As film festivals continue to generate early reviews for some of the finest films of 2019, Oscar buzz continues to build as well. The Academy Awards are hosted in Los Angeles every February to award the best of filmmaking for the year. This year will be host to another round of exciting, heart-wrenching, inspirational and moving movies, and below are some of the categories in which names have already started to appear. While experts like Heather Parrymight have more insight on the subject, check out these early categories with Oscar buzz for now.
Best Actor
Among all the great performances of the year, a few male actors have already stood out. Taron Egerton received almost near-universal praise for his take on the great Elton John in this year’s Rocketman. The dreamy, theatrical take on the life and times of the iconic musician received a warm welcome and succeeded at the box office as well. Willem Dafoe is already receiving exciting praise for The Lighthouse, a period drama in which Defoe stars alongside Robert Pattinson. The A24 release continues to build excitement. Also among the conversation are Brad Pitt and Leonardo DiCaprio, although it is unclear as of yet whether they will land in lead actor or supporting categories.
Best Actress
Coming off of the massive, life-changing success of last year’s Crazy Rich Asians, Awkwafina has received enormous praise for her thoughtful and heartfelt turn in this year’s The Farewell.The film tells the story of a Chinese-American family bidding one last goodbye to an ailing family member and has yielded extremely positive results for its lead actress. Academy favorite Saoirse Ronan is sure to generate positive response to her role as headstrong Jo in Greta Gerwig’s upcoming retelling of the literary classic Little Women. Ronan will undoubtedly dedicate her onscreen mastery to the role of the stubborn, confident lead.
Best Picture
Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood has received polarizing reception, as Quentin Tarantino films are known to. However, few have detracted from how lovely, thorough and confident the controversial director’s ninth feature is. Once Upon a Time will almost certainly land in the Best Picture conversation come 2020. The aforementioned Little Women will hopefully receive the same consideration, alongside indie favorites The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Parasite, and Portrait of a Lady on Fire. The status of box office monster Avengers: Endgame is still up in the air. Officially the biggest movie of all time, it will be interesting to see how the Academy chooses to respond to the conclusion of the Marvel story.