Listen, I have no idea what films are going to be nominated for this year’s Oscars or next year’s Oscars.  I really don’t.  I can guess but I certainly am not a 100% certain about anything.

However, I do know that it seems like Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is being set up as next year’s big Oscar bait film.  Along with featuring an incredible cast and dealing with an important subject, it’s also directed by a filmmaker who many (especially on Twitter) consider to be overdue for some Oscar love, Christopher Nolan.

Admittedly, of course, it takes more than Twitter excitement to turn a film into a hit and Oppenheimer could be a hard sell when it comes to filmgoers who are less into history and auteurs than the members of Film Twitter are.  (Let’s not forget what happened with Damien Chazelle’s First Man a few years ago.  Or, for that matter, Nolan’s Interstellar.)  Personally, though, I’m rooting for the film.  I like Christopher Nolan.  I like Cillian Murphy.  I like Emily Blunt.  I want them all to succeed.

(Of course, I imagine a lot of the coverage will center on Robert Downey, Jr. and Florence Pugh and the phenomenon of two MCU starts appearing in a non-MCU film.  Such is the way of most mainstream film coverage nowadays….)

The first poster for Oppenheimer was released today and it leaves little doubt that it’s a film about a man who was at the center of the development of one of the greatest and deadliest weapons ever created.  A shadowy J. Robert Oppenheimer stands in the flames of his own creation.

Oppenheimer will arrived in one year, on July 21st, 2023.