Oscars at a Glance: October Preview
Already the end of September is within sight, and as one of the slowest movie months of the year wraps up, we can excitedly look and see what the month of October will bring, not just for the big box office hitters, but also for the upcoming Academy Award contenders. It’s a little early to begin to make solid predictions since we’ve seen many 15% of the contenders released to theaters and only those who attended the festivals seeing a few other contenders. So now we’ll take a look at the films being released this October that have built up or that I believe could have some buzz.
Right away the first weekend of October has The Girl on the Train, which has already been set up to be this year’s Gone Girl (2014), but then again the last few years have all had some high profile films being released the first weekend of October, like Gravity (2013), Gone Girl, and The Martian (2015). The film looks quite good, and with a cast like Emily Blunt, Haley Bennett, Rebecca Ferguson, Luke Evans, Justin Theroux, Edgar Ramirez, and Allison Janney and director Tate Taylor of The Help (2011) fame behind the camera, you know Universal and Dreamworks will be gunning for some acting nominations, and other categories such as Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay are all possibilities. I have high hopes for this one. Also opening October 7th is Nate Parker’s The Birth of a Nation, and of course there is quite a controversy surrounding the film’s star, director, and co-writer and co-producer with rape accusations from his college days. While the film has already shown at most of the festivals, even going back to Sundance in January, the strengths of the film might outweigh the controversies. Fox Searchlight is hoping for a similar result to their big winner 12 Years a Slave (2013), with Best Picture, Director, some Acting categories, Screenplay, and all those technical categories. The buzz on the film, for the moment at least, overcomes the controversy, and if the film is good enough, hopefully voters don’t overthink their picks. I mean, come on, if Roman Polanski can win Best Director after what he did, some nominations aren’t all that unthinkable.
The big release from October 14th is The Accountant with Ben Affleck, Anna Kendrick, Jon Bernthal, J.K. Simmons, Jeffrey Tambor and John Lithgow leading the cast. A few nominations from this cast isn’t out of the question, and director Gavin O’Connor could enjoy his first nomination. The screenplay, film, and a few other technical aspects look okay, but the big takeaway at least for me is Best Cinematography, which from the trailers looks excellent. While I haven’t been as blown as others have by the trailers, I’ll see this one and hope for the best.
And finally on October 21st we have a couple of limited releases that could score well with Oscars. The first is Moonlight, which has become a critical favorite on the festival circuit. The film is hoping that it can break into the race big time with nominations in Picture, Director, Acting, and Adapted Screenplay. Technical nominations are also possibilities, but the big word is on those above the line nominations. Also with high hopes is American Pastoral, which crashed and burned at Toronto with awful reviews, though that doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t land a nomination here or there. With a cast like Ewan McGregor, who also directs, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning, and David Strathairn leading the cast, and being a period piece opens up possibilities in the future for success.
While we’ve got Toronto on the mind, we should mention the closing of the festival. We saw the premiere of The Edge of Seventeen with Hailee Steinfeld and Woody Harrelson, which wowed all who saw it. It currently scores at 89% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 8.2/10. While I don’t presently see it being the most nominated film Oscar morning, it could score a few votes here and there. And the coveted People’s Choice Award went to La La Land, and let me say it now just in case it comes to pass, but I am calling this one as the early front-runner once we enter November and the festivals have all wrapped up. Not only have the trailers blown me away, not only do the main stars look to be at the top of their game, but I believe it will also be the film with the most nominations Oscar morning. So if that does happen, and with things constantly in the race nothing is ever guaranteed, I can say I called it from this far out. I will have more weekly updates on the Academy Award race as I have been doing for this month, so as we continue forward expect more from me, and don’t expect me to always keep the same contenders in each race, because as I said, conditions are always changing, new developments are always brewing, and you never can tell what will happen next in the Oscar race.
