The Nominations for the 89th Academy Awards come out Tuesday January 24th. And the Academy can nominate anywhere between 5 and 10 movies.
As of now, all the experts are calling for these 9 movies to be getting the Best Picture nomination on Tuesday:
"Arrival"
""Fences"
"Hacksaw Ridge"
"Hell or Highwater"
"Hidden Figures"
"La La Land'
"Lion"
"Manchester by the Sea"
"Moonlight"
While all of these movies stand out in their own right and deserve a nomination for Best Picture, these are some other options that I think the Academy should look at.
"Captain Fantastic"
Viggo Mortensen (Aragorn in "The Lord of the Rings") is most certainly going to be nominated for a Best Actor Oscar. But, I think that this movie deserves a nomination. Mortensen stars as a father who devotes his life to raising his kids in the forest with a rigorous educational and physical lifestyle, but due to an unfortunate event is forced to come back into the real world. It's written and directed by Matt Ross, who plays Gavin Belson in HBO's "Silicon Valley." So, it's got a comedic element to the story, but it's a very intimate exploration into what it means to be a parent. And the cast is good. All the kids were relatively unknown actors but they killed. It's one of the best ensembles of the year and one of the most emotional movies of the year.
"Deadpool"
No one would have suspected "Deadpool" to be in any consideration for Best Picture even a month ago, let alone 11 months ago when it was release. But, the Ryan Reynolds comic book adaptation is picking up some steam coming into the finish line of awards season. In 2008, when the Academy snubbed "The Dark Knight," they updated the Best Picture rules so that movies like comic book movies can get consideration for the top award. It hasn't happened yet but this year it could for one of the funniest, raunchiest, and freshest movies of the year. "Deadpool" was the comic book movie that stood out the most this year and it is getting awards consideration for its witty script and charismatic lead actor. Deadpool could sneak its way into the Best Picture race, which would give Hollywood blockbusters hope for the future.
"Silence"
Director Martin Scorsese is no stranger to the Oscars. But, his passion project about Jesuit priests facing persecution in feudal Japan is shaping up to be overlooked by the Academy this year. It performed very low at the Box Office when it opened worldwide, and the awards season steam this movie had is starting to fizzle out. But, it was a strong-directed film with powerful performances from its two leads, Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield. It also is a deep look into religion and asks some hard questions. Is it Scorsese's best work? No, but a powerful film like this should get notice in the nominations.
"The Nice Guys"
This one is getting no awards consideration. No one expected it to. But, just like "Deadpool," "The Nice Guys" was one of the most fun movies of the year and personally my second favorite film behind "La La Land" (never would I have suspected that Ryan Gosling would be in my two favorite films of the year). Gosling teams up with Russell Crowe to investigate the disappearance of a girl and the murder of a porn star in 1979 Los Angeles. It's an action comedy but both are done so perfectly. The jokes are well timed and the characters very dynamic. There's no way this movie gets any love from the Academy, but I think it was one of the best movies of the year.
In the end, I won't be upset if any of these films are snubbed. 2016 fielded a very impressive list of movies and, no matter what, the Best Picture nominees will be well deserved and should be put on the "Must Watch List" of every movie goer.
