Update: “Silence” will be screened in time for LAFCA and NYFCC voting, and invitations have already gone out to those organziations.
Around this time of year, a certain anxiety sets in among critics groups and awards-season voters as they balance being among the first to reveal their best-of-the-year lists and nominations with actually seeing all the movies. Studios work hard to get screeners out and organize screenings, and it seems each year the deadlines creep further and further up the calendar. However, Martin Scorsese is not playing the game in 2016.
The director’s highly anticipated “Silence” is not expected to screen for anybody until December. This means the movie won’t be in the mix when the National Board of Review unveils their winners on November 29th (yep, it’s that early this year) and may possibly miss deadlines for the National Board of Review, the New York and Los Angeles critics’ groups, and the Broadcast Film Critics Association (though last year they still let “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” compete for Best Picture even though it had missed the deadline).
READ MORE: Retrospective: The Films Of Martin Scorsese
What does this all actually mean? Well, there’s a good chance Scorsese is still in post-production on “Silence” and the director isn’t keen to rush the movie out the editing room. And there’s the other possibility that the director’s religious drama set in the 17th century simply isn’t the kind of movie that’s going to storm the Oscars, so Paramount is keeping their awards-season hopes on “Fences” and “Arrival,” and if “Silence” can still gain enough steam with the Academy in a handful of categories, then great. Bear in mind, the film that finally won Scorsese Best Director was “The Departed,” and it’s safe to predict that “Silence” likely won’t be a similarly popcorn-ready blockbuster.
Or maybe Scorsese wants “Silence” to be judged as a film first, and not initially on its merits as an Oscar contender or not. The awards season at its worst tends to be dismissive about movies that don’t fit a particular mold, or aren’t playing to a narrative that leads to the Oscar stage. That we’re getting “Silence” at all is reason enough to celebrate. [Variety]