Sarah Gavron – All My Life… I Wanted To Be A Blogster

The Telluride Film Festival showcased yet another Oscar hopeful over the weekend and early results are encouraging for Suffragette, particularly for its lead actress. Set in the early 20th century, Suffragette focuses on the women’s voting rights movement in Britain during that era. The pic is directed by Sarah Gavron and written by Abi Morgan, who could both be factors in their respective races. Gavron, in particular, would be appear the Academy’s best chance to include a female in the race.

As for the actors, early reviews are raving about Carey Mulligan’s lead performance; so much so that it’s probably safe to assume her name will be included in Best Actress. The supporting ladies are more of a question mark but the edge would go to Helena Bonham Carter over the lesser known Anne-Marie Duff. Both received good notices. Meryl Streep is in the film too, but her role is reported to be fairly small. Still you can never completely count out the most nominated actress in Academy history.

Over the weekend, I include Suffragette in my predicted eight nominees for Best Picture. The buzz from Telluride confirms that pick. Its inclusion is far from guaranteed, but it’s got a great shot.

We have arrived at the Best Director portion of my incredibly early Oscar predictions for 2015. When I made predictions in this category last year for 2014 pics, it yielded 3 of the five eventual nominees and the other two were listed as other possibilities.

In the Director race, it’s safe to assume that all predicted directors will likely see their pictures nominated as well (my Best Picture prognostications will be up tomorrow). My current field includes three previous winners: Danny Boyle for Steve Jobs (he won in 2008 for Slumdog Millionaire), Tom Hooper for The Danish Girl (he won in 2010 for The King’s Speech), and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu for The Revenant (he won just last year for Birdman). Other previous recipients like Steven Spielberg (Bridge of Spies), Robert Zemeckis (The Walk) and Ron Howard (In the Heart of the Sea) are certainly possible as well.

David O. Russell’s last three projects (The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook) have been showered with Oscar love so I’ll include him for December’s Joy. And Carol has been receiving festival raves and that could bode well for Todd Haynes.

Others to keep an eye out for: if The Hateful Eight garners the kind of love that Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained did, Quentin Tarantino could find himself in the mix. And don’t count out George Miller, whose direction in particular was lauded for this summer’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

And with that:

TODD’S EARLY PREDICTIONS – BEST DIRECTOR

Danny Boyle, Steve Jobs

Todd Haynes, Carol

Tom Hooper, The Danish Girl

Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, The Revenant

David O. Russell, Joy

Other Possibilities:

Don Cheadle, Miles Ahead

Scott Cooper, Black Mass

John Crowley, Brooklyn

Sarah Gavron, Suffragette