The Weinstein Company, Universal PicturesHappy Les Django Day!
Les Misérables and Django Unchained, two of our last, but not least awards-season entries, are finally in theaters: (Also of note: Silver Linings Playbook, playing in limited release for the past month, has finally gone wide.)
A rundown of the Oscar races that Les Mis and Django figure to figure into:
Best Picture, for Sure—and for Not Sure: Les Mis may have fallen in the eyes of oddsmakers, but the big, big-hearted musical is going to be nominated, and it may yet win. Django Unchained, on the other hand, probably will only secure a nod in if the category goes more than five deep. Critics love the brutal Quentin Tarantino Western/blaxploitation mashup, but buzz-wise it hasn't cracked the lead group of Les Mis, Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty and either Silver Linings Playbook or Life of Pi.
Best Actor, for Les Mis: Hugh Jackman will probably sing himself into the race where he'll lose to Lincoln's Daniel Day-Lewis, while Django's Jamie Foxx will probably be on the sidelines.
Best Supporting Actor, for Django: Leonardo DiCaprio and the Oscars don't always get on so well, but the star's a good bet to secure his fourth-career nomination for an against-type turn as Django's very bad slave owner. Les Mis' Eddie Redmayne, meanwhile, is going to have to hope that block voting still exists, and that the Les Mis block is strong enough to carry him through in the category.
Best Supporting Actress, for Guess Who? If Anne Hathaway isn't nominated for Les Mis, then nobody knows anything about the Oscars, including Oscar voters. (The rule: If you sing and cut your hair live on camera, then you get to go the fancy party with all the little gold men.) Django's Kerry Washington is kinda, sorta in the conversation, but oddsmakers don't give her much of a shot.
Best Director, for Who Knows? Maybe Tom Hooper will have the last laugh at critics who complain his Les Mis cameras get all up in his actors' faces (and noses and throats and…), or maybe Tarantino will score his second-career nomination (perhaps at the expense of Hooper), or maybe Paul Thomas Anderson will get in there for The Master (and perhaps deny both Hooper and Tarantino). The locks in the category seem to be Lincoln's Steven Spielberg, Argo's Ben Affleck and Zero Dark Thirty's Kathryn Bigalow. After those three, the odds are tight; the nomination scenarios are endless.
Best Actress, for Nobody: Are there ever Best Picture contenders that produce no legit Best Actor candidates? Sometimes. Are there ever Best Picture contenders, à la Les Mis and Django, that produce no legit Best Actress candidates? Many times.