Notes on the town 10/29: New Contenders Surface

A new hopeful in the best actress race has just surfaced. Although the independent drama "London River" had successful screenings at Telluride and Toronto and previously won the best actor award (for Sotigui Kouyate) at the Berlin Film Festival, it still has no U.S distributor willing to sign on. That's not stopping the film's producers from mounting an Oscar campaign anyway to land star Brenda Blethyn a best actress nomination. The film will be self-distributed for one week only beginning Nov. 13 in Los Angeles to qualify for this year's Academy Awards as well as other groups, including the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Movie Awards. Screeners will also be sent to members of the academy's actors branch.

The film is directed by 2006 best foreign film Oscar nominee Rachid Bouchareb ("Days Of Glory") and was Algeria's entry for this year's foreign film race but apparently was determined to have too much English-language dialogue to qualify under academy rules in the category. Blethyn powerfully plays a concerned mother looking for her missing daughter after a London bus bombing. She was previously in the Oscar race in 1998 for her supporting turn in "Little Voice" and in 1996 for lead actress in "Secrets And Lies" for which she won the Golden Globe and BAFTA awards. "London River" will also be screening on Friday at the AFI Fest as it still searches for an American distributor.

The Weinstein Company, which already has "Nine," "A Single Man," "The Road" and "Inglourious Basterds" on its plate, has now just decided to qualify yet another film, the teen comedy "Youth In Revolt" starring Michael Cera in dual roles for this year's award races. It will open for at least a week in December before going wide Jan. 8. Producer David Permut tells me the Weinsteins are really high on Cera's performance and are especially hoping for recognition from the Golden Globes, which of course have a separate category for best actor in a comedy or musical.

Speaking of the Globes, which made big news this week with the welcome announcement of host Ricky Gervais, I hear their board will consider broadening the category of best animated film from three to five nominees in any year (including this one) in which there are 12 or more viable entries. Since this is a banner year for animation, it would be good news for a lot of studios with contenders in this race. Whether the Academy Awards do the same thing is still a nail biter as it appears the required 16 eligible movies the academy requires may fall short by just one. We'll know soon. Nov. 2 is the cutoff date for official entries.

Time to shoot down a rumor that got to me this week regarding Clint Eastwood's much-awaited and still largely unseen awards contender, "Invictus," opening Dec. 11 from Warner Bros. Someone leaked word (out of an early internal screening) that widely expected best actor contender Morgan Freeman, who plays Nelson Mandela, was instead going to be pushed for best supporting actor despite his lead billing. That would mean co-star Matt Damon, who already has a lead role in contention from Warners' "The Informant," would be competing against himself for best actor. I checked with a trusted source at Warners, who said it was untrue. Morgan was lead and Matt was support in "Invictus."

By the way, there was an early screening of Guy Ritchie's Robert Downey Jr holiday epic, "Sherlock Holmes," at Warner Bros this week, and those in and out of the studio we heard from were ecstatic at the way it turned out. A late-breaking best picture contender? Who knows, but Jude Law as Dr. Watson is said to knock it out of the park.

The academy announced four Oscar-winning presenters today for its first Governors Awards, which take place at the Kodak grand ballroom Nov. 14 in a nontelevised event in front of 600 invited guests. Kirk Douglas, Anjelica Huston and directors Quentin Tarantino and Jonathan Demme will present honorary Oscars to Lauren Bacall, cinematographer Gordon Willis, and producer Roger Corman. John Calley will get the much-prized Thalberg Award.

The academy's Nov. 5 Centennial Salute to master lyricist Johnny Mercer is sold out. Hosted by Michael Feinstein, the live musical and film tribute at academy headquarters will spotlight a 19-time nominee and four-time Oscar-winning songwriter whose statuettes came for "On The Atchison, Topeka and The Santa Fe," "In The Cool Cool Cool Of The Evening," "Moon River" and "Days Of Wine And Roses." They don't write 'em like that anymore, so kudos to special-events producer Ellen Harrington and the academy for putting the spotlight again on this remarkable and singular talent.

-- Pete Hammond

More Notes on a Season

Back from the dead: Tennessee Williams, Orson Welles in Oscar race?

Oscar hopefuls turn out in force at the Hollywood Awards

"Inglourious Basterds" Oscar campaign off to a roaring start

'Notes' on the town 10/22

Photo: Brenda Blethyn. Credit: EPA.