6 Reasons Why The Fabelmans Will Win the Best Picture Oscar

6 Reasons why Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans will win the best picture Oscar: The awards season always brings a titillating buzz with it. Even though most artists and purists deny the glamour of winning awards, secretly, they cannot help but have butterflies before the ceremonies. We are already finished with the Golden Globes. But the “big daddy” of award shows – the Academy Awards – is still a month away.

In the build-up, many contenders mount their bid to win the prestigious Best Picture award through strategic media appearances. A film must be promoted and marketed just right to substantiate its meritorious grounds to win.

This piece lists six major reasons why we feel The Fabelmans will win the Best Picture award at the 2023 Oscars. We believe that Steven Spielberg might have his second Best Picture laurel after three decades when Schindler’s List won it.

High On Films in collaboration with Avanté

1. The Most Personal Is The Most Creative

No, Martin Scorsese, you were not wrong. The master filmmaker’s secret was brought out to the world by Bong Joon-ho at the 2020 Oscars when he won the Best Director category for Parasite. It may seem obvious to filmmakers, but the essence of Bong’s love letter to Marty has put things into perspective.

When one goes back in recent memory, there is strong evidence to back it up. Alfonso Cuaron’s Roma, Lee Isaac Ching’s Minari, and Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast are all examples of this trend. The Fabelmans benefit from Spielberg’s personal hindsight tremendously.

Seeing the film never feels theatrical, dramatic, or in any way manufactured. It all seems to manifest from the filmmaker’s childhood memory, put perfectly into perspective by his creative genius. After years, Spielberg has conjured an Oscar contender with overwhelming odds of winning.

2. It Celebrates The Magic Of Movie-making And The Joy Of Storytelling

Cinema Paradiso made an entire generation of cinemagoers fall in love with cinema. Watching the film reminded them of going to the movies and immersing themselves in the vastness of the big screen.

Surrendering yourself and your sensibilities to the filmmaker is a tough ask, but Spielberg shows us glimpses of why that is always easy to do with him. Through Sammy, we experience first-hand the craft of assembling equipment, scoping out the landscape, filming it, and then editing the movies to find the best moments.

Small segments, like when Sammy uses pins in the celluloid film to create the impression of bullets actually firing – which impresses his father beyond the movie itself – are a testament to Spielberg’s statement. These little nuances can only come from one’s own eyes and memory.

The Fabelmans celebrate the magic Spielberg saw in movie making. The inspirational representation will touch those who did the stuff themselves and give us a glimpse into how hard and fun all the efforts were.

All of Spielberg’s short films in The Fabelmans demonstrate how he learned the art of storytelling. So much so that he cheekily used those short films to progress the story outside of it in the Fabelman household. One can only appreciate how thoughtful Spielberg’s creative choices were in manifesting these little things.

3. Intense Family Drama And Dysfunction Are Brought To Life By Outstanding Performances

External factors, some of those that we discuss in the article, can only do so much. The primary reason for a film’s success is the rudimentary bearings – writing, acting, and direction. Spielberg’s The Fabelmans has all of it in abundance. The three’s successful confluence makes exploring family dysfunction and self-expression themes very moving and insightful. Their substance is such that everyone can relate to them.

They carry a universal appeal, and that definitely makes an impact. Moreover, the subject matter is very closely related to the cinema itself. That makes it even more sedate and praiseworthy.

Michelle William, Paul Dano, and newcomer Gabriel LaBelle offer observant portraits of their characters. While it must have been a challenge for Speilberg to figure out how to reconcile reality with drama, under his direction, these three actors are allowed to mold the semi-autobiographical element with their own sensibilities of cinematic depiction.

Williams comes out as the standout owing to the more pronounced traits of Mitzi. Dano and LaBelle aren’t behind, even though their characters, especially the former, internalize their feelings.

4. The Steven Spielberg Recipe for a Masterclass

One certain thing: Steven Spielberg has no equal in Hollywood or any other film industry in terms of narrating stories. The production scale never really matters much to him as much as the overall appeal of the film to the viewer. He truly is the audience’s director, not being too fanciful with his style but keeping it simple and accessible.

You get a certain kind of warmth from his stories and characters, even when the representation of his cinematic universe is adverse or unyielding. That is exactly the case with The Fabelmans. When one looks at the canvass of the contenders, The Fabelmans is the most grounded film of the lot.

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once is the most ingenious creation of the past year and perhaps the decade. But the high-concept delivery mode is not always likable. Most people would have found it too extravagant for their taste. The same goes for most other nominees, with Top Gun: Maverick being an exception. Tom Cruise follows a similar formula to Spielberg’s. But in this contest, the latter is likelier to win.

5. The Inspirational Coming-of-age Element

Perhaps at the heart of The Fablemens, Steven Spielberg wanted to tell not only his own love story with cinema but also how he came of age. The family dysfunction allowed him to isolate himself and focus on the world of movies, and he quickly fell out of touch with the rest of his family. At one point in the film, his younger sister says to him, “You are just so selfish.” Sam put his passion before his mother’s happiness. And the mind again wonders about Sammy’s scene with his uncle in his room.

At that moment, the realization hit him; that to truly be a great artist, he had to devote himself to the art. His passion was just one, and it could not have more space for his loved ones. Artists are torn in choosing one or the other like Boris predicted Sammy would be in the future.

6. The Producer’s Guild Award

Now, this is purely down to historical odds. The PGA has acted as a more reliable precursor to the Academy Awards than the Golden Globes. The Globes do tend to capture the momentum of the awards show. But they are open to criticism on some occasions.

Even though The Fabelmans won Best Motion Picture – Drama in this year’s ceremony, the PGA will be the litmus test a few weeks before the Oscars to determine if it will take the laurels at the Oscars as well. If The Fabelmans wins it come 25th February, one can write in stone that it will go on to win Best Picture at the Oscars.