The Weinsteins are banking on another good year at the Oscars in 2012, and seem especially keen on landing that long-sought (modern) Oscar for Meryl Streep. The release dates the company has now announced for their next British historical drama, The Iron Lady, suggest a strategic approach to getting the biggest bang for their buck in terms of punching through an increasingly thick list of potential nominees. The film will debut right before the end of the year on December 30th in limited release, with plans for accelerated platforming in January as the inevitable nominations are announced.
Consider that this year’s field is already going to include awards veterans like Tilda Swinton, Glenn Close, Michele Williams, Charlize Theron, and Viola Davis in showy roles along with a batch of newcomers and other wildcards like Elizabeth Olson, Keira Knightly, and Felicity Jones in the mix. It’s year after year like this that have pushed aside performances from Meryl Streep (performances that have tended to be award-worthy individually, as well as on the level of “legacy Oscar”), and made her the most frequently losing actor in Academy Award history. 14 Best Actress nominations have resulted in only 1 award, which she won for Sophie’s Choice thirty years ago (she’s got another 3 supporting nods, and 1 supporting win).
But will Streep deserve an Oscar simply because one more missed year will mark three decades since the Academy gave her the gold? As much as the O’Toole effect stings a bit, it’s ridiculous to rob new young actresses doing great work or an actress like Swinton who’s pushing the boundaries of bravery just to right a perceived wrong. BUT, fortunately for Streep, word is that the actress’ performance in The Iron Lady is testing better than anything the Weinsteins have ever handled. I’m sure that surprises no one.
I think it would entirely be Streep’s style to kick aside all the politics and talk of legacy awards by breaking out an indisputable powerhouse performance and just taking the damn thing.
Nominations for the awards are released on January 26th, with ballots mailing out February 1st, polls closing on the 21st, and the ceremony following on February 26th. Clearly TWC hopes to push out the film and grab all the attention right as the year changes, with Streep’s performance only having to keep up momentum for two months as the film itself platforms. We’ll see how that goes, but honestly I just hope the damn movie is good!
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Source | Deadline