Will Smith needs a hug as 2008 movie awards season takes flight

It has finally begun.

This week has marked the official kickoff to the neverending cycle of awards shows and banquets, or as I like to call it, "The Season Of The 10,000 Thank Yous."

"Slumdog Millionaire" director Danny Boyle was winging his way from New York to L.A. when suddenly Fox Searchlight President Peter Rice (who found out the news as he was toying around with the airline's new Internet capabilities) gave him a glass of champagne and congratulated him on winning the best picture award from the National Board Of Review. Boyle told me he was floored.

"What a great way to get such good news. I'm really happy because this will just inspire the studio to support the movie even more," he told us at Thursday night's annual Fox Searchlight holiday party at Dominicks.

Rice later said the captain was even going to make an announcement to the entire plane but Rice thought maybe the champagne would be enough. Obviously the Searchlight crew was thrilled with the win, as it could just be the start of many more. Rice mentioned he was also happy that Searchlight's Toronto acquisition, "The Wrestler" was named in the NBR's top-10 list (which is actually 11 if you count 'Slumdog'). He did say he was disappointed "Australia" got no mention. Rice spent much of the last year shepherding Baz Luhrmann's epic through production for big Fox as well. Busy guy.

"Slumdog's" success, though, points up another sad irony. Just when it finally hit the jackpot producing Boyle's rapturously reviewed film, Warner Independent was dissolved and Searchlight was able to grab 50% of the movie from Warner and bragging rights during awards season. Reportedly, Searchlight's other awards contender, "The Wrestler," was also initially developed at Warner Independent. The Business of Show is often a strange one.

There was lots of talk, and some head-scratching, at the party (which was heavy with critics and Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. and Broadcast Film Critics Assn. members, whose groups are all voting this week) over many of the NBR's picks. Some were puzzled by the NBR's big, wet kiss for Clint Eastwood as the star won best actor, saw both of his directing gigs for "Changeling" and "Gran Torino" land in the top 10 and, in a big surprise, the best original screenplay went to "Torino's" Nick Schenk.

One PR wag pushing a movie that was shut out of the NBR list this year said, "An award from the National Board of Review is great until you actually find out who's doing the voting." Take that!

Warner Bros. publicists at a "Dark Knight" event I moderated at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood had a different take. Not only did their "Gran Torino" score big, "Knight" also made the top 10.

"Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan told me he was happy to see it acknowledged but was quite surprised Heath Ledger didn't take supporting actor (The NBR gave that to Josh Brolin for "Milk").

The name of the game at events like the NBR's (to be held in January) is to sell tables to the studios and get their winners to show up. I rather cynically suggested that the Ledger oversight could be due to the fact that "Milk's" distributor, Focus Features, will now have to buy a table. Ka-ching!  Brolin deserves every bit of recognition he gets this year, but let's face it, a dubious group like the NBR spreads the wealth around awards-wise so it can also spread the wealth for the organization.

Before the Q&A event for the Blu-ray DVD release of "The Dark Knight," Nolan, a big advocate of the format, told me he is the one who urged Warners to give Academy members and other groups an option for Blu-ray awards screeners. So far, it is the only studio doing it. As an Academy member, Nolan says he can't even look at regular screeners on his big-screen TV because the quality is so lacking.

Nolan was busy this week, because he also was one of the main attractions at Warner's "Dark Knight" press soiree at Il Cielo on Wednesday evening. Batman himself, Christian Bale, walked into the extremely packed party and looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He said he had never been to something quite like this and wondered what it was. He soon figured it out as reporters put their recorders in his face for quickie interviews, mostly centering on "Dark Knight's"  (increasing) chances for a best picture nomination.

The last major contender of the season, "Seven Pounds," was finally unveiled to press and industry this week. At the Q&A after a screening at the DGA on Thursday, Will Smith was in rare form on the panel that also included co-star Rosario Dawson, director Gabriele Muccino and editor Hughes Winborne. Smith, who also co-produced the moving film, sat through some of it and told the crowd afterward he was an emotional wreck and needed a hug (as moderator, I obliged).

Columbia is up against the wall trying to get as many voting groups and Academy members as possible to see the Dec. 19 wide release, and DVD screeners won't be going out until the picture opens, making it even tougher to keep up with the flood of screeners already out there ("Benjamin Button" just hit mailboxes today along with "Revolutionary Road," "Defiance" and "W.").

If enough voters catch up with it, and certainly the early guild screenings have been packed, the emotionally charged performances of Smith and Dawson could figure prominently in the Golden Globe, Critics Choice and, ultimately, Oscar nominations. Time is the main problem, especially this year with so many contenders opening in the last two weeks of December.

Smith's previous collaboration with Muccino on 2006's "The Pursuit Of Happyness" was also released in mid-December and managed to land a best actor Oscar nomination for him. Backstage, the two were already discussing a third possible collaboration.

Despite Italian director Muccino's (improving) broken English, the pair seem to be speaking the same kind of cinematic language.

With the Gotham Awards handed out, Indie Spirit nominations announced and the NBR list unveiled this week plus more to come -- including the BFCA Critics Choice nominations (Tuesday), the L.A. Film Critics Assn. (Tuesday) and N.Y. Film Critics Circle (Wednesday) winners and the Golden Globe noms (Thursday) -- the 2008 awards season winners and losers lists are quickly filling up.

---Pete Hammond

Photo: Whitney Curtis / Getty Images

Comments

[Jerome Ho]

It's intriguing to dive into the insights of the end-of the year luminous movie awards;
for sure I want a piece of glitz and glamour.
It's the ever-fantastical time of the year whereby there's so much emotional torpedo being generated.