This year’s 94th Academy Awards are a little over a month away and movie fans likely can’t wait to learn who gets to walk away with the awards typically up for grabs.
The Toronto International Film Festival is all done and dusted, with Belfast winning the coveted People’s Choice Award. And, while the winner of TIFF’s said category has often gone on to win Best Picture, it appears that might not be the case this time around.
Netflix is looking pretty strong this year and the streaming giants’ Power of the Dog is a strong contender. Jane Campion’s Western portrayal looks into a conflict between a man and his brother’s new family that makes for a very gripping film
Of course, it’s not nailed on by any means as Belfast is still a strong possibility. Both of these films have already attracted multiple nominations from both the BAFTAs and Critics’ Choice Awards.
Belfast has the edge, having snagged the aforementioned People’s Choice Award in Toronto. And betting sites in Canada will probably attract votes in its favor heading into next month’s Oscars.
Power of the Dog got three awards at the Golden Globes, though, including Best Drama, while Belfast only got one for Best Screenplay. It’s also worth noting Belfast was overlooked in the Best Editing category, which usually goes a long way into ensuring films win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
As for the Best Director Award, it will be pretty interesting to see who goes home with this one. Only two women can boast winning said accolade – Katheryn Bigelow was the first, winning for her directing of The Hurt Locker in 2010 and Chloe Zhao became the second for her work on Nomadland in 2021. Campion was nominated for The Piano in 1993 but bowed out to Steven Spielberg.
As fate would have it, she will be going up against Spielberg this time around for Power of the Dog and it’s likely that the tables turn as no one not nominated for a BAFTA has won the Oscar for Best Director. Given that Spielberg was snubbed in. In Britain, he is unlikely to win at the Oscars. It would take a lot for anyone to beat Campion following her Golden Globe but Kenneth Branagh does stand a chance.
Meanwhile, Will Smith is thought to be the frontrunner for Best Actor and, should he pull through, will have won his first Academy Award. It would be a long time coming for Smith, who is one of the most popular men on the planet, but his past nominations pitted him against formidable opponents in Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker.
Smith finally looks like he will get his hands on that Best Actor trophy for his part in King Richard. Betting sites all around have him as the most likely to win the award this year and he should be helped by the fact that the movie has earned several other nominations.
“This one is really different,” Smith told the New York Times. “It’s one thing to be singularly nominated. And it’s another thing when it’s the entire group, the film. It’s just a different thing. This could have been a much smaller story. But the audience recognizes the universal gifts and power of the ideas in this film, it is beautifully uplifting and inspiring for me.”
The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air actor secretly feared he would never make anything as good as The Pursuit of Happyness and thought he had reached the height of his acting career after that.
“I thought I had reached my artistic pinnacle,” he said. “So for the world to respond to this film and in this way energizes me as an artist. I’m just wildly inspired to create and even to be able to tell stories like this,”
Smith was nominated for The Pursuit of Happyness in 2007 and for Ali five years prior but lost out both times. The third time could be a charm for the 53-year-old.
“You know it’s funny, I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this. So those two times I was nominated before, I’ve only ever lost to black actors,” he added. “I lost once to Denzel and the next was Forest Whitaker. So it’s funny, Jada [Pinkett Smith, his wife] and I were talking about the inclusion and all that [the issue of the lack of diversity among Oscar nominees over the years] and I was like, “I’ve only ever lost to black actors!”
The Best Actress award isn’t as sure as it seemed late last year. Kristen Stewart seemed a shoo-in for the award back then, given her starring in Spencer but Nicole Kidman has entered the race, having beaten Stewart to the Golden Globe for her role in Being the Ricardos.
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