This week saw several packages including content from Laika, DreamWorks Animation, A24, and Universal.

Missing Link

Oscar Chances: Uncertain: Laika is the only animation studio that has a 100% success rate in earning Oscar nominations. It hasn’t won yet. This film will test that studio’s strengths. It had solid, but unexceptional reviews and was far more kid-friendly than any of Laika’s prior outings. Closer in tone to The Boxtrolls, but a little more mainstream in its plotting. The film still has Laika’s brilliant stop-motion effects, which could keep the film in the competition. The lackluster competition could help it as well.
Campaign-Proposed Categories

• Animated Feature (Travis Knight, Arianne Sutner)
• Director (Chris Butler)
• Original Screenplay (Chris Butler)
• Cinematography (Chris Peterson)
• Film Editing (Stephen Perkins)
• Production Design (Nelson Lowry, Robert Desue, Jesse Gregg, Nick Mariana)
• Costume Design (Deborah Cook)
• Visual Effects (Steve Emerson)
• Sound Editing (Clayton Weber, Tim chau, Thomas O’Neil Yonkman)
• Sound Mixing (Tim Chau, Tim Leblanc)
• Original Score (Carter Burwell)
• Original Song (“Do-Dilly-Do (A Friend Like You)” – Walter Martin)
• Ensemble Cast (Hugh Jackman, Zoe Saldana, David Walliams, Stephen Fry, Matt Lucas, Timothy Olymphant, Amrita Charia, Ching Valdes-Aran, Emma Thompson, Zach Galifianakis)

Gloria Bell

Oscar Chances: Uncertain: Julianne Moore’s performance was one of the earliest acclaimed performances of the year, which could help voters remember her at year’s end, but too much time has come between and there’s just not enough space in this year’s Best Actress race, so she might not succeed.
Campaign-Proposed Categories

• Picture
• Director (Sebastian Lelio)
• Adapted Screenplay (Sebastian Lelio, Alice Johnson Boher, Gonzalo Maza)
• Actress (Julianne Moore)
• Supporting Actor (John Turturro)
• Film Editing (Soledad Salfate)
• Cinematography (Natasha Braier)
• Production Design (Dan Bishop, Dianna Freas)
• Costume Design (Stacey Battat)
• Original Score (Matthew Herbert)
• Sound Mixing (Mauricio Lopez, Anthony Enns)
• Sound Editing (Stuart A. Staples, Miguel Hormazabal))
• Makeup and Hairstyling (Jennifer Turchi Nigh, Laine Trzinski)

The Last Black Man in San Francisco

Oscar Chances: Unlikely: The film was well reviewed, but hasn’t caught on the way that Oscar contenders usually do, which means it’s likely to be forgotten.
Campaign-Proposed Categories

• Picture
• Director (Joe Talbot)
• Original Screenplay (Jimmie Fails, Joe Talbot, Rob Richert)
• Actor (Jimmie Fails)
• Supporting Actor (Jonathan Majors, Rob Morgan)
• Supporting Actress (Tichina Arnold)
• Film Editing (David Marks)
• Cinematography (Adam Newport-Berra)
• Production Design (Jona Tochet, Elena Nommensen)
• Costume Design (Amanda Ramirez)
• Original Score (Emile Mosseri)
• Sound Mixing (Kent Sparling, Sage Bilderback)
• Sound Editing (Dmitri Makarov, Kent Sparling)
• Makeup and Hairstyling (ANtoinette Yoka, Kimberly A. Carlson)

Midsommar

Oscar Chances: None: If Ari Aster’s better reviewed Hereditary couldn’t even score a nomination for the deserving Toni Collette, there’s little chance this film will catch on when its predecessor did not.
Campaign-Proposed Categories

• Picture
• Director (Ari Aster)
• Original Screenplay (Ari Aster)
• Actress (Florence Pugh)
• Supporting Actor (Vilhelm Blomgren, William Jackson Harper, Will Poulter, Jack Reynor)
• Film Editing (Lucian Johnston)
• Cinematography (Pawel Pogorzelski)
• Production Design (Henrik Svensson)
• Costume Design (Andrea Flesch)
• Original Score (Bobby Krlic)
• Sound Mixing (Gene Park, Ric Schnupp, Zsolt Magyar)
• Sound Editing (Gene Park, Ruy Garcia)

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

Oscar Chances: Good: The first two films in this franchise scored Oscar nominations and outside of Pixar’s Toy Story franchise, this series is one of the most acclaimed in animation history. Still, sequels get short shrift these days and even though it was acclaimed (91% Fresh, 71 MetaCritic), its box office wasn’t great, which might hurt the film more than anything.
Campaign-Proposed Categories

• Picture & Animated Feature (Bradford Lewis, Bonnie Arnold, Dean DeBlois)
• Director (Dean DeBlois)
• Adapted Screenplay (Dean DeBlois)
• Production Design (Pierre-Olivier Vincent)
• Film Editing (John K. Carr)
• Sound Mixing (Randy Thom, Gary A. Rizzo, Scott R. Lewis, Shawn Murphy)
• Sound Editing (Brian Chumney, Leff Lefferts)
• Visual Effects (Dave Walvoord, Simon Otto, Li-Ming Lawrence Lee, Gil Zimmerman)
• Original Score (John Powell)
• Original Song (“Together from Afar” – Jonsi)

American Factory

Oscar Chances: Uncertain: The Academy’s documentary voters are a fickle lot and I’m not as in tune with their desires, so it makes it difficult to guess how this one will perform.
Campaign-Proposed Categories

• Documentary Feature (Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, Jeff Reichert, Julie Parker Benello)
• Director (Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert)
• Original Screenplay (Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert)
• Cinematography (Steven Bognar, Aubrey Keith, Jeff Reichert, Julia Reichert, Erick Stoll)
• Film Editing (Lindsay Utz)
• Original Score (Chad Cannon)
• Sound Editing (Lawrence Everson)
• Sound Mixing (Christopher Barnett)