Frontrunner Friday: Wonderstruck on Top, Spielberg ‘Post’ Pic Uptick
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Wonderstruck, the new #1 Best Picture prediction for May, remains there for Frontrunner Friday and even gains two more points from last week. It’s set to premiere at Cannes in less than a week as the festival first In Competition film. As the only film at Cannes in our current top 10, the reviews coming from the festival will be crucial to deciding whether the film stays as the frontrunner or makes way for another contender.
That other contender could be Steven Spielberg’s Untitled Pentagon Papers Project (it was briefly called The Post and is filming under the name Nor’easter but is still officially untitled). With the current atmosphere of attack on the press by the Trump administration as well as the crumbling from within of that administration it might unavoidable that a film about exposing government secrets at the highest level is exactly what the Academy will go for. Who knows what the state of the government will even be in 10 months?
Former #1 Detroit continues to dip a bit, now landing at #3. In a very short time, well since the new trailer, Blade Runner 2049 bolts up the list and enters the top 10 this week. Get Out, which debuts on our Best Picture chart at #16 for May could find itself with a lot more votes next month. Universal is mounting an early and very real campaign for the film that they hope to ride through the rest of the year. With a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes and nearly $180M in the bank it would likely make it the best reviewed + best box office Best Picture nominee of the year if it makes it all the way.
Here is the current ranking for Best Picture for Friday, May 12, 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 | Wonderstruck (Amazon – 10/20) | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 92 |
| 2 | Untitled Steven Spielberg Pentagon Papers Project (20th Century Fox – 12/22) | 3 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 78 |
| 3 | Detroit (Annapurna – 8/4) | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 77 |
| 4 | Darkest Hour (Focus Features – 11/24) | 6 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 3 | 69 |
| 5 | Dunkirk (Warner Bros – 7/21) | 7 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 6 | 6 | 46 |
| 6 | Lean on Pete (A24) | 4 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 45 |
| 7 | Blade Runner 2049 (Warner Bros – 10/6) | 5 | 2 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 36 | |||
| 8 | Inner City (Sony) (possibly 2018) | 6 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 34 | ||||
| 9 | Call Me By Your Name (Sony Pictures Classics – 11/24) | 5 | 5 | 9 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 24 | ||||
| 10 | Mudbound (Netflix) | 8 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 15 | ||||||
| 11 | Downsizing (Paramount – 12/22) | 8 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 9 | ||||||
| 11 | mother! (Paramount – 10/13) | 6 | 7 | 9 | ||||||||
| 13 | Last Flag Flying (Amazon) | 9 | 10 | 9 | 5 | |||||||
| 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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