An Early Look at the Contenders for Best Picture at Next Year's Oscars
Although we're only in June, it's not too early to throw down a few names of potential Oscar contenders for next years ceremony in February. At this point last year, Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel had already had its theatrical run, and Richard Linklater's twelve year epic Boyhood had just been released. Whiplash had already opened the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, and eventual Best Picture winner, Birdman, was making tracks on the festival circuit. So how might the race to the 88th Academy Awards pan out with the 2015 Cannes Film Festival in the history books?
the cannes after party
It's eight months until we'll have the answers to the question, but after Cannes, the Best Picture race came a little into focus. Todd Haynes' 'Carol' will be a contender. His adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 50s-set lesbian love story received positive reviews from most critics. It stars Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, with the latter honoured by the festival with the Best Actress award, which she shared with Emmanuelle Bercot (Mon Roi).
Another contender could be Youth, the English-language film by Paolo Sorrentino. It stars Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel as a composer and a movie director considering young beauty and the passing of time in a Swiss spa. Critics gave positive reviews with many praising its unpredictable narrative and use of visual and musical gags.
An outsider for the Best Picture race is Hungary’s László Nemes' Holocaust drama, Son of Saul. Many believed it should've won this year’s Palme d’Or. Depending on how it is marketed to audiences, its best chance at nabbing an Oscar may come in the form of Best Foreign Language film. However, the Academy have nominated foreign titles in the Best Picture category in the past, take Amour in 2012 for example.
the sundance darlings
Last year we saw the rise of the indies: Whiplash, Boyhood, Birdman and Selma. Accepting independent cinema has been a trend the Academy have took great pride in celebrating. For years they used to shun independent films out-of-contention, but in recent years have employed an embracing the style mindset that has seen many contenders begin their Oscar journey in January at the Sundance Film Festival. That's exactly where Damien Chazelle's Whiplash started and it lead to it being one of the most talked about and celebrated movies of last year.
So who impressed at Sundance this year?
An almost shoo-in to be in the hunt will be Fox Searchlight's, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, which won the Grand Jury Prize at the festival. Fox will push this film hard in the run-in as they try for a third consecutive Best Picture gong (previously winning with 12 Years a Slave and Birdman). Although totally different in terms of story, tone and approach, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl is very much like Whiplash in that it will be riding a huge wave of critical acclaim heading into award season.
Another potential Sundance darling may come in the form of Brooklyn. Although it didn't receive the critical reaction Me and Earl did, it does have some strong traction behind it after having a solid festival. Although it may come up short in landing a slot in the Best Picture race, it may bag itself a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Nick Hornby's script.
Other possible Sundance hopefuls include Dope and The Diary of a Teenage Girl. These two will no doubt go down very well with audiences this summer and may well find themselves high on a lot of critics top 10 lists, but they'll most likely get lost amongst the pack when the heavyweights release their titles at the end of the year.
the heavyweights
This years race will feature some serious heavy hitters with most of them being previous Oscar winners. The Weinstein Company will be putting a lot of force behind two-time Oscar winner Quentin Tarantino's, The Hateful Eight. Another Weinstein production with a chance is Southpaw which stars Jake Gyllenhaal. During his Cannes presser, Harvey Weinstein said Gyllenhaal was robbed of his nomination for Best Actor at last year's Oscars for his role in Nightcrawler. However, Harvey promises they will right that wrong after seeing his performance in Southpaw. Other movies that will be in contention are Joy from five-time nominee David O. Russell (American Hustle, Silver Linings Playbook), The Revenant from last year's Best Director winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Bridge of Spies which stars Tom Hanks and is helmed by two-time Best Director recipient Steven Spielberg (Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List). Not much has been seen from most of these five movies, except a graphic trailer from The Hateful Eight and a full theatrical trailer from Southpaw.
Nonetheless, there is boat load of movies that will have a lot to say come nomination day in January, with plenty of biopics on offer. We've got Danny Boyle and Aaron Sorkin's Steve Jobs, which stars Michael Fassbender as the Apple co-founder; Trumbo which stars Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston as screenwriter Dalton Trumbo; The Danish Girl which explores transgender artist Lili Elbe played by Eddie Redmayne — who'll be gunning for Oscar number two. We've also got Johnny Depp as infamous criminal Whitey Bulger in Black Mass, which may turn out to be a vehicle for gaining back Depp's respect as an actor. Others that'll come more into play include: Jean-Marc Vallée's Demolition another Fox Searchlight release and Jake Gyllenhaal flick; Genius starring Oscar winner Colin Firth as book editor Max Perkins; Sarah Gavron's Suffragette; Andrew Haigh's 45 Years; Denis Villeneuve's Sicario which received fairly strong reviews at Cannes; By the Sea could be one of the years most intriguing releases as it stars husband and wife Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, who also serves as the movies director; Climbing expedition drama Everest is another Jake Gyllenhaal film; Ridley Scott's star-studded sci-fi thriller The Martian will get attention come award season; And finally, an appealing release stars Idris Elba in Cary Fukunaga's adaptation of Nigeria author Uzodinma Iweala’s bestselling debut novel, Beasts of No Nation.
It is still eight months away and as you can see, there's a ton of movies yet to be released. Still, in the coming months those numbers will whittle down with genuine contenders rising to the top. Whatever way it pans out it'll certainly be a hotly contested race like most years.
