Apart from Christmas (obviously), Awards season for me is the most wonderful time of the year. Beginning in January with the Golden Globes, and concluding with the Oscars typically in early March, the two month season features a plethora of gorgeous celebrities in gorgeous gowns and suits being praised by their peers for their work in the previous year. Although Hollywood award shows have been criticised previously for being too predictable, big surprises (like Olivia Coleman snatching that Best Actress Oscar from Glenn Close's grasp this year) often spring up. If you've paid any attention to any award season in recent years, even casually, you'll begin to notice some common tropes which crop up year after year. Biopics, this being a story of someone important's life, always do well during awards season, as do transformative roles like Christian Bale's portrays of Dicky Eklund in "The Fighter" (2010) and Eddie Redmayne's iteration of famed scientist Stephen Hawking in "The Theory of Everything" (2014) which won both actor's Oscars in their respective years. This is a trend which will undoubtedly be repeated this year, with "Harriet", the story of abolitionist Harriet Tubman and Quentin Tarantino's "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood" (through not strictly a biopic it still tells the story of well known figures and a well known event, the murder of Sharon Tate and others by the Manson family), all but guaranteed to score numerous nominations especially for their lead actors. Yet in recent years, it has appeared that the governing bodies behind the most popular award shows, as well as those voting for the winners, have become aware of the fact that audience's have grown tired of seeing the same type of films win awards each year. Take the immense backlash behind Green Book winning this year's best picture award. The film was enjoyable, but average at best, definitely not deserving of the award in a year that brought us "Roma", "A Star is Born" and "The Favourite". Therefore, I think that this year, for the first time since 2011, a comedic film will win best picture, as awards committees seek to engage more with film fans, as opposed to sticky merely to the conventional "Oscar bait" movies.
Thus far this year, and while it is still quite early on in the season to be nailing down award contenders, the best films to come out have been comedies, and in two cases, also musicals. Danny Boyle's "Yesterday", and Dexter Fletcher's "Rocketman" will definitely be in contention for big prizes come the start of award season next January, and I would even go so far as to argue that the only thing that will prevent Taron Egerton from swooping the Best Actor prizes is if voters become cautious about giving the award two years in a row to an actor portraying a famous British muscian. This being said, no-one will beat Egerton to the trophy at the Golden Globes, the only award show which segregates film and television awards based on their genre, with there being both a drama, and a comedy/musical category. In fact the only possible thing which could stand in Egerton's way is if the studio chooses to put the film forward for consideration in the drama category, much like what 20th Century Fox did Wirth Bohemian Rhapsody last year. "Rocketman" has performed incredibly well with audiences and critics and could be a case of the academies seeking to give more award recognition to box office hits.
I would also expect to see "Yesterday"'s Himish Patel amongst the contenders in the Golden Globes race but wouldn't expect him to go much further than that. Nominations for director Danny Boyle, supporting actress Lily James and screenplay writer Richard Curtis should also be expected.
Also dominating the award season conversation thus far is the increase in female led comedies. Of those which have come out thus far, Nisha Ganatra's "Late Night" written by and starring Mindy Kailing and standout summer hit "Booksmart" helmed by first time director Olivia Wilde have dominated the conversation. Awards darling Emma Thompson verges on Meryl Streep territory of awards committees nominating her for just about every role she takes, and Kailing's writing may also be recognised. "Booksmart" looks set to dominate awards season, being adored by fans and critics alike. Although, it does run the slight risk of facing the same fate as "Eight Grade" last year, opening early in the awards season to critical acclaim before ultimately being forgotten. Standout leads Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever could be in for acting nominations, and don't be surprised if Olivia Wilde ends up joining the likes of Greta Gerwig and Katheryn Bigelow as an Oscar Nominated female director.
Of course, it is still incredibly early in the awards season calendar and there is always the chance of summer films being forgotten about come awards season, but even if the mentioned films don't get much of a look in come January, there certainly is a sense amongst the awards community that a shift is coming in terms of what sort of films win the big prises. 2011's "The Artist" is considered to be the last comedy to win best picture, with 2002's "Chicago" being the last musical to score the industry's top prize. Since then biopics and conventional "Oscar bait" films have dominated the race, but this year looks set to be different given the immense talent already in the comedy categories. And, finally mentioning the 2.8 Billion dollar elephant in the room, how could any academy think to overlook the highest grossing film of all time, which, I am sure, will scoop some big awards (if not just major nominations) for this feat. It may be a while to come yet but a best picture nomination for Avengers: Endgame, even if it is just a "we see what you did, here's us recognising that but you'll never actually win it" nomination should be absolutely certain come next year.
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