Frontrunner Friday: Venice and Telluride give us glimpses of Oscar gold

Erik Anderson August 31, 2018

We’re just a few days into Venice and we’ve already got eyes on three major Oscar hopefuls in First Man, ROMA and The Favourite and A Star Is Born sounds like it’s going to be a winner, too. [Chart updated and ASIB reviews added]

For this week’s Frontrunner Friday, those notices move some things around a little bit compared to last week. Telluride’s lineup is what we expected and those reviews should start coming in today, with audiences getting their first looks at Destroyer and Boy Erased.

Here are my Frontrunner Friday picks for August 31, 2018.

1. BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features – 8/10)

2. ROMA (Netflix – December)

3. The Favourite (Fox Searchlight – 11/23)

4. A Star is Born (Warner Bros – 10/5)

5. Backseat (Annapurna – 12/14)

6. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight – 10/19)

7. If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna – 11/30)

8. Black Panther (Disney – 2/16)

9. First Man (Universal – 10/12)

10. Boy Erased (Focus Features – 11/2)

1. Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)

2. Alfonso Cuarón – ROMA (Netflix)

3. Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite (Fox Searchlight)

4. Adam McKay – Backseat (Annapurna)

5. Bradley Cooper – A Star is Born (Warner Bros)Marielle Heller – Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight)

6. Marielle Heller – Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight)

7. Barry Jenkins – If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna)

8. Damien Chazelle – First Man (Universal)

9. Karyn Kusama – Destroyer (Annapurna)

10. Ryan Coogler – Black Panther (Walt Disney)

1. Lucas Hedges – Boy Erased (Focus Features)

2. Christian Bale – Backseat (Annapurna)

3. Steve Carell – Beautiful Boy (Amazon)

4. John David Washington – BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)

5. Ryan Gosling – First Man (Universal)

6. Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born (Warner Bros)

7. Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody (20th Century Fox)

8. Hugh Jackman – The Front Runner (Sony)

9. Robert Redford – The Old Man & the Gun (Fox Searchlight)

10. Mahershala Ali – Green Book (Universal)

1. Glenn Close – The Wife (Sony Pictures Classics)

2. Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight)

3. Nicole Kidman – Destroyer (Annapurna)

4. Lady Gaga – A Star Is Born (Warner Bros)

5. Viola Davis – Widows (20th Century Fox)

6. Emma Stone – The Favourite (Fox Searchlight)

7. Saoirse Ronan – Mary Queen of Scots (Focus Features)

8. Felicity Jones – On the Basis of Sex (Focus Features)

9. KiKi Layne – If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna)

10. Olivia Colman – The Favourite (Fox Searchlight)

1. Timothée Chalamet – Beautiful Boy (Amazon)

2. Sam Rockwell – Backseat (Annapurna)

3. Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight)

4. Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)

5. Stephan James – If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna)

6. Michael B. Jordan – Black Panther (Walt Disney)

7. Mahershala Ali – Green Book (Universal)

8. Harry Belafonte – BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)

9. Daniel Kaluuya – Widows (20th Century Fox)

10. Sam Elliott – A Star Is Born (Warner Bros)

1. Amy Adams – Backseat (Annapurna)

2. Olivia Colman – The Favourite (Fox Searchlight)

3. Emma Stone – The Favourite (Fox Searchlight)

4. Nicole Kidman – Boy Erased (Focus Features)

5. Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna)

6. Margot Robbie – Mary Queen of Scots (Focus Features)

7. Claire Foy – First Man (Universal)

8. Rachel Weisz – The Favourite (Fox Searchlight)

9. Michelle Yeoh – Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Bros)

10. Marina de Tavira – ROMA (Netflix)

1. BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features)

2. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Fox Searchlight)

3. If Beale Street Could Talk (Annapurna)

4. Boy Erased (Focus Features)

5. Beautiful Boy (Amazon)

6. Widows (20th Century Fox)

7. The Old Man & the Gun (Fox Searchlight)

8. First Man (Universal)

9. The Front Runner (Sony Pictures)

10. Black Panther (Disney)

1. ROMA (Netflix)

2. The Favourite (Fox Searchlight)

3. Backseat (Annapurna)

4. Peterloo (Amazon)

5. Destroyer (Annapurna)

6. A Quiet Place (Paramount)

7. Green Book (Universal)

8. First Reformed (A24)

9. Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna)

10. Hereditary (A24)

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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), 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.