What is it? A biographical drama about artist Lili Elbe (Eddie Redmayne), one of the first recipients of male to female sex reassignment surgery. Why is it a major player? The Oscar-winning director of The King's Speech re-teaming with his Les Miserables star and now Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne for a biopic about history's first notable transgender woman? You bet that screams Academy Award. Director Tom Hooper may have divided audiences with Les Miserables, but The Danish Girl sounds like much safer ground, awards-wise, and he's either blessed with immense foresight or extremely lucky to have cast Eddie Redmayne at a time when the actor couldn't be hotter. Winning Best Actor two years in a row is rare (it hasn't been done since Tom Hanks managed it back in 1994/95), but already Oscar pundits are looking at Redmayne as a contender. The Danish Girl has all the ingredients to be a major Oscar player anyway, but Redmayne taking on another role most actors would balk at just a year after he played Stephen Hawking suggests he may well be in the Best Actor running again.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
