The 2019 award season was one of the most boring and uninteresting in years. What happened to the Oscar nominees?
The best films of the last year, according to the choices of the beloved Academy, included a plain biopic drama about Freddie Mercury, a remake of a remake of a remake, a by-the-book comedy starring two Oscar-nominated actors and an average superhero movie with enormous ambitions.
If that’s not enough, Melissa McCarthy has been nominated for her first dramatic take (sniffing the case of Whoopi Goldberg?) and Bradley Cooper received another nomination for another mediocre performance (along with Emma Stone).
We all need to face the truth – 2018 wasn’t the best year for cinema.
Although there were some really great indie films, as well as praiseworthy festival darlings, the biggest titles slightly let majority of viewers down.
Looking at all the Best Picture nominees, I can confidently say that none of them will become a cult classic we will remember. “Roma”, despite all its indisputable charm and technical majesty, is an artsy film that you can hardly connect to. The story isn’t universal and, unfortunately, causes most of the cinemagoers yawn rather than sit flabbergasted.
My personal favorite is “BlacKkKlansman“, the most complete film of they last year. Lee stroke gold with the stellar performances and built the film’s tragic climax with an exceptional craftsmanship. Nonetheless, I can hardly imagine going back to this film, as the story seemed like a solid one-viewing-only.
What else’s in the race? “Bohemian Rhapsody”, a film carried confidently by Rami Malek, whose portrayal of the iconic British provocateur Freddie Mercury is reduced to a regular biopic drama, too afraid of following the steps of its protagonist.
Other than that, the rest of the films that matter in this year’s competition was equally “okayish” at best. I felt like the Academy pretended to be selling craft burgers, but in reality it’s a bit more than McDonald’s. Considering the fact that – whether we like it or not – this is the most important award ceremony every year, the Oscar nominees this year paint a sad picture.
My second issue with this year’s Oscar nominees is how limited in number of films they are. It almost seems as if you could choose between 10 movies in the cinemas that were worth any award buzz. This is – quite obviously – untrue, because there was a lot of pretty goddamn spectacular flicks. They just didn’t get any attention though.
This leads me to a belief that the Oscars are simply too archaic in the mechanism of nominating.
Why?
The way the Oscars have been choosing their awarded movies hasn’t been changed for years. However, changes are needed. Cinema has transformed a lot – independent cinema has matured and attracts big names and astonishing concepts. We get to see films directed by rappers, as well as movies produced by Netflix, Hulu or Amazon. Moreover, the European cinema is regaining its strength and deserves more attention in the Oscar considerations.
Not to mention the fact that we might need more diversity in terms of categories. While including any horror movies back in the early 2000s would be a joke, this year’s “Hereditary” could have easily been nominated. It wasn’t though, because horror movies were never Oscar-worthy. It’s the same discussion as superhero blockbusters. And “Black Panther” wasn’t the most praiseworthy supehero movie to be given the accolades as big as it has received.
Despite all that, I’ll tune in to the shorter ceremony, wait to hear the winners, complain a bit as usual. However, this year, I might just have less care about it all.
Here’s the list of all the Oscar nominees in 2019:
Best Picture:
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice
Lead Actor:
Christian Bale, “Vice”
Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”
Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”
Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”
Lead Actress:
Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”
Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”
Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born”
Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Supporting Actor:
Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”
Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman”
Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born”
Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Sam Rockwell, “Vice”
Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams, “Vice”
Marina de Tavira, “Roma”
Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Emma Stone, “The Favourite”
Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”
Director:
Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”
Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”
Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”
Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma”
Adam McKay, “Vice”
Animated Feature:
“Incredibles 2,” Brad Bird
“Isle of Dogs,” Wes Anderson
“Mirai,” Mamoru Hosoda
“Ralph Breaks the Internet,” Rich Moore, Phil Johnston
“Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
Animated Short:
“Animal Behaviour,” Alison Snowden, David Fine
“Bao,” Domee Shi
“Late Afternoon,” Louise Bagnall
“One Small Step,” Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas
“Weekends,” Trevor Jimenez
Adapted Screenplay:
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
“BlacKkKlansman,” Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
“If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins
“A Star Is Born,” Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters
Original Screenplay:
“The Favourite,” Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
“First Reformed,” Paul Schrader
“Green Book,” Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly
“Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón
“Vice,” Adam McKay
Cinematography:
“Cold War,” Lukasz Zal
“The Favourite,” Robbie Ryan
“Never Look Away,” Caleb Deschanel
“Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón
“A Star Is Born,” Matthew Libatique
Best Documentary Feature:
“Free Solo,” Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening,” RaMell Ross
“Minding the Gap,” Bing Liu
“Of Fathers and Sons,” Talal Derki
“RBG,” Betsy West, Julie Cohen
Best Documentary Short Subject:
“Black Sheep,” Ed Perkins
“End Game,” Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
“Lifeboat,” Skye Fitzgerald
“A Night at the Garden,” Marshall Curry
“Period. End of Sentence.,” Rayka Zehtabchi
Best Live Action Short Film:
“Detainment,” Vincent Lambe
“Fauve,” Jeremy Comte
“Marguerite,” Marianne Farley
“Mother,” Rodrigo Sorogoyen
“Skin,” Guy Nattiv
Best Foreign Language Film:
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
Film Editing:
“BlacKkKlansman,” Barry Alexander Brown
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Ottman
“Green Book,” Patrick J. Don Vito
“The Favourite,” Yorgos Mavropsaridis
“Vice,” Hank Corwin
Sound Editing:
“Black Panther,” Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker
“Bohemian Rhapsody,” John Warhurst
“First Man,” Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan
“A Quiet Place,” Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl
“Roma,” Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay
Sound Mixing:
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Roma
A Star Is Born
Production Design:
“Black Panther,” Hannah Beachler
“First Man,” Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas
“The Favourite,” Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton
“Mary Poppins Returns,” John Myhre, Gordon Sim
“Roma,” Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quez
Original Score:
“BlacKkKlansman,” Terence Blanchard
“Black Panther,” Ludwig Goransson
“If Beale Street Could Talk,” Nicholas Britell
“Isle of Dogs,” Alexandre Desplat
“Mary Poppins Returns,” Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
Original Song:
“All The Stars” from “Black Panther” by Kendrick Lamar, SZA
“I’ll Fight” from “RBG” by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson
“The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns” by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
“Shallow” from “A Star Is Born” by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice
“When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch
Makeup and Hair:
Border
Mary Queen of Scots
Vice
Costume Design:
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Mary Zophres
“Black Panther,” Ruth E. Carter
“The Favourite,” Sandy Powell
“Mary Poppins Returns,” Sandy Powell
“Mary Queen of Scots,” Alexandra Byrne
Visual Effects:
Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
First Man
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
