Hollywood Week: "The Odyssey" Opens With IMAX Size Oscar Buzz, Brenda Fricker, Sam Neill

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Category: Entertainment News

Published on Saturday, 18 July 2026 09:23

Written by Janet Walker

Director Christopher Nolan's epic The Odyssey opens this weekend worldwide with a massive 22,700 screen rollout, across 73 international territories. The impressive high wattage film, with mixed reviews, is already generating record setting Oscar buzz.

The Odyssey Generates Big Oscar Buzz

As someone who has not yet seen Nolan's The Odyssey, in its 2 hours and 53 minutes entirety, and simply watched snippets, trailers and other released insights into what appears to be the biggest box office opening of the year, to date, I'll skip ahead to the Oscar announcements which will take place on Thursday, January 21, 2027.

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Without seeing the performances, and as opinions are, I'll leave the talent categories, which may end up being stacked, at least in supporting. I expect The Odyssey to earn before talent, 12 academy award nominations plus a possible nomination for Original Song, and with at least one nomination in all talent categories, Nolan's The Odyssey could earn a record-breaking 17 nominations.

Visual and Production Awards, or the technical categories, are easy, as Nolan has built this world of ancient Greece, one would expect a nomination in for Ruth De Jong in Production Design, in Cinematography for Nolan's' DP Hoyte van Hoytema, Visual Effects, and Sound (Design, Editing and Mixing).

Makeup (Luisa Abel) and Hairstyling (Gloria Casny) and Costume Design (Ellen Mirojnick) categories, while on a grand scale, may have the weakest chances of securing a nomination. The lead talent are all wearing garments that drape, but most without form or design. Some may say, how intricate or ornate is a toga or tunic?

Although the grand scale and the sheer volume of designers, seamstresses, and artisans needed to create the 5300 costumes will weigh heavily with voters. After reviewing the gargantuan task and craftspeople needed to create authenticity, I was persuaded that even with the simplicity of the lead costumes, The Odyssey will secure nominations in both categories.

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Three time Oscar winner, (Sinners, Black Panther, and Oppenheimer) Ludwig Goransson will undoubtedly receive a nomination in the Original Score category.  Expected to be submitted for Original Song, "When I'm Home," by James Blake, Travis Scott, and Ludwig Göransson, may receive a nomination.

Even though Academy voters have been surprising in the past with Best Picture with ten possible slots, and Nolan's eight total Academy Award nominations and two wins, as Director and Best Picture (Producer) for Oppenheimer, he is sure to find a place in the mix. Best Director narrows to five nominees, and it is expected that he will earn the nomination from Academy voters.

As The Odyssey is adapted from Homer's epic poem, as far as screenplay, Nolan should receive an Adapted Screenplay nod.  Seasoned Film editing veteran and Oscar winner Jennifer Lame, who won her first Academy Award for her work on Nolan's Oppenheimer, is sure to receive a nomination.  And as this is the second year for the Casting category, John Papsidera, the casting director behind Nolan's star packed talent should be among the five nominees shortlisted.

Onto the talent, based only on opinions, which change frequently, The Odyssey should be represented in all four talent categories. Unfortunately, the supporting talent categories may be stacked with multiple nominees which usually cancel each other out.

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Brenda Fricker, First Irish Actress to Win Oscar, Dies

Brenda Fricker, the first Irish actress to win an Oscar, has died. She was 81.

Fricker, who won her Oscar for her role opposite Daniel Day Lewis, in My Left Foot may be best known to audiences for her role as the Central Park Pigeon lady, who befriended Macaulay Culkin, in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. With her comforting Irish voice, she also stared as the foster mother in Angels in the Outfield.

Fricker, whose career spanned for six decades, stared in more than 100 productions, earning both critical acclaim and commercial success.

"Her talent agent Phil Belfield confirmed Fricker's death in a statement shared with The Times on Friday. The actor died peacefully Thursday evening in Dublin after a "period of ill health," he said. "We will never see her like again and the world is lesser for the lack of her," Belfield said in the statement. "I was honored to know, love and work with her and she will always have a place in my heart and in the heart of so many film and TV fans the world over," The Los Angeles Times reported.

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Sam Neill, of Jurassic Park, Peaky Blinders Fame, Dies

New Zealand actor Sam Neill, whom many will remember as Dr. Alan Grant in the blockbuster movie Jurassic Park, died unexpectedly this week. He was 78.

Neill, whose wide-eyed amazement and wonder at the sight of the extinct dinosaurs became a signature for the films, and a meme for the world, he starred in each of the subsequent sequels to equal success.

With a career spanning nearly six decades, before the fame of Jurassic Park, Neill starred as the husband of Nicole Kidman's character in the 1989 at sea horror film, Dead Calm, and as Captain Borodin, opposite Sean Connery in the 1990 film The Hunt for Red October, and the husband to Holly Hunter in the Academy Award winning 1993 film, The Piano. Recently he also starred opposite in Cillian Murphy in the Irish streaming hit series "Peaky Blinders."

"Neill announced in April that after five years of living with cancer he was in remission due to a new cancer therapy. Neill had Stage 3 angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, a rare and aggressive type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He used his remission to promote CAR T-cell therapy, which genetically alters one's cells to fight cancer, after he said chemotherapy stopped working. He died Monday in Sydney, Australia," The Los Angeles Times reported.

According to a statement his family posted on Instagram, "Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that characterized his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free."

It has since been revealed that he died from complication brought on from pneumonia.

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Janet Walker is the publisher, founder, and sole owner of Haute-Lifestyle.com. A graduate of New York University, she has been covering international news through the Beltway Insider, a weekly review of the nation's top stories, for more than a decade.  A general beat writer/reporter and entertainment/film critic, she is also an accomplished news/investigative news/crime reporter and submitted for Pulitzer Prize consideration "Cops Conspire to Deep Six Sex Assaults" in the Breaking News Category and was persuaded to withdraw the submission. Ms. Walker has completed five award-winning screenplays "The Six Sides of Truth," "The Assassins of Fifth Avenue," "The Wednesday Killer," "The Manhattan Project," and the sci-fi thriller "Project 13: The Last Day." She has also published "Unholy Alliances: A True Crime Story," a non-fiction narrative, "Days, Times, Seasons, and Events: A Collection of Poetry & Prose," and "Songs of Freedom: A Collection of Biblical Teachings," which can be purchased here. She is a member of the Authors Guild, the Los Angeles Press Club, the National Writers Union, and a member of the International Federation of Journalists.