11 Movies Ready for Oscar Attention in 2020
As the 2020 Oscars came and went in the blink of an eye, next year’s show will be here before you know it and may include a large number of big-budget pictures.
If you’re like me, you might have a bad habit of catching up on Best Picture nominated movies in the few weeks of January before the February Academy Awards and — with playoff football in the way — time can slip away quickly.
With that said, I wanted to start ironing out potential Best Picture nominations and other films that could garner gold statues next season in the acting categories or technical categories. It’s just easier to be proactive in seeing these movies as they come out so consider this your 2020 crib sheet!
The Trial of the Chicago 7
(Expected Oct. 2, 2020)
Aaron Sorkin is back in the director’s chair, after 2017’s Molly’s Game, with a new feature film about the uprising at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The case is jam-packed with talent — albeit almost entirely male — including Succession’s Jeremy Strong and Cailtin FitzGerald, Academy Award-winner Mark Rylance, Oscar-nominated Michael Keaton, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.
Also written by Sorkin, the Moneyball (2011) and The Social Network (2010) scribe will have plenty of attention and the fact that it deals with courtroom drama means the comparisons to A Few Good Men (1992) will be plentiful. Additionally, any drama in this year’s DNC will add to the intrigue of an event that took place 52 years earlier and some 90 miles down I-94.
West Side Story
(Expected Dec. 18, 2020)
Since we didn’t get justice for Cats (2019) during this past awards season (kidding), West Side Story should fill the music-genre void that tends to get a little acknowledgement in the vein of A Star is Born (2018) and La La Land (2016), or a stage-to-screen adaption like Fences (2016). The film adaptation, directed by the legendary Steven Spielberg, will follow the 1957 story (of the west-side variety) about a rivalry between two ethnically different gangs, finger snapping, and love.
Ansel Elgort will be playing the role of Tony with little-known actress Rachel Zegler playing the role of Maria. EGOT winner Rita Moreno and Corey Stoll have roles in the film as well, but the lack of big-name star power puts the focus on the musical performances, costume design, and direction. Spielberg’s last Best Director win at the Oscar’s was for Saving Private Ryan (1998) so we’ll see if a big production and well-known IP can help him garner another win. That it is well-known IP might hinder the reception or launch it to new heights. It will undoubtedly be compared to previous iterations of the story, but a healthy dose of nostalgia could really appeal to the older Academy voters.
Dune
(Expected December 18, 2020)
Also in remake land, comes Denis Villeneuve’s Dune which will be an adaptation of Frank Herbert’s 1965 sci-fi novel about a futuristic feudal society on a planet that is largely uninhabited desert. The Academy doesn’t always recognize soft sci-fi for Best Picture, but the size and scale of this film should give it attention in technical categories for visuals.
The cast is bonkers. Queen Zendaya has a role in the film, along with other big names including: Oscar-nominated Timotee Chalamet, Jason Momoa, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar-nominated Josh Brolin, Oscar Isaac, Oscar-winner Javier Bardem, and Dave Bautista. The cast is unique, relatively diverse, and has plenty of young talent to draw in new generations to an old story.
Put this movie in the Must See in Theaters category because I imagine it will be visually stunning and with incredible sound that you can only appreciate at the cinema. Villeneuve knows how to handle large-scale productions as Arrival (2015) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) were both incredibly well done visually, though, the latter he had help with from camera-God Roger Deakins. Villeneuve’s cinematographer for Dune Greig Fraser isn’t a lightweight, however. Fraser was in charge of the visuals for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Zero Dark Thirty (2012), and a few episodes of The Mandalorian which — besides the score — was the best part of the show.
The French Dispatch
(Expected July 24, 2020)
Buckle the hell up for another painting-come-to-life Wes Anderson picture about journalists working for an American paper in a fictional 20th-century French city. Wes Anderson’s distinct style has garnered him seven Oscar nominations in Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Animated Feature, and Best Director, and Anderson will surely be on track to gain more Academy attention with Dispatch.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the cast in this one, which tops Dune (2020) in terms of both star power and award accolades. It’s a veritable who’s who of Academy Award winners and nominees including: Timothee Chalamet, Soairse Ronan, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, Adrien Brody, Benicio Del Toro, Christoph Waltz, Jeffrey Wright, and virtually anyone else with a Screen Actors Guild card. It’s hard to tell if any will gain buzz for Best Actor/Actress, but there very well could be several Best Supporting nominations to come out of this movie.
With a mid-summer release date, it’ll face a challenge in keeping momentum going until the following February if Dispatch wants a Best Picture nom, but last year’s Once Upon a Time… in Hollywoood (2019) did just fine.
In the Heights
(Expected June 26, 2020)
Directed by John Chu — Crazy Rich Asians (2018) director — comes another musical-to-screen picture based on Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway show about characters living in Washington Heights in northern Manhattan and explores the theme of what “home” means. Miranda will also play a role in the film.
Alongside Miranda, the terrific Stephanie Beatriz from Brooklyn Nine-Nine, rising stars Corey Hawkins and Anthony Ramos, as well as familiar faces like Jimmy Smits and Marc Anthony will have roles in the movie. While Westside Story is a tale about rival white and Puerto Rican “gangs,” In the Heights will likely be a more immersive movie for the Latinx community. Chu has experience directing a movie for a specific audience and Lin-Manuel Miranda literally is a Latino man who grew up in New York.
Whether this movie resonates with your average Academy voter remains to be seen. Was Parasite a fluke? Or an indication that the Academy is growing? Either way, keep this movie on your radar.
Mank
(Expected 2020)
The first picture on this list to reach audiences on Netflix comes in the form of Mank a movie following the dispute of a Citizen Kane (1941) screenplay credit between Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. David Fincher will bring this biographical drama to the streaming service which should excite any fans of the Netflix show Mindhunter, Se7en (1995), Fight Club (1999), Zodiac (2007), and the aforementioned The Social Network (2010). Additionally, Fincher will team up again with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross who will compose the film’s score.
Starring Academy Award winner Gary Oldman as Mankiewicz, along with Amanda Seyfried and Lily Collins, the movie could help Oldman secure another nomination for playing a real-life person and give Seyfried and Collins some well-deserved attention. Regardless, if the score isn’t nominated, we’ll riot.
Da Five Bloods
(Expected 2020)
After finally receiving a deserved Academy Award for BlacKkKlansman (2018), Spike Lee is back with a period-piece drama that is the second film on this list to reach audiences via Netflix. The movie is based on four Vietnam vets who return to Vietnam to retrieve the remains of their fallen leader and seek buried treasure.
As Spike Lee movies are wont to do, this film will likely explore social themes surrounding what it’s like to be black in 1960’s America, as well as what Vietnam vets of color had endured following the return home and being thrust into a different kind of struggle.
The picture stars Chadwick Boseman, Delroy Lindo, Norm Lewis, Jonathan Majors, Paul Walter Hauser, and the undeniably cool Giancarlo Esposito.
The Father
(Wide release unknown)
The Father is essentially an Anthony Hopkins showcase for Best Actor as well as a platform to launch Olivia Coleman into another Oscar win. Already receiving rave reviews out of the Sundance Film Festival, The Father explores the realities of a man coping with dementia and those who attempt to care for their aging family members. Like Marriage Story (2019) this film takes a real experience that will hit the emotional core of anyone who has struggled with this reality.
It helps that the movie stars two of the UK’s greatest exports. Hopkins is a legendary figure in cinema and Coleman is a treasure who will continue to keep collecting hardware. I’m ready for this movie to wreck my emotions.
Respect
(October 9, 2020)
Did I mention Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) when I was talking about music-heavy films? No, because, respectfully, that movie is so very bad. It’s wildly inaccurate and horribly paced, but the Academy ate it up! I hope the same fate of director turmoil and historical inaccuracies doesn’t befall Respect, a biographical drama about The Queen of Soul herself: Aretha Franklin.
We’re all very aware of Academy Award winner Jennifer Hudson’s ability to bring people to another spiritual plane by simply singing, but if Renee Zellweger can get nominated for Judy (2019) Hudson can here for playing another woman icon. The film will also get depictions of various greats including Dinah Washington played by Mary J. Blige, C.L. Franklin played by Academy Award-winner Forest Whitaker, and Smokey Robinson played by Lodric D. Collins.
If anything, this film will try to slide in a potential Best Original Song nom if they go away from Franklin’s discography.
Macbeth
(Expected 2021)
Not expected until 2021, it’s uncertain whether or not this new adaptation of the Shakespeare play will grace the silver screen in time for Oscar voting. But it’s one hell of a thirst trap for Oscar voters.
Starring Academy Award-winners Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand in the leads, the film will likely give each performer the expected Oscar-reel monologues, but in this case, Washington and McDormand are going to be pitching 103-mph heaters for director Joel Coen — who steps away from his brother Ethan, the duo that brought us No Country for Old Men (2007), Burn After Reading (2008), True Grit (2010), and Inside Llewyn Davis (2013).
Being brought along by A24, this movie will likely see a campaign to several Oscar categories whether it’s this coming year or the next. For the uninitiated, A24 has had its hands in a ton of Oscar bait the past couple years including: Room (2015), Moonlight (2016), The Florida Project (2017), Lady Bird (2017), The Souvenir (2019), The Farewell (2019), and the CRIMINALLY NEGLECTED BY THE ACADEMY: Midsommar (2019).
The Last Duel
(Expected: Dec. 25 in select theaters, wide release Jan. 8, 2021)
Filling in the Big Dad Energy movie slot is The Last Duel. This movie has a Ford vs. Ferrari (2019) vibe because of the cast, but also shades of 1917 (2019) and Little Women (2019) in that it’s a historical drama being released around Christmas time.
Based on the book of the same name, the screen adaptation will be penned by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. This movie doesn’t exactly sound like Good Will Hunting (1997), as it will depict two best friends ordered to fight to the death by a king to settle a dispute after one accuses the other of raping their wife. The two former BFFs won’t be Damon and Affleck, though, as Damon will play one friend and Adam Driver will play the other. I’ll wager that Affleck will be the king in this triad. The cast includes the sensational Jodie Comer and is directed by Ridley Scott who previously worked with Damon on The Martian (2015).
With Damon projected to be in a supporting role, expect him to be propped up in the Best Supporting category like Brad Pitt in this past year’s awards. Damon can campaign for the award and — much like pre-2020 Pitt — Damon has an Oscar, but not for acting. The Academy might see it as a make-up award for his whole body of work.
