EW’s “Awardist” podcast breaks down the Animated Feature race and Stone’s reign in the Best Actress race, with Bening, Carey Mulligan, and Fantasia Barrino gaining.
Like water to ice, the hunt for Academy glory will solidify intoOscarsgold for potential contenders in the race ahead, but not before major players turn up the heat in two key categories to watch in the weeks ahead.
In addition to an emotional interview withElementaldirector Peter Sohn, the new episode of EW’sAwardistpodcast (below) examines the standing of the filmmaker’s latest project among Best Animated Feature contenders and how it could become the category’s top contender after building strong word of mouth following its titanicDisney+streaming debut and slow roll to becoming a $500 million global box office success for the studio.
Ember and Wade in Disney-Pixar’s ‘Elemental’.Disney/Pixar
With stiff competition from fellow box office titans such asThe Super Mario Bros. Movie($1.4 billion worldwide) andSpider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse($690 million globally) as well as prestige, artist-driven fare (Hayao Miyazaki’sThe Boy and the Heron) and even its own studio brethren (Disney’sWishdebuts later this year),Elementalis far from a sure bet to win Best Animated Feature.
For starters, its, uh,startat the domestic box office was rocky, with a mere $29 million opening weekend numbers that left Sohn “heartbroken” thinking audiences didn’t care about this very personal story atop difficult feedback that initially indicated the movie’s themes revolving around an inter-element relationship between a drop of water and a little flame might’ve been too mature for youngsters to fully appreciate.
The movie fronted Disney’s biggest streaming premiere of 2023, however, indicating that word of mouth at home is just as strong as it was at the box office, and that’s a healthy sign when it comes to film’s staying power in the Oscar race, too.
Annette Bening in ‘Nyad’.Kimberley French/Netflix
Speaking of fire and water,Annette Bening’s chances at winning an Oscar are often, unfortunately, regarded as about as likely as a squirt gun dousing a five-alarm blaze.
With four unconsummated nominations to her credit for her brilliant turns in films includingThe Kids Are All Right,Being Julia,American Beauty, andThe Griftersover the last 30 years, Bening is perhaps one of the most overdue performers in Hollywood.
That narrative has worked in favor of many actresses who’ve won recent Academy Awards (Jessica Chastain, Viola Davis, Julianne Moore), though Bening’s film,Netflix’s biopic about long-distance swimming legend Diana Nyad, lacks a buzzy edge that those actresses' films (or, even, the performers themselves) had at the time of their respective campaigns.Nyadhas been received well, but notenthusiasticallywell, despite significant praise for both Bening and supporting actressJodie Foster.
The problem for both, however, is that stronger contenders will likely rise around them, and praise forNyaditself needs to be stronger to help bolster their bids over the next few months.
The likeliest contenders for Best Actress nominations at the 2024 Oscars remainEmma Stone(Poor Things, from Yorgos Lanthimos, who directedOlivia Colmanto a victory in 2018’sThe Favourite) andCarey Mulligan(Maestro, director-starBradley Cooper’s artful, historical entertainment industry biopic about Leonard Bernstein that’s square within Oscar voters' wheelhouse), withLily Gladstonemaking a sturdy case for a nod asMartin Scorsese’sKillers of the Flower Moonrolls out to theaters to universal acclaim.
Other contenders who only stand to make up ground that Bening will likely soon lose (Nyadquietly debuted in a select number of theaters in October, and rolls out on Netflix Friday) includeFantasia Barrinoin the heavily buzzedColor Purplemusical, as well asCailee Spaeny, whosePriscillaPresley film dazzled critics before its limited theatrical bow, but has consistently stacked hardware on the circuit so far (including Venice’s Best Actress prize and an early nod at theGotham Awards).
Listen to EW’sThe Awardistpodcast on Amazon Musicto get the latest awards season analysis and hear from the actors, creators, and more who are contenders this season.
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