Something else that I saw either on here or another site, is that either this year or last year was the first time that SAG was the last major awards show before Oscar voting started. The years BAFTA and SAG differed between actors and actresses BAFTA was the most recent ceremony. We need not fail to appreciate the major awards Austin did win as lead actor. All awards can be influenced by things unrelated to actual performance, such as comeback narratives, ageism, people portraying those with a disability, momentum from a previous show etc.
All true, and this season if you really think about it, BAFTA seems to be the only major award that went either of their way that you can't sort of downplay if you wanted to. Even in Fraser defense we might assume he wins the Golden Globe without his issues with The Foreign Hollywood Press or that AACTA International was leaning towards Austin with "Elvis" being an Australian made film. SAG as pointed out, has a long history of going with comeback and lifetime achievement narratives, and the Oscar has always been big on disability portrayals, and if not taking part in ageism, giving it to someone who is in their first ever leading role, combined with his age made it even more difficult for Austin. The thing with BAFTA is it too is a huge academy full of voters within the industry, but there was speculation that it would go with Colin Farrell since the UK is his home turf. They actually did go with two supporting roles from Banshees, and it appeared that would be the trend. That Austin Butler won over both Colin Farrell and Brendan Fraser, Farrell being Irish and Fraser having as much chance as an American as Butler, was a huge and clearly objective victory for Austin from a world-renowned academy.
It's Hollywood Foreign Press brother, not Foreign Hollywood Press Staying on the objectivity trail, Fraser also won Critics Choice, which I know you're aware of, but it slipped your mind. Still critics always go with slow movies and can be swayed by comebacks as much as anyone. As mentioned here before, Critics Choice didn't even go with Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury either. I do find that Satellite award you listed interesting. No, it wasn't vs Fraser in the drama category, but that international media has been doing these awards for 27 years, so they've been around all of Colin Farrell's career, and he was winning even more than Fraser with a lot of film critic groups early on, and as you said, Colin won a media award (Golden Globe) already in the comedy or musical category. So that makes two rather tenured media awards (Globe and Satellite) that Austin has beaten them both in within each category (Golden Globe for Drama vs Fraser and Satellite for Comedy or Musical vs Farrell) Personally, even if I wasn't part of the Austin camp, I don't think Fraser wins the Globe in Drama over Austin, regardless of his Hollywood Foreign Press issues. It was in January and the Fraser comeback narrative hadn't gotten into full swing yet. Austin winning BAFTA over him with that many members shows he could win against him based on performance alone.
What do the Oscars know anyway. I consider Barbara Stanwyck to be the greatest actor of all time. But she never got one until they gave her an honorary one when she was elderly.
The more I think about it I don't think they were giving the Oscar to Austin no matter what. He either won and they lied or he actually came in third place behind Farrell based on voters who feel he's too inexperienced. This Fraser thing has gotten so out of hand I wouldn't be surprised that even if Farrell had won along his own narrative that they'd still lie. Breaking a 13 year old trend of the majority vote only going for someone part of a best picture nominated film, especially when Fraser's film is so polarizing, seems suspicious. Going by something I read on here, all 9,600 members vote to nominate the 10 Best Pictures and all 9,600 vote for the winner among the nominated actors. We're supposed to believe that the majority of those 9,600 who didn't place The Whale among 10 openings based off his performance, turned around and voted for him as actor in a movie they didn't think he was good enough in for them to vote as a best picture nomination with 10 openings. If they thought he was so great they would have nominated the movie incase the 1,300 actors who nominate actors didn't select him.
I saw all five nominated Best Actor performances in the theater and I still say that Austin Butler gave the best one. It truly was an extraordinary portrayal, and the most difficult one for the simple fact that everyone thinks they can do an Elvis Presley impression, and he managed to undertake an incredibly difficult job and pulled it off beautifully, playing somebody with phenomenal talent and nearly superhuman charisma, and never once approached caricature.
Chris's posts on the Elvis movie, and particularly Austin Butler's performance, are well worth being highlighted and remembered. I don't think there is a more knowledgeable movie connoisseur on this forum or one with more eclectic taste in film.
So I was just going through some old articles and found one we're fans that follow BAFTA in the UK felt both Irishmen Colin Farrell and Paul Mescal were robbed with Austin winning. I mean talk about being homers. Just because an American wins over UK guys? Like @80steen said. That BAFTA win appears to be the most legit. No home cooking for UK actors, no comeback narratives or legacy awards
True, but the folks I'm talking about were all saying it needed to be either Colin Farrell or Paul Mescal when Mescal wasn't favored anywhere. One person asked if Colin doesn't win here then where? Which was a clearly based on a home field assumption
So we still have the Mtv Movie awards to look forward to. Might sound silly to some by hey, they've been around since 1992 so apparently people respect the it enough and they're covered by Gold Derby and it's always a big night in L.A. The nominees are selected by Mtv executives and voted on by the public. Nominees haven't been named yet but this year it's hosted by Drew Barrymore. Assuming Austin and "Elvis" are nominated I think it would be smart for Austin to attend
@Aldecoa @RSteven @GillyT @Chris DeVoe @80steen @WinstonOno Okay therapy time I know certain things shouldn't matter, especially with what our good friend @RSteven is dealing with, and incase anyone cares, I just found out that I have to be out of my rental by May 1st, which is not only a huge inconvenience for packing and moving, especially at my age, but also the stress of finding a new place to live. And the rest of you are probably dealing with some sort of personal issues as well because that's how life is. But Man that Oscar loss sucked. I freakin hate admitting it bothers me because it's so subjective and trivial, and all the annoying gloaters out there who don't legitimately care 1 percent about Fraser's performance, but rather just don't like Elvis or just wanted to finish the overdone comeback narrative crap. I really do value Austin's wins at The Golden Globes, BAFTA and AACTA International, especially since they were all vs Fraser, but unfortunately the Oscar is what people remember and rank tops. Maybe @GillyT can advise us over there as to the distance in prestige between The Oscars and BAFTA, if there is one. In the U.S. the Golden Globe probably carries a lot more prestige to the casual observer than it should, which is another reason I'm so happy with the BAFTA win, even if folks over here don't respect it enough. Anyway, I really appreciate you guys, just wanted ya to know.
@GillyT Hey when you see this or the above post, my apologies for assuming you lived in the UK. I just assumed it from you not being in the U.S. I decided to double check myself a bit too late and saw you're in New Zealand
Hugh Jackman was also up for the AACTA International award and he's Australian and they went with Austin, but went for the Australian Cate Blanchett. So with AACTA International they choose the Australian actress but Austin beats the Australian actor. With BAFTA they choose two Irish supporting performances but Austin beats two Irishman and an Englishman. And both wins vs Fraser as well to make it clear there was no homeland or comeback bias