By Whereas last year, there were plenty of potential awards candidates jostling for attention, this year’s field is wide open, as the Fall film festivals don’t seem to be translating reports of their lengthy applause into serious momentum.
Awards odds tracking site Gold Derby hasn’t shifted its order much with Cannes hits “Anora” and “Emilia Perez” on top, whilst smaller titles like “Conclave,” “The Brutalist” and “Sing Sing” round out the top five.
The only major studio films in the order are “Dune: Part Two” at #6 and the still-to-come “Gladiator II” at #9.
Now The New York Times’s Kyle Buchanan, speaking on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast (via WoR), reports that some studios are considering a possible “October surprise” and potentially releasing some 2025 films for awards qualifying runs later this year.
Essentially they’re trying to do what Clint Eastwood successfully did with “Million Dollar Baby” twenty years ago – that film being quickly rushed out by Warners at the last minute and managed to win the film a Best Picture Oscar.
Buchanan says Kogonada’s “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” and Bill Condon’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman” could be two such films. Both movies wrapped production in June.
“Kiss of the Spider-Woman” is an adaptation of the McNally, Kander & Ebb 1992 stage musical based on Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel. Jennifer Lopez, Diego Luna and Tonatiuh star in the story of a gay hairdresser and a Marxist who form a bond in their prison cell in early 1980s Argentina. A previous film adaptation of the novel in 1985 landed four Oscar nominations.
“A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” stars Margot Robbie and Colin Farrell in a story of “two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them.”
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