DUBAI: Our rundown of the contenders for the major prizes at this year’s Academy Awards on March 15.
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This year’s front runner is “One Battle After Another” (pictured) and it’s hard to see past Paul Thomas Anderson’s excellent darkly comic action thriller. “Its swagger, intelligence and emotional pulse make it much more than awards bait,” our reviewer wrote. “It’s a film that should reverberate for years.” Its closest challenger will likely be Ryan Coogler’s socially-charged vampire film “Sinners,” which has won well-deserved acclaim. It would be great to see “The Secret Agent” or “Sentimental Value” win here, but most likely they’ll be fighting it out for Best International Feature. The hugely entertaining “Marty Supreme” is a wild card, as is the always-fascinating Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Bugonia,” though the latter may suffer from comparisons to the director’s previous work — neither “The Favorite” nor “Poor Things” netted the Best Picture award, and both were superior to “Bugonia.” While there are strong arguments to be made for “Frankenstein,” “Hamnet,” and “Train Dreams,” a win for any of them would be a huge shock. “F1,” meanwhile, though technically impressive, is surely just making up the numbers.
