2019 Oscar Predictions: ANIMATED FEATURE, DOCUMENTARY FEATURE, FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM (October)

The predictions for Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and Foreign Language Film have been live for a month (you can always check back here to see things change throughout the month) but today marks the first official predictions in those categories.

Shortlists for Documentary Feature and Foreign Language Film will arrive on December 17th. 

While Incredibles 2 seems like an easy frontrunner in Animated Feature, the Oscars haven’t been too kind to sequels here, even snubbing Finding Dory (at the time the highest grossing animated film of all time) so keep an eye out for the likes of Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse to possibly surprise.

Documentary Feature is another category that is rampant with major snubs, often of the year’s most popular films. Just last season Jane was the most rewarding documentary of the year with critics and guilds and was snubbed by doc voters. This year is an overflow of high-profile and high-grossing documentaries. We will inevitably see some major snubs there, but who? I think it could be this year’s NatGeo doc, Free Solo.

The Foreign Language Film committee has two new heads: Larry Karaszewski and Diane Weyermann will co-chair the committee as Mark Johnson exits this year. FLF has one of its richest sets of submissions this season with the potential for first-time nominations for multiple countries.

2019 Oscar Predictions – October

Here are my 2019 Oscar Predictions in Animated Feature, Documentary Feature and Foreign Language Film (the 9-film shortlist) for October 16, 2018.

ANIMATED FEATURE

1. Incredibles 2 (Disney)
2. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Sony)
3. Isle of Dogs (Fox Searchlight)
4. Wreck-it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet (Disney)
5. Mirai (GKids/Fathom Events)

6. Smallfoot (Warner Bros)
7. Lu Over the Wall (GKids)
8. The Grinch (Uinversal)
9. Early Man (Lionsgate)
10. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies (Warner Bros)

OTHER CONTENDERS

Batman Ninja (Warner Bros)
Duck Duck Goose (Netflix)
Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony)
Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (Eleven Arts)
Monster Family (Viva Pictures)
Next Gen (Netflix)
Sherlock Gnomes (Paramount)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

1. RBG (Magnolia / CNN Films)
2. Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus Features)
3. Three Identical Strangers (Neon / CNN Films)
4. Shirkers (Netflix)
5. Minding the Gap (Hulu / Magnolia)

6. Free Solo (NatGeo)
7. Hale County This Morning, This Evening (Cinema Guild)
8. Fahrenheit 11/9 (State Run Films / Briarcliff Entertainment)
9. On Her Shoulders (Oscilloscope)
10. Crime + Punishment (Hulu / IFC Films)

NEXT UP

The Biggest Little Farm (Neon)
Dark Money (PBS)
Jane Fonda in Five Acts (HBO)
Pope Francis: A Man of His Word (Focus Features)
Quincy (Netflix)
Reversing Roe (Netflix)
The Sentence (HBO)
Science Fair (NatGeo)

OTHER CONTENDERS

American Chaos (Sony Pictures Classics)
Be Natural: The Untold Story of Alice Guy-Blaché
Bisbee ’17 (4th Row Films)
The Bleeding Edge (Netflix)
Chi-Town
Chris the Swiss
Dead Souls
The Eyes of Orson Welles
Generation Wealth (Amazon)
Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (Kino Lorber)
The Great Buster (Cohen Media)
King in the Wilderness (HBO)
Love, Gilda (Magnolia)
MATANGI / MAYA / M.I.A. (Abramorama)
Meeting Gorbachev (A&E)
Mercury 13 (Netflix)
Monrovia, Indiana (Zipporah Films)
McQueen (Bleecker Street)
Of Fathers and Sons (Kino Lorber)
On the Road to France (World Film)
The Oslo Diaries (HBO)
The Price of Everything (HBO)
Robin Williams: Come Inside My Mind (HBO)
Samouni Road
Seeing Allred (Netflix)
The Silence of Others
The State Against Mandela and the Others
Studio 54 (A&E)
They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead (Netflix)
This Is Home: A Refugee Story
Transmilitary
What Comes Around
Whitney (Roadside Attractions/Miramax)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

1. Mexico – ROMA (Netflix)
2. Lebanon – Capharnaüm (Sony Classics)
3. Poland – Cold War (Amazon)
4. Denmark – The Guilty (Magnolia)
5. Colombia – Birds of Passage (The Orchard)
6. United Kingdom – I Am Not a Witch (Film Movement)
7. Germany – Never Look Away (Sony Classics)
8. Japan – Shoplifters (Magnolia)
9. Sweden – Border (Neon)

NEXT UP

Belgium – Girl
Hungary – Sunset
Italy – Dogman
Paraguay – The Heiresses
Ukraine – Donbass

OTHER CONTENDERS

Egypt – Yomeddine
France – Memoir of War
Iran – No Date, No Signature
Israel – The Cakemaker
Netherlands – The Resistance Banker
Romania – “I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians”
South Africa – Sew the Winter to My Skin
South Korea – Burning
Spain – Champions
Turkey – The Wild Pear Tree
Uruguay – A Twelve-Year Night

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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