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We had two films release this past weekend with the potential for Oscar nominations.

Dunkirk

From an Oscar perspective, few directors will earn Oscar nominations at nearly every outing. Of his nine previous theatrical releases, Christopher Nolan has delivered six Oscar nominees. His first experience with the Oscars was with his breakthrough film Memento. Released in 2000, the film earned critical acclaim alongside two Oscar nominations for editing and writing. The film went home empty-handed, but Nolan’s film was enshrined in the lexicon.

His third film, Insomnia, was ignored, but he returned to the Oscars with his fourth picture, Batman Begins. The next three films he directed were all Oscar nominees with The Prestige being the last film he got nominated that didn’t also take home Oscars. 2008’s The Dark Knight captured two, including a posthumous award for Heath Ledger’s supporting performance as The Joker. That was followed by Inception, which became his first Best Picture nominee along with securing four trophies. His eighth film, the final one in his Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, was an Oscar miss in spite of its technical proficiencies.

That was merely a speed bump as he was back at the Oscar game in 2014 with Interstellar, which failed to secure a Best Picture nomination, but still managed to take the Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

Here we are, three years later, and Christopher Nolan takes a stab at his first incredibly serious subject: Dunkirk. The film has earned raves with a 92% Fresh rating (8.6/10 average rating) at Rotten Tomatoes and a 94 at MetaCritic. Those numbers suggest that the film will be a major contender at the end of the year and will likely bring Nolan his second Best Picture nomination and possibly his first as Best Director, something he’s been trying to achieve since the critical acclaim that greeted The Dark Knight.

Not only is Dunkirk a strong possibility in Picture and Director, I would not be surprised to see it compete in Original Score, Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup & Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects. An impressive 11-nomination potential.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

There was some hope that the visual flourish of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets could compete at the Oscars, director Luc Besson’s first major flirtation with the Oscars since his cult favorite The Fifth Element earned a Sound Effects Editing nomination in 1997.

His follow-up to Fifth Element was thought upon announcement to be a strong possibility for Oscar consideration. The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc had a lot of potential for drama and pageantry, but was dismissed by critics and was utterly ignored by the Oscars. While he made the well-received Angel-A, he was considered a director that wasn’t Oscar-friendly. Even his animated film Arthur and the Invisibles couldn’t manage to appeal to Feature Animation voters in 2006.

The Lady was another attempt at Oscar consideration, but it too was ignored by critics and Oscar voters. He followed that up with the Oscar-anathema The Family and the box office hit, but Oscar-invisible Lucy. From the very first trailers shown of Valerian, Production Design, Costume Design, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects were all handily in play. Now, they are all long shots for consideration. That doesn’t mean Oscar voters won’t still give them a nod, but I expect that other than Art Directors Guild and Costume Designers Guild nominations along with nods at the sound and visual effects guild awards, the film isn’t likely to make Oscar’s final ballot.

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