12 Anticipated 2015 Movies That Have Already Lost The Oscar Race

9. The Danish Girl

The Hype: One year after he won the Best Actor Oscar for his transformative turn as Stephen Hawking, Eddie Redmayne plays one of the world's first gender reassignment patients in a film that, with the trans movement's visibility being at an all-time high, couldn't feel any more relevant and timely. The real kicker is that The Danish Girl is being directed by Tom Hooper, who of course won a Best Director Oscar for The King's Speech. Why It's Lost The Oscar Race: Festival reviews have been positive, but much like Suffragette, broadly so. The film's average score currently sits at an underwhelming 6.3/10 after 31 reviews despite an overall approval rating of 81%, while one critic summed its Oscar-baiting potential up perfectly, calling it "the essence of award-season calculated craft". Redmayne has received much acclaim for his part even though Hooper's direction and Lucinda Coxon's script were taken to task for playing it too safe and failing to engage with the edgier and more unpleasant inevitabilities of the story. Prior to its festival premiere, it seemed like a given that Redmayne would be a strong Best Actor contender, but even that's in question now, and any shot at Best Picture is pretty much gone.