The seeds of Slumdog’s sweep

9-13-2008, 3:00pm, ladylurks calls it for Slumdog Millionaire

Can I take a minute to reflect on the past year and the truly amazing predictive powers of our readers? One of the things Sasha does that nobody really knows about or appreciates but me is keep our vast archives active. At great effort and in spite of huge tech headaches, Sasha listens to me beg to preserve the enormous files of all our posts and comments so that every word you guys write stays online. (that adds up to 39,756 comments over the past year, and counting)

Posts and comments are searchable by keyword and username, so I got curious last night, wondering who was the first person to mention the word “slumdog” on the site last year, and when. Longtime AD-er and 2-year veteran Sultan ladylurks posted the comment above on Sept. 13 last year, 5 and half months ago. This was in response to the 3rd installment of the Festival Diary written by Nancy Kriparos, Awards Daily’s Toronto correspondent, who two days earlier (on the ominous date of 9-11) posted this:

The third film of the day was Danny Boyles, Slumdog Millionaire. The film played to a packed film house of at least 1000 people eagerly in anticipation of this film. This film has all the elements that make a great story; a poignant love story, a hero that the audience roots for and the triumph over adversity. In Danny Boyles kinetic style of filmmaking, he has woven a heartwarming story about the resiliency of the human spirit. The film is accompanied by a thrilling original score by A.R Rahman. Above all, what makes this film great are the compelling characters created by endearing actors who are for the most part unknown to North American audiences, but not for long. Great film.

How smart are the women of Awards Daily? ladylurks was our second reader ever to mention Slumdog Millionaire (and just went nuts by instantly handing it the Best Picture Oscar, sight unseen). Due credit to sonnymoscoso who named it first, 5 days earlier, in response to the brand new poster for Milk that I published on Sept 8th. I’m not shy about saying that the absolute first time Slumdog Millionaire appeared on AD was the fuzzy clip and review excerpt I posted on Sept 4th. But I had no idea what I had found, no idea at all.

sonnymoscoso’s comment and those of a few other significant first-responders, after the cut.

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sonnymoscoso
Submitted on 2008/09/08 at 10:56pm

Never trust your expectations… after reading plenty of reviews i can definitely say this…. even if ti hurts…
You can erase Blindness from your list of best picture nom(if you ever intended in putting it), as well as Miracle at st Ana, as well as the Duchess, as well as Burning after reading, as well as Appalosa. Most fo them have good reviews, somo mediocre and some awefull… none of them is a GREAT film…
i guess you should add Slumdog Millionaire, and The Wrestler… im still waiting for Milk, Australia, Revolutionary road and The Curious case of BB…. Long shots, Che, Doubt and Frost Nixon…

ps. i still think TDK will get a best pic nom….

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Sam Juliano
Submitted on 2008/10/14 at 2:53pm

Looks like FROST/NIXON, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD and BENJAMIN BUTTON are everyone’s picks, with titles like THE DARK KNIGHT, MILK, AUSTRALIA and SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE within hailing distance.

I am happy to see that you have posed the possibility of RACHEL GETTING MARRIED, which I saw over the weekend and am thrilled with. You now even have it on the sidebar. Kudos!

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Will-W.
Submitted on 2008/09/15 at 9:33am

Hi Nancy!

Thanks for sharing your reviews! Hope you had fun at the festival. I know I did!
Here are my Festival Highlights:

…‚ÄúRachel Getting Married‚Äù (Anne Hathaway finally gets to show her real acting chops. Amazing film where she plays a recovering drug addict. Debra Winger makes her big comeback performance here too. Anne is gorgeous and loveable in-person!)

….‚ÄúThe Wrestler‚Äù starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei was superb. It recently won the Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival and deservedly so. You must see it when it is out later this year.

…‚ÄúSlumdog Millionaire‚Äù, the latest film directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting) was the biggest surprise of the festival. I attended a free screening of it after it was selected for the People‚Äôs Choice Award. It brilliantly ties in ‚ÄúWho Wants to be a Millionaire‚Äù and times of political turmoil in India.

Will-W. had an album of photos he took in Toronto to share with us too.

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Steven Ray Morris
Submitted on 2008/10/14 at 3:55pm

I have reserved doubts about Australia and Frost/Nixon. Ron Howard may be liked occasionally, but I get the feeling the film could turn out too vanilla/oscar-baity for anyone’s tastes. And I don’t quite get the hype for Australia. As much as I adore Baz Luhrmann and I get the star power, I don’t see how this could be as HUGE as everyone is making claim.

I think Revolutionary Road is a shoe-in unless it also turns out to be too vanilla, but I have high hopes for it. The trailer straddles the oscar-bait line for me, but it won me over in the end.

my list would be:
The Dark Knight
Revolutionary Road
Milk
Wall-E (come on it deserves it!)
Benjamin Button (Fincher’s due for this?)

I really want to see Slumdog Millionaire. Sunshine is one of the best sci-fi flicks in recent memory, if not the best.

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Dave B
Submitted on 2008/10/14 at 4:49pm

Don’t be too fooled by age: I’m 55 and think “The Dark Knight” is a masterpiece and the best film of the year. Remember, an elder Academy gave “Silence of the Lambs” a Best Film win. On the other hand, they couldn’t give a gay love story a deserving win. “TDK” deserves a Best Pic nod, but probably won’t be nominated. I do see Christopher Nolan being nominated for Director.

Right now, it looks like “Benjamin Button” and “Milk” are right up Oscar Alley; “Defiance” should be a shoo-in what with its subject matter and buzz but the Acad doesn’t seem to like Zwick. I look at it this way:

…ADPT SCREENPLAY: Curious Case of Benj Button, Doubt, Frost/Nixon, Revolutionary Road and (fighting for 5th spot) Defiance, Slumdog Millionaire and The Dark Knight.

In there you’ll find the five. And I don’t think “Vicky,” “Harvey” and “Happy” are legitimate BF contenders. And then there were seven.

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Daniel
Submitted on 2008/10/14 at 4:49pm

Articles like this are why I love Awards Daily… Good job, Sasha.
I agree that we’re all forgetting about The Road lately. It rreally has the potential to surprise.
I also think that it will either be Rachel Getting Married OR Slumdog Millionaire, not both.

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Aaron
Submitted on 2008/10/14 at 7:06pm

I have predicted The Dark Knight for many, many months and obviously I am not alone. I will have it in my top five until the day of nominations. I truthfully do not see how it can be forgotten.

As for the other four–Rachel Getting Married is currently the only film out right now that truly has a shot for a best picture nomination. I don’t think Happy-Go-Lucky will make it. Maybe a best actress nomination for Sally Hawkins.

I think the final four will be Benjamin Button, Australia, Frost/Nixon, and Slumdog Millionaire. Frost/Nixon is making its world premiere at the London Film Festival tomorrow, so we’ll see how it is received.

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Alfredo
Submitted on 2008/10/15 at 7:45am

Anyone who thinks that The Dark Knight is not a cultural phenomenon is quite simply insane. In 16 days you will see how big of a cultural impact the film has had when you see dozens (or in my case prolly thousands seeing that I live in NYC) of Jokers running around your town… The Dark Knight has reached well beyond its comic book/superhero fan base. So for anyone not to recognize the cultural impact that TDK has had this year and will have for years to come is just plain stubborn.

As far as awards go, will The Dark Knight be nominated for Best Picture? Maybe. Maybe Not. Honestly at this point it doesn’t need it to carve out its place in film history.

Poor Wall-E the best film of the year so far (yes better than TDK! I said it! Wanna fight about it?!) but doesn’t stand a snowballs chance in hell of being nominated for the “big prize” because it will be kept in the Animated Feature ghetto. That said it will garner somewhere along the lines of 4-5 nominations.

Other films that stand a chance at this point:

Slumdog Millionaire, Rachel Getting Married and Happy-Go-Lucky (blech!)

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There you have it. The historical record bears out our vague memories. These are the first half-dozen times Slumdog Millionaire was ever mentioned on Awards Daily by you guys, and you instantly latched onto it as a frontrunner. Slumdog went from “never heard of it” to “shoo-in” within about 2 weeks of its splashdown in Toronto.

On Sept 25th, I reanalyzed the results of a poll conducted August 20 (too soon for Slumdog to be included). I wrote, “When we retake the poll in a week or two in the light of fresh developments, no doubt Slumdog Millionaire will jump to frontrunner status.“

[Of course, in the same breath I also said, “I‚Äôd encourage everyone to hold tight to your devotion to The Dark Knight for now (It‚Äôs the only title in the top 5 any of us has actually seen, after all).” …oops.]

Just a few days later, Sasha broke it down:

Organic hits thus far: The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, and Rachel Getting Married
. On the horizon, with the most potential: Milk, Revolutionary Road, Benjamin Button, Australia, Frost/Nixon, Gran Torino, and of course, Doubt. I could be wrong but I think The Reader has had too much bad publicity but if it’s good enough it might overcome.

In that single paragraph on October 14th, Sasha names all 5 eventual Best Picture nominees, and the prominence given to Slumdog Millionaire in that article was the tipping point for us here as at AD. The trickle of prophetic comments you see re-posted above, suddenly gushed into a flood of interest after Sasha gave her seal of approval. In all, you guys have name-dropped Slumdog Millionaire 3700 times over the course of the season (an average of 30 times a day since mid-October).

Clearly we’ll need to take notice of breaking news Nancy Kriparos brings us from TIFF this year. Watch out for any random grainy clips I manage to dig up, and stay tuned for the final verdict as Sasha correlates and synthesizes findings leading up to the new season. It would also be wise to pay attention to any premonitions we hear from ladylurks, Sam Juliano, Daniel, Alfredo, and all the other dedicated readers who, week after week, bring your excellent instincts to Awards Daily.