Why are the Oscars so early this year? In 2020, they’ll be on Sunday, February 9. The previous earliest date was February 22, and it’s often in late February or March.
If the idea of nominating a film is, in part, to perhaps give it a boost, an Academy Awards presentation so early negates that. Since the Oscar nominations voting closed on January 7, it’s likely that some of the voting members didn’t even get a chance to see all the potential films. This is especially true of the short films, a group of which I almost always viewed at the Spectrum Theatre in Albany.
I have seen seven out of the nine Best Picture nominations as of this writing, though I haven’t yet written about Marriage Story. Here are the nominees. If I saw it, I put a * the first time I linked to my review.
Acting
Performance by an actor in a leading role:
Antonio Banderas in PAIN AND GLORY
Leonardo DiCaprio in ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
**Adam Driver in MARRIAGE STORY – He’s always very good in a variety of roles.
Joaquin Phoenix in JOKER
Jonathan Pryce in THE TWO POPES
I’ve seen one of them. I was wary of seeing JOKER and ONCE UPON A TIME. Still,if I hadn’t been sick this week, I might have seen one of the two. The others I just missed.
Performance by an actor in a supporting role:
*Tom Hanks in A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD
Anthony Hopkins in THE TWO POPES
*Al Pacino in THE IRISHMAN
*Joe Pesci in THE IRISHMAN
Brad Pitt in ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD
Pitt is the insiders’ favorite. Of the ones I saw, I liked Pacino, though Hanks’ role was harder than it seemed.
Performance by an actress in a leading role:
*Cynthia Erivo in HARRIET
*Scarlett Johansson in MARRIAGE STORY
*Saoirse Ronan in LITTLE WOMEN
*Charlize Theron in BOMBSHELL
Renée Zellweger in JUDY
Zellweger will win. Erivo, though, was amazing.
Performance by an actress in a supporting role:
*Kathy Bates in RICHARD JEWELL
*Laura Dern in MARRIAGE STORY
*Scarlett Johansson in JOJO RABBIT
*Florence Pugh in LITTLE WOMEN
*Margot Robbie in BOMBSHELL
Pugh nearly stole the movie and is my favorite. There is a Dernaissance, and she’ll probably win. Johansson was great, but will likely get two acting nominations and no wins.
Directing and screenplays
Achievement in directing:
*THE IRISHMAN Martin Scorsese
JOKER Todd Phillips
*1917 Sam Mendes
ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD Quentin Tarantino
*PARASITE Bong Joon Ho
Rooting for Mendes.
Adapted screenplay nominees:
*THE IRISHMAN Screenplay by Steven Zaillian
*JOJO RABBIT Screenplay by Taika Waititi
JOKER Written by Todd Phillips & Scott Silver
*LITTLE WOMEN Written for the screen by Greta Gerwig
THE TWO POPES Written by Anthony McCarten
Gerwig’s consolation prize for not getting nominated for Best Director. But it IS deserved. I also liked Waititi. The Irishman, if I were honest, was too damn long.
Original screenplay nominees:
*KNIVES OUT Written by Rian Johnson. Fun!
*MARRIAGE STORY Written by Noah Baumbach. Exhausting.
*1917 Written by Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns
ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD Written by Quentin Tarantino
*PARASITE Screenplay by Bong Joon Ho, Han Jin Won; Story by Bong Joon Ho. The most original.
Best motion picture of the year
*FORD V FERRARI Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping and James Mangold, Producers
*THE IRISHMAN Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Producers
*JOJO RABBIT Carthew Neal and Taika Waititi, Producers
JOKER Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper and Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Producers
*LITTLE WOMEN Amy Pascal, Producer
*MARRIAGE STORY Noah Baumbach and David Heyman, Producers
*1917 Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Jayne-Ann Tenggren and Callum McDougall, Producers
ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh and Quentin Tarantino, Producers
*PARASITE Kwak Sin Ae and Bong Joon Ho, Producers; also nominated as best international film
JOJO, LITTLE WOMEN, PARASITE, 1917 – very different films, and if any of them won, it’d be fine by me.
The only other nominated film I saw:
*TOY STORY 4 Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen and Jonas Rivera for Best animated feature film of the year; also Best song.