Frontrunner Friday: Huge Shakeup as ‘Wonderstruck’ Plummets and Spielberg’s ‘Pentagon Papers’ Tops
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In the biggest shakeup since starting Frontrunner Friday for the 2018 Oscar season, the previous #1 (and the official #1 for May) Wonderstruck, has fallen to #4 after it debuted at Cannes this week. It’s a curious drop as the reviews were mostly very good with a few mixed reviews from some major outlets. Most of the complaints were that the film was a great looking and sounding film (the cinematography from Ed Lachman and score from Carter Burwell were standouts) but ultimately not deep enough. These Frontrunner Fridays, especially smack in the middle of a film festival or critics’ award period, are going to be volatile as this week shows. Ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, Wonderstruck was the major Oscar contender in competition so all eyes were going to be on its performance and even the slightest ding was enough to send it packing from the top spot. That leaves the door open for other Cannes players Happy End, The Beguiled and The Killing of a Sacred Deer to make some moves.
http://awardswatch.com/news/cannes-unveils-wonderstruck-the-first-oscar-player-of-the-festival/
That means we have a new #1: Steven Spielberg’s Pentagon Papers Project. You can call it that, or The Post or Nor’easter (its working title) but however you slice it, it makes a huge jump up to the top spot this week. The movie hasn’t shot a single frame of film yet but here it is, the new frontrunner. Spielberg will be shooting this and putting it into post-production while having Ready Player One in post at the same time (although a much longer post-production for that VFX-heavy film) but the three-time Academy Award winner is no stranger to a doubled up schedule like this or a fast turnaround.
Former #1 Detroit rebounds a bit in the face of Wonderstruck‘s point loss (it’s at #2) and Joe Wright’s Darkest Hour hits its highest peak yet, #3. Lean on Pete eeks up a bit and enters the top 5 (despite no date for the A24 film yet), tying it with Dunkirk.
Here is the current ranking for Best Picture for Friday, May 19, 2017. Follow updated predictions from The Gold Rush Gang here.
|
BEST PICTURE
|
ERIK
ANDERSON |
BRYAN BONAFEDE
|
GREG HOWARD
|
EVAN
KOST |
JASON OSIASON
|
KENNETH
POLISHCHUK |
DENIZCAN SÜRÜCÜ
|
RICHARD
ANTHONY |
ŞÜKRÜ SÖĞÜT
|
MATT DINN
|
TOTAL
POINTS |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Untitled Steven Spielberg Pentagon Papers Project (20th Century Fox – 12/22) | 3 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 86 |
| 2 | Detroit (Annapurna – 8/4) | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 78 |
| 3 | Darkest Hour (Focus Features – 11/24) | 6 | 7 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 73 |
| 4 | Wonderstruck (Amazon – 10/20) | 1 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 63 |
| 5 | Dunkirk (Warner Bros – 7/21) | 7 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 48 |
| 5 | Lean on Pete (A24) | 4 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 6 | 48 |
| 7 | Blade Runner 2049 (Warner Bros – 10/6) | 5 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 39 | |||
| 8 | Inner City (Sony) (possibly 2018) | 5 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 36 | ||||
| 9 | Call Me By Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics – 11/24) | 4 | 3 | 9 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 27 | ||||
| 10 | Mudbound (Netflix) | 8 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 13 | ||||||
| 11 | Downsizing (Paramount – 12/22) | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | ||||||
| 11 | mother! (Paramount – 10/13) | 6 | 7 | 9 | ||||||||
| 14 | Last Flag Flying (Amazon) | 9 | 9 | 4 | ||||||||
| 13 | Suburbicon (Paramount 11/3) | 10 | 10 | 8 | 5 | |||||||
| 15 | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Fox Searchlight – 10/13) | 9 | 10 | 3 | ||||||||
| 16 | Get Out (Universal – 2/24) | 10 | 1 | |||||||||
| 16 | Greatest Showman, The (20th Century Fox – 12/25) | 10 | 1 | |||||||||
| 16 | Happy End (Sony Pictures Classics) | 10 | 1 | |||||||||
| OTHER CONTENDERS | ||||||||||||
| Aftermath, The (Fox Searchlight) | ||||||||||||
| Beguiled, The (Focus Features – 6/23) | ||||||||||||
| Breathe (Bleecker Street – 10/13) | ||||||||||||
| Current War, The (The Weinstein Company – 12/22) | ||||||||||||
| Disobedience (TBD) | ||||||||||||
| Glass Castle, The (Lionsgate – 8/11) | ||||||||||||
| Goodbye Christopher Robin (Fox Searchlight – 11/10) | ||||||||||||
| Hostiles (TBD) | ||||||||||||
| Killing of a Sacred Deer, The (A24 – 11/3) | ||||||||||||
| Kings (TBD) | ||||||||||||
| Leisure Seeker, The (Sony Pictures Classics) | ||||||||||||
| Lost City of Z (Amazon – 4/14) | ||||||||||||
| Marshall (Open Road Films – 10/13) | ||||||||||||
| Mary Magdalene (The Weinstein Company – 11/24) | ||||||||||||
| Molly’s Game (STX Entertainment) | ||||||||||||
| Mountain Between Us, The (20th Century Fox – 10/20) | ||||||||||||
| Murder on the Orient Express (20th Century Fox – 11/10) | ||||||||||||
| Shape of Water, The (Fox Searchlight – 12/8) | ||||||||||||
| Snowman, The (Universal – 10/13) | ||||||||||||
| Stronger (Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions – 9/22) | ||||||||||||
| Thank You For Your Service (Universal – 10/27) | ||||||||||||
| Under the Silver Lake (A24) | ||||||||||||
| Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Fashion Project (Focus Features – 12/25) | ||||||||||||
| Untouchable (The Weinstein Company) | ||||||||||||
| Victoria and Abdul (Focus Features – 9/22) | ||||||||||||
| Wind River (The Weinstein Company – 8/4) | ||||||||||||
| Wonder Wheel (Amazon) | ||||||||||||
| Wonder (Lionsgate – 11/17) |
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), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) 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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