From a bumper 2021 in which sprawling blockbusters finally hit reopened movie theaters, and streaming platforms released more prestige flicks than ever, 10 films remain in contention for the best picture #AcademyAward.
Here's a rundown from @andrewmarszal u.afp.com/wsud
@andrewmarszal Kenneth Branagh's semi-autobiographical #Belfast has long been viewed as a serious #Oscars contender. It depicts the outbreak of violence in his native Northern Ireland in the late 1960s from the perspective of a nine-year-old boy
@andrewmarszal#CODAfilm centers on teen Ruby, the only hearing member of a deaf household in a small US fishing community. The #Oscars contender, which cast deaf actors in lead roles and features copious dialogue in sign language, has been celebrated as a landmark in disability representation
@andrewmarszal Satirical comedy #DontLookUp has the starriest cast of any #Oscars best picture nominated film this year, with A-listers including Leonardo DiCaprio and Meryl Streep facing extinction from a massive comet hurtling toward Earth -- an allegory for the climate crisis
@andrewmarszal Clocking in at a minute under three hours, Japanese drama #DriveMyCar -- a subtle and slow meditation on grief and loss, adapted from Haruki Murakami's short story -- is the longest film nominated for the best picture #Oscar
@andrewmarszal Denis Villeneuve's sci-fi epic #Dune adapts the first part of Frank Herbert's seminal novel about feuding noble houses on a planet plagued by giant sandworms. The movie earned $400 million at the global box office -- the other nine nominated movies took $220 million combined
@andrewmarszal Combining the remarkable real-life story of Venus and Serena Williams with the A-list stardust of Will Smith, #KingRichard is an uplifting crowd-pleaser with strong reviews to match. The best actor #Oscar appears to be Smith's to lose, but a best picture win would be an upset
@andrewmarszal Paul Thomas Anderson's latest offbeat offering #LicoricePizza returns to his native Los Angeles, where a directionless twentysomething woman and a cocky high school boy strike up an unlikely relationship
@andrewmarszal Macabre carnival fable #NightmareAlley is undeniably stylish and immersive, but Guillermo del Toro's noir about a traveling "mind reader" who defrauds rich clients with sham seances is unlikely to match the best picture #Oscar of his previous film, "The Shape of Water"
@andrewmarszal Since its world premiere, Jane Campion's moody Western #ThePowerOfTheDog has been the film to beat. Adapted from Thomas Savage's novel about toxic masculinity in 1920s Montana, it earned the most #Oscar nominations and has racked up a slew of other awards
@andrewmarszal Ariana DeBose's performance as Anita in Steven Spielberg's remake of the most-awarded musical film of all time #WestSideStory is expected to win her an #Oscar after numerous precursor awards, but the movie's odds for best picture remain long
VIDEO: Hollywood grapples with Ukraine ahead of Oscars.
As Leonardo DiCaprio's climate crisis warning and Joaquin Phoenix's outrage over artificially inseminated cows have recently shown, A-listers are rarely shy about making political statements at the Academy Awards
BREAKING France's high-speed train system disrupted by vandalism: operator
#UPDATE Hours before the opening ceremony of the Paris #Olympics , France's high-speed rail network has been hit by "malicious acts" including arson attacks that have disrupted the transport system, train operator SNCF says.
"This is a massive attack on a large scale to paralyse the TGV network," SNCF told @AFP, adding that many routes will have to be cancelled and the situation would last "at least all weekend while repairs are conducted"
BREAKING The arson attacks on France's high-speed rail network were coordinated acts of "sabotage", a source close to the investigation tells @AFP
#BREAKING 104 police, 30 journalists among injured in Bangladesh clashes: TV
#UPDATE Protesters in Bangladesh set fire to several government buildings during a day of deadly nationwide clashes between students and riot officers, a police statement said.
"The miscreants have already torched, vandalised and carried out destructive activities," on the offices of state broadcaster BTV and the national disaster management agency along with "various" police and government buildings, said the statement, issued after a nationwide internet shutdown
Bangladesh wakes to torched government buildings, internet blackout.
This week's unrest has killed at least 39 people including 32 on Thursday, with the toll expected to rise further after reports of clashes in nearly half of the country's 64 districts
#BREAKING Biden says still considers Xi a 'dictator'
#UPDATE US President Joe Biden said after a summit with Xi Jinping that he still considers the Chinese president a "dictator", after he sparked fury from Beijing by making the comparison earlier this year.
"Well look he is, I mean he's a dictator in the sense that he's a guy who's running a country, a Communist country, that's based on a form of government totally different than ours," Biden said at the end of a news conference when a reporter asked if he would still use the term to describe Xi
#BREAKING China will not begin armed conflict with any nation, President Xi Jinping said Wednesday, after a high-stakes summit with US President Joe Biden.
"China does not seek spheres of influence, and will not fight a cold or hot war with any country," he told a gathering of business leaders in San Francisco
#BREAKING Any compromise with Russia will 'destroy' Ukrainian statehood: presidential aide to AFP
#BREAKING Putin says West used grain deal for 'political blackmail'
VIDEO: Ukrainian firefighters battle flames after a Russian strike on Odesa.
Ukraine's president accused Russia of deliberately targeting grain export infrastructure in the city after Moscow ended a landmark deal and lifted security guarantees in the Black Sea
#BREAKING Putin says situation 'difficult' in Rostov in southern Russia
#UPDATE Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday acknowledged a "difficult" situation was unfolding in the southern city of Rostov-on-Don, where the Wagner mercenary group has taken control of key military sites in an effort to oust Russian military's top brass.
#UPDATE President Vladimir Putin vowed Saturday he would not allow Russia to slip into civil war, after the leader of the Wagner mercenary force seized a key military headquarters overseeing the offensive in Ukraine.
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