Experts slugfest: Our post-festivals 2025 Oscar predictions
Is “The Life of Chuck” coming for the Oscars? Gold Derby editors and Experts Christopher Rosen and Joyce Eng are here to discuss the state of the race post-fall festivals.
Mike Flanagan‘s “The Life of Chuck,” starring Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan and Mark Hamill, was a somewhat surprising winner of the People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, taking the top prize over Cannes favorites “Emilia Pérez,” the first runner-up, and “Anora,” the second runner-up. How much of “The Life of Chuck” being a world premiere at TIFF — unlike “Emilia Pérez” and “Anora” — factor into its win? Nevertheless, it’s been 13 years since the last TIFF champ missed a Best Picture nomination. Will “The Life of Chuck” end that streak? Neither of us is quick to slot in “The Life of Chuck” at the moment despite the Best Picture field being in flux.
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SEE Experts slugfest: Our pre-festivals 2025 Oscar predictions
Meanwhile, “The Brutalist” continues to ascend in the odds since its premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, where Brady Corbet won the Silver Lion. It’s now in seventh in Best Picture, while Corbet is in sixth in Best Director and Adrien Brody is in fourth in Best Actor. Felicity Jones is also in sixth in Best Supporting Actress and Guy Pearce is the highest ranked of them all (for now) in third in Best Supporting Actor. Can the three-and-a-half-hour epic go all the way? Or do “crowd-pleasers” like “Emilia Pérez” and “Anora” still have the upper hand in an a very open year?
Elsewhere, we discuss whether Denis Villeneuve can make the Best Director cut this time around with “Dune: Part Two,” “The Room Next Door” angling for double Best Actress noms and more.
Email your questions to [email protected].
Timestamps:
Intro and post-festivals postmortem (0:00)
Best Picture (33:10)
Best Director (46:23)
Best Actress (1:00:19)
Best Actor (1:13:49)
Best Supporting Actress (1:21:52)
Best Supporting Actor (1:33:21)
Screenplay categories (1:41:50)
Listener questions (1:48:00)
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