The 91st Academy Awards

The nominations for the Oscars have been announced.

Best Picture:
“Black Panther”
“BlacKkKlansman”
“Bohemian Rhapsody”
“The Favourite”
“Green Book”
“Roma”
“A Star Is Born”
“Vice”

Lead Actor:
Christian Bale, “Vice”
Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”
Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”
Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”

Lead Actress:
Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”
Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”
Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born”
Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

Supporting Actor:
Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”
Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman”
Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born”
Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Sam Rockwell, “Vice”

Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams, “Vice”
Marina de Tavira, “Roma”
Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Emma Stone, “The Favourite”
Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

Director:
Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”
Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”
Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”
Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma”
Adam McKay, “Vice”

Animated Feature:
“Incredibles 2,” Brad Bird
“Isle of Dogs,” Wes Anderson
“Mirai,” Mamoru Hosoda
“Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Rich Moore, Phil Johnston
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman

Animated Short:
“Animal Behaviour,” Alison Snowden, David Fine
“Bao,” Domee Shi
“Late Afternoon,” Louise Bagnall
“One Small Step,” Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas
“Weekends,” Trevor Jimenez

Adapted Screenplay:
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
“BlacKkKlansman,” Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
“If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins
“A Star Is Born,” Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters

Original Screenplay:
“The Favourite,” Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
“First Reformed,” Paul Schrader
“Green Book,” Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly
“Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón
“Vice,” Adam McKay

Cinematography:
“Cold War,” Lukasz Zal
“The Favourite,” Robbie Ryan
“Never Look Away,” Caleb Deschanel
“Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón
“A Star Is Born,” Matthew Libatique

Best Documentary Feature:
“Free Solo,” Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross
“Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu
“Of Fathers and Sons,” Talal Derki
“RBG,” Betsy West, Julie Cohen

Best Documentary Short Subject:
“Black Sheep,” Ed Perkins
“End Game,” Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
“Lifeboat,” Skye Fitzgerald
“A Night at the Garden,” Marshall Curry
“Period. End of Sentence.,” Rayka Zehtabchi

Best Live Action Short Film:
“Detainment,” Vincent Lambe
“Fauve,” Jeremy Comte
“Marguerite,” Marianne Farley
“Mother,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen
“Skin,” Guy Nattiv

Best Foreign Language Film:
“Capernaum” (Lebanon)
“Cold War” (Poland)
“Never Look Away” (Germany)
“Roma” (Mexico)
“Shoplifters” (Japan)

Film Editing:
“BlacKkKlansman,” Barry Alexander Brown
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Ottman
“Green Book,” Patrick J. Don Vito
“The Favourite,” Yorgos Mavropsaridis
“Vice,” Hank Corwin

Sound Editing:
“Black Panther,” Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Warhurst
“First Man,” Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan
“A Quiet Place,” Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl
“Roma,” Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay

Sound Mixing:
“Black Panther”
“Bohemian Rhapsody”
“First Man”
“Roma”
“A Star Is Born”

Production Design:
“Black Panther,” Hannah Beachler
“First Man,” Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas
“The Favourite,” Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton
“Mary Poppins Returns,” John Myhre, Gordon Sim
“Roma,” Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quez

Original Score:
“BlacKkKlansman,” Terence Blanchard
“Black Panther,” Ludwig Goransson
“If Beale Street Could Talk,” Nicholas Britell
“Isle of Dogs,” Alexandre Desplat
“Mary Poppins Returns,” Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman

Original Song:
“All The Stars” from “Black Panther” by Kendrick Lamar, SZA
“I’ll Fight” from “RBG” by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson
“The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns” by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
“Shallow” from “A Star Is Born” by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice
“When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” by Willie Watson, Tim Blake Nelson

Makeup and Hair:
“Border”
“Mary Queen of Scots”
“Vice”

Costume Design:
“Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Mary Zophres
“Black Panther,” Ruth E. Carter
“The Favourite,” Sandy Powell
“Mary Poppins Returns,” Sandy Powell
“Mary Queen of Scots,” Alexandra Byrne

Visual Effects:
“Avengers: Infinity War”
“Christopher Robin”
“First Man”
“Ready Player One”
“Solo: A Star Wars Story”
 
I don't follow hockey. You don't see me go into the hockey thread to announce that I don't watch the sport.
I had hoped that I would have seen at least TWO of them by the time the awards came out. I mean, there's at least nine of those that I actually want to see.

--Patrick
 
I'm happy to see Black Panther get the nomination, even if it probably won't win.

I REALLY hope Into the Spider-Verse wins Best Animated Feature.
 
I'm happy to see Black Panther get the nomination, even if it probably won't win.
I'm baffled it got nominated. It's a good movie, but it's not one of the best of the year. Hell, I wouldn't even say it was the best Marvel movie of the year; that would be Infinity War.
 
I'm baffled it got nominated. It's a good movie, but it's not one of the best of the year. Hell, I wouldn't even say it was the best Marvel movie of the year; that would be Infinity War.
Largely because of the political overtones, which addresses nearly every aspect of black culture: tribalism, hip-hop, racism, slavery, ghettos, imperialism, etc. For a fun superhero movie, there's a lot going on there.

My favorite example is the various tribes, especially their costumes, in the movie are directly influenced by real African tribes. There was a Twitter thread on this I wish I could find again.
 
Black Panther is definitely a contender for Production Design. I thought the score was better than other Marvel movies, too. Spider-verse deserves Best Animated.

I say all this, but those are the only two movies I've seen. Well, A Quiet Place, but it probably won't win for Sound Editing, though it's likely the movie people paid most attention to the sound.
 
The Academy Awards isn't just about what's the best movie, shot for shot. If that was the bar, there are many movies that won that really shouldn't have. I mean, I love the movie Gladiator, but should it really have beat out Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, or Traffic? Probably not. It mostly got the nod because of it's extremely good cinematography and action sequences that didn't confuse western audiences.

For the most part, when they look at nominations they look at not only what is a good movie or what was the most successful (though they are big factors), but also what is artistically or culturally relevant. While Infinity War was amazing, it didn't hold the "cultural" significance Black Panther found itself embroiled. Many African and African American's came out of that movie culturally revitalized, and thus it got the final nod just for that.
 
Also look at your typical Academy voter. He's a sixty-something or older white man from the Valley (Glendale, Burbank, etc), so basically Larry David. This is the same demographic that falls asleep watching the evening news. They can't stand comedies, sci-fi, or action flicks. They LOVE biopics (Great Ziegfeld, A Beautiful Mind) and musicals (Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Chicago). If the movie involves an oppressed or misunderstood minority or somebody dying from a terminal illness, that's a bonus.
 
The Academy has announced the four categories that will be awarding during commercial breaks: Cinematography, Film Editing, Live Action Short, and Makeup and Hairstyling. (ETCanada)

I don't think any of the awards deserve this treatment, but it's utter incompetence to include Cinematography or Film Editing in this plan.
 
In honor of Green Book somehow winning Best Picture, I will try to watch Blackkklansman and Sorry to Bother You sometime this year.

Green Book's trailer was one of the "it's the feel good movie of the season!" trailers and looked like trite fluff for family Christmastime viewing. It never crossed my mind that it would be nominated, let alone with. Comparisons to Crash's win many years ago are appropriate.
 
I think the problem is that out of a very black empowering list of nominees, the one that won was yet another "white protagonist helps black dude through his problems." movie.

It didn't help that the actual person the movie is based on is actually a bit of a racist prick, just towards different minorities.
 
... and it didn't help that the movie's star dropped the n-word in public.

... and it didn't help that the family of Dr. Shirley (the character played by Mahershala Ali) says the whole story is bullshit.

... and it didn't help that the director is being accused of whipping his penis out "as a joke" on movie sets.

... and it didn't help that the main screenwriter had to apologize for talking about how Muslims all over the US celebrated 9/11.

I haven't seen the movie yet, so I can't say for certain it didn't deserve to win. But when you add all of this up, and top critics talking about how undeserving it was, and the strong slate of other movies that were up for the award... it sure looks like the Academy fucked this one up. Just like they did with Crash (and a few others, but I don't want to get into that right now).
 
I think the problem is that out of a very black empowering list of nominees, the one that won was yet another "white protagonist helps black dude through his problems." movie.

It didn't help that the actual person the movie is based on is actually a bit of a racist prick, just towards different minorities.
So I got the right image about the movie from the trailer.
 
Best moment of the night nobody had a clue that it was. Trevor fucking Noah.

He introduced Black Panther for best picture and gave a speech using Xhosa. He said it meant "IN times like these we are better when we fight together than when we try to fight apart."

It actually means, "White people don't know that I'm lying."

https://www.cnet.com/news/trevor-noah-told-best-black-panther-oscars-joke-only-africans-understood/
"I am not getting paid enough for this part."

--Patrick
 
I liked it when Mike Meyers and Dana Carvey hosted one of the segments that featured Bohemian Rhapsody. I just saw part of my childhood come alive.
 
Bohemian Rhapsody sucked and because of Brian Singer should be forgotten forever. Vice sucked. A Star is Born should be fucking disqualified for being the 23rd remake of a movie. Other nominees I didn't mention because I either didn't see them (Roma, Green Book) or didn't think they sucked (Black Panther, Black KKKlansman).

Spike Lee cannot catch a break when it comes to bullshit feel good movies with black and white people magically working through their issues.
 
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