Exclusive: Amazon's 2021 Oscar slate is getting a boost by joining the prestigious film collection.
Amazon Studios is bringing three of its 2021 Oscar contenders to the Criterion Collection: Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” Regina King’s “One Night in Miami,” and Garrett Bradley’s “Time.” The latter two will arrive on Criterion later this year, while “Sound of Metal” will bow in 2022. The addition of these three titles to the prestigious classic and contemporary film collection marks the first time Amazon Original movies are joining Criterion since the Criterion release of “Cold War.” All three movies are now available to stream on Amazon Prime Video.
While it may strike some cinephiles odd that titles available for streaming are heading to Criterion, this is not an unprecedented move on Criterion’s part. Not only is “Cold War” in the collection, but Criterion has teamed with Netflix in the past to release titles such as Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma,” Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story,” and Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” on DVD and Blu-ray.
After picking up Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award nominations, “Sound of Metal” and “One Night in Miami” are expected to land multiple Oscar nominations when nominees are announced Monday, March 15. Garrett Bradley’s “Time,” a sensation of the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, is a frontrunner in the Best Documentary race.
For more information on the Amazon Original titles joining Criterion later in 2021, check out additional details below (courtesy of Amazon).
“One Night in Miami…”
“One Night in Miami…” world premiered at the 2020 Venice Film Festival to immediate critical acclaim, followed by a successful screening at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Regina King and written by Kemp Powers based on his award-winning play. Producers are Jess Wu Calder, Keith Calder, and Jody Klein. Set on the evening of one incredible night in 1964, “One Night in Miami…” follows four icons — Cassius Clay (Eli Goree), soon to be Muhammad Ali; Malcolm X (Kingsley Ben-Adir); Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.); and Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge) — as they gather to celebrate one of the greatest upsets in boxing history. King’s directorial debut is a fictional imagining of the historic night these towering figures spent together, as the four men engage in passionate debate about their roles as leaders in the Civil Rights Movement and cultural upheaval of the 1960s. Thus far, “One Night in Miami…” has won a Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Breakthrough Actor (Ben-Adir) and the Robert Altman Independent Spirit Award, in addition to being nominated for three Golden Globe awards.
“Sound of Metal”
“Sound of Metal” world premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Directed by Darius Marder (“Loot,” “The Place Beyond the Pines”), “Sound of Metal” was extremely well-received, with high praise for performances by stars Riz Ahmed and Paul Raci. Marder and Abraham Marder penned the screenplay, while Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche produced. The film follows the life of Ruben (Ahmed), an itinerant punk-metal drummer whose life begins to unravel when he suddenly loses his hearing, and with it, his identity. Acclaimed for its intimate depiction of life after loss of hearing, “Sound of Metal” was named as one of the Top 10 Best Films of 2020 by the American Film Institute, as well as the National Board of Review, where Ahmed and Raci won the awards for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. Since, the film has won a Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Actor (Ahmed), in addition to garnering a Best Actor nomination for Ahmed at the 2021 Golden Globe Awards.
“Time”
Directed by Garrett Bradley (“Alone, America”), “Time” world premiered at Sundance Film Festival in 2020, where it won the U.S. Documentary Directing Award, making Bradley the first ever African-American woman to win the category. “Time” was produced by Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn and Bradley. In this intimate yet epic love story filmed over two decades, indomitable matriarch Fox Rich strives to raise her six sons and keep her family together, as she fights for her husband’s release from the Louisiana State Penitentiary, commonly known as Angola. Widely embraced by critics, Time has since won a Critics’ Choice Documentary Award and a Gotham Independent Film Award for Best Documentary.
