FYC: Claire Mathon for Best Cinematography

by Cláudio Alves

Two years ago, Rachel Morrison made history when she became the first woman to be nominated for Best Cinematography at the Oscars. By no means does that imply Mudbound's wondrous DP is a pioneer. There are many awards-worthy female DPs working in cinema, past and present, and the Academy's sketchy record should be understood as nothing more than the industry's  internalized sexism and biases. Where were the nominations for Maryse Alberti, Agnès Godard, and Ellen Kuras, among others?

This year, critics have been united in their praise of a particular DP whose double dose of photographic genius could make History, just as Morrison did in 2018. However, Claire Mathon is fighting against even more of the Academy's treacherous biases, including their disinterest in African cinema, LGBTQ stories, and non-English speaking narratives…

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My Ride or Die - Elisabeth Moss

by Ginny O'Keefe

Awards season is well upon us which means lists of our favorite performances and films. For many years I’ve had a “Ride or Die” performer who I would root for throughout all of awards season hoping they would get a longshot nomination. Last year my ride or die was Toni Collette for Hereditary, a performance that was criminally unrecognized -- the snubbing of said performance will leave me bitter for years to come. Several years before my Ride or Die was Benicio Del Toro’s haunting and hurting performance for Sicario. So as you can tell, my Ride or Die basically sums up performances that have no chance of winning or even being nominated for any major awards. Nevertheless they stay in my heart throughout the Globes, the SAGS, the Independent Spirit Awards and of course the Oscars.

A few weeks ago I attended a screening of Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell at the Aero Theatre in Santa Monica with a Q&A afterward with Elisabeth Moss and I realized less than eight minutes into Moss’ Becky Something launching herself into the scene like an unstable ball of light, that Moss was my Ride or Die this season...

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FYC: "Pain and Glory" for Best Cinematography

by Cláudio Alves

Pedro Almodóvar might be known for his brilliant reds, but his latest and most autobiographical film starts in blue. Submerged in blue, as it happens. In the bottom of a swimming pool tiled in shades of cyan, we find our blue-clad protagonist, underwater, pensive as he is enveloped by diluted chlorine and the memories of a distant past. They are remembrances of maternal warmth and white linens drying in the sun, shots so beautiful they seem more real than the present life for which they are prologue. Color theory has its limitations, of course, and Almodóvar's brush is guided more by emotion than by dogmatic rules. José Luis Alcaine's photography follows the same logic…

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FYC: Robert Pattinson for Best Actor & Supporting Actor

by Cláudio Alves

Margot Robbie isn't the only actor with more than one performance in buzzy productions. 2019 has been a year full of actors with sterling bodies of work. There's also Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Adam Driver, among many others. I'd like to shed light on the excellence of a star whose work is quite far from Oscar's presumed radar. I'm talking about a former heart-throb turned character actor who spent the year getting drunk with Willem Dafoe, facing the challenges of single-parenthood in outer space and casting aspersions at Timothée Chalamet's disproportionate genitalia.

That's right, we're here to sing the praises of the one and only Robert Pattinson. First, we have his adventures with a fuckbox, a mad scientist and a baby…

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FYC: Jo Yeo-jeong

by Kyndall Cunningham

With every nerve-racking awards season, I find myself putting all my emotional stock into the Best Supporting Actress category. There are three main reasons for this: 1) actresses 2) ostensibly, it’s where all the scene-stealers are, and 3) it’s the only category I can count on a woman of color to win. Admittedly, post-Richard Jewell, I’m not nearly as excited about this category as I was, say, a month ago. But I still have faith that this will be the most interesting acting category this season with various wild cards and dark horses popping in and out until the Oscars nominations are announced in January. 

Media outlets have deemed The Farewell’s Zhao Shuzhen the favored dark horse this year, which is great! But I still believe that this category has room for another non-American actress despite the Oscars tendency to stay "local," as Bong Joon-ho would put it.

Jo Yeo-jeong. 

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