The SAG Awards nominations brought another setback for Martin Scorsese’s “Silence.” The stunning film was blanked out again, as with the Golden Globes.
The problem is that “Silence” came too late for proper screening for voters. And there are no screener DVDs that could have been sent around. In retrospect, Paramount may have done better to wait and release “Silence” next year. But the lure of a Scorsese movie– much less a masterpiece– was too much. That’s understandable.
In a proper setting, “Silence” would have picked up a Best Ensemble nomination, and noms for Andrew Garfield and Issay Ogata for lead and supporting actor. But just not enough people have seen it. Now Paramount will have to mobilize (they have a great publicity department) to get all the guilds to see the film fast. I do hope that works.
But what happens now clearly is that by mid fall, all voters start to form an opinion of what the important movies are. By late fall, the “fix” so to speak is in. “Hell or High Water” came from Cannes. “La La Land,” “Manchester,” and “Moonlight” came from Toronto, Telluride and the New York Film Festival. With so many distractions in the real world, Academy voters obviously have trouble processing new ideas late in the game.
Two films I thought would get Best Ensemble and didn’t — “20th Century Women” and “Lion.” The latter at least has been featured on “60 Minutes.” But the former has low visibility. A lot of people I’ve mentioned it to have never heard of it. That’s really a shame.
