Even before Al Pacino had stepped up to the podium to announce the nominees for Best Picture at the 69th Academy Awards, one could have easily argued that 1996 was already a win for the independent picture. David and Goliath tales of smaller production houses facing off against the once-formidable major studio giants were being exchanged amongst media and critics alike across the country. It seemed more and more esteemed directors too were turning their backs on the establishment; opting instead for a greater handle over creative control—like Robert Altman, Woody Allen, and Francis Ford Coppola.
If that wasn’t already enough, a slew of next-generation filmmakers had hit the ground running that year—with the likes of Wes Anderson, the Coen brothers, Alexander Payne, John Sayles, and Tod Solondz all releasing quality indie pictures that made the studio bigwigs appear as if they’d been sitting on their hands. Thirdly and no less crucially, the changing attitude of the local cinema-goer proved a key factor...with more and more US audiences peeping over the fence and discovering a fresh and flourishing international film market blossoming on the other side.
But looking back at it now 25 years later, it leaves much to be desired as to why executives didn’t see the wave approaching on the horizon and sound the alarm. In truth, independent films had already begun infiltrating the red carpet by the early ’90s. And as the decade had progressed, Americans were not only tolerating international English-speaking films in different accents—they were lapping them up in record numbers. The 1992 English period film Howards End had proved a hit in the US market, sharing 4 Academy Awards with Irish screenwriter/director Neil Jordan’s explosive thriller, The Crying Game.
Fellow British director Mike Newell’s hit rom-com Four Weddings and a Funeral would follow suit shortly after...whilst the Australian road comedy, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert—and New Zealand’s The Piano and Heavenly Creatures (directed by Jane Campion and Peter Jackson respectively) were all highly successful films in the US from a commercial standpoint. Closer to home too, newly minted independent distributors such as Sony Pictures Classics, Gramercy Pictures, Fine Line Features (New Line Cinema’s subsidiary division), and brothers Bob and (now-disgraced) Harvey Weinstein’s Miramax Films were all taking advantage of the old Hollywood establishment’s antiquated and often nearsighted business model.
Not only were locally-produced indie films like Pulp Fiction, Dead Man Walking, Mighty Aphrodite, or The Usual Suspects yielding encouraging returns, they were beating blockbusters to the coveted Oscar. But no one had foreseen just how indelible a mark the independent film had made in 1996 until Pacino had read out the nominations for Best Picture a year later; with an unprecedented 4 out of the 5 available slots occupied by non-studio films. For the first time in the Academy’s history, the major picture was the minority. A change was in the air...or so it seemed anyway.
To be fair, 1996 was a particularly underwhelming year for the studio motion picture with regards to the quality of the product. That being said, 20th Century Fox’s armageddon blockbuster, Independence Day still managed to rake in a whopping $817.4 million in worldwide revenue. But despite earning the title of being the year’s highest-grossing film (and the second-highest-grossing film up until that point), the doomsday epic would only be considered for an Academy Award in the categories for sound and visual effects.
Twister, Paramount Pictures’ first installment of the action franchise Mission: Impossible, or the Warner Brothers screen-adapted courtroom drama A Time to Kill fared no better...and in the end the Academy would voice its dissatisfaction at the ballots. But as you may already know, the independent film rarely requires validation from commercial award ceremonies in order to measure its success.
Modestly successful upon release, a considerable handful of indie films from 1996 have since accumulated cult followings—like directorial debuts from Wes Anderson, Alexander Payne, or Tod Solondz (Bottle Rocket, Citizen Ruth, Welcome to the Dollhouse)...terse crime thrillers (Abel Ferrara’s The Funeral, or the Wachowski’s Bound)...unconventional anti-hero dramas (Billy-Bob Thornton’s Sling Blade, or Canadian screenwriter/director Mary Harron’s I Shot Andy Warhol)...slightly off-kilter police procedural whodunits (the Coen brother’s brilliant Fargo, or John Sayles’ Lone Star)...and all-out bizarre fetish erotica (David Cronenberg’s controversial adaptation of J.G Ballard’s Crash).
The year 1996 saw a string of international films make their mark on the festival circuit too. Perhaps the most hype was around screenwriter/director Scott Hicks’ Australian biopic, Shine—based on the life of concert pianist David Helfgott, and starring Geoffrey Rush in the feature role. The film was a hit at Sundance, and Rush’s performance was widely praised as one of the year’s most inspirational.
British actress Brenda Blethyn’s role as the working-class mother struggling to hold it all together in Mike Leigh’s touching dysfunctional family drama Secrets and Lies was the other critic’s favorite—taking home the prestigious Palme d’Or prize at Cannes, as well as the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress. The other winner at Cannes in ‘96 was the Danish film Breaking the Waves; Lars von Trier’s groundbreaking drama (and first film after forming his Dogme 95 movement) starring Emily Watson, and shot entirely on handheld camera.
Other notable mentions that year included British director Danny Boyle’s down-and-out adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel of the same name, Trainspotting, Czech filmmaker Jan Svěrák’s endearing drama Kolya, or the visually stunning Gabbeh, produced by Iranian New Wave hero Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
Let us flip the calendar once again to March of 1997, where Jerry Maguire (a sports-oriented, romantic comedy of sorts from ex-Rolling Stone magazine editor Cameron Crowe) was the only major studio picture that stood in the running for the penultimate prize for Best Picture at the 69th Academy Awards. The other 4 nominations (Shine, Fargo, Secrets and Lies, and The English Patient) had already much to celebrate. They’d had 27 Academy Award nominations between them by this point—with Frances McDormand taking out the Best Actress award for her role in Fargo, and Geoffrey Rush receiving the Oscar for Best Actor in Shine.
The runaway winner that year was the Saul Zaentz-produced wartime romance epic The English Patient, bagging 9 Academy Awards in the end, including for Best Picture—making it one of the most successful British films of the 20th century, and certainly one of the biggest success stories for a motion picture produced outside of the major Hollywood studios.
But the reign at the top for the indie film would prove short-lived, and the year that followed would see the major studios reaffirming their foothold once again, led by James Cameron’s colossal epic Titanic. Co-financed by big players Warner Brothers and Paramount Pictures, the gamble to splash more money on the film’s production budget than ever in history would pay off in the end for executives, with the film surpassing the billion-dollar mark in gross revenue.
Not since the mammoth-scale biblical epics of the late 1950s had a major blockbuster enjoyed such a monopolized superiority over its competitors...and the non-studio film wouldn’t make quite as big an impact on the industry’s most celebrated evening until the awards ceremony’s 87th installment some 17 years later when such films as Birdman, Boyhood, Whiplash and The Grand Budapest Hotel would be in the running for the Best Picture prize once again.