From the race for the atomic bomb to the horrors of Auschwitz, including the adventures of a famous doll or a reanimated corpse with a voracious libido, the variety of contenders for the Oscar for best film this year demonstrates a vintage exceptional.
Anatomy of a fall
Sandra Hüller in
Anatomy of a Fall.
The Pelléas Films/The Pierre Films
Palme d'Or at Cannes, this legal thriller about the downfall of a dysfunctional artist couple, where a writer finds herself accused of the murder of her husband, caused a sensation in the United States, notably winning two Golden Globes.
Nominated in five categories, Justine Triet's film is favorite for the Oscar for best original screenplay.
Its ingenious promotional campaign, with the dog Messi as the film's ambassador, may allow it to covet other statuettes.
To the point of making it the third Palme d'Or to also win the Oscar for best film, like the South Korean film
Parasite
?
Suspense.
Also readOur review of Anatomy of a Fall, a masterful Palme d’Or
barbie
Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie in
Barbie.
Warner Bros.
Entertainment Inc.
Nominating
Barbie
was itself a victory for the attention-loving Oscars.
Greta Gerwig's feminist satire drew hordes of pink-clad fans into theaters and topped the global box office with $1.4 billion in revenue.
No film, even its summer duettist
Oppenheimer
, released the same day, has been as talked about as
Barbie
, thanks in part to an intense marketing campaign.
But can he really win the supreme award, when his director and Margot Robbie, the interpreter of the peroxide doll, have not been nominated?
It seems more intended for secondary awards - costumes, best song.
Also read “I’m Just Ken”: Ryan Gosling will perform his song in Barbie at the Oscars
Winter Break
Dominic Sessa, Paul Giamatti and Da'Vine Joy Randolph in
Winter Break.
FOCUS FEATURES LLC
A moving Christmas tale,
Winter Break
chronicles the unlikely friendship of three lost souls, stuck together for New Year's Eve in a boarding school in the northeastern United States in the 1970s.
Paul Giamatti
plays a psycho-rigid history professor, whose the pedantic character hides an intimate wound.
A remarkably touching role, which allows him to claim the Oscar for best actor.
At his side,
Da'Vine Joy Randolph
is unanimously acclaimed as an African-American cook grieving the loss of her son, who died in the Vietnam War.
The statuette for best supporting actress seems to be hers.
Delicate and subtle, this old-fashioned comedy from Alexander Payne seems best placed to unseat the ultra-favorite
Oppenheimer
.
But the task remains arduous.
Killers of the Flower Moon
Leonardo DiCaprio and Lily Gladstone in
Killers of the Flower Moon.
Paramount Pictures
It lasts three and a half hours.
But Martin Scorsese's historical epic about the killings of Native Americans in 1920s Oklahoma was simply too beautiful and too important to ignore.
Even more than Leonardo DiCaprio and
Robert De Niro
(nominated in the Best Supporting Actor category), it is the actress
Lily Gladstone
who bursts into the screen, as a native enriched by the oil from her land and victim of toxic love.
This role could earn her an Oscar for best actress.
Also readOur review of Killers of the Flower Moon, the new film by Martin Scorsese: be careful, masterpiece
Maestro
Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper in
Maestro.
Courtesy of Netflix
Often nominated but never rewarded,
Bradley Cooper
hoped to ward off fate with
Maestro
.
For this biopic of legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein, he is both in front of and behind the camera and received seven nominations.
But the film will probably only walk away with the Oscar for best makeup.
A bittersweet reward in view of the controversy which preceded its release: the prominent false nose worn by the actor had been accused of reinforcing anti-Semitic stereotypes, and the composer's children had to intervene to defend him.
Read alsoMaestro: Bradley Cooper leads his biopic on Leonard Bernstein at the helm
Oppenheimer
Cillian Murphy as
Oppenheimer.
Universal Pictures
Rarely has a film arrived at the Oscars with such solid favorite status.
Christopher Nolan
's portrait of the father of the atomic bomb
claims a billion dollars in revenue and won almost all the Hollywood awards of the season.
If his name doesn't come out of the envelope on Sunday night, it would be the biggest surprise since 2017, when
La La Land
was mistakenly announced as best film, instead of
Moonlight
.
Read alsoGolden Globes: Oppenheimer atomizes Barbie, Anatomy of a fall pierces
Past Lives - Our lives before
Yoo Teo and Greta Lee in
Past Lives.
Jon Pack/Twenty Years Rights/A24
It's the film least likely to win, and yet it moved the audience at the Sundance festival to tears.
Directed by Celine Song, this drama tells the story of two Korean soulmates, who find themselves in New York after being separated for many years by the whirlwind of life.
A powerful reflection on destiny and the chances capable of forging an existence.
Also readOur review of Past Lives - Our lives before: friendship without qualms
Poor Creatures
Emma Stone in
Poor Creatures.
Searchlight Pictures
This baroque tale was crowned at the Venice Film Festival, and plays the originality card.
We follow Emma Stone in the role of a female Frankenstein's monster.
A corpse brought back to life with a child's brain, this creature with a devouring libido travels through 19th century Europe, in a universe with a retrofuturist aesthetic.
The emancipation of this being without shame or modesty constantly comes up against the misogyny of the world.
Absurd and funny, this feminist comedy marks Yorgos Lanthimos' second collaboration with
Emma Stone
,
after
The Favorite
.
It could allow her to win a new Oscar for best actress, after that obtained for
La La Land
.
Also read: Our review of the film Poor Creatures: Emma Stone as a trashy and nymphomaniac Barbie
The Area of Interest
Lilli Falk and Anastazja Drobniak in
The Area of Interest.
Leonine
This drama makes you feel the full horror of the Holocaust, without ever showing it.
A strong bias, with which Jonathan Glazer follows the life of a family of Nazis whose father commands the Auschwitz camp.
Just on the other side of the wall, they live a routine existence in their villa with swimming pool, flower beds and vegetable garden, and remain completely impervious to the screams behind the barbed wire.
This tour de force on the banality of evil is widely considered for the Oscar for best international film.
Also readOur review of The Zone of Interest: silence, we kill
American Fiction
Issa Rea and Jeffrey Wright in
American fiction.
Orion Pictures
Absolutely hilarious, this comedy mocks the latent racism of progressive elites.
Jeffrey Wright plays an African-American writer tired of a publishing industry in the hands of white bourgeois people, who only want to hear one type of black story: that of the poverty of difficult neighborhoods, crack cocaine and prisons.
Disillusioned, the novelist produces a caricature under a pseudonym.
Except that instead of failing, she triumphs... This acerbic satire won first prize at the Toronto Film Festival.