Film industry veterans and Oscar voters have hailed Ridley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’ and Robert Zemeckis ‘Here’ as ‘fantastic’ and potential players at the 2025 Oscars.

The veterans who shared the news with DEADLINE’s Pete Drummond, said the race for the Oscars “has been very slow at the movies”, and they were excited to “finally have something Oscar-worth” in view.

According to Hammond only Denis Villeneuve’s ‘Dune: Part II’, released earlier in the year made the Best Picture contender.

He, however, praised Riddley Scott’s ‘Gladiator II’ describing Paul Mescal who plays the main protagonist as ‘terrific’, and Denzel Washington ‘extraordinary’ in it.

Earlier in February, information leak, showed that Paramount studio executives were quite impressed by the footage they saw of ‘Gladiator II’ that they decided to hire Scott to direct an upcoming Bee Gees biopic for them.

Meantime, at the CinEurope 2024, Paramount President of International Theatrical Distribution, Mark Viane, said ‘Gladiator II’ is “well worth the wait” and features some of the “biggest action sequences ever pit on film”.

While Scott has yet to win Best Director at the Oscars, having been nominated four times in the past, his 2000 film ‘Gladiator’ took the Oscars that year. Same as Zemeckis’ whose 1994 ‘Forrest Gump’ took home the Oscars that year.

It appears both veteran directors will be back in the race – big time. Their films Gladiator II and Here are scheduled to release in November.

Although the race to the 2025 Oscars from the US cinemas has been weak in terms of quality, DEADLINE’s Jordan Ruimy recommends to film lovers with adventurous taste to check out – Alice Rohrwacher’s ‘La Chimera’, Catherine Breillat’s ‘Last Summer’, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s ‘Evil Does Not Exist’, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s ‘About Dry Grasses’, Matteo Garrone’s ‘lo Capitano’, and Bertrand Bonello’s ‘The Beast’.