By Nina Heyn – Your Culture Scout
This year, there are hardly any choices of theatrical films to qualify for Best Picture nominations. Current leading contenders in this year’s Oscar race are All Quiet on the Western Front, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever as well as Top Gun: Maverick. The last one, already predicted to win, hardly needs any introduction, having grossed almost $1.5B in theaters worldwide since its May 2022 release. If this movie does win, it will be for its successful return to the world of test pilots and Tom Cruise as an uncontested star of that world first created in 1986. However, the two other titles among the front-runners for Best Picture nominations are also trips down the memory lane of previous and likewise very original movies. While the three films stand a good chance for nomination if not winning outright, I was more impressed by the humanism of other movies that may have popular recognition but whose prospects for Oscar gold are currently unclear. Let’s first take a quick look at the two strong contenders other than Top Gun: Maverick.
