2020 Awards Season: Oscar Nominations

January 13, 2020

1917

The Oscar nominations were announced on Monday, and the results were... well, there were some puzzling results. Joker led the way with eleven nominations. ... A film with 69% positive reviews earned the most nominations. It’s not the worst-reviewed movie to earn a Best Picture Nomination—after all, Bohemian Rhapsody was nominated just last year. However, this film is arguably the worst-reviewed movie to ever earn the most nominations in a single year.

The categories and nominations are...

BEST PICTURE

DIRECTING

BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

BEST WRITING - ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BEST WRITING - ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM

BEST DOCUMENTARY - FEATURE LENGTH

BEST DOCUMENTARY - SHORT FILM

  • In the Absence
  • Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
  • Life Overtakes Me
  • St. Louis Superman
  • Walk Run Cha-Cha
SHORT FILM - LIVE ACTION

  • Brotherhood
  • Nefta Football Club
  • The Neighbors’ Window
  • Saria
  • A Sister
SHORT FILM - ANIMATED

  • Dcera (Daughter)
  • Hair Love
  • Kitbull
  • Memorable
  • Sister
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION DESIGN

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN EDITING

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC - ORIGINAL SCORE

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC - ORIGINAL SONG

Notes and Reactions...

  • As I mentioned above, Joker led the way with eleven nominations and given its reviews, it will likely be remembered as one of the worst Best Picture nominations and the worst overall leading nominee in recent memory.
  • 1917, The Irishman, and Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood were tied for second with ten nods each. I really hope 1917 is the big winner on Oscar night, because it is easily the best of the group, in my opinion.
Going category by category, my initial reactions were.

    Best Picture:

  • I think 1917 is the favorite here, but I’m really happy Jojo Rabbit, Little Women, and Parasite were nominated.

    • Directing:

  • The Oscars matched the Golden Globes 100% in this category.
  • I would still argue that Greta Gerwig was snubbed for Little Women.

    • Best Actress in a Lead Role:

  • Another category that matched the Golden Globes exactly and there wasn’t even any mixing between the Drama and Comedy / Musical categories.
  • I think Renée Zellweger will win for Judy. In fact, I think this is one of the least competitive categories.

    • Best Actor in a Lead Role:

  • Four of the five nominees earned Golden Globe nominees for Best Actor in a Drama and the fifth nominee earned Best Actor in a Comedy / Musical. So far, there are not a lot of surprises.
  • Joaquin Phoenix is favored to win for Joker, but I’m not happy with that. It’s not the best performance of the year, it’s not Joaquin Phoenix’s best performance of his career. It’s not even the best performance for this character.

    • Best Actor in a Supporting Role:

  • Another category that matched the Golden Globes perfectly. I’m getting tired of typing that out.
  • Brad Pitt won for Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood before, and he’s likely going to do the same here.

    • Best Actress in a Supporting Role:

  • There are actually a lot of differences between this group of nominees and the ones selected by the Golden Globe voters.
  • On the one hand, I’m happy for Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh, as they deserve the recognition. On the other hand, I really wanted Annette Bening and Jennifer Lopez to earn Oscar nominations.
  • Laura Dern is easily the favorite to win, especially with Jennifer Lopez being snubbed.

    • Original Screenplay:

  • The Golden Globes don’t split up their writing categories, so there’s more new things to talk about. That said, all five Golden Globe nominees earned nods here as well.
  • Quentin Tarantino is always a favorite to win a screenwriting Oscar, as the Oscar voters love him. Furthermore, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is about Hollywood and Oscar voters love Hollywood even more.

    • Adapted Screenplay:

  • I have no idea who is going to win here. I think The Two Popes is the long shot here, but even then, it winning would likely not be the biggest shock of Oscar night.

    • Feature-Length Animated Film:

  • Nearly every year, the Oscar voters pick at least one really small film for their Animated Film list. This year, I Lost My Body and Klaus fill that role. Neither of them are likely to win.
  • Normally I would pick Toy Story 4 to win, because Pixar had such a winning streak at the Oscars. However, Missing Link won the Golden Globe, so maybe it’s the new favorite.

    • International Film:

  • Parasite earned six nominations. Its rare for a foreign-language film to earn more than one. I don’t know if it will win many Oscars, but it is practically a lock for Best International Film.

    • Documentary: Feature Length:

  • Honeyland earned nominations for Best International Film and Best Documentary. I don’t know if that gives it an advantage in this category or if it is just a weird trivia fact.

    • Documentary: Short Film
    Short Film: Live Action
    Short Film: Animated

  • These three categories are notoriously difficult to predict. It will take a bit of research to come up with even an educated guess.

    • Cinematography:

  • I think 1917 is going to have a very good Oscar night, especially in the technical categories, including a win here.

    • Production Design:

  • An easy way to win an Oscar is to recreate old Hollywood. That’s my way of saying Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood is probably going to win. That said, 1917 has a real shot here as well.

    • Costume Design:

  • Little Women should win this award. Then again, Greta Gerwig should have gotten a nomination for Best Director, so I fear Oscar voters are unfairly ignoring this movie.

    • Makeup:

  • I want Maleficent: Mistress of Evil or 1917 to win, because I think this Oscar should reward special effects makeup and not just films that recreate period hairstyles.

    • Visual Effects:

  • I want Avengers: Endgame to win, but I think
  • 1917 is the favorite here.

    • Editing:

  • I want Jojo Rabbit to win here, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

    • Sound Editing:

  • Every single year, I have to research the difference between the two sound categories. It's like I have a hole in my brain where that information is supposed to be stored. If I'm correct, Sound Editing is for creating sound effects, while Sound Mixing is for placing those effects in the audio track to maximize the effect.
  • ... Yes, I cut and paste that part every year. It saves time.
  • This might be the last time I get to do this joke, because this might be the last time there are two separate categories, for the same reason that I make this joke every year. Even Oscar voters tend to get confused about the differences and I swear there have been years where the winners make more sense if you assume a majority of the voters got the two categories backwards.

    • Sound Mixing:

  • 1917 will likely win both categories this year.

    • Original Score:

  • All signs point to Joker winning this one. I don’t think it will be the biggest winner of the night, but it will likely win here.

    • Original Song:

  • “(I'm Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman won the Golden Globe, so it is the favorite here, but you can’t count out “Into the Unknown” from Frozen II

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Filed under: Awards Season, The Irishman, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, Avengers: Endgame, Toy Story 4, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Frozen II, Richard Jewell, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Missing Link, The Lion King, Ad Astra, Judy, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood, Breakthrough, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Dolor y gloria, Rocketman, Jojo Rabbit, Ford v. Ferrari, 1917, Joker, Little Women, Harriet, Knives Out, Klaus, Parasite (기생충), Bombshell, American Factory, The Lighthouse, For Sama, Les misérables, Honeyland, Marriage Story, The Two Popes, J’ai perdu mon corps, Corpus Christi, The Cave, Tom Hanks, Brad Pitt, Kathy Bates, Al Pacino, Jonathan Pryce, Charlize Theron, Renée Zellweger, Antonio Banderas, Noah Baumbach, Annette Bening, Laura Dern, Leonardo DiCaprio, Greta Gerwig, Anthony Hopkins, Scarlett Johansson, Jennifer Lopez, Sam Mendes, Joe Pesci, Todd Phillips, Joaquin Phoenix, Saoirse Ronan, Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Zaillian, Taika Waititi, Adam Driver, Anthony McCarten, Rian Johnson, Margot Robbie, Joon-ho Bong, Scott Silver, Florence Pugh, Cynthia Erivo, Krysty Wilson-Cairns, Han Jin-won