willaartwillem wrote:Love this.

“He’s just a kid, really, and that’s sort of the point. You see events very much through his eyes,” Nolan says. “We want to put the audience on that beach, put them on a boat heading over to Dunkirk, put them in the cockpit of a Spitfire. That’s the ambition and I’m bringing all my experience in filmmaking to bear trying to achieve it.”

This makes me so hyped. He sounds like he's ready for that Oscar.

Sanchez wrote:

willaartwillem wrote:Love this.

“He’s just a kid, really, and that’s sort of the point. You see events very much through his eyes,” Nolan says. “We want to put the audience on that beach, put them on a boat heading over to Dunkirk, put them in the cockpit of a Spitfire. That’s the ambition and I’m bringing all my experience in filmmaking to bear trying to achieve it.”

This makes me so hyped. He sounds like he's ready for that Oscar.

I think the July release will prevent that. That's seven months until the Oscars, by which time the hype surrounding the film will have worn off.

That's why most Oscar hopefuls release in the winter, so they stay fresh in the minds of Oscar voters. Sucks that that's the reality of the situation, but that's how it is.

Not only that, I'm getting flashbacks of Gravity-Interstellar, back when the Academy gave too much recognition to Gravity (2013). Then, when they sobered up and realized that Gravity was not that great, they overcompensated by going too far in the other direction and giving too few awards to Interstellar (2014).

Hacksaw Ridge will be this year's Gravity. They will give it a ton of nominations, deserved or not, which will make them go, "Good. That satisfied the war film craving that I get every few years".

Then when Dunkirk comes out, they'll say "Another one already?? I just saw Hacksaw Ridge a few months ago! And we already gave that one a ton of nominations. Not doing that again. Next! Where's my period piece drama??"

Yeah, I don't get the release date, either. If Nolan were going for that Oscar, it would have made more sense to release the movie closer to the winter. Summer isn't really a time for war movies anyway; it's packed with blockbusters and competing with them will be hard enough box office-wise. Dunkirk's success will depend a lot on the great WOM, and it will need a truly memorable screenplay to get an Oscar.

Mad Max Fury Road came out in May and still won those Oscars. Same can be said for Grand Budapest Hotel... Hans really should've won Best Score Oscar.

I don't get the big fuss about the release date. Nolan knows that the "War-Epic" is the biggest type of film any filmmaker can work on. Its the largest of large films one can work on. We all talk about these huge blockbusters in the summer, but really when compared to Dunkirk they aren't that big. Nolan has thousands of extras lined up on a beach. He's using real battleships and planes. All filmed in IMAX. NONE of the movies this year are even close in terms of scope and scale. Isn't that what the blockbuster is all about? A cinematic event.

Who cares about him winning an Oscar. He wants to sell it as the biggest cinematic experience you will get this year, and he's succeeding at it. This will be the most successful WW2 movie ever made, and a big part of that is because of that summer release date. Also Inception, and The Dark Knight were summer movies and that didn't prevent them from getting Oscar nods in their respective years. This whole idea that a WW2 movie should be at the end of the year because it's an Oscar bait film is B.S

Guess what? Saving Private Ryan was a summer movie as well, and it was a damn good blockbuster that got a lot of love from the Academy that year.

Of course there are exceptions, summer Oscar winners. There are always exceptions. But it doesn't change the fact that the release date won't help the movie as far as Oscars are concerned. The movie still can win Oscars, sure, but it needs to be truly memorable for that.
IMO, Inception should have won Oscars for the best picture and screenplay, but didn't, and I think its release date is partly to blame for that. Dunkirk, as a war movie, has a good chance and I hope the release date won't hinder its chances much.

Are we forgetting about summer-released movies like Inception and Mad Max: Fury Road that did extremely well at the Oscars?

But I honestly don't think Nolan is worried about that. And I might be proven wrong, but Dunkirk's release date makes sense, since it's supposed to be action-packed and it's going to stand-out because of the genre.

We all want Nolan to win an Oscar. I totally get that. But in the context of things, his film being both a commercial, and critical hit is more important than him winning an Oscar. He is the highest paid director in Hollywood, and he can pretty much do any film he wants. He has that convenience not because he has 3 Best Picture winners under his belt, but because he makes both the studio and the audience happy repeatedly. That is WAY more important than an Oscar. A good film is a good film. Doesn't matter when it's released. If the film is great, it will be recognized. But he shouldn't undersell the film because of it's subject material. And certainly not for some kind of award. It's as big, if not bigger, than any film this year and should be marketed as such.

Innovator wrote:Are we forgetting about summer-released movies like Inception and Mad Max: Fury Road that did extremely well at the Oscars?

Inception did extremely well? Yeah I guess it's impressive to get 8 nominations, but it should have won more. And the fact that he didn't even get a nomination for directing is just hillarious.

Innovator wrote:Are we forgetting about summer-released movies like Inception and Mad Max: Fury Road that did extremely well at the Oscars?

But I honestly don't think Nolan is worried about that. And I might be proven wrong, but Dunkirk's release date makes sense, since it's supposed to be action-packed and it's going to stand-out because of the genre.

That's the thing, though.

If Inception had come out in the wintertime, the hype would have been fresh, and you can bet Mr. Nolan would have gotten a nomination for directing, and maybe even won.

But it came out in July, and by the time voting came around, the hype had worn off and passed onto newer, shinier releases.

As for Mad Max: Fury Road, that got a ton of nominations because the Academy wanted to recognize Mr. Miller, who is really old and a veteran of the industry, which Mr. Nolan is not yet.

So as you can see, not only are summer releases getting Oscars the exception and not the rule, but it can even be said that if those same summer releases had been released in the winter, they would have gotten even more nominations than they already did.