David Poland’s Movie City News has launched the first Gurus of Gold of the season, just before Venice and Telluride. It’s purely speculative, of course, sussing out how films have settled in the minds of Oscar prognosticators.
The best news out of this is that Jordan Peele’s Get Out is placed right behind Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk of the films that have been seen so far. Whether this is reliable or not – well, who knows, but one thing is clear: the film is a standout.
As far as Call Me By Your Name goes – it’s a film I’ve not yet seen, but it would have been on my list if I’d remembered to put it down. It’s not on my list but I fully expect it to be a strong contender for the major awards.
To see the full lists, with one vote wonders, click here. Otherwise, here’s how the Gurus feel at the moment. Then we’ll look at last year’s rankings:
There are a few interesting things to note – the first is that some people have enough confidence that Wonder Woman can crack the superhero phobia by Academy members and find its way to a Best Picture nomination. I’m also intrigued that Anne Thompson has Angelina Jolie’s First They Killed My Father at number six.
A lot of the films are just big question marks that no one knows anything about. So take it all with a grain of salt. We have a long way to go yet.
As far as last year went, Moonlight should have been on my radar but wasn’t. I remember not really thinking it was going to be a player until Telluride, although almost everyone else did – which sort of seems to be like Call Me By Your Name is this year. After Telluride, though? This is how it looked – still off for a few reasons – Loving and Silence were two we were sure would make it to the big dance.
Fasten your seatbelts, Oscarwatchers, and away we go.