It\u2019s the Oscars! Just about. Finally. In some form. Probably.<\/p>\n
Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas did the honours and read out the nominations and they\u2019re quite an extraordinary bunch. First of all \u2013 ten nominations for Mank <\/em>and no other film got more than six! That\u2019s a big change from last year when four films got more than ten. But of course, the film which got the most nominations got no Oscars (The Irishman<\/em>) and who\u2019s to say that history won\u2019t repeat itself?<\/p>\n And \u2013 in an outcome sure to get some members of the community foaming at the chops \u2013 this is a record-shatteringly diverse crop of nominees. Two whole women nominated as Best Director (the sixth and seventh ever female director nominees). Only one American man nominated as Best Director. Only one white American nominated as Best Actor, only one white American nominated as Best Actress. Two nominations for Borat<\/em> including Best Supporting Actress for Maria Bakalova.<\/p>\n And Glenn Close has earned another nomination, bringing her total to 8. In 1985 Geraldine Page finally won an acting Oscar at her eighth attempt. Close already has the record for nominations without a win with seven. Can she duplicate Page\u2019s feat?<\/p>\n Of course, it\u2019s still the Academy so nothing for Delroy Lindo and in fact nothing at all for Da 5 Bloods<\/em> except Best Original Score, which seems like even more of a kick in the nuts than just ignoring it completely. And there\u2019s something slightly screwy going on in both Best Director and Best Editing. One of the five Best Director slots has gone to Thomas Vinterberg, whose film Another Round<\/em> while it is nominated as Best International Feature is not nominated as Best Picture. And Best Editing \u2013 often a very good predictor of Best Picture \u2013 doesn\u2019t include any mention of Mank<\/em>. Which means the films which currently have the nominations trifecta of also being in the running for Director and Editing are Promising Young Woman <\/em>and Nomadland<\/em>. Make of that what you will.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s my run-down of the Best Picture nominees\u2026<\/p>\n The Father<\/strong> (w. Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton; d. Zeller; Anthony Hopkins, Oliva Colman. Also nominated for Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, Production Design, Editing.)<\/p>\n For me this was the biggest surprise. Hopkins was widely touted as likely to get Best Actor but it wasn\u2019t expected to get anything else. It got nothing at the Golden Globes, nor the Writers Guild, nor the Producers Guild, nor the Directors Guild. And yet here it is with six nominations. Rum.<\/p>\n Judas and the Black Messiah <\/strong>(w. Will Berson, Shaka King; d. King; Daniel Kaluuya, Lakeith Stanfield. Also nominated for Supporting Actor [Kaluuya, Stanfield], Screenplay, Cinematography, Song.)<\/p>\n Another one I didn\u2019t see coming, but this time because I was barely aware of it. Kaluuya\u2019s nomination as Best Supporting Actor is odd as the studio campaigned for him as Best Actor but the voting put him up against Stanfield in the supporting category. I don\u2019t see this as a front-runner for Best Picture though, and I haven\u2019t see it yet.<\/p>\n Mank <\/strong>(w. Jack Fincher; d. David Fincher; Gary Oldman, Amanda Seyfried. Also nominated for Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Production Design, Score, Costumes, Makeup, Sound.)<\/p>\n I honestly thought this was pretty poor. A longer review will follow but it\u2019s trying to tell a true story in which nothing much happens, so it resorts to making a lot of shit up in order to try and manufacture some drama, and what we\u2019re left with is impersonated celebrities walking in and out of rooms reciting their famous bon mots at each other. Did not got a nod for its screenplay but could still do very well in other categories, and must be seriously in the running for Best Picture.<\/p>\n Minari <\/strong>(wd. Lee Isaac Chung; Steven Yeun, Han Ye-ri, Alan Kim, Yuh-Jung Youn. Also nominated for Director, Actor [Yeun], Supporting Actress [Youn], Screenplay, Score.)<\/p>\n This has been getting sensational reviews and being a story about Asian immigrants, won\u2019t suffer from the need to buy into another culture which you might have expected to hurt Parasite<\/em>\u2019s chances. Who\u2019d have thought that Glen from off of The Walking Dead<\/em> would be an Oscar nominee?<\/p>\n Nomadland <\/strong>(wd. Chlo\u00e9 Zhao; Frances McDormand, David Strathairn. Also nominated for Director, Actress, Screenplay, Editing, Cinematography.)<\/p>\n Definitely the one to beat if nothing comes up Fincher \u2013 and McDormand should get another speech ready too.<\/p>\n Promising Young Woman <\/strong>(wd. Emerald Fennell; Carey Mulligan, Bo Burnham, Alison Brie. Also nominated for Director, Actress, Screenplay, Editing.)<\/p>\n Only five noms \u2013 but they\u2019re all in major categories. This is probably a shade too trashy to win big but could nick screenplay for Emerald Fennell and Mulligan has a slim chance. Review to follow.<\/p>\n Sound of Metal<\/strong> (w. Darius Marder, Abraham Marder, Derek Cianfrance; d. Marder; Riz Ahmed, Olivia Cooke, Paul Raci. Also nominated for Actor, Supporting Actor, Screenplay, Sound, Editing.)<\/p>\n This sounds terrific and I\u2019m so pleased for Riz Ahmed, but it faces very stiff competition in practically every category.<\/p>\n The Trial of the Chicago 7 <\/strong>(wd. Aaron Sorkin; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Sacha Baron Cohen, Daniel Flaherty, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Michael Keaton, Frank Langella et al. Also nominated for Supporting Actor [Baron Cohen], Screenplay, Cinematography, Song, Editing)<\/p>\n Another Oscar film for Ali G! Who\u2019d have thought it? Full review to follow but this is slickly entertaining stuff, on a level with Argo<\/em> or The King\u2019s Speech <\/em>and in a year with so many detailed, personal films, that might not cut it in any category, not even screenplay where it has the best chance.<\/p>\n Reviews of the three I\u2019ve seen and the five I haven\u2019t (and possibly a few more besides) to follow in the next few days and weeks\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It\u2019s the Oscars! Just about. Finally. In some form. Probably. Priyanka Chopra and Nick Jonas did the honours and read out the nominations and they\u2019re quite an extraordinary bunch. First of all \u2013 ten nominations for Mank and no other film got more than six! That\u2019s a big change from last year when four films […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25,11],"tags":[13,526],"class_list":["post-2545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-at-the-cinema","category-culture","tag-oscars","tag-oscars-2021"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5JY5l-F3","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2545"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2578,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2545\/revisions\/2578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tomsalinsky.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}