Could "Mad Max: Fury Road" Be A Potential ‘Best Picture’ Oscar Winner?

“Fang it, schlanger!”

What are the odds we hear this oh-so-ocker catchcry from George Miller’s gonzo, three-decades-in-the-making Mad Max sequel cried out from the podium at next year’s Academy Awards?

Pretty good, actually.

With an astounding Rotten Tomatoes score of 97 per cent and a worldwide box office tally of $374 million, Mad Max: Fury Road was one of the few releases of the just-ended 2015 blockbuster season to both make money and actually be considered really very good. (Pour one out for Fantastic Four, which sits on the other end of the spectrum.)

Now, you wouldn’t convince anyone of your soothsaying abilities by predicting potential Oscar wins for Best Visual Effects, Best Production Design, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and, god willing, Best Sound Projected By The Flame-Guitar Wielding Doof Warrior. These all seem pretty likely.

Yet, might a play for Best Picture be possible too?

The first sign that Mad Max: Fury Road has the potential to take the top prize comes from FIPRESCI, the International Federation of Film Critics who just named Miller’s opus as the best film released between July 1, 2014 and July of 2015. It will receive the Grand Pix at the San Sebastian festival in Spain on September 18.

Last year, they gave Richard Linklater’s Boyhood the title.

So, okay, despite 2015 having been a mostly disappointing year for cinema so far, there are still a handful of upcoming releases that, sight unseen, are more likely to take the Oscar crown than Max.

There’s Todd Haynes’ Carol, starring Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara; Steven Spielberg’s partnership with Tom Hanks, Bridge of Spies (written by the Coen brothers, no less); Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight; David O. Russell latest collabo with Jennifer Lawrence, Joy; Danny Boyle’s attempt at Aaron Sorkin’s Steve Jobs script; Tom Hooper’s no-doubt fish-eyed The Danish Girl, starring last year’s Best Actor, Eddie Redmayne; and even perpetual Oscar bridesmaid Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Revenant, helmed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (the guy behind Birdman – which only went and nabbed Best Picture this very year).

And yet, those 493 FIPRESCI critics deemed Fury Road better than most of last year’s Oscar contenders, including Birdman and even the flick it stole the Best Picture prize from (in this writer’s opinion), Selma.

Personally, I would say that Pixar’s Inside Out is the year’s great mainstream Oscar hope. (Nine months down, it remains 2015’s true best picture.)

Still, might the Academy voters – made up of industry participants, rather than critics – find it in their hearts to make room for two big budget spectaculars in the Best Picture category? While it’s always important for these kinds of organisations to recognise the smaller, more intimate features (and help shepherd the deserving towards an audience), a good movie is a good movie, regardless of production scale, and both Fury Road and Inside Out are among the most inventive to have been released lately.

Given that Mad Max: Fury Road would become the first Aussie Best Picture nominee since Moulin Rouge! in 2001, a surprise nod - at least - on nominations morning would make it a lovely day indeed.