22 Upcoming Movies With the Most Oscar Buzz This Year
Reading Time: 7 minutesAn assortment of forthcoming films for grown-ups, minus the flights and tights (mostly).
With the Venice Film Festival behind us and the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) just wrapping up, film fans are finally getting a clearer picture of the forthcoming movies that are likely be awards-season favorites. Are prestigious awards and film-festival buzz the be-all, end-all when it comes to quality entertainment? Absolutely not.
But at a time when Hollywood seems reluctant to spend marketing money on anything that didn’t start out life as a comic book or fantasy novel, following the critical hype is increasingly the best way to discover something new and interesting. I love a Marvel movie as much as the next filmgoer, and there are brilliant blockbusters out there for sure (we’ll talk about a couple of likely contenders) but it’s nice to check out movies that are a little more personal, too.
All of the streaming films listed will receive limited theatrical releases before they’re available online, usually if only to ensure that they’re eligible for various awards. The dates provided are those of their primary, widest releases; if you live in a major city, you might have a chance to see them a little earlier.
Awards-types love an historical epic, and this one promises period spectacle, lots of action, and a feminist message, and boasts the presence of Viola Davis, who stars as the leader of the Agojie, an all-woman squad of fighters protecting the kingdom of Dahomey circa 1820. I’ve already got my tickets.
Release: Only in theaters.
Olivia Wilde directs Florence Pugh and Harry Styles in a 1950s period-drama set in a California company town. The early reviews haven’t been glowing, exactly, but offer copious praise for Pugh’s performance as the wife exploring dirty deeds involving her husband’s company. Will she be able to overcome middling reviews and a mountain of juicy behind-the-scenes gossip to score a nomination? Maybe, but I’m a little worried about it.
Release: Only in theaters.
Ana de Armas is said to have completely embodied Marilyn Monroe, even as director Andrew Dominik promises a highly fictionalized (and NC-17) take on the icon’s life—one that could be a revelatory portrait told through a glass darkly, or that might wind up feeling like a self-indulgent mosery-fest (depending on who you ask).
Release: Streaming on Netflix
Todd Field has only directed two prior feature films, but each was an awards-season favorite: In the Bedroom and Little Children both received Adapted Screenplay Oscar nominations for scripts co-written by Field, and the former was nominated for (and should have won) Best Picture. More than a decade later, he’s back with the story of Lydia Tár, a world famous composer brought down by her own thirst for power and recognition. It received a six-minute standing ovation following its Venice premiere, which is a pretty long time.
Release: Only in theaters.
Writer/director Ruben Östlund (Force Majeure, The Square) returns with what’s probably a much-needed satire of wealth and Insta-culture. It’s the story of a couple of models invited to spend some time on a massive yacht in the company of a Russian oligarch, a British arms dealer, and Woody Harrelson. Apparently it doesn’t go well (the original poster was replaced in favor of one without the visible vomit).
Release: Only in theaters.
Director Chinonye Chukwu’s 2019 film Clemency (about a prison warden’s work with a death row inmate) made a huge splash at awards time, taking home the Grand Jury prize at Sundance. That might have been just a warm-up for Till, which focuses on the efforts of Mamie Till-Mobley (Danielle Deadwyler) to achieve some measure of justice for the horrific death of her son, Emmett. It’s not likely to be an easy watch, but it’s an essential American story that seems to be in good hands.
Release: Only in theaters.
Director Martin McDonagh’s very dark comedy about two friends (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) very much on the outs earned itself a 13-minute standing ovation at this year’s Venice Film Festival. I can’t imagine standing nor clapping that long for anything (though our friends at Jezebel recently tested it out), but I’ll assume it’s a pretty darn good movie.
Release: Only in theaters.
The 2019 original was the first superhero movie to receive a highly coveted Best Picture Oscar nomination (losing to Green Book, if you can imagine), so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Wakanda Forever might pick up a few major awards nods. Honestly, Angela Bassett’s ‘Have I not given everything?’ moment from the trailer alone deserves an acting nod from where I’m sitting.
Release: Only in theaters.
Producer A24 has been on one helluva roll lately, sometimes feeling like the only company around making non-superhero films that actually break through and get noticed by broader audiences. The Tragedy of MacBeth was a Best Picture contender last year, X has been a horror phenomenon, and the brilliant Everything Everywhere All at Once is already an awards-season favorite. The Inspection, which stars Ellis Pope as a Marine Corps enlistee who faces brutal hazing when he can’t hide his sexual orientation, seems poised to add another notch to the proverbial belt.
Release: Only in theaters.
Based on Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey’s 2019 nonfiction book of the same name, She Said details the work done by the two journalists (played by Zoe Kazan and Carey Mulligan) to break the story of Harvey Weinstein’s decades of sexual abuse and misconduct. There have been no screenings as yet, so there’s not much buzz one way or another, but it’s a powerful story, Mulligan is a previous nominee, and Bombshell proved that #MeToo reckonings can attract awards attention (even if they aren’t very good). There’s already been a bit of controversy over the presence of producer Brad Pitt, who continued to work with Weinstein well after he apparently became aware of the man’s history of abuse; it remains to be seen if that will have any bearing on discussion around the film’s powerful story.
Release: Only in theaters.
Steven Spielberg’s always a contender (he received Best Director and Best Picture Oscar nods for West Side Story at the most recent Oscar ceremony), but the autobiographical The Fabelmans looks like it might be something special, even for Spielberg. Given Hollywood’s love for navel gazing alone, we can count on this one picking up several major nominations.
The movie premiered at TIFF (the Toronto International Film Festival) on Sept. 10; it’ll see a limited theatrical release on Nov. 11 and open wide on Nov. 22.
Release: Only in theaters.
Writer/director Florian Zeller’s The Father was a critical favorite in 2020, bringing home a number of award including an Adapted Screenplay Oscar and an Acting Oscar for Anthony Hopkins (upsetting predictions Chadwick Boseman would win it posthumously). The director returns with similarly titled but otherwise standalone film about a fractured family and a father-son bond, starring Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern. Early buzz seems to suggest that it’s not quite as good as its predecessor, but it certainly has all the right ingredients.
Release: Only in theaters.
Sarah Polley directs a fabulous cast (Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Ben Whishaw, and Frances McDormand) as she adapts Miriam Toews’ novel about a group of women in an isolated Mennonite religious community who come together to realize that the sexual assaults each has experienced were not isolated incidents. The film has already earned quite a bit of acclaim from film festival screenings.
Release: Only in theaters.
We love, love, love Brendan Fraser…but we’re not so sure about the film’s fat prosthetics. Early reviews seem split between seeing previous Oscar-nominee Darren Aronofsky’s latest, about a 600-pound man’s attempt to make peace with his daughter before he dies, as deeply empathetic, or backwardly fat-phobic. Even with that debate raging, Aronofsky is never not an awards-season contender, and it’ll be a treat to see Fraser back on the big screen.
Release: Only in theaters.
The story of a romance blossoming in and around a movie theater in a seaside town in the ’80s, Empire of Light marks director Sam Mendes’ return to more subdued material following a couple of Bond movies and the WWI-era epic 1917. Film festival audiences have been mixed on the film overall, but have praised previous Oscar winner Olivia Colman’s lead performance.
Release: Only in theaters.
It’s a big year for Pinocchio, with two takes on the story of the little liar already having been released. One was an animated Russian film with Pauly Shore, the other a Robert Zemeckis-directed live-action remake. Neither has set the wooden world on fire, leaving Guillermo del Toro’s stop-motion version as the last one standing. If nothing else, it looks stunning.
Release: Streaming on Netflix
The rare horror movie with awards-season buzz, Nanny won director Nikyatu Jusu the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. The story of a Senegalese immigrant (Anna Diop) working for an affluent but troubled family in Manhattan and hoping to bring her own child to the U.S., Sundance audiences found it both moving and scary.
Release: Streaming on Prime Video
Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores perros, 21 Grams, Babel, Birdman, The Revenant) is a tricky director; his always-ambitious films frequently edge into pretentiousness (at least, that’s my feeling; others love or dislike his movies more consistently). Bardo has been a perfect encapsulation of the dichotomy, with some early critics seeing the surreal and semi-autobiographical story of a traveling Mexican documentarian as a fantasy masterpiece, and others viewing it as overlong and self-indulgent. Even when I don’t love his movies, I love that Iñárritu keeps us talking. It’ll be interesting to see if this one breaks through.
Release: Streaming on Netflix
I know, I know. We all like to pretend that we’re too good for Avatar…as though it wasn’t the highest-grossing movie in the history of cinema and an Oscar Best Picture/Best Director nominee. Don’t count out James Cameron, is my point, and certainly look for the long-in-coming Avatar sequel to pick up plenty of technical nominations.
Release: Only in theaters.
I don’t think there was a better time to be had at the movies in 2019 than at a screening of Knives Out, and the early reviews from TIFF suggest that the sequel (with Daniel Craig back as Benoit Blanc) is every bit as cleverly constructed and enjoyable.
Glass Onion screened at TIFF and will receive a very limited theatrical release in November before premiering on Netflix on December 23.
Release: Streaming on Netflix
Noah Baumbach (most recently of Marriage Story) writes and directs this apocalyptic dark comedy, adapted from the Don DeLillo of the same name. Starring Adam Driver and Greta Gerwig, the movie deals with a family of weirdos pulled apart by a train crash that spreads toxic waste over the town (aka the ‘Airborne Toxic Event,’ from which that band took its name).
Release: Streaming on Netflix (after a limited theatrical release)
La La Land director Damien Chazelle’s Hollywood period-piece (it’s set during the transition from sound to talky) is described as an epic-erotic-period-comedy-drama…whatever that means. But it looks gorgeous (if hardly rich in historical verisimilitude), and boasts an all-star cast lead by Margot Robbie and Brad Pitt, and I’ll watch literally anything with Jean Smart, so I’m in. The movie is receiving a very limited release at Christmas to qualify it for the upcoming awards season, but you’ll most likely have to wait for early January to see it for yourself.
Release: Only in theaters.