Meet This Year's Best Picture Contenders
We may be living in unsettled times, but there's one bit of (minor) normalcy rapidly approaching: Hollywood's awards season. So which films from 2020 (plus next January and February, thanks to an extended eligibility period) could contend for a best picture Oscar next spring? We have surveyed industry experts, reviewed the reviews, and examined the top performers at this year's few surviving major film festivals to come up with a list potential contenders.
Despite the fact that so many potential 2020 nominees have taken themselves out of the running by shifting their release dates into late 2021 (a list that includes Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, Denis Villeneuve's Dune, Tom McCarthy's Stillwater, the Aretha Franklin biopic Respect, and Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch, among others), there are still over a dozen strong contenders to receive a best picture nomination when the Academy reveals its selections on March 15, 2021. (The delayed Oscar ceremony will be held on April 25.) Those films, and a handful of additional wildcards, are listed in alphabetical order in the gallery above.
Note that it looks like director Steve McQueen will be represented at least twice (and perhaps more) near the top of our list of 2020's best-reviewed films. But his five (!) upcoming releases are technically part of an BBC/Amazon anthology series (Small Axe) which will make his films Emmy-eligible rather than Oscar-eligible, so they are omitted here.
What is it? Director David Fincher's first feature in six years is a black-and-white biopic following alcoholic screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz (Gary Oldman) as he navigates a tricky relationship with director Orson Welles (Tom Burke) while attempting to complete the screenplay for Citizen Kane. It even has a screenwriting twist of its own: Mank was written by Fincher's father, Jack Fincher, shortly before his death.
Why is it a contender? Not only is it a movie about making movies—it's a movie about the greatest American movie of all time, and it's meticulously filmed in the style of classic Hollywood movies of the 1940s, down to the use of vintage microphones to capture the sound. There's no way the Academy is going to ignore it.
What are its chances? Early buzz is off-the-charts great, and it seems to be a lock for a nomination (as well as one of the favorites to actually win the best picture award), but we'll know more when reviews come out the morning of November 6.
When can I see it? It opens in theaters on November 13 (if you are in one of the few cities where it will be playing) and streams December 4 on Netflix.
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