Almost there! We’ve already posted four different pieces on
this year’s Oscars, looking at odds
and ends, techies,
supporting
actors, and leads.
Now, we’ll take a quick skim through the screenplay categories, before wrapping
up with Best Director and Best Picture later today.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
NOMINEES Knives Out—Rian Johnson Marriage Story—Noah Baumbach 1917—Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—Quentin Tarantino Parasite—Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won Read More
Our Oscars analysis is entering its home stretch.
Previously, we’ve looked at odds
and ends, technical
fields, and the supporting
actor and actress races. Today, we’re looking at Best Actor and Best
Actress. As discussed yesterday, the acting races this year are very boring to
predict; they’re also very fun to analyze.
BEST ACTOR
NOMINEES
Antonio Banderas—Pain and Glory
Leonardo DiCaprio—Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Adam Driver—Marriage Story
Joaquin Phoenix—Joker
Jonathan Pryce—The Two Popes
WILL WIN Phoenix. And honestly, good for him.
No, Joker
isn’t my favorite Joaquin Phoenix performance—that would probably be Her,
though The Master, Inherent
Vice, and You
Were Never Really Here might all put up a fight—but it’s still a very
good one. He deserves to have a trophy on his shelf. Read More
Thus far in our ongoing Oscars analysis, we’ve looked at
some odds
and ends and some technical
categories. Today, we get to the good stuff: the supporting actor and
actress races.
One curious thing about this year’s Oscars is that all four
of the acting awards are virtually sewn up; the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, and
the Screen Actors Guild all honored the same performers in each category
(ignoring the Globes’ musical/comedy offshoots for lead actor, neither of whom
is even nominated here). This makes predicting these particular Oscar races
rather boring. But who cares? The juicy stuff with actors isn’t who will
win, but who should—and, more importantly, who appears on your own
personal ballot. The quality of acting in cinema these days is extraordinarily
strong, so narrowing down each category to a proper quintet is always a
daunting challenge.
Who made the Manifesto’s cut? Read on to find out. Read More
Yesterday, we
analyzed some of the less sexy categories at this year’s Oscars. Today, the
sexiness has arrived; we’re moving on to five below-the-line fields that I’ve
arbitrarily labeled “the big techies”. Get excited, film editing enthusiasts!
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
NOMINEES
The Irishman—Rodrigo Prieto
Joker—Lawrence Sher
The Lighthouse—Jarin Blaschke
1917—Roger Deakins
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood—Robert Richardson
WILL WIN
The Oscars work in mysterious ways. For a solid decade—beginning with his
double-nomination in 2007, for No Country
for Old Men and The Assassination of
Jesse James—Roger Deakins was deemed to be the greatest living cinematographer
never to have won an Academy Award. Two years ago, after 13 straight
nominations without a win, Deakins finally got off the schneid for his
breathtaking lensing of Blade
Runner 2049. This year, he’s winning again for 1917.
This will not be close. Read More
It’s that time of year! Over the next week, the Manifesto will be rigorously analyzing each of the 21 feature categories for this year’s Oscars. Well, maybe not that rigorously. I used to be an Oscar obsessive, but over the past decade or so, my enthusiasm for the glorified gala has waned a bit. How the movie industry chooses to celebrate itself is no longer of tremendous concern to me. I know which films and performances I like and which I don’t; who really cares what the Academy thinks?
Well, a lot of people. And even setting aside the commercial
significance of the Oscars, it’s always worth remembering that, for the most
part, they tend to honor pretty good movies. Just don’t take them too
seriously; that way, you can’t be too disappointed when they inevitably fuck
up.
We’ll be filing a series of posts this week, culminating
with a look at Best Picture on Friday. Today, we’re beginning with a handful of
categories that I’ve rudely deemed to be minor—not because I discount the
contributions of the artisans in these particular fields, but because I, as a
cinematic neanderthal, don’t especially care about them. (Speaking of which, I
never bother to even predict the three shorts categories, because come on.)
Let’s get to it. Read More
