Road

I submitted this line-up mere minutes ago and I'm already filled with doubts. The list is skewed towards the young end of the actressing scale and leaving Meryl Streep out of any line-up seems foolhardy, but I'm sticking with these five. I strongly doubt this will reflect the 2009 Oscar nominations (except maybe Winslet and Moore), but my five could possibly whip up some excitement between them on the publicity circuit. I have Hathaway and McAdams for the publicity trail, Winslet and Moore for the prestige spot and Watts for the critical approval/leftfield spot. I think my picks are a little too scattered and perhaps
too beholden to my own personal biases, but we'll see how this goes. Expect many updates, upsets, curses and perhaps some minor miracles (i.e. Funny Games not being branded "too dark" for major buzz) as the year progresses.

7 comments:

Kayleigh said...

Hehe I'm still trying to recover from this year's predictions! The only two names who spring immediately to mind are Kate Winslet for Revolutionary Road (if she does that role as good as the book describes it, she deserves to win) and Meryl Streep for Doubt. I would love to see Nicole Kidman for Australia. I'm a bit apprehensive about Funny Games, there's something peculiar about a shot for shot remake, Gus Van Sant surely showed how it shouldn't be done. But I love Naomi Watts.
Good luck with your oral exam!

Ann Marie said...

Ah yes you doesn't love to beat up school books :)

Glenn Dunks said...

I don't think Funny Games is getting anywhere near Oscar. Least of all because it's released in March.

Catherine said...

I don't think so, either. I expect it will garner a lot of buzz, though. Or maybe not. I dunno. I just like Watts.

Glenn Dunks said...

Even critics seem to be hating Funny Games (naturally) and it's nowhere in the realm of pretension that critics like (see 21 Grams). It's another realm of pretension altogether (the kind critics hate for being too... avant-guard)

Just a girl said...

Gasp! They're making a film of The Time Traveller's Wife! I have been wanting to read that book forever, and now I shall have to, and soon! With my favourite actress, Rachel McAdams! I look forward to it...

x
Just a girl

Anonymous said...

Yowza. I don't think ANY of those are gonna get in (except Winslet)