After AMPAS finally threw a first-ever nomination at Werner Herzog two years ago (for Encounters at the End of the World), we thought they might similarly give props to Agnès Varda this year, which would have been some kind of poetic justice given that this French New Wave pioneer, 81 years young, reminisces at one point during her lovely The Beaches of Agnès about how she flirted with Hollywood filmmaking (after the international success of Cléo from 5 to 7) but had to go back to France after being denied final cut on a proposed project. How quickly we forgot that the Oscars only accord makeup nominations (and statuettes) to Hollywood’s most prized and industrious insiders. C’est la vie and all that rot. Not that Varda’s film would have stood much of a chance, but this contest feels more than ever like a no-brainer without it in the running. It’s probably not even worth tossing around the possibility of a potential upset because, well, as the great Wesley Snipes once said, “always bet on black.” In this case, though, that black is red: Flipper’s blood as it courses through the water outside a mysterious cove in Japan where he and his sisters and brothers are captured and shipped to the Sea Worlds of the planet, and for the runts in the litter, to have their iron-infested bits and pieces fed to unsuspecting Japanese schoolchildren destined to produce deformed offspring in the near future if the AMPAS member, by not voting for this film, doesn’t do something about it.
Will Win: The Cove
Should Win: The Cove
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