Every year the Oscars have the ability to wave the magic wand over a fresh young ingenue, an exciting debut director, or a brilliant new writer. Some of these newcomers light up the season for a moment of glory and then are never heard from again. The lucky ones move on to successful careers in the business, launched with the priceless boost of an Oscar victory. There is no doubt that winning an Oscar still has the potential to alter the course of a career. At the very least, there’s always that gold statue sitting on the mantle for validation, even if the early promise was never entirely fulfilled. But for every Oscar winner whose award is only the beginning of greater things to come, there are just as many winners who never reached that level of success again. An Academy Award can’t guarantee superstardom or power in the industry, but it’s a hell of a strong place to start. And besides, it supposedly extends your life.
An Oscar can mean the difference for some filmmakers between finding financing or going unfunded. It can mean the difference between getting a part or not even getting a reading. Winning an Oscar confers instant name recognition, and that alone could be worth its weight in gold, even at a time when anyone can become famous for little more than sacrificing their privacy and, in some cases, their dignity.
Last year, there were a great many breakout stars, first among them Carrie Mulligan who seemed to come from virtually nowhere. She’s back again in 2010 with Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps and Never Let Me Go. The other major breakout star from last year was Jeremy Renner. He’s a returning contestant this year with The Town. Gabby Sidibe was probably the most obscure person to emerge in the acting categories. She does not have a film being released this year (but has already parlayed her Oscar nomination into a plume role every week on Showtime.)
So which relative unknowns on the horizon have a chance to be this year’s big breakout stars? Lets run down the roster, shall we?
1. Jennifer Lawrence. She came out of nowhere and has earned her spot among the best female performances this year. She deserves the praise. She already came equipped with the natural accent, a deliberate choice by the director to free the actress up for emotional accessibility. At first I thought it was strange that Lawrence went from all of that praise to pinup girl almost overnight. But it makes sense, given that sex will get you attention that’s hard to acquire otherwise. The next stepping stone will be X-Men (she’s also in the Mel Gibson/Jodie Foster project, The Beaver), which announces her expectations for her own career: she’s going for it. Super stardom awaits. Lawrence actively sought the role for Winter’s Bone, and she may turn in 2010’s best female performance when all is said and done. Considering she’s up against such industry vets as Nicole Kidman, Natalie Portman, Annette Bening, Naomi Watts, Hilary Swank, and Diane Lane, that’s quite an entrance. The new kid in town is holding her own.
2) Jessie Eisenberg – when pictures popped up of Eisenberg dressed as Mark Zuckerberg, no one really got why he had been cast as the lead in the Fincher film. This guy? Really? But watching him, it becomes clear why they cast him: he drives the film. Without him, it wouldn’t be nearly as good. Eisenberg knows exactly where he needed to go to get a dynamite impact from ingredients that might otherwise have fizzled . The film is taking hits from the tech community for portraying Zuck as meaner and more of an automaton than he is in real life — and to that I would say, there is a reason why they aren’t making movies and David Fincher is. You can’t make a good film with a guy who is about as exciting in person as the guy who helps you find the right fireWire cord in Frys. As Geoffrey Rush says in Shakespeare in Love, “that will have them rolling in aisles.” It’s a Hollywood film and it needed a hero with the right flavor of familiar seasoned with genius — a nobody nebbish who seized the moment as soon as he saw it, conquering the world at just 19 years old. Eisenberg nails it.
3) Andrew Garfield has two films out this year, Never Let Me Go and The Social Network. He’s gotten great reviews for both films, but it is his work in The Social Network that will launch his career. As the embittered Eduardo Saverin, Garfield more than meets the challenge set by the film’s star. He gets the film’s best line near the end, the sort of stinger that leaves a mark long after it’s delivered.
4) Debra Granik – Winter’s Bone co-writer and director made a film based on the acclaimed, plainspoken novel by Daniel Woodrell. Granik’s film received an unusual amount of acclaim earlier in the year and the film has an undeniable authenticity because Granik and her co-writer Anne Rosellini literally ventured into deep woods, filming in rustic areas rife with meth, teen pregnancy and poverty. They knew they would have a better film if they could develop an alliance with the locals. They cast many of them in the film, including the young actress who plays Ashlee. It is one of the best directed films of the year by far. Granik and Rosellini should see a screenwriting nomination, at the very least. If Granik were male, her thrust toward breakout stardom would be more firmly ensured, but we’ll take what we can get.
5) Lisa Cholodenko, who co-wrote and directed The Kids Are All Right, joins Granik in being one of the year’s auteurs, bringing a project to life that is 100% her own. This film seems poised for a Best Picture nomination not because it was directed by a woman, but because it is one that, along with The Social Network, is most immediately about the culture right here, right now. She is also looking at a screenwriting nomination. It will be surprising if either of these women make the director’s cut – but one never knows, of course.
6) Derek Cianfrance – if you want to make a film about a relationship that has no line between reality and fiction you make your stars live that life, which Cianfrance did with Blue Valentine. This is a pet project if there ever was one. He hand-picked Williams and Gosling years before they ever started filming. He knew he wanted them to get a little bit older because otherwise it wouldn’t be believable that they’d lived their short marriage together. This kind of dedication is rare, and it shows in every frame. Blue Valentine is one of the most moving films of 2010. He’s looking at a Screenplay nod, at the very least. (photo by Graeme Mitchell)
7) Lesley Manville – Although Another Year hasn’t opened here yet, Manville’s gift will not be denied when people start seeing her work. It isn’t going to be as easy for her as it is for, say, Jennifer Lawrence, being that Lawrence is such a pretty young thing just starting out. Manville, though, is so good – her performance so expertly executed, with tiny flourishes throughout – she will hopefully be given many more opportunities for roles that showcase her considerable talent.
9) Hailee Steinfeld – she is the second teenager kicking ass and taking names this year, along with Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. Okay, so she’s not kicking ass literally, but she’s taking care of business and getting things done. Steinfeld will be in the Coen brothers True Grit. A relative unknown acting opposite Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin and Matt Damon? Her future is so bright she needs to wear shades. There are no reviews yet, just the little bits of Steinfeld from the trailer (another extended trailer will be release later this week).
10) Frankie McClaren and Cecile De France from Hereafter. What’s interesting is that both are complete unknowns in the US and yet here they carrying parallel lead performances in a Clint Eastwood film. Each gives a meaningful, understated performance perfectly modulated to to match Damon’s. Who knows where this movie is going to go from here, but these two actors will likely get a lot more attention after this.
These are a few of the standout newcomers this year. What others have caught your eye as the biggest breakout stars for 2010?