Killers of the Flower Moon solidifes Oscars chances as Best Picture frontrunner

After a heavy awards week filled with key precursor announcements, from the Golden Globes to the Critics Choice Awards, Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon is the contender to beat as the Oscars race for Best Picture heats up.

The latest episode of EW's Awardist podcast (below) welcomes American Fiction writer-director Cord Jefferson and Origin helmer Ava DuVernay to discuss their critically lauded projects making headway in the run-up to the Jan. 23 Oscars nominations, which also sees Scorsese's epic drama continue steamrolling most of the competition — on paper, at least.

Killers might've underperformed at the global box office (it grossed just over $155 million on a reported budget of over $200 million), but the three-and-a-half-hour film — inspired by the real-life murders of Osage people over oil fortunes in 1920s Oklahoma — is making up for it in stacked hardware on the awards circuit. To date, it has appeared as a Best Picture nominee at nearly every major precursor — including the Golden Globes and the Critics Choice Awards, atop its individual artists (Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, Scorsese) earning enough nominations to statistically place them at the front of their respective category races as well.

Still, industry voters have yet to speak on their favorite films of the year, as nearly all of the pre-Oscars groups that have announced so far have little (if any) membership shared with the Academy. On that note, Greta Gerwig's Barbie, a huge commercially important project that's the top-grossing movie of the year, dominated both the Globes (nine nods) and Critics Choice Awards (18 nods) with the most nominations of any title at both ceremonies. That, however, doesn't necessarily mean much, as the most-nominated project at any given awards show isn't guaranteed to lead the pack when it comes to overall wins (case in point, Scorsese's The Irishman, which earned 10 Oscar nods in 2020 without winning a single trophy.)

Another thing to consider is that Killers is not a newbie in this race; the film has maintained — and even increased — its critical and audience momentum since first debuting out-of-competition at Cannes in May, nearly seven months ago.

Speaking of Cannes contenders, Justine Triet's Palme d'Or-winning drama Anatomy of a Fall stormed back into the race with recent domination at the European Film Awards, where it won Best European Film, Best European Actress (Sandra Hüller), and Best European Director (Triet) from an awards body that shares crossover membership with the Academy. Last year, Ruben Östlund's Triangle of Sadness similarly dominated the EFA conversation before scoring three major Oscar nominations at the top of the year.

The next major developments in the race won't occur until SAG and the PGA reveal their nominees on Jan. 10. Until then, listen to Jefferson and DuVernay discuss American Fiction and Origin in the podcast episode above, and catch up with EW's ongoing coverage of top contenders in the Oscars race in the Awardist feed below.

Check out more from EW's The Awardist, featuring exclusive interviews, analysis, and our podcast diving into all the highlights from the year's best in TV.

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