Oscar best actor down to the wire
Print Edition
DENZEL Washington plays a talkative, bombastic, larger-than-life dad whose personality leaps off the screen.
Casey Affleck, by contrast, plays an introverted father, taciturn, mumbling and depressed.
Both men are competing to be named best actor at the Oscars film awards occasion on Sunday in what award watchers say is the ceremony’s biggest cliffhanger.
While musical “La La Land” is widely expected to win the top award — best picture — Washington’s performance in black family drama “Fences” and Affleck’s role in the heart-breaking “Manchester by the Sea” are going down to the wire.
“There is a lot of affection for Denzel Washington and there is also the #OscarsSoWhite controversy from last year that has to be on Oscar voters’ minds,” said Matt Atchity, editor-in-chief of review aggregator RottenTomatoes.com.
If all goes well for Washington, 62, he would join the likes of Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson among a rare group of actors who have won three Oscars.
Affleck, 41, the younger brother of actor Ben Affleck, is seeking his first Oscar. He had swept 90 percent of prior awards and critics prizes until losing to a stunned Washington at the Screen Actors Guild ceremony in January.
Affleck’s early wins came despite 2010 sexual harassment allegations that resurfaced as his Oscar prospects gathered steam.
Two civil lawsuits alleging unwanted advances were filed by female crew members on an earlier Affleck film and were settled out of court for undisclosed sums.
Affleck’s lawyer at the time denied the allegations.
“It doesn’t help, but I don’t think it’s going to be a key factor at the Oscars,” said Tim Gray, who covers awards for the Hollywood trade publication Variety.
Gray likened the Affleck case to that of filmmaker Roman Polanski, who won a best director Oscar in 2002 despite a 1977 rape case.
“When Polanski got the Oscar for ‘The Pianist,’ nobody predicted he was going to win. But it felt like Academy voters were sending a message that they were voting on the work, not a person’s character,” Gray said.
The other lead actor contenders — Andrew Garfield (“Hacksaw Ridge”), Viggo Mortensen (“Captain Fantastic”) and Ryan Gosling (“La La Land”) — were thought to be long shots.
Voting by the 6,600 members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences closed on Tuesday.
Sunday could bring surprises also in the lead actress race with a late surge of support for French actress Isabelle Huppert, star of the psychological thriller “Elle.”
Huppert, 63, was an upset winner over early favorite Natalie Portman (“Jackie”) at the Golden Globes last month.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
