海角大神

As the days get colder, and winter approaches the Oscar season is just heating up.

Now that the nominations for some major awards shows like the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards and the Golden Globes have been announced, what do we know about the Oscars race? What movies could find themselves competing for a statuette come Academy Awards night?聽

One of the surprising contenders for the Best Picture prize is the movie 鈥淢ad Max: Fury Road,鈥� which tells the story of a struggling society eking out an existence in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The action-heavy movie isn鈥檛 usually what the Academy goes for, but the fact that it was selected as the best movie of the year by the National Board of Review and that it was nominated in the prestigious best drama category for the Golden Globes is getting the industry鈥檚 attention. At this point, it may be viewed as an omission if the Academy doesn鈥檛 nominate it in the Best Picture category.聽

Films that seem like locks for a Best Picture nod include 鈥淐arol,鈥� which tells the story of a romantic relationship between two women (Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara) in the 1950s; 鈥淩oom,鈥� which centers on a woman (Brie Larson) and her son (Jacob Tremblay) living in a kidnapper's captivity; and 鈥淪potlight,鈥� which tells the true story of the reporting done by the Boston Globe about the Catholic Church sex abuse scandal.聽

All of these movies were nominated for both the SAG best cast prize (the closest thing at the SAG awards to a best picture category) and the Golden Globe Best Drama award.

What else could sneak in to the Best Picture Oscar category? 鈥淭he Big Short,鈥� the story of the real people who predicted the 2008 financial crisis, was nominated for the SAG best cast award and the Golden Globe comedy award, so it鈥檚 probably a pretty safe bet. So is 鈥淭he Revenant,鈥� the story of a man struggling to survive in the wilderness in nineteenth century, which was nominated for the Golden Globe best drama award.聽

鈥淏easts of No Nation,鈥� 鈥淛oy,鈥� and 鈥淭he Martian鈥� are all possibilities as well. 鈥淏easts鈥� was nominated for the SAG best cast prize and 鈥淛oy鈥� and 鈥淭he Martian鈥� were nominated for the Golden Globe best comedy award. All had been spoken of before as possible awards season contenders.聽

If 鈥淢artian鈥� scores a nod, it would be a nomination for both a box office champion 鈥� never a guarantee for an Oscar Best Picture nominee 鈥� and for a movie that presents a hopeful view of humanity. 鈥淢artian鈥� tells the story of an astronaut who becomes stranded in space and those on Earth who work together to try to bring him home.聽