Oscar Predictions: Inside

Inside opens in limited release on March 17th after premiering at the Berlin Film Festival last month. Marking the directorial debut of Vasilis Katsoupis, Willem Dafoe stars as an art thief who gets trapped in a penthouse that he’s attempting to rob. Eliza Stuyck and Gene Bervoets costar.

Early reviews are decent with a 77% Rotten Tomatoes thus far. However, the only real awards attention this would get is for its lead. Dafoe has vied for Academy consideration for three and a half decades and come up short four times. This includes three nods in Supporting Actor (1986’s Platoon, 2000’s Shadow of the Vampire, The Florida Project in 2017) and a sole lead nomination for 2018’s At Eternity’s Gate as Vincent Van Gogh. I’m sure Inside‘s character would love some original works of his.

For Inside, there’s some raves for his work. Yet I’m not sure this pic will still be on the radar of voters a few months down the line. He has, at best, an outside shot. Perhaps his appearance in Poor Things from The Favourite director Yorgos Lanthimos later this year will give him another shot. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…