Race for Oscar glory
It is the time of year when attention turns to Academy Awards and who will win the industry’s most coveted statues
With the Oscars on March 11, it’s time to make some calls about who will and who could go home with the film industry’s most coveted statues.
BEST PICTURE
The nominees:
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower
Moon Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Who will win:
Oppenheimer. It’s likely the Academy will give the nod to the British director’s awesome bigscreen spectacle about Robert Oppenheimer and the making of the atomic bomb.
Who could win:
Poor Things. Yorgos Lanthimos’ acclaimed and popular adaptation of the speculative Victorian fantasy by Alasdair Gray has been steadily earning awards and critical plaudits for its imaginative worldbuilding and the stellar performance from lead Emma Stone.
BEST DIRECTOR
The nominees: Christopher Nolan — Oppenheimer
Martin Scorsese — Killers of the Flower Moon
Justine Trier — Anatomy of a Fall Jonathan Glazer — The Zone of Interest
Yorgos Lanthimos — Poor Things
Who will win:
Christopher Nolan. After years of critical acclaim and box office success, it looks as if this will be the year the Academy finally makes things right for a director whose ability to meld smart ideas with big screen spectacle is rarely equalled.
Who could win:
I would like nothing better than to see Martin Scorsese receive only his second Best Director Oscar for what is one of his most epic films.
BEST ACTRESS
The nominees:
Emma Stone — Poor Things Lily Gladstone — Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller — Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan — Maestro Annette Bening — Nyad
Who will win:
Lily Gladstone’s turn as the Osage woman at the centre of murderous plots by money grubbing men to swindle her family out of their oil money has placed the actress deservingly in the spotlight.
Who could win:
Emma Stone for her dedicated black humoured and chameleon turn as Bella Baxter, the Frankenstein figure at the centre of Poor Things.
BEST ACTOR
The nominees:
Bradley Cooper — Maestro Colman Domingo — Rustin Paul Giamatti — The Holdovers Cillian Murphy — Oppenheimer Jeffrey Wright — American Fiction
Who will win:
Paul Giamatti for his standout turn as a beaten down 1970s prepschool classics teacher in Alexander Payne’s intelligent twist on the Christmas movie, The Holdovers.
Who could win:
Cillian Murphy. The Irishman has not had as many opportunities to take leading roles on the big screen as you would expect and that’s a criminal oversight as evidenced by his complex and emotionally engaging performance as Robert Oppenheimer — a sensitive man thrown into the violent maelstrom of war thanks to a combination of his scientific brilliance and personal hubris that saw him become the unwilling father of the atomic age.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
The nominees:
Emily Blunt
— Oppenheimer Danielle Brooks
— The Color Purple America Ferrara
— Barbie Jodie Foster
— Nyad Da’Vine Joy Randolph
— The Holdovers
Who will win:
Da’Vine Joy Randolph. Though relatively unknown to movie audiences, the actress is a much-lauded theatre veteran whose performance as a prep-school cook and grieving mother in The Holdovers has earned her critical acclaim and seen her sweep the circuit in the Best Supporting Actress category.
Who could win:
You can never discount Oscar winner Jodie Foster. In Nyad, an inspirational true story drama about athlete Diana Nyad’s commitment at age 60 to swim from Cuba to Florida, Foster delivers a solid performance as long-suffering best friend and coach Bonnie Stoll that may still see her add another statue to her mantlepiece.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
The nominees:
Sterling K Brown — American Fiction
Robert De Niro — Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr — Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling — Barbie
Mark Ruffalo — Poor Things
Who will win:
Robert Downey Jr. With universal acclaim for his menacing turn as the villainous Oppenheimer villain Lewis Strauss it seems that this will finally be his year.
Who could win:
Ryan Gosling for his hugely enjoyable tongue-in-cheek, againsttype performance as Ken in Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster. — BDLive