Here’s the cover of the 2014 edition of this series.
I found it on Amazon UK .
The text with it mentions the films Gravity (the cover image), Nebraska , American
Hustle, 12 Years a Slave, and The Wolf of Wall Street. All of them were Oscar Best Picture
nominees. The Palme d’Or winner is
usually a lock so that means Blue is the Warmest Color will probably be joining
them. That’s six films; a year usually
adds 10-12 new ones.
Speculating on others, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rush
added. The list skews more European, and
they do love their Formula One racing.
And considering one of the two characters is a major British driver, and
that the main editors of the books are British, that also seems to point in the
favor of this film.
It would surprise me to not see Her added, but it’s yet
another Best Picture nominee and the editors seem to only allow a certain
number of them in for a given year. This
might only be 50/50.
The Great Beauty was the foreign film winner for the Oscars,
the Golden Globes, and the BAFTAs. I
didn’t think it was that special, but
the director already had another film added to the list last year (The
Consequences of Love), so I think this one is probably a reasonable pick to be
added.
Three films that didn’t get a lot of notice, but that I had
in my Top 10 for the year are Stoker, Mud, and Much Ado About Nothing. It would be nice to see at last one make the
list. Other than Much Ado About Nothing,
though, I don’t know that they bring anything unique to the discussion.
Upstream Color sharply divides people (I’m on the “con”
side), but enough editors might be on the “pro” side to add it. I’d much rather see Shane Carruth’s earlier
film Primer make the list instead.
I’ve already seen every film mentioned here, so if the new
additions are close to these guesses then I won’t have much catching up to do
this fall.
The Amazon U.K. entry says that the book will be available
October 6, 2014. A similar date was
given last year, but it started shipping in early September instead. Of course, that was the hardcover American
edition. This year is likely to only
have the U.K.
softcover edition. There is no entry for
the book on the main Amazon site in the U.S. ,
but I know that it eventually offered the U.K. editions in prior years, so it
is very likely that will happen again this time.
I think (based on what I've heard) that The Hunt has a pretty good chance of making it in. Frozen might have a chance, too, but I'm not sure how much of one. Blue Jasmine, August Osage County, and Dallas Buyer's Club are possible, too, and I think DBC is actually pretty likely--two acting Oscars and a story that the book compilers absolutely love, based on past entries.
ReplyDeleteA bunch of good choices.
DeleteI would love to see The Hunt make it. I reviewed it and gave it four stars. I almost mentioned it in my post, but finally left it out because it kept losing to The Great Beauty in all the awards ceremonies.
The editors really seem to not like new animated films, even critically acclaimed ones. Since the book was first published the only new animated film that was added was WALL-E and it was removed the next year. I think it's an uphill battle for Frozen.
I thought about mentioning DBC for the reasons you mentioned and also as a representative film for McConaughey's great year (which Mud would also do). It's another Best Picture nominee, though, and they've already got a bunch they are adding.
I considered Blue Jasmine. Allen is well-respected on the list and I was frankly very surprised that Midnight in Paris did not get added, so that makes me think twice about Blue Jasmine.
I haven't seen August: Osage County. I've heard about all the acting in it, of course.
Acting has kind of an uphill battle sometimes getting added to the book--Silver Linings Playbook had nominees in all four acting categories and didn't make it. Then again (and this is in DBC's favor) the book is biased toward actors over actresses, and it won both categories.
DeleteOnly 8 films from 2012 made the list, but those 8 included 2/3 of the Oscar nominees. Sometimes they go with more than half, so I think Dallas Buyer's Club, particularly because of its subject matter and two male Oscars is closer to a lock.
My only real argument for Frozen is that it may be the equivalent of someone getting an Oscar the year after a snub or losing one they should have. The book has basically avoided all of the great Disney renaissance films except Lion King--no Little Mermaid, no Beauty and the Beast--and may feel like it needs to correct that a little bit.
Interesting, we'll have to wait and see. I can't argue with Wolf of Wall Street deserving to be in the book. Nebraska on the other hand I feel is a good, but not great film. I'm with Steve that Frozen stands a chance too.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, (you probably know this already). There's a letterboxd list that allegedly includes everything that's ever been in all editions (1154 films). Apparently I've seen 53%, or 616 of them. I guess you are at 100% by now :)
http://letterboxd.com/tm/list/1001-movies-the-complete-list-from-all-editions/
Yeah, Nebraska is one where I mostly enjoyed the lines from the mother, but the rest was just sort of there.
DeleteThanks for the link. As it happens I was aware of it. I coordinated the big set of updates last fall with the person who mainstains this list and those of us in the 1001 Movies blog club to ensure we were in sync with each other on the entries and the order of the entries. From this coordination is where I updated the 1001 Movies wiki and my own online downloadable tracking sheet of the films. I've made some comments on the list there, but they may have rolled off for being too old. Links for both the wiki and my list are on the upper right here, if you have not seen them.
Congrats on being more than halfway there!