What films shown during the Universal, Focus Features, and Paramount CinemaCon panels could have awards buzz?

Welcome to my continued coverage of CinemaCon 2024. Today, I will look at the films presented during the Universal Pictures, Focus Features, and Paramount Pictures panels and see what films I believe could have awards buzz. If you haven’t already done so, please check out my previous article about the Warner Brothers and Lionsgate panels.

Universal Pictures

After dominating the 2023 box office and the Oscars with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, Universal Pictures and their sister company, Focus Features, took the stage at the Ceasars Palace Colosseum Theater on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. When attendees entered the theater, they were handed a light-up lanyard before being greeted by a slew of costumes from Jon M. Chu’s big-screen adaptation of Wicked. Even before the panel began, it was clear that Wicked was Universal’s top priority and going to be the biggest focus of the panel. So, let’s start there, shall we…

Wicked is one of the most popular and iconic musicals of all time. And, no, that isn’t just my opinion. Celebrating its 20th Anniversary on Broadway this year, the big-screen adaptation of Wicked is hitting theaters at the perfect time. While I am still unsure about the decision to break the film into two parts, the footage shown at CinemaCon confirmed two things: Jon M. Chu was the perfect choice to direct, and Wicked will be a MASSIVE awards contender later this year.

Based on the footage and the insights shared by Chu, Marc Platt, and the cast, Wicked will be a major below-the-lines contender. While it wasn’t revealed, I will safely assume that an original song or two will be written for the two films that will also get nominated. Chu and the cast mentioned multiple times that massive sets were built, so I think Nathan Crowley’s production design will be a major focal point when Universal starts campaigning. Along those same lines, I can see Alice Brooks’ cinematography, Stephen Schwartz’s score, Myron Kerstein’s editing, Paul Tazewell’s costumes, and the makeup and hairstyling team all being nominated by various guilds, critics groups, and organizations.

Regarding above-the-line, I think things get slightly trickier to predict. The film receiving a Best Picture nomination at various award shows is not out of the picture. I would bet money on the film getting nominated for Best Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the Globes. Regarding the performances, I need to see the movie before I can weigh in. While Universal will certainly push the film in all categories, I don’t know how they will slot Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande. Where they get slotted will ultimately dictate the likelihood of them being nominated. This is one of those situations where, based on the Broadway musical, they both should be considered lead performances, but we all know that typically isn’t always how the game gets played. The film landing a Best Director and Adapted Screenplay nomination may also be within reach, but it is too hard to say without seeing the movie.

Regardless of how many Oscar nominations the film ultimately ends up with, I think it is pretty safe to say that Wicked will be a film with quite a bit of awards buzz surrounding it. It will pop up in various categories and at several awards shows.

Another film that Universal showcased during their CinemaCon panel was The Wild Robot. About a month before the CinemaCon panel, a trailer was released online. After seeing that initial trailer, I suspected the film would be nominated for Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, amongst other award shows. The new footage shown during the panel pretty much cemented my initial hunch. I believe the film will likely be nominated and is a top-three contender in the category. While I know that animated films tend not to be nominated elsewhere besides the Animation category, it was not revealed if the film would feature any original music, which we all know tends to get nominated.

The final film that I want to highlight before moving over to Focus Features is Twisters. The original Twister was nominated for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound, so I can see a world where the sequel could be nominated in those same categories, with maybe one other addition being editing. I am not saying I am as confident about these nominations as the others mentioned above for Wicked and The Wild Robot. Still, it’s early, and I wouldn’t completely rule out this film getting a below-the-line nomination or two at some point during award season.

Focus Features

After Da’ Vine Joy Randolph swept awards season with her role in The Holdovers, Focus Features revealed their upcoming 2024 line-up, and it is chock full of award-season hopefuls. If I am being completely honest, I don’t think Back to Black or The Bikeriders will be awards players. In fact, I am still a bit confused about whether The Bikeriders can even campaign for awards in 2024 because the film was given an awards push when it was at Searchlight. I will have to look into this more. Still, the only two nominations I can see the movie getting, which I believe are highly unlikely, are Best Supporting Actress for Jodie Comer and potentially a below-the-line nomination in Sound. That’s it.

The Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black seems like it’s pretty much a DOA film. The early release date and the early word-of-mouth being rather ho-hum leads me to believe this one will come and go quickly. I see the film sometime in the next few weeks, so if I see it and feel differently, I will share my thoughts on it, but right now, my gut is telling me that this is a non-starter.

But let’s not be all doom and gloom about Focus Features; they always have an awards movie, and I feel like Edward Berger’s Concave and Robert Eggers’ Nosferatu will both have some awards play later this year into early next year.

After screening the footage of Concave and Nosferatu, my initial thoughts led me to believe Concave will probably play better with awards voters overall than Nosferatu. I can see Concave getting some acting nominations, given such an awards-oriented cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, Isabella Rossellini, and John Lithgow. The story also feels like something that awards voters will be drawn to, so I wouldn’t rule out a screenplay nomination, either.

On the flip side, I see Nosferatu as more of a below-the-line awards player than an above-the-line player. Granted, I haven’t seen the film yet, but having seen all of Eggers’s previous work, I know that he makes a great-looking film, and his attention to detail is exquisite. Categories like cinematography, production design, makeup & hairstyling all seem possible.

Paramount Pictures

ComicCon set aside 90 minutes for the Paramount Pictures panel, but the studio only spent about an hour of it. What was even more surprising about this is that the studio had more project announcements than any other studio at CinemaCon this year. Amongst the titles are Ridley Scott’s Bee Gees Biopic, a new Trey Parker and Matt Stone musical in 2025, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem sequel, a new but untitled film from Damien Chazelle, a new Spongebob movie, an R-rated live-action adaptation of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Last Ronin.

These are only some of the titles that were announced. Some of these seem like they would have some awards buzz, especially the Bee Gees Bio-pic, the new Damien Chazelle, and potentially, the Trey Parker and Matt Stone musical, but since we haven’t seen anything yet. I can’t even begin to explore what they could get or why, so let’s move on to Gladiator 2.

There is no denying that Ridley Scott is a phenomenal filmmaker, but after films like House of Gucci, The Last Duel, Napoleon, Alien: Covenant, and All the Money in the World, I have learned to take a bit of a pause whenever I hear about a new Ridley Scott project. I am not saying there aren’t positive elements to the above films, but when you go through Scott’s filmography, you will see that those last five films aren’t up to par with his previous work. When I heard that he was doing a sequel to Gladiator, I was curious about it but not very excited. Well, thanks to the CinemaCon Paramount Panel, I can honestly say that I have had a massive change of heart.

Gladiator 2 looks epic. The footage that was screened featured big action and impressive set pieces. The footage highlighted Pedro Pascal, Paul Mescal, and Denzel Washington with brief glimpses of the supporting cast, including Connie Nielsen, Joseph Quinn, May Calamawy, and others. In my eyes, Gladiator 2 looks and feels just like the original, and because of that, I get the feeling this will generate a tremendous amount of awards buzz for Paramount Pictures.

Now, getting into the nitty-gritty of it all, Picture and a few acting nominations don’t seem out of the question based on what I have seen. I think that Paul Mescal will be slotted as a lead actor while Pedro Pescal will end up in supporting. Denzel Washington will also campaign in supporting. When it comes to the director, there seem to be a lot of big-budget spectacles this year, so it’s hard to predict whether or not Scott will get nominated. I can see this being a Dune Part One situation where the film gets many nominations, including Best Picture, but Scott misses the director. Denis Villeneuve and Ridley Scott will compete for a directing slot with several other filmmakers this year. I don’t know how many big-screen spectacles will ultimately land a director nomination, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see many of them at guilds and critics awards.

Gladiator 2 will also likely receive multiple nominations in terms of the below-the-line categories. Cinematography, makeup & hairstyling, sound, production design, costume design, and visual effects all seem possible. I know that, early on, we don’t talk about the below-the-line artists as much as we should, but to me, many films that I have seen at CinemaCon feel like major players in these categories. It will be interesting to see what happens in the second half of the year when we get some films at festivals like Venice, TIFF, and Telluride, as well as new streaming titles from Apple, Amazon Studios, and Netflix.

Tomorrow, I will post my final piece on CinemaCon, exploring all the Disney-owned projects; since they own so many brands, I decided they needed their article.