Roll out the red carpet, the Oscars is taking place on the 15th March. The Oscar nominees have been announced, and we’ve got an extra special Awards Film Season coming up.
To celebrate Cineworld is bringing back Best Picture nominees to its screens ahead of the 98th Academy Awards. But it’s not just about Sinners, Hamnet, One Battle After Another, and the rest. Our Awards Film Season also includes some fantastic titles from the past who received nominations for Best Picture.
And because we’re all for celebrating the winners and losers around here, expect a mix of those crowned and some that just missed out, but still walked away decorated in other awards.
CHECK OUT THE FULL AWARDS FILM SEASON
Hannibal escapes his holding cell in The Silence of the Lambs (7th February)
There is a reason Anthony Hopkins took home the award for Best Actor, and that’s because he is utterly terrifying as Hannibal Lecter, a serial killer who skins his victims. His whole demeanor is utterly chilling, and the scene in which he escapes, towards the end of the movie will leave you haunted.
In a less than secure holding cell in Memphis, we see the scale of Hector’s brutality. Using a piece of Dr. Chilton’s pen manages to unlock his restraints and murders the two officers who arrive at his cell to deliver him dinner. He escapes and bites one of the officers faces, ultimately using one of their uniforms and their skin to conceal his identity and escape prison. Best scene? Probably. Scene that will stick in your mind forever? Definitely.
Nominated for 7 Oscars, won 5at the 64th Academy Awards
- Best Picture (won)
- Best Director (Jonathan Demme) (won)
- Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins) (won)
- Best Actress (Jodie Foster) (won)
- Best Adapted Screenplay (Ted Tally) (won)
- Best Film Editing
- Best Sound
BOOK THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS TICKETS
The finale of The Graduate (8th February)
This 1960s movie captures a commonly felt feeling for anyone that graduates from university, enters the ‘adult world’ and feels a bit lost. That’s exactly the case for Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman), who ends up having an affair with Mrs Robinson, only to end up pursuing her daughter. It’s a silly romantic comedy that ends with that classic “I object” scene, in which Benjamin stops Elaine from marrying Carl.
It is the moments after this, though, that remain a standout decades later. The pair run away from the church, having barricaded the wedding party in with a large, gold cross, and clamber onto a bus. They wrestle their way to the back and the camera flits between the pair and the passengers, all looking back in shock. Settling on their expressions, their mood slowly shifts from wide grins to more morose expressions, juxtaposing the typical happy ending.
Nominated for 7 Oscars, won 1 at the 40th Academy Awards
- Best Picture (won)
- Best Director (Mike Nichols)
- Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman)
- Best Actress (Anne Bancroft)
- Best Supporting Actress (Katharine Ross)
- Best Adapted Screenplay (Calder Willingham, Buck Henry)
- Best Cinematography
Charlie learns who ‘Rain Man’ is in Rain Man (15th February)
Rain Man is such a gorgeous, heartwarming film as two brothers reunite – Charlie, an arrogant and entitled collectibles dealer who simply wants his inheritance, and Raymond, an autistic savant who was sent to a mental institution after their father mistakenly thought he’d nearly injured Charlie.
The moment this right is wronged is incredibly tender, and, to pluck a quote from Wicked: For Good, reunited sees Charlie change for the better. The scene in question sees Charlie finally under his childhood memory of “Rain Man”. He’d always assumed it was an imaginary friend he had, only to realise it was in fact the infantile way in which Raymond pronounced his name. Occurring in the bathroom, Raymond then worries about the bath water flowing, concerned it will be too hot. This solves the mystery of why Raymond was sent away, wrongly assumed to have almost scalded Charlie in the bath as a child, when actually he was saving him.
Nominated for 8 Oscars, won 4 at the 61st Academy Awards
- Best Picture (won)
- Best Director (Barry Levinson) (won)
- Best Actor (Dustin Hoffman) (won)
- Best Original Screenplay (Ronald Bass, Barry Morrow) (won)
- Best Art Direction
- Best Cinematography
- Best Film Editing
- Best Original Score
The coin toss scene in No Country For Old Men (17th February)
Tension is best created in film when little is said. The threat that hitman Anton Chigurh will kill a gas station owner if he miscalls a coin toss is never explicitly said, and yet anticipation builds and sees it stand out as one of the best scenes from No Country For Old Men. It also takes place right at the beginning of the film, which says something that it remains incredibly memorable, even while having the rest of this award-winning film to contend with.
Nominated for 8 Oscars, won 4 at the 80th Academy Awards
- Best Picture (won)
- Best Director (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen) (won)
- Best Supporting Actor (Javier Barden) (won)
- Best Adapted Screenplay (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen) (won)
- Best Cinematography
- Best Film Editing
- Best Sound Editing
- Best Sound Mixing
BOOK NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN TICKETS
The epic trench run in 1917 (19th February)
A pivatol moment during WW1, Lance Corporal Schofield has an important "stop the attack" message to deliver, but the trenches are too crowded for him to deliver it on time. Instead, he climbs out of the trenches and proceeds to spring across the battlefield while hundreds of British soldiers charge into action, with bombs exploding and gunfire flying.
The choreography of this scene cannot be understated. In many ways, it had to be a one and done with the crescendo of special effects going off around George MacKay. Filmed to seem like a one continuous shot throughout the entirety of its 1 hour 59 minutes, you can feel the exhaustion and desparation as MacKay frantically runs across the battlefield, with a heart in your throat moment as he is charged at by a soldier, only to thankfully get back up and continue his mission.
Nominated for 10 Oscars, won 3 at the 92nd Academy Awards
- Best Cinematography (won)
- Best Visual Effects (won)
- Best Sound Mixing (won)
- Best Picture
- Best Director (Sam Mendes)
- Best Original Screenplay (Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns)
- Best Original Score
- Best Production Design
- Best Sound Editing
- Best Makeup and Hairstyling
The emotional epilogue in La La Land (21st February)
La La Land is an ode to Hollywood and big dreams, and the final scene in which, years after their relationship broke down, Mia enters a jazz bar that Seb now owns with her husband. Both, through coming together and breaking apart, have finally realised their dreams.
Seb begins to play their theme on the piano, and the course of the film and their relationship’s highs and lows is played out again, but as if the two had made different decisions that saw them ending up together. Its artistry is in how the design is an ode to theatre as the pair glide through pieces of set – think wooden trees and painted backdrops – as well as pulling at the heartstrings of a beautiful alternate universe with a happily ever after.
Nominated for 14 Oscars, won 6 at the 89th Academy Awards
- Best Director (Damien Chazelle) (won)
- Best Actress (Emma Stone) (won)
- Best Cinematography (won)
- Best Original Score (won)
- Best Original Song (“City of Stars” by Justin Hurwitz, Benji Pasek, Justin Paul) (won)
- Best Production Design (won)
- Best Picture
- Best Actor (Ryan Gosling)
- Best Original Screenplay (Damien Chazelle)
- Best Costume Design
“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse” moment in The Godfather (22nd February)
The Godfather films are truly iconic that you'll be hardpressed to pick just one favourite, but it would be a crime not to mention one particularly iconic line here. It takes place during Don Vito Corleone's daughter's wedding. He is listening to his godson, Johnny Fontane, complain about not getting the movie role he'd gone after. He shakes Johnny and tells him he's going to fix his problem bt making "an offer he can't refuse".
This is a great introduction to Don Vito's character – a formidable man who gets what he wants and detests weakness.
Nominated for 10 Oscars, won 3 at the 45th Academy Awards
- Best Picture (won)
- Best Actor (Marlon Brando) (won)
- Best Adapted Screenplay (Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola) (won)
- Best Director (Francis Ford Coppola)
- Best Supporting Actor (Al Pacino)
- Best Supporting Actor (James Caan)
- Best Supporting Actor (Robert Duvall)
- Best Costume Design
- Best Film Editing
- Best Sound
One shot opening sequence in Gravity (24th February)
Pun not intended, the opening scene of Gravity is incredibly atmospheric. Alfonso Cuarón will not be rushed, bringing to the screen 17-minute shot in which we span across the earth, astronauts and the Hubble Telescope coming into shot as they begin to repair it.
It is almost perfectly silent, but the tranquility quickly changes as debris strikes and changes the course of the mission.
Nominated for 10 Oscars, won 7 at the 86th Academy Awards
- Best Director (Alfonso Cuaron) (won)
- Best Cinematography (won)
- Best Film Editing (won)
- Best Original Score (won)
- Best Sound Editing (won)
- Best Sound Mixing (won)
- Best Visual Effects (won)
- Best Picture
- Best Actress (Sandra Bullock)
- Best Production Design
“If I’m not Black enough…” scene in the rain in Green Book (27th February)
Green Book sees a blossoming friendship occur between world-class Black pianist Don Shirley and his driver Tony Lip, hired to keep him safe as he travelled around southern American states during the 1960s when racism was particularly rife. There are plenty of light, even comical moments, but the rain scene in which Don explodes proves an emotional turning point in the trajectory of the movie. He shouts, "If I’m not Black enough, and if I’m not white enough, and if I’m not man enough, then tell me Tony, what am I?!", showcasing the intersections of his identity and all the ways in which they isolate him.
Mahershala Ali's performance here is exceptional and gutwrenching, and we can't help but feel he was robbed of his Oscar.
Nominated for 5 Oscars, won 1 at the 91st Academy Awards
- Best Picture (won)
- Best Supporting Actor (Mahershala Ali)
- Best Original Screenplay (Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly)
- Best Actor (Viggo Mortensen)
- Best Film Editing
Weird dance scene in The Favourite (1st March)
No one can deny The Favourite is a bizarre, weird little movie. That's what makes it so great. And our choice of its best scene definitely summarises that. At court, Masham and Abigail (the Queen's favourite) engage in what starts out as a period dance. However, it quickly transforms into an odd, jerky, quirky dance, with flailing arms and odd poses, and even odder facial expressions. It subverts your expectations of the usual stiff period dramas, and compliments the absurdity of Queen Anne and the rest of her court.
What makes it that bit more brilliant is the way in which the scene closes. At first jovial and entertained, Queen Anne becomes slowly more sombre while watching her favourites. It's an Oscar-winning performance for a reason, and it's almost as if you can see the clouds of depression pass over Queen Anne's eyes as her mood changes and she withdraws from the party.
- Best Actress (Olivia Colman) (won)
- Best Picture
- Best Supporting Actress (Emma Stone)
- Best Original Screenplay (Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara)
- Best Cinematography
- Best Costume Design
- Best Film Editing
- Best Production Design
Running from 7th February until 15th March, book tickets for our full Awards Film Season, including Award Greats and this year's Best Picture nominees.
CHECK OUT THE FULL AWARDS FILM SEASON
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