Meet This Year's Best Picture Contenders
As we head into the holiday season, we also head into the heart of film awards season. And once again, we are looking at a rather unpredictable year. Though cinemas have mostly reopened this year, the Oscar race is once again being impacted by the pandemic, with many films failing to reach the large audiences that would have greeted them in a normal year—or reaching them directly in their homes rather than on the big screen.
But the uncertainty doesn't mean we don't have a general idea of which films will contend for best picture nominations at the upcoming Oscars. We have surveyed industry experts, calculated the Metascores, and examined the top performing films at this year's major film festivals to come up with a list of 20 potential best picture contenders from 2021, plus a few bonus wildcards.
What is it? An apocalyptic dark comedy about a pair of "low-level astronomers" who discover that a comet is on a collision course with Earth but who then have difficulty convincing the population of the impending disaster.
Why is it a contender? Two reasons. One is the incredible ensemble cast that includes Jennifer Lawrence, Leonardo DiCaprio, Meryl Streep, Jonah Hill, Cate Blanchett, and Timothée Chalamet—and that's just a sampling. And the second is that it is directed by Adam McKay, whose two most recent films (Vice and The Big Short) were also black comedies and were nominated for best picture.
What are its chances? Comedies and best picture nominations don't usually mix, but given McKay's recent track record, Don't Look Up's chances are actually looking, well, up. A lot will depend on how good the film actually is—it hasn't screened for anyone yet, though the first trailer certainly looks encouraging—but Vice managed to get a best picture nomination even with reviews no better than decent (it scored 61).
When can I see it? December 10 in theaters, December 24 on Netflix.
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