Meet This Year's Oscar Best Picture Contenders
Though the next batch of Academy Award nominees won't be unveiled until January 22, 2019, there's already plenty of Oscar buzz for films that have reached theaters in the past few months as well as a few more due to open in the coming weeks.
While the top two or three favorites have been well established since the major fall festivals (TIFF, Venice) ended in September, the remainder of the best picture field appears to be up for grabs. Which are this year's likeliest contenders for the top Oscar? In the gallery above, check out all of this year's top prospects (in alphabetical order).
In theaters November 21; on Netflix December 14. Certainly, as 2018's best-reviewed film, coming from a filmmaker that the Academy has recognized often in the past, and already the recipient of a major prize (the Golden Lion at this year's Venice festival), Roma is—aside from the film you'll get to on the next slide—this year's most certain best picture nominee. But there is much standing in the way of Alfonso Cuarón's drama set in 1970s Mexico City actually taking home the best picture trophy. While 10 foreign-language films have been nominated for best picture in the past, none of them have actually won the Oscar. Roma has the added burdens of lacking star power, being very long (well over two hours), and utilizing black-and-white photography, which could discourage some voters from even watching the film. And then there's the Netflix angle: Would the Academy dare to hand its biggest award to a film produced by the streaming service? Netflix is at least trying to play nice by altering its usual release strategy to allow Roma to play exclusively in theaters for three weeks prior to its streaming debut. The film will continue to play on the big screen even after December 14, the better to showcase its beautiful 65mm cinematography (shot by Cuarón himself), which may not be fully appreciated by Oscar voters watching at home.
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