Awards season has descended upon us – the Oscars ceremony, which will be held on February 9th, is generally considered the cornerstone of the awards season. It’s a time for celebration, disappointment, and chaotic moments that end up going viral the next day. I mean, who could ever forget the glorious moment from 2017 when Warren Beatty announced that La La Land had won Best Picture, when it had actually been Moonlight that won (my favorite line of the night was from La La Land producer Fred Berger: “we lost, by the way”). Oscars 2019 was notably host-less (a first since 1989), but drew in almost 30 million viewers, a 12% increase from 2018. Here’s a quick rundown of what we know so far about this year’s Academy Awards.
Number one – Wait, who’s hosting?
No one! I mean, it worked out pretty well for the Academy last year, so why not do the exact same thing this year? Clearly, the job of hosting isn’t an exciting prospect for candidates – inviting everyone on the Internet to scrutinize all of your past (and possibly controversial) remarks and actions does not sound fun, especially after what happened to Kevin Hart last year. So, there will most likely won’t be an opening monologue – just a musical performance or two and some short guest appearances from your favorite comedians. However, I wouldn’t say no to letting the Muppets host.
Number two – Which movies are up for Best Picture, and who’s going to win?
As someone who has not watched a majority of the Best Picture nominees, it is difficult to predict who is going to win the top prize. Here are the films that have been nominated:
- Ford v Ferrari – Peter Chernin, Jenno Topping, and James Mangold
- The Irishman – Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff
- Jojo Rabbit – Carthew Neal, Taika Waititi and Chelsea Winstanley
- Joker – Todd Phillips, Bradley Cooper, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff
- Little Women – Amy Pascal
- Marriage Story – Noah Baumbach and David Heyman
- 1917 – Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, and Callum McDougal
- Once Upon a Time in Hollywood – David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, and Quentin Tarantino
- Parasite – Kwak Sin-ae and Bong Joon-ho
There are definitely some factors to consider if we want to get scientific about which film is going to take the Best Picture award: prior success during the awards season, nominations in other categories, controversy, cultural relevance, etc. Here is another article from Thrillist that goes into more detail about which Best Picture nominee has the best chance of winning.
Currently, my frontrunners are 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, and Parasite.
Number three – Why wasn’t (enter movie name here) nominated?
There were definitely some snubs this year, ranging from the complete shutout of Uncut Gems (starring serious actor Adam Sandler as a charismatic New York City jeweler) and The Farewell (a personal film by director Lulu Wang that gave Awkwafina her first Golden Globes win), to the exclusion of Greta Gerwig (Little Women) from the Best Director category. In addition, we have a host of talented directors, films, and performers who did not receive a nomination this year:
- The entire cast of Parasite
- Us – released in March 2019, directed by Jordan Peele
- Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers
- Eddie Murphy for Dolemite is My Name
- Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson for The Lighthouse
- Florence Pugh for Midsommar (note: she’s actually nominated this year for Little Women, but it could be argued that her performance was even better in Midsommar)
- “Spirit” from The Lion King (c’mon, we could’ve gotten to see Beyoncé perform at the Oscars)
- Frozen II (at least nominate it…right?)
- Chris Evans in a cable-knit sweater for Knives Out
Number four – So much for diversity
The nominations for this year’s Academy Awards are, as Deadline put it very well, “basically #OscarsSoWhite Part 2: #OscarsSoWhiterAndWithMoreMen”.
We were hopeful last year after the Academy made some major strides towards diversifying the voter membership, resulting in more people of color being nominated and more representation by women directors.
This year, one (repeat: ONE) performer of color was nominated across all acting categories: Cynthia Erivo for playing Harriet Tubman in the film Harriet. As I touched on previously, there are a wealth of diverse performers that could’ve easily earned major nominations for acting – Jennifer Lopez, Song Kang Ho, Lupita Nyong’o, Eddie Murphy, Park So-dam, Awkwafina, and so many more.
Perhaps even more distressing is the shutout of women in the Best Director category, despite the massive pool of talented female filmmakers this year, including Lulu Wang, Greta Gerwig, Marielle Heller, Lorene Scafaria, and Alma Har’el. Unfortunately, this event has become a tradition: only five women have ever been nominated in the Best Director category in the history of the Academy Awards.
Finally, the lack of diverse narratives in films nominated for the 2020 Academy Awards becomes pretty obvious once you look a little closer. While there are indications of diverse filmmaking (Parasite is the prime example), films like The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, JoJo Rabbit, 1917, Marriage Story, and Joker all seem to primarily concern straight, white men (not to take away from brilliance of any of these films – it’s just something to note). Compare those films to BlacKkKlansman, Roma, Black Panther, and even Bohemian Rhapsody from 2019, as well as the performers who won top prizes at last year’s ceremony.
But hey – congratulations to all those men!
Number five – Some other cool stuff happened though
- This is the first time South Korea has been recognized in the International Film category, thanks to Parasite
- Saoirse Ronan already has four Oscar nominations, and she’s only 25!
- Joker leads with 11 nominations, followed by 1917, The Irishman, and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, all with 10 nominations
- Bradley Cooper served as one of the producers for Joker, so now he has 8 Academy Award nominations
- John Williams received his 53rd nomination for composing the soundtrack for Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker