Tag Archives: Shame

This Fall’s Awards Contenders

Being originally from New England, fall has always been my favorite season. You’ve got the cool, crisp air and the bright-colored leaves. Then there’s the holidays and my birthday. But chief among it all … the movies! We’re ramping up for awards season, so now’s the time for the studios—big and small—to put out some of the best cinematic fare of the year. I spend all year keeping my eye on awards contenders, but the fall is when the best films are released. It’s a simple principle: the last thing you see is the first thing you remember. And that’s why studios wait until the end of the year to put out their big guns. These are the films that voters are most likely to remember (and consider) for the year’s top awards. Here are just some of the remaining films to be released this year that are primed for awards consideration, as well as some of the categories for which they stand to potentially receive nominations. (Note: This is not an exhaustive list, as several earlier releases are worthy of consideration in various categories.)

If you’re anything like me and you determine which movies to watch based, at least partly, on awards viability, then set your calendars for these upcoming releases (release dates listed below).

Best Picture

       

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Hit & Miss: Movie Posters

Movie advertising. It’s often the first exposure a person has to an upcoming release, so it’s crucial that a film’s trailer and poster are both enticing and representative of the film, expressing the same look, feel, and tone that a person will experience while watching the movie. At best, a successful movie advertising campaign will put butts in seats. At worst, well … it won’t. It’s a sad day when no one watches a great movie because of bad advertising. I’m pretty sure a puppy gets cancer each time this happens.

Think back at some of the iconic movie posters that have become so ingrained in pop culture that they’ve become art, themselves. E.T. Schindler’s List. American BeautyRaging Bull. The Silence of the Lambs. All with great movie posters. To date, the tradition of great advertising continues for some films. For others, not so much.

Take a look at these two hits and two misses and share your thoughts in the Comments section.

Hit

It seems fitting (like a bed sheet—see what I did there?) that a movie about a sex addict would have a poster that simply and graphically depicts the place where all the magic happens. There’s a clear story here. The sheets are disheveled and wrinkled. Someone was just in bed. Who? The simple, yet powerful title, Shame, rests comfortably atop the mess that was left behind. What shameful act happened here? On December 2nd, we’ll find out.

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