ON THE BIG SCREEN

AMERICAN FICTION
R 
Jeffrey Wright has an Emmy and a Tony, but never an Oscar nomination, despite his acclaimed career in film. With American Fiction, Wright’s Oscar nomination chances are strong, after the comedy won the prestigious Toronto Film Festival’s Audience Award. Cord Jefferson of The Good Place writes and directs this scorching satire about a Black American novelist whose own story becomes a wild ride after he uses a pen name to author a novel that unexpectedly shakes up his life. Tracee Ellis Ross and Sterling K. Brown bring their own award-winning talents to the mix here, too.

FERRARI
R
Adam Driver is almost unrecognizable in this biopic of Enzo Ferrari, the famed Italian race car champion who became the world’s most famous automobile manufacturer. With two Oscar nominations under his belt, his intense dramatic turn here is a frontrunner for a Best Actor nomination. He’s working with Oscar winner Penelope Cruz (as his wife Laura) and director Michael Mann, who’s another often-nominated (four times) Oscar contender, making for an explosive group of talented people bringing a fascinating story to the big screen.

FREUD’S LAST SESSION
Not yet rated
He may be 86 years old, but two-time Oscar winner (and six-time nominee) Anthony Hopkins just keeps on going. Playing Sigmund Freud opposite Matthew Goode’s C. S. Lewis in this highbrow fictional exploration of Freud’s personal and professional life means there’s a good chance that Hopkins will add another Oscar notch to his belt—at least as a nominee once again.

THE COLOR PURPLE
PG-13
The first cinematic version of Alice Walker’s blockbuster novel The Color Purple garnered 11 Academy Award nominations in 1986 but didn’t win a single one. This new musical version hopes for as much love as that original made almost 40 years ago, with Fantasia Barrino a contender for Best Actress and plenty of other talented stars in the mix. Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. leads the talent in telling this decades-long tale of a Southern girl’s rise to maturity, which also stars Halle Bailey, Ciara, H.E.R., Jon Batiste, Coleman Domingo and Taraji P. Henson.

THE IRON CLAW
Not yet rated  
Can a wrestling movie get Academy Award traction? Of course, don’t you remember 2008’s The Wrestler? This true story follows the fortunes of the Von Erich brothers, who made their mark on that TV “sport” in the 1980s, combining triumph and tragedy as time went by. With an unexpected cast starring Zac Efron and Jeremy Allen White (both almost unrecognizably transformed), The Iron Claw is poised to be the sleeper surprise of the 2024 Oscar season. Maura Tierney, Lily James, Harris Dickinson and Stanley Simons co-star in this family tale that transcends the ring.