SONY CLASSICS FIGHTS GOOD FIGHT FOR EVEN LEAST LIKELY CONTENDERS
Nobody can say that Sony Pictures Classics hasn’t done right by its films this Oscar season — even those with paper-thin prospects of making it to the big show in February. At a time when no other studio has mailed even one DVD “screener” to Academy members — the barrage typically starts in November — SPC has already gotten four into their hands: David Michod’s “Animal Kingdom” (8/13, trailer), Rodrigo Garcia’s “Mother and Child” (5/7, trailer), Nicole Holofcener’s “Please Give” (4/30, trailer), and Woody Allen’s “You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger” (9/22, trailer). SPC, as you may recall, knows as well as any studio that special things can happen by simply getting a worthy film — however small and obscure — seen by voters before they are inundated with more (and more familiar) titles; just two years ago, their little Sundance acquisition “Frozen River” was the first screener mailed out, and it wound up with Oscar nods for best actress and best original screenplay.