Contenders Film: The Nominees Underway With 12 Films Vying For Oscar Prize

Deadline’s Contenders Film: The Nominees is underway Saturday with 12 panels featuring some of the year’s biggest crowd-pleasing movies as well as its most artistic critical hits. This final round of Contenders events this Oscar season features virtual Q&A panels with the on-screen stars, creatives and craftspeople behind 12 of the films that will be going for gold at the Dolby Theater less than a month from now.

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Streaming Contenders events has opened up a whole new global audience, and also offers quick and convenient access to filmmakers who are either dealing with busy production schedules or, as is the case with several of the panels here, based in locations all around the world. In that respect, Contenders is here to bust open the myth that the Academy Awards are solely a vehicle for the American film industry: you’ll see we have films today from Italy, Poland, Sweden, Argentina, Ireland and Germany.

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When nominations were revealed, there was that annual period of mourning for the favorites that fell by the wayside. There were no women at all in the directing category, which especially stung for admirers of Gina Prince-Bythewood’s action drama The Woman King, and Danielle Deadwyler’s powerful performance in Till. Perhaps the most surprising of all was the shutting-out of Park Chan-wook’s thriller Decision to Leave, which shocked even the director’s biggest rivals in the international stakes. But the fact that so many high-profile movies didn’t get across the line proves just how crowded the field is this year. And so, to help you make sense of it all, Deadline’s Contenders Film lines up the nominees for a quickfire discussion of their projects, revealing their methods and intent with wit, humor and insight.

What’s most exciting about this year’s crop of nominees is that there is just so much to talk about, and not just in terms of features. Starting small, from the world of shorts we have one live-action (Alice Rohrwacher’s La Pupille) and one animated (Matthew Freud and Charlie Mackesy’s The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse). Meanwhile, at the opposite end, we have Baz Lurhmann’s Elvis, a film that’s every bit as big as its bigger-than-life subject. In between, we have international entries such as Jerzy Skolimowski’s EO, in which a donkey runs away from the circus; Colm Bairéad’s The Quiet Girl, where family secrets are devastatingly revealed; All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger’s take on a punishing wartime novel; and Argentina, 1985, Santiago Mitre’s edgy political drama about the fall of military fascism in the South American country.

From the animated feature category, there’s Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, the director’s ground-breaking stop-motion retelling of Carlo Collodi’s famous fable about the puppet that dreams of being a real human boy. Representing Best Supporting Actor, Brian Tyree Henry discusses his role alongside Jennifer Lawrence in Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway, a study of trauma and recovery. Sarah Polley’s star-studded Women Talking, competing for Best Film and Adapted Screenplay, tells the story of a Mennonite community that is forced to take action against male abuse, and from the documentary camp there’s Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love, a stunning portrait of volcanologists Katia and Maurice Krafft, whose passion cost them their lives. Finally, for some much-needed laughter, we have Best Picture competitor Triangle of Sadness, a raucous skewering of the lives of the rich and vacuous from double Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund.

Check out below for today lineup of studios, their films and panelists. You can also follow along on Deadline’s social channels via the hashtag #DeadlineContenders.

Deadline Contenders Film: The Nominees

9 a.m. – Livestream begins

ORION PICTURES / MGM PICTURES / UNITED ARTISTS RELEASING

Women Talking

Sarah Polley (Writer/Director)
Dede Gardner (Producer)

DISNEY+ ORIGINAL FILMS

Le Pupille

Alice Rohrwacher (Writer/Director)
Alfonso Cuarón (Producer)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Fire of Love

Sara Dosa (Director/Producer)
Shane Boris (Producer)
Erin Casper (Editor)
Jocelyne Chaput (Editor)

SIDESHOW & JANUS FILMS

EO

Jerzy Skolimowski (Co-Writer/Director/Producer)
Ewa Piaskowska (Co-Writer/Producer)

NETFLIX

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio

Guillermo del Toro (Writer/Director/Producer)
Mark Gustafson (Director)

All Quiet on the Western Front

Edward Berger (Co-Writer/Director/Producer)
Heike Merker (Hair & Makeup Designer)
James Friend (Cinematographer)
Albrecht Schuch (Actor)
Volker Bertelmann (Composer)

WARNER BROS PICTURES

Elvis

Mandy Walker (Cinematographer)

AMAZON STUDIOS

Argentina, 1985

Ricardo Darín (Actor/Producer)
Santiago Mitre (Writer/Director/Producer)
Axel Kuschevatzky (Producer)
Victoria Alonso (Producer)

APPLE ORIGINAL FILMS

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse

Peter Baynton (Director)
Charlie Mackesy (Writer/Director)
Cara Speller (Producer)

Causeway

Brian Tyree Henry (Actor)

SUPER

The Quiet Girl

Colm Bairéad (Writer/Director)

NEON

Triangle of Sadness

Ruben Östlund (Writer/Director)

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