The Force Awakens To Forego Early Screenings For Awards
By Elaine Tveit
According to TheWrap (via Outer Places), Star Wars: The Force Awakens will not show early screenings for awards from the National Board of Reviews Best Film competition.
TheWrap reports that among the awards The Force Awakens will miss out on are the New York Film Critics Circle on December 2nd, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association on December 6th, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, whose award nominations will be announced December 9th. However, it will be out in time to be considered for the 2016 Oscars, for which nominations will be announced January 14th.
Let’s be real, though: How much does The Force Awakens need awards? Not so much, when you consider the following points: 1), it already has a huge fanbase, 2), it has broken trailer views and ticket sales records, and 3), it’s invaded the toy market as well as started a marketing campaign which caters to fangirls as well as fanboys.
Plus, it’s Star Wars. Nostalgia alone would probably be enough to make it a box office success.
The chairman of the New York Film Critics Circle, Marshall Fine, echoes those sentiments.
"“No one who is thinking about seeing ‘Star Wars’ is waiting for the critics to weigh in on this film, whether with awards or with reviews, to decide whether to buy a ticket… This movie won’t need awards to draw a crowd.”"
TheWrap also notes, the awards mentioned above (save the Oscars) usually skip CG-heavy, blockbuster films, opting to give critical praise to smaller, more obscure works. Since Episode VII is neither small nor obscure, a critical award would likely do it no good anyway, other than validate its claim to fame.
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Additionally, Indiewire (via Outer Places) reports that there will be no critics screenings before the movie’s premiere, either. That means everyone will get to see it at roughly the same time: December 17th (as in the UK) and/or December 18th. But that’s ok, too, because I don’t want to know what critics think of The Force Awakens beforehand; I want to see it and judge for myself. This is one blockade I’m willing to support!