We are two weeks removed from the 92nd Academy Awards where Parasite made history in becoming the first foreign-language film to win Best Picture. Now that the dust has settled, it’s time to begin looking at next year’s Oscars. In last year’s year in advance Best Picture predictions, I successfully predicted The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Ford V. Ferrari, and Little Women as Best Picture nominees.
Will I do better in 2020? We’ll find out!
Here are my year in advance Best Picture predictions.
1) Mank: The film stars Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz, Amanda Seyfried as Marion Davies, and directed by David Fincher, based on a script written by his father Jack. Mank centers around Mankiewicz’s difficult development of Orson Welles’ masterpiece Citizen Kane.
2) West Side Story: A remake of the 1957 musical that took home 10 Oscars including Best Picture. The film will be directed by Academy Award winner Steven Spielberg. The remake will star Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Corey Stoll, and Rita Moreno.
3) Untitled Leonard Bernstein Film: The film is directed and starring Bradley Cooper and will span 30 years and focus on the marriage between Bernstein and his wife, Felicia Montealegre. In an article from Deadline, “Cooper has always been fascinated with conducting, but the charged and complex relationship between Bernstein and his wife is what compelled Cooper to make the film his next directorial outing.”.
Along with that, Cooper has also been working closely with Bernstein’s children for the past two years to get the details right on the story.
4) The French Dispatch: The latest from Academy Award nominee, Wes Anderson, The French Dispatch described as “a love letter to journalists set at an outpost of an American newspaper in a fictional 20th-century French city”, centering on three storylines and stars Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson, ‘The French Dispatch’ is directed by Wes Anderson.
5) Tenet: Outside of Mank, Tenet is my most anticipated film on this list. Christopher Nolan’s film releases have now become an event and this film should be no different. While little is known about the plot of the film, expect the film to gain buzz once released. The film stars some big names, including John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Dimple Kapadia, Michael Caine, and Kenneth Branagh. But can it also perform big at the Oscars? Only time will tell.
6) Da 5 Bloods: The next Spike Lee Joint may be another awards player as the war film follows a group of veterans from the Vietnam War who return to the jungle to find their lost innocence. It stars an ensemble cast that includes Delroy Lindo, Clarke Peters, Isiah Whitlock Jr., Giancarlo Esposito, and Norm Lewis.
7) The Trial of the Chicago 7: The film is directed and written by Academy Award winner, Aaron Sorkin, and will be based on the story of 7 people who are charged by the federal government with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to anti-Vietnam War and countercultural protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois, on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The film stars an ensemble cast that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, and Mark Rylance.
8) Nightmare Alley: The thriller film directed by Academy Award winner, Guillermo del Toro and with a screenplay by del Toro and Kim Morgan, is based on the novel of the same name by William Lindsay Gresham. The film revolves around a corrupt con-man who teams up with a female psychiatrist to trick people into giving them money. It will star Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, William Dafoe, Richard Jenkins, Ron Pearlman, and Rooney Mara.
9) Stillwater: The latest from Tom McCarthy revolves around a man working to exonerate his estranged daughter of a murder she didn’t commit. The film stars Matt Damon and Abigail Breslin.
10) On The Rocks: The film is written and directed by Academy Award winner Sofia Coppola and follows a young mother who reconnects with her larger than life playboy father on an adventure through New York. The film stars Rashida Jones, Bill Murray, Jenny Slate, and Marlon Wayans.
