Films to Watch for in 2015's Oscar Season

Yup. It's getting to be that time again. The summer blockbuster time is just about over, the Marvel movies for the year have already been released, and everyone's waiting for Star Wars 7. But, chances are Star Wars 7 is not going to sweep the Oscars and win every category at the awards. So, let's talk about a few films that are actually gearing up to be legitimate Oscar contentions, shall we? (If there's a trailer released, click on the photo of the film to check it out!)

The Hateful Eight

Quentin Tarantino's highly anticipated new film, The Hateful Eight is a film that no one knows anything about right now. The teaser trailer that was released has been pulled, and the actors are incredibly vague when talking about the film. However, the anticipation is incredibly real, and many in Hollywood are counting the minutes until this film is released. While chances are this film will not see any major nominations, I would expect it to receive something in the technical department, whether it be editing, cinematography, costumes, or visual effects. Especially editing. If there's one thing Tarantino has truly mastered over the years, it's making his films look distinctly unique because of the editing. I wouldn't be surprised if this film received an original screenplay nod as well. 

Steve Jobs

While the trailer for this film is not the best, this film is almost certainly going to sell. And if it does, then look for an Oscar nomination for Michael Fassbender. This is the official "big, important biopic" of 2015, so the odds of Fassbender receiving an Oscar nomination for his work here is close to 100%. Especially when Aaron Sorkin is writing his material. Basically, unless this film is a complete disaster, expect Steve Jobs to be getting a lot of talk come January and February.

The Danish Girl

If there's one thing the Academy loves, it's quantifiable acting. Eddie Redmayne loves to show off his physical transformation in a role, and he's playing a controversially liberal figure. This film is not only guaranteed to receive a nod for Best Actor, it's my current frontrunner for the award. Unless the Academy is afraid to give the award to Redmayne for the second straight year, I would not be surprised in the slightest to hear Redmayne's named called again for Best Actor. Because the Academy eats up dat quantifiable acting dough.

Everest

I'm putting this film on here because the cavalcade of stars in it is ridiculous. The team is gearing up to have a massive marketing push in the upcoming months, but I'm afraid that through all of it, the team may have forgotten to hire some writers in the process. Look, I never judge a film by a trailer. After all every trailer ever is just about building hype for a film. But this trailer....the story introduced here looks very cliché and overdone. So I'm worried that this film is going to go the route of a film like Unbroken: bashing you over the head with one theme and ultimately falling flat on its face. And I want Jake Gyllenhaal to get some recognition for either this role or for Southpaw so bad....

Bridge of Spies

So any film starring Tom Hanks being released anytime after August will be noticed by the Academy. Add Steven Speilberg's name to the list and make it something history-related? You can bet this film will get a lot of Best Picture talk in October and November. While this film is almost guaranteed to be nominated for the award, we'll have to wait and see if it will be good enough to win. Also, the Academy seems to have it out for Tom Hanks in recent years so, while this film would be begging for a Best Actor nomination, we'll see if the Academy views this performance as "good enough" in their Tom Hanks category.

Spotlight

First off, shoutout to my buddy Joe Hackman for making that trailer. You should definitely click on the poster and watch his work!

As for the film, there's a lot of names attached to this film that will make it noticed by the Academy. Additionally, the controversial subject matter will likely have evangelicals up in arms about the film, so we'll see if "liberal" Hollywood prevails and gives this film some nominations just to "stick it to the conservatives." I mean the film looks good, so we'll see if there's enough good here to warrant some nominations.

Joy

Ahhhhh life is good. There's a new David O. Russell film to look forward to. I freaking love David O. Russell. The man is making some of the best films we've seen in years, and we'll see if this continues with Joy. It's a good idea to start, because after all how can a film that revolves around Jennifer Lawrence possibly be bad? (Looks at Serena) Ok ok ok so not every movie starring her is good, but it's still a damn good place to start.

Legend

September 9th can't come soon enough. Tom Hardy has been on some kind of roll over the past few years, and he has been woefully overlooked by the Academy. I'm really looking forward to seeing that change in this film, because he has been given a nearly impossible task: portray twins with different emotions, objectives, and characteristics. I don't even know if he can pull it off, but if he does....it will likely be one of my favorite performances of the year. In addition, the film looks freaking awesome, and it may earn itself a few other nominations as well.

In the Heart of the Sea

This film intrigues me. I remember seeing trailers for it last December with a March release date attached to it and thinking, "This film looks way too heavy-handed to be a March release." Well, apparently WB and Columbia Pictures agreed with me and pushed the release back all the way to December so it would be up for some Oscar talk. So obviously someone over there must think it's good, and now I'm legitimately interested to see it. And let's be real. Chris Hemsworth is going to be soaking wet like the entire film. I mean I'm straight and yet I'm seriously excited for that.

Snowden

Another year, another Snowden film. After Citizenfour took home the obvious Best Documentary Oscar this past year, Oliver Stone has decided to attach his name to a reenactment of Edward Snowden's time at the CIA. But, I can't help but feel that this one is too soon. Similar to Kathryn Bigelow's failed follow-up to The Hurt Locker in Zero Dark Thirty, which reenacted the killing of Osama Bin Ladin not even two years after it happened, I just feel that this movie is too soon. So I think this film will be forgotten in the veils of time like Zero Dark Thirty has been, but that's just me. For all I know this film could be great, in which case it would definitely spice things up when it comes time for Oscar season.

The Martian

The Internet is already freaking out over this film, so I won't say much about it. I doubt it will be nominated for Best Picture or anything, but this film could see a nomination for Best Actor if Matt Damon comes through on his role. I know the source material enough to know that the film is gonna ask a lot of him, so if he knocks it out of the park then a Best Actor nomination is almost certain.

Suffragette

I cannot wait for this film. I hope this is one of the top sellers at the box office this year. We constantly complain about the sexism in Hollywood. It's well-deserved, mind you, but nothing will change unless we speak with our wallets. So I have every intention of speaking with my wallet and going out and seeing this film. On top of that, it looks fantastic and will likely carry a Best Actress or Supporting Actress nomination somewhere. The story appears to follow the story of women in Britain obtaining the right to vote, which is certainly a story I'm not too familiar with. So, GO SEE THIS FILM. Money is the only language Hollywood speaks.

Crimson Peak

This is one of my most anticipated films of Oscar season. Horror fans, if Guillermo Del Toro delivers in typical Guillermo Del Toro fashion, you'll be looking at not just the best horror film in years, (even though It Follows from earlier this year was pretty damn good too) you'll be looking at a film worthy of a couple Oscar nominations for a genre that hasn't seen a nomination in who knows how many years. Please be good please be good please be good....

The Revenant

The director of Birdman, 2014's Best Director and Picture winner, is already back at it with another film. So you know it's gonna get some attention. The big thing here is Leonardo DiCaprio. Will this finally be the time he gets the award for Best Actor? Maybe, as the trailers for this film definitely seem to imply that the film is mostly just him. And DiCaprio has a knack for being a phenomenal character-actor, so maybe this is finally the moment we've all been waiting for. And I'm sure this film will be nominated for other categories, including and especially Cinematography, where Emmanuel Lubezki is once again taking the camera for Iñárritu. Lubezki has won the award two years straight, and is producing some of the best cinematography I've seen in, well, ever. Expect to hear a lot more about this film in the upcoming months.

Carol

I don't know a whole lot about this film except for the fact that it's been getting a ton of buzz and stealing the show at a lot of festivals this year, similar to Whiplash last year (which first debuted at Sundance in January 2014 and made splashes wherever it went throughout the year)) and Nebraska the year before that. So, this may be the Academy's official "indie nomination" this year with the larger Best Picture class. This film may also get an actress nomination, seeing as I believe Cate Blanchett is one of the best actresses out there and Rooney Mara is certainly one of the most underrated actresses out there. But I definitely look forward to seeing this film in the upcoming months!

The Walk

Robert Zemeckis doesn't make a whole lot of films. But when he does, they're the likes of Back to the Future, Forrest Gump, Cast Away, Contact, and Flight. While I do believe a few of those films (Cast Away and Forrest Gump specifically) are rather overrated, it's impossible to deny that he is an incredibly visionary storyteller, and so whenever he announces a new film....you're gonna notice it. The Walk has an incredibly simple premise-one far simpler than anything we've seen from him in recent films-and I think this is a good thing. Flight definitely was bogged down and defeated by too heavy-handed a story, so if Zemeckis can knock his vision out of the park, we may be looking at the most visually stunning film of 2015. No Beowulf CGI, please.

Miles Ahead

These last two films are just what I'm looking forward to. Miles Ahead has a budget of like $1 and thus will likely get no traction whatsoever, but to say I am excited for a Don Cheadle-led film where he's putting the same amount of passion into the project (as he is the lead actor, he's directing, and he wrote the script) as Kevin Spacey did with that Bobby Darin documentary from several years back, is an understatement. I sure hope a theater is playing this film somewhere in Nashville, because I will fork over all the money to see it. Now let's just get lost in that picture for a second....

Spectre

Look. This film probably won't be nominated for anything, but I have been waiting for years for this franchise to win back the rights to it's most famous supervillain group. And now they have. And they cast Christoph Waltz as the group's leader, a man who I believe is one of the best villains in the history of cinema, (and pop culture, for that matter, since author Ian Flemming was his creator) and let's be real-any diehard fan of the genre who's seen Christoph Waltz in films like Inglorious Basterds could tell you he was born to be this character. While some of the script outside of the organization looks shaky at best, the content we've received so far of the Christoph Waltz-led Spectre organization looks like everything I could ever hope for and more. There will be weeping if this film isn't good. While it will be tough to follow-up Skyfall (and I expect this film to be a setup film) I do have high hopes for Christoph Waltz being the best Bond villain we've had in years. And I hope he sets himself up to play the villain for years to come.