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'Slumdog' on pole as Oscars reach home stretch
2009-02-15
HOLLYWOOD (AFP) - The one-week countdown to the Oscars gets underway here Sunday with rags-to-riches love story "Slumdog Millionaire" the runaway favorite to dominate the movie industry's biggest night of the year. Director Danny Boyle's low-budget film set in Mumbai has turned Hollywood's awards season into a virtual procession this year, sweeping all before it on a march towards the February 22 Academy Awards, where it has 10 nods. The 15-million-dollar film got another accolade last weekend when it won best picture at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs), following wins at the Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, Directors Guild and Producers Guild Awards. The biggest threat to "Slumdog Millionaire" is expected to come from "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," filmmaker David Fincher's big-budget period romance starring Brad Pitt about a man who ages in reverse. "Benjamin Button" heads into the Oscars with 13 nominations in several categories including best picture and best director while the film's leading man Pitt also earned a best actor nod. Other best picture nominees include political thriller "Frost/Nixon," "The Reader" and "Milk." While traditionally the film with the most nominations has tended to win best picture, experts say "Slumdog" has acquired a momentum that will be difficult for "Benjamin Button" to derail. "I don't think 'Slumdog' can be beat," said Tom O'Neil, a pundit with the Los Angeles Times's awards season blog theenvelope.com. "It seems to be on an inevitable trajectory. And it's great to see a movie that Hollywood is rapturously in love with." O'Neil said while Oscars voters had enthusiastically but "squeamishly" voted for the bleak and bloody "No Country for Old Men" last year, this year they were happy to line up behind an unashamedly feel-good movie. "I'm talking to Oscar voters who are watching their 'Slumdog' DVDs five or six times, over and over again," O'Neil told AFP. Variety magazine's Hollywood blogger Anne Thompson also is picking "Slumdog" as a lock for best picture but she has wondered whether there could be too much glowing overexposure ahead of the Oscars. "Will there be a Slumdog backlash?" she quoted a friend as asking on her blog. Dave Karger, who writes the "Oscarwatch" blog, said "Slumdog's Oscar dominance seems more inevitable than ever," but also described hearing of a "vocal minority" that was turned off by the film. Beyond the best picture race, clear favorites have emerged in other categories, with Britain's perennial Oscars bridesmaid Kate Winslet odds on to end her losing streak after five previous nominations which ended in defeat. Winslet is nominated for her haunting performance in period drama "The Reader," in which she plays a former Nazi death camp guard who falls in love with a teenager. Although Winslet's rivals include two-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep ("Doubt"), O'Neil believes Winslet is a lock. "I don't think Kate Winslet can possibly lose," said O'Neil. The contest for best actor, where Sean Penn is favorite for his portrayal of murdered gay politician Harvey Milk in Gus Van Sant's biopic "Milk," is a closer race however. Mickey Rourke, a Golden Globe winner for playing a washed-up prizefighter in "The Wrestler," could give Penn stiff competition. "It's a real heavyweight bout between the wrestler and the gay rights crusader," O'Neil said. "There's a real fight there. I think Penn is ahead but Rourke is within striking distance." In other categories, late Australian actor Heath Ledger is a heavy favorite to become only the second performer in history to win a posthumous Oscar, for his performance as Batman's arch-villain the Joker in "The Dark Knight." Final ballot papers for the 81st Academy Awards must be returned by the 5,810 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by 5 pm (0100 GMT) Tuesday. Preparations for this year's Oscars have been cloaked in secrecy as organizers plan a raft of changes to the ceremony format in an attempt to halt a steady slide in audience figures.
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