Even though Christian Bale is marketing “Out Of The Furnace” more than the other strong Oscar contender he’s apart of “American Hustle”, there could be a few reasons for that including that “Out Of The Furnace” comes out sooner and could probably actually use Bale’s help in pushing it into absolutely any category, which is saying a lot. Jeff Bridges has an Oscar from his work with director Scott Cooper on “Crazy Heart” and Maggie Gyllenhaal was nominated. The Original Song won the other Oscar for Cooper’s film, but “Out Of The Furnace” doesn’t seem to have the wherewithal to match that film. That being said, Christian Bale, Casey Affleck, and Forest Whitaker are all major Oscar contenders, so depending on how well this film does in the critics’ circles and with the general public, it could get just the right push. I compare this film to “Prisoners” of this year, which, for all intents and purposes, could be Oscar contenders any other year. But with the deck already stacked, films that fall slightly out of the circle of what we consider Oscar fodder are completely kept off the reservation. But Bale is currently doing the circuits for this film and obviously we’ll all know more when it hits theaters, but at this point in time, I wouldn’t count on seeing this one in the nominations.
On a side note, notice Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio credited as producers, which would make this interesting if the film were to defy the odds and end up being nominated for Best Picture.
FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN THE FOLLOWING CATEGORIES:
BEST PICTURE | Jennifer Davisson Killoran Leonardo DiCaprio Ryan Kavanaugh Ridley Scott Michael Costigan |
BEST DIRECTOR | Scott Cooper |
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY |
Brad Ingelsby and Scott Cooper |
BEST ACTOR |
Christian Bale |
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR |
Woody Harrelson Casey Affleck Forest Whitaker Willem Dafoe |
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS |
Zoë Saldana |
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY |
Masanobu Takayanagi |
BEST FILM EDITING |
David Rosenbloom, ACE |
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN |
Thérèse DePrez, Production Designer Merissa Lombardo, Set Decorator Gary Kosko, Art Direction |
BEST COSTUME DESIGN |
Kurt and Bart |
BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING |
Ken Diaz, Makeup Designer Karen Lovell, Hair Designer |
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS |
Raymond Gieringer, Visual Effects Supervisor Tim Carras, Visual Effects Supervisor Jon Cowley, Visual Effects Supervisor Ray Bivens, Special Effects Supervisor |
BEST SOUND EDITING |
John Morris, Supervisor Sound Editor |
BEST SOUND MIXING |
James Emswiller, CAS, Production Sound Mixer Leslie Shatz, Re-Recording Mixer Rick Kline, Re-Recording Mixer |
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE |
Dickon Hinchliffe |