Woody, ‘Hangover’ Being Pitched for Awards

A couple quick Awards Season updates. With the Oscars moving to ten Best Picture nominees, there is hope some “mainstream” fare gets to compete for the big prize. So, it is not without a certain degree of hope that the folks behind this year’s biggest grossing and best reviewed mainstream comedy, The Hangover, are submitting “For Your Consideration” ads. Certainly the Todd Phillips comedy expects to compete best for comedy-specific awards such as The Golden Globes. But is it too much to consider that a film featuring drunken debauchery could compete against the prestige pictures?

For Your Consideration...

Woody Harrelson

Meanwhile, a guy who has had a pretty awesome year is Frat Pack friend Woody Harrelson. After an exciting and well-received lead performance in the crowd-pleasing Zombieland, Woody followed up in a pivotal supporting role in the mega box office disaster picture, 2012.

Now Woody is in theatres in The Messenger, a dramatic tale of Army casualty notification officers. Harrelson’s supporting performance is earning raves and there’s serious talk of a second Oscar nomination for the actor (previously nominated as Best Actor in The People vs. Larry Flynt). And according to In Contention, some of Woody’s friends are trying to help him get to the finish line.

And the reaction has been considerable, especially among Harrelson’s colleagues.  Actors Owen Wilson and Ben Stiller quietly screened the film recently for a number of friends, including Charlize Theron, Matthew McConaughey, Sean Penn, John C. Reilly, Lisa Kudrow, Harry Dean Stanton, Emile Hirsch and more.  Penn was so moved by the film that he got involved with another quiet screening last weekend in San Francisco for many of his Academy friends in the area, which could go a long way toward securing Harrelson’s place in the Best Supporting Actor conversation this year.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 26th, 2009 at 11:21 am and is filed under Academy Awards, Ben Stiller, Owen Wilson, The Hangover, Woody Harrelson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.