The Venice Film Festival is over, the Toronto Film Festival is over, and the Telluride Film Festival is over...... The first wave of awards season has subsided; The New York Film Festival has ended, the Independent Spirit Awards have ended, and even the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Association have ended...... The second wave of awards season has also subsided. Pen, fun, and www.biquge.info

In the blink of an eye, half of November has passed, the National Board of Review Awards, the North American Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards have announced the list of nominees, and there is not much time left before the announcement of the Golden Globe Award nominees, the awards season has come to the people vigorously, but the bustling and lively atmosphere in previous years has not come, the major media are not in a hurry to announce the "hot debut of the awards season", and the major film companies are not in a hurry to announce that "the reputation of a certain work is booming", Even Hollywood's internal test screenings and private parties seem to have disappeared, and this dull atmosphere is really uncomfortable.

In previous years, the Weinstein brothers have always been able to steal the spotlight, and their work has always played an important role in the awards season – both in the nomination stage and in the winning phase; But this year, the Weinstein brothers left Miramax and went on their own, missing the perfect opportunity to make a splash and seem to be a little more low-key.

But even so, the awards season has been formed for nearly ten years, and the huge business opportunities and interests hidden in it are unimaginable, and the discussion about the works of the awards season is still endless after all, although it has not been able to form a storm, but it has replaced commercial films, and the works with award-winning potential have gradually become people's after-dinner conversations, but this year's works seem to lack a little explosiveness.

"Babel" undoubtedly occupies an important part of the topic, this work has landed at the Cannes Film Festival as early as May, received a lot of praise, and the Mexican director Alessandro González Iñárritu, who has filmed "Love is a Son of a Dog" and "21 Grams", has been highly recognized, and won the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival in one go, seizing the opportunity in the awards season. Subsequently, this work landed at the Toronto Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival, and returned with great acclaim and was considered a hit at this year's Oscars.

"Babel" and last year's "crash" have the same effect, but they are more profound and delicate, emphasizing the dilemma of human communication, the contradictions and conflicts from different civilizations, different races, and different regions, magnifying the weaknesses and struggles of human nature to the extreme. The star cast led by Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett is the icing on the cake, giving the work an innate advantage in the minds of the audience.

It is worth mentioning that this is Brad's first work since "Operation Smith" last year, and it is also his first official appearance after "Cheating Gate" with Angelina Jolie. As expected, according to the arrangement of the public relations strategy, Brad chose an independent art film to make a comeback, putting aside the lead of all the stars, and devoted himself to the actors' performances and spoke with strength.

What's even more amazing is that it is rumored in the circle that the reason why Brad took over the work "Babel" is because he and Angelina's daughter who was just born in May this year, most of his characters in "Babel" care about family and children, and Brad's doting and concern for his daughter prompted him to nod and agree to the invitation. As a result, Brad's "father" image has spread far and wide, and at the same time, the main reason for Brad and Jennifer Aniston's divorce has a new story, "Jennifer is unwilling to have children for him".

The right time, the right place, the right strategy, before you know it, Brad is back in the public eye again, and he gets rid of the image of a "cheating man" and becomes a "family man" who puts all his thoughts on his children. After more than 18 months of silence, Brad Pitt, a "generation of sexual/sensual symbols", successfully turned over.

Although it has received a lot of praise at the film festival, the shortcomings of "Babel" are also very obvious, the first is that the craftsmanship is too heavy, and director Alessandro has played all eighteen martial arts, but the story structure is too loose, which undoubtedly drags down the sublimation of the core idea; The second is that the form is greater than the content, the editing is too violent, and the carving traces are very obvious, like a kaleidoscope, which looks like a cluster of flowers, but in fact it is just a patchwork of several simple graphics, the idea of the film is undoubtedly worthy of affirmation, but unfortunately the presentation is limited, and the depth of excavation is also suffocating.

The film was screened in New York and Los Angeles in the fourth week of October, and the journey to meet the audience began, but the media evaluation was only a disappointing 69 points, which can be seen that the North American media still has reservations about the "Tower of Babel".

Despite this, in this year's slightly dull awards season, the "Tower of Babel", which has the advantages of a star cast, the best director at Cannes, and the recognition of international film festivals, still shows a certain momentum of winning awards and temporarily occupies the focus of discussion; Corresponding to this is the slow ascent of the "Departed".

"The Departed" has attracted countless spotlights from the production stage, and Martin Scorsese's masterpiece brought back after two years after "The Aviator", bringing together Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg and other big stars, it can be described as star-studded.

Leaving aside the baggage of the awards season and operating as a commercial film, the film was fully released in the first week of October, and there was good news. The North American box office of 132 million is slightly tepid compared to the investment of 90 million, but the outstanding performance of the overseas box office has made Warner Bros. smile; Many professional film critics believe that this may not be Martin's best work, but it is Martin's most mature work.

As we all know, Martin is considered one of the most famous pearls of the Oscars, "Raging Bull", "Taxi Driver", "Goodfellas" and other works are absolute classics worthy of going down in history, but Martin has not been able to reap the affirmation of a little golden man so far, among the four major directors in the eighties, in addition to George Lucas, who focuses on technological innovation, Steven Spielberg, Frances West Ford Coppola have all won the Oscar statuette, Martin has been pursuing for more than 30 years, It's still a rare prize. Many people compare Martin to masters like Alfred Hitchcock and Charlie Chaplin, with the same talent and the same ill-fated fate.

Two years ago, "The Aviator" was hailed as "a love letter to the Oscars", but it suffered a merciless blow; Two years later, "The Departed" debuted as a commercial film, but it brought unexpected surprises. Martin's call for the Oscar for Best Director Statuette soared.

Objectively speaking, as a commercial film, "The Departed" naturally lacks artistic value, which is also the biggest shortcoming of the work, but the film shows the unique cultural style and historical heritage of the Boston area, and the discussion of human nature and the tragedy of fate has been shalved, and it still leaves some aftertaste.

In terms of overall momentum, "The Departed" still can't be compared with "Babel", which completely follows the trajectory of the awards season and has already occupied a lot of advantages in terms of impression scores, but "The Departed" still shows a slow upward momentum and is vaguely becoming the biggest competitor of "Babel".

Whether it is "Babel" or "The Departed", the weakness is very obvious, and it has not been able to show the domineering and strong spirit of the top seed players in previous years, which is also a slightly lukewarm portrayal of the award season; But what's worse is that apart from these two works, the other works have not been able to show the ability to compete in the overall momentum, and are more just partial flashes, which also weakens the momentum of the awards season more and more.

The Toronto Film Festival received many affirmations of the "Last Dictatorship", the overall quality of the work is average, the script, director, editing, etc. are not outstanding, and the completion can be said to be "bad", but Forest-Whitaker's performance has been greatly praised, many people have compared him to last year's Philip Seymour Hoffman and Lancelot Strello, Forrest's performance is magnificent, explosive and delicate, which makes everyone's eyes shine.

The same can be said of "Eros at the End", which is lackluster as a whole and has few parts worth mentioning, but Peter Otto's performance won praise from audiences and critics alike, and the 15-minute standing ovation at the Toronto Film Festival was the only award in Toronto this year. Considering the development curve of Peter's career, many people believe that he can replicate the last miracle of Paul Newman's career as an actor, winning the Oscar and drawing a perfect end.

In addition, niche independent films such as "Being a Mother", "Thank You for Smoking", "Shirley Baby", "The Return", "Half Nielsen" and so on have received some attention, but their completion and discussion are far from the average level, not to mention comparable to last year's "Brokeback Mountain" and "Fruit Hard Candy", and the overall quality of the works is unsatisfactory, resulting in independent films that seem to lack highlights this year; "Borat", "Queen Wears Prada", "Ms. Potter" These comedy films have appeared in people's eyes and become candidates for the awards season, which is undoubtedly a further manifestation of the sluggishness of the awards season, because everyone knows that it is difficult for comedy films to enter the eyes of the Oscars. The Golden Globes have set up a special musical comedy department, which has always been a black spot for people to complain about.

The lack of explosiveness in commercial films, the lack of profundity in art films, and even the fact that independent films seem to have languished this year has cast a shadow over the awards season.