Why The Trial of the Chicago 7 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 two films have won any of the prizes on the awards circuit, and one of those [Chloe Zhao's Nomadland] is a notable step ahead in the sweepstakes. However, neither frontrunner is a traditional winner, nor 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. Spotlight's and Moonlight's upsets in 2016 and 2017, and Parasite's stunner last year taught us to expect the unexpected, so we're here to give fans of all 8 nominees reason to believe on Sunday.
Netflix has been chasing that Best Picture Oscar ever since they got into the original content game. They came close 2 years ago with Roma, but Green Book infamously prevailed. Last year, they had an even bigger chance, with the one-two punch of The Irishman and Marriage Story, but it went to Parasite instead. Now they’re going for gold yet again with what I think is their best chance to date in The Trial of the Chicago 7. Everybody who follows this stuff knows that judging from this year’s awards circuit, Nomadland pretty much has it in the bag, but I wouldn’t completely count Chicago 7 out as a potential spoiler. While Aaron Sorkin didn’t get nominated for the Best Director category, he is still a celebrated, well-respected writer within the industry (already winning a Screenplay award once for The Social Network). Plus, recently the Academy has shown us that getting in for Best Director doesn’t NEED to happen. Argo and Green Book both won in the last decade without having their directors nominated. It’s an uphill battle, sure, but not impossible. Other than Director, the film got in pretty much everywhere else that it needed to, including a surprise Cinematography nomination.
Don’t forget that Chicago 7 also won the SAG award for Best Ensemble (the SAG Awards’ equivalent to Best Picture), which means the acting branch truly did love this movie and its flashy cast of performers. Granted, Nomandland was not even nominated in this category at SAG so Chicago 7 didn’t exactly “beat” it, but still goes to show with a giant cast of more familiar faces, it might win that large branch over at the Academy as well.
Timing and relevance also play a factor here. Netflix has been hardcore campaigning for this movie, and using the riots in response to police violence as their big centerpiece to do so. From what we’ve all seen in the news throughout 2020 and into 2021, this movie feels practically ripped from the headlines, which is something that sticks in voters’ minds and the type of thing they like to get behind so that they can be deemed “important.” That fact, combined with the (admittedly very VERY mild) controversy that has stuck to Nomadland in the recent weeks about its depiction of Amazon could sway people to the safe decision of rewarding this softer, more tame look at policing and politics in America.
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