Many consider the best director race is between Berger, Baker and Brady Corbet for ‘The Brutalist’, a three-and-a-half drama in which Adrien Brody plays a Hungarian immigrant trying to rebuild his life in the United States post-World War Two.
Brody has picked up multiple awards already and is expected to win the BAFTA’s leading actor category.
“I’d be surprised if Adrien Brody did not win…it’s an extraordinary performance,” Tim Richards, founder and CEO of cinema operator Vue, said.
While Demi Moore has been repeatedly honoured for her performance in body horror ‘The Substance’, she could face upset in the leading actress category from Briton Marianne Jean-Baptiste for her critically-acclaimed portrayal of a woman struggling with depression in ‘Hard Truths’.
“Demi Moore is going to win at the Oscars probably so she’ll get her moment but it’d be great to see some kind of local talent win,” Sandwell said.
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Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldana are also favoured to continue their winning streaks in the supporting actor/actress categories for ‘A Real Pain’ and ‘Emilia Perez’ respectively.
The Spanish-language film stars Saldana as a lawyer who helps a Mexican cartel leader, played by Karla Sofia Gascon, fake his death and transition from a man to a woman.
It had been an early awards frontrunner but its campaign lost steam following the controversy surrounding Gascon, who last week apologised for past social media posts denigrating Muslims and other groups and said she would go silent to help the movie ahead of the Oscars.
Also Read: Oscars frontrunner ‘Emilia Perez’ suffers awards season crash
“Because of what we’ve seen, what’s happened with some unfortunate messages that have surfaced… it seems to have slipped back a little bit and lost its momentum,” Richards said of ‘Emilia Perez’, released on streaming platform Netflix. “It might still come back because it’s a fantastic movie.”