A pair of prestigious dramas have received release dates for this November, setting them on course for big awards campaigns in the hopes of finding Oscar glory. First up, Oscar-winning The King’s Speech director Tom Hooper’s drama The Danish Girl will be released in New York and Los Angeles by Focus Features on November 27th, with a wider expansion sure to follow. The film stars Best Actor winner Eddie Redmayne as Einar Wegener, one of the first people to become a transgender woman. The crux of the story will focus on the romance between Einar and his wife Gerda Wegener (Alicia Vikander), with Matthias Schoenaerts, Ben Whishaw, and Amber Heard also starring.
Hooper of course won the Best Director Oscar for 2010 Best Picture winner The King’s Speech, and he followed that up with Best Picture nominee Les Miserables, so prestige is something that The Danish Girl is not lacking. Einar’s story is incredible so I’m certainly eager to see how it’s captured in this film, and the November released date speaks to Focus’ confidence with regards to awards prospects. Could The Danish Girl return Hooper to the Best Director’s circle, and could Redmayne be on track to land another Best Actor nomination? Time will tell, but this is absolutely a movie to keep an eye on.
And another awards contender got an Oscar friendly release date today as well. Fox Searchlight will release John Crowley’s (Boy A) period immigrant drama Brooklyn on November 6th in select theaters. I caught the film at Sundance and it’s genuinely great. Funny, emotional, moving—it’s got all the makings of a critical darling, and possibly even an Oscar heavyweight. Saoirse Ronan stars as a young Irish woman in the 1950s who moves from her home country to New York City in the hopes of finding something more. She subsequently falls for a young Italian boy (Emory Cohen), but finds herself torn between her new life in America, and her familial roots in Ireland.
Ronan is excellent and the film boasts a wonderful screenplay by Nick Hornby as well as fantastic supporting turns from Domhnall Gleeson, Jim Broadbent, and Julie Walters. I could absolutely see it being a major player in the upcoming Oscar race. For more on the film, check out my full review and Steve’s interviews with Ronan, Cohen, and Crowley.
