With the Academy Awards just five days away, all eyes are on this year's Oscar winners. "One Battle After Another," which swept four awards at the Golden Globes—often called the Oscar bellwether—faces a fierce two-way race against "Sinners: The Guilty," which received the most nominations in Academy history.
Netflix animation "K-pop Demon Hunters" (KDH), nominated for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song, is also considered a strong contender. Industry observers say this could be another stage to demonstrate the status of K-content following "Parasite."
The 98th Academy Awards will be held at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles on March 15 (local time), presenting awards in 30 categories.
"Sinners" has drawn the most attention this year with 16 nominations across categories including Best Picture and Best Director. This breaks the previous record of 14 nominations held by "All About Eve," "Titanic," and "La La Land." The record-breaking nominations are particularly noteworthy given the film received relatively little mention in Oscar predictions from various media outlets. At January's Golden Globes, it won only two awards: Best Score and Cinematic and Box Office Achievement. The horror film is set in the 1930s American South and uses vampire attacks as a metaphor for white supremacist racial discrimination and violence.
Competitor "One Battle After Another" swept four Golden Globe categories including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress. The action blockbuster follows a protagonist who abandoned his revolutionary past and now lives a broken life, as he pursues an old nemesis who kidnapped his daughter 16 years ago.
Given "One Battle After Another's" dominant momentum through the Golden Globes, the main question was how many Oscar trophies it would collect. However, "Sinners" entered a new phase after winning both the top Ensemble Award and Best Actor at the Screen Actors Guild Awards on March 1. The SAG Awards, voted on by actors who comprise the largest voting bloc among Academy members, are known to have a higher correlation with Oscar Best Picture winners than the Golden Globes, Critics' Choice, or BAFTA.
Adding to the uncertainty, "Hamnet" and "Marty Supreme" have emerged as late contenders. Last year's upset, when Sean Baker's independent film "Anora" swept five categories including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress, makes predictions even more difficult.
Ten films are nominated for Best Picture, which honors the finest film reflecting global cinema trends and the spirit of the times: "One Battle After Another" (Paul Thomas Anderson), "Sinners" (Ryan Coogler), "Bugonia" (Yorgos Lanthimos), "Marty Supreme" (Josh Safdie), "Hamnet" (Chloé Zhao), "Secret Agent" (Kleber Donsa Filho), "Sentimental Value" (Joachim Trier), "The Train's Dream" (Clint Bentley), "Frankenstein" (Guillermo del Toro), and "F1: The Movie" (Joseph Kosinski).
An executive at a foreign film investment and distribution company said, "This year's Academy Awards will be even more influenced by the rapidly changing international situation," adding, "Films addressing social issues such as race—'One Battle After Another' and 'Sinners'—will compete for major categories."
Domestically, attention focuses on whether "KDH" will win Best Animated Feature and Best Original Song. Having already won at both Critics' Choice and Golden Globes, "KDH" is favored to win barring any upset. Interest also centers on "Bugonia," nominated in three major categories: Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Score. The film is a remake of Korean film "Save the Green Planet," with CJ ENM participating in screenplay development, planning, and production.
An industry insider said, "This Oscar ceremony will be a stage to reconfirm the roots and influence of K-content," adding, "Although Park Chan-wook's 'Can't Help It' failed to receive nominations, the nominations for 'KDH' and 'Bugonia' demonstrate K-content's enduring strength."