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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Two old men and their guns

▣ The Mule In theaters December 14.
▣ The Old Man and the Gun Now in theaters (released Sep. 28).

Octogenarian film legends Robert Redford and Clint Eastwood star as aging criminals in a pair of awards-season releases. Due to its early release date, much more is known about Redford's film, the David Lowery-directed The Old Man and the Gun, which has received fairly good reviews. A best actor nomination for Redford—who has claimed that this will be his final screen performance—is far likelier than a best picture nomination, though the latter is still a possibility. Much less is known about the still-unscreened true-story drama The Mule, which Eastwood also directs (in addition to starring as a WWII veteran who becomes a drug courier in his 80s). It may not be a good sign that Mule bypassed the fall festivals, but there's always a chance that an Eastwood film will crack the best picture field. (It probably doesn't hurt that Mule also stars Bradley Cooper, who will be omnipresent during awards season thanks to A Star Is Born.)

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