10 Reasons Black Panther Shouldn't Win Best Picture

4. The Competition Is Going To Be Stacked

Bohemian Rhapsody
20th Century Fox

Though predicting Oscar nominees and winners is always going to be hugely speculative at this point in the year, demanding that Black Panther scoops the Big One almost a year removed from the ceremony seems nothing if not a little disingenuous.

After all, awards season is still many, many months away in earnest, and most of the year's big Oscar prospects won't even be seen for another 6-8 months.

While it's smart for Marvel Studios to start campaigning early, any belief that Black Panther should steamroll its way to the podium seems awfully short-sighted with the likes of Damien Chazelle's Neil Armstrong biopic First Man, Moonlight director Barry Jenkins' follow-up If Beale Street Could Talk, Steve McQueen's Widows, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman (if it makes a late-2018 release as many suspect), Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody and many more.

Cheerleading Black Panther all the way to Oscar night is just fine, but to steadfastly insist it MUST win with so many other quality pictures on the docket just seems like blind loyalty run amok, if not disrespectful to everything else in the running.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.