10 Films That Could Be 2014 Oscar Nominees
Now that the confetti has been swept away, after the campaigns have ended, after the SAGs, DGAs and other precursor award ceremonies fizzled out, the Oscars are over. In search of what's next and what's award-able, the producers of next year's Oscar ceremonies are already popping in their screeners to see who will be the cream of the crop.
Here, we take a look at 10 films that could be next year's Oscar nominees. Get your Twitter quips and comments ready. You'll be delivering them sooner than you know it next year.
Here, we take a look at 10 films that could be next year's Oscar nominees. Get your Twitter quips and comments ready. You'll be delivering them sooner than you know it next year.
12 Years A Slave
RELEASE DATE: September 6, 2013 [Brazil]
CAST: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Quvenzhane Wallis
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: If Django Unchained and Lincoln weren’t enough to convince you that slaves are the latest Hollywood trend, the critically acclaimed Black English director Steve McQueen (Shame) brings a drama that’s sure to test your convictions. 12 Years a Slave, written and directed by McQueen, stars Chiwetel Ejiofor as a New York free man who’s tricked by slave traders, kidnapped and sold into slavery. There he’s made to work on a Louisiana plantation for 12 years, desperately trying to find a way to get back to his family. Based on the actual events of Solomon Northup and his novel (Twelve Years a Slave), his daily life experiences mirror that of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Ann Jacobs or William Wells Brown.
Monster University
RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2013
CAST: Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Kelsey Grammer, Jennifer Tilly
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: It's going to be hard to ignore the role CGI plays in the next crop of Oscar nominated films. Even worst, it'll be hard to ignore the power of Pixar in 2013. With John Goodman and Billy Crystal reprising their roles of Sulley and Mike, the Monsters Inc. prequel is a film that cinephiles (and possibly the Academy) has been waiting over a decade for.
Sin City 2: A Dame to Kill For —
RELEASE DATE: October 4, 2013
CAST: Clive Owen, Jamie Chung, Jessica Alba, Michael Madsen, Rosario Dawson
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: Robert Rodriguez is aiming to have his years of patience pay off in 2013 as Sin City 2 assembles a cast of new and familiar faces. With Mickey Rourke back as Marv, can we expect the Academy to award the faithful translation from comic book classic to big screen blockbuster?
Rush
RELEASE DATE: September 20, 2013
CAST: Daniel Brühl, Chris Hemsworth, Olivia Wilde
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: Ron Howard is no stranger to the Academy. His last effort Frost/Nixon was nominated for Best Picture. While biopics are a favorite of the Oscars, Rush should stir particular emotions as the film will chronicle the life of Formula 1 champion driver Niki Lauda (Hemsworth) and the 1976 crash that almost claimed his life.
Malavita —
RELEASE DATE: October 18, 2013
CAST: Robert De Niro, Tommy Lee Jones
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: Malavita is headlined by two of this year's Best Supporting Actor nominees, and so it has that going for them. Add three-time nominee Michelle Pfeiffer in the female lead and Martin Scorsese as an executive producer and you possibly have the makings of another award winning production.
The Counselor —
RELEASE DATE: November 15, 2013
CAST: Brad Pitt, Goran Visnjic, Michael Fassbender
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: Ridley Scott, already three-time Oscar nominee, directs this screenplay by Cormac McCarthy (novelist, No Country For Old Men). That film's Best Supporting Actor winner Javier Bardem is in on this one, but will that star power be enough to carry shoulda-been nominee Michael Fassbender into the winner's circle? We'll have to wait until 2014 to see.
The Fifth Estate —
RELEASE DATE: November 15, 2013
CAST: Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Brühl
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: Julian Assange. The Oscars love a great biopic, and director Bill Condon has the enormous task of tackling the life and times of the Wikileaks founder. Benedict Cumberbatch's (The Hobbit, Star Trek Into Darkness) resemblance is pretty convincing. But will it hold enough sway to be awarded a golden statuette in 2014?
42
RELEASE DATE: April 12, 2013
CAST: Chadwick Boseman, Nicole Beharie, Harrison Ford
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: The life story of Jackie Robinson has been done many times, but never with this much pomp and circumstance. With a star studded cast and newcomers (Chadwick Boseman, Nicole Beharie) leading the way, 42 could mean a few new African American candidates for nomination.
After Earth
RELEASE DATE: June 7, 2013
CAST: Will Smith, Jaden Smith
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: After Earth finds humanity forced to escape from the only planet they’ve ever known after cataclysmic events threaten their existence. Father and son Smith join forces again in this sci-fi movie directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The helmer hasn't had the best luck with his pictures (
The Monuments Men —
RELEASE DATE: December 18, 2013
CAST: Bill Murray, George Clooney, Matt Damon
WHY IT'S OSCAR-WORTHY: The only way this one wouldn't be nominated (or win) is if it just plainly, flat-off sucked. But with George Clooney fresh off of an Oscar win for producing Argo, it seems like he's in the groove. Clooney's cast for this adaptation of Robert M. Edsei's non-fiction book includes previous winners Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Matt Damon. The film is about a crew of art historians and museum curators who unite to recover renown works of art stolen by Nazis before Hitler destroys them.
