[IMG:L]OK, it’s almost three months before this year’s Oscar noms are announced — but Hollywood’s already starting to talk about who could be on the list. So we’ve started spinning our own wheels to predict which movies have that certain Best Picture quality. Our bet is on these 10, most of which still have not even hit theaters yet.
In alphabetical order:
The Academy always loves a grand, sweeping epic — and Baz Luhrmann’s latest just might fit the bill. It involves a ‘40s English aristocrat (Nicole Kidman), who inherits a cattle ranch in Australia, and a hunky rancher (Hugh Jackman), who helps her drive 2,000 head of cattle across the country’s unforgiving Outback. Of course, they fall in love and even end up facing WWII Japanese forces at the other end of the journey. Sappy and cliché? Maybe, but never underestimate the power of a romantic period piece.
KEEP READING: Curious Case
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Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Another epic — of sorts — spanning from 1918 through to the 21st century. But there’s a switch: The heart-tugging time-bender tells the story of a man, Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt), who is born as a very small 80-year-old man and then ages backwards — meaning the older he gets, the younger-looking he gets. Ah, don’t we all wish. Besides a shoo-in for a Best Makeup nomination, director David Fincher’s intense but quirky touch, along with his Fight Club star Pitt, should give the odd-sounding Button a boost.
KEEP READING: Dark Knight
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They were talking about it when it opened in July, and they’re still talking about it: Christopher Nolan’s superbly handled sequel to Batman Begins. Comic-book movies have notoriously been left off any Oscar prognosticator’s radar (not many qualify), but something about Nolan’s dark, thought-provoking, action-packed film – and Heath Ledger’s last full project — makes it a definite cut above the rest. Let’s just say, if this smash hit (and Ledger) does make the list, more people will probably care more about watching the Academy Awards telecast.
KEEP READING: Defiance
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A true story about three Jewish brothers (Daniel Craig, Liev Schreiber, Jamie Bell), who join Russian resistance fighters during WWII, create a village in the forest, fight the Nazis and save hundreds of Jewish lives? Please, it almost has an immediate Academy stamp on it, especially under the direction of Edward Zwick (Blood Diamond). We haven’t had a quality Holocaust feature film in quite a while. And we know how Oscar loves the Holocaust.
KEEP READING: Frost/Nixon
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Oscar-nominated screenwriter and playwright Peter Morgan (The Queen) brings his Tony-award winning play to the big screen. It’s the dramatic retelling of how the post-Watergate television interviews between British talk-show host David Frost (The Queen’s Michael Sheen) and former president Richard Nixon (Frank Langella) came together, along with all the machinations it took to get Nixon to admit that, yes, he was a crook. As a character piece, this may be more of an Oscar showcase for Langella and Sheen, who are both reprising their stage roles, but it has a good chance to win a coveted spot on the list, especially since Academy darling Ron Howard is at the helm.
KEEP READING: Gran Torino
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Although people are talking about Clint Eastwood’s Changeling right at the moment, Oscar betters are putting money down on his December Gran Torino as the requisite Eastwood entry in the Best Picture race. He once again stars in his own film as a grumpy, tough-minded, unhappy widower, whose prize possession is a 1973 Gran Torino. When a neighborhood Korean teenager tries to steal it, he sets out to reform him — and inadvertently gets caught up in the boy’s turbulent life.
KEEP READING: Milk
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Director Gus van Sant can certainly veer towards the very odd with his films (Gerry, anyone?), but when he gets out of his own way and just directs a good story, he usually hits the mark. He is definitely back on his game with this biopic about San Franciscan politician Harvey Milk (Sean Penn) — the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in America, who was then assassinated in 1978 by disgruntled colleague Dan White (Josh Brolin) — with gusto.
KEEP READING: Revolutionary Road
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We all know director Sam Mendes has the Oscar chops, having won the coveted prize with his excellent American Beauty. His latest, set in the 1950s, is the story of a young couple (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, Mendes’ real-life love) trying to find fulfillment in an age of conformity, in which their entrapment eventually leads to explosive consequences. Think Far From Heaven, but only better. It’ll also be nice to see DiCaprio and Winslet together again — with a lot less ice.
KEEP READING: Slumdog Millionaire
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All the critics are raving about Danny Boyle’s co-directed film (with Indian director Loveleen Tandan), about an impoverished Indian teen who becomes a contestant on the Hindi version of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? in order to prove his love for a girl he knows, an ardent fan of the show. Sometimes it’s these small, personal films that come out of nowhere to earn a nomination. Winning it, however, is a whole different ball game…
KEEP READING: Synecdoche, New York
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Only from the mind of Oscar-winning screenwriter Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich), who makes his directorial debut, comes this really strange tale. It’s about a theater director (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who stages a play in an old warehouse, in which he constructs a life-sized replica of New York city and makes his actors play out his life there. It may be a tad too weird for some Academy voters, but it should also be fascinating to those who love and appreciate Kaufman’s always inventive mind.
Honorable Mentions: Doubt, another play-turned-feature film starring Meryl Streep as a mean old nun; Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, a twisted look at the life of a retired pro-wrestler (Mickey Rourke); Seven Pounds, a Will Smith tearjerker; and Pixar’s Wall-E, a shoo-in for Best Animated Film but which could also sneak on the Best Picture list.
