Last week, I forgot to post this. I’m doing it this week along with the nothing that came out this week. We had one film release these past two weekends with the potential for Oscar nominations.

In the Heights

Before it was shunted to 2021 due to the pandemic, Lin-Manuel Miranda’s long-awaited adaptation of his Tony-winning Broadway debut was thought to be a major Oscar contender. With most of last year’s major players moving to 2021 and only a handful staying behind, the calculus for this year’s Oscars hasn’t changed much with In the Heights promising to be a major player. With strong reviews, but an anemic box office (thanks to Warner Bros.’ HBO Max self-cannibalization), there is some room for the film to be missed, especially with its cast of young unfamiliar faces.

After playing tryouts in Connecticut, the show moved off-Broadway in 2007 before opening at the Richard Rodgers Theatre on Broadway in 2008. It ran for three years and had almost 1200 performances before closing in 2011. It was nominated for a staggering 13 Tony nominations with the show, Miranda’s score, and the show’s choreography and orchestrations taking home awards while everyone else, including Miranda as Best Actor, Robin de Jesús in Featured Actor, and Olga Merediz in Featured Actress. Exchanging almost the entire cast of the Broadway, Off-Broadway, and Connecticut runs, Oscar voters will have plenty of new faces to choose from. Strangely enough, Merediz is the only carry over from the original show and she’s also the most likely of the entire cast to land an Oscar nomination.

That said, the categories in which the film has its best opportunities are Best Picture and Directing, Adapted Screenplay, one or both of the original songs from the film, Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, and Sound. In addition, all four acting categories have contenders with Anthony Ramos and Melissa Barrera contending in the lead categories and Merediz and Jimmy Smits in support. Considering Miranda’s popularity, there is an opportunity here for the film to equal La La Land‘s impressive thirteen Oscar nominations and even top it, though history doesn’t favor that option and a high single digit and very low double-digit count possible.