2019 Oscars At A Glance: September Movie Preview

Lizzie movie

We are rapidly closing in on the start of the fall movie season, and with it comes the beginning of the Oscar race. September is where we see two of the biggest film festivals of the year take place: Telluride and Toronto. We also begin to see the release of the films that will most likely compete in the race for the Academy Awards. As we saw last year, 76% of the film nominations in major categories (excluding Foreign Language Film, short categories, and Documentary Feature) were released in September, October, November and December in the United States.

So when we begin the conversation of “what’s gonna be nominated for Best Picture”, or “what movies should I see that will count later on”, the place to start is here: previewing what’s coming out in the portion of the calendar that is considered prime for setting up an awards campaign. So that’s really the task of this article and the next few that will follow. I’m going to set up what’s coming out each month, based on release in the United States, and what categories it could compete in.

 

White Boy Rick | September 14th

The first film that’s on the radar for being potentially Oscar-worthy is White Boy Rick. The film centers on a teenage drug kingpin in 1980s Detroit, and is directed by Yann Demange, who previously directed ‘71. The cast is pretty appealing here, with Richie Merritt playing the title character and a supporting cast that includes Bel Powley, Bruce Dern, Piper Laurie, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brian Tyree Henry, and Matthew McConaughey. At this point, the biggest possibilities I see for nominations in likely in the acting categories, with Dern and McConaughey likely campaigning in the Supporting Actor category. The film will be screened at the Toronto International Film Festival.

 

The Children Act | September 14th

Also coming out in the U.S. on September 14th is The Children Act, which stars Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci. This one centers on the real life Children Act, established in 1989, and the complications of religious traditions versus medical advancements when the son of a Jehovah’s Witness family is diagnosed with leukemia. While we do have Richard Eyre of Iris and Notes on a Scandal fame in the director’s chair, and novelist Ian McEwan penning the script, again I’m more focused on the acting categories for this one, particularly with Thompson, who was overlooked for her work in Saving Mr. Banks. The Children Act will also screen at TIFF and will see release in the UK in late August.

 

Lizzie | September 14th

One last film also set for release on the 14th is Lizzie. This one re-imagines the Lizzie Borden murders of the 1890s and stars Chloe Sevigny, Kristen Stewart, Fiona Shaw, and Kim Dickens. When it comes to period pieces like this, it’s almost an automatic contender for either the Best Production Design or Best Costume Design categories, or both. Also, based on the trailers, it looks like we get solid performances from both Sevigny and Stewart in this one, with Sevigny contending in lead and Stewart likely to be a supporting actress. The film premiered at Sundance this past January and is rated thus far at 70% on Rotten Tomatoes. While it will be released in the US in September, audiences in the UK will have to wait until November 16th.

 

Life Itself | September 21st

We’ll skip now to September 21st where Life Itself will be released. The previews for the film proudly declare it to be from the creator of This is Us, Dan Fogelman, and it does look mostly like a crowd-pleasing romantic drama to me. I’m not ruling it out entirely from the Oscar race, but right now other than some possible acting nominations and potentially for writing, I’d say it’s not a huge Oscar prospect. Still, we do have Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Mandy Patinkin, Olivia Cooke, Laia Costa, Samuel L. Jackson, Annette Bening, and Antonio Banderas in the film centering on multicultural marriages and relationships, and it will screen at TIFF. While it’s not likely every entry at TIFF gets a nomination, and again I’m not overly optimistic about this one, I’d be a fool to say it’s got no chance.

 

Colette | September 21st

One film I am more optimistic about for its overall chances, though, is Colette, starring Keira Knightley, Dominic West, and Fiona Shaw. It’s another biographical film, this time about Gabrielle Colette and how her popular writings were credited to her husband, and their tricky relationship. While this might sound like one of Tim Burton’s latest offerings, Big Eyes, just set in England in the mid 1900s, this has the prestige of being screened at Sundance and thus far has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. So for Oscar prospects for Colette, I’m looking at Best Actress for Knightley as a high possibility, a chance for Dominic West in Supporting Actor, again being a period-piece opens up the possibilities of Production Design and Costume Design as well. Colette will also open in the U.S. on September 21st, but won’t be released in the U.K. until January of 2019.

 

The Sisters Brothers | September 21st

Next up is The Sisters Brothers, which again I’m not as confident on as far as Oscar chances, but again let’s mention this one in case it does break out in the race later. A comedy western, this one stars Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly as the titular brothers as they go on various misadventures in the old west. Riz Ahmed, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Rutger Hauer also star, and again being a period-piece says look out for those possible Production Design and Costume Design noms, but one nomination I’d look out for is either Reilly or Phoenix or both of them being contenders in the Golden Globe race for Best Actor: Comedy or Musical. Sisters Brothers will screen at both Toronto and Venice before hitting theaters.

 

Smallfoot | September 28th

Heading into the last weekend of September, we have two more films to look at, the first being a quick look at Smallfoot, an animated film from Warner Brothers about a yeti who stumbles into the real world and takes a human back with him to his land where other yetis live. Really this on is only on my radar for one potential category: Animated Feature. If something as trivial as Boss Baby can be nominated, why not this one?

 

The Old Man & the Gun | September 28th

Finally, we have The Old Man & the Gun, which sees Robert Redford in his final acting performance. Casey Affleck, Sissy Spacek, Danny Glover, Elisabeth Moss, Keith Carradine, and John David Washington round out the cast, and the story of the film follows an elderly bank robber in Florida. The main appeal of this one will be its acting performances, and Redford was recently overlooked for his performance in All is Lost, and Spacek is a favorite of the Academy and could make a run for a nomination in Supporting Actress. We’ll see if it can make it into bigger categories like writing, directing, or picture. David Lowery is in both the writer and director’s chair, and with his recent efforts like A Ghost Story and Ain’t Them Bodies Saints being big critical hits without being major awards contenders, this could be the one that breaks him in. We’ll see how it does when it screens at TIFF.

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