The Oscar Narrative: Oscar Nominations - Reactions

Before I dive in, I want to go ahead and say this: I am so happy that after this year, the calendar is moving back to the end of February. This shortened season was a mess. It as rushed, and when you have four films with 10+ nominations, it shows that in the shortened season, voters coalesced around a cluster of films and found little room to spread the love. That being said, Oscar nominations this year, like every year, are a mix of great moments and egregious snubs.

So now...let's dive in! I am so mad that I pulled out Ford v Ferrari at the last minute. Without an acting, screenplay or directing nomination, it is hard to get a Best Picture nod. Although War Horse did it, so its not a first, just unusual. Otherwise, the eight films that dominated the categories, and we're expected. The Best Director category featured no major surprises. I had stuck with the DGA five, but I'm not shocked that Todd Phillips replaced Taika Waititi. I know that people are upset that a woman was not nominated for Best Director. I would have included Lulu Wang and maybe even Olivia Wilde in my ballot had I been voting. But I am also frustrated that for so many of these upset people, they are really more upset that it wasn't Greta Gerwig. They are all making it as if it is about women directors as a whole, but I get the feeling that even if a female director had been included, if it wasn't Greta, people would still be upset. For the record, I like Gerwig, and her work this year. I also like Wang, Wilde, Celine Sciamma, Lorene Scafaria, and others, and I think that the conversation needs to include more women, and make sure that its not just one or two, but all of them that are worthy of being recognized.

In terms of acting, there were some nice nominations. After decades in this industry, great veterans like Antonio Banderas, Scarlett Johansson, and Jonathan Pryce earned their first nominations, while being joined a new generation of talented newcomers like Florence Pugh and Cynthia Erivo. But the almost lazy nominations of Anthony Hopkins and Kathy Bates (they are both amazing legends, and give good performances, so that is my disclaimer), instead of bolder choices like the cast of Parasite, Jennifer Lopez, the cast of The Farewell, Dolemite is My Name and others, that would have also added some diversity to the lineup, feels like it is either a victim of the shortened timeline (people just voted for who they know from the past), or the Academy membership has taken a big step back after several years of really diverse, well-rounded nominations lists. Either way, I think the four front runners are set, and unless a huge surprise comes, I think that we are in for a pretty predictable Oscar night for these four awards.

The other major victim of this shortened season was variety across the techs. As I said before, we have four films with 10+ nominations. All of these voters coalesced around the same set of 8-10 films across all of these categories. Not that they are necessarily undeserving. It's just that in the years with more time for voting, and not such a rushed season, voters seem to have more daring choices, or at least more variety in their votes. When there is little time to get through all of the screeners (tell me about it), you tend to triage the contenders based on buzz. That means that smaller films, and films with less buzz probably did not get seen by enough people, as they would have in the past. All of that being said, there are some amazing nominees this year, for some incredible films, and while the Academy still has a long way to go, it is so important to remember that they are still a product of the industry, and that they cannot single-handedly fix the diversity issues. That being said, they missed out on some real opportunities to break the mold. I will continue to discuss all of these categories later, as the race continues to unfold. For now, we will have to do what we always have to do: wait and see what happens...