Some interesting picks, and I've chuffed to see several foreign films breaking out of Foreign Film ghetto and making it to other categories.
Yes, I'm always happy when that happens and the cinematography for
Cold War
was stunning so I was happy to see it break out there.
Annihilation, probably my favourite film of the year, getting nothing, but that was not surprising.
It was my #1 at the end of the year (and still is after seeing a bunch of films I missed) but I thought it might at least get nods for sound or score.
Does this mean I have to go watch Vice? Wahhhh, I don't wanna.
Word.
My other thoughts are here: [link]
Mostly, I'm just tired of how few films end up being part of the conversation across categories.
As megan mentioned in her blog post, what exactly is Buster Scruggs an adaptation of?
I'm upset Beale St got so little. I also really like annihilation.
I'm pretty sure I won't see Vice.
As megan mentioned in her blog post, what exactly is Buster Scruggs an adaptation of?
Apparently one of the segments is based on Jack London, and another is inspired by another short story so I suppose that is enough to put it in the "adapted" category. Normally I might suspect category fraud but I don't think submitted films get any say in the writing categories. Now, acting on the other hand...
Speaking of
Buster Scruggs,
I was sort of surprised it made it into the costume category as well, though I did think the fifth spot was up for grabs.
Another category I would have loved to see Beale sneak in. I loved the costuming in it.
It would have been fun for Spider-verse to get adapted screenplay. But I also thought Beautiful Boy or Crazy Rich Asians would get a nod there.
It would have been fun for Spider-verse to get adapted screenplay. But I also thought Beautiful Boy or Crazy Rich Asians would get a nod there.
There are always so many good choices for adapted screenplay I think.
It was my #1 at the end of the year (and still is after seeing a bunch of films I missed) but I thought it might at least get nods for sound or score.
Annihilation really needed to be seen in the theater with a decent sound system for all its impact to come across. I wonder how many of the voting members even saw it, and saw it on the big screen.
I saw Never Look Away during TIFF and while it is well-made and kept my interest despite almost 3 hr run time, I'm surprised to see it get the Best Foreign Language Picture nom, plus Cinematography. Or maybe not surprised. It is a very old-fashioned Oscar baity type film, a love story set in the background of several decades of historical turbulence in Germany, in the vein of The English Patient or Dr. Zhivago. MUCH more conventional film than Lee Chang Dong's Burning for sure (which I was kinda rooting for to get nominated, although not at the expense of Shoplifters, probably my #2 film of the year.)
Foreign-language films are always a toss-up but I generally trust the final five since there's a curated shortlist and one has to have seen all of the shortlist to vote on nominations. Although these days I'm not sure how that is enforced.
I haven't seen
Burning
yet but I've heard great things. The 3-hour running time made me say "Hell no!" to
Never Look Away
until I heard it was by the guy who did
The Lives of Others.
And the cinematography is by Caleb Deschanel who has been nominated before multiple times but never won, so I think that's at play there.
