Every year the favorite pastime of movie lovers immediately following the nominations announcement is to join together in a choir of outrage, surprise and (if you’re lucky) jubilation at all the ways the experts and odds makers got it wrong. Here are my five cents on the matter.
- Justice for One Night in Miami…!
- The most shocking part of the nominations, in my humble opinion, is One Night in Miami being shut out of the Best Picture category and Regina King not getting the nomination for Best Director. The Academy was largely unkind to plays-made-into-movies in these categories, but I think King deserved to make further history in the directing category alongside two other women and the film itself was inarguably one of the year’s best. At least it was part of….
- A huge year for minorities of all kinds.
- Two women were nominated for Best Director (and it should have been three). The Acting categories have the most diverse cast ever, including the first Korean, first Asian-American, first Muslim and multiple nods for comedies – usually spurned by high-brow voters. Judas and the Black Messiah marked the first all-black producer team to rep a Best Picture nominee. As pointed out above, I think it could have extended further, but it was great to see a year with several amazing films centered on people of color bring home a haul of recognition.
- Eurovision got an Oscar nod?! YES!!
- When I watched the wild and silly Will Ferrell/Rachel McAdams romp, I had several good laughs and a legitimate moment of “Whoa, that last song is actually really, really good.” Apparently a lot of other people thought so too, as it scored a surprise nod and makes me smile at the idea of a live, costumed performance.
- How do two title characters both get nominated for Supporting Actor?
- Daniel Kaluuya’s performance as Black Panther icon Fred Hampton almost surely has him at the head of the ballot for Best Supporting Actor, but Lakeith Stanfield? That puts both Judas and the Black Messiah from the eponymous film into a supporting role category. Not sure how that works, but hey, they were great in that movie.
- Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross Double Dip.
- “Hey, two guys from Nine Inch Nails are going to get double Oscar nominations for Original Score. And it will be for a Pixar movie and a period piece about making Citizen Kane.” SAID. NO. ONE. EVER. Nice work fellas.