The race for Oscar gold is on, and this means big bucks for those in the running for the Best Actor and Best Actress awards.
Best Actor
Don Cheadle
Hotel Rwanda ($5.6 million*)
Reservations at Hotel Rwanda will remain brisk for weeks to come thanks to Don Cheadle. His quietly powerful performance is the sole reason Hotel Rwanda is an art-house sensation. This also bodes well for Crash, an ensemble drama which Cheadle produced and costars in with Sandra Bullock, when it opens in May. And Cheadle‘s shot at an Oscar may finally give him the leverage he needs to secure funding for his long-gestating directorial debut, Tishomingo Blues, a crime caper based on an Elmore Leonard novel.
Johnny Depp
Finding Neverland ($32.5 million*)
Depp will win an Oscar–just not this year. But the nomination for Depp‘s unpretentious but passionate portrayal of Peter Pan playwright J.M. Barrie should finally give hesitant audiences a reason to find Neverland. And hopefully Depp‘s second Oscar nomination in as many years will allow The Libertine, a Restoration-era drama, to see the light of day. Depp, though, could win 10 Oscars and it still would not make the task of selling Charlie and the Chocolate Factory any easier. This remake–which boasts one of the oddest trailers in recent memory–lives or dies by director Tim Burton‘s ability to make this a tastier treat than the original 1971 classic.
Leonardo DiCaprio
The Aviator ($58 million*)
Leo’s Oscar nod–along with 10 others–will keep The Aviator flying high. This costly biography has yet to earn Howard Hughes-size bucks, but a Best Picture win would likely bag Leo another $100 million smash following 2002’s Catch Me If You Can. The Aviator‘s Oscar success will guarantee that Leo’s third time collaborating with director Martin Scorsese–on The Departed, a remake of the ingenious Japanese thriller Infernal Affairs that will also star Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg–is a charm.
Clint Eastwood
Million Dollar Baby ($8.3 million*)
Oscar knows how to make Clint’s day. He enjoyed his first $100 million smash after Unforgiven lassoed a Best Picture statuette. Mystic River‘s two acting wins–for Sean Penn and Tim Robbins–drove the Eastwood-directed revenge yarn to $90.1 million. Clint’s boxing clever with Million Dollar Baby: its seven nominations should ensure a big purse now that the ringside drama has opened wide and can fully capitalize on its Oscar buzz.
Jamie Foxx
Ray ($73 million*)
If patience is a virtue, then Foxx‘s surefire Oscar win might have earned Ray a few more Greenbacks. Instead, Universal will forgo the opportunity to push to the Best Picture nominee to $80 million and cash in by rushing Ray out on DVD on Feb. 1. Foxx won’t drown his own tears, though. His likely victory should fuel interest in this summer’s Stealth–which is currently flying under the radar–and make the Gulf War-drama Jarhead a potential Oscar contender this time next year.
* Still in release; totals through Jan. 23, 2005.
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Best Actress
Annette Bening
Being Julia ($3.8 million*)
Bening lost to Hilary Swank in 1999. Will history repeat itself? Not if Oscar voters go all mushy and hand Bening the Oscar solely for her career achievements. Being Julia doesn’t feature Bening‘s finest performance–she’s overly melodramatic as an aging stage actress–but the ongoing popularity of the period comedy does represent a welcome comeback after a 3-year sojourn in the early 2000s. An Oscar win will surely help Bening‘s upcoming drama, Running with Scissors, cut through the competition.
Catalina Sandino Moreno
Maria Full of Grace ($6.5 million)
If anyone truly stands to benefit from her nomination, it’s Moreno. She deserves to take home the Oscar for her stunning debut as an on-the-run Columbian drug mule. Maria Full of Grace is already available on DVD, so there’s no excuse not to catch her gritty but sympathetic performance before Bening or Swank win the Oscar. Moreno doesn’t have any films in the works, but this nomination–a surprise after the Golden Globes cruelly ignored her–will result in countless scripts ending up on her doorstep.
Imelda Staunton
Vera Drake ($2.2 million*)
Mike Leigh‘s little-seen examination of abortion rights should command more attention now that his previously unknown star is vying for an Oscar. And the nomination will do for the Staunton what it did for Secrets & Lies‘ Brenda Blethyn: turn her into a sought-after British actress noted for her ability to excel in both comedy and drama. That said, only the curious will seek out Staunton in next month’s National Lampoon’s Blackball, a long-delayed sports satire set in England’s competitive world of lawn bowling.
Hilary Swank
Million Dollar Baby ($8.3 million*)
Swank failed miserably to turn her 1999 Oscar win for Boys Don’t Cry into a meaningful career move. Perhaps that’s the price for failing to thank hubby Chad Lowe in her acceptance speech. But the smart money’s on Swank to learn from her past mistakes–The Core, anyone?–and employ this nomination to land bigger and better roles. Million Dollar Baby just opened wide, and will no doubt be Swank‘s biggest hit regardless of whether she KOs Bening on Oscar night. The hype surrounding Swank also could help usher her two completed indies, 11:14 and Red Dust, into theaters.
Kate Winslet
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind ($34.4 million)
Behaving crazier than Jim Carrey in this Charlie Kaufman-scripted loopy love story certainly paid off for Winslet, who finally threw off her corset after years of headlining costume dramas. Her nomination won’t make a penny more for Eternal Sunshine … at the box office–two editions of the absurdist comedy are on DVD–but it should stir interest in her other Oscar-baiting offering, Finding Neverland. Chances are it also will cause her musical Romance & Cigarettes to burn up art-house theaters this summer.
* Still in release; totals through Jan. 23, 2005.
