Feinberg Forecast: Thanksgiving Revs Up the Oscar Race

Best Picture

Barbie

Warner Bros.’ summer hit was feted with the Global Icon & Creator Tribute at the Gotham Awards on Nov. 27, and no film seems poised to benefit more from the just-announced return to network TV of the Golden Globes, with its long-standing musical/comedy categories and its new blockbuster category.

Maestro

Bradley Cooper’s Netflix epic was highlighted at screenings and Q&As hosted by Lin-Manuel Miranda, Spike Lee and Jennifer Garner, among others, en route to its official Nov. 19 L.A. Academy screening, where it got a standing O. It also received the Cultural Icon & Creator Tribute at the Gothams.

Past Lives

The big winner at the Gothams was Celine Song’s drama for A24 that took home best feature over Passages, Reality, Showing Up and A Thousand and One. The victory for the critics’ darling marks a feather in the cap for one of New York’s leading indie producers, Christine Vachon.

Best Actress

Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

Apple must’ve felt conflicted. The actress won the lead performance Gotham, but it wasn’t for Martin Scorsese’s pic; she won for Music Box Films’ The Unknown Country, which, to most Academy members, is, well, unknown.

Best Supporting Actor

Charles Melton, May December

Melton, 32, won the best supporting performance Gotham over the likes of Ferrari’s Penélope Cruz, Barbie’s Ryan Gosling and The Holdovers’ Da’Vine Joy Randolph. The last two winners, Troy Kotsur and Ke Huy Quan, went on to Oscars.

Best Supporting Actress

Juliette Binoche, The Taste of Things

The French vet was the main draw at this season’s first SAG Awards nominating-committee Q&A after a screening of her IFC film, France’s delectable Oscar entry, on Nov. 15 — but then she lost best supporting performance at the Gothams.

This story first appeared in the Nov. 29 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.