Frontrunner Friday: Who’s on top in the 2019 Oscar race ahead of the Fall festivals?

Erik Anderson August 24, 2018

Frontrunner Friday has returned and this time it will be a weekly update of the top 8 categories of films, directors, actors and screenplays in the 2019 Oscar race. These are an accompaniment to the official monthly predictions and reflect minor adjustments based on buzz, news, official announcements like acting category placement, trailers and festival response.

We’re just a week away from the announcement of the Telluride Film Festival but we have the lineups for Venice (August 29-September 8), which will give us the world premieres of ROMA, A Star Is Born, The Favourite and First Man; Toronto (September 6-16), debuting the first looks at Beautiful Boy, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Widows; and New York (September 28-October 14), who will give us a highlighted version of Venice, Toronto and Cannes films.

We have a strong idea of the majority of what will world premiere in the Telluride (August 31-September 3) lineup. Based on the premiere status of films at Venice and Toronto those include Boy Erased, Destroyer, The Front Runner, The Old Man & the Gun and Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Check out Sasha Stone’s excellent breakdown of the films of the fall fests over at Awardsdaily and why they’re so important here.

Here are my Frontrunner Friday picks for August 24, 2018.

1. BlacKkKlansman (Focus Features – 8/10)

2. ROMA (Netflix – December)

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

4. Backseat (Annapurna – 12/14)

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

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

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

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

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. Viggo Mortensen – 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. Viola Davis – Widows (20th Century Fox)

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

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. Marina de Tavira – ROMA (Netflix)

10. Cynthia Erivo – Bad Times at the El Royale (20th Century Fox)

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.