“The Kids Are All Right” (2010)
Oscar History: At the 83rd Oscars, the film received four nominations, but won none — Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay (Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg), Best Actress (Annette Bening) and Best Supporting Actor (Mark Ruffalo).
As Sundance’s importance as an Oscar bellwether has increased, so have the instances where two Sundance titles will end up throwing down at the ceremony in February. And no case was more striking than in 2011, when Sundance titles “The Kids are All Right” and “Winter’s Bone” mirrored each other almost exactly in terms of nominations (Picture, Screenplay, Actress, Supporting Actor) and also in that neither of them won anything. Still, two female-directed films, of such caliber, making it into the Best Picture race is cause for celebration anyway, and even without any actual silverware, Cholodenko’s film enjoyed a meteoric trajectory as soon as Focus Features acquired it after its Park City premiere. It’s back top of mind again this year as we wait to see if Bening’s terrific recent turn in Mike Mills’ “20th Century Women” will beat the odds in a very competitive Best Actress category and net her her fifth nomination (she has never won), which would be her first since ‘Kids.’
“Beasts Of The Southern Wild” (2012)
Oscar History: Four nominations, though no wins: Best Picture, Best Director (Benh Zeitlin), Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Actress (Quvenzhané Wallis)
As rare as it is for a film to go from Sundance to the Oscars, it’s rare still to manage it with a director and cast that are completely unknown — this list includes films from directors including Woody Allen and Richard Linklater, and starring the likes of Andie MacDowell, Gabriel Byrne, Ian McKellen, Sissy Spacek, Steve Carell and, uh, Mariah Carey. But “Beasts Of The Southern Wild” was remarkable, and near-unique among this line-up, for coming from seemingly nowhere, blowing the roof off Sundance, and becoming a major Oscar player. Benh Zeitlin’s magic-realist fable about young Hushpuppy’s life with her father in the Louisiana bayou was the most talked-about film at the 2012 festival (and won the Grand Jury Prize), and Fox Searchlight cannily kept up the momentum with an appearance at Cannes. It resulted in several major nominations, including a shock Best Director nod, and one for young star Quvenzhané Wallis, who at 9 years old became the youngest Best Actress nominee ever (and was 76 years younger than category rival Emmanuelle Riva, nominated the same year.)
“Whiplash” (2014)
Oscar History: Winner of three awards — Best Supporting Actor (JK Simmons), Best Film Editing and Best Sound Mixing — and also nominated for two others, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
“La La Land” looks to be on course for one of the highest hauls of Oscar nominations ever for a movie — any fewer than 13 would be something of a shock. But director Damien Chazelle is used to exceeding expectations with the Academy — his low-budget jazz-drummer feature, which originally premiered at Sundance, ties “Hannah And Her Sisters” (which is kind of an honorary Sundance movie anyway) to be most successful Sundance movie with the Academy, in terms of the number of trophies it took home. His gripping drama about the destructive relationship between a bullish jazz teacher and his ambitious pupil began as a prize-winning short at Sundance before Chazelle returned the following year with the feature version. It was an instant smash (and at Cannes, Telluride, TIFF and NYFF), and took three awards on Oscar night, including a much deserved trophy for Supporting Actor J.K. Simmons. Now, Chazelle looks certain to surpass himself with the nominations tomorrow.
“Boyhood” (2014)
Oscar History: At the 87th Academy Awards in 2015, the film picked up a whopping six nominations — Best Picture, Best Director (Richard Linklater), Best Original Screenplay (Linklater), Best Supporting Actor (Ethan Hawke), Best Supporting Actress (Patricia Arquette) and Best Editing. Only Arquette won, though she made the most of it with her memorable, Meryl Streep-approved speech.
It seems like only yesterday the film community was devastated by the carnage resulting from the great “Boyhood” vs “Birdman” wars, but with even a little perspective it’s possible to see just how apples-and-oranges that whole debate was in the first place. And that’s partly signalled by the festivals at which they first played — “Birdman”‘s prestigey Venice slot is increasingly becoming a marker of Oscar hopes, while “Boyhood”‘s lower-key, slow-burn approach feels more, well, Linklater. In fact the Sundance bow was not its competitive premiere — that happened a couple of weeks later in Berlin where Linklater picked up the Best Director award. But it arrived at the German festival already on clouds of rapture from its Sundance gala, that buoyed it all the way through the year and to the 2015 Oscars. There it was beaten to the Best Picture/Best Director/Screenplay punch by “Birdman,” for sure, but lost out all its other unsuccessful nominations to fellow Sundance alum “Whiplash,” making the 87th Oscars something of banner year for Robert Redford‘s festival.
“Brooklyn” (2015)
Oscar History: At last year’s Oscars, it picked up three nominations (no wins) — Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (Nick Hornby) and Best Actress (Saoirse Ronan), but it lost to “Spotlight,” “The Big Short” and Brie Larson in “Room” respectively.
A huge favorite around here, John Crowley‘s “Brooklyn” is exactly the sort of old-school, heartfelt, sweeping filmmaking that people say doesn’t happen anymore — and even more rarely shows up at the Sundance Film Festival. But the classic feel of the film (not that it’s stuffy) perhaps showed to its best advantage amid the brasher titles in the lineup. Whatever the case the film was received with a warm ovation and sparked a three-way bidding war between Focus Features, The Weinstein Company and perennial bidding-warriors Fox Searchlight, with the latter’s pockets again proving to be deepest when they acquired it for a cool $9m. Given that outlay, and Fox Searchlight’s clout, a $38m domestic take is perhaps a little disappointing, but three Academy Award nominations in a strong year was a coup anyway, especially as one of them was the first Best Actress nod for inevitable future winner Ronan. Not bad for such a gentle, compassionate story about immigration and homesickness.
On the whole, we tried to stick to movies that premiered at the festival — so some foreign-language faves like “No,” “Ida” or “In A Better World” were ultimately excluded. We also skipped movies that either didn’t win awards or only got a single nomination, but there were a few others that racked up nods. Among them, “Longtime Companion,” “Tumbleweeds,” “The Cooler,” “Pieces Of April,” “Thirteen” and “Maria Full Of Grace,” which won acting nominations for Bruce Davison, Janet McTeer, Alec Baldwin, Patricia Clarkson, Holly Hunter and Catalina Sandino Moreno.
There’s also “The Squid & The Whale,” nominated for Original Screenplay (as was “Margin Call” a few years later) “Junebug,” for Amy Adams,” “Half Nelson,” “Frozen River” and “Blue Valentine” for Ryan Gosling, Melissa Leo and Michelle Williams, and “Animal Kingdom” and “The Sessions,” for Jacki Weaver and Helen Hunt. A number of other documentaries have either won or were nominated for the Oscar category, including “20 Feet From Stardom,” “The Cove,” “Born Into Brothels” and “Searching For Sugar Man.”
Anything else we’ve forgotten? Flag it up in the comments.