LOS ANGELES, USA – Watching Bradley Cooper’s Maestro again and George C. Wolfe’s Rustin this week got me thinking about predictions of the early frontrunners this awards season.

Cooper’s film about the life and legacy of Leonard Bernstein, one of the great artists of the 20^th century, is a work of art itself. I was mesmerized when I first saw Maestro at the Venice Film Festival.

But watching it again at the Directors Guild of America in LA, where the terrific acoustics enhanced Bernstein’s lush music that accompanied the scenes, reinforced my initial reaction that Maestro is one of the year’s best films.

Cooper, also working in front of cinematographer Matthew Libatique’s camera, is riveting as the celebrated conductor and composer who has affairs with men while married to his wife, actress Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan, equally formidable), who accepted these dalliances.

The raves about Colman Domingo’s performance in George C. Wolfe’s Rustin are well-deserved. I finally got to watch Domingo as the undersung hero who fought and worked hard for the 1963 march on Washington that resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act.

Domingo portrays the little-known Black activist not as a hero but as a man who is at home in his own skin and queerness, a human being who is not perfect, who is passionate, charismatic (Domingo convincingly shows how Bayard persuaded thousands to join the groundbreaking march), and joyous.

It took writers Julian Breece and Dustin Lance Black to let us know more about Bayard, who marched alongside Martin Luther King Jr. Barack and Michelle Obama produced this long-overdue vehicle for Domingo.

Aside from Maestro, one of the buzzed best picture frontrunners is Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things which I have already raved about in this column since I saw it in Lido. It would be a crime if Emma Stone does not get a best actress nomination as a woman who committed suicide but is reanimated by a mad scientist (Willem Dafoe, never boring) and given the brain of an infant.

Considered by many as a best picture nominee shoo-in is Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer which managed to make the development of the atomic bomb by a scientist, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy, brilliant), a compelling three-hour cinematic experience.

Robert Downey Jr. and Emily Blunt lead the brilliant supporting cast of this film which has become Nolan’s third biggest domestic hit, just behind The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises.

Also much talked about as most likely to cinch a best picture nod is Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, an American tragedy of the highest order. The master filmmaker, aided by the performances of Lily Gladstone (best actress nominee, here she comes!), Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro, provocatively tells how white settlers violently seized the wealth of the Osage Indians in the 1920s.

Ken and Barbie should not be left out in any discussion about the year’s best in film. Leave it to Greta Gerwig to mine the plastic Mattel world and craft one of the year’s funniest movies that is also a celebration of female empowerment and an effective dig at patriarchal ideology.

Nothing synthetic about Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling’s work here. They imbue their doll characters with flesh and blood and a lot of winking humor.

Also on the frontrunners’ list are Celine Song’s Past Lives (one of my personal favorites, including the portrayals of Greta Lee and Teo Yoo); Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, his return to form since Sideways (and he’s back with Paul Giamatti as well); Jonathan Glazer’s holocaust drama, The Zone of Interest; and Cord Jefferson’s feature directing debut, American Fiction, a wicked satire on publishing with an unforgettable turn by Jefferson Wright.

Predicted to be in the running as well are Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall; Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse; Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla (Cailee Spaeny, in the title role, won the best actress Volpi Cup in Venice); Ben Affleck’s Air (Matt Damon, Viola Davis and Affleck himself lead the strong cast); and Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders (Austin Butler, Jodie Comer and Tom Hardy are memorable).

In contention, too: Emerald Fennell’s black comedy, Saltburn, with a buzzworthy lead performance by Barry Keoghan; Michael Mann’s Ferrari; Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s Nyad, with Jodie Foster and Annette Bening (need I say more?); and Todd Haynes’ May December.

Still to be screened but likely contenders are Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, with Joaquin Phoenix in the title role, Vanessa Kirby, and Ludivine Sagnier; and Blitz Bazawule’s The Color Purple, the adaptation of the musical version of Alice Walker’s novel, with Halle Bailey, Taraji P. Henson, Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor, HER, Fantasia Barrino, Colman Domingo, and Corey Hawkins.

Also still be to be seen but can’t be counted out: The Iron Claw, Sean Durkin’s biography-drama on the Von Erich wrestling brothers played by Zac Efron, Jeremy Allen White, and Harris Dickinson; Jessica Yu’s Quiz Lady (Sandra Oh and Awkwafina together in a comedy – can’t wait); George Clooney’s The Boys in the Boat, starring Joel Edgerton; and Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, with Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal.

I will tackle the other categories, including the international features, which will very likely yield other nomination-worthy performances, in another column. – Rappler.com