10 Possible Oscar Contenders From The First Half Of 2015

2015 has flown by fast, and we're somehow already half-way through the year, which means it's time to start thinking about that most hallowed of Hollywood traditions: the Academy Awards. The latter half of the year is sure to be dominated by what is referred to as "Oscar bait," from prestige period dramas about individuals who challenged the conventions of their eras (that's The Danish Girl, Suffragette and Joy this fall) to thrilling adventure-dramas about individuals battling against the odds in order to survive (The Revenant, In the Heart of the Sea). But the first six months of the year haven't just featured superhero blockbusters and gag-worthy BDSM romances (though it has mostly just been those two things). And so, I'm looking back on the titles from January through June that could stand a real chance of finding success come Oscar season. These titles, terrific though they are, will be fighting an uphill battle, given that the glut of studio-touted, award-tipped dramas is exceptionally huge this November and December, but we live in a world where The Grand Budapest Hotel, released way back in March of 2013, was able to triumph over the competition to earn a whopping nine Oscar nominations and take home four. So, no matter how unlikely some of these contenders may seem, stranger things have already happened. Here are my picks for the ten films from the first half of 2015 that could pop up on next year's Oscar ballots. (I'm not counting the more technical contenders here, but Cinderella, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Jurassic World, Furious 7 and San Andreas will certainly duke it out there.) Read on, and add your own picks below. 1) Inside Out It's not even a question - Inside Out has the Best Animated Feature win on lock at this early stage, but I'm lobbying for a Best Picture nomination too. Very few animated films have ever managed that feat, Pixar's Up and Toy Story 3 among them, but Inside Out is something really special, and everyone knows it. This is Pixar's most mature and adult film to date, and its handle on the intricacies of human emotion is unparalleled both in depth and imagination. Adults will get a great deal out of it, reliving their childhoods and perhaps even gaining new appreciation for the smaller events that didn't announce themselves but still stuck. And kids struggling to keep their wildest emotions from running rampant will be introduced to a most unexpected but stunningly intelligent symbolic language that could have not just superficially enjoyable but legitimately therapeutic applications. Inside Out is a tear-jerker, a heart-pounder and a life-reaffirmer all at once - it's easily one of the most ambitious films for children ever made, and immediately one of the best. Last year, The LEGO Movie was unforgivably snubbed, but there's just no universe in which the Academy could be so cold-hearted as to spurn this captivatingly cathartic cartoon. It's the Best Picture frontrunner right now, and rightly so - Inside Out seamlessly connects you to your emotions, the world and all of the other joyful and sad people in it. 2) Carol Cate Blanchett is getting terrific buzz out of Cannes for her performance in Todd Haynes' period romance about a dutiful housewife who falls for and begins a torrid affair with a female department shopworker (Rooney Mara). Though set in the '50s, the story of a lesbian romance is highly topical right now with marriage equality in the headlines, and reviews have hailed it as an instant classic, gorgeously directed and luminously acted. Particular praise has been lobbied at Haynes, who is primed to snag a Best Director nomination, and nods for Blanchett and Mara, costume designer Sandy Powell and composer Carter Burwell don't seem out of the question either. In this first half of the year, few films have been as universally fingered as a contender. 3) Youth Paolo Sorrentino's follow-up to his spectacular The Great Beauty is being hailed as another masterpiece, eloquent and elegant in its treatment of the human body and time's ravages. The lensing (by Luca Bigazzi) is predictably splendid, and reviews say that Sorrentino's setting of the film in a spa resort gives it an otherworldly, melancholy quality not dissimilar to such classics as 8 1/2 and Last Year at Marienbad. More optimistic than The Great Beauty but just as philosophical, it's being called one of the director's most accessible films to date, and the Academy likely won't pass up the chance to honor a filmmaker just now being discovered by general audiences in the U.S. 4) Mad Max: Fury Road Who could have imagined that Mad Max: Fury Road would be as rip-roaringly good as it was? Beyond the eye-popping visual effects and awards-worthy editing, George Miller's post-apocalyptic masterpiece is a triumph in every category, from the rich costuming to the immersive production design, firing on all cylinders to draw you into a world as meticulously detailed as it is deliriously insane. The score is a heart-pounding hurricane of sound, the makeup is absolutely jaw-dropping both in concept and execution and Miller himself is a maestro of destruction, presiding over utter chaos with a pointillist painter's precision. That's to say nothing of the acting, which includes a wonderfully reticent but pitch-perfect performance from Tom Hardy and an absolutely fantastic turn from Charlize Theron as one of the most fully realized and thrillingly feminist heroes in cinematic memory. If Theron doesn't get a Best Actress nod for her work, the Academy has legitimately fallen so far out of touch as to be from here on obsolete. I can count nine nominations Mad Max: Fury Road deserves - and with the thunderous acclaim it's received not as a blockbuster but as a pop culture landmark, it could very well land all of them. 5) Me and Earl and the Dying Girl If any movie is going to follow Whiplash's route from Sundance to the Oscar stage, it will be Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's genuinely moving tale of two high schoolers who befriend a cancer-stricken classmate. Terrifically written, sweetly acted and surprisingly insightful, this is a teen tearjerker that emphasizes life's ephemeral beauty in a way that's funny, bittersweet and never preachy. From first frame to last, Me & Earl & the Dying Girl is the real deal. Whether the Academy will respond to a quirky, teen-centric comedy is a very big question mark, but it would not be surprising to see the film at least land a Best Adapted Screenplay nod. 6) Ex Machina Science fiction hasn't connected with Academy voters since 2010's Inception, which received Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay nods (Gravity is much more a survival drama), but there also hasn't been a sci-fi film like Alex Garland's Ex Machina in many years. Thought-provoking, philosophical, subtly acted and impeccably written, it's a fully formed vision of artificial intelligence as bold and mesmerizing as it is deeply terrifying. At the very least, Garland's stunningly speculative script deserves a Best Original Screenplay nomination, and it would be thrilling to see Alicia Vikander cement her breakout status with a Best Supporting Actress nomination (though everyone knows Vikander should really be in contention in the lead category). The danger is that Ex Machina's early release date will lead to it being forgotten, but something tells me that there's going to be a considerable awards push that could pay off for the pic. 7) Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief Alex Gibney's incendiary Scientology doc holds particular resonance in Hollywood given the number of actors who've publicly embraced the religion, and its ability to paint the religion as deeply sinister and secretive just using the commentary of former members is commendable. A fascinating study of psychopathology and how cults abuse their members, it's investigative reporting at its finest. We've been using the faith as a punchline for years, but Gibney peels away the public ridicule to unmask something much more serious and scary - a far-reaching expose about a shockingly powerful organization that may well be beyond legal control. I would be shocked if the film didn't show up in a big way in this year's awards race. 8) The End of the Tour A24 acquired this pic out of Sundance, and if the distributor knows what it's doing, it will lobby hard to get Jason Segel the Best Supporting Actor nod he so richly deserves for playing author David Foster Wallace in James Ponsoldt's terrifically affecting The End of the Tour. This is a career-defining, jaw-dropping landmark for the actor, more inhabitation than portrayal, with Segel adopting the author’s halting manner of speech, gentle-giant frame and constant back-and-forth between unyielding reticence and sparkling exuberance. He's absolutely thrilling to watch, and the Academy should eat it up. On top of that, Donald Margulies' rich, ambitious script is a perfect distillation of all the achingly beautiful philosophy Wallace lived to write, communicating the author's brilliance and painful humanity. It should be a shoo-in for an Oscar nod, if not a win. 9) Love & Mercy Love & Mercy is an atypically brave and bold biopic that features not one but two stellar portrayals of The Beach Boys' Brian Wilson, from Paul Dano and John Cusack. Both actors do stunning, career-best work portraying the music icon, and the unconventional structure of the biopic is such that their stellar performances are front and center throughout. Elizabeth Banks is also fantastic in the supporting role of Wilson's love interest, who is more than just a pretty face and actually becomes an instrumental part of the film. The actors in the Academy will definitely respond strongly to this pic, especially because Cusack has never been Oscar-nominated despite a lengthy career of great work. He's a strong contender, while Dano and Banks' prospects are a little dicier but still solid. 10) The Hunting Ground Another Best Documentary contender, Kirby Dick's expose about rape on American college campuses is as timely as it is troubling. Though some of the public discussion it has birthed critiqued the film for being "alarmist," the general consensus is that Dick has made an important and eye-opening look into an issue that troubles college students both directly, in the case of those who are victimized by sexual assault and afforded little support by their schools, and indirectly, with regard to the many who live in fear and feel, as the doc suggests, like prey while at school. Expect the Academy to carefully consider The Hunting Ground - especially given the massive response that college students and teenagers (a demographic that the Academy desperately wants to stay connected with) had to the pic.