50 films to watch this awards season

With this edition reaching readers at the end of October, there are now just over five weeks to go until voting opens for the Bafta Film Awards on December 6. Preliminary voting for the 10 Oscar categories that enjoy a shortlist stage — including international feature and documentary — runs in a tight window from December 9-13. Meanwhile, screenings for voters are in full flow, and titles are mushrooming weekly at the academies’ online viewing platforms.

This feels timely for Screen International to offer our guide to films that have caught our attention this awards season — almost all of which we have seen, although a few remained just a tempting prospect at press time. Of course, all our viewing will stray far and wide beyond the 50 titles below (plus separate lists covering eye-catching performances, below, and documentaries and UK indies - live on Screen later this week), and rightly so. Our intention with this intervention is to expand the conversation, not narrow it.

Last year, voters from the US and UK film academies found remarkable agreement across multiple categories, and Oppenheimer ultimately dominated both awards ceremonies, winning seven prizes apiece at Bafta and Oscar, including for best film/picture, director and both male acting categories. Oppenheimer was the early front-runner that stayed ahead all the way to the finish line.

This year, perhaps because of ripples in production caused by striking writers and actors, we appear to have a much more open contest — and, really, good luck trying to predict the 2025 Oscar and Bafta nominees, never mind the winners. That’s as it should be, and it’s a privilege just to luxuriate in all the films competing for attention, without needing to think right now about the painful choices we will face on our ballots. Our guide is here to inspire, stimulate and encourage. We hope it proves fit for purpose.

Charles Gant, Awards/box office editor

All We Imagine As Light
Dir. Payal Kapadia
Not selected as India’s international feature Oscar submission — the country chose Lost Ladies (aka Laapataa Ladies) instead — this debut feature from Mumbai-based Kapadia has seduced festival audiences since winning the grand prix at Cannes in May, and will be eligible for the Academy Awards and Baftas thanks to timely releases respectively by Janus/Sideshow and the BFI. Telling the story of two nurses who share an apartment, the film offers a captivating study of a modern Indian city, then pivoting to a lyrical beach-town visit. 

Anora
Dir. Sean Baker
Baker’s The Florida Project netted Bafta and Oscar nominations for Willem Dafoe in 2018, but the indie director has so far received attention from the likes of the Gothams and Independent Spirits. This could change with the Cannes Palme d’Or-winning tale of a Brooklyn sex worker (Mikey Madison) whose marriage to a Russian oligarch’s immature son (Mark Eydelshteyn) soon comes under threat. Scoring the biggest per-screen average of the year to date through Neon in the US on October 18, Anora could flourish across multiple categories including for Compartment No. 6’s Yura Borisov in supporting actor.

The Apprentice
Dir. Ali Abbasi
The Donald Trump origin story from the Iran-born director of Holy Spider became one of the talking points of Cannes following its world premiere. Legal threats from Trump’s campaign team, successive festival screenings at Telluride, Toronto (invite-only) and London, plus the small matter of the US elections on November 5 have turnedThe Apprentice into a must-see. Sebastian Stan stars as a young Trump in 1970s and 1980s New York who finds a mentor in attack-dog attorney Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Maria Bakalova plays Trump’s former wife Ivana. US distributor Briarcliff Entertainment released the film on October 11. 

Babygirl
Dir. Halina Reijn
Dutch actress-turned-director Reijn (2019’s Instinct, 2022’s Bodies Bodies Bodies) continues her relationship with A24 on Babygirl, set for release in the US on December 25 and already the winner of best actress for Nicole Kidman at Venice. Reminiscent of the type of films Adrian Lyne made in the 1980s, Babygirl sees Kidman play a sexually repressed CEO whose frustrations are released by a domineering — and magnetic — young employee (Harris Dickinson). Sexually frank, if not titillating, it should cause a minor stir and awards chatter for Kidman.

Better Man
Dir. Michael Gracey
Gracey’s first feature since his 2017 PT Barnum spectacular The Greatest Showman tells the story of UK pop star and former Take That band member Robbie Williams’ meteoric rise to the pinnacle of entertainment, all the while plagued by demons and self-loathing. The Paramount Pictures awards team will be pushing for recognition in best picture, director and visual effects. The last category is a big one for Better Man, given the effects team turned Williams into a hard-­partying, all-singing, all-­dancing CGI monkey. Gracey has yet to earn an Oscar or Bafta nomination. Better Man opens in the US on December 25 and a day later in the UK through Entertainment.

The Bikeriders
Dir. Jeff Nichols
One actors strike and change in studio later, Nichols’ biker-gang drama finally hit cinemas in June via Focus Features (US) and Universal (international) to the tune of $36m. It is the writer/director’s first feature since 2016’s Loving, which earned a lead actress Oscar nomination for Ruth Negga. Premiering at Telluride in 2023 when it was set to be a 20th Century Studios release, The Bike­riders stars an impressive ensemble including Oscar nominees Austin Butler and Tom Hardy, two-time Bafta TV winner Jodie Comer and Oscar nominee (and frequent Nichols collaborator) Michael Shannon. 

Blitz
Dir. Steve McQueen
The UK filmmaker returns to the awards conversation a decade after 12 Years A Slave took home the top prize at both the Oscars and Baftas, and six years after Widows netted a best actress Bafta nomination for Viola Davis. As Apple’s biggest awards contender, the London-set Second World War tale will likely pull more weight at home than stateside. Saoirse Ronan (already a four-time Oscar nominee) could flourish in supporting actress, and below-the-line categories could feature. Blitz opened the BFI London Film Festival in October ahead of an awards-­qualifying run from November 1.

The Brutalist
Dir. Brady Corbet
At 215 minutes — including a 15-minute interval — Corbet’s sprawling epic shot in Vistavision by cinematographer Lol Crawley is monumental in every way. Winner of the best director award in Venice, it is former actor Corbet’s follow-up to Vox Lux and The Childhood Of A Leader, and follows an ambitious Hungarian architect (Adrien Brody) as he flees post-­Second World War Europe for the US — his style is of the titular Brutalist movement. This is a soaring tale for hardcore cineastes, which is the crowd A24 will target with the December 20 release, and Universal/Focus Features internationally. 

Challengers
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Originally set to open last year’s Venice, Challengers was yanked when the SAG-AFTRA strike meant its photogenic cast could not attend, leaving Amazon MGM Studios to premiere it in Sydney in March. A feisty love triangle set in the world of pro tennis starring Zendaya, Josh O’Connor and Mike Faist, Guadagnino’s drama seduced audiences to the tune of $96m at the global box office — with Justin Kuritzkes’ zingy script, the frenetic camera­work and editing, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’s propulsive score all standouts. The latter pair worked with Guadagnino on Bones And All and won Oscars for Soul and The Social Network. 

Civil War
Dir. Alex Garland
Oscar- and Bafta-nominated for 2015’s Ex Machina, UK novelist-­turned-filmmaker Garland poked the political hornet’s nest with this A24 action thriller. Set in the aftermath of a second US civil war, reporters Wagner Moura and Stephen McKinley Henderson and photographers Cailee Spaeny and Kirsten Dunst travel through hostile territory from New York to Washington DC, hoping for an audience with Nick Offerman’s authoritarian US president, holed up in the White House. One of the most talked about releases of 2024, Civil War was a clarion cry for the importance of a free press and yielded a $124m global box office. 

A Complete Unknown
Dir. James Mangold
At time of writing, Mangold’s drama starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan remained one of awards season’s few mouth-watering, unseen prospects. Scheduled to open through Searchlight Pictures on December 25, the story of Dylan’s arrival on the music scene and his tumultuous, revolutionary electric guitar performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival also stars Elle Fanning, Edward Norton, Boyd Holbrook and Monica Barbaro. Mangold is no slouch on the awards circuit, having earned Oscar nods in best picture with Ford v Ferrari in 2020, and in adapted screenplay with Logan in 2018.

Conclave
Dir. Edward Berger
Berger’s All Quiet On The Western Front won four Oscars and seven Baftas, making him one of cinema’s most in-demand directors. His adaptation of Robert Harris’s 2016 bestseller premiered at Telluride ahead of an October 25 release by Focus Features, with Black Bear to follow in the UK on November 29. Set inside the Vatican, the twisty — and often deliciously funny — thriller sees Ralph Fiennes’ cardinal tasked with running the selection for the new Pope, and uncovering a series of secrets that threaten to shake the Catholic Church. Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow and Isabella Rossellini co-star. 

A Different Man
Dir. Aaron Schimberg
Schimberg’s third feature marks his breakthrough and tells the story of a sensitive actor with facial disfigurement who undergoes a successful radical procedure that does not exactly yield the personal and professional life rewards he anticipated. A Different Man earned its critical bona fides after premiering in Sundance and playing in Competition in Berlin. A24 is pushing the existential comedy in lead and supporting actor categories for Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson, respectively, as well as in original screenplay and make-up and hairstyling. Renate Reinsve also stars. 

Dune: Part Two
Dir. Denis Villeneuve
Part One of Legendary/Warner Bros’ epic adaptation of Frank Herbert’s classic sci-fi novel was a critical and commercial triumph, nominated for 10 Oscars — winning six, including for score, editing and cinematography — and 11 Baftas — winning five. Villeneuve was not nominated for best director by either academy, although he was recognised in the adapted screenplay and best film categories. Voters have a second chance to recognise Dune’s directing achievement — which translated into a $300m box-­office jump for Part Two, up to $714m worldwide — along with the film’s many craft accomplishments. 

Emilia Pérez
Dir. Jacques Audiard
One of the season’s most audacious visions, Audiard’s Spanish-language musical and France’s Oscar submission Emilia Pérez premiered in Cannes where it won the jury prize, while Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz shared the best actress award. Netflix secured North American and UK rights to the Mexico-set story of a cartel boss who fakes their own death and transitions to a woman. Gascon spearheads an all-­category awards push, and is vying to become the first trans actress to earn a best actress Oscar nod. Audiard’s A Prophet won the 2010 Bafta for foreign-language film and was nominated for an Oscar in the same category. 

The End
Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer
Documentarian Oppenheimer’s first narrative feature, a post-­apocalyptic musical set entirely in an underground bunker, will surely intrigue admirers of his 2012 feature The Act Of Killing (which won a Bafta in 2014 and was Oscar nominated) and its 2014 follow-up The Look Of Silence. Awards bodies may find this Telluride-­launched bold vision difficult to classify though, leaving the Independent Spirits best placed to appreciate its audacious tonal gambits. An eclectic cast led by Tilda Swinton and George MacKay will be a strong selling point when Neon releases stateside on December 6. Mubi’s UK plans were not confirmed at press time. 

The Fire Inside
Dir. Rachel Morrison
Massachusetts-born Morrison is the first woman ever to be Oscar-­nominated for cinematography — as she was in 2018 for her work on Dee Rees’s Mudbound. Having cut her teeth as director with episodic tele­vision, she now makes her feature debut with this MGM-backed, Barry Jenkins-scripted biographical drama starring Ryan Destiny as boxer Claressa Shields, who in 2012 became the first US woman to win Olympic gold in the sport. Brian Tyree Henry, Oscar-nominated in 2023 for Causeway, also stars. Amazon MGM Studios releases on December 25 in the US, while a February 2025 UK release via Curzon makes the film eligible at Bafta. 

Flow
Dir.  Gints Zilbalodis
Launched at Cannes in Un Certain Regard, this tale of a cat — and some new canine pals — trying to keep their heads above water during a biblical deluge won four awards at Annecy and has been making friends ever since on the festival circuit. Vying for a nomination in the Oscars’ animated feature category, Zilbalodis’s wordless fable could also secure Latvia its debut nomination for international feature after 15 fruitless attempts. Janus Films and Sideshow plan a North America release on November 22; a Bafta-­qualifying UK rollout will follow in 2025, courtesy of Curzon.

The Girl With The Needle
Dir. Magnus von Horn
Swedish filmmaker von Horn goes beyond Dickens in this uncompromising, terrifying, black-and-white story — based partially on real-life — of an impoverished Copenhagen factory worker (Vic Carmen Sonne) and the sinister woman who befriends her (Trine Dyrholm). Set just after the First World War, this dark drama — concerning illegal abortion and baby killing — has picked up plaudits since its Cannes Competition debut, and will represent Denmark for the international feature Oscar. Mubi is on board for major territories including North America, releasing there on December 8. 

Gladiator II
Dir. Ridley Scott
Almost a quarter of a century after Scott’s sword-and-sandals epic won five Oscars — including best picture and best actor for Russell Crowe — and five Baftas, the 86-year-old director returns with this belated sequel starring Paul Mescal (as Lucius, son of Crowe’s murdered Maximus), Pedro Pascal and two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington. Scott, who has already boldly proclaimed this is the best film he’s made and has talked up a third, has never won the best director Academy Award, despite being nominated three times. Paramount begins the global rollout on November 13. 

Grand Tour
Dir. Miguel Gomes
Portugal’s Gomes won the director award at Cannes for this black-and-white odyssey through Asia set in 1917. Gomes (Tabu, Arabian Nights trilogy) and a central committee of writers have concocted a play on the traveller-abroad colonial narratives of authors like W Somerset Maugham, in which a pipe-smoking English protagonist (who speaks Portuguese) flees his fiancée for a tour of “The Far East”. Halfway through, the narrative switches to her perspective. Mixing documentary footage with studio settings, Grand Tour is handled by Mubi in major international territories, and is Portugal’s submission to the international feature Oscar. 

Hard Truths
Dir. Mike Leigh
This Toronto-launched feature, Leigh’s first with an almost entirely Black cast, sees the UK filmmaker reunite with Secrets & Lies’ Marianne Jean-Baptiste, as a London wife and mother whose evident depression flares into antipathy towards everyone she encounters. Likely Bifa nominations for Jean-Baptiste and co-star Michele Austin (who had smaller roles in three previous Leigh films) could give momentum to the Bafta campaign. Leigh has seven Oscar nods (for writing or directing) and has won three competitive Baftas and two special awards. 

Here
Dir. Robert Zemeckis
Making its debut at AFI Fest before opening in the US on November 1 (a UK release follows in January 2025), Here reunites Zemeckis with his Forrest Gump stars Tom Hanks and Robin Wright and co-writer Eric Roth. The story spans a century, but takes place in a single living room, the camera staying locked off throughout. Innovation-friendly Zemeckis deployed generative AI technology at the shooting stage to de-age Hanks and Wright — who play a married couple from their teens to old age — in real time as the actors performed. Forrest Gump won six Oscars, and Here could prove to be an awards season contender. 

Hit Man
Dir. Richard Linklater
Linklater co-scripted, with star Glen Powell, this true-life tale of a mild-mannered college professor who worked for the Houston police in the 1980s and ’90s, pretending to be a contract killer. Relocating the story to New Orleans, the film deviates from fact when Powell’s fake hit man falls for a client he is entrapping (Adria Arjona). Linklater and Powell, who worked together on Everybody Wants Some!!, raised the money independently, then sold distribution rights to Netflix for $20m following its North American bow at Toronto 2023. Adapted screenplay should lead the awards charge. 

I’m Still Here
Dir. Walter Salles
The Brazilian filmmaker behind Bafta best foreign-language film winner The Motorcycle Diaries (in 2005) and 1999 Oscar nomineeCentral Station returns with a true story about the Paiva family (actual friends of the filmmaker in his youth) during Brazil’s 1970s military regime. I’m Still Here is Brazil’s Oscar submission, and its lead Fernanda Torres is another major push as the wife and mother who must look after her family when her politically active husband disappears. The film premiered in Venice and won several awards. Sony Pictures Classics releases in North America in November. 

Inside Out 2
Dir. Kelsey Mann
Awards perennial Pixar has another surefire contender with this imaginative sequel to 2015’s Inside Out, which won both the Oscar and Bafta for animated feature. The story centres again on now-13-year-old Riley, who is hurtling towards adolescence, beset by even more conflicting emotions — with the likes of Anxiety, Envy, Embarrassment and Ennui joining the party. Longtime Pixar storyboard artist Mann makes his feature debut from a script by Dave Holstein and the returning Meg LeFauve — resulting in a film that is 2024’s biggest box-office hit ($1.69bn worldwide) and the eighth-­highest-grossing movie of all time. 

Kneecap
Dir. Rich Peppiatt
Ireland’s international feature Oscar hopeful has been popular on the festival circuit since premiering in Sundance in January and winning the festival’s NEXT audience award. Set in west Belfast, it follows the fictionalised rise of the real-life Irish-language hip-hop trio Kneecap — who star in the film as themselves alongside Michael Fassbender, Fionnuala Flaherty, Simone Kirby and Josie Walker. Sony Pictures Classics acquired US and select international territories, while Curzon and Wildcard distributed for the UK and Ireland, grossing more than $2.6m (£2m). 

La Chimera
Dir. Alice Rohrwacher
Released in the UK 12 months on from its Cannes premiere, Rohrwacher’s dream-like tale of an English archaeologist adrift in 1980s Tuscany was a surprise summer hit for Curzon that excavated more than $1.2m (£900,000) from punters’ pockets. This Italy-France-­Switzerland co-production ends the year a strong contender for Bafta’s award for best film not in the English language, thanks in part to a scruffy star turn from Josh O’Connor that earned him nominations at the European Film Awards in 2023 and Italy’s David di Donatello Awards in 2024. 

The Last Showgirl
Dir. Gia Coppola
Winning plaudits for star Pamela Anderson after its Toronto premiere, The Last Showgirl has enjoyed a successful festival run, picking up a special jury prize at San Sebastian. Anderson was the subject of double Primetime Emmy award-­nominated documentary Pamela: A Love Story in 2023, and now stars as a longtime Las Vegas showgirl whose future is in doubt when her show closes after a 30-year run. Roadside Attractions snapped up North American rights after Toronto and is planning a qualifying theatrical run later this year, with Anderson’s performance putting her squarely in the awards conversation. 

Maria
Dir. Pablo Larrain
Angelina Jolie will be the big awards push for this Venice-­launched biographical drama, which depicts the final, Paris-dwelling days of opera star Maria Callas, with flashbacks. Natalie Portman and Kristen Stewart picked up best actress Oscar nominations for Larrain’s previous celebrations of female icons (Jackie and Spencer), while last year his El Conde scored a DoP nod for Edward Lachman (who returns here as cinema­tographer). Jolie has twice been Oscar-nominated: in 2009 for Clint Eastwood’s Changeling and winning in 2000 for James Mangold’s Girl, Interrupted. Studiocanal will release the film in cinemas in on January 10 and the film will stream on Netflix in the US on December 11. 

Memoir Of A Snail
Dir. Adam Elliot
Elliot’s second full-length animation, after 2009’s Mary And Max, comes 20 years on from the Oscar he received for 2003 short Harvie Krumpet, and nine years after his last stop-motion offering (2015 short Ernie Biscuit). True to form, this bleakly comical story of twins separated by tragedy is a meticulously handcrafted affair with a voice cast (Sarah Snook, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Jacki Weaver) that will help it travel beyond its Australian director’s coterie of devotees. Memoir Of A Snail’s Annecy premiere was greeted with the best feature prize, and it won BFI London Film Festival’s top prize; IFC Films handled its October US release. 

Nickel Boys
Dir. RaMell Ross
Ross — who was Oscar-nominated for 2018 documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening — is winning new fans with this debut narrative feature, an adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s venerated novel of the same name about a friendship forged at a brutal reform school in 1960s Florida. First seen at Telluride, the Orion and Plan B title opened New York Film Festival and will get a December US release from Amazon MGM Studios; Curzon will handle its UK bow in early January. Aunjanue Ellis-­Taylor, Oscar- and Bafta-­nominated for King Richard, may earn acting accolades. 

Nightbitch
Dir. Marielle Heller
Six-time Oscar nominee Amy Adams stars in this dark comedy as the mother of an infant son, receiving weak support from her husband (Scoot McNairy), and confronting the very real-­seeming possibility that she might be turning into a dog. Heller’s features include the Independent Spirit and Gotham award winner The Diary Of A Teenage Girl, while herCan You Ever Forgive Me? yielded Oscar and Bafta nominations for actors Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant, and for Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty’s adapted screenplay. Searchlight releases in the US on December 6. 

Nosferatu
Dir. Robert Eggers
Awards voters usually shun genre fare, but in 1993 Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula picked up four Oscar nominations in craft categories, winning three. Lightning could strike twice with this version of the vampire tale, inspired both by the novel and FW Murnau’s 1922 expressionist silent classic Nosferatu: A Symphony Of Horror. Eggers reteams with many of his regular department heads, including DoP Jarin Blaschke — Oscar-­nominated for The Lighthouse. Nicholas Hoult, Lily-Rose Depp, Aaron Taylor-­Johnson, Emma Corrin and Willem Dafoe lead the cast, opposite a prosthetics-­swathed Bill Skarsgard as undead Count Orlok. 

Paddington In Peru
Dir. Dougal Wilson
The first two Paddington films both received adapted screenplay and outstanding British film Bafta nominations, and the second one also scored for Hugh Grant in supporting actor — rare accomplishments for family films. Studiocanal and Heyday Films will be hoping that a refreshed creative team — including commercials and video director Wilson, making his feature debut — will reach the standard set by Paul King’s episodes, while the franchise breaks new ground with the bear and his adoptive family searching for Paddington’s Aunt Lucy in Peru. Bafta’s children’s and family film award (previously handed out at its less-prestigious Children’s Awards) offers another opportunity this time around. 

The Piano Lesson
Dir. Malcolm Washington
Produced by Denzel Washington, directed by his son Malcolm and starring his other son John David, this adaptation of August Wilson’s 1987 drama — part of the same Pittsburgh play cycle that produced Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom — is as much of a family affair off screen as it is on. Samuel L Jackson, Danielle Deadwyler and a sympathetic Ray Fisher also appear in this story of a troublesome heirloom, a Telluride premiere that will stream on Netflix from November 22 after two weeks in cinemas. The actors will receive an ensemble prize at December’s Gotham Awards. 

Piece By Piece
Dir. Morgan Neville
Producer and performer Pharrell Williams gets the documentary life-story treatment in the form of an animated Lego film directed by Neville, who won the documentary Academy Award in 2014 for 20 Feet From Stardom. This Telluride premiere replaces the talking heads format with a breezy, colourful tour of Williams’ rise from a Virginia Beach housing estate to exalted status as an extraordinary collaborator, with contributions from Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg and Gwen Stefani as Lego versions of themselves. Focus Features has a packed slate this season and will push Piece By Piece in animation, documentary and song categories, having opened the film in North America on October 11. 

Queer
Dir. Luca Guadagnino
Daniel Craig sheds James Bond’s Savile Row suit for a crumpled linen number designed by JW Anderson in Guadagnino’s adaptation of the William S Burroughs story set in Mexico and South America in the 1950s. Partly autobiographical, Queer follows Lee (Craig), an alcoholic and heroin addict, as he cruises Mexico City’s gay bars before heading on a trip to the jungle in search of enlightenment with his much younger, indifferent occasional lover Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). A24 picked this up at Venice; awards chatter is loudest for Craig. 

A Real Pain
Dir. Jesse Eisenberg
Awards watchers were buzzing about Eisenberg’s second directing outing after its Sundance debut. Searchlight Pictures agreed, swooping on worldwide rights shortly after the premiere. Kieran Culkin, one of the Primetime Emmy award-­winning stars of HBO smash Succession, has elicited particular praise for his supporting role opposite Eisenberg as polar-opposite cousins on a funny, poignant pilgrimage to their grandmother’s birthplace in Poland. Eisenberg’s best shot is in the original screenplay category. Searchlight openedA Real Pain on limited release in the US on October 18. 

The Room Next Door
Dir. Pedro Almodovar
Spanish maestro Almodovar’s first English-language feature won Venice’s Golden Lion and is one of the prestige entries of awards season. Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton play old friends who are reunited and spend a month together after one of them announces a terminal illness and wants to end her life through euthanasia. The Room Next Door boasts talent with rich awards pedigree: Almodovar won the original screenplay Oscar for Talk To Her in 2003; Moore won the lead actress Academy Award and Bafta for Still Alice in 2015; and Swinton took home the supporting actress Oscar and Bafta for Michael Clayton in 2008. Sony Pictures Classics releases in the US on December 20. 

Saturday Night
Dir. Jason Reitman
Dovetailing with the 50th anniversary season of US sketch show Saturday Night Live, Sony’s biographical comedy tracks the chaotic 90 minutes leading up to its first broadcast. The Fabelmans star Gabriel LaBelle leads a stacked ensemble cast including Rachel Sennott, Cory Michael Smith, Dylan O’Brien, Lamorne Morris, Finn Wolfhard, Nicholas Braun, Cooper Hoffman and Willem Dafoe. Oscar nominations for Up In The Air and Juno are among Reitman’s awards track record. After bowing at Telluride, Saturday Night launched in the US on October 11. 

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig
Dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
Iranian exile Rasoulof’s latest drama, about a Tehran patriarch whose promotion to investigating judge sparks tension among his wife and politically aware daughters, will be a strong contender in a couple of categories. Germany’s official Oscar submission is one of the season’s international feature heavyweights, and there are solid prospects in original screenplay. It debuted in Cannes where Rasoulof, who fled his home country shortly before the premiere when he was sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging for being critical of the regime, was awarded a special prize by the jury. Neon releases in North America on November 27. 

September 5
Dir. Tim Fehlbaum
Premiering as a late addition to Horizons Extra at Venice, this real-life drama — about an on-the-ground team of ABC sports broadcasters thrown into the reporting deep end when Israeli athletes and coaches are taken hostage by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Munich Olympics — has been building awards heat ever since. Switzerland-­born Fehlbaum orchestrates the Germany-backed ensemble drama, which is led by John Magaro as a rookie director of live TV (rising to the occasion), alongside Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch and a top-billed Peter Sarsgaard. Paramount Pictures has worldwide rights outside of Constantin Film territories Germany, Switzerland and Austria. 

Sing Sing
Dir. Greg Kwedar
Launched at Toronto in 2023, then landing an audience award at SXSW in March, Sing Sing was released by A24 in the US in July. This true story of a rehabilitative theatre-­performance initiative at the titular New York state prison showcases Colman Domingo (a 2024 Oscar nominee for Rustin) as a falsely imprisoned real-life convict, and Clarence Maclin as himself — a drug-dealing inmate who supplies the film’s most powerful redemptive arc. The two male acting categories represent the richest awards hopes for Kwedar’s drama, with attention likely paid across the board at the Independent Spirits. 

Small Things Like These
Dir. Tim Mielants
Irish author Claire Keegan’s Foster was adapted into 2022’s The Quiet Girl — nominated for two Baftas (adapted screenplay and film not in the English language) and one Oscar (international feature film). Now comes this Enda Walsh-scripted adaptation of Keegan’s 1985-set novella, starring Cillian Murphy as a coal merchant who begins to suspect the local convent is subjecting young single mothers to a punitive workhouse regime. Lionsgate teams with Roadside Attractions for the US release and distributes in the UK — both in early November — following a Berlinale launch in February of this year. 

The Substance
Dir. Coralie Fargeat
Demi Moore could score her first Oscar nomination with this body horror satire, playing an ageing fitness celebrity who takes a black market drug to transform into a younger version of herself (enter Margaret Qualley). World premiering in Competition at Cannes, the film picked up best screenplay on the Croisette and later won the people’s choice award at Toronto’s Midnight Madness. It has been Mubi’s most successful ever release, surpassing $42.1m globally at press time. Key craft categories for the film include makeup and hair design, visual effects and production design. 

Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl
Dirs. Nick Park, Merlin Crossingham
The sixth Wallace & Gromit film and the first since 2008 short Wallace & Gromit: A Matter Of Loaf And Death, the human/canine pair’s second feature-­length outing sees the return of Feathers McGraw, the villainous penguin from 1993 short Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers. Ben Whitehead takes over Wallace’s vocal duties from the late Peter Sallis, while quadruple Oscar winner Park directs for the first time since 2018’s Early Man — doing so jointly this time with Crossing­ham. The film will premiere at Christmas in the UK on BBC One and internationally via Net­flix, with theatrical releases qualifying for Bafta and Oscar. 

We Live In Time
Dir. John Crowley
This romantic drama took its bow in Toronto, then segued to San Sebastian and the BFI London Film Festival ahead of a limited release in the US via A24 — with Studiocanal distributing in several territories. Stars Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh are no strangers to awards buzz, with three Oscar and five Bafta film nominations between them. They join forces with Brooklyn director Crowley and screenwriter Nick Payne in a decade-­long look at a couple’s relationship. Crowley and Garfield both won TV Baftas in 2008 with their first collaboration, drama Boy A. 

Wicked
Dir. Jon M Chu
Part one of the much-anticipated adaptation of The Wizard Of Oz spin-off musical is expected to bring in big numbers when Universal launches in late November. Ariana Grande and Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo (for Harriet) lead the way as Glinda and Elphaba respectively, while Michelle Yeoh, Jeff Goldblum, Jonathan Bailey and Ethan Slater also star. Craft categories are most likely to flourish here, though a best picture nod is not out of the question. Chu’s last awards contender Crazy Rich Asians scored key nods at the Golden Globes and Critics’ Choice Awards. 

The Wild Robot
Dir. Chris Sanders
The animation big guns this year have all been powerhouse sequels (Inside Out, Despicable Me and Kung Fu Panda franchises), at least until DreamWorks came along with this fresh story, albeit based on existing source material: the novel series by Peter Brown. Sanders directs and adapts the tale of a helper robot (voiced by Lupita Nyong’o, alongside Pedro Pascal and Kit Connor) who washes up on an island inhabited only by wild animals — and becomes an adoptive parent to a young goose. Sanders’ How To Train Your Dragon was Oscar-nominated for animated feature and score — strong categories again this time.

Awards contender profiles by:  Nikki Baughan, Ellie Calnan, Charles Gant, Fionnuala Halligan, John Hazelton, Jeremy Kay, Mark Salisbury, Neil Smith

• Toronto, Venice, Telluride: which has the edge as an awards-season launchpad?