Hi – it’s JJ. I’ve written a couple posts on here (and here) before and it seems like you’ll be seeing them from me more often now. Try to contain your excitement, please.
The Golden Globes were last night – one of my favorite nights of the year. I love Awards Season. It’s the little bright spot in the middle of the dark, frozen gloom of January and February. And fortunately, with so much talent in the Hunger Games franchise, our favorite actors, writers, etc. are often nominated or sometimes even win… for work they do outside the franchise. I mean, last year’s Jennifer Lawrence Awards Bonanza was sweet. I loved watching every minute of it. And last night, she did it again with her Best Supporting Actress win in American Hustle! It’s amazing that she is getting recognized two years in a row.
Sorry, but I’m going to pretend this award is for her work in Catching Fire (JEFF VESPA/WIREIMAGE)
Still, in my excitement for this year’s awards season, I get a little twinge of annoyance. The Girl With the Pearl wrote about the two different types of awards; ones selected by people within the entertainment industry, and the awards from fans voting obsessively over and over again on the internet. The fan awards will likely give Catching Fire some love, but I have to agree with her and Them There Eyes that the industry ones are probably going to be few and far between for our beloved movie.
Catching Fire got lots of well-deserved critical praise when it premiered and may get awards recognition in the music, makeup, and costume categories. It was a fantastic movie on all counts and is breaking records at the box office. I should be satisfied and happy with this. But I’m not.
I want the acting to be recognized too. While Jennifer Lawrence gave a fantastic performance in American Hustle, it seems odd to be talking about this role when I think many of us would argue it’s not her top performance of the year. It was her role as Katniss. The emotional range she goes through in Catching Fire and the authenticity she brings to the role is stellar. She OWNS this role. This is the role that should be standing out for her this year, shouldn’t it?
Listen, I know how the awards process works. And Catching Fire is a sci-fi blockbuster movie with a female lead. The odds of Catching Fire and Jen’s performance as Katniss getting recognition with the highbrow industry awards set were never in their favor. And I’m happy she’s getting such praise for her work in other films. At least the Critics’ Choice Awards are kind enough to have a “Best Action Movie” and “Best Actress in an Action Movie” category. So look out for that on January 16.
And yes, it’s a good thing to spread around the award season love to smaller films and other actors. I get it.
The movie-going public certainly voted for Catching Fire with their wallets, so I guess that should be enough.
But nah, STILL NOT ENOUGH. All the awards of my heart to Catching Fire.
-JJ
Victor's Village 
I still have my fingers crossed for Mockingjay.
Oh yes. Fingers and toes and everything else.
I thought Jennifer was sublime in The Hunger Games, she truly embodied Katniss. She didn’t express feelings as strongly as in Catching Fire, but everything was there to see in her face. Her performance was on par with that in Winter’s Bone and better than the Silver Linings one, IMO. So I’m kind of hoping/thinking the Academy had THG in mind too, when they voted for last year’s Oscar.
Though she was very good, I didn’t think she was AS good in Catching Fire (though I’m happy to be in the minority on that one!). AH hasn’t premiered in my country yet, really looking forward to it.
Katniss is an incredible role and we’re very lucky to have Jennifer play it. Her character in American Hustle is less sympathetic, so it’s harder for me to rally behind it, no matter how good she is in it.
But I have to think some of the positive aura from the Katniss performance is in people’s heads when they vote for these awards.
It definitely influenced her getting the Santa Barbra Actress of the Year which she won for both Katniss & Tiffany. She was absolutely crazy as Rosalyn in American Hustle but i don’t think she deserves an Oscar for that performance.
The Oscar nominations are out and Catching Fire didn’t get a single nod. I’m actually shocked — I thought for sure makeup, costumes and maybe special effects. After Effie and the butterfly dress and Katniss’ mockingjay dress and all that fabulous, fantastic makeup (those Effie eyelashes!). What is wrong with these Academy people? Jealousy, I suppose.
It’s worse than I feared. Nothing? And makeup/hair noms to Bad Grandpa and Lone Ranger?? Annoyance level raised exponentially.
I had enough of Johnny Depp’s eagle after just seeing the trailer and as for Bad Grandpa — the high muckety mucks have totally lost their minds. And Gatsby and Invisible Woman’s costuming was no more interesting than the stuff BBC and ITV do every damn week! Exponential annoyance is right!
When I originally commented I clicked the “Notify me when new comments are added” checkbox and now each time a comment is added I get
three e-mails with the same comment. Is there any way you can remove me from that service?
Thank you!