If you’ve been reading the blog lately, you know I get excited for Oscar season. The award show itself is pompous and smug and self-righteous, but indulging in great filmmaking is as good a hobby as I have ever found. Assuming you aren’t getting out a magnifying glass to blow up that ballot picture, here is a rundown of how I look at the category blocks followed by my picks.
Short Films: I’ll get these out of the way because, frankly, I didn’t watch them. But my kids really liked Burrow.
The Effects Oscars – Every year this feels like a way to applaud blockbusters and visually stunning action films that the Academy otherwise turns its high brow nose up to when it comes to “serious filmmaking.” You can’t tell me you’ve seen anything like Tenet on screen before, so I am content it at least landed a few nods in this area. Makeup and Hairstyling always throws in a few clunkers (Hillbilly Elegy anyone? Suicide Squad last year?) and I don’t know how voters can compare Costume Design when the range is from live-action Disney films to Jane Austen adaptations.
My Picks:
Visual Effects: Tenet | Production Design: Tenet | Makeup & Hairstyling: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom | Costume Design: Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
The Sound Oscars – These categories have ebbed and flowed over the years, and the Best Song winners have ranged from Barbra Streisand to Lionel Richie to Eminem to Three 6 Mafia. This year’s Original Score category features two members of rock band Nine Inch Nails who were nominated (twice!) including for a Pixar film. It’s always spicy in the Sound Mix and I am praying for a Will Ferrell/Rachel McAdams performance on awards night.
My Picks:
Sound: Sound of Metal | Original Song: Husavik from Eurovision Song Contest (yes, seriously) | Original Score: Soul
The Artsy Oscars – Some of my favorite films to watch are because of the masterful cinematography and play with light. Look back at movies like Legends of the Fall, 1917, Skyfall or Blade Runner 2049 and you realize the ways that light, framing and focus can craft the narrative. Here I also loop in Film Editing, auteur-centric categories like International Feature and Documentary Feature and literal art – Animated Feature.
My Picks:
Animated Feature: Soul | Documentary Feature: My Octopus Teacher | International Feature Film: Another Round | Cinematography: Nomadland
The Acting Oscars – The categories that always get the most buzz and the most-watched speeches are the acting categories. I guess I get it, in the sense that they are the most visible pieces of the films, but I’ve always thought this was the most overblown part of the ceremony (though I concede they have made for many, many memorable speeches).
My Picks:
Actress in a Leading Role: Carey Mulligan in Promising Young Woman | Actress in a Supporting Role: Amanda Seyfried in Mank | Actor in a Leading Role: Chadwick Boseman in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (this one was really hard to call between Boseman and Riz Ahmed, but I gotta go with Black Panther for the posthumous win) | Actor in a Supporting Role: Daniel Kaluuya in Judas and the Black Messiah
The Big Ones (to me) – Writing is at the center of my admiration in most all things, so it will come as no surprised that the two Screenplay categories are the two I most track during the lead-up to Oscar time. Directing and Picture hit a slightly sour note for me this year, snubbing One Night in Miami in both cases, but there were still extremely worthy entries and my picks in all the Big Ones were easy to make. Mostly…
My Picks:
Picture: Sound of Metal | Director: Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman | Original Screenplay: (TIE!) Promising Young Woman and Sound of Metal (I just couldn’t choose) | Adapted Screenplay: One Night in Miami
So there you have it, all my picks for the 2021 Oscar ceremony. Am I saying this is how it will play out in reality? Absolutely not! The Academy and I tend to differ greatly in our final ballots, and the above is a pure reflection of my personal biases and preferences. If anyone has tips on how to get a membership so I can vote, I’m all ears….