10 Anticipated 2016 Movies That Have Already Lost The Oscar Race
The Oscar bait reveals itself.
With the summer well and truly over, Oscar season is very much in full swing, what with the Venice and Toronto Film Festivals just finishing up feting the latest and apparently greatest cinema has to offer.
While much of what premiered at these festivals will inevitably end up in the Best Picture race, sadly there's not room for everything, and there are always those movies that arrive on a tidal wave of hype only to crash back down to Earth once people actually see them.
Now, these movies aren't all bad: some of them, in fact, are pretty good, but that doesn't mean they're going to be front-line Oscar contenders, because 6.5/10 reviews don't usually cut it when the big gold guy is concerned.
Other movies on this list, though, are straight-up terrible and destined to be forgotten before year's end. Here are 10 anticipated movies that have already lost the Oscar race...
10. The Birth Of A Nation
The Buzz: The powerful story of preacher slave Nat Turner (Nate Parker), who led a violent slave rebellion in Virginia in 1831.
The Oscar hype has been high for this one ever since its startling debut at Sundance, where it received rapturous reviews praising the acting, writing, direction and, well, pretty much everything. It almost seemed like writer-director-producer-star Nate Parker already had his Oscar statuette in the bag...
Why It's Already Lost: For starters, that early Sundance hype has tapered off in recent months as the movie has been screened at other festivals, and while it still enjoys strong reviews, those five-star notices have faded into the periphery now.
Also, the huge controversy surrounding Parker's 1999 rape charges (of which he was dubiously acquitted) have torpedoed the movie's Oscar PR campaign, and have helped the film go from being a Best Picture frontrunner to an outside contender at best.