Why Bohemian Rhapsody Will Win Best Picture
'Tis the week before the Oscars, and 8 films are ramping up their campaigns in a last-minute push for the top prize of them all, Best Picture. The biggest award has the potential to be either one of the most anticlimactic or most surprising result in recent years. The former is true, because really only a few films have won any of the top prizes on the awards circuit, and one of those [Alfonso Cuarón's Roma] is a notable step ahead in the sweepstakes. However, many have called this one of the most wide-open Best Picture races in recent memory. Not only is no contender is a traditional winner, none is without controversy; those facts, as well as the Oscars' less predictable preferential voting system means that no nominee can be counted out of the race. Birdman's and Spotlight's upsets in 2015 and 2016, and Moonlight's stunner in 2017 dared us to expect the unexpected, so we're here to give fans of all 8 nominated films reason to believe they might win the top honors on Sunday night.
Bohemian Rhapsody, with one of the lowest Metacritic scores of any Best Picture nominee ever, has been fighting an uphill battle in awards shows since day dot. Perhaps that's the aspect that makes them the most intriguing candidate for the award: the fact that they should never have been here in the first place, if the critics had any say in it. And yet, much like Queen defied the projections of skeptical music producers, here Bohemian Rhapsody is, an awards circuit mainstay this season, and now one of the 8 films with the chance to win Hollywood's highest honor.
Much of the buzz surrounding Bohemian Rhapsody can be traced back to the stunning work of its lead actor, Rami Malek, who of course plays iconic Queen lead Freddie Mercury. Malek is the frontrunner for Best Actor, and it’s not hard to see why. Freddie Mercury was a once-in-a-lifetime icon; a star with a personality as grand as his vocal prowess. This makes for a titan task for any actor to portray, but Malek did so with aplomb. As for how this affects the Best Picture race? Well, Bohemian Rhapsody would not be the first film to ride a foremost acting performance to victory. Russell Crowe’s early 2000s domination comes to mind: when Gladiator and A Beautiful Mind, in back-to-back years, won Best Picture in the wake of Crowe’s Best Actor greats, despite being some of the lesser-lesser-reviewed winners this century.
Another thing hampering Bohemian Rhapsody’s bid is the sexual assault allegations surrounding director Bryan Singer. Singer, accused in December 2017 of sexually assaulting a minor, was fired from and disassociated with the film officially, but has not shied away from continuing to claim their victories as his own. Malek and co. have done a good job on the awards circuit of effectively making this film’s triumph about Mercury rather than their embattled former director; perhaps it’s that shift of focus that enables the Oscars to get behind it.
But truly, the most compelling case for the divisive film can be found in the form of a now-cancelled award. In August of 2018, the Academy announced they would be unveiling a new category, Best Popular Film, to reward the best popular film of the year. This proposal was eventually scrapped, amidst overwhelming backlash, with many decrying it as a blatant ratings ploy. Yet, even with the traditional Best Picture category, the Academy has their “Best Popular Film” nominee in Bohemian Rhapsody, and maybe rewarding it will be the perfect way to engage the everyday audiences and get the sort of eyeballs that the Grammys beat them out for year after year. It would be a win for the masses over the critical circles, that much cannot be disputed.