Josh Safdie propels a dubious table tennis champion toward compromised glory, Paul Thomas Anderson sends a washed-up revolutionary on a high-stakes mission, and Bi Gan dissolves the boundary between art and reality into a bittersweet exchange.
One Battle After Another is set for some big wins among the major categories, though Sinners could potentially pull off some major upsets.
Kleber Mendonça Filho sets a vast stage for the tense political drama of The Secret Agent, tracing one dissident’s attempts to outmanoeuvre Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s, and studying historic expressions of grief and resistance distorted by its cruel, bureaucratic censorship.
