50 films to watch this awards season: 2024 edition

Following several years in which the winners of the US Academy Awards and Bafta Film Awards showed notable alignment, the two academies pulled in different directions last year. At Bafta, Netflix’s First World War drama All Quiet On The Western Front emerged as the night’s big winner, with seven awards including best film, while A24’s Everything Everywhere All At Once won only one category, editing. Three weeks later, Everything stormed the Oscars, winning seven awards including best picture and director (while All Quiet took international feature and three craft prizes).

Campaigns ebbed and flowed across the course of the season. For example, when Netflix premiered many of its contenders at fall festivals Venice, Telluride and Toronto, not many predicted its German-language war film — which debuted at the latter — would prove to be the streamer’s strongest bet for major awards. As for Searchlight Pictures’ The Banshees Of Inisherin, the main focus was initially on Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in the larger roles, but it was supporting players Kerry Condon and Barry Keoghan who walked away with the acting prizes on Bafta night.

There is a lot to play for at this early stage of the race, and it is not Screen International’s role to forecast the outcome — instead, to start the conversation. More­over, we are by no means suggesting that viewing should be limited to the 50 films and 10 eye-catching performances highlighted here (we will also profile more UK and documentary contenders later this week). However, if the viewing task seems at all daunting, this guide will supply some helpful pointers as we all embark on this journey.

First round voting for Bafta begins on December 8, and the early round of Oscar voting that will shortlist entries in 10 categories begins on December 14. For voters, the annual viewing binge has begun. We hope our guide helps take you into some fresh and unexpected directions.

20 Days In Mariupol
Dir. Mstyslav Chernov
This from-the-frontline documentary by Associated Press journalist Chernov starts in the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. He and his colleagues shoot and report as the first tank arrives in Mariupol, and besieged citizens plead with the reporters to bear witness to their plight. Winner of the audience award in Sundance’s world cinema documentary category (won by Navalny in 2022, which went on to take the best documentary feature Oscar), this PBS release in the US has been gaining plaudits on the documentary festival circuit, and has five Critics Choice Documentary Awards nominations.

Air
Dir. Ben Affleck
Based on the Black List script by Alex Convery, Air recounts the origins of Nike’s legendary Air Jordan shoe line, and the company’s courting of then-rookie basketball player Michael Jordan. Affleck took the best original screenplay Oscar for Good Will Hunt­ing in 1998 with his Air co-star Matt Damon, and won his second Academy Award in 2013 for producing best picture winner Argo. He directs and stars as Nike CEO Phil Knight, alongside Damon, Jason Bateman, Viola Davis and supporting actor Chris Messina. Originally destined for Prime Video, Air was given a theatrical release in numerous territories following its buzzy SXSW premiere.

All Of Us Strangers
Dir. Andrew Haigh
Haigh’s feature follow-up to his 2017 film Lean On Pete marks a return to the UK, where this intimate, mysterious Searchlight Pictures drama — starring Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell, and freely adapted from Taichi Yamada’s 1987 Japanese novel — is set. Premiering at Telluride, it immediately drew strong reviews and pulled Scott’s performance into contention for acting honours (Charlotte Rampling was Oscar-nominated for her role in Haigh’s 45 Years in 2016). Opening in late December in the US, All Of Us Strangers should rank among the most talked-about films of the season.

American Fiction
Dir. Cord Jefferson
This Toronto premiere took home the people’s choice award at the festival, one of the most important early awards season accolades — every one of its winners since 2011 has been nominated for the best picture Oscar. Writer/director Jefferson’s adaptation of the Percival Everett novel stars Jeffrey Wright as an author who writes an intentionally clichéd book about Black American life to condemn the commercialisation of offensive racial stereo­types — finding to his chagrin that it becomes a bestseller. MGM releases Stateside on December 15.

American Symphony
Dir. Matthew Heineman
Musician Jon Batiste won multiple prizes — an Oscar, Bafta and Golden Globe among them — for the score he composed on Pixar’s Soul with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Now he becomes the subject of a documentary that charts how the composition of his 2022 ‘American Symphony’ was overshadowed by the return of his wife’s cancer. Heineman, Oscar- and Bafta-­nominated for 2015’s Cartel Land, is looking to go one better with a film backed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground production company. Netflix snapped up worldwide rights after an enthusiastic Telluride reception.

Anatomy Of A Fall
Dir. Justine Triet
Germany’s Sandra Hüller — who broke through in 2016’s Toni Erdmann and also appears this year in The Zone Of Interest — makes a convincing best actress bid in this icy French thriller, with her performance as a woman suspected of her husband’s murder. Anatomy Of A Fall, which becomes a courtroom drama in its latter half, was not selected as France’s international feature Oscar entry — a surprise to many. However, with Cannes’ Palme d’Or under its belt, it will be vying for best picture categories, plus recognition for Triet’s assured direction and sharp original screenplay with partner Arthur Harari.

Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
Dir. Kelly Fremon Craig
Over the years, beloved young-adult author Judy Blume had rebuffed Hollywood offers to adapt her classic 1970 novel, which examines the life of a sensitive 11-year-old navigating puberty. Oscar-winning producer James L Brooks and The Edge Of Seventeen writer/director Fremon Craig convinced the writer to change her mind, and this comedy-­drama stars Abby Ryder Fortson as Margaret, alongside Rachel McAdams and Oscar winner Kathy Bates as, respectively, her mother and grandmother — vying for attention in supporting actress. Lionsgate released in April, grossing more than $20m in North America.

Asteroid City
Dir. Wes Anderson
America’s most whimsical auteur has seven nominations apiece at Oscar and Bafta, winning the latter for his The Grand Budapest Hotel screenplay — and that 2014 film is a case study in how a spring release dark horse can sometimes gather heat. Asteroid City will likely struggle to match Budapest’s crop of nine nominations, but this Cannes Competition entry’s vein of nostalgia for a more-innocent 1950s America might yet charm voters. Adam Stockhausen’s painstaking retro production design — which involved building a whole town complete with working utilities — looks like Asteroid’s strongest suit.

Barbie
Dir. Greta Gerwig
Warner Bros’ box-office record-breaker, about the existential crisis of Mattel’s most iconic doll, should pull a Top Gun: Maverick this season with a best picture nomination. Outside of that, production design and costume are the strongest contenders, while lead and supporting performances from twice-­nominated actors Margot Robbie (who also produces) and Ryan Gosling are also in the mix. Gerwig, Oscar-nominated three times variously for writing and directing Lady Bird and Little Women, could score again — for directing and original screenplay (the latter with partner Noah Baumbach). 

Beau Is Afraid
Dir. Ari Aster
Aster certainly divided audiences with this third feature following Hereditary and Midsommar, but his three-hour genre-straddling odyssey benefits from passionate advocates. Joaquin Phoenix, who stars as an anxiety-ridden man returning to the home of his deceased mother, might command more voter attention if he didn’t also have Napoleon in the mix – while Patti LuPone and Nathan Lane are generating some heat in supporting acting categories. A24 achieved $8.2m North American box office.

Beyond Utopia
Dir. Madeleine Gavin
With three separate stories of citizens attempting the highly dangerous mission of leaving North Korea, this documentary plays out like a thriller — especially when using handheld footage shot on the escape route through jungle terrain. Winner of the US documentary prize on its debut at Sundance, the film has since played CPH:DOX, Jerusalem and Sydney, among others, picking up the audience award at the latter. US director Gavin has worked predominantly as an editor, including on her own film here. Roadside Attractions bought US rights from Dogwoof, and releases at the beginning of November.

The Bikeriders
Dir. Jeff Nichols
Based on photographer Danny Lyon’s book chronicling 1960s American biker gangs, The Bike­riders is the first film from writer/director Nichols since 2016’s Loving, which earned a supporting actress Oscar nomination for Ruth Negga. This Telluride premiere stars an impressive ensemble including Oscar nominee Tom Hardy, two-time Bafta TV winner Jodie Comer and Oscar nominee — and frequent Nichols collaborator — Michael Shannon. 20th Century Studios promises an awards-qualifying release (date is TBC), when Austin Butler will command sizeable attention in his first major starring role since winning the Bafta for Elvis.

The Boy And The Heron
Dir. Hayao Miyazaki
Winning the animated feature Oscar in 2003 for Spirited Away and an honorary Oscar 11 years later, Japan’s Miyazaki claimed to have retired after 2013’s The Wind Rises. Instead, he has returned with the wistful tale of a teenager who befriends a talking bird. Released to great success over the summer in Japan, where it grossed $56m, The Boy And The Heron opens in the US and UK in December, with GKids positioning the title as potentially Miyazaki’s final film — although the redoubt­able auteur, who turns 83 in January, claims to already be hard at work on his next opus.

The Boys In The Boat
Dir. George Clooney
This Amazon MGM Studios biographical drama focuses on the men’s eight rowing team from the University of Washington, which represented the US at the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin and went on to win gold. Based on Daniel James Brown’s 2013 non-­fiction book, it was shot in the UK, US and Germany, with a cast led by Joel Edgerton and Callum Turner. It marks Clooney’s ninth feature as director — he has been Oscar-nominated across six different categories, and has won twice: supporting actor for Syriana in 2006 and best picture as a producer on Argo in 2013.

The Burial
Dir. Maggie Betts
Released in October by Amazon MGM Studios a month on from its Toronto debut, this legal drama about a real-life David and Goliath battle between rival funeral home operators boasts a flamboyant turn from Jamie Foxx as plaintiff Tommy Lee Jones’ attorney. It could see Foxx contending for the same lead actor honours he collected for 2004’s Ray. Director and co-writer Betts earned plaudits for 2017 feature debut Novitiate and stepped in here after Alexander Payne exited. Jurnee Smollett may also get attention as Foxx’s courtroom opponent.

Chicken Run: Dawn Of The Nugget
Dir. Sam Fell
Aardman’s Chicken Run predated the animated feature Oscar and Bafta categories, but never­theless netted two Bafta nominations in 2001 for visual effects and British film. (The company scooped the animated feature Oscar in 2006 with Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.) This Netflix-backed sequel world premiered at the BFI London Film Festival in October, and releases in UK cinemas on December 8, landing a week later on Netflix. Director Fell is a best animated feature nominee at Oscar for ParaNorman and at Bafta for Para­Norman and Flushed Away.

The Color Purple
Dir. Blitz Bazawule
Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple — adapted from Alice Walker’s 1982 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel — garnered 11 Oscar nominations in 1986 but failed to win a single category. This new version is based on the stage musical that originally ran on Broadway from 2005-08, earning 11 Tony nominations and winning best actress for LaChanze. Ghanaian filmmaker, artist and musician Bazawule gets to play in a bigger sandpit after his 2018 debut feature The Burial Of Kojo and 2020 Beyoncé collaboration Black Is King. Taraji P Henson and Danielle Brooks — in firecracker roles Shug and Sophia — could pop in supporting actress.

The Creator
Dir. Gareth Edwards
Seven years after Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, UK writer/­director Edwards (who initially made his name in 2010 with Monsters) returns with an artificial intelligence-themed action adventure that seems highly pertinent to current concerns. Set against the backdrop of a future war between human and machinekind, The Creator is that rare thing in franchise Hollywood: a sci-fi original, albeit one that wears its inspirations — Apocalypse Now, Blade Runner — on its sleeves. The film’s impressive craft credentials — notably cinematography, visual effects, costume and production design — could win the attention of voters.

Dumb Money
Dir. Craig Gillespie
Sony Pictures’ comedy-drama looks back at the 2021 GameStop short squeeze, which created financial panic among major US hedge fund companies that had bet against the stock. Dumb Money could connect with awards voters who will see comparisons to other prestige pictures such as The Social Network (three wins apiece at Oscar and Bafta) and The Big Short (an Oscar and Bafta for adapted screenplay). The cast is led by Paul Dano, a Bafta nominee for Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood. Director Gillespie’s I, Tonya won Allison Janney the Oscar and Bafta for best supporting actress in 2018.

Elemental
Dir. Peter Sohn
After initial box-office struggles, Pixar’s 27th feature has proved to have long commercial legs, bringing in an impressive $492m worldwide. Inspired by the immigrant journey of his parents, director Sohn imagines a fantastical world in which the four essential elements — fire, water, earth and air — coexist in a sprawling metropolis. Elemental seeks to be the company’s 12th animated feature Oscar winner (it would be Pixar’s ninth Bafta triumph). Composer Thomas Newman has already won two Baftas but, despite 15 nominations, has yet to win an Oscar.

Ferrari
Dir. Michael Mann
A passion project for Mann, who initially attempted to make the film back in the 1990s, Ferrari went through various studios and stars before Adam Driver signed on as Enzo Ferrari. He portrays the Italian automobile magnate in 1957 as he battles to retain control of the car company he started 10 years earlier. At the same time he is coping with the death of his son Dino and untangling a messy personal life, forced to choose between his grieving wife (Penelope Cruz) and a mistress (Shailene Woodley) with whom he also has a young son, Piero. Despite a long and celebrated career, Mann has been nominated only once for best director at Oscar and Bafta — respectively for The Insider and Collateral. 

Freud’s Last Session
Dir. Matt Brown
Anthony Hopkins as Sigmund Freud will be a tempting proposition to many voters, the father of psychoanalysis becoming the latest in a string of noted figures (see also Alfred Hitchcock, Pablo Picasso and Richard Nixon) to receive the veteran star’s imprimatur. Brown’s film of Mark St Germain’s stageplay imagines a meeting of minds between Freud and the author CS Lewis (played by Matthew Goode) at the former’s London home. Sony Pictures Classics has lined up a December release Stateside following the October 27 premiere at AFI Fest.

High And Low: John Galliano
Dir. Kevin Macdonald
Director Macdonald has switched between documentary (winning an Oscar in 2000 with One Day In September) and narrative (The Last King Of Scotland, The Mauritanian). His latest documentary may initially seem like a bid to salvage the reputation of former Dior designer Galliano, convicted of anti-Semitic abuse in France in 2011 — but he is not that easy to categorise, as footage of his outbursts and his own recollections now demonstrate. Macdonald’s great feat is to defrock an industry awash with bad behaviour in which Galliano’s greatest offence seems to have been getting caught. Mubi jumped on board ahead of its Telluride premiere.

The Holdovers
Dir. Alexander Payne
This bittersweet comedy-drama, a Telluride premiere, could see Payne add to his impressive tally of Academy Award and Bafta nominations. He won from both groups for co-writing the adapted screenplay for Sideways, and earned a second Oscar for co-writing The Descendants. Opening through Focus Features on October 27, with the UK release scheduled for January, The Holdovers reunites Payne with his Sideways star Paul Giamatti, who plays an unpopular teacher at a boys’ boarding school forced to look after a sarcastic student (newcomer Dominic Sessa) over the 1970-71 Christmas break.

The Iron Claw
Dir. Sean Durkin
Martha Marcy May Marlene announced writer/director Durkin as a major new arthouse talent in 2011. A full nine years later, second feature The Nest failed to translate critical kudos into solid box office. Despite having skipped festival exposure, buzz is high for his latest effort, The Iron Claw. Starring ascendant talents Jeremy Allen White (Disney+ series The Bear), Harris Dickinson (Triangle Of Sadness) and Lily James alongside Zac Efron, it tells the story of the six real-life Von Erich wrestling sons, five of whom pre-deceased their controlling father. A24 has it in a festive counter-programming chinlock, with a planned December 22 US release. 

The Killer
Dir. David Fincher
Adapted from a French graphic novel by Se7en screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, Fincher’s 12th feature is a brutally efficient B-movie with Michael Fassbender (in his first acting role in four years) as the titular assassin who embarks on a journey of retribution and revenge following a botched job in Paris. Financed by Netflix, The Killer premiered at Venice, and lands on the streamer on November 10 following a brief theatrical run. While Fincher was Oscar-nominated for directing The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button, The Social Network and Mank, The Killer may flourish best in the cinematography, music and sound design categories.

Killers Of The Flower Moon
Dir. Martin Scorsese
Scorsese is on form with his adaptation — with Eric Roth — of David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction book about the murders of Osage Nation people in Oklahoma in the 1920s. The beloved cinema icon has a chance of another best director Oscar, having won once from nine nominations, in 2007 for The Departed. Since its Cannes out-of-competition launch, Killers has received plaudits for Leonardo DiCaprio — a one-time Oscar winner from six acting nods — and Lily Gladstone, both of whom are campaigning in lead categories. Apple will be angling for another best picture triumph after 2022’s Coda.

Maestro
Dir. Bradley Cooper
After seven Bafta and eight Oscar nominations for A Star Is Born, Cooper co-writes, directs and stars as Leonard Bernstein in this biographical drama about the acclaimed composer/conductor’s relationship with wife Felicia alongside an attraction to, and affairs with, men. The film’s Venice world premiere and New York and BFI London festival screenings have provided a platform ahead of a theatrical run and December 20 Netflix launch — with the streamer still searching for its first best picture Oscar win. Cooper and Carey Mulligan as Felicia will compete in lead acting, while technical categories in contention include score and hair and make-up.

May December
Dir. Todd Haynes
Haynes and Julianne Moore will be hoping to repeat the history of their last multiple Oscar-nominated collaboration, 2002’s Far From Heaven, with this psychological drama that premiered in Cannes. Moore — Oscar-nominated four times and a winner in 2015 for Still Alice — plays a woman in a controversial relationship with a much younger man (Charles Melton) whose life is disrupted by the arrival of an actress (Natalie Portman) who is portraying her in an upcoming TV film. Netflix scooped up North American rights for $11m. Studiocanal releases into UK cinemas on November 17 on behalf of Sky Cinema. 

The Mission
Dirs. Jesse Moss, Amanda McBaine
This Telluride-premiering documentary tells the story of evangelical Christian John Allen Chau, whose convictions led him to defy a ban on contact with a tribe living in voluntary isolation on the remote North Sentinel island in the Indian ocean. The Mission tracks his fatal odyssey, while also dealing with wider themes of faith. Released in the US in October by National Geographic, this is the second collaboration for Moss and McBaine, whose Boys State won the grand jury prize (documentary) at Sundance in 2020 and a Primetime Emmy.

Napoleon
Dir. Ridley Scott
Master of the historical epic, Scott reunites with his Gladiator star Joaquin Phoenix (2020’s best actor Oscar winner for Joker) to tell the story of the eponymous French military leader’s rise to power and his volatile relationship with wife Joséphine, played by Vanessa Kirby. Scott has four Oscar and six Bafta nominations for competitive categories, with no wins so far — but received the Bafta Fellowship in 2018. Phoenix is also a producer on Napoleon, which will be released theatrically on November 22 by Sony before streaming on Apple TV+. Scott promises a four-hour cut further down the line.

Nyad
Dirs. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
Having won 2019’s feature documentary Oscar with their climbing nerve-shredder Free Solo, husband-and-wife team Chin and Vasarhelyi make their narrative debut telling the story of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad and her bid to complete a 110-mile swim from Cuba to Florida. Annette Bening as Nyad could add to her four Oscar and four Bafta nominations (with a Bafta win for American Beauty), while two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster could also get attention as her loyal coach. Launched at Telluride, Nyad will surface on Netflix on November 3 after a limited theatrical run.

Oppenheimer
Dir. Christopher Nolan
Nolan has received only one best director Oscar nomination, for Dunkirk in 2018. This biopic celebrating J Robert Oppenheimer — the brilliant scientist who led the building of the atomic bomb and then came to reconsider his creation — surely gives him his best shot yet of winning that award. Also in the mix are Cillian Murphy for a powerful lead performance, plus strong supporting turns from Robert Downey Jr and Emily Blunt, and a number of craft categories. Buoyed by the Barbenheimer phenomenon, Universal’s Oppenheimer had grossed $942m worldwide at press time. 

Origin
Dir. Ava DuVernay
Premiering in Venice’s main competition and subsequently screening at Toronto, DuVernay’s latest explores the life of the Pulitzer Prize-­winning author Isabel Wilkerson and how she came to write her acclaimed book Caste: The Origin Of Our Discontents. Awards recognition could follow for DuVernay in both directing and writing categories, with Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor (Oscar-­nominated in 2022 for playing Venus and Serena Williams’ mother in King Richard) also in contention for her portrayal of Wilkerson. Neon acquired worldwide rights prior to Venice.

Past Lives
Dir. Celine Song
The accomplished feature debut from theatre director Song has been a breakout hit since premiering at Sundance, and has proved another box-office success for A24 on release in the US this summer. The romance follows a Korean-American woman and the relationship with her childhood crush across three different periods in her life. An original screenplay nomination for Song is the film’s strongest bet, while direction and lead actress Greta Lee are also in contention. German-Korean actor Teo Yoo stars as Lee’s one-that-got-away, while John Magaro plays her American husband. 

The Peasants
Dirs. DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman
Adapted from Wladyslaw Reymont’s Nobel Prize-winning early 20th-­century novel, The Peasants depicts a woman forced to marry a rich farmer when she is in love with his son. The Polish-language title will compete in animation and inter­national feature categories, as Poland’s submission in the latter at the Oscars. The Toronto premiere employs similar oil painting techniques to the Welchmans’ Loving Vincent, which received animated feature nominations at the Oscars and Baftas, and grossed more than $42m worldwide. 

Poor Things
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
With its Venice Golden Lion and meteor’s tail of critical superlatives, kudos burnout is the main risk run by Lanthimos’s feminist Frankenstein parable. While Emma Stone’s intensely physical performance as a woman with the brain of an infant screams best actress, Poor Things could also score big in a bunch of other categories, from adapted screenplay (Tony McNamara, from the book by Alasdair Gray) to costume design. Lanthimos’s The Favourite took seven Baftas from 11 nominations and only one Oscar from 10, but his latest is unlikely to skew so heavily Brit-wards.

Priscilla
Dir. Sofia Coppola
It has been 20 years since Coppola last graced the premium film awards circuit with Lost In Translation, eventually winning the best original screenplay Oscar. This time she will be in contention for adapted screenplay, having taken on Priscilla Presley’s 1985 autobiography Elvis And Me, as well as direction. Another contender for this Venice premiere is Cailee Spaeny in the title role, while supporting actor Jacob Elordi may follow in Austin Butler’s footsteps with another star-making portrayal as Elvis. Mubi releases in the UK on December 26 while A24 has US rights.

The Promised Land
Dir. Nikolaj Arcel
With heroes and villains as well-­defined as Mads Mikkelsen’s cheekbones (he is the hero), this Danish historical film about a pair of 18th-century rivals in love and land ownership — one rich, the other poor — conceals a red-blooded heart beneath its European arthouse exterior. Sold by Trust­Nordisk to more than 50 territories even before its Venice competition debut, it should appeal to inter­national feature voters. Arcel’s A Royal Affair was nominated in the same category in 2013; since then, Denmark has had quite the run, with four Oscar nominations and one win — for Another Round (also starring Mikkelsen) in 2021.

The Royal Hotel
Dir. Kitty Green
This Telluride premiere marks the second time the Australian filmmaker has explored the dark experiences of women in the workplace after festival darling The Assistant also premiered at Telluride in 2019. This time around, the Weinstein-inspired film executive’s office has been swapped for a mining town pub in the Australian Outback. It is also Green’s second time casting Julia Garner, who plays one half of a Canadian backpacking duo hoping to make some quick cash (Jessica Henwick plays the other). The thriller was released in the US via Neon in October while Universal Pictures Content Group handles the UK.

Rustin
Dir. George C Wolfe
Three-time Tony-winning director Wolfe made his top-tier awards breakthrough with Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which scooped two Oscars and two Baftas. His follow-up could be an awards contender as well: this true-life drama stars Colman Domingo as Bayard Rustin, a gay US civil rights advocate who, despite prejudice against his race and sexuality, masterminded the 1963 March On Washington, famous for Martin Luther King’s epochal “I Have A Dream” speech. Netflix will release Rustin in US theatres on November 3 and through its streaming platform on November 17.

Rye Lane
Dir Raine Allen-Miller
A fresh twist on the Richard Curtis era of London-set romcoms, this debut from Allen-Miller premiered at Sundance before a Hulu release in the US and a theatrical run in the UK through Searchlight/Disney in March. David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah star as two heartbroken 20-somethings who spend the day wandering around south London. Director and both stars are award contenders, as are Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia who penned the tight script, with voter attention likely to be keenest in its UK home market. 

Saltburn
Dir. Emerald Fennell
Fennell’s Promising Young Woman won her a best original screenplay Oscar and Bafta, alongside Oscar nods for director and picture. Her follow-up is another psychological thriller, fusing Brideshead Revisited with The Talented Mr. Ripley. Barry Keoghan, Bafta winner for The Banshees Of Inisherin, stars as an impoverished Oxford student befriended by a privileged fellow undergrad (Jacob Elordi, Elvis in Priscilla), who invites him to the family’s country pile for the summer — the Saltburn of the title — with tragic consequences. This Telluride premiere receives a theatrical release in November, before streaming on Prime Video.

Society Of The Snow
Dir. JA Bayona
The genre-inflected nature of Bayona’s work has tended to count against him with awards voters — although Naomi Watts was Oscar-nominated in 2013 for The Impossible. The Spanish filmmaker’s new Netflix-backed feature depicts events that unfolded in the frozen Andes in 1972, after a flight carrying a Uruguayan rugby team crashed en route to Chile — previously recounted in 1993 Hollywood movie Alive. Spain’s submission to the Oscars’ international feature category puts a notable focus on authenticity, casting mostly unknown South American actors, speaking Uruguayan-­accented Spanish. 

Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
Dirs. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, Justin K Thompson
In 2019, the groundbreaking Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse became the first movie outside of Disney or Pixar to win the best animated feature Oscar since Rango seven years before. This sequel, a Sony Pictures Animation release from writer/producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, is no less visually inventive than its predecessor. Currently the sixth-biggest box-office hit of 2023 at cinemas worldwide, with a total of $690m, a best animated feature nomination seems a given, and Daniel Pemberton’s score is likewise worthy of voter attention.

The Taste Of Things
Dir. Tran Anh Hung
IFC Films has guaranteed a December qualifying run for Tran’s lush, loving, critically lauded ode to epicurean pleasures and undying passion, set in 19th-­century France and starring Benoit Magimel and Juliette Binoche. The French selectors ultimately favoured this as its international feature Oscar submission over Justine Triet’s Anatomy Of A Fall. IFC controversially replaced the original English title, The Pot Au Feu, for North American release — a move that could cause some confusion for international markets and awards voters, especially as the French title is La Passion De Dodin Bouffant.

The Teachers’ Lounge
Dir. Ilker Catak
The year after All Quiet On The Western Front cleaned up at the Baftas and scooped four Oscars might not be a good time to gamble on the chances of another German film. But with the heft of Sony Pictures Classics behind it, this twisty ethical drama about a teacher who sets out to find out who is responsible for a series of thefts at her multi-ethnic middle school looks like a strong international feature shortlist contender. It may have only made the Panorama section at its Berlinale debut, but it ended up beating All Quiet to best film and director at Germany’s Lola Awards in May.

Wish
Dirs. Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn
Disney honours its centenary year with a new story — set in a world where a king with magical powers (voiced by Chris Pine) can choose to grant wishes made by his subjects — that smuggles in nods to the studio’s past animated classics. Walt Disney Animation Studios chief creative officer Jennifer Lee (who jointly wrote and directed the two Frozen films with Buck) carved out time to co-write the screenplay for Wish, which Buck directs with animator/­story artist Veerasunthorn. Disney last won the best animated feature Oscar and Bafta two years ago with Encanto.

Wonka
Dir. Paul King
Set for a release on December 15 via Warner Bros, this musical prequel to Roald Dahl’s children’s classic Charlie And The Chocolate Factory sees Dune star Timothée Chalamet, Oscar- and Bafta-­nominated in 2018 for Call Me By Your Name, don the top hat previously worn by Gene Wilder and Johnny Depp to tell how the eponymous chocolate-maker got his start in the confectionery business. Paddington’s King directs from a script he wrote with Simon Farnaby, while the stellar supporting cast includes Olivia Colman, Sally Hawkins and Rowan Atkinson. Hugh Grant, so good in King’s Paddington 2, plays the Oompa-­Loompa.

The Zone Of Interest
Dir. Jonathan Glazer
Loosely adapted from Martin Amis’s 2014 novel of the same name, Glazer’s fourth film in 23 years centres on Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss (Christian Friedel) and his wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller, who also has Anatomy Of A Fall out this year) as they build their dream home and raise a family next to the infamous extermination camp. As devastating as it is oblique — the horrors of Auschwitz are kept (mostly) offscreen — The Zone Of Interest premiered at Cannes Film Festival where it won the grand jury prize and has been selected as the UK entry to the Oscars’ best international feature category. 

Profiles by Ellie Calnan, Ben Dalton, Charles Gant, Tim Grierson, Fionnuala Halligan, John Hazelton, Lee Marshall, Mark Salisbury, Neil Smith

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