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
#UPDATE The Kremlin said Friday that Russia's exclusion from the G20 grouping of major economies -- sought by US President Joe Biden over its military action in Ukraine -- would not be "fatal"
Map locating theatre in Mariupol sheltering civilians bombed on March 16 #AFPgraphics@AFP
#BREAKING Putin compares attacks on Russian culture to Nazi book burnings
Opener Imam-ul-Haq hit a fighting half-century to take Pakistan to 136-2 at lunch on the final day of a delicately poised deciding third Test against Australia in Lahore on Friday u.afp.com/wsaH #AFPSports
#BREAKING Australia win third Test to claim historic series against Pakistan
#UPDATE Australia claimed a historic win against Pakistan on Friday, finishing 1-0 up in the three-Test series after winning the final match by 115 runs on the fifth day in Lahore
Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the test-firing of North Korea's largest-ever intercontinental ballistic missile, ensuring his country is ready for "long-standing confrontation" with the United States, according to state media u.afp.com/wsaf
Charts showing test flight altitudes and estimated ranges of North Korea's most powerful missiles #AFPgraphics@AFP
#BREAKING North Korea has 'likely more in store' after missile test: White House
As #Ukraine marks one month to the day since the Russian invasion began, the western city of Lviv has settled into a new rhythm of living in a country under attack
✍️ @JoeStensonu.afp.com/wsLN
VIDEO: Shelling lights up night sky east of Kharkiv.
Flashes of light illuminate the night sky and a massive fire from Russian bombardments burns east of Ukraine's second city Kharkiv on the night of March 24
Face recognition tech joins war in Ukraine.
Ukraine is employing face recognition technology to identify invading Russian troops killed on its soil, a complex and unprecedented avenue for software already seen as problematic, experts say
#BREAKING North Korea's Kim ordered test of 'new type' of ICBM: state media
#UPDATE North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un personally oversaw the test-firing of the country's "new type" of intercontinental ballistic missile to boost its nuclear deterrent against the US "imperialists", state media reported Friday u.afp.com/wsLg
North Korea's "new type inter-continental ballistic missile" appears to have travelled higher and further than any previous ICBM tested by the nuclear-armed country -- including one designed to strike the US mainland