Deadline has set its lineup for Contenders Film: Los Angeles, its exclusive movie-awards-season showcase for voting guild members that this year takes place Saturday, November 15.
The stars and creatives from 13 buzzy pics from nine studios and streamers are aboard for planned panel discussions to break down the creative paths their projects took to get to this point. That list includes the who’s who of this fast-evolving awards season from Christy‘s Sydney Sweeney to Hedda‘s Tessa Thompson, Sinners‘ Ryan Coogler to Blue Moon‘s Ethan Hawke, and No Other Choice‘s Park Chan-wook to Sentimental Value‘s Elle Fanning to name just a few on the docket for the in-person-only event.
In addition, this year will feature specialized separate panels focused on casting, with that becoming a new Oscar category beginning in 2026, and stunts, which will debut as an Oscar category beginning in 2028. And in a Deadline first, del Toro, a longtime Contenders attendee, will receive the inaugural Contenders Hall of Fame Award.
Among the confirmed attendees for this year’s extravaganza includes Black Bear’s distribution debut Christy, with star and producer Sweeney and fellow producer Kerry Kohansky-Roberts ready to put the gloves on to discuss their true-story drama about the life of boxing champ Christy Martin.
Additionally, a pair of films are set from Amazon MGM Studios: writer-director-producer Nia DaCosta, star-producer Tessa Thompson and production designer Cara Brower will talk all things Ibsen and otherwise for Hedda, while producer Allan Mandelbaum, DP Malik Hassan Sayeed and casting director Jessica Ronane will discuss Luca Guadagnino’s thriller After the Hunt.
Other major-studio fare includes Warner Bros’ breakout period vampire thriller Sinners, with writer-director Ryan Coogler himself aboard to discuss; 20th Century Studios’ laser-focused biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, with writer-director-producer Scott Cooper and producers Ellen Goldsmith-Vein set to attend; and a panel in the works for Apple Original Films’ blockbuster racing actioner F1 which has become the highest-grossing sports movie of all time.
From Sony Pictures Classics comes three pics, with star June Squibb and writer/executive producer Tory Kamen set to talk Scarlett Johansson’s feature directing debut Eleanor the Great, star Hawke to dive into playing Lorenz Hart in Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, and Oscar winner Rami Malek and writer-director James Vanderbilt on hand with the intense post-World War II legal drama Nuremberg.
Neon, behind last year’s Best Picture Oscar winner Anora, is back with a two-fer of international favorites in Sentimental Value (featuring a panel with writer-director Joachim Trier and stars Elle Fanning, Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård and Inga Ibsdotter Lileaas) and deep-black comedy No Other Choice (with writer-director Park and star Lee Byung Hun set to attend). The pics were submitted by Norway and South Korea, respectively, for this year’s Oscar International Feature Film race.
Additional films in the mix include another Cannes pic, Dharma Productions’ Hindi-language Homebound, with director Neeraj Ghaywan and stars Ishaan Khatter and Vishal Jethwa; and HS Pictures Studios’ animated fantasy pic Dragon Heart: Adventures Beyond This World with director Isamu Imakake.
Contenders Film: Los Angeles is produced with the support of United for Business, Eyepetizer, AV8 Group, Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, Eichholtz and Naurelle.
This article was published by Patrick Hipes on 2025-11-10 19:04:00
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