Frontrunner Friday: Who’s On Top in the 2018 Oscar Race?

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Kathryn Bigelow’s Untitled Detroit Riots Projects remains on top this week, as does her pole position in Best Director.

Release date announcements from The Weinstein Company on The Current War (Dec. 22) and Mary Magdalene (Nov. 24) spurred some change and movement for the two films and their acting prospects (Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Rooney Mara and Joaquin Phoenix). TWC is notorious for flip-flopping dates until it figures out what it’s #1 of the year will be (see Gold and The Founder last season).

The red-band trailer for Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri inspired laughing fits over McDonagh’s deeply profane dialogue and Frances McDormand’s perfect, deadpan delivery but is it going to Oscar material? (Whatever that even is anymore…) At the moment, it’s McDonagh’s screenplay and Oscar-winner McDormand who gain the most as each land in the top 5 of their respective categories.

Meryl Streep (The Post) unseats Judi Dench (Victoria and Abdul) in Best Actress. It’s only March but at the moment there aren’t many narratives to upset Streep so expect her to reign for quite some time. Oscar winners Kate Winslet (Wonder Wheel), Jennifer Lawrence (mother!), Helen Mirren (The Leisure Seeker), and Frances McDormand will give chase, though. Another Oscar winner, Halle Berry, could be a major player depending on who picks up and distributes her L.A. riots film, Kings. Berry is still the only black Best Actress winner in the Academy’s 89-year history and has yet to be nominated again since her win over 15 years ago.

Gary Oldman (Darkest War) is even stronger, earning the first perfect score (100) and so early in the season. His closest competitor, three-time Best Actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis (Untitled Paul Thomas Anderson Fashion Project) could be facing a 2018 release. That would be great news for Oldman, especially since both films are being distributed by Focus Features.

Best Picture

BEST PICTUREErik
Anderson
Bryan BonafedeGreg HowardEvan
Kost
Jason OsiasonKenneth
Polishchuk
Denizcan SürücüRichard
Anthony
Şükrü SöğütMatt DinnTOTAL
POINTS
1Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (Fox Searchlight)221112111197
2Get Out (Universal)135221232386
3Lady Bird (A24)313353343280
4The Shape of Water (Fox Searchlight)442434424475
5Dunkirk (Warner Bros)564675555557
6Call Me By Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics)656747767649
7The Post (20th Century Fox)777566676746
8I, Tonya (Neon)888898888829
9The Florida Project (A24)99998
OTHER CONTENDERS
All the Money in the World (Sony)
Baby Driver (Sony)
The Big Sick (Amazon/Lionsgate)
Blade Runner 2049 (Warner Bros)
Darkest Hour (Focus Features)
Molly's Game (STX Entertainment)
Mudbound (Netflix)
Phantom Thread (Focus Features)
Wonder Woman (Warner Bros)
Wonder (Lionsgate)

Best Director

BEST DIRECTORErik
Anderson
Bryan BonafedeGreg HowardEvan
Kost
Jason OsiasonKenneth
Polishchuk
Denizcan SürücüRichard
Anthony
Şükrü SöğütMatt DinnTOTAL
POINTS
1Guillermo del Toro - The Shape of Water211141211195
2Christopher Nolan - Dunkirk422233132286
3Martin McDonagh - Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri633324426374
4Jordan Peele - Get Out155452344572
5Greta Gerwig - Lady Bird344546553467
6Sean Baker - The Florida Project869875765742
7Luca Guadagnino - Call Me By Your Name577768878641
8Steven Spielberg - The Post786697687838
9Paul Thomas Anderson - Phantom Thread989891099919
10Denis Villeneuve - Blade Runner 20491010101010106
11Dee Rees - Mudbound1093
12Ridley Scott - All the Money in the World92
12Joe Wright - Darkest Hour10102
OTHER CONTENDERS
Craig Gillespie - I, Tonya
Patty Jenkins - Wonder Woman

Next: Actor and Actress

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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.

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