Indy 4 and the Oscars

So I know it's a little early to be discussing this, but after reading an interesting article in Entertainment Weekly about poor oscar ratings, I felt this would be appropriate. What the EW article stated was basically oscar tv ratings have been steadily declining over the years. Doing research, EW noticed the years with the best ratings were years where popular movies were nominated (1997's Titanic and 2005's Return of the King) So EW, and several other articles I've read has suggested that the academy pick good movies, but movies that a vast majority of people like, and can go to their local theater and see. This is where Indy 4 comes in, a sure to be blockbuster film at the very least, and judging from the trailer, it has the potential to be very good as well. If the academy heeds the advice of all these articles and critics, it is a very serious possibility that Indy 4 may find itself in the running for some oscars, and perhaps (yes I'm saying it) in the running for Best Picture. The thing that will hurt Indy 4 the most is a summer release. The academy for some reason never likes to pick films that were released during the summer for major categories, and a large part of that is the nominating takes place in the winter and the summer films are "out of sight, out of mind" for voters. Let's take a look back at Indiana Jones oscar history before we progress further. An asterix denotes a win in the category.

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Best Picture
Best Director
Best Cinematography
* Best Film Editing
* Best Visual Effects
* Best Sound Mixing
* Best Sound Effects Editing
Best Original Musical Score
* Best Art Direction

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom

* Best Visual Effects
Best Original Musical Score

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

Best Original Musical Score
Best Sound Mixing
* Best Sound Effects Editing


Now, lets think really critically about Indy 4 and any potential it might have. Lets break it down categorically,

Best Picture

First off, the film has to be really really good. It will have to shatter records like Titanic did, and prove to oscar voters that audiences will come back to see it time and again because it is a good film. Secondly, lets keep in mind that Lucas has never won an oscar, and this may be the year the academy decides to honor him for his contribution to cinema, which has been profound. On a side note, Lucas may have a second chance to win an oscar this year, with the animated clone wars movie having potential in the best animated film category.

Best Director

Yes, Spielberg's won an oscar in the past, but not for his trademark franchise. Like I said, if the film's good, you might see him nominated here, and (I failed to mention this above), they could use Indy 4 as a way to honor the franchise as a whole, much in the same way they did with Return of the King.

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Harrison Ford got a nomination in 1985 for Witness, but has done a wealth of work and has never won an oscar. He's 65 years old, and the academy may decide to award Ford an oscar as a salute to his career over his actual performance in the film. That said, we know Ford is great in the role of Indy, but it's not the kind of role you expect the academy to recognize. It will be very interesting to see what the academy does here.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role

I'm talking about Cate Blanchett. The Academy loves her which is already in her favor, and like all the roles she takes, it's always something new and intereting for her. As I reallyy don't know what the character or the performance will be like, it'd hard to guage the academy here.

Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Very hard to judge whether anything will come out of this category. Ray Winstone and John Hurt are great actors, but we don't know enough about the characters to judge their performances, and I think Shia LaBeouf is too young, especially for a film like this, to get a nod.

Best Original Screenplay

I think it would be an original screenplay, unless they consider sequels adapted wo

 

The Academy won't heed the advice critics and journalists. If the Academy's reception of the Prequel Trilogy is any indication, Indy will most likely be completely ignored.

EDIT: I know that makes me cynical, but Star Wars was nominated for 10 Academy Awards and won six, including a Best Original Screenplay Oscar for George Lucas, while The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi both recieved Special Achievment Oscars. In contrast, the Prequels were completely snubbed despite the fact that they are very solidly put together films with great visuals, beautiful comstumes and spectacular special effects. I could be wrong, but I fear that this wil be the fate of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

 

The technical categories are a good bet for at least a few nominations. I can't see any win or even nomination in the big categories though.

Indy is an icon, but you hardly ever get an Oscar with such a role. Johnny Depp did a marvelous job in Pirates of the Caribbean, I'd say he's pretty much the reason why Pirates 2 turned into a $420+ million domestic, $1 billion worldwide blockbuster. If they went by the general audience, I guess he would have won an Oscar for that role, but it's almost impossible to do that with the Academy. I'm surprised that he got as far as getting nominated. Even if Harrison Ford turns in a marvelous performance, which he is more than capable of, he would have to be better than he was in the first three movies and even that might not be enough to get a nomination, much less a win.


Lucas already got an Oscar for his contribution to cinema. He got the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1992, which is the lifetime achievement award.
Even if they wanted to give him a regular Oscar, which I doubt because he isn't really a favorite among the Academy-members, he would get it for one of the smaller movies he wants to do in the future, not a movie where he was "merely" the producer.

 

The technical awards it has a shot at. I think more of a chance to win than SW because it's Spielberg, not just Lucas.

-sj loves kevin spacey

 

I think Spielberg will have an outside chance of getting Best Director.

 

You people haven't even seen the frakking film yet!

 

I realize that we sort of come off as sounding cynical, but given the Academy's snubbing of the Prequels, I don't expect much in the way of Oscar recognition for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, although I concede that it may very well deserve a few Academy Awards.

 

I wasn't even talking about that. I was refering to the posters who thought that Spielberg could get a nom for Best Director, or that it could get a nom for best screenplay, or best picture.

 

Crystl Skull looks good, but not best Best Director good.

 

It seems to me GL gets nothing but the snub from the Academy. I doubt there will be much, if any, mention of Indy 4 at the Oscars, unless it is for wardrobe, fx, etc. Sad, but true.

 

Just offhand I'm gonna say 1 or 2 technical wins and perhaps 1 serious nomination.

At best.

This is not an "oscar" movie.

 

If Indy 4 is as good as Raiders,Graffiti,and Star Wars then I'm sure it will get some Oscar recognition.But if it's like some of GL's other not so go movies then well .

 

Thought it might be a good time to come back to this. My breakdown of the nominations

Categories it Should get Nominated for:

Art Direction: Absolutely outstanding. If the film gets one nomination, this should be it. The attention to detail, from setting the scene of the 1950's to the many locales seen in the film is wonderful.

Costume Design: Again, great attention to detail. Mutt's costume was fantastic. The Skeleton Warriors and John Hurt's costumes were great, and Spalko and her henchmen were well done as well.

Sound Editing and Sound Design: Ben Burtt and the sound team are always the sound masters.

Editing: Michael Kahn did a brilliant job with this film, like all of his Indy films. The editing from one cut to the next is spot on with every cut.



Categories it Might Deserve a Nomination in:

Musical Score: Another good score by Williams, but lacking stand out themes the way the other 3 films did, so I find it hard to get a nod here.

Best actor: Harrison Ford. A long shot but the fact that Ford played the character so well even after all these years earns him consideration in my book.

Best supporting actor: John Hurt. The academy loves abstract roles, and they love Hurt already. Oxley was an interesting character, but again, long shot.

Best supporting actress: Cate Blanchett. She performs very well and pulls off the accent nicely and the academy loves her, but again, long shot.

Best special effects: Lets face it, some of these special effects weren't the best in the world, and there will be far too many films competing for those 3 spots this year that indy will and probably should be overlooked here.

Best Cinematography: There were a couple of nice shots by Janusz, but again, I didn't feel there was anything overly impressive that wowed me with the cinematography.




Categories it shouldn't get a nomination in:

Best Picture: Lets face it, it just wasn't.

Best Director: He's done better.

Best screenplay: The story and screenplay was not this film's strongpoint.

Best Makeup: Nothing impressive here

 

If anyone gets a supporting actor nod, it'll be Shia. The Academy loves a rising star.

And I seriously think we'll see some blockbusters up for the big awards this year, but I'd be surprised to see Indiana Jones get that far. It's good, but it's just not that good. At this point, I would probably say Dark Knight and Wall*e have the best chance of breaking through into the big categories, but it's too early to tell.

 

Well I couldn't care less about some highbrow award show, but I'd guess that it might get a nomination for sound editing since Skywalker Sound has gotten a nomination ever since the original SW movie came out.

 

None, it's not an oscar movie by a long shot.

 

It's ultimately irrelevant whether or not it won any Oscars. The only ones it might have a long shot at would be something like special effects or sound editing.

But the Academy is almost allergic to anything that has to do with Lucas, because they know he doesn't really care. So even if it was Spielberg who directed, they probably won't throw any nominations its way - which doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the movie by those of us who love Indy.

 

Yes, the Oscars are irrelevant, but so is Indiana Jones. And human existence, if you'd like to go that far.

 

In the larger scheme of things, sure. But from the point of view of an Indy fan, Oscars are absolutely irrelevant to the enjoyment of watching the movie. Just sayin' in case anyone else here might have missed the point.

 

I know I mentioned it earlier in this thread, but I feel the need to reiterate my point about the art direction oscar. This is the one category Indy 4 deserves a sure nomination in, and I will be most disappointed if it gets snubbed in this category. Rewatching the film on DVD and seeing the special features, I am still so wowed by the attention to detail on these sets. Not only is the feel of the 1950's perfectly captured on film, but the level of detail work on the sets is astounding and beautiful. It reminded me of the kind of detail oriented work that drove the Lord of the Rings series. I mean, they took the time to artistically design each of those tiny panels you see in the alien room at the end of the film. Everything from the cold hard vehicles and encampment of the Russians, to the stuff in the cemetery, to the Ugha temple at the end of the film, is designed with meticulous detail I've not seen in most films this year, and certainly a level of detail never seen before in any of the other Indiana Jones films.

 

Harrison Ford should be given an Oscar just because they screwed him over in that field.

 

I will also be using this thread to update information on awards season for Indy 4, so if you could change the thread title to "Indy 4 and Awards season" that would be great.

On that note, Indy 4 has been nominated for a critics choice award for best action film of the year. The nominees are:

The Dark Knight
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Iron Man
Quantum of Solace
Wanted

 

ok it will not win best special effects. it might get nominated but not win because of the cg gophers. they should've used real gophers.
[image=http://www.doobybrain.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/cg-gophers.jpg]

harrison ford might get a nomination for best actor, and if he does i think he should get it.
and the clone wars will NOT get even a nomination for best animated movie. Ziro the Hutt threw all possibility of a nomination out the window.

 

The gophers were reportedly SS' idea. Either way, 30 seconds of CGI animals don't ruin a movie.

 

No, but 30 seconds of unconvincing CGI animals DO ruin a movie's claim to 'best effects'.