92th Oscars: the good, the bad and the ugly

On last Tuesday, the Academy announced the nominees for their 92th award ceremony. You can watch the announcement below:

And here is the full list:

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Best picture
Ford v Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
1917
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Parasite

Best actor
Antonio Banderas – Pain and Glory
Leonardo DiCaprio – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Adam Driver – Marriage Story
Joaquin Phoenix – Joker
Jonathan Pryce – The Two Popes

Best actress
Cynthia Erivo – Harriet
Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan – Little Women
Charlize Theron – Bombshell
Renee Zellweger – Judy

Best director
The Irishman – Martin Scorsese
Joker – Todd Phillips
1917 – Sam Mendes
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino
Parasite – Bong Joon-ho

Best supporting actor
Tom Hanks – A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Anthony Hopkins – The Two Popes
Al Pacino – The Irishman
Joe Pesci – The Irishman
Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Best supporting actress
Kathy Bates – Richard Jewell
Laura Dern – Marriage Story
Scarlett Johansson – Jojo Rabbit
Florence Pugh – Little Women
Margot Robbie – Bombshell

Best adapted screenplay
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
The Two Popes

Best original screenplay
Knives Out
Marriage Story
1917
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Parasite

Best animated feature
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
I Lost My Body
Klaus
Missing Link
Toy Story 4

Best cinematography
The Irishman
Joker
The Lighthouse
1917
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Best costume design
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Best documentary feature
American Factory
The Cave
The Edge of Democracy
For Sama
Honeyland

Best editing
Ford v Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Parasite

Best international feature film
Corpus Christi – Poland
Honeyland – North Macedonia
Les Miserables – France
Pain and Glory – Spain
Parasite – South Korea

Best make-up and hairstyling
Bombshell
Joker
Judy
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
1917

Best original score
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
1917
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Best original song
I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away – Toy Story 4
(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again – Rocketman
I’m Standing With You – Breakthrough
Into the Unknown – Frozen 2
Stand Up – Harriet

Best production design
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
1917
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Parasite

Best sound editing
Ford v Ferrari
Joker
1917
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Best sound mixing
Ad Astra
Ford v Ferrari
Joker
1917
Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

Best visual effects
Avengers: Endgame
The Irishman
The Lion King
1917
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Best animated short
Dcera (Daughter)
Hair Love
Kitbull
Memorable
Sister

Best documentary short
In the Absence
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)
Life Overtakes Me
St Louis Superman
Walk Run Cha-Cha

Best live action short
Brotherhood
Nefta Football Club
The Neighbors’ Window
Saria
A Sister

SHORT COMMENTARY

Today, I’ll be short but you can also expect a longer text with projections at the beginning of February.

What makes me happy:

  • as a Pole, I am really happy for the “Corpus Christi” nomination,
  • as someone who champions diversity, I love how many nods “Parasite” got,
  • as a fan of Cynthia Erivo’s, I’m glad she got nominated,
  • I am absolutely satisfied with how diverse is the animation category,
  • as someone who had a chance to watch “Brotherhood”, I’m really happy it got nominated because it’s a wonderful short film,
  • I’m okay with the main category, although, as my fiancé noticed, you can get a feeling there were only 10 films released last year,
  • as a longtime fan of John Williams’s, I love that he got recognised by his peers because his intelligent use of a rich leitmotif library is not a simple copy-past as some people would argue.

What surprised me:

  • De Niro didn’t get a nomination,
  • Kathy Bates got a nomination,
  • Disney’s film was nominated only once for the best animated feature film,
  • Lee Smith was not nominated for “1917” — apparently, his work was so good the Academy thought “Editing? But it was shot in one take, what’s there to edit”,
  • a song from “Toy Story 4” got a nomination,
  • “Joker” didn’t get a nomination for production design,
  • “Avengers” got nominated for best visual effects, despite looking all plastic-like.

What pissed me off:

  • the lack of nominations for Florence Pugh (for “Midsommar”), Lupita Nyong’o, Awkwafina and Jennifer Lopez as well as the whiteness of the acting categories (except for Erivo, of course); it WAS expected but it doesn’t make it less painful;
  • all the nominations for Scarlett the tree,
  • lack of nominations for female directors (and if someone wants to use that Stephen King’s voice to say “quality over diversity”, let me tell you that there actually was a ton of films directed by women that deserved the nod),
  • too much “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood” — a great film, but there were so many better ones last year,
  • lack of nominations for horror films: “Us”, “Midsommar” and „Lighthouse” were one of the best films last year, period.

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