December 2011: The Theatrical Race To The End

Every December there is a final mad dash of films releasing in order to qualify for award nominations (i.e. Academy Awards, Golden Globe Awards, BAFTA, hey, and even the illustrious RED WEB AWARDS!) It’s rather interesting to see films get limited early releases in December in order to qualify when the full wide release is actually in January of the following year.

For example: We Need To Talk About Kevin releases on January 27, 2012, but it had a limited release on December 9th (~6 wks early) in order to be considered for awards. (It worked, We Need To Talk About Kevin has already been nominated for The Golden Globes and I’m sure will receive even more noms as time permits).

It seems that moviemakers are aware of the fact that every annual award season tends to completely forget/ignore the films that released at the beginning of the self-same year (January-March), and thus, very few good/award-earning films release in the first quarter. The ones that do, end up being snubbed. (Ahem- Golden Globes, you forgot some early 2011 movies such as Ironclad (for Giamatti’s performance), Jane Eyre, The Lincoln Lawyer, etc.) So, they smash them all into the month of December!

(Ironically, this 3rd week of December only saw $100M come into the box office which is the lowest ever for the month of December since 1999!)

2011’s Big Oscar Winners

Hopefully the greater number of categories for the Oscars will see to it that other deserving films receive nominations, as opposed to the Golden Globes. [Click HERE to see all of the nominations for the 69th Golden Globe Awards].

Now, I wasn’t the biggest fan of some of 2011’s movies, but the work in some of them is still deserving. I expect to see Sucker Punch, Sanctum, and Harry Potter 7.2 get some technical/visual nods; Just like I would expect to see films like The Adjustment Bureau, Drive, and The Muppets to receive some musical nods.

Here’s a quick look at the rest of the films you can expect to see in theaters in these last 2 weeks of the year:

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (12/20) -Starring Rooney Mara, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer. Directed by David Fincher. (TRAILER)

2. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (12/21) -Starring Tom Cruise, Jeremy Renner, Paula Patton. Directed by Brad Bird. (TRAILER)

3. The Adventures of Tintin (12/21) -Starring Jamie Bell, Andy Serkis, Daniel Craig. Directed by Steven Spielberg. (TRAILER)

4. We Bought A Zoo (12/23) -Starring Matt Damon, Scarlett Johansson, Thomas Haden Church. Directed by Cameron Crowe. (TRAILER)

5. In the Land of Blood and Honey (12/23: limited) -Starring Zana Marjanovic, Goran Kostic, Rade Serbedzija. Directed by Angelina Jolie. (TRAILER)

6. The Darkest Hour (12/25) -Starring Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella. Directed by Chris Gorak. (TRAILER)

7. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close (12/25: limited) -Starring Thomas Horn, Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock. Directed by Stephen Daldry. (TRAILER)

8. War Horse (12/25) -Starring Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, David Thewlis. Directed by Steven Spielberg. (TRAILER)

9. Newlyweds (12/26: limited) -Starring Edward Burns, Caitlin Fitzgerald, Kerry Bishé. Directed by Edward Burns. (TRAILER)

10. Pariah (12/28: limited) -Starring  Adepero Oduye, Kim Wayans, Aasha Davis. Directed by Dee Rees. (TRAILER)

11. The Iron Lady (12/30: limited)- Starring Meryl Streep, Jim Broadbent, Richard E. Grant. Directed by Phyllida Lloyd. (TRAILER)

Well, that’s it! That’s All Folks! How many of these last 11 films do you think will be nominated for an Oscar? Will the race to the end be won by one of these last 11? The prestigious “Best Picture” Academy Award awaits!

Get ready to say goodbye to 2011 in theaters! Some of them have already been released limitedly (i.e. MI:4 in IMAX this past weekend!) Which one(s) are you most looking forward to seeing? and why?! Which movie will be the LAST new release of the year that you watch?

Tell me in the comment section!

Thanks for reading! Happy Watching!

–TheScarletSp1der