Oscar Race Gets Blurrier as ‘The Power of the Dog’ Faces Surging Rivals
thewrap.comnew Fan Favorite vote, where Twitter users get to hashtag their favorite film of 2021, which will then be recognized on the Oscar show in place of, say, a live presentation of the Best Film Editing category.As for that other Best Picture race, the one where the voters are 9,487 members of the Academy rather than anybody with a Twitter handle – well, that has become a tough one to call, too.
It, too, has a leader on paper in Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog.” Sam Elliott’s misgivings aside, that semi-revisionist Western has been considered one of the front runners since it premiered in Venice last September, and it has received more Oscar nominations, 12, than any other film.
If it ends up winning, all of the verbiage about how uncertain the race is (like, for instance, this column) is going to seem pretty silly. (Or maybe it’ll seem like desperate attempts to stave off boredom before March 27.)But is “The Power of the Dog” this year’s “Nomadland,” a film that cruised to a Best Picture win in a COVID-wracked year even though it initially felt a little too austere and indie to go all the way?
Or is it something like “The Social Network” or “Roma,” which rolled through the critics’ awards, racked up lots of nominations but fell to something a little friendlier (“The King’s Speech” and “Green Book,” respectively) when it came time for the industry to vote?
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