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We had four films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Zootopia

With an impressive string of features, Disney’s animation division has begun to eclipse Pixar in terms of quality, which is also leading it to more victories over that in-house production arm.

Since it’s rebirth under the direction of John Lasseter, Disney has created a string of animated successes that has been truly impressive. From 1999’s The Princess and the Frog forward, only one film hasn’t secured a Best Animated Feature nomination: Winnie the Pooh, which was more of a direct-to-video offering than a genuine effort at box office success. That’s five straight films with big Oscar opportunities, each nominated for the award.

Looking at statistics, Zootopia is currently the studio’s best rated film in the last two decades, which gives it a lot of assistance in pushing towards an Oscar nomination. To Disney’s benefit, they also have a second animated film coming out this year, Moana, which seems to fall more into the traditional princess role they once championed. Throw in this year’s Finding Dory from Pixar and 2016 will likely be Disney’s biggest year ever.

Knight of Cups

Until a high profile set of bombs, Terrence Malick was a visionary director whose work was frequently cited by Oscar. He had an impressive string of nominations that included mostly Best Cinematography citations.

With each new Malick film, we suggest that it’s possible it could do well, especially in Best Cinematography, but the film is receiving incredibly poor reviews, which means its chances are likely nil.

Cemetery of Splendor

With only 32 reviews posted so far at Rotten Tomatoes, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s latest film, Cemetery of Splendor is already one of the year’s best reviewed films with a, so-far, 100% Fresh rating with a critic average of 8.5. Over at Metacritic, it’s score is a superb 89 from 15 critics.

That level of support means that critics are sure to give the film a number of awards later this year in its run-up to the Oscars. The key test will be whether Thailand will want to submit the film as its representative to the Oscars. It also matters when it was released and if they are even eligible to submit the film.

I doubt it can win the Oscar as Weerasethakul’s films aren’t always the easiest to digest, but should a successful run of critics awards occur, it could have a better shot.

Hello, My Name Is Doris

When the film emerged from the festival circuit, many thought thrice-nominated Sally Field might pick up her first Best Actress citation in 30 years.

The film was pushed out to 2016, killing her chances. Now it’s about to release, but is the buzz still valid? A film doesn’t find itself in March and get considered for Oscar consideration unless the entire film becomes a contender. Since Field’s chances are likely the only ones the film has and fellow longtime actor Lily Tomlin couldn’t even crack the race last year, I suspect the film is dead on arrival with Oscar voters.

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