Even if the trailers have been a bit confounding, Oscar-winning director Tom Hooper's Cats may still be a surprise Oscar contender. But, if Universal Pic's Cats is out of the mix, then going into this weekend there was only one Oscar contender not yet seen by LA-based press: Sam Mendes' 1917.
That changed on Sunday when Universal hosted a series of private screenings for press and voters around LA, with the filmmaker and lead star in attendance, and was received so warmly that even these fatigued moviegoers applauded when its end credits began to roll. The film had garnered the same response on Saturday, when it screened in New York.
1917, filmed to appear as a single shot through the frontlines of World War I, comes 20 years after Mendes' directorial debut American Beauty, which won Oscars for best picture and best director (Mendes also won a Tony for his direction of the Broadway play The Ferryman the same year). 1917 is an epic drama told through the experiences of two British Army grunts (little known — for now — George MacKay and Dean-Charles Chapman) who are recruited to deliver an urgent message to comrades on the other side of No Man's Land, where Germans have reportedly abandoned their trenches, risking their own lives to try to save the lives of others.
That description sounds not unlike the story at the center of Steven Spielberg's 1998 World War II epic Saving Private Ryan, and numerous early reactions have asserted that 1917 is as great as any war film since Ryan. I don't disagree, and regard Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk in the same league — and would go as far as to say that it is the best World War I film since Lewis Milestone's 1930 masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front, which was also awarded best picture and best director Oscars.
Composer Thomas Newman, a member of Hollywood's most famous music family, is likely to receive his 15th Oscar nomination for best original score for his soaring contribution to the film, and it is quite possible that he may finally win.
In an insanely crowded year stacked with A-listers for the best actor and best supporting actor races, MacKay and Chapman - who are likely to be pushed in the former and latter races respectively - may be overshadowed by more famous faces. But, regardless, they should take heart in knowing that their work will be largely responsible for the best picture and best director nominations that are surely coming the way of 1917.
