Michael Grandage – All My Life… I Wanted To Be A Blogster

Harry Styles, Emma Corrin, and David Dawson headline the 1950s set romantic drama My Policeman, which has premiered at the Toronto Film Festival prior to its November 4th debut on Amazon Prime. An October 21st awards qualifying run is also slated. Michael Grandage directs the adaptation of the 2012 novel by Bethan Roberts. Costars include Linus Roache, Gina McKee, and Rupert Everett as the older versions of the aforementioned stars.

The tale of forbidden love is getting most of its ink due to Styles playing a homosexual policeman. Yet early reviews are quite mixed on the effectiveness of his performance (Corrin is being called best in show). The Rotten Tomatoes meter for the film itself is a mere 47%.

Unless it gets a random Costume Design or Production Design nod (which I doubt), we can likely discount My Policeman to get on the blotter of awards voters. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…

We have arrived at the Best Director portion of my incredibly early Oscar predictions for 2015. When I made predictions in this category last year for 2014 pics, it yielded 3 of the five eventual nominees and the other two were listed as other possibilities.

In the Director race, it’s safe to assume that all predicted directors will likely see their pictures nominated as well (my Best Picture prognostications will be up tomorrow). My current field includes three previous winners: Danny Boyle for Steve Jobs (he won in 2008 for Slumdog Millionaire), Tom Hooper for The Danish Girl (he won in 2010 for The King’s Speech), and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for The Revenant (he won just last year for Birdman). Other previous recipients like Steven Spielberg (Bridge of Spies), Robert Zemeckis (The Walk) and Ron Howard (In the Heart of the Sea) are certainly possible as well.

David O. Russell’s last three projects (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook) have been showered with Oscar love so I’ll include him for December’s Joy. And Carol has been receiving festival raves and that could bode well for Todd Haynes.

Others to keep an eye out for: if The Hateful Eight garners the kind of love that Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained did, Quentin Tarantino could find himself in the mix. And don’t count out George Miller, whose direction in particular was lauded for this summer’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

And with that:

TODD’S EARLY PREDICTIONS – BEST DIRECTOR

Danny Boyle, Steve Jobs

Todd Haynes, Carol

Tom Hooper, The Danish Girl

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, The Revenant

David O. Russell, Joy

Other Possibilities:

Don Cheadle, Miles Ahead

Scott Cooper, Black Mass

John Crowley, Brooklyn

Sarah Gavron, Suffragette