Rapace in running for Best Actress BAFTA!

Back in August last year I reported on rumours coming out of Hollywood that Noomi Rapace could be in the running for an Oscar nomination for her tremendous portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish-language film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's books. Along with speculation that the makers of the English-language version might try to dampen any such hype, in case it damaged their own film.

I think, if all things were equal (which they never are in the entertainment world), Rapace would be a worthy shoo-in for at least an Oscar nomination. However it remains to be seen whether Hollywood would/will embrace the foreign-language performance. Rapace was overlooked by the Golden Globe Awards (I'm not sure whether her and the film were eligible, depending on their criteria) - Natalie Portman (BLACK SWAN) won Best Actress in a Drama ahead of four other English-language performances - but today comes welcome news that Britain's own film awards, the BAFTAs, have lined up Rapace as a deserved nominee in the Best Actress category.

Joining Rapace and Portman in the Best Actress category for the BAFTAs are Annette Bening and Julianne Moore (THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT), along with Hailee Steinfeld (TRUE GRIT). Moore and Bening were both nominated in the Best Actress - Comedy or Musical category at the Golden Globes (Bening won the category), where like Rapace, Steinfield was overlooked by the Hollywood Foreign Press. It's kind of interesting that in fact the BAFTA list only includes three of the ten Best Actress nominees (Drama and Comedy/Musical) from the Golden Globes.

The Academy Award (Oscar) nominations will be announced next week. It would be fantastic (and deserved) to see Rapace on the list, but I'm not that hopeful of the American academy sharing the foresight of their British counterparts, even though there is some overlap between the bodies. A shame. In its latest 'Oscar predictions' rankings, Entertainment Weekly lists Rapace at number 10 for Best Actress, with bigger names (which may be preferred by the often-conservative American academy voters) and previous Oscar nominees and winners such as Hilary Swank, Michelle Williams and Nicole Kidman 'above' her (Halle Berry was also rated above her until the BAFTA nominations).

As I said in my review of Män som hatar kvinnor (aka the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) in December 2009: "In terms of acting, I thought Noomi Rapace was brilliant as Lisbeth Salander. She conveyed the computer hacker’s conflict, confusion, anger, and uniqueness (amongst other things) exceptionally well through glances, gestures, and other non-speaking moments – not just scripted dialogue. Like the best performances, I never saw it as someone acting as Lisbeth Salander, rather Rapace was Lisbeth Salander. " Read the full review here.

What do you think of Rapace's performance as Salander (especially in the first film, which is eligible for this year's Oscars etc)? Do you think she deserves to be nominated? How does her performance compare to some of the other strong female acting performances of 2010?

Whodunnit and Whowunnit?

The final details of the Whodunnit and Whowunnit? event, where the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel will be presented, have now been confirmed, with some adjustments to the author panel and confirmation of the prizes the inaugural winner will receive.

You can read the full press release below.

19 NOVEMBER 2010 – FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime novel to be presented this month
THE PRESENTATION of the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel, which was postponed when The Press Christchurch Writer’s Festival was cancelled due to the Canterbury earthquake, has been rescheduled for Tuesday, 30 November.

The Award will now be presented at the conclusion of the ‘Whodunnit and Whowunnit?’ event, a cocktail function and author panel where three of New Zealand’s most outstanding crime writers will discuss storytelling, the state of modern mystery writing, and the books industry in general, to be held amongst the relaxed atmosphere of Visions on Campus Restaurant at CPIT city campus.

2010 Ngaio Marsh Award finalists Neil Cross (Burial) and Vanda Symon (Containment) will be joined by Christchurch’s own internationally best-selling crime writer Paul Cleave (The Cleaner, Blood Men) on the panel, which will be hosted by crime fiction reviewer and commentator Craig Sisterson. See below for more information on the three author panelists. The full details of the event are:

Whodunnit and Whowunnit?
with the presentation of the first-ever Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel
7:30pm, Tuesday, 30 November 2010
Visions on Campus Restaurant, CPIT, cnr Madras St & Ferry Road, Christchurch
Tickets $10, includes a glass of wine and nibbles
Drinks start at 7pm, author panel at 7:30pm
Contact: Ruth Todd 03 384 4721 or ruth.todd@xtra.co.nz

“We're really pleased that we've been able to keep the rescheduled presentation of the first-ever Ngaio Marsh Award in Christchurch," said Judging Convenor Craig Sisterson. "Not only because it was the birthplace and hometown of Dame Ngaio, but because of the fantastic support this new award has had from several people involved with the Christchurch Writers Festival. I really hope that booklovers in Canterbury will come along for what should be a very enjoyable evening, celebrating some of the truly world-class writers we have here in New Zealand."

The 2010 Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel is made for the best crime, mystery, or thriller novel written by a New Zealand citizen or resident. A panel of seven local and international judges considered the best of locally written crime and thriller fiction published last year. The three finalists, who were named in the lead-up to The Press Christchurch Writer’s Festival, are:

• Cut & Run by Alix Bosco;
• Burial by Neil Cross; and
• Containment by Vanda Symon.
  

The international judges said Cut & Run was “complex and suspenseful” and had “scenes and incidents which are jaw-droppingly good”, that Burial “maintained the tension and the atmosphere from beginning to end, keeping the atmosphere creepy”, and that Containment had “an attractive series heroine (feisty but vulnerable)” while starting with a “superb” opening scene that by itself would make the judge “want to read more Vanda Symon”.

The winner of the inaugural Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel will receive:

• a distinctive handcrafted trophy designed and created by New Zealand sculptor and Unitec art lecturer Gina Ferguson (see photo);
• a selection of Dame Ngaio-related books courtesy of HarperCollins, her long-time publisher (being 20 Inspector Alleyn mysteries, her autobiography Black Beech & Honeydew, and the acclaimed recent biography Ngaio Marsh: Her Life in Crime by Dr Joanne Drayton); and
• a cheque for $500 courtesy of the Christchurch Writers Festival Trust.

“There were a number of high-quality crime novels published last year, and it has been a tough decision for the judges,” said Sisterson. “It is fantastic to see crime writing of this quality being produced by New Zealand writers, and great that the Award recognises both the best of our current authors, while also honouring the memory of one of our country’s true literary legends, who we have perhaps underappreciated in the past.”

The Award’s namesake, Dame Ngaio Marsh, is renowned worldwide as one of the four “Queens of Crime” of the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, having published 32 novels featuring Inspector Roderick Alleyn between 1934 and her death in 1982.

WHODUNNIT AND WHOWUNNIT? PANEL

Christchurch’s Paul Cleave is one of New Zealand’s most successful authors internationally, with his dark thrillers already being published in 14 countries and translated into 10 languages. His debut, The Cleaner, was the number one best-selling crime novel on Amazon Germany for 2007, and was one of the biggest and fastest selling debuts to ever come out of New Zealand. Both The Cleaner and Cemetery Lake have featured in The New Zealand Listener’s annual 100 Best Books list, and his latest thriller Blood Men was signed up by a large US publisher and launched in the United States this year.

Wellington-based Neil Cross has written several acclaimed novels, including the Booker Prize long-listed Always the Sun, Burial (finalist for the 2010 Ngaio Marsh Award), and his latest, Captured, as well as the best-selling memoir, Heartland. He was also lead scriptwriter for series six and seven of the BBC spy drama series, Spooks, and is the creator of the new BBC crime thriller series, Luther, which has screened in Britain and the United States this year.

Vanda Symon is the author of an acclaimed home-grown mystery series set in Otago and Southland featuring feisty detective heroine Sam Shephard, including Overkill, The Ringmaster (one of the New Zealand Listener’s 100 Best Books of 2008), and Containment (finalist for the 2010 Ngaio Marsh Award). A former pharmacist, Symon also hosts Write On, a local radio show in Dunedin focused on writers and the world of books. Her fourth Sam Shephard novel, Bound, will be released early next year.

For more information, please contact:

Craig Sisterson: craigsisterson@hotmail.com or (021) 184 1206

The consensus finalist: THE SHANGHAI MOON by SJ Rozan

As I discussed yesterday, the 2010 Bouchercon festival is about to kick off in San Francisco - four days of fantastic author events and crime fiction festivities.

At Bouchercon by the Bay, the winners of three major crime fiction awards will be announced; the Thursday night Opening Ceremonies will include the presentation of the Barry (run by Deadly Pleasures magazine) and Macavity (run by Mystery Readers International) Awards, followed by a festive reception. And of course later in the weekend the winners of the festival's own long-running awards will also be announced; the Anthony Awards (I understand the winners are based on the votes of attendees at the convention itself).

I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the finalists for the three different awards, and see what sort of repetition and crossover there was between the books on each of the three lists. As you'd expect, some crime novels appear on more than one list - but when it comes to the major Best Novel award, there is one novel that is on all three finalists lists; THE SHANGHAI MOON by SJ Rozan. So, win or lose, walking away from Bouchercon with three awards or none, you could say that SJ Rozan at least has the honour and distinction of being the 'consensus finalist' of each of the three judging panels. Quite an achievement in an awards world that often throws up some pretty interesting results.

Rozan is an author I had heard of, and I've read some of her short stories in a couple of crime fiction anthologies, but never any of her novels (yet). I might have to try to get my hands on THE SHANGHAI MOON however, and see what the fuss is about.

Here is the 'blurb' for THE SHANGHAI MOON:

Estranged for months from fellow P.I. Bill Smith, Chinese-American private investigator Lydia Chin is brought in by colleague and former mentor Joel Pilarsky to help with a case that crosses continents, cultures, and decades. In Shanghai, excavation has unearthed a cache of European jewelry dating back to World War II, when Shanghai was an open city providing safe haven for thousands of Jewish refugees. The jewelry, identifed as having belonged to one such refugee - Rosalie Gilder - was immediately stolen by a Chinese official who fled to New York City. Hired by a lawyer specializing in the recovery of Holocaust assets, Chin and Pilarsky are to find any and all leads to the missing jewels.However, Lydia soon learns that there is much more to the story than they've been told: The Shanghai Moon, one of the world's most sought after missing jewels, reputed to be worth millions, is believed to have been part of the same stash. Before Lydia can act on this new information, two men are murdered, Lydia is fired from the case, and Bill Smith finally reappears on the scene. Now Lydia and Bill must unravel the truth about the Shanghai Moon and the events that surrounded its disappearance sixty years ago during the chaos of war and revolution, if they are to stop more killings and uncover the truth of what is going on today.

You can read an excerpt here.

When the book was released in 2009, Maureen Corrigan in The Washington Post called it an "ambitious and absorbing riff on the classic Nancy Drew mystery", and said that THE SHANGHAI MOON demonstrated that "there's plenty of possibility lurking in the old missing-gems plot. It just takes a master like S.J. Rozan to restore the luster of a classic".

You can read the full review here.

It certainly sounds intriguing. I'm not sure if Rozan will win many or any of the three awards - THE SHANGHAI MOON would have to be a truly exceptional book to beat out John Hart's exquisite Edgar and Dagger Award-winning THE LAST CHILD for the Barry and Anthony Best Novel Awards - but you never know with these things, and regardless of eventual results, Rozan certainly deserves hearty congratulations as the 'consensus finalist', and someone who has a claim on having the most lauded book at Bouchercon.

You can see the full list of finalists for the Macavity Awards here, the Barry Awards here, and the Anthony Awards here.

Have you read THE SHANGHAI MOON? If so, what did you think? If not, do you like the sound of it? Which of the finalists do you think should win each award? Which have you read? Does winning an award matter, one way or the other? Thoughts and comments welcome.

'The Girl' who won an Oscar?

Reports are filtering out of Hollywood that there is some growing talk of Swedish actress Noomi Rapace, who expertly plays Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish-language films of Stieg Larsson's Millennium Trilogy books (pictured in character, right), being put forward for an Oscar nomination.

As reported by Deadline and Hollywood News, the first film - Män som hatar kvinnor (aka the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) - is apparently eligible for next year's Oscars as it was released for a qualifying run in a Los Angeles County theater in March. You can read my review of the film here.

As I said last December, "In terms of acting, I thought Noomi Rapace was brilliant as Lisbeth Salander. She conveyed the computer hacker’s conflict, confusion, anger, and uniqueness (amongst other things) exceptionally well through glances, gestures, and other non-speaking moments – not just scripted dialogue. Like the best performances, I never saw it as someone acting as Lisbeth Salander, rather Rapace was Lisbeth Salander. "

Honestly, I can't think of a female acting performance in a film in the past year, that I've seen, that comes close to Rapace as Salander. If she is indeed eligible, it would be absolute travesty if the Academy overlooked her for a nomination.

However, already there is all sorts of online chatter about whether some Hollywood power brokers and big studio Sony Pictures might try to quash such a move (or ensure Rapace wouldn't win, even if she was nominated), as it could potentially undermine their own attempts to bring their English-language versions of the films to the big screen. All fun and games eh?

Rapace (pictured left, in her real life 'non-Lisbeth' mode) has already won the Swedish equivalent of the Oscar for playing Salander, and is quite the up and coming young actress in general.

She is reportedly currently in Hollywood, and having talks with various studios about her film career. She is rumoured to be in the running for roles in films such as Mission Impossible 4, and the Sherlock Holmes sequel.

Whether she is (deservedly) nominated for the Oscar or not, Rapace has certainly left some pretty big shoes to fill for the actress that takes on the Lisbeth role in David Fincher's remake - which as of this week is reportedly Rooney Mara, "a virtually unknown actress whose profile is so low that even her age is being hotly debated (she is, depending on who you believe, either 24 or 25)".

"In landing top billing in the film, which will open next Christmas, Mara beat off competition from an extraordinary array of stars. Everyone from Scarlett Johansson and Natalie Portman to Carey Mulligan and Emma Watson has featured on the list of names being tipped for the job," reported the New Zealand Herald two days ago. "Mia Wasikowska, the protagonist in Tim Burton's recent Alice in Wonderland, was among the final half-dozen contenders, though she did not sign a test-screening deal. Four finalists are understood to have spent recent weeks in auditions with the film's director, David Fincher, who will begin shooting on location in Sweden next month."

So, what do you think of Noomi Rapace being talked about for an Oscar nomination? Of young Rooney Mara taking on the role for Fincher's version? Of the Hollywood remake in general? Thoughts and comments welcome.