Meet This Year's Oscar Best Picture Contenders

by Jason Dietz, Metacritic Features Editor
and Keith Kimbell, Metacritic Film Editor – November 11, 2018

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).

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Politicians and their vices

▣ The Front Runner Now in limited release; expanding nationwide on Nov. 21.
▣ Vice In theaters December 25.

It is certainly no front runner for a best picture nomination, but Jason Reitman's retelling of then-Senator Gary Hart's ultimately doomed and scandal-plagued 1988 presidential campaign, The Front Runner, is still given a bit of a chance to sneak into the best picture race thanks to its surprisingly timely subject matter. That said, it would have helped the film considerably if it had been a bit better (critics aren't exactly raving about it), and it seems that its Oscar hopes could rest on a nomination for Hugh Jackman's portrayal of Hart. Keep an eye on the film's box office performance when it opens wide for Thanksgiving weekend: if it doesn't connect with audiences, it's probably doomed.

Fellow political profile Vice could have a better chance at cracking the best picture field, though it is more of a wildcard since critics haven't seen it yet. (That late release date also doesn't help.) But that is Christian Bale you see portraying former Vice President Dick Cheney in the photo above (right), and if a photograph ever launched a "for your consideration" campaign, it might be this one. If the film could achieve the critical success of comedy-turned-drama director Adam McKay's previous film, the similarly current events oriented The Big Short (which was a best picture nominee), then you could be looking at numerous Oscar nominations for Vice, which also stars Steve Carell as Donald Rumsfeld, Amy Adams as Lynne Cheney, and Sam Rockwell as George W. Bush (among other recognizable faces).

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