The end of summer marks the official start of awards season. Box office results will take a backseat to critical recognition in the coming months. “Can this movie be nominated for an Oscar?” will be a popular debate with 80% of the movies from now through the end of the year. Many award-season movies recently premiered at top festivals in Venice, Telluride, and Toronto.
If your genre of choice is drama, this fall season is for you. Most films in contention for awards will be dramas, from period pieces and psychological thrillers to character examinations and love stories. Below are our five most anticipated dramas of fall 2024. Who knows, there may be an Oscar winner or two on this list.
5. The Room Next Door (2024)
Pedro Almodóvar is a Spanish filmmaker who has directed films for 40 years with such highlights as All About My Mother, Talk to Her, Pain and Glory, and Parallel Mothers. Yet the Oscar-winner has never made a full-length English film until now with The Room Next Door. Based on the novel What Are You Going Through by Sigrid Nunez, The Room Next Door stars Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton as Ingrid and Martha, two estranged friends who reconnect when Martha becomes ill.
The film received a 17-minute standing ovation at the Venice Film Festival before winning the top prize, the Golden Lion. Almodóvar’s dramas are incredibly moving, and being that it’s his first English-language feature raises the level of intrigue.
The Room Next Door opens in New York City and Los Angeles on December 20, 2024. It will open in limited release on Christmas Day, followed by a January 2025 wide release.
4. A Complete Unknown (2024)
Nineteen years ago, James Mangold tackled the life of Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. Later this year, Mangold will investigate another music icon, Bob Dylan, in A Complete Unknown. Timothée Chalamet stars as Dylan, a young folk singer who relocates to New York City in the early 1960s. The film chronicles Dylan’s rise, leading up to his controversial switch to perform with electric instruments in 1965.
A Complete Unknown’s supporting cast includes Elle Fanning as Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro as Joan Baez, and Edward Norton as Pete Seeger. Though the title derives from Dylan’s song Like a Rolling Stone, it perfectly describes how this film will play during awards season. This film has not screened at a festival yet. Production only wrapped in June, so Mangold is racing to finish this film for its December release. We’ll see if this is a Best Picture contender in due time. The better bet is a Best Actor nomination for Chalamet.
A Complete Unknown opens in theaters on December 25, 2024.
3. Queer (2024)
Earlier this year, Luca Guadagnino made tennis sexy in Challengers. For his second act of 2024, the Italian filmmaker examines addiction in love in Queer, based on William S. Burroughs’ 1985 novel of the same name. Daniel Craig stars as William Lee, an American refugee and drug addict who fled to Mexico City in the 1940s. Lee becomes infatuated with Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey), an ex-Navy serviceman. The two embark on a sex-driven and drug-fueled romantic affair.
Queer premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it became a polarizing topic of conversation. Expect that divided response to continue when more people see the film. A24 will push hard for Craig to receive a Best Actor nomination. Starkey, best known for his role on Outer Banks, will also be on the campaign trail this fall.
Queer is currently undated.
2. Conclave (2024)
After exploring the horrors of World War I in All Quiet on the Western Front, Edward Berger is moving from physical bloodshed to psychological warfare in Conclave. Based on the 2016 novel by Robert Harris, Conclave dramatizes the selection process for electing a Pope. One Cardinal discovers a groundbreaking secret from the recently deceased Pope that could take down the entire Church.
Conclave’s cast features critically acclaimed performers, like Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, Lucian Msamati, Carlos Diehz, Sergio Castellitto, and Isabella Rossellini. Early reviews from the Toronto Film Festival were extremely positive. With Berger’s history with the Academy, don’t be surprised if Conclave is battling for major awards, especially Fiennes for Best Actor.
Conclave opens in theaters on November 1, 2024.
1. The Brutalist (2024)
If you believe the buzz surrounding The Brutalist, it’s the greatest American epic in in the last three decades. That’s how much hype is surrounding this movie. Brady Corbet directs The Brutalist from a script he co-wrote with Mona Fastvold. The film depicts 30 years into the life of László Tóth (Adrien Brody), a Holocaust survivor and a Hungarian-Jewish architect who moves to the United States after World War II. The Brutalist‘s ensemble includes Felicity Jones, Alessandro Nivola, Jonathan Hyde, and Guy Pearce.
This year’s Best Picture race is rather light. A movie like Oppenheimer is not expected to dominate every category. Could The Brutalist become A24’s Best Picture contender? The critical acclaim will be there. Now, it’s up to audiences to decide if they will champion a three-and-a-half-hour period piece.
The Brutalist is currently undated.