It may only be November, but the starter pistol has already fired and the Oscars race is well and truly under way. We’ve already seen a host of films – from Gravity to Captain Phillips – released in cinemas, but many more are on their way looking to leave their impression on Academy Awards voters.
Digital Spy looks at 15 films competing for golden statues below…
The Definites
Captain Phillips
Potential nominations: Tom Hanks (Best Actor), Barkhad Abdi (Best Supporting Actor), Paul Greengrass (Best Director), Best Picture
Paul Greengrass and Tom Hanks’s bracing hijacking drama Captain Phillips left audiences on the edge of their seats and threw its leading man right into the mix for the Best Actor race. Greengrass bagged a directing nomination back in 2007 for United 93, so expect him to be in the race.
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12 Years a Slave
Potential nominations: Chiwetel Ejiofor (Best Actor), Michael Fassbender (Best Supporting Actor), Lupita Nyong’o (Best Supporting Actress), Steve McQueen (Best Director), Best Picture
While Steve McQueen’s last film Shame was unforgivably overlooked by the Academy in 2012 (we blame Fassbender’s manhood), we can’t see the same fate befalling his breathtaking chronicle of a man sold into slavery in 1840s Louisiana. Ejiofor is a remarkable actor long overdue some mainstream recognition, while powerful supporting turns from Fassbender and newcomer Nyong’o have both generated some serious buzz.
Saving Mr Banks
Potential nominations: Emma Thompson (Best Actress), Tom Hanks (Best Supporting Actor), John Lee Hancock (Best Director), Best Picture, Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith (Best Original Screenplay)
It doesn’t take a genius (or someone who can spell ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’!) to see that Disney’s behind-the-scenes biopic about the making of Mary Poppins has Oscar cred from top to bottom. Acting nominations are all-but-certain, with Hanks potentially bagging two nominations thanks to this and Captain Phillips. Saving Mr Banks is the kind of warm, comfort blanket film that Academy voters will love, so it could even be a dark horse to win the big awards.
American Hustle
Potential nominations: Christian Bale (Best Actor), Amy Adams (Best Actress), Jennifer Lawrence (Best Supporting Actress), David O Russell (Best Director), Best Picture
O Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook earned Lawrence an Oscar this year and was a frontrunner for Best Picture, so you can expect his 1970-set follow-up – which reunites Lawrence and Silver Linings‘ Bradley Cooper alongside Christian Bale and Amy Adams – to show up across the board in this year’s race.
Gravity
Potential nominations: Sandra Bullock (Best Actress), Alfonso Cuarón (Best Director), Best Picture
Astounding on a filmmaking level, Gravity is likely to hoover up all the technical gongs going. But does it have enough in the tank to cross over and land major recognition? The Oscars have traditionally shied away from rewarding commercially successful films, but Gravity’s momentum – both critical and commercial – could change all that.
Inside Llewyn Davis
Potential nominations: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen (Best Director), Best Picture, Oscar Isaac (Best Actor), Carey Mulligan (Best Supporting Actor)
The Coens’ latest drama is a terrific look into the life of a struggling singer-songwriter in the New York ’60s folk scene. The lead role is a star-making one for Oscar Isaac, while Carey Mulligan is also on fine form as the sour-faced singer who shares a history with Llewyn. A Best Picture nod is looking likely too, however the Coens’ recent victory for No Country for Old Men will likely mean they won’t get a second Oscar win in such close proximity.
Wolf of Wall Street
Potential nominations: Leonardo DiCaprio (Best Actor), Jonah Hill (Best Supporting Actor), Martin Scorsese (Best Director), Best Picture
While the delayed release and B movie tone of Scorsese and DiCaprio’s last collaboration Shutter Island saw it shut out of the Oscar race, this blackly comedic crime drama is more in the vein of 2006’s Best Picture winning The Departed. As for Best Actor, DiCaprio’s been nominated and lost three times – could this finally be his year?
Blue Jasmine
Potential nominations: Cate Blanchett (Best Actress), Sally Hawkins (Best Supporting Actress), Woody Allen (Best Director), Best Picture
Woody’s back in the Academy’s good books, earning his first ‘Best Picture’ nomination in more than two decades for 2011’s Midnight in Paris, and his riff on A Streetcar Named Desire could be in with a shot at the same. More definite is a nomination for widely-feted leading lady Cate Blanchett, who’s also the current frontrunner to take home the gong.
The Butler
Potential nominations: Forest Whitaker (Best Actor), Oprah Winfrey (Best Actress), Lee Daniels (Best Director), Best Picture
Former Best Actor winner Whitaker stars in this Oscar bait-y chronicle of several decades in the White House, told from the perspective of a long-standing butler. With its powerful portrayal of the civil rights movement, its stirring lead turns from Whitaker and Oprah (returning to the big screen after more than a decade) and its star-studded supporting cast, this is a safe bet for nods aplenty.
Dallas Buyers Club
Potential nominations: Matthew McConaughey (Best Actor), Jared Leto (Best Supporting Actor), Best Picture
The McConaissance is complete. A string of compelling, morally complex roles has officially yanked Matthew McConaughey’s career out of the rom-com cesspool (he hasn’t leaned on anybody in a poster for yonks). Now he’s a near-lock for a Best Actor nod thanks to his role as Ron Woodroof, a bigoted rodeo cowboy who began smuggling and selling unapproved AIDS medication in the 1980s after being diagnosed with the disease himself. Leto has also gathered buzz for his performance as Rayon, a transvestite and fellow patient who becomes Woodroof’s business partner.
The Dark Horses
August: Osage County
Potential nominations: Meryl Streep (Best Actress), Julia Roberts (Best Supporting Actor), Tracy Letts (Best Adapted Screenplay)
A powerhouse cast has assembled for this dark family comedy based on Tracy Letts’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Meryl Streep is an Oscar magnet at this point, and her turn as the Weston family matriarch is sure to put her in the Oscar race again. However, mixed early festival reviews suggest that this won’t quite make the cut when it comes to Best Picture.
Philomena
Potential nominations: Judi Dench (Best Actress), Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope (Best Adapted Screenplay)
Judi Dench famously bagged an Oscar for just eight minutes of screen time in Shakespeare in Love, so her crowd-pleaser of a turn in Philomena is likely to put her in contention for an acting nod. Harvey Weinstein, a man who knows a thing or two about playing the Academy Awards game, is sure to push this to the front of the queue.
Her
Potential nominations: Joaquin Phoenix (Best Actor), Spike Jonze (Best Director), Best Picture
Spike Jonze’s first film since Where the Wild Things Are might be a bit too whimsical and quirky (a man falls in love with his operating system!) to register as anything more than an outside shot in the big categories, but expect Joaquin Phoenix’s sensitive performance – slumped shoulders, high-waisted trousers and Ned Flanders moustache – to make an impression.
Fruitvale Station
Potential nominations: Michael B Jordan (Best Actor), Octavia Spencer (Best Actress), Best Picture
Since its debut at Sundance where it won the Grand Jury Prize, this retelling of the true story of Oscar Grant – a young man who was shot dead by police in 2009 – has garnered widespread acclaim. Jordan and Spencer’s powerful performances are definite frontrunners, and while a Best Picture nod for a first feature is less likely, it’s far from impossible given Beasts of the Southern Wild‘s success this year.
All Is Lost
Potential nominations: Robert Redford (Best Actor), JC Chandor (Best Director), Best Picture
Amid all the deafening hype for Gravity and Captain Phillips, JC Chandor’s All Is Lost seems to have slipped unnoticed into the Oscar race. Robert Redford’s stunning, near-wordless performance is almost guaranteed to bag him Best Actor recognition, but when it comes to a bracing survival drama this might just trail behind its competition in the Best Picture category.
Source: Digitalspy
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