'Deep' thoughts on the Oscar race
By TYLER WILSON
For Coeur Voice
Another year, another round of Oscar controversy.
There was definitely some familiarity to the criticism lodged at the Oscar nominations announced earlier this month. The Academy narrowly avoided a repeat of #OscarsSoWhite in the acting categories, and, despite a record number of female nominees overall (31 percent isn’t exactly a big number), the Academy failed to nominate a single woman in the Best Director category.
Plenty of words have been spilled on these narratives, but the Oscar nominations bring about a few other intriguing conversations. Rather than dive into one or two in great detail, let’s make a more reader-friendly list!
No time to spread the love, Dr. Jones
The Academy nominated a few movies for a lot of different awards (including “Joker” in some truly baffling categories). A shortened award season could be to blame, as nominations were announced weeks earlier than the typical timeframe, and the ceremony this year takes place at the beginning of February, compared to the typical late-February-early March period. It could mean voters had less time to watch all their (free) screeners and attend their (free) industry screenings. Poor them!
Best Picture: “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” vs. “1917”
Voters have a long history of rewarding revelatory movies about their own industry, meaning Quentin Tarantino’s “Hollywood” might have an edge in the top category. The Academy also loves Tarantino, and they’ve never awarded him for director or one of his films for Best Picture.
Meanwhile, Sam Mendes’ WWI-epic “1917” has the precursor awards lead with recent Picture wins at the Golden Globes and Producers Guild (PGA). The PGA utilizes a (confusing) preferential ballot like the Academy, so its win there makes it the clear frontrunner at the moment.
The real Best Picture has a language problem
A recent second viewing confirmed my initial feelings on the Best Picture race: Bong Joon-ho’s masterful “Parasite” SHOULD win. It is, quite simply, a perfect movie. It also won the top prize at last week’s Screen Actors Guild awards.
BUT. The movie is also nominated for Best International Feature Film, where it will win handily, and no foreign language film has ever won Best Picture. Last year’s objective best, “Roma,” had the same problem. The subtitles just turn some voters off. As much as I’d love to be proven wrong, it seems “Parasite” doesn’t have a chance.
Gerwig’s director miss is frustrating… depending on how you look at it
Greta Gerwig deserved a Best Director nomination this year for “Little Women.” The movie made it into Best Picture and scored other significant nominations (including Gerwig for Adapted Screenplay). However, in a race where nine movies get nominated for Best Picture, voters can’t also single out every movie they like in the Director category (although Todd Phillips being nominated for “Joker” is, well, a joke).
The directing omission might help Gerwig gain momentum in the Adapted Screenplay category, which means Gerwig could become an Oscar winner anyway. That would definitely wipe away the sting of her individual snub.
The conversation around Gerwig is a bit reductive though, as the larger problem seems to be how many other incredible female-directed movies this year didn’t have a chance in the first place. That list includes Lulu Wang for “The Farewell” (an incredible movie with ZERO Oscar nominations), Marielle Heller for “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood,” Lorene Scafaria for “Hustlers,” Melina Matsoukas for “Queen & Slim,” Olivia Wilde for “Booksmart,” Kasi Lemmons for “Harriet,” and Celine Sciamma for “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” - all movies that had equal or more acclaim compared to the male-directed Oscar contenders.
Acting categories are feeling locked
As much as I don’t like “Joker” personally, it’s hard to deny the incredible work by Joaquin Phoenix, a guy who should already have an Oscar given his resume. He’s basically a lock to win Best Actor, and it seems like Brad Pitt in “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” and Laura Dern in “Marriage Story” also have sure paths in the Supporting Actor categories.
The only real race could be for Best Actress, although Renee Zellweger keeps winning for her performance in “Judy.” The movie itself isn’t as loved though, which feels like what happened to Glenn Close last year for her performance in “The Wife.”
Snubs abound in the acting categories
While there’s plenty to like here, it’s ridiculous the following people didn’t crack the final categories:
-Lupita Nyong’o for “Us.” The performance of the year. Horror movie bias?
-Awkwafina for “The Farewell”
-Elisabeth Moss for “Her Smell”
-Kang-Ho Song for “Parasite”
-Willem Dafoe for “The Lighthouse”
-Eddie Murphy for “Dolemite is My Name”
-Adam Sandler for “Uncut Gems”
-Jennifer Lopez for “Hustlers”
-Taron Egerton for “Rocketman”
-Octavia Spencer for “Luce”
I know that’s a lot of names, and that means other good performances would get kicked out. But it’s not like Al Pacino and Tom Hanks need more attention.
The Oscars air live at 5 p.m., February 9 on ABC.
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Tyler Wilson can be reached at twilson@cdapress.com. He’s been writing professionally about movies since 2000 and is the co-host of Old Millennials Remember Movies, available everywhere you get podcasts and at OldMillennialsRemember.com.