Okay, so Chloe Zhao‘s Hamnet, having slain in Telluride and now having won the TIFF People’s Choice Award, is the frontrunner to win the 2025 Best Picture Oscar early next year. No argument, no quibbles….it’s a pretty clear=cut scenario.
The other big contenders are Paul Thomas Anderson‘s One Battle After Another, which I’m hoping to see in Manhattan on Tuesday morning (pretty please?), Joachim Trier‘s Sentimental Value (which I loved after catching in in Cannes) and — to hear it from the Ryan Coogler-deserves-this-because he’s-Ryan Coogler identity mob — Sinners. If Hamnet has it in the bag, fine. If PTA comes close to winning, great — excellent for his career, no longer the red-ink guy.
Either way Sinners hasn’t a chance, and thank the Lord God for that fact.