NextGen Oscarwatcher: What the Summer May Have in Store

The fall film festivals will begin in approximately three months, clarifying this year’s awards season. At this point, it’s all speculation and discussion, with high anticipation for upcoming releases. Nevertheless, the summer looks promising, too, and from what I can gather, there’s more than just the blockbusters to look forward to. There are also plenty of auteur-driven films by celebrated directors coming soon to a theater (maybe) near you.

The Life of Chuck releases this week.

If there is one film that so many on film Twitter (especially those who follow the awards race) are looking forward to seeing and analyzing the reviews or reactions of, it is Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of the Stephen King story The Life of Chuck, the winner of the TIFF audience award.

Among the most buzzed releases on Film Twitter, particularly among awards-season enthusiasts, Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s The Life of Chuck, winner of the TIFF Audience Award, stands out as a must-see. Considered a crowd-pleasing, life-affirming project that sticks with viewers, it has the potential to resonate with the general public. I intend to see it this week and look forward to voicing my thoughts next week. It releases for select theaters on June 6, 2025, and the following weekend for a “wide release.”

A24 has a summer slate consisting of Celine Song, Eva Victor, Ari Aster, and Spike Lee

By far the biggest distributor of the past few years when it comes to auteur-filmmaking (besides Neon), A24 has a strong slate of films for the summer. Song’s follow up to Past Lives, entitled Materialists is opening in mid June, followed by Victor’s Sundance breakout, Sorry, Baby, Aster’s next film Eddington (which opened to mixed reviews at Cannes), and Spike Lee has a new project in Highest 2 Lowest (which received positive notices out of Cannes).

All eyes on F1

Kosinski’s follow-up to F1 is undoubtedly one of the Summer’s most ambitious and anticipated projects. It looks quite dazzling in the trailers and has a promising set of lead actors. It has the potential to be quite big. For the Oscars, one could expect a large possibility in the technical departments (sound, editing, etc.), in addition to potentially BP if the film lands hard, though that remains to be seen.

Aronofsky and Roach have films at the end of the summer season.

Darren Aronofsky’s next film, Caught Stealing, and Jay Roach’s next film, The Roses, are slated for a late August release. Though these films may be “dumped,” so to speak, as their lack of a fall film festival presence is perplexing, that shouldn’t discourage viewers from checking these films out.

Oscar Predictions (plus the first shot at below the line nominations)

For the first time this season, I will include the below-the-line categories in my column. As the season starts, I hope to add animated, international, documentary, and shorts (shorts being near the end, as we won’t know what is in contention until then). It is the top nine, plus the nine below-the-line categories.

Oscar Predictions for June 2

Best Picture