'Avatar: The Way of Water' most favourite to win Oscar: Academy voter

An anonymous Academy voter called James Cameron's highly-lauded sequel Avatar: The Way of Water most likely to win Best Picture this year.

During an interview with IndieWire, an anonymous AMPAS voting member shared his personal opinion that Avatar: The Way of Water, Steven Speilberg's The Fabelmans, and The Triangle of Sadness are top contenders for the Oscars.

The voting members found them "absorbed from the beginning" watching Avatar, remarking that was something that "didn't happen" with several other films.

"A few plot points were cliché, but that didn't bother me," they noted. "It's beyond just a big spectacular science-fiction movie: putting it in that category minimises it."

The Academy members also applaud Cameron for creating "a whole new world: an amazing achievement," adding they were "surprised" he didn't get nominated for Best Director. "It's my pick for Best Picture."

After the Pandora universe, they preferred The Fabelmans.

"It's beautifully made and written and covered a lot of territory. It captured the time and the people beautifully," they praised.

Next, they told Triangle of Sadness, "intriguing and inventive." "It held my interest. All the actors were exceptional," they said.

On the contrary, they thought Everything Everywhere All At Once "was a mess" and hard to follow with "all the time changes."

Meanwhile, they also thrashed found Tom Cruise's sequel Top Gun: Maverick's climax to be "the same old plan" as the actor's 1986 original.