2020 Oscar Predictions
Updated: October 16th, 2020
Discussion to come…
1. David Fincher - Mank
Mank follows screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz’s tumultuous development of Orson Welles’ iconic masterpiece Citizen Kane (1941).
2. Chloe Zhao – Nomadland
A woman in her sixties after losing everything in the Great Recession embarks on a journey through the American West, living as a van-dwelling modern-day nomad.
3. Regina King - One Night in Miami
In the aftermath of Cassius Clay’s defeat of Sonny Liston in 1964, the boxer meets with Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and Jim Brown to change the course of history in the segregated South.
4. Aaron Sorkin - The Trial of the Chicago 7
What was intended to be a peaceful protest at the 1968 Democratic National Convention turned into a violent clash with police and the National Guard. The organizers of the protest–including Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden and Bobby Seale–were charged with conspiracy to incite a riot and the trial that followed was one of the most notorious in history.
5. Paul Greengrass - News of the World
A Texan traveling across the wild West bringing the news of the world to local townspeople, agrees to help rescue a young girl who was kidnapped.
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6. Spike Lee - Da 5 Bloods
Four African American Vietnam veterans return to Vietnam. They are in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader and the promise of buried treasure. These heroes battle forces of humanity and nature while confronted by the lasting ravages of the immorality of the Vietnam War.
7. Eliza Hittman - Never Rarely Sometimes Always
A pair of teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania travel to New York City to seek out medical help after an unintended pregnancy.
8. Christopher Nolan - Tenet
Armed with only one word – Tenet – and fighting for the survival of the entire world, the Protagonist journeys through a twilight world of international espionage on a mission that will unfold in something beyond real time.
9. Shaka King – Judas and the Black Messiah
The story of Fred Hampton, deputy chairman of the national Black Panther Party, who was assassinated in 1969 by a Cook County tactical unit on the orders of the FBI and Chicago Police Department.
10. Francis Lee - Ammonite
In 1840s England, palaeontologist Mary Anning and a young woman sent by her husband to convalesce by the sea develop an intense relationship. Despite the chasm between their social spheres and personalities, Mary and Charlotte discover they can each offer what the other has been searching for: the realisation that they are not alone. It is the beginning of a passionate and all-consuming love affair that will defy all social bounds and alter the course of both lives irrevocably.
11. George C. Wolfe – Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Tensions and temperatures rise over the course of an afternoon recording session in 1920s Chicago as a band of musicians await trailblazing performer, the legendary “Mother of the Blues,” Ma Rainey. Late to the session, the fearless, fiery Ma engages in a battle of wills with her white manager and producer over control of her music. As the band waits in the studio’s claustrophobic rehearsal room, ambitious trumpeter Levee – who has an eye for Ma’s girlfriend and is determined to stake his own claim on the music industry – spurs his fellow musicians into an eruption of stories revealing truths that will forever change the course of their lives.
12. Mike Mills - C'mon C'mon
A documentary filmmaker whose latest project involves gifted children bonds with his smart-yet-sensitive nephew, whose father struggles with bipolar disorder and is in the grips of a manic episode.
13. Ron Howard - Hillbilly Elegy
A Yale law student drawn back to his hometown grapples with family history, Appalachian values and the American dream. Based on the best-selling memoir by J.D. Vance.
14. Emerald Fennell - Promising Young Woman
An American oil-rig rough neck from Oklahoma travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter who is in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter. In the process, he develops a friendship with a local woman and her young daughter and embarks on a personal journey of discovery and a larger sense of belonging in the world.
15. Florian Zeller - The Father
Faced with sudden doubts about her marriage, a young New York mother teams up with her larger-than-life playboy father to tail her husband.
Also Considered:
16. Sofia Coppola - On the Rocks
Faced with sudden doubts about her marriage, a young New York mother teams up with her larger-than-life playboy father to tail her husband.
17. Taylor Sheridan - Those Who Wish Me Dead
A teenage murder witness finds himself pursued by twin assassins in the Montana wilderness with a survival expert tasked with protecting him -- and a forest fire threatening to consume them all.
18. Lee Isaac Chung – Minari
It’s the 1980s, and David, a seven-year-old Korean American boy, is faced with new surroundings and a different way of life when his father, Jacob, moves their family from the West Coast to rural Arkansas. His mother, Monica, is aghast that they live in a mobile home in the middle of nowhere, and naughty little David and his sister are bored and aimless. When his equally mischievous grandmother arrives from Korea to live with them, her unfamiliar ways arouse David’s curiosity. Meanwhile, Jacob, hell-bent on creating a farm on untapped soil, throws their finances, his marriage, and the stability of the family into jeopardy.
19. Anthony & Joe Russo - Cherry
An Army medic suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder becomes a serial bank robber after an addiction to drugs puts him in debt.
20. Rod Lurie – The Outpost
A small unit of U.S. soldiers, alone at the remote Combat Outpost Keating, located deep in the valley of three mountains in Afghanistan, battles an overwhelming force of Taliban fighters in a coordinated attack. The Battle of Kamdesh became the bloodiest American engagement of the Afghanistan War in 2009, and Bravo Troop 3-61 CAV became one of the most decorated units of the 19-year conflict.