How ‘One Battle After Another’ Aims for Oscar Glory Like ‘Schindler’s List’

A Legacy of Excellence

One Battle After Another has achieved what only three other films have, winning the Best Picture prizes from all Big Four critics associations: New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, the National Board of Review, and the National Society of Film Critics. The comedy action thriller joins Schindler’s List, L.A. Confidential, and The Social Network as the only films with that prestigious crowning achievement.

All those movies have done massively well on their way to the Oscars, becoming huge contenders and threats to nab the Best Picture prize. Let’s take a look back at those years and explore each of those film’s journeys and see what it means for the Oscar chances of One Battle After Another.

Schindler’s List: A Historic Achievement

Schindler’s List was the first film to rack up the quartet of honors back in 1993 – and it was a major sign of things to come. The historical Holocaust epic starring Oscar nominees Liam Neeson and Ralph Fiennes, was a box-office smash and is considered one of the greatest films ever made, underscored by its dominating and uncontested performance at all the critics’ groups, the Golden Globe Awards, the BAFTA Awards, and all the guild awards, notably for its screenplay, direction, and production. This gave Steven Spielberg his first two Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director, and the movie took home seven Oscar statuettes in 12 nominations, including for its score, editing, cinematography, and production design.

L.A. Confidential: A Neo-Noir Triumph

Four years later, the ensemble neo-noir L.A. Confidential would repeat this rarity, but would have much steeper competition: 1997 was also the year of James Cameron’s Titanic. The romantic epic became a juggernaut, raking in over $2 billion at the box office and becoming the fourth-highest-grossing movie in history. Titanic went on to tie the record for the most Oscar wins, besting the Curtis Hanson crime thriller in almost all major categories; but L.A. Confidential was able to triumph in Best Supporting Actress for Kim Basinger and Best Adapted Screenplay for Hanson and Brian Helgeland, among the film’s nine total nominations.

The Social Network: A Close Call

It would not be until 2010 when The Social Network became the third film to run the Big Four table, and the film appeared to be the frontrunner after winning the Golden Globe for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Score. However, once the guild awards chimed in, momentum shifted to The King’s Speech, which went on to defeat the Mark Zuckerberg biopic for the top prizes and, like L.A. Confidential, come up just short, despite being deemed one of the best movies of the 21st century. The Facebook film directed by David Fincher did go on to succeed at the Oscars for Best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin, Best Original Score for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, and Best Editing for Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall, in the midst of eight nominations.

One Battle After Another: A New Contender

One Battle After Another appears to be on the precipice of repeating the dominating run of Schindler’s List after cleaning up with the critics’ prizes, the Critics Choice Awards, and most recently bagging Golden Globe Awards, including three for Paul Thomas Anderson, who swept his respective screenplay, director, and picture races. Anderson has also won three of the top four critics’ prizes – missing NYFCC, which went to Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident – and of the six directors on that list he joins, all have been nominated for the Oscar and three have won: Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), and Chloé Zhao (Nomadland). With his recent bid at the DGA Awards, Anderson seems to be a virtual lock to win the Oscar for Best Director to go along with Best Picture.

Another critics’ trifecta winner is One Battle’s Benicio Del Toro for his supporting performance as Sensei Sergio St. Carlos, whose lone miss was with the L.A. critics. He joins a larger group of 10 other supporting actors who managed the feat. All but one landed an Oscar nomination, and six of whom were victorious, including the last four: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds), J.K. Simmons (Whiplash), Mahershala Ali (Moonlight), and Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All at Once). We’ll have to wait until the March 15 ceremony to see if Del Toro can pull off the Oscar win in what appears to be a wide-open Best Supporting Actor race, with Jacob Elordi winning at the Critics’ Choice Awards and Stellan Skarsgård succeeding at the Golden Globes.

With Academy Award nominations just days away, it’s hard to see anything derailing One Battle After Another’s momentum or chances of joining Schindler’s List as the only movies to complete the critics’ quartet and win Best Picture at the Oscars.