The awards race is over, and if you’re a regular Oscar Beat reader you know I’ve been covering this thing closely for the past six months. Which means the last thing I want to do is think about next year’s Oscars, but there’s no time like the present, and while the awards ceremony is on everyone’s minds we might as well get it over with, no?
This piece has become a staple here at Collider over the last few years, and on last year’s list five of the ten went on to become major contenders at this year’s ceremony. Can I improve that stat this time out? Maybe! Honestly one of the joys of putting this together is previewing some of the titles that aren’t major blockbusters that are heading our way over the next seven months. There’s a lot to look forward to in 2018, especially in the way of highly anticipated follow-ups from exciting younger directors.
But before we begin a note on Martin Scorsese's gangster drama The Irishman. The Netflix film has been pegged for a 2019 release date, and while some may think that's a January release date and the film could get an awards qualifying run, I'd point out that Scorsese sometimes takes up to a year (or longer) to edit his films and The Irishman is using extensive visual effects to de-age its stars. The Wolf of Wall Street wrapped in January and it was incredibly tough for Scorsese to get that ready in time for a December release, and Irishman only just wrapped this wee. So I'm willing to bet this is a genuine 2019 release, and thus won't be in next year's awards race.
But there's plenty of other great potential 2018 Oscar movies to look forward to! Take a look at the full list below, and sound off in the comments with your own way-too-early predictions for what might be in next year’s awards race.
First Man
Whiplash and La La Land filmmaker Damien Chazelle is back in the Oscar fold this year, and while he scored a Best Director win for La La Land, it doesn’t sound like First Man will be any less ambitious. Details are under wraps, but the film chronicles the months leading up to and including Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon, with Ryan Gosling filling the lead role and The Crown breakout Claire Foy playing his wife. The film also boasts a screenplay by Oscar-winning Spotlight writer Josh Singer, so definitely keep an eye on this one.
Widows
It’s been far too long since we’ve seen new work from 12 Years a Slave filmmaker Steve McQueen, but not for lack of trying. He spent quite a bit of time on an HBO drama series that didn’t move forward, but he’s back in a big way this year with the heist drama Widows. The film boasts an incredible cast that includes Viola Davis, Colin Farrell, Carrie Coon, Daniel Kaluuya, Liam Neeson, Jacki Weaver, Robert Duvall, and Elizabeth Debicki, and the story revolves around a group of women who assume the debt of their criminal husbands and forge a path of their own. Oscar-nominated Gone Girl scribe Gillian Flynn wrote the script, and while this may be more of a commercial play, it’s one to watch out for regardless.
Backseat
Adam McKay, the genius mind behind Anchorman and Step Brothers, won an Oscar for scripting his first foray into drama territory with The Big Short. His follow-up project may be his most ambitious yet, and it has a lot of potential. Backseat chronicles the career of Dick Cheney, up through the George W. Bush administration, and the cast McKay has assembled here is insane: Christian Bale (Cheney), Amy Adams (Lynne Cheney), Steve Carell (Rumsfeld), Sam Rockwell (W), and Tyler Perry (Powell). This is some seriously bold filmmaking, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out.
Where'd You Go Bernadette
The mere pairing of filmmaker Richard Linklater and Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett is enough to qualify Where’d You Go Bernadette for this list. The film is based on the beloved novel by Maria Semple and tells the story of young girl whose anxiety-ridden mother disappears, and whose search for said mother leads to revelations about her past. Creatively Linklater has been on a roll after broaching Oscar success with Boyhood, and while Everybody Wants Some!! and Last Flag Flying may not have blown up, they were interesting efforts, so I can’t wait to see what Linklater does with this story. Could this be what returns him to the Oscars?
Untitled Robert Zemeckis
Many hailed Robert Zemeckis’ return to live-action filmmaking after a decade crafting performance-capture films, but thus far the Oscar-winning Forrest Gump director has yet to return to the Academy Awards. That could change with his new, untitled film out this year—it’s a true story drama based on a documentary called Marwencol about a man suffering from a mental condition as a result of being brutally assaulted. Steve Carell leads the film, and we can probably expect Zemeckis to be bringing some kind of visual wizardry to the table as well. Will we get something like Cast Away again, or is this more in line with The Walk or Allied?
Mary, Queen of Scots
While on paper this may seem like a more traditional kind of Oscar movie, it’s hard to ignore Mary, Queen of Scots given the pedigree involved. Two of this year’s Best Actress nominees lead the film, Saoirse Ronan as the titular Monarch and Margot Robbie as Queen Elizabeth I, and the story chronicles the rivalry between the two women. The movie marks the feature debut of British theater director Josie Rourke, and Focus Features has staked out a prime November release date as the studio hopes to enter the Oscar fray once more. This year’s Darkest Hour perhaps?
On the Basis of Sex
On the Basis of Sex ticks all the Oscar checkmarks: It’s a biopic, it’s timely, and it stars two very likable performers. Academy Award nominee Felicity Jones plays Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, while Armie Hammer fills the role of her husband Martin D. Ginsburg. The film chronicles Ginsburg’s fight to bring the first landmark gender discrimination case before the Supreme Court. Moreover, the drama marks the return of The Peacemaker and Deep Impact filmmaker Mimi Leder to the big screen, after spearheading the HBO series The Leftovers. There’s a lot of potential here.
Ad Astra
Filmmaker James Gray has come close to Oscar attention before with his last two films, The Immigrant and The Lost City of Z, but Ad Astra seems like his most likely contender yet. The original sci-fi drama is anchored by Brad Pitt as a man who searches the galaxy for his father, who disappeared on a mission to find alien life 20 years prior. Tommy Lee Jones and Donald Sutherland co-star, and the potential here is huge given how adept Gray is at handling rich character dramas. Moreover, Oscar-nominated Interstellar and Dunkirk cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema is behind the camera, so this could be a contender in the craft categories as well.
If Beale Street Could Talk
Of course there’s also Moonlight director Barry Jenkins’ follow-up film If Beale Street Could Talk, which could set us up for another Chazelle/Jenkins showdown during the awards race. The James Baldwin adaptation tells the story of a woman in Harlem who scrambles to prove her fiancé is innocent of a crime, all the while carrying their first child. Kiki Layne leads a cast that includes Regina King, Rian Tyree Henry, Dave Franco, Diego Luna, and Pedro Pascal, and expectations are sky-high to see what Jenkins has put together here. Annapurna Pictures is behind the release, having just gotten into the distribution business themselves with last year’s Detroit, so it’ll be interesting to see how this one is rolled out.
Roma
This movie was actually on last year’s list as we expected Alfonso Cuaron’s long-awaited Gravity follow-up in 2017, but that didn't happen, and Roma now looks to be a 2018 release. The secretive film from the Oscar-winning director is a character-centric, Mexico-set story that chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family in 1970s Mexico City. Cuaron previously said that some technical aspect of his approach accounts for the lengthy post-production period, so there are surprises in store. In the wake of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s double Best Director win and Guillermo del Toro taking the trophy this year, could Cuaron be back up on that stage to keep the Three Amigos train rolling? We’ll find out.
Black Panther
Yes, really. It may seem silly now, but Black Panther has thus far surpassed every expectation put on it, and in the wake of euphoric reviews and a box office that just won’t stop, it doesn’t seem entirely out of the realm of possibility for this to become Marvel Studios’ first serious Oscar contender. A superhero movie has still yet to crack the Best Picture field, but if Disney plays this one smart and puts serious money behind a campaign to make it happen (they've already started making moves on this front—yes, this early), it doesn’t seem impossible. At the very least recognition in the technical categories, especially Best Costume Design, feels like a given.