Before Midnight
DIR. Richard Linklater /May 24
I don’t necessarily like this one’s Best Picture chances, but it got a strong reaction out of Sundance. Most likely Before Midnight will find a nomination in the Original Screenplay category before anything else, but at this point I’m not counting it out. After all, you can’t expect me to not include my most anticipated film of 2013.
STUDIO: Sony Pictures Classics
CAST: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy
SYNOPSIS: We meet Celine and Jesse nine years after their last rendezvous. Almost two decades have passed since their first encounter on a train bound for Vienna, and we now find them in their early forties in Greece. Before the clock strikes midnight, we will again become part of their story.
Blue Jasmine
DIR. Woody Allen /July 26
A Woody Allen film always has the potential for Best Picture, but at the same time it’s not exactly the highest potential. Nevertheless, Blue Jasmine must not be left off the list. More likely, however, are nominations in the Original Screenplay category and with yet another impressive cast, in one of the acting categories, though without knowing much about the plot it’s hard to predict who and for what categories exactly. Allen, as always, may also be able to land one of the five Best Director slots.
STUDIO: Sony Pictures Classics
CAST: Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, Peter Sarsgaard, Louis C.K., Sally Hawkins, Charlie Tahan, Alden Ehrenreich, Tammy Blanchard, Michael Stuhlbarg and Bobby Cannavale
SYNOPSIS: Set in San Francisco, Blue Jasmine centers on a fashionable New York housewife (Cate Blanchett) who has her life together and a neurotic (Sally Hawkins) in the midst of the final stages of an acute crisis.
The Butler
DIR. Lee Daniels /TBA 2013
