“Deepwater Horizon”
Conventional Oscar wisdom is that musicals are favored in this category, along with complex, layered action movies. That would make Damien Chazelle’s “La La Land” a strong contender, but his naturalistic, low key approach to the song performances may not play well with the sound branch. Peter Berg’s disaster recreation “Deepwater Horizon” and Mel Gibson’s World War II actioner “Hacksaw Ridge” are competing against massive effects spectacles like “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”and Jon Favreau’s immersive family fantasy “The Jungle Book.”
(Films listed alphabetically.)
Frontrunners
“Deepwater Horizon”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“The Jungle Book”
“La La Land”
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
“Arrival”
Contenders
“Arrival”
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
“Silence”
“Sully”
“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”
Long Shots:
“Allied”
“The BFG”
“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”
“Captain America: Civil War”
“Doctor Strange”
“Finding Dory”
“Jason Bourne”
“The Legend of Tarzan”
“Moana”
“Passengers”
“Star Trek Beyond”
READ MORE: 2017 Oscar Predictions
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“Arrival”
“Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk”