Best Picture Oscars Predictions (December)

The battle for which ten films earned Best Picture nominations is starting to become clearer. The Golden Globe Awards and the Critics Choice Awards agreed on eight films in Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, Poor Things, Barbie, Maestro, American Fiction, The Holdovers, and Past Lives. These are starting to look like the strongest contenders, leaving those last two spots open for any numbers of possibilities.

The Color Purple scored a nod from CCA, but staggeringly failed to earn a Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy nomination from the HFPA. As one of only two big musicals this season, it should have been a shoo-in for a nomination, but its awards campaign has been rather disastrous so far. CCA also gave love to Saltburn, but it also hasn’t seen much traction elsewhere.

It seems more likely those final spots will go to two international films in the form of The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall. The former is likely winning Best International Feature Film and we know the victor there has also earned a Best Picture nod for the past in three of the past four years. The latter was stunningly not picked as France’s submission for the international category, which only works in its favour in the Best Picture race.

BEST DIRECTOR PREDICTIONS:
1. Oppenheimer (Universal Pictures) – CCA, GG
2. Killers of the Flower Moon (Paramount Pictures / Apple Original Films) – CCA, GG
3. Poor Things (Searchlight Pictures) – CCA, GG
4. Maestro (Netflix) – CCA, GG
5. The Holdovers (Focus Features) – CCA, GG
6. Barbie (Warner Bros.) – CCA, GG
7. Past Lives (A24) – CCA, GG
8. Anatomy of a Fall (NEON) – GG
9. American Fiction (Amazon MGM/Orion) – CCA, GG
10. The Zone of Interest (A24) – GG

IN CONTENTIONS:
Air (Amazon Studios) – GG
All of Us Strangers (Searchlight Pictures)
The Boy and the Heron (GKIDS)
The Color Purple (Warner Bros) – CCA
May December (Netflix) – GG
Saltburn (Amazon Studios) – CCA
Society of the Snow (Netflix)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony Pictures)