With the Venice Film Festival set to break bread this week we thought it was time to look back at the legit contenders for film awardage that will pounce into the fall season and beyond. We decided to cement our top ten Cannes storylines that will shape the 2024 awards race, including the Gothams, the Indie Spirits, the Globes and the Oscars, and everything in between with a worthy mention going to a small gem in India Donaldson’s Good One — one of only two non-world premieres at Cannes this year. This film stands tall among bigger budgeted indie film items and is poised to secure some nominations at the award shows in New York City and Santa Barbara. Here we go:
FYC in the Best Actor Categories: Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice
In the #10 slot, we have the riches to rags followed by plain dumb luck portrait of Donald Trump played with the man-child and eye of the tiger precision of Sebastian Stan. While, Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice does not have a distributor in place word on the street is this finely-tuned biopic bromance is heading off to Telluride. If this is the case, we can bet that the lucky distrib will lasso some fall release date perhaps in the thick of the November 6th election.
FYC in the Best Actress Categories: Demi Moore in The Substance
Initially, we didn’t expect the film to make it in the competition line-up, nor did we anticipate the splat-o-vision B-movie to charm such a large delegation of Cannes attendees. Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance is more than just a body horror genre film; it allows Demi Moore to explore a rich terrain —- tackling both physicality and psychology. In our #9 spot is this midnight film — which Mubi landed the opening night slot for TIFF’s Midnight Madness section and will shore up on September 20th theatrically.
FYC in the Best Foreign Picture: All We Imagine as Light
Despite being crowned with the “second” highest prize in Cannes, the Cannes Grand Prix winner is not an automatic shoe-in for the Oscars. India’s film committee will have to embrace a film that examines some tough issues and Payal Kapadia’s sophomore feature will hardly be forgotten with future showcases at Telluride, Toronto and NYFF. Add all this to the buzz from Cannes it could cement it as a legit threat for the Golden Globes, Indie Spirits and of course will be championed by several critic’s best lists. Our #8 pick on our list will be showcased by Janus Films and Sideshow – with a mid November roll-out.
FYC in the Best Director Categories: Sean Baker for Anora
The summation of a lifetime dedicated to American independent cinema offerings was when Sean Baker claimed the big daddy prize in Cannes with the Palme d’Or. Anora has a lot going for it and will be a critical darling once again with the massive extra push from Telluride, Deauville, Toronto, San Sebastian and NYFF audiences get to sink their teeth into this. #7 on our list, we expect the Gothams, Indie Spirits, the Globes and finally the Oscars to all give the film some love — and this should be a favorite for the Director categories.
FYC in the Best Supporting Actress Categories: Karla Sofía Gascón in Emilia Perez
Jacques Audiard’s Jury Prize-winning Emilia Perez also collected the Best Actress award for not one, but a quartet in Adriana Paz, Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez — but let’s be real here: the multi-genre film packs a solid 1-2 punch and the Mexican transgender actress Karla Sofía Gascón should be pushed in the Best Supporting categories. Netflix does need to wait for France to officially select the film to avoid an Anatomy of a Fall fiasco from last year, but with a current France domestic release and multiple engagements at Telluride, TIFF and NYFF we think auds who yearn for Almodovar type love for leading ladies will find much to be admired in these complex women.
FYC in the Best Animation Categories: Flow
While this summer was an Inside Out 2 love-fest, in our #5 spot we got a film that left Cannes without awards (it was perhaps programmed too late in Un Certain Regard section) but that nonetheless packs a punch and won over many. This reconfiguration of Noah’s Ark with zero dialogue happens to be Lativa’s pick for Best Foreign Film categories but this is the David versus the popcorn film Goliaths underdog story we like. Directly after Cannes filmmaker Gints Zilbalodis’ debut cleaned up the Annecy International Animation Film Festival — so this is riding a cool wave. Janus Films and Sideshow have the rights to this one.
FYC in the Best Supporting Actor Categories: Jeremy Strong in The Apprentice
Despite no distributor announcement (yet) and being in a quandary where if it is a no-show in Telluride it’ll lose out the much-needed fall fest season North American buzz, Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn is pure gold. An attack dog without a leash who defends his friend (the Donald) pretty much up until his deathbed is a performance loaded with a lot of gusto. He simply doesn’t play the character — he is the character.
FYC in the Best Actress Categories: Zoe Saldaña in Emilia Perez
It’s not going to be hard to split the atom as this is arguably the story of the lawyer going to great lengths to protect her client. In our #3 spot we have Zoe Saldaña in a role that demanded more than dramatic chops – the dance numbers alone and gunslinging in duel languages makes this an exotic and fun performance that defines the 2024 year in cinema — it is leagues better than Rob Marshall’s Chicago. We’ll the film is not a consensus favorite among critics, Telluride, Toronto, San Sebastian and NYFF programmers will give this love.
FYC in Best Picture Categories: Anora
We’ll be closely observing how much more buzz that the multiple film festival pit stops and Neon’s October strategy comes into play but we have this film on the Gothams, Indie Spirits, Globes and Oscars scorecards.
FYC in the Best Actress Categories: Mikey Madison in Anora
Technically her second trip to Cannes in her early filmography as she was among the troublemakers in Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, with a significant amount of buzz from the Croisette for her take on the escort, no correction, she is a stripper from Jersey, we easily rank Mikey Madison at the top of our awards list favorites. At times I was thinking about Marisa Tomei from My Cousin Vinny — but this is anchored in a physical performance with plenty of nuance in both comedic and dramatic streams. We are calling it early but this is a Golden Globe winner in our books in the Best Comedy cateogry, and will have tremendous weight for the Gothams, Indie Spirits and Oscar nights.
