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The 90th Academy Awards
Gold Standard: The Oscars 2017By Jeffrey M. Anderson
Here are my reviews, notes, predictions, and thoughts about this year's Academy Awards. This year's nominees were announced the morning of January 23. The Shape of Water led with 13 nominations, followed by Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri with nine, and Dunkirk with seven. The awards will be held on March 4. Keep checking back... this page will be updated throughout awards season! March 4 -- I did pretty well in my predictions... I only missed 3 categories, and one of those was Documentary Short. Final counts below. That's it until next year!
Best Picture: This is not a bad batch, even if some of my top favorites are not here. I'd heartily recommend seven of the nine. Darkest Hour is fine, but it received a token nomination here. Dunkirk is the weakest entry, impressive in many ways, but terminally flawed. Update: this race is still up in the air, and could go to either The Shape of Water, Three Billboards..., or Get Out. At the moment, I hate to predict The Shape of Water, which will almost certainly mean a shift back over to Three Billboards, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
If I Had a Vote: The Shape of Water
Lead Actor: It's great to see Kaluuya here, with his first nomination. Chalamet also has his first, of course. Old veterans Washington (his eighth acting nomination) and Day-Lewis (his sixth) are back, but Oldman -- his second nomination -- is the one to beat this year.
If I Had a Vote: Daniel Kaluuya
Lead Actress: It's great to see that the two top vote-getting movies were both led by strong female performances. My favorite by a small edge is Hawkins, with a delicate, Chaplin-esque turn, but McDormand is also powerful, echoing her Oscar win for Fargo. It's Hawkins's second nomination and McDormand's fifth. Robbie has her first, Ronan her third, and -- get ready -- Streep her 21st.
If I Had a Vote: Sally Hawkins
Supporting Actor: It's great to see the long-reliable Rockwell with his first nomination here. Jenkins has his second nomination, Dafoe and Harrelson their third each. Plummer is a previous winner, with his third nomination here for great last-minute work. Dafoe has been the favorite so far, but enthusiasm for The Florida Project seems to be waning. I could see Plummer winning one for political reasons, having to do with the #MeToo movement. But I think my vote would go to Jenkins for his kind, gentle work in Water.
If I Had a Vote: Richard Jenkins
Supporting Actress: These are all first-timers except Spencer, who is a previous winner and has her third nomination. Blige (who is also nominated for Best Song) blew me away in Mudbound, but Spencer would be my pick here by a small margin. The others are mean characters, two mean mothers and a mean sister, all great, but not anyone I'd want to spend any time with.
If I Had a Vote: Octavia Spencer
Best Director: These are all fine picks, except I'd have swapped out Nolan for Steven Spielberg. Peele would be my close runner-up, but Del Toro is my personal pick. As of this year, Nolan has five nominations in all, two for writing and two for producing, but this is his first directing nomination. Gerwig (the fifth woman to be nominated in this category) and Peele (the fifth black nominee) have their first nominations. This is Del Toro's first as director; he had one previous writing nomination. This is Anderson's second directing nomination, but he has eight in all, four for writing and two for producing. If Del Toro wins, he would join his longtime pals Alfonso Cuarón and Alejandro G. Iñárritu in a special little Oscar club. Update: I did not want to jinx this by predicting Del Toro, but it seems that he is the favorite after all. Fingers crossed!
If I Had a Vote: Guillermo Del Toro
Animated Feature: I don't know what the heck happened here. I didn't even see two of these because they looked awful, and we certainly did not get awards screeners for them. We also did not get a screener for The Breadwinner. Loving Vincent looks great but is lacking in the story department, which leaves only Coco as my default pick. Where the heck is The Lego Batman Movie? What does the Academy have against Legos?
If I Had a Vote: Coco
Adapted Screenplay: They say that the 89 year-old Ivory is the favorite for this. It's his fourth nomination in a long and highly admired career, although the other three were for directing. I'm very happy to see Mudbound here, but my favorite has to be Logan.
If I Had a Vote: Logan
Original Screenplay: This is the much stronger category, which only goes to show that there are still some great ideas out there. I know I have been all over Shape of Water so far, but my pick here goes to Peele. My early prediction for the winner leans toward Three Billboards for its heavy, funny verbiage. Update: changing my prediction to Get Out... just a gut feeling.
If I Had a Vote: Get Out
Cinematography: On an exciting note, Morrison is the first woman, ever, to be nominated in this category! But she's up against Deakins, who has his fourteenth nomination here and has never won. He's one of the best in the biz, and I think this one may be a slam dunk.
If I Had a Vote: Roger Deakins
Best Documentary Feature: No matter how hard I try, the Academy rarely nominates documentaries that I've actually seen. I've got screeners for some of these, and Strong Island is on Netflix. My favorite by far is Agnes Varda's wonderful Faces Places, but this award usually goes to more serious work. I'll have to come back to this one. Update: going with Strong Island because it seems topical and because it's on Netflix.
If I Had a Vote: Faces Places
Best Foreign Language Film: If you're one of my regular readers, you know how much this category drives me around the bend. Each country submits an "official" nominee, and they tend to be upright, proper, and excruciatingly dull things that make each country look good. Meanwhile, real works of art are not even being distributed because they don't have the "official Oscar submission" tag. So... what do we have here? I've seen three of them (reviews coming soon), and they're not bad, but nothing terribly memorable.
If I Had a Vote: A Fantastic Woman
Film Editing: Pretty good job here... my personal credo is that, with few exceptions, no film that lumbers well over two hours deserves a Best Editing Oscar. I'd argue that Dunkirk is a failed experiment in editing, since those three time periods never really cross over very clearly, but that Baby Driver is a crisp, kinetic -- and clear -- action movie, so I'd go with that. Yet, I'd bet that because Dunkirk pleased/fooled so many, it's a major possibility as the winner.
If I Had a Vote: Baby Driver
Sound Editing: I just looked this up, and apparently Sound Editing consists of all the choices made in terms of sound, and Sound Mixing determines the levels of all that. For me, Dunkirk was just very hard to understand, and the battle noises usually drowned out the dialogue. For fun, and just because I enjoyed it so much, I think I'll choose Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
If I Had a Vote: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Sound Mixing: I'm going to get creative here and choose The Shape of Water, thinking of just how all that water swishing around sounds exactly right. I have no idea how the voters will go... usually these kinds of awards go to more "technical" marvels like Dunkirk, Blade Runner 2049, or Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
If I Had a Vote: The Shape of Water
Production Design: This award usually goes to the most Production Design. I can't understand why Dunkirk is here... it was a beach, a plane, and a boat. Also, I'm not sure why Phantom Thread was left out of this category in particular; to me, that house was one of the best things in the movie, a fourth character in the narrative. So I'll choose The Shape of Water because it did the most with shadows and near-empty spaces.
If I Had a Vote: The Shape of Water
Original Score: I listened to a lot of scores this year, and it's disappointing how many of the really enjoyable ones were not nominated, such as Carter Burwell's Wonderstruck, Daniel Hart's A Ghost Story, Hans Zimmer & Benjamin Wallfisch's Blade Runner 2049, Michael Giacchino's War for the Planet of the Apes, and, heck, even Danny Elfman's Justice League. At first I confess I found Desplat's work on Shape of Water a bit twittery, but it has grown on me, and of course a Williams Star Wars score is always welcome. Greenwood's Phantom work is one of the best things about that movie, although I'm not sure how listenable it is on its own.
If I Had a Vote: Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Original Song: This category again. But this year, aside from The Greatest Showman, we have some good songs! I have to say, the one that probably affected me the most, and gets points for actually being used during the movie, is Stevens's.
If I Had a Vote: "Mystery of Love"
Makeup and Hair: Now we're in foreign territory for me, but I guess Gary Oldman's makeup for Darkest Hour is pretty... thick.
If I Had a Vote: Darkest Hour
Costume Design: Again, I know very little about this category, unless I -- like I suspect most of the voters do -- look for the prettiest dresses, or the largest number of them. So since Phantom Thread is actually about clothes, it's the only choice.
If I Had a Vote: Phantom Thread
Visual Effects: Digital effects are getting better and better, but they still have a digital quality to them. In this category they are used mainly for monsters or creatures, as much as I enjoyed all of these movies. Blade Runner 2049 gets points for its creative use of effects, but so does War for the Planet of the Apes for creating a powerful digital hero that we actually cared about. Since, I think, Blade Runner kind of gets all mixed up in its effects, production design, and cinematography (where does one start and another end?) my vote goes to Apes.
If I Had a Vote: War for the Planet of the Apes
Animated Short: I've seen Lou -- which screened with Cars 3 -- and I think its pure loveliness. I'm going to try to catch up with the others soon. Update: I have seen all five, and I like them all, with Garden Party leading by a small margin and Lou not far behind, with Dear Basketball a solid third.
If I Had a Vote: Garden Party
Best Documentary Short Subject: Always a lost category for me, as there's frequently not much chance to actually see these. However, Heroin(e) is streaming on Netflix, so maybe I'll try to watch that. (It's 39 minutes long, though... very long for a "short").
If I Had a Vote: ?
Best Live Action Short Film: Update: I've seen these five shorts, and four of them are message movies (most of them with informational texts at the end, telling us more about the injustices we've seen), and only one comedy, The Eleven O'Clock; it's fun and pretty smart, and it's my favorite. But I suspect the winner will be DeKalb Elementary.
If I Had a Vote: The Eleven O'Clock Final Counts:
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