As the curtain closes on the 2016 ceremony, next year’s Oscars are more eagerly anticipated than ever.
The Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has instigated a range of changes that aim to improve diversity within the voter base, while industry figures and other notable voices have all expressed a desire for change. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton has already claimed that he will escalate protests if next year’s winners are all white.
Actors Idris Elba and Michael B Jordan might have been snubbed this year, but in 2017, a range of films and performances could provide the awards with some much-needed diversity.
Here are the films which might prevent #OscarsSoWhite from trending again.
A United Kingdom
Potential nominees: Amma Asante, David Oyelowo
British director Amma Asante’s last film, the period drama Belle, was seen as a small-scale sleeper success on release, with some suggesting that star Gugu Mbatha-Raw deserved attention from the Academy for her performance. Her next film sounds like it has a stronger chance. The cast is headed by Oscar nominee Rosamund Pike and David Oyelowo, who was unfairly snubbed in 2015 for his arresting turn in Selma. They star as a real-life couple whose marriage caused international outrage in the 1940s.
Loving
Potential nominees: Ruth Negga
Another film about the struggle of a real-life interracial couple comes from director Jeff Nichols, who impressed with Take Shelter and Mud. It stars Ethiopian-Irish actor Ruth Negga and The Gift’s breakout Joel Edgerton as a couple who were sent to prison for getting married in 1950s Virginia. Oscar winner Colin Firth is a producer, and the film’s powerful fact-based drama sounds like awards-friendly material.
The Birth of a Nation
Potential nominees: Nate Parker, Aja Naomi King
The biggest story to come out of this year’s Sundance film festival was the overwhelming success of Nate Parker’s slavery drama, which was purchased by Fox Searchlight for a record-breaking $17.5m. The actor, who had roles in Non-Stop and Beyond the Lights, also directed the film, which has been a passion project. He’s already getting awards buzz for his work in front of and behind the camera, and – along with co-star Aja Naomi King, best known for How to Get Away with Murder – he’s close to a cert for Oscar glory.
Queen of Katwe
Potential nominees: Lupita Nyong’o, Mira Nair, David Oyelowo
Since winning a best supporting actress Oscar in 2014 for her powerful performance in 12 Years a Slave, Lupita Nyong’o has been curiously absent from the big screen – bar a motion capture role in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. But this year she will be seen as well as heard in Disney’s Africa-set drama, based on the true story of a Ugandan chess prodigy who gained worldwide fame. The film also stars David Oyelowo, and comes from Mira Nair, one of the few Indian female directors working in Hollywood.
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk
Potential nominees: Ang Lee, Vin Diesel
Ang Lee is not just the only Asian director to have won the Oscar for best director but also one of the few film-makers with more than one Academy award (for Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi). He’s returning with another literary adaptation that’s likely to bring him yet more awards glory: Ben Fountain’s 2012 novel about the final hours before a group of soldiers head back to Iraq. A key role for Vin Diesel could also remind us, and the Academy, what a good actor he can be.
Collateral Beauty
Potential nominees: Will Smith, Naomie Harris
After misfiring with the earnest yet flat NFL drama Concussion, Will Smith is heading back into the awards race with this star-studded tale in which he plays alongside Keira Knightley, Helen Mirren and Kate Winslet. It’s the story of a man who falls into a depression after a tragedy. The ever underused Naomie Harris, wasted in last year’s Oscarbait boxing flick Southpaw, could also be in with a chance.
Free State of Jones
Potential nominees: Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mahershala Ali
The McConaissance might have stalled of late (Matthew McConaughey’s last film, The Sea of Trees, was panned at Cannes) but the actor’s next film looks like it could be an awards contender. It tells the true story of a white farmer who led a rebellion against the confederacy with the help of other farmers and local slaves. Gugu Mbatha-Raw, who shone opposite Nate Parker in the little seen romance Beyond the Lights, stars as the former slave who becomes his wife, in what promises to be a plum role for the underrated British actor. They are also joined by House of Cards standout Mahershala Ali.
- This article was amended on Wednesday 2 March 2016. We mistakenly wrote that Ruth Negga was British while she is actually Ethiopian-Irish. This has been corrected.
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