2021 Oscar Predictions: BEST PICTURE (September)
Helena Zengel and Tom Hanks in NEWS OF THE WORLD (Bruce Talamon / Universal Pictures)
My top 10 is eerily quiet this month, even after Venice and Toronto are over and NYFF is underway. Ammonite drops to make room for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, which gave us our first look at Viola Davis and Chadwick Boseman this week.
As with Best Director, a handful of films moved to 2021 (outside of the new Oscar eligibility) or still without any updated release information are gone from the chart: West Side Story (20th Century), The French Dispatch (Searchlight Pictures), Next Goal Wins (Searchlight Pictures) and Stillwater (Focus Features) among them. Warner Bros’ Dune is the most vulnerable film to find itself with a pushed off release date if theaters aren’t open on a large scale by December, especially after the wobbly release of Tenet in the US. If that happens, voters will be struggling to find big studio fare to support, potentially giving us one of the most ‘indie’ Best Picture lineups in decades.
Here are my 2021 Oscar predictions in Best Picture for September.
Green – moves up; Red – moves down; Blue – new entry this month
• Da 5 Bloods (Netflix)
• The Father (Sony Pictures Classics)
• News of the World (Universal Pictures)
• Dune (Warner Bros) [moved to October 2021]
• Judas and the Black Messiah (Warner Bros)
• Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Netflix)
• Mank (Netflix)
• Nomadland (Searchlight Pictures)
• One Night in Miami… (Amazon)
• The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Netflix)
Other Contenders: Ammonite (Neon), Hillbilly Elegy (Netflix), Minari (A24), Never Rarely Sometimes Always (Focus Features), On the Rocks (Apple/A24), Soul (Walt Disney/Pixar), Tenet (Warner Bros), The United States vs Billie Holiday (Paramount Pictures)
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.
- ‘Wishful Thinking,’ ‘Over Your Dead Body’ Among 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival Juried and Audience Award Winners - March 21, 2026
- Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) Television and Nonfiction Nominations Announced: ‘Adolescence,’ ‘Black Mirror,’ ‘Slow Horses’ and More - March 20, 2026
- Trailer Watch: ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ ‘Dune: Part Three,’ Disclosure Day,’ ‘Wild Horse Nine’ - March 20, 2026
‘Wishful Thinking,’ ‘Over Your Dead Body’ Among 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival Juried and Audience Award Winners 
Director Watch Podcast Ep. 144 – ‘A Matter of Life and Death (Powell and Pressburger, 1946) with Special Guest Jesse Nussman 
Association of Motion Picture Sound (AMPS) Television and Nonfiction Nominations Announced: ‘Adolescence,’ ‘Black Mirror,’ ‘Slow Horses’ and More 
Trailer Watch: ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ ‘Dune: Part Three,’ Disclosure Day,’ ‘Wild Horse Nine’