Happy Christmas Oscar Nomination Day! Herewith quick observations on the 91st Academy Award nominations.
10 THINGS WE LEARNED (OR RELEARNED) FROM THE OSCAR NOMINATIONS
Cuarón with the first of his many wins this year1. All the times that Alfonso Cuarón made his (plentiful) Best Director acceptance speeches about Marina & Yalitza as the "heart" of his film, really paid off. Voters were paying attention, even if only subconsciously and both actresses were nominated in volatile fifth spots in their categories.
2. It's tough to snag a "lone" Oscar nomination for your movie if you're a non-legendary actor. Timothée Chalamet and Glenn Close and Willem Dafoe were all working at that this year and the one that dropped out was Chalamet for Beautiful Boy. He'll be legendary one day but he just became really famous last year and the film had no other boosts to keep him in the conversation...
3. People need to stop thinking and quoting that RT Scores matter. Bohemian (at 62%) & Vice (at 64%) remind us that, though critical consensus makes a huge difference with small films or arthouse-aimed indies, it doesn't mean much when it comes to unexpected hits, or mainstream targeted films with A list stars.
4. Academy Awards voters REALLY loved Never Look Away which won the year's most surprising nomination for Best Cinematography with virtually zero buzz in that category.
5. The Oscars continue to have a problem with Asian cinema. South Korea has never been nominated and that continues with the snubbing of the critically revered mystery Burning, easily one of the year's most praised films. People never seem to believe me when I talk about this but if I haven't proven by now that I study this category with a fine tooth comb every year in a way few others do, I don't know how I can convince people. FACT: Oscar has a problem with Asian cinema. Consider the film industries in China, Hong Kong, India, The Phillipines, Thailand, Taiwan, Kazakhstan, Vietnam and South Korea and then realize that between those nine countries there have only been only 12 nominations and 1 win which is only slightly better than Hungary or Poland ALONE (and not as strong as the singular records of any of these western european or scandinavian countries: Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, Italy, Spain). Even if you add in Japan, which is slightly exempt from this rule with 13 nominations and 1 win (and also had 3 honoraries before this was a category proper), ALL ten of those countries combined are still behind France or Italy alone, and just slightly ahead of Germany and Spain all by themselves!
6. Genre bias continues to be a huge problem with the Academy... and precursor awards as well (which acerbate the problem by not refocusing voters). Their lack of respect for genre films doomed A Quiet Place to only one nomination (Sound Editing) despite a fairly robust campaign and lots of love out there for the sci-fi monster movie. It also stopped Toni Collette in Hereditary from making headway in Best Actress. Their favouritism for World War II dramas and biopics over contemporary films also and gave Germany a leg up over South Korea in foreign film, and Rami & Christian an easy leapfrog over the vastly superior Ethan Hawke (snubbed) and Bradley Cooper (always losing) in Best Actor.
7. Being a zeitgeisty blockbuster has record-breaking advantages. Black Panther became the first superhero movie ever nominated for Best Picture. In total it received 7 nominations, so it isn't the *most* nominated superhero movie. That honor still belongs to The Dark Knight but with BP's Best Picture nomination, it's now essentially the most well honored. Now the question is can it win any of its 7 nominations? The Dark Knight won two (Sound Editing and Supporting Actor).
8. Being a blockbuster documentary hit or even sensationally-reviewed never makes you a lock in Best Documentary Feature which has been one of the most controversial and surprising categories year in and year out since as long as we've been watching the Oscars. This year the huge hit status didn't help Won't You Be My Neighbor or Three Identical Strangers score a nod, but it did help RBG so you never know...
9. Release date truths reaffirmed. As with most years, 2018 proves that it doesn't matter when you are released as long as you have the goods (see Black Panther & BlacKkKlansman released in February and August, respectively). Waiting until the last minute, as most Oscar hopefuls do via November and December platforming is risky since so many films get lost in the shuffle but distributors continues to take the risk because voters have very short memories. November and December are your best bet for both landing plentiful nominations OR for landing craft nominations for films that people don't really love because at least they still remember them! Not to knock the films makeup and costuming (both lovely) but would Mary Queen of Scots have been nominated in either category had it been released back when Black Panther was? Nope! Would Vice have won 8 nominations despite divisive reviews if released in August? Nope!
10. Campaigning remains crucial to winning nominations. A24, our favourite distributor of the last several years (sorry everyone else!) has been excellent at the Oscar game but they mostly sat this year out and paid the price despite wildly acclaimed films. Hereditary and Eighth Grade, both with devout fanbases were totally ignored and First Reformed only nabbed a Screenplay nomination despite having the year's most acclaimed leading performance from four-time Oscar nominee Ethan Hawke. Meanwhile, Netflix pulled out all the stops this year to make themselves a contender and ended up with a surprising 3 nominations for The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and a very hefty if not surprising 10 nominations for Roma. Campaigning is always a dice throw though. Warner Bros worked hard for its titles and A Star is Born got 8 nominations but Crazy Rich Asians was shut out entirely. Disney worked hard for Black Panther and Mary Poppins Returns but one soared while the other didn't do as well as it might have in another year.
11. Winning the Golden Globe for Best Score is occasionally a bad-luck charm, since the Globe voters and Oscar tend to have very different musical taste (this is also true in Best Song). The unlucky recipient this time was First Man's glorious score by Justin Hurwitz was somehow stiffed with Oscar after winning the Globe. This isn't the first time that's happened. Previous examples in the last twenty years include: Alex Ebert for All is Lost (2013), Alexandre Desplat for The Painted Veil (2006), Craig Armstrong for Moulin Rouge! (2001), and Ennio Morricone for The Legend of 1900 (1998)
12. The Academy is still not ready for Emily Blunt. This is probably the third time she's come close to an acting nomination following The Devil Wears Prada (2006), and Young Victoria (2009). One senses that she's just going to join the ranks of the most-beloved-always-ignored movie stars or win on her first nomination.
WHAT DID YOU LEARN THIS MORNING?
Related Articles:
• Adams vs Weisz, Round Two
• Best Picture Silliness
• Deep Cut Oscar Trivia
• Mourning the Snubs
• How to Stage the Original Song Performances
• Nomination Index (individual charts still being updated)
P.S. Sign up for our newsletter which we'll be relaunching this week, if you dont wanna miss anything going forward related to Oscar and beyond...
