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

The Banshees of Inisherin

You would never know it from his skill as a director, but Martin McDonagh has only directed four feature-length films. His first, In Bruges, released in 2008 and starred Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell as hitmen wrestling with their demons. That film scored him his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Four years later, his second film released to much less fanfare. Seven Psychopaths came nowhere near the Oscars. Waiting 5 more years between projects, he came up with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which became his biggest hit yet. It received seven Oscar nominations, including Picture and Original Screenplay, but not directing. It also earned nods for three of its cast, Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell, and Woody Harrelson. McDormand and Rockwell won, but neither of the others did, including nominated film editor Jon Gregory, and composer Carter Burwell.

There’s the pedigree for McDonagh at the Oscars. With The Banshees of Inisherin, McDonagh reteams with his In Bruges co-stars Gleeson and Farrell for a meditation on friendship as the longtime friendship the pair possessed crumbles after an unknown falling out. The film has already screened at festivals to great acclaim and it seems like McDonagh has a strong player on his hands. Picture, Directing, and Original Screenplay are good possibilities, but it’s really Farrell and Gleeson who have the best shots at nominations and wins. Farrell’s been on the cusp for some time and Gleeson has been constantly turning in solid performances, so both would seem to be the strongest bets.

Wendell and Wild

Henry Selick is one of the lead figures in the modern stop-motion animation movement that has featured heavily in the work of Aardman Animation and Laika for more than two decades. You could even say that Selick is the man who built Laika with his last animated effort, Coraline in 2009. 13 years a long time to be out of the game, but he’s back and Hollywood will take notice. The Nightmare Before Christmas, James and the Giant Peach, and Coraline are titans in animation history, each great works of art with compelling stories told well. Selick directed all of them, though he only wrote the script for Coraline. Still, the necessity of the director being intimately involved in a live-action animated production means he had a great deal of creative input and control over those prior films.

What does that mean for his first feature in that many years? Maybe a lot, maybe not much. Wendell & Wild is the first stop-motion animated feature that focuses in on black characters, which might just be enough to get the Academy to take more notice than it usually does. That may also not be enough. What might bolster the film’s chances is the other people involved. The film marks the reteaming of Key & Peele sketch comics Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele. You might have heard of Peele before. Not only is Peele a voice actor in the film, he also co-wrote the screenplay with Selick and shares a producer credit with him. That alone might prompt even more support for the film even if it weren’t getting solid reviews. Of course, the big problem is Netflix pushing Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio instead and once again risking a loss in a category they have tried desperately to win the last few years.