The Scene

The Oscar Race Takes Shape With Films From Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams

Published on Thursday, June 23 2011
Written by Andre Chautard

The upcoming Oscar race is coming in to a little more focus, with The Weinstein Company setting release dates for its high-profile awards contenders.

My Week With Marilyn, starring Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe, will open November 4. The film chronicles a week in the life of the iconic star when she was shooting a film, The Prince and the Showgirl, in London, and a lowly assistant on the set (Eddie Redmayne) helped her escape her troubles. TWC has been hyping this film since before eventual Oscar winner The King's Speech even opened last year. Could TWC make it two Best Picture winners in a row? My Week With Marilyn co-stars the very British supporting cast of Judi Dench, Dominic Cooper, Emma Watson, Julia Ormond, and Kenneth Branagh (as Laurence Olivier, how perfect).

 

 

The Iron Lady, in which Meryl Streep plays the tough-minded former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, arrives on December 16. The film reunites Streep with Phyllida Lloyd, the director of the highest-grossing film of Streep's career, Mamma Mia! Streep is the most nominated actor is Oscar history, having scored 16 nominations and two wins. But her last win was all the way back in 1983 for Sophie's Choice. The Iron Lady could deliver her long-overdue third Oscar.

Ralph Fiennes stars in and makes his directorial debut with an updating of Shakespeare's Coriolanus, now set to open December 2. The film met with warm reviews when it debuted at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year, and the cast includes an intriguing mix of names, from Gerard Butler to Vanessa Redgrave to ubiquitous newcomer Jessica Chastain. Fiennes has frequently tackled Shakespeare on stage, including the title roles in Hamlet and Richard II. Could Coriolanus bring the two-time Oscar nominee his first win?

Cannes Film Festival darling The Artist, a black-and-white silent film taking place in 1927 and starring popular French comedian Jean Dujardin, will come out on November 23. The risky project, for which Dujardin received the Best Actor prize in Cannes, also features Malcolm McDowell, John Goodman, Penelope Ann Miller, Missi Pyle, and French actress Bérénice Bejo, Dujardin's co-star in the James Bond-spoofing OSS: 117 comedies.  

 

 

 

The Bully Project, a timely documentary about school bullying that premiered this year at the Tribeca Film Festival, is set for release on November 11 and could be a contender in the documentary category.

 

 

Also receiving release dates from TWC: the decidedly non-Oscar contenders Scary Movie 5 on April 20, 2012 (although no cast has yet been announced) and Halloween 3D on October 26, 2012.

Still without a release date is Madonna's W.E., which TWC picked up for distribution just last week. W.E. combines a contemporary love story featuring Abbie Cornish with the historical romance between King Edward VIII and American divorcée Wallis Simpson, who were also featured in TWC's The King's Speech last year. Here, Simpson is played by up-and-coming British actress Andrea Riseborough. W.E. could still figure into the Oscar race if TWC sets it for release before the end of the year, but it looks like the studio has its hands full this season.

Which of these TWC dramas are you looking forward to the most?  

 

- Andre Chautard, YH Staff