Given the likelihood that theatregoing will be a spotty if not verboten activity for the next few months and the Academy’s proclamation that streaming-only films will be eligible for the 2020 Oscars, it seems inevitable that several forthcoming Netflix films (all dated for 2020) stand a better-than-decent chance of becoming hot Oscar contenders, and almost certainly in the case of David Fincher‘s Mank, Ron Howard‘s Hillbilly Elegy, Andrew Dominik‘s Blonde and Edoardo Ponti‘s The Life Ahead.

Not to mention Spike Lee‘s Da Five Bloods, George C. Wolfe‘s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Charlie Kaufman‘s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Ryan Murphy‘s The Prom, David Dobkin‘s Eurovision, Ben Wheatley‘s Rebecca remake, George Clooney‘s The Midnight Sky and Antonio Campos‘ The Devil All The Time. 12 in all.

By my estimation the first four will almost certainly emerge as Best Picture finalists. I know that the Mank script (penned by Fincher’s dad Jack) is brilliant, and that Fincher and Gary Oldman (as Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz) will do it justice. I suspect that Hillbilly Elegy may strike a chord as a kind of “lefty Hollywood reaches out to rural Bumblefucks to try and understand their plight” type of deal. I haven’t read Blonde but I’ve been hearing good things (as in good, crazy, out there) for years. My enthusiasm for The Life Ahead is strictly gut-level.

By the way it’s just been announced that Da Five Bloods will debut on Netflix five weeks hence — June 12th. So where’s the trailer?

Gary Oldman as Herman J. Mankiewicz in David Fincher’s Mank.