Oscars 2023: Our First Blind Predictions, From ‘Fabelmans’ to ‘Flower Moon’
01.04.2022 - 03:37
/ variety.com
Clayton Davis The way to officially close the door on a crazy awards season (and even-crazier 94th Oscar ceremony), is to crack open the window and take a look ahead at what the studios and production companies could have in store for global cinema in 2022.As Variety transitions to Emmy season, with the first official predictions rolling out next week, this annual tradition of blind guesses gives us all something to look forward to. If you look at last year’s piece, no one should expect this to be 100% accurate as films shift or fall by the wayside, while some end up bigger than anticipated.Apple Original Films broke through the streaming glass ceiling with Siân Heder’s “CODA,” winning the Academy’s top prize and two others.
Unfortunately, the elephant in their awards room is the upcoming action-thriller “Emancipation” from director Antoine Fuqua and starring recently Oscar-crowned Will Smith. Typically, we’d be talking about the “afterglow” possibility and if he could go the way of Tom Hanks, winning back-to-back statuettes.
Instead, you have to assume that film executives at Apple are discussing whether or not the film, which tells the story of an enslaved person escaping a Louisiana plantation, should be released this year. Smith’s production company, Westbrook, is behind the movie, which also stars Ben Foster.
The streaming company has other potentials if “Emancipation” has to shift, most notably Martin Scorsese’s “The Killers of the Flower Moon” with Jesse Plemons (off his first nomination for “The Power of the Dog”) and Oscar winner Leonardo DiCaprio. They also have the war film “The Greatest Beer Run Ever” with Russell Crowe, Zac Efron and Bill Murray, by co-writer and director Peter Farrelly, his follow-up to
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