I realized that my last couple Oscar columns didn’t include lists. How could I?!?!
Truth is, 6 of the Best Picture movies are pretty well locked in…
The Likely 6
Barbie - Greta Gerwig(Warner Bros)
The Holdovers -Alexander Payne(Focus Features)
Killers of the Flower Moon - Martin Scorsese(Apple/Paramount)
Maestro - Bradley Cooper (Netflix)
Oppenheimer - Christopher Nolan (Universal)
Poor Things - Yorgos Lanthimos (Searchlight)
If you recall, the last list offered The Likely 8.
But the last 2 BIG movies into the pool - The Color Purple and Napoleon - are still not as sticky as sticky can be. I would not rule them out at all at this point. And I don’t really care - and don’t think Academy voters care - that they have been left out of precursor awards so far.
That said, The Next Group is probably narrowed slightly… not by way of precursors, but by time and more people seeing the films. Last listings, I had 7 leading titles to fill out Best Picture and 6 that were less likely.
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