In their Screen Talk podcast, Anne Thompson and Eric Kohn mention something that didn’t even cross my mind at all: Martin McDonagh’s “The Banshees of Inisherin” could maybe win Best Picture.
Right now, it’s all about “The Fabelmans,” that’s the film practically everyone is predicting to win, but, as mentioned before, it feels a tad to predictable. I have this sneaking feeling Steven Spielberg’s film might lose steam as the season goes on.
McDonagh’s film is, technically, better-reviewed than Spielberg’s, but it’s also more artful and may be a little too vague for the Academy’s tastes. Don’t get me wrong, ‘Banshees’ is quite possibly the best film I’ve seen so far this year, and yet it has the kind of risk-taking that might not necessarily adhere to the broad tastes within the academy’s branch of voters.
I like the idea of ‘Banshees’ winning the top prize, just as much as I like ‘TÁR’ or ‘Aftersun’ winning, but who are we kidding here? The best film of the year doesn’t win the Best Picture prize 95% of the time. There have been exceptions to the rule but they almost never occur. A film needs broad appeal to win, especially when you have 8000+ voters, and chances are many of these voters don’t have the best taste in film.
As it stands, I have these 10 films predicted for a BP nomination (ranked in order): “The Fabelmans,” “The Banshees of Inisherin,” “Babylon,” “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” “TÁR,” “Top Gun: Maverick,” “Women Talking,” “Elvis,” “Avatar: The Way of Water,” and “Glass Onion,”