Oscars Best Picture nominee profile: ‘Triangle of Sadness’ would be third Cannes winner to take top prize
Ruben ?stlund has had tremendous success at the Cannes Film Festival. The famously bold writer-director has twice won the prestigious Palme d’Or prize, first for “The Square” in 2017 and most recently for “Triangle of Sadness” in 2022. The success of the latter film there catapulted it into the Oscar conversation for the 95th annual awards, and it sustained its buzz all the way through nominations morning when it secured three citations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay. Should the film pull off a surprise victory in Best Picture, it would become just the third Palme d’Or winner to also nab the top Oscar, following “Marty” in 1956 and “Parasite” in 2020.
“Triangle of Sadness” is a satire about class, gender, and beauty that frequently shape-shifts during its two-and-a-half-hour run time. The film begins as a character study of two models, Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (the late Charlbi Dean), whose relationship has hit some rocky waters as they argue about who should pick up the check after a lavish dinner. The second part explores some literal rocky waters, as the duo take a cruise on a luxury yacht that begins as a dream but ends as a nightmare. The third part takes place on a deserted island and explores the class dynamics amongst the castaways.
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WATCH our exclusive video interview with Oscar-nominee Ruben ?stlund, ‘Triangle of Sadness’
?stlund’s film had a strong awards season leading up to the Oscars. In early January it was longlisted for seven prizes at the BAFTAs, including Best Picture, Actor (Dickinson), Supporting Actor (Woody Harrelson), Supporting Actress (Dolly de Leon), Original Screenplay, Casting, and Editing. Of those seven, it ultimately received three noms for de Leon, Casting, and Original Screenplay, but went home empty-handed. The film also scored key citations at the Critics Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, with a number of those bids going to de Leon, who commands the screen in the third act of the film. The film missed out at DGA and was ineligible at WGA.
On Oscar nominations morning, “Triangle of Sadness” exceeded expectations with three. Our combined odds only predicted the film to score the bid for its screenplay; we underestimated it in both Picture, where it ranked 12th, and Director, where ?stlund ranked 13th. Surprisingly, one of its strongest contenders, de Leon, missed out on the Supporting Actress lineup.
WATCH our exclusive video interview with Dolly de Leon, ‘Triangle of Sadness’
That omission could be a bad sign for the film in the Best Picture race, where it trails frontrunner “Everything Everywhere All at Once” in our odds. Even though it has key support of directors and writers within the academy, it failed to get its breakout star de Leon a nomination despite her BAFTA bid. It also missed other possible, though much less likely, bids for the better-known Harrelson in Supporting Actor and for the incredible work of production designer Josefin ?sberg, who helped ?stlund bring a brilliant seasickness sequence to life with a rocking set to emulate being on the open, unsettled sea.
Even if “Triangle” does not prevail at the Oscars on Sunday, March 12, it has already joined an estimable list of Palme d’Or-winning Oscar nominees, including “Taxi Driver,” “Apocalypse Now,” “All That Jazz,” “The Piano,” “Pulp Fiction,” “Amour,” and others. ?stlund is already making moves on a future Oscar, too, working on his next (disaster) feature, “The Entertainment System is Down,” and as jury president at the next Cannes Film Festival.
This article is a part of Gold Derby’s “Oscar nominee profile” series spotlighting the 2022 Best Picture nominees.
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