The duty followed and dissected this cinematographic year through the wise eye of a duo experienced in this exercise. In anticipation of the Oscar ceremony to be held on Sunday, we asked François Lévesque and Odile Tremblay to comment by presenting their preferences. We also invited our readers to make their choices, and took a look at American critics. Verdict of all these observers.
BEST FILM
Belfast
CODA
Don’t Look Up
Drive My Car
Dunes
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story
The verdict of our readers
Some preferred The Power of the Dog (21%), Belfast, Drive My Car Where West Side Story (all at 7%), but readers’ hearts leaned towards home: it’s the Dunes of Denis Villeneuve who won the favour, with 58% of the votes.
The verdict of our critics
Francois Levesque
Choice : Dunes
Prediction : CODA
the sublime Dunes cemented Denis Villeneuve’s reputation as a master of science fiction. However, the Academy has never awarded the Oscar for best film to a work of its kind, however visionary it may be. Since its premiere in Venice, Jane Campion’s magnificent queer western The Power of the Dog had slowly established itself as a favorite… Until the recent — and probably decisive — victories at the Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) and the Producers Guild of America Awards of CODAAmerican version feel good French success The Aries family.
Odile Tremblay
Choice : Drive My Car
Prediction: The Power of the Dog
I fell in love with the sublime Drive My Car, by Japanese Ryusuke Hamaguchi. A remarkably written, directed and acted meditative work, with complex characters nourished by wounds and longings for light. This Japanese pearl deserves great honours. Great favorite of the race, The Power of the Dog, by Jane Campion, would also make an excellent winner. This western which thwarts the codes of the genre by the ambiguity of the characters, its beauty, its mastery and the grace of its direction of actors is an inner journey on landscapes of majesty.
The verdict of the experts*
BEST ACHIEVEMENT
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
The verdict of our critics
Francois Levesque
Choice : Denis Villeneuve
Prediction: Jane Campion
Denis Villeneuve has notoriously been snubbed in this category, although his Dunes either an extraordinary triumph of staging: my absolute choice. That being so, with The Power of the Dogawarded for best direction at the Mostra, Jane Campion, the first director named twice in this category, is making a brilliant return to the cinema.
Odile Tremblay
Choice : Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Prediction: Jane Campion
The finesse of Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s staging, which advances on tiptoe, attentive to the inner journey of the characters, on a patient and subtle rhythm and with a camera of poignant simplicity, is a lesson in cinema. Between theater and life, admirable correspondences. Already nominated in 1994 for The Piano Lesson, Jane Campion has a good chance of winning the Oscar for her delicate staging of ellipses. His stamp of maturity and sensitivity is at its peak. And awarding major prizes to a female director would help the Oscars get out of their image of boy’s club.
The verdict of the experts*
BEST ORIGINAL SCENARIO
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
Julie (in 12 chapters)
The verdict of our critics
Francois Levesque
Choice : Julie (in 12 chapters)
Prediction: Belfast
Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier offers with the existential comedy Julie (in 12 chapters), for which he wrote the screenplay, a portrait of a woman of remarkable finesse. Alas, the Academy is historically very inclined towards the more bon chic bon genre proposals at the Belfastby Kenneth Branagh, a slightly overrated autobiographical film with its seven nominations.
Odile Tremblay
Choice : Don’t Look Up
Prediction: Belfast
For once a popular comedy is based on an intelligent scenario, smoothly conducted and stuck to ecological issues… Don’t Look Upby Adam McKay, deserves to win the Oscar for its funny and hard-hitting story which enjoyed such a well-deserved success. Belfast, autobiographical film on the childhood of the scenario writer Kenneth Branagh during the conflicts in Ireland, in spite of certain weaknesses of account, has enormously admirers. Named in several key categories, it could win at least in the scenario, for the charge of its lived history.
The verdict of the experts*
BEST ADAPTED SCENARIO
CODA
Drive My Car
Dunes
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog
The verdict of our critics
Francois Levesque
Choice : Dunes
Prediction: Drive My Car
Flagship science fiction novel, Dunes was deemed unsuitable — talk to David Lynch. However, Denis Villeneuve, Jon Spaihts and veteran Eric Roth have achieved the impossible, notably preserving the opposition between the epic and the intimate dear to the author, Frank Herbert. Again, The Power of the Dog was a favourite, but the arrival in the landscape of Drive My Cara favorite Japanese film, was a game-changer.
Odile Tremblay
Choice and prediction: Drive My Car
This story with chiselled writing, inspired by the work of Haruki Murakami, is the keystone of Drive My Car. Its guiding thread passes from one universe to another with such acrobatic finesse that it seems to take flight. A real screenplay feat. Already awarded for the best screenplay, at Cannes and elsewhere, the Japanese film is a candidate of choice for this category and could win. The game will be played between Hamaguchi and Campion, rich in merits for his adaptation of Thomas Savage’s novel.
The expert’s verdict
BEST ACTRESS
Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter
Penelope Cruz, Madres Paralelas
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
Kristen Stewart, spencer
The verdict of our critics
Francois Levesque
Choice : Kristen Stewart
Prediction: Jessica Chastain
After the premiere in Venice of spencerimpressionist biography of Lady Di signed Pablo Larrain, the Oscar seemed acquired for Kristen Stewart. The rumor died down as other contestants, including Olivia Colman for The Lost Daughter, prevailed. Fabulous in biography The Eyes of Tammy FayeJessica Chastain, also a winner at the SAG Awards, should eventually receive the statuette.
Odile Tremblay
Choice : Kristen Stewart
Prediction: Jessica Chastain
American actress Kristen Stewart gave Lady Diana a soul in spencer, this dreamlike work by Pablo Larrain. She entered with exceptional sensitivity and grace into the presumed inner world of the princess of hearts rejected by the royal family. All have their chances this year. For her third nomination, Jessica Chastain could triumph thanks to her tonic and ambiguous role of an American singer and televangelist in the musical film The Eyes of Tammy Fayeby Michael Showalter, which seduced the public.
The verdict of the experts
BEST ACTOR
Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick… Boom!
Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth
The verdict of our critics
Francois Levesque
Choice : Benedict Cumberbatch
Prediction: Will Smith
In The Power of the Dog, Benedict Cumberbatch delivers a striking performance as a rancher whose exacerbated machismo poorly conceals repressed homosexuality. Star of the inspiring but conventional King Richardbiography of the father of Serena and Venus Williams, Will Smith, a star who has never won an Oscar, who enjoys a huge capital of sympathy and, what is more, also a winner at the SAG Awards, is given the favourite.
Odile Tremblay
Choice : Benedict Cumberbatch
Prediction: Will Smith
In The Power of the Dog, Benedict Cumberbatch inherits the role of his life for his nuanced and in-depth playing of a man who is caught in the shackles of macho domination and who experiences intimate despair that he cannot express. A wonderful interpretation. King Richard, this film retracing the training of tennis champions Serena and Venus Williams under the rule of an ambitious father, could earn Will Smith the Oscar. He delivers a good performance and he is one of the best African Americans in the race.
The verdict of the experts
* The powerful American aggregator of cultural content Metacritic has gathered for this exercise the forecasts of around fifty critics from several backgrounds (from the New Yorker to the Washington Post, via Insider or Variety).