Commentary The Odyssey has been massively successful both critically (it is at 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes) and commercially (it has grossed $1.6 billion worldwide, #14 of all time). That being said, and contrary to some reporting, it did not play through the roof at its official Academy screening in LA — it was warmly but not effusively received, and its principal talent opted not to appear for a post-screening Q&A, which didn’t help matters. But it certainly has been seen and liked by more Academy members around the world than any other film, many of whom do love it, so it is indeed the clear frontrunner.

Other top-tier contenders include Project Hail Mary, which was also a giant critical and commercial success, and probably benefits from being a little more light-hearted than most of its competition; two Cannes darlings, La Bola Negra, a sweeping Spanish-language epic which is Netflix’s principal cause this awards season, and Fjord; and The Invite, a Sundance darling that went on to very strong reviews and box office for a film of its size.

The title that is likeliest to pop out of the fall fests may well be Wild Horse Nine; it’s very quirky, but so too were Martin McDonagh’s earlier films Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, which were widely embraced by the Academy.

Can another true blockbuster join The Odyssey and Project Hail Mary in the 10? Keep an eye on Toy Story 5, Michael and Obsession — I’m sure the Academy and its broadcasting partner, ABC, will!

Frontrunners
1. The Odyssey (Universal, July 17, THR review) — Christopher Nolan & Emma Thomas
2. Project Hail Mary (Amazon/MGM, March 20, THR review) — Ryan Gosling, Phil Lord, Chris Miller, Rachel O’Connor, Amy Pascal, Aditya Sood & Andy Weir
3. Wild Horse Nine (Searchlight, Nov. 6) — Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh & Anita Overland VENI
4. La Bola Negra (Netflix, Oct. 16, THR review) — Javier Ambrossi & Javier Calvo CANN, TIFF
5. Fjord (Neon, Oct. 9, THR review) — Dyveke Bkørkly Graver, Cristian Mungiu, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar & Tudor Reu CANN, KARL, TIFF
6. The Invite (A24, June 26, THR review) — Ben Browning, Megan Ellison & David Permut SUND
7. Tender Loving Care (Bleecker Street, Dec. 4) — Georgina Lowe TIFF, NYFF
8. Ink (Netflix, Dec. 11) — Danny Boyle, Michael Ellenberg, Tessa Ross & Tracey Seaward VENI, TIFF
9. Paper Tiger (Neon, Nov. 13, THR review) — Andrea Bucko, Gary Farkas, Anthony Katagas, Raffaella Leone, Marco Perego, Carlo Salem & Rodrigo Teixeira CANN, KARL, NYFF
10. Toy Story 5 (Disney/Pixar, June 19, THR review) — Jessica Choi & Lindsey Collins

Major Threats
11. Michael (Lionsgate, 4/24, THR review) — John Branca, Graham King & John McClain
12. Fatherland (MUBI, Oct. 23, THR review) — Edward Berger, Lorenzo Gangarossa, Mario Gianani, Lorenzo Mieli, Ewa Puszczyńska, Dimitri Rassam & Jeanne Tremsal CANN, KARL, NYFF
13. All of a Sudden (Neon, Nov. 25, THR review) — Renan Artukmaç, Bettina Brokemper, Julien Deris, David Gauquié, Hiroko Matsuda, Jean-Luc Ormières, Kôsuke Oshida, Joseph Rouschop & Yûji Sadai CANN, TIFF, NYFF
14. Minotaur (MUBI, Nov. 20, THR review) — Charles Gillibert & Andrei Zvyagintsev CANN, TIFF, NYFF
15. Obsession (Focus, May 15, THR review) — James Harris, Haley Nicole Johnson, Christian Mercuri & Roman Viaris-de-Lesegno TIFF
16. Tuner (Black Bear, 5/22, THR review) — Michael Heimler, Teddy Schwarzman, JoAnne Sellar & Lila Yacoub TIFF, SUND

Possibilities
17. Sense and Sensibility (Focus, Oct. 16) — Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, India Flint & Jo Wallet
18. Josephine (Sumerian, Nov. 20, THR review) — Jesse Hope, Josh Peters & Max Walker-Silverman SUND, BERL
19. The Mosquito Bowl (Netflix, Oct. 30) — Peter Berg, Alex Gayner & Brian Grazer
20. Coward (MUBI, Dec. 25, THR review) — Michiel Dhont CANN, KARL
21. Being Heumann (Apple, Nov. 6) — John W. Beach, Kevin Cleary, Sian Heder, David Permut & Kevin Walsh TIFF
22. Tony (A24, Aug. 7, THR review) — Matt Johnson, Matthew Miller, Tim White & Trevor White

Long Shots
23. Backrooms (A24, May 29, THR review) — Kori Adelson, Peter Chernin, Michael Clear, Dan Cohen, Chris Ferguson, Dan Levine, Shawn Levy, Roberto Patino, Osgood Perkins, Jenno Topping & James Wan
24. The Liberation (Bleecker Street, TBD) — Julia Lebedev, Roy Lee, Oren Moverman, Jaime Ray Newman, Steven Schneider & Eddie Vaisman TIFF
25. Bunker (Sony Classics, TBD) — Fernando Bovaira, Alice Dawson, Federica Sainte-Rose & Simón de Santiago VENI, TIFF
26. Tenzing (Apple, Oct. 9) — Desray Armston, Iain Canning, Luke Davies, Jennifer Peedom, Emile Sherman & Liz Watts
27. Disclosure Day (Universal, June 12, THR review) — Kristie Macosko Krieger & Steven Spielberg

Still to See or Under Embargo
Artificial (Neon, TBD) — Jeffrey Clifford, Jennifer Fox, Luca Guadagnino, David Heyman & Simon Rich
Behemoth! (Searchlight, Dec. 4) — John Gilroy, Tony Gilroy & Sanne Wohlenberg NYFF
Club Kid (A24, Nov. 6, THR review) — Alex Coco, Galen Core & Ryan Heller CANN
The Debut (A24, Dec. 11) — Jesse Eisenberg, Ali Herting, Dave McNary & Emma Stone TIFF, NYFF
DIGGER (Warner Bros., Oct. 2) — Tom Cruise, Alejandro González Iñarritu & Mary Parent
Dune: Part Three (Warner Bros., Dec. 18) — Cale Boyter, Tanya Lapointe, Patrick McCormick, Mary Parent & Denis Villeneuve
Elsinore (Focus, Nov. 20) — Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Mickey Liddell, Stefano Massenzi, Andrea Occhipinti, Andrew Scott, Pete Shilaimon & Gabrielle Tana TIFF, LOND
The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth (Netflix, Nov. 25) — Ceán Chaffin, David Heyman, Brad Pitt & Quentin Tarantino
Heart of the Beast (Paramount, Sept. 25) — David Ayer, Marty Bowen, Olivia Hamilton & Brad Pitt
I Play Rocky (Amazon/MGM, Nov. 13) — Christian Baha, Toby Emmerich & Peter Farrelly TIFF
Madden (Amazon/MGM, Nov. 26) — Todd Black, Jason Blumenthal, Matthew Budman, Jonathan Shukat & Steve Tisch
Mr. Irrelevant (Paramount, Dec. 25) — Gillian Bohrer, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger, Jonathan Levine & Nick Santora
Possible Love (Netflix, Oct. 23) — Lee Joon-dong, David Levine & Chadwick Prichard
Primetime (A24, Sept. 25) — Ari Aster, Fred Berger, Tyler Campellone, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Lars Knudsen, Brighton McCloskey & Robert Pattinson VENI
The Social Reckoning (Sony, Oct. 9) — Stuart M. Besser, Todd Black, Peter Rice & Aaron Sorkin
Werwulf (Focus, Dec. 25) — Tim Bevan, Garrett Bird, Robert Eggers, Eric Fellner & Sjón Sigurdsson

Veteran sportscaster Erin Andrews shared that she thought her career was over after a video of her nude leaked on the internet in 2009, slamming the violation as “gross.”

Andrews, who currently serves as the lead NFL sideline reporter for Fox Sports, opened up about the ordeal during a Wednesday appearance on “Call Her Daddy.”

“I think back in the day, before … the Apple phones were getting hacked and people’s photos were up and so forth, I had this disgusting person following me around cities,” Andrews recalled of her stalker in the mid-’00s. “It was very well publicized where [ESPN’s] ‘College Game Day’ was going to be, where ‘Thursday Night Football’ was going to be and I didn’t have an alias. I didn’t think I was a big deal.”

Nonetheless, Andrews noted that her career was on the rise, receiving calls about “Dancing With the Stars” and working backstage at the ESPYs. However, this joy came to a screeching halt after Andrews received a call from a blogger friend, who she shared had been trying to reach her all day.

“Blogs were the big deal and he had been calling me all day and he just said, ‘Erin, I have to talk to you,’ and I was like, ‘What’s up? I’m getting on a red eye to go back to Atlanta,’ and he’s like, ‘There’s naked video of you all over the internet,’” she remembered. “And I said, ‘No, there’s not, I don’t do that. I just don’t.’ And I didn’t, you know, I was like, ‘What are you talking about? This is made up. This is something that’s not me.’”

Andrews shared that this friend then sent her the footage, which quickly prompted a strong reaction from the sports journalist.

“I called my mom and dad, right away. I was screaming, crying because it was me and it was me naked in a hotel room walking around and I just, outer body experience, started screaming,” she said. “My dad said when I called, he thought I was in a car accident because I was screaming so hard.”

Andrews said the leak rattled her, given her love of the job and the way she was viewed as “being the girl next door.”

“I just said to my dad, ‘It’s over, my career is over. No one’s going to take me seriously ever again,’” she shared. “That’s all I ever wanted, right, was people to turn me on and just say, ‘Oh my gosh, I would love to have a beer with her and talk football with her. I would love to do a sit down interview with her.’ And I just thought, ‘This is so dirty. No one’s going to ever want to work with me again, talk to me again. This is gross. This changes who I am.’”

Andrews shared that she didn’t know any of the specifics at that time, noting that it eventually led to “a whole investigation,” which involved the FBI and a trial. Specifically, Michael David Barrett was arrested three months after the video was uploaded on the internet. He was charged with interstate stalking before pleading guilty in 2009. Barrett went on to serve over two years in prison.

“There was this disgusting person following me around and he was setting up his cell phone right up to my hotel room,” she said. “He would take off the peephole at the door. He would ask for a room next to me, and the hotel never alerted me that this was happening. So, they would put this person next to me.”

Andrews explained how the stalker would “wait and listen” for her to get into the shower, adding, “He would stand there with a camera and he filmed me getting ready and then he put it on the internet.”

The sportscaster noted that she learned the hard way that “when something’s on the internet, it doesn’t come down.”

“So, it was a lot. It was a lot that I put my family through with all of it,” she shared. “It was a lot legally. It was wild.”

Andrews noted that in the aftermath she struggled with “shame” and embarrassment, saying, “I remember walking around stadiums – this is when I was doing college, so, some stadiums have 100,000 people – thinking everybody in the stadium has seen me naked and I didn’t have a choice.”

Watch Andrews’ “Call Her Daddy” interview above.

As Simon Cowell continues to recover from back surgery, another America’s Got Talent alum is returning to the judges table.

On Wednesday’s episode of the NBC reality competition series, it was announced that Heidi Klum will fill in for Cowell next week during a special three-hour broadcast of the Season 21 quarterfinals.

Klum served as a judge on America’s Got Talent from 2013 to 2018, before returning from 2020 to 2024. She exited the AGT judges table last year, shortly after she was invited back to host Project Runway for Freeform and Disney+.

The German supermodel’s return comes after fellow former judge Kenan Thompson kept Cowell’s seat warm this week, after formerly filling in for the creator and executive producer during Season 15 in 2020.

Cowell was not on the show this week as he is taking time off to undergo the procedure, described as routine and linked to the serious e-bike accident he suffered in August 2020, which led to complex spinal injury and long rehab. The recovery took him out of commission from the 2020 season of AGT, with guest judges filling in, including Thompson.