Here are Anne Thompson’s current predictions for the 2018 Oscar contenders in the Best Picture category. Updated 2/23/18.

Click here to view our 2019 Oscar predictions.

This year’s strongest Oscar contenders are a mix of established veterans and rising stars. Previous Best Picture Oscar contenders Christopher Nolan, Joe Wright, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Steven Spielberg are back in the race with World War II original blockbuster “Dunkirk” (Warner Bros.), with eight nods, “Darkest Hour” (Working Title/Focus Features), starring Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill with six, period romantic drama “Phantom Thread” (Annapurna/Focus Features) with six, and Pentagon Papers newspaper saga “The Post,” with two, respectively.

Focus Features

The Sundance Film Festival in January debuted Luca Guadagnino’s critically hailed gay romance “Call Me By Your Name,” which Sony Pictures Classics pushed with audiences and voters after bringing it back to fall film festivals. The other darlings of Sundance, true romance “The Big Sick,” was a well-mounted summer crowdpleaser with an impressive cast, while smart Hitchcockian sleeper hit “Get Out,” from WGA-winner Jordan Peele, has campaigned to rise above its horror roots.

screenshot

READ MORE: 2018 Oscar Predictions

New to the Best Picture club are fall festival entries “Lady Bird” (A24), written and directed by Greta Gerwig, and two movies from Fox Searchlight, Martin McDonagh’s incendiary portrait of an angry woman (Frances McDormand) railing against her small-town sheriffs’ department (Woody Harrelson and Sam Rockwell), which won four Golden Globes including Best Drama and the SAG Ensemble Award before scoring seven Oscar nominations and five BAFTA wins, and Guillermo del Toro’s charming romantic fable “The Shape of Water,” about a cleaning lady (Sally Hawkins) in love with an exotic merman (Doug Jones). The movie took home the PGA, DGA and Critics Choice awards and lead the Oscar nominations field with 13.

A24

Frontrunners:

“The Shape of Water”

“Get Out”

“Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”

Contenders:

“Dunkirk”

“Lady Bird”

“Darkest Hour”

“Phantom Thread”

“Call Me By Your Name”

“The Post”

Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.