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

X-Men: Days of Future Past

As much trouble as the Avengers set of Marvel films have had earning Oscar nominations (only the Iron Man franchise and The Avengers movie itself have gotten any Oscar nominations), the X-Men franchise has had worse luck. Although it can be considered the progenitor of the modern supehero revival, the Academy has never warmed to it.

Even X-Men: First Class, which went into loving detail of its 1960’s setting couldn’t manage to eke out a single mention. That may change with this latest outing in the franchise. A time-travelling blockbuster set in the not-so-distant future and the 1970’s. It has a lot of competition this year from various superhero properties, but neither an Iron Man film nor a combined Avengers film is in the offering, giving the film the opportunity to be one of the few.

The film could easily make its mark in the sound categories or visual effects, but production design, costume design and makeup are also possible. The film’s been earning terrific reviews, besting even Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which some consider one of the best franchise films to date. That said, the Academy is still not very friendly to genre efforts and while I suspect a tremendous play at the box office and attention from critics and guild groups could propel it into consideration, I’d err on the side of caution when predicting this as anything close to an Oscar behemoth.

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia

Gore Vidal was one of the greatest political writers in history. His astute observations made him a go-to figure for Hollywood’s liberal elite when they wanted to tell a good cautionary tale of the dangers of modern politics. He foreshadowed many of the issues with the modern political climate and has earned a reputation as a brilliant political thinker.

His cinematic endeavors were infrequent, but he managed to secure Oscar nominations for three of his films: Suddenly, Last Summer, Is Paris Burning? and The Best Man. This latter film is one of the all-time greatest political films ever made. However, having never been nominated for an Oscar and the documentary is about his political commentary, he doesn’t fall into that oft-ignored film-centered documentary that the Academy avoids all too frequently.

That being said and as relevant and important as his political beliefs were and still are two years after his death, the documentary Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia isn’t doing as well with critics as a potential Oscar-nominated documentary feature should. A solid, but unimpressive 74 at Metacritic and average rating of 6.8 at Rotten Tomatoes (87% fresh at least) just don’t give the film the forward momentum it would need. Of course, critics could give the film a boatload of awards and it would then become a major Oscar contender. Right now, though, don’t expect much from it.