The Irishman
After Roma narrowly (and wrongfully) losing out to Green Book at this year’s ceremony, Netflix will be hoping that The Academy rectify their mistake next year and award The Irishman, the latest film to be directed by Martin Scorsese, Best Picture.
The film has all the makings of a classic, with Scorsese bringing the old gang back together for one last crime flick. The Academy demonstrated with Roma this year that they are not scared of acknowledging Netflix’s influence on the film industry, so you can expect to see The Irishman and Scorsese score a bag full of nominations come 2020.
Fair and Balanced
One accusation commonly thrown at The Academy is that they are consistently out of touch with public opinion. This often leads to them rectifying those mistakes by nominating a politically relevant movie and then patting themselves on the back for doing so.
Fair and Balanced, directed by Jay Roach, features an all-star female cast including Margot Robbie (who could have a seriously big year next year), Nicole Kidman, Charlize Theron, Allison Janney, and several others taking on the roles of several women who attempt to tackle the misogynistic culture of Fox News and it’s boss, Roger Ailes.
Given the recent #metoo movement in Hollywood, this could be The Academy’s perfect opportunity to reflect their views concerning the subject and could also finally see a female-led movie take home the big prize for the first time in forever.
A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
Tom Hanks will be hoping to end his Academy Awards shutout at next year’s ceremony, and if ever there was a suitable vehicle for him to do that in, then A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood is it.
Hanks is playing American Icon, Fred Rogers, who was also the subject of last year’s critically acclaimed documentary, Won’t You Be My Neighbour? and is one of America’s most beloved stars.
The film has Oscar bait written all over it, and given the fact that The Oscars have tended to sway towards politically heavy movies in recent years, there is every chance they may want to change the pace a little bit and shift towards something a little more feel-good in an attempt to get audiences back on their side.
Us
Jordan Peele defied all expectations when his debut feature, Get Out, was nominated for Best Picture at last year’s ceremony, and based on the first trailer for his latest film, Us, it looks as though he may have managed to deliver once again.
The trailer is one of the most effective in recent memory, and it looks as though Peele is once again going to mix intense social commentary with shocking horror and dry humour. The film, like Get Out, has an early release, but that didn’t stop Peele’s movie picking up a shed load of nominations before, so there’s no reason why it would now.
Toy Story 4
You have to go all the way back to 2010 to see the last time an animated movie was nominated for Best Picture. The movie in question? Toy Story 3.
While there are plenty of (justified) doubts about Toy Story 4, there is also plenty of reason to believe that Pixar will knock it out of the park once again and send waves of young adults home with tears streaming down their faces.
The potential inclusion of the controversial ‘Best Popular Film’ category could stump Toy Story’s chances of ending up in the top field, but I’m going to be optimistic here and hope that Woody and Co deliver once again.
Liam Hoofe
