In this week’s newsletter: We are entering the season where things get really spicy in the race for Oscar supremacy – and, unlike previous years, there is no clear frontrunner

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Let’s be honest, the past two Oscar best picture races were hardly races at all: the equivalent of Usain Bolt versus, well, me. This time two years ago Everything Everywhere All At Once already had one blood-stained hand on the prize, having built up a strong headwind of industry buzz since its premiere the previous March. And last year, Oppenheimer was on a similar glide path to glory, after its gigantic showing at the box office in July and August.

This year, though, feels different – and that’s not just me saying that to gin up a bit of jeopardy in this newsletter. The Oscar best picture race is wide open, with bookmakers, critics and industry insiders all torn over which film will be carting home that little featureless gold statuette next March. Already we’ve had a couple of best picture contenders released: Dune: Part Two, playing the Oppenheimer role of gigantic blockbuster with some actual imagination behind it; Luca Guadagnino’s much-admired sexy tennis tryst Challengers; and Sing Sing, a prison drama that ticks all the right prestige boxes but with real artistry at its core.