'First Cow' for best picture? A critic's guide to the Oscars if movie theaters don't reopen in 2020
A month and an eternity ago, when movie theaters were about to shut down due to the coronavirus outbreak, a few industry observers quipped that Elisabeth Moss was clearly now a shoo-in to win the Academy Award for lead actress.
It wasn't an entirely facetious suggestion: Moss is unsurprisingly superb in "The Invisible Man," an above-average studio genre film that, in a more straightforward year, might be a long shot for awards consideration.
But in a moviegoing season that was cut abruptly short in March, the joke goes, "The Invisible Man" is suddenly not a long shot but a potential front-runner. Not just one of the year's early critical and commercial standouts, it may also be one of the only ones.
That's assuming two unfortunate outcomes: First, that movie theaters don't reopen this year at all. Second, that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, which requires features to play in theaters to qualify for Oscar consideration, wouldn't adjust its rules, dates and deadlines accordingly. On this latter front, the academy is already showing flexibility: Its leaders have said they are "evaluating all aspects of this uncertain landscape and what changes may need to be made ...
