Oscars 2018: 10 Movies That Could Win Best Picture Next Year
3. Dunkirk
The Film
Christopher Nolan is making a war movie. Hands down one of the most exciting films of 2017, Dunkirk will, if it's not clear from the name, tell the story of the Dunkirk evacuation during the Second World War.
Code-named Operation Dynamo, it saw large numbers of British, French, Belgian, and Canadian troops cut off and surrounded by the German army. Their evacuation was hailed by Winston Churchill as a "miracle". The film looks to be following the chaos from a few different points-of-view, with the cast including Mark Rylance, Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Kenneth Branagh, and, more unexpectedly, Harry Styles.
Why It Could Win
Nolan doesn't have a very god track record when it comes to the Academy Awards, with Inception being the only one of his films so far to receive a Best Picture nominee. Another hurdle is the fact the movie has a summer release date, not a typical slot from a future Best Picture winner.
However, while Nolan's films have largely gone unrecognised, he is a prodigiously talented director, and there may even be a creeping feeling of him being overdue for some recognition.
Plus there's the simple fact that he's never made a war movie. World War II films tend to do well; a World War II film made by a director as good as Nolan, with a cast as strong as this (Rylance is a recent Oscar winner), make this a serious contender, and Nolan's best chance yet at Oscar glory.