Michael Cieply: Looking For A Viewer-Powered, Dog Days Oscar Hopeful
deadline.comThe Dog Days of summer—vaguely from mid-July through mid-August, depending on who does the counting—may not seem like much of an Oscar crucible.
You’d think most Academy voters would be sipping Margaritas in Malibu, or Limoncello Martinis somewhere on the Mediterranean.
But as often as not in the last fifteen years, the Dog Day bracket has produced a Best Picture nominee. And last year, of course, it brought a winner in Oppenheimer, which was released alongside fellow Best Picture nominee Barbie on July 21, and was still going gangbusters in mid-August.
There’s a certain rough charm to the Dog Day nominees. (For the record, Dog Day Afternoon, nominated for Best Picture 1976, was a Christmas release.) They tend to be audience favorites, movies that connect with the movie-hungry middle, which powers them into the Oscar race, whatever the somewhat fussier film professionals may think.
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