Oscars Predictions: Production Design – ‘Barbie’ and ‘Oppenheimer’ Among Fantasy and Period Films Competing for Academy Attention

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard have both officially entered the Oscar race for their extraordinary performances in Michel Franco’s “Memory.” However, the awards campaign has announced that Sarsgaard’s riveting turn as a man suffering from Alzheimer’s disease will be submitted for supporting actor consideration at the major ceremonies, including the Golden Globes, SAG and Academy Awards. His Oscar-winning co-star Chastain (“The Eyes of Tammy Faye”) will vie for lead actress.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor A late-release awards contender can move through Oscar season like a cat. It crouches low, waiting patiently for the right moment to pounce. With the deployment of a skillful campaign, yet-unscreened films waiting in the wings — notably “The Color Purple,” “The Iron Claw” and “Napoleon” — might execute the perfect strike, catching established front-runners like “Oppenheimer” and “Killers of the Flower Moon” by surprise.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Ava DuVernay‘s moving drama “Origin,” which tells the story of author Isabel Wilkerson’s journey to write her famous nonfiction novel “Caste: The Origins of Our Discontent,” is the latest film to be making the switch from an adapted screenplay run, to original. Deemed an original screenplay by the Writers Guild of America, the announcement comes after Variety reported “Barbie” from Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach and “The Bikeriders” by Jeff Nichols, were also deemed original by the WGA.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Cord Jefferson’s satirical comedy “American Fiction” has won the Audience Award for narrative film at the Middleburg Film Festival. Proving to be a true crowd-pleaser, it’s the third audience prize for the MGM title on the festival circuit following the Toronto and Mill Valley Film Festivals (at the latter it tied with “Rustin”).

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Ava DuVernay‘s latest drama “Origin” has added an original song to its Oscar prospects. New Zealand Māori artist Stan Walker performed the new song, “I Am,” at a private film screening at the Edition Hotel in West Hollywood on Wednesday. He also co-wrote the track with Michael Fatkin, Vince Harder and Te Kanapu Anasta.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” an epic look at the French emperor and military leader’s rise to power, is one of the final potential awards hopefuls awaiting its first reactions from critics and pundits. As awards season approaches, Variety has learned exclusively which Oscar categories the film will be submitted for. Most notably, Vanessa Kirby will vie for best supporting actress.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor SAG-AFTRA may still be on strike, but studios are, nevertheless, pushing their Oscar contenders to garner the adequate (and allowed) attention they need to land nominations. One of the main methods is getting industry voters out to screenings and making films available on the Academy Screening Room and BAFTA screening platforms.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor PBS’ “20 Days in Mariupol,” IFC’s “The Disappearance of Shere Hite” and MTV’s “The Eternal Memory” are among DOC NYC‘s 14th edition featuring 114 features and 129 short films. The shortlist for DOC NYC, the largest documentary festival in the U.S., was launched in 2012 and has become a key indicator and predictor for the Academy Awards’ best documentary feature category. Ten out of the last 11 winners for documentary feature were screened at the festival.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Oscars have announced Raj Kapoor as executive producer and showrunner, Katy Mullan as executive producer, and Hamish Hamilton as the director of the 96th Oscars. It will be Hamilton’s fourth time directing the ceremony, while Kapoor has worked on the show for the past seven years and most recently served as producer for the 95th Oscars.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Mexican actor/director/writer/ producer Eugenio Derbez “can do anything.” That’s what Ben Odell, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Derbez’s production company, 3Pas, believes. “The roles he’s been offered to date are the comedy relief guy,” Odell tells Variety. “The best of Hollywood is the big spectacle movies.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Guess how many times cinema legends Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg have gone head-to-head at the Oscars? With 37 nominations between them and five decades of indelible classics, such as the gangster epic “Casino” (1995) and the shark thriller “Jaws” (1975), you might assume at least half a dozen ceremonies have seen both auteurs prominently recognized. Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories. Well, guess again.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Matthew Heineman’s moving documentary feature “American Symphony” was recently acquired by Netflix after its debut at the Telluride Film Festival, cementing itself as one of the early frontrunners for the Oscars. Its main subject, “Soul” Oscar winner Jon Batiste, will now be in the race for best original song with the track “It Never Went Away.” Batiste sings the emotional number, which he co-wrote with Grammy-winning songwriter and producer Dan Wilson. Read: Variety’s Awards Circuit for the latest Oscars predictions in all categories.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor An Oscar ceremony with Beyoncé and Taylor Swift? What television producer wouldn’t want two of the biggest names in entertainment gracing the red carpet for the 96th Academy Awards? But despite two upcoming concert films from the megastars — “Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour” and “Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé” — neither are eligible to submit or compete for an Academy Award nomination for documentary feature, or any technical category, under the current guidelines. Per the Academy’s bylaws, the Documentary Branch defines a documentary film as “a theatrically released nonfiction motion picture dealing creatively with cultural, artistic, historical, social, scientific, economic or other subjects.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor It took about 100 days to shoot “Killers of the Flower Moon,” according to director Martin Scorsese and producer Daniel Lupi. That came after an extensive script rewrite, multiple interruptions due to COVID-19 and doing everything they could to ensure justice was done to the story.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Variety Awards Circuit section is the home for all awards news and related content throughout the year, featuring the following: the official predictions for the upcoming Oscars, Emmys, Grammys and Tony Awards ceremonies, curated by Variety senior awards editor Clayton Davis. The prediction pages reflect the current standings in the race and do not reflect personal preferences for any individual contender. As other formal (and informal) polls suggest, competitions are fluid and subject to change based on buzz and events.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor All awards and nominations lead to the coveted Academy Awards ceremony. As the industry’s leader in awards analysis, predictions and the entertainment business, you can find the key upcoming dates for this year’s awards season. All critical dates are in bold.

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Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor The Golden Globes have plenty of movies to sift through and consider for its upcoming 81st annual awards ceremony. With “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Maestro” on the drama side, and “The Color Purple” and “Poor Things” in comedy, alongside the buzzy summer double-feature “Barbenheimer,” a star-studded event is surely awaiting viewers.

Clayton Davis Senior Awards Editor Writer-director Jeff Nichols‘ “The Bikeriders,” with Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy, made a splash with festival-goers at the recent Telluride Film Festival. 20th Century Studios has revealed to Variety exclusively that the film will be campaigned for best original screenplay for the upcoming awards season, despite being inspired by the 1968 photo and interview book of the same name. “The Bikeriders” movie tells a fictional story inspired by the Midwestern motorcycle club in the book’s photos, seen through its members’ lives over a decade.