Oscars 2023: RRR and S.S. Rajamouli termed 'major threats' for Best Film & Best Director ahead of nominations

All eyes are currently fixed on the Oscars 2023 nominations as the preliminary voting round inches closer. The 95th Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 12, 2023, at the Dolby Theatre in California, U.S.A., with the nominations scheduled to be announced a couple of weeks prior, on January 24.

For all the Indian cinephiles, the focus is entirely laid on all the buzz surrounding S.S. Rajamouli's RRR at the moment. The film, over the past eight-odd months, has grown to be a cultural phenomenon across the world as a one-of-a-kind big-screen experience and is currently positioned very well in the Oscars race among the many top contenders for the nominations. Although RRR was edged out by Pan Nalin's Chhello Show as India's official entry to the Oscars, the mega Telugu blockbuster is being touted as a near sure-shot entry into the Best Picture category along with many reputed titles such as Steven Spielberg's The Fablemans and others.

Among the many affirmations, a team of film journalists at the Los Angeles Times recently ranked both RRR and its maker S.S. Rajamouli in its long-range picks for the Best Picture and Best Director categories respectively. The LA Times panel comprises six veteran film journalists who have each shared their views of the existing Oscars 2023 buzz and enunciated their picks through solid reasoning: four of the six panelists placed RRR in the Top 10 pre-nominations list for the Best Picture category with the consensus being that the film warrants a big-screen viewing for its "insane action sequences and furious dance numbers" which "will affix a smile to your face for the duration of its 3-hour running time.”

The same pre-nominations picks also include the hot-favourite The Fablemans, Todd Fields Tár, the Rooney Mara-Claire Foy-starrer Women Talking, and Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert's Everything Everywhere All at Once, among others. Steven Spielberg is being hailed as the frontrunner in the Best Director category for bringing the touching, poignant, and semi-autobiographical story of The Fabelmans to life with experts also keenly observing the pre-Oscar behaviour to reckon that this could be filmmaker Sarah Polley's year for Women Talking.

S.S. Rajamouli too manages to break into the Best Director list ahead of the nominations but considering the competition that surrounds him, his chances of ending up in the final list look a little bleak at the moment. 

On the other hand, Scott Feinberg of The Hollywood Reporter weighs in on the predictions with his expert lens and declares RRR to be a 'major threat' as far as the Best Picture category is concerned. Both Feinberg and the team at Variety reckon that the cult-favourite track Naatu Naatu is a frontrunner in the Best Original Song category. 

Variety's Oscar predictions also see RRR breaking into the Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Visual Effects categories. Marcus Jones of the IndieWire terms Naatu Naatu as the "dark horse" of the lot before including the song in his Frontrunners list.

In short, it is safe to say that the Jr. NTR - Ram Charan starrer has a glorious shot at history as the pre-nominations buzz reflects not one but multiple positives. Aside from the obvious Best Picture and Best Director categories, experts have also highlighted the technical merits such as the sound design and the striking visual effects of the film.