by
Julien Faddoul
Below is the full list of nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards with my written reactions.
A few notes:
I sort-of evened out on predicting this year: Missed a lot of obvious inclusions, while also gambling on long shots that ultimately paid off (like Kathy Bates).
I tried to go more non-traditional than usual in my predictions (at least once in every second category or so) because AMPAS has really diversified in recent in years, with more younger and international members than ever before. But as the over-performance of movies like Jojo Rabbit, The Two Popes and 1917 shows, they are still the squarest bunch of movie enthusiasts out there.
Another illustration of this fact is in the relative lack of quantity here. Most of the same films appeared again and again, with four separate films each receiving sets of nominations in the double digits. AMPAS didn’t spread the wealth this year and it shows. Though another reason for this is probably due to the truncated schedule, with both the nominations and the ceremony (Feb. 9th) being bestowed much earlier than ever before. Me being who I am, I’m always astonished by how difficult it is for ordinary people to find the time to watch just a handful of movies, especially if screeners are mailed directly to your door! It’s not a chore guys, it’s a privilege.
I only predicted two categories 100%. Most of the time I got 4/5 correct, which as a prognosticator is deeply frustrating.
Netflix did incredibly well with nominations for The Irishman, Marriage Story, The Two Popes, American Factory, The Edge of Democracy, Klaus and I Lost My Body. Though for some reason Dolemite is My Name was shut out.
A24 on the other hand is having a sad day at the office, with only a single nomination! (The Lighthouse in Cinematography.)
The Farewell was completely shut out.
Scarlett Johansson joins the very exclusive club of actors who have received two acting noms in the same year. The last time this happened was Cate Blanchett in 2007.
The two biggest surprises assuredly were in the categories for Supporting Actress and Animated Feature, with the ignoring of Jennifer Lopez and Frozen II, respectively. Both of which I’m totally fine with.
Honeyland makes history as the first film to be nominated for both International Feature and Documentary Feature.
Man that Original Song category is so weird, no?
Favourite inclusions: Joe Pesci, Rian Johnson, Greta Gerwig (for writing, at least), Jacqueline Durran, How to Train Your Dragon 3 and all of Parasite’s 6 noms.
Worst exclusions: Greta Gerwig (for directing), Eddie Murphy, Ruth E. Carter and The Farewell.
Hardest to swallow: 1917 for Original Screenplay, John Williams for Score, Jojo Rabbit for Editing and every single one of Joker’s 11 nominations.
Nomination Tally:
11 (Joker)
10 (1917, The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
6 (Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, Marriage Story, Parasite)
4 (Ford v Ferrari)
3 (Bombshell, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The Two Popes)
2 (Honeyland, Pain and Glory, Judy, Harriet, Toy Story 4)
BEST PICTURE
1917
Ford v Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Parasite
9/9 correct.
I was even correct on what number they would settle on.
Certainly a better line-up than last year, but as usual the bad outweighs the good. Still, happy for The Irishman, Little Women, Marriage Story and Parasite.
DIRECTOR
1917 – Sam Mendes
The Irishman – Martin Scorsese
Joker – Todd Phillips
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino
Parasite – Bong Joon-ho
4/5, missing Phillips for Greta Gerwig.
This is sad. The director's branch has always been the most interesting, most forward-thinking branch of AMPAS. And of all the auspicious artists they had to choose from for that 5th slot (Greta Gerwig, Lulu Wang, Pedro Almodovar, Marielle Heller, Noah Baumbach, Rian Johnson), we got...the director of Road Trip.
Anyway, let's hope the internet has enough wishful-thinking influence to propel Bong Joon-Ho to the stage a month from now.
ACTOR
Joker – Joaquin Phoenix
Marriage Story – Adam Driver
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Leonardo DiCaprio
Pain and Glory – Antonio Banderas
The Two Popes – Jonathan Pryce
4/5, missing Pryce for Christian Bale.
Pryce was slightly lower in my estimation than Taron Edgerton, Eddie Murphy, Robert De Niro or Bale, but I can’t say I was really surprised. This category was just stacked with candidates this year.
ACTRESS
Bombshell – Charlize Theron
Harriet – Cynthia Erivo
Judy – Renee Zellweger
Little Woman – Saoirse Ronan
Marriage Story – Scarlett Johansson
4/5, missing Erivo for Awkwafina.
Not a very exciting list of ladies for me. Johansson would be my choice in a walk.
SUPPORTING ACTOR
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood – Tom Hanks
The Irishman – Al Pacino
The Irishman – Joe Pesci
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Brad Pitt
The Two Popes – Anthony Hopkins
4/5, missing Hopkins for Song Kang Ho.
I guess if you’re gonna nominate The Two Popes, nominated the two Popes. A very starry list of men here, all of whom are excellent.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Bombshell – Margot Robbie
Jojo Rabbit – Scarlett Johansson
Little Women – Florence Pugh
Marriage Story – Laura Dern
Richard Jewell – Kathy Bates
3/5, missing Johansson and Pugh for Jennifer Lopez and Zhao Shuzhen.
My one great told-ya-so prediction of the year (Bates) is undermined by the fact that most people were predicting Johannson and Pugh, even though both seemed way off to me. So Bates’ inclusion comes, instead, at the cost of Lopez, which is sure to make people mad.
Like Lead Actress, I really don’t have any personal investment toward any of these performances.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
1917 – Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Knives Out – Rian Johnson
Marriage Story – Noah Baumbach
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino
Parasite – Bong Joon-ho, Han Jin-won
4/5, missing 1917 for Lulu Wang.
Boy they really had a crush on 1917, which wasn’t even in my alternates. That screenplay sucks. Happy for Johnson though.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Irishman – Steve Zaillian
Jojo Rabbit – Taika Watiti
Joker – Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
Little Women – Greta Gerwig
The Two Popes – Anthony McCarten
5/5 correct.
The easiest category, there was no way we were getting something different here.
CINEMATOGRAPHY
1917 – Roger Deakins
The Irishman – Rodrigo Prieto
Joker – Lawrence Sher
The Lighthouse – Jarin Blaschke
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Robert Richardson
4/5, missing The Lighthouse for Ford v Ferrari.
I knew I shouldn’t have gone for the ASC line-up! Ugh! There’s always one difference.
PRODUCTION DESIGN
1917 – Dennis Gassner; Lee Sandales
The Irishman – Bob Shaw; Regina Graves
Jojo Rabbit – Ra Vincent; Nora Sopková
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Barbara Ling; Nancy Haigh
Parasite – Lee Ha-joon; Cho Won-woo
4/5, missing Jojo Rabbit for Joker.
Not a big surprise but Jojo Rabbit’s over-performance in these craft categories is not ideal.
COSTUME DESIGN
The Irishman – Sandy Powell, Christopher Peterson
Jojo Rabbit – Mayes C. Rubo
Joker – Mark Bridges
Little Women – Jacqueline Durran
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – Arriane Phillips
2/5, only predicting Durran and Phillips.
My worst category. Really didn’t see The Irishman showing up here.
FILM EDITING
Ford v Ferrari – Michael McCusker
The Irishman – Thelma Schoonmaker
Jojo Rabbit – Tom Eagles
Joker – Jeff Groth
Parasite – Jinmo Yang
Parasite – Jinmo Yang
3/5, missing Joker and Jojo for Hollywood and Marriage Story.
Yeah, whatever.
SOUND MIXING
1917
Ad Astra
Ford v Ferrari
Joker
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
4/5, missing Ad Astra (as did everyone) for The Irishman.
SOUND EDITING
1917
Ford v Ferrari
Joker
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
4/5, missing Joker for Avengers: Endgame.
VISUAL EFFECTS
1917
Avengers: Endgame
The Irishman
The Lion King
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
4/5, missing 1917 for Gemini Man, which was a pretty out-there prediction on my part.
MAKEUP and HAIR
1917
Bombshell
Joker
Judy
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
3/5, missing 1917 and Maleficent for Little Women and Rocketman.
Rocketman missing here is rather peculiar, especially since Judy didn’t.
ORIGINAL SCORE
1917 – Thomas Newman
Joker – Hildur Gudnadottir
Little Woman – Alexandre Desplat
Marriage Story – Randy Newman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – John Williams
4/5, missing Williams for Michael Giacchino (Jojo Rabbit).
I groaned out loud when Williams’ nomination was read. Why? WHY?
ORIGINAL SONG
"I Can't Let You Throw Yourself Away" from Toy Story 4 – Music and Lyrics by Randy Newman
"(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again" from Rocketman – Music by Elton John; Lyrics by Bernie Taupin
"I'm Standing with You" from Breakthrough – Music and Lyrics by Diane Warren
"Into the Unknown" from Frozen II – Music and Lyrics by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
"Stand Up" from Harriet – Music and Lyrics by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo
3/5. What an ugly bunch of songs, yeesh.
ANIMATED FILM
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
I Lost My Body
Klaus
Missing Link
Toy Story 4
4/5, missing Dragons for Frozen II.
Yay! You suck Frozen II!!
I actually had a sneaking suspicion Frozen II would miss out just because AMPAS rarely goes for multiple Disney or Pixar sequels, and Toy Story 4 was already secure. But I lost my nerve at the last minute so I don’t get the credit.
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM
Corpus Christi (South Korea)
Honeyland (North Macedonia)
Les Miserables (France)
Pain and Glory (Spain)
Parasite (South Korea)
3/5, missing Honeyland and Corpus Christi for Atlantics and Those Who Remained.
Atlantics was just too aggressively arty for them.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
American Factory
The Cave
The Edge of Democracy
For Sama
Honeyland
3/5, missing The Cave and The Edge of Democracy for One Child Nation and Apollo 11.
Kinda bummed that Apollo 11 didn’t make it.
DOCUMENTARY SHORT
In the Absence
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
Life Overtakes Me
St. Louis Superman
Walk Run Cha-Cha
LIVE-ACTION SHORT
Brotherhood
Nefta Football Club
The Neighbors' Window
Saria
A Sister
ANIMATED SHORT
Dcera (Daughter)
Hair Love
Kitbull
Memorable
Sister
No comments:
Post a Comment