Other Best Picture horses will get past The Post

Without a Best Director nom it is unlikely film will win top honours on big night

We’re handicapping the odds on the nine Best Picture contenders for the March 4 Academy Awards. Today: The Post. Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg are Hollywood royalty, with eight Academy Awards and many nominations between them.

But that’s still unlikely to be sufficient firepower for The Post to slip past the post on Oscar night.

For starters, the film’s mere two nominations don’t include one for Best Director. Just four films in Oscar history have won Best Picture without this accompanying kudo.

For another, the film, while solid, is not the best work of any of these three, which is why it will enter Oscar night as an also-ran. Quick Pitch: As a belligerent U.S. president seeks court action to stop the press from printing damning Vietnam War documents, Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham (Meryl Streep) must weigh truth-telling against threatened im- prisonment and insolvency. Starring: Meryl Streep, Tom Hanks, Bob Odenkirk, Sarah Paulson, Tracy Letts, Carrie Coon. Directed by: Steven Spielberg Nominations: 2 Key early kudos: National Board of Review Best Film Award. Box office (domestic, U.S. dollars): $77.1 million. Ladbrokes odds: 50/1 Howell’s line: Great stars, nimble direction and a compelling true story — but other Oscar horses will get past The Post. Star rating: 3 stars (out of 4)

AMBLIN ENTERTAINMENT/TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE The Post is a solid film, but not the best work of its stars Meryl Streep and Tom Hanks, which will work against it on Oscar night.