Tuesday
Jan242023
Why isn't Oscar nomination day a Federal Holiday?
Tuesday, January 24, 2023 at 8:21AM I ask myself this every January when guzzling coffee and settling in to watch the announcement. Who has the mental space to concentrate on other things when the Oscar nominations are read? Who has connections with the White House to make this Federal Holiday happen. This year it's Riz Ahmed and Allison Williams reading the lucky names (obviously we'll have much more to say about this later today and for the next couple of days. Behold...
tagged Oscars (22), parties and events
Oscars (22), parties and events
Reader Comments (39)
Yay Stephanie Hsu and Hong Chau! Boo Angela Bassett (sorry not sorry)
Top Gun 2 for screenplay...LOL That whole Adapted Screenplay category is hilariously bad, except for Women Talking.
Judd Hirsch? They really hate poor Paul Dano it seems.
PAUL MESCAL!!!!!!!!!!
ANDREA!!!
And ANA! (Yes I loved her in it)
EEAAO is totally winning Best Picture. I was predicting it to lead the nominations, and even I didn’t think it would get THIS many.
Tar kind of overperformed too (Editing and Cinematography were unexpected!), and I think Todd Field might now be a dark horse to win Best Director.
New gender just dropped: Riz Ahmed announcing "My Year of Dicks" as an Oscar nominee, then pausing to reflect on it.
- So happy for Stephanie Hsu. I couldn't understand how Jamie Lee Curtis was such a lock but not her.
- Iñárritu's film is nominated for an Oscar...again! He never misses.
In my predictions, I swapped Hsu for de Leon at the last second 🙃 I’m sure Dolly was 6th tho. As much as I would’ve liked them both to be nominated (Angela Bassett is the nom I’m least happy with, tho I’m happy for her), I really did want Hsu to pull through and secure the nomination, I just wasn’t sure the Academy would go for her. I’m happy they did! I’ve been hoping all season that both her and JLC could manage nods and they did 🥳
Best Actor is the only acting category I went 5/5 in…
Can't stand him but I correctly predicted Ostlund.
Mescal! A hot young actor who doesn't even cry on camera? unprecedented!
The Risebouroguh nomination is a game changer. A good one.
I am most proud of my Best Director prediction which I got 5/5 on.
I am surprised Viola Davis got snubbed. But I'm glad. Love her, but that performance was nothing special and that movie was pretty bad.
Riseborough nom is the most shocking thing I've ever seen in Oscar nominations. Changes the game for Oscar campaigning. The discourse over her getting in instead of Deadwyler is going to be brutal.
Anyone that would boo Angela Bassett should have their access to the site revoked! Lots of surprises this morning, but Women Talking seemingly coming out of no where to take that last Best Picture nod was an exciting note to end things on.
Just realizing we have SIXTEEN first time acting nominees. Blanchett the only previous winner. That has to be close to a record. (Williams, Bassett, Hirsch the others that were previously nominated).
Overall, I'm pretty happy with these nominations.
4/5 I was rooting hardest for (TAR-which overperformed with those two surprise crafts nods-Paul Mescal, EO and Jamie Lee Curtis) all made it. Bummed for Dolly de Leon. So weird her film made it into three major categories and yet she still got left out. At least she’s a BAFTA nominee.
Riseborough’s nod is indeed a gamechanger. Can’t believe she pulled it off.
Prediction wise, I’m happy I stuck with Bardo in Cinematography. Never ever count out an Iñárritu film.
And yes, Oscar nomination day should totally be a Federal Holiday!
@ Nathaniel, when was the last time there was only one previous WINNER - Cate - in the four acting categories?
I was not aware that the EEAAO song existed and I've seen that twice, but yeah - that's winning Best Picture. (sigh)
The Paul Dano and Decision to Leave snubs really irritated me and I cannot believe that the Andrea Riseborough campaign paid off. I still have to see that performance, but that's Alone Yet Not Alone levels of surprising. Also, pouring one out for my beloved Babylon.
No one's mentioned the Danielle Deadwyler snub yet? I definitely think she should've been in over Williams (though she was likely kicked out, just, by Riseborough, who is deserving).
Okay so EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE is probably winning Best Picture.
But I still think Cate is winning her third. She deserves it. And they obviously loved her film.
Oh, I forgot to mention: can we please do an investigation into the music branch? At this point the constant nominations for Diane Warren no matter how obscure the film go beyond being a joke and seem legitimately suspicious.
@Val: I can’t speak for anyone else, but I don’t think booing Angela Bassett’s nomination and potential win has anything to do with her and everything to do with THIS being the role/movie that she’s getting the “career honors” prize for.
Also want to add that Top Gun being snubbed in Best Cinematography is a huge curveball, especially when TAR was probably the film that toppled it. At this point it looks like it’ll only win two awards, Editing and Sound, and I’d argue it’s not even a lock to win those. Can you imagine it after all this it actually wound up going home empty-handed?
@Val Like I said, sorry not sorry. haha Love Angela, but winning for THIS? No, girl. Give her a proper role and movie already!
@whunk I definitely think Danielle deserved it over Williams, who was just terrible in Fabelmans, but at the same time I wasn't crazy about Till or Danielle's performance.
@Edwin exactly! thank you. I mean, we all love her and love to hear her speak, but come on...
There are some great surprises and some others are less great. But the one thing that pissed me off was Top Gun not nominated for best cinematography. Even if you hated the movie, you cannot watch that and tell me its not beautifully filmed, framed, lighted and just done. That cinematography is no doubt top 5 of 2022. That category is kind of insane.
And the Sally Kirkland Award goes to Andrea Riseborough!! Well played.
All these first-time nominees are lovely. Really, really thrilled for Hsu, Mescal, Henry most of all.
And obviously what a delightful morning for my fave film of the year EEAAO! A24 really did a phenomenal job keeping this movie to the forefront of everyone's minds since its premiere 10 months ago (!). Bravo to that amazing cast and crew for their success! Hope they bring it back to theaters!
TOP: GUN MAVERICK is not beautifully filmed. So happy it missed that nomination. Unfortunately the films nominated in its place are not too much better. Where is NOPE, EO, BABYLON? All better-shot films.
Among the actors, 16 are first time nominees. That's a pretty high number.
Clearly, the Riseborough campaign payed off. I wonder if we have a 1950 situation on our hands. While the dynamics are a bit different, Riseborough could be the tiebreaker between Blanchett and Yeoh, much like Judy Holliday. Of course, Holliday was a Globe winner in a BP nominee in a role she'd transferred from stage to great success. I'm happy for her, but also sad to see Viola Davis snubbed for a performance and film she poured so much into. It's also sad Emma Thompson never gained traction in this race - let's hope she wins the BAFTA as her reward.
What bothers me about the Riseborough nomination: Obviously it shows that Hollywood's elite has the power to coordinate a major boost to somebody’s Oscar prospects. We always knew that. But when you think of the people they haven’t lifted a finger to “help” over the years, it feels obscene.
Like, where was this when Tilda Swinton did Julia? And on and on and on. I haven’t seen To Leslie so I can’t speak to this specific case but c’mon, people are doing epic unrecognized work in small movies all the time. Suddenly it’s urgent to do something about it!
I guess Decision to Leave was the big snub Nathaniel talked about in his final predictions post. Oldboy is possibly my favorite film of all time and I've been a huge Park fan in the past, but frankly I found Decision to Leave to be exquisitely boring.
@DK Tilda Swinton had just won the Oscar the year before, so it shouldn't be that surprising they didn't bother with that campaign. But your point is definitely valid, who's deserving of such and who isn't? Riseborough was considered overdue by her peers, but she certainly isn't the only one looked at that way. She was great in the film, btw.
@DK, I do think it will be interesting to understand how the Riseborough campaign worked. Clearly, she called in favors to get screenings hosted, but by all accounts (and according to Vanity Fair), it was a campaign, not the industry just spontaneously "lifting up" an actress. I think this campaign is the story of the season, and I hope there is some good longform reporting on it.
There are so many actresses who could have used the last minute lift that she got, so it's sort of sad that we didn't see that.
Wow, what great noms overall! Especially in acting, every nomination is well earned.
The Riseborough campaign pulling it off is wild! Will this change Oscar campaigning for good? Just think of the past performances that could have made it through with private screenings and a push from Goop and Kate Winslet. Well deserved as the performance is excellent. I do wish that Michelle Williams had been left off for Deadwyler though.
I REALLY hope that Michelle Yeoh can pull off the win. She's so deserving and would be exciting to have an Asian best actress winner FINALLY. If SAG goes to Michelle, do we think she can go all the way? I wish Cate would campaign for her. She's obviously going to be nominated and likely win again anyway.
Also happy that Avatar noms were minimal. Technical marvel certainly, but the plotline was such a boring retread and I don't think the film will hold up over time as one of the best ever. Def deserves the tech love and should win for VFX though!
Overall, really excited for these nominations! Can't wait for March 12!
Judd Hirsch broke the record for longest time between two acting nominations: 42 years. Henry Fonda previously had the record with 41!
@Joe—
Agreed that it was a campaign. But it's one thing to ask all those A-Listers to blow it up on their personal social media accounts, and a very different thing for them all to say “yes.” You can imagine all the requests like that they say “no” to. I guess it speaks to the impact this performance made but I can't help but feel it seems cliquey and phony in a way.
What I like about the Riseborough situation is how clearly it shows the importance in Hollywood of the Oscars. I mean, no one was working this hard to get her a Critics Choice nomination. The campaign had only one objective.
What I like about the Williams nomination is that no one is learning the wrong message today. If you are in a grey zone between lead and supporting, but your character is the star of her narrative, you can campaign lead and get in. You don't have to rob the Stephanie Hsus of the world with a supporting campaign.
And I'm in love with the Henry, Hirsch and Mescal nominations.
boring boring boring. The 'unexpected' surprises everyone was talking about happened - so are they then surprises?? Why not nominate something that was barely talked about and not follow in the footsteps of other award shows and what the 'industry' was telling you to do? Mescal and Riseborough had talk right before the nominations - so not that surprising in my opinion. Almost feels like peer pressure nominations haha.
Glad TAR overperformed - love that film!!
I don't see the difference or problem with Riseborough's campaign. It's all selective and elite. You either have a studio throwing money so you get nominated or you have people in the industry that vouch for your work. How different is it from Ann Dowd paying and sending her own screeners a few years ago? There are no victims here. It's all the elite. The amount of performances that get nominated JUST because of how good they are without any campaigning at all are minimal to zero.
Proud of myself for predicting that Deadwyler omission months ago (despite a lot of naysayers here). The passion just wasn't there.
And now I'll predict this - I don't think EEAAO will win Best Picture. It would win in a direct election, but I don't see it doing well with the preferential ballot. I think it will be a lot of voters' first choice, but it won't do well with second or third choices.
@NR2: If Michelle wins the SAG, I think she becomes a light frontrunner for the Oscar, but I think she'd have to win BAFTA also in order to be a truly safe bet. And even then, given that TÁR overperformed in the nominations as well, there's really nothing that could happen between now and the ceremony that would count Cate out completely. But on the flipside, I would also argue that even if Cate wins SAG and BAFTA, there's still a slight chance Michelle could pull it off at the Oscars if they decide to go all in on EEAAO, which is looking increasingly possible. It'll probably be a real nail-biter up to when the award is announced, especially if Michelle wins the SAG but Cate wins the BAFTA (which is actually what I'm predicting at the moment).
I had predicted a surprise nomination for James Hong in the Supporting Actor category, and although it didn't come into fruition, by the time they got to that category I was actually feeling kind of confident about it given the movie got surprise nominations for Score, Song, and Costume Design on top of Stephanie Hsu making it in (which wasn't a certainty). Though we'll never know, I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out he actually came close, maybe even in sixth place.
@jules: I had the same thought about how the preferential ballot might affect EEAAO's chances, but with the way it works, it's also important to look at what films will land in 8th, 9th, and 10th place in the first round, because those are the ones whose 2nd and 3rd place votes really matter. So while I agree that people who have The Fabelmans, Elvis, or Top Gun at #1 might be less likely to have EEAAO at #2, I do think it's quite possible that the people who put Women Talking or Triangle of Sadness at #1 might have EEAAO higher up on their ballots, and that's what's going to count.
If anything, I think the preferential ballot hurts Top Gun's chances the most out of the four big contenders, because while I'm sure that'll also get at lot of #1 votes, it's easy to imagine a lot of people putting it at #10 too. The Fabelmans and Banshees of Inisherin are probably going to get a lot of #2 and #3 placements, so they stand to benefit the most if EEAAO doesn't secure the win in the first few rounds.
Overall, not a bad slate of nominations, although I wish Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio, Nope, and The Batman could have gotten more love. I remain puzzled by Elvis’s hold on people’s affections, as I found it a mess (aside from Austin Butler, of course). Very satisfied that Glass Onion got little and Tom Hanks got nothing. I would have loved to have seen Deadwyler in place of De Armas.
Why Diane Warren again? Why? She's the embodiment of mediocrity who writes some of the worst music out there. Seriously, this is bullshit.