Oscar Nominations 2021: 1 of 9

Oscar nominations are here!

Every year I post about each of the films nominated for Oscars (this year there are 34 + 10 short films). I see all of them except for the documentaries (I am just not that interested in documentary film; I'm not sure why). I will hope to be able to post about the short films, too, but I am not sure I'll be able to catch them. If I am, there will be 11 posts.

This year there is a lot for me to appreciate; most of my favorite films of the year got at least one nomination, and I actually think I approve of the Academy's choices a little more than I usually do..

I will go film by film discussing each movie individually rather than discussing categories, beginning with the movies most beloved by the Academy this year. If the nominee has been nominated for Oscars previously, they will be listed next to their name in parentheses).

This year's nominees:

The Power of the Dog

12 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Jane Campion (The Piano)
• Actor: Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
• Adapted Screenplay: Jane Campion (The Piano)
• Supporting Actor: Kodi Smit-McPhee
• Supporting Actor: Jesse Plemons
• Supporting Actress: Kirsten Dunst
  
• Film Editing: Peter Sciberras
• Cinematography: Ari Wegner
• Production Design: Grant Major (The Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring, The Lord of the Rings: the Two Towers, The Lord of the Rings: the Return of the King, King Kong) & Amber Richards
• Score: Jonny Greenwood (Phantom Thread)
  
• Sound

Director: Campion

Cast: Cumberbatch, Dunst, Plemons, Smit-McPhee, Kenneth Radley, Sean Keenan

This movie is the frontrunner, and I know folks are kind of hoping for an upset win for CODA or some other film, I don't think anyone can move The Power of the Dog out of its place at the top here. Funny thing is: everyone is bored by this movie when it starts, but by the end of its length, the movie tends to win audiences over. This movie really tricked me. It fully got me, and I didn't see the big twist coming. It's not a gay movie, per se, which I guess is too bad, but it's deeply intriguing and unsettling, and I really enjoyed it. I especially liked the acting. I was very taken with Jesse Plemons' performance and was so glad he snagged a surprise nomination. Almost no one on this team has been nominated for an Oscar before, and Campion hasn't won (or been nominated) since the early 1990s, so this is long overdue, and everyone here deserves the accolades they're getting.

Will Win: Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay

Could Win: Film Editing, Cinematography

My Rating: #13 out of 56

Dune: Part One

10 Nominations

• Picture
• Adapted Screenplay: Eric Roth (A Star Is Born, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Munich, The Insider, Forrest Gump), Jon Spaihts & Denis Villeneuve
• Film Editing: Joe Walker (Arrival, 12 Years a Slave)
• Cinematography: Grieg Fraser (Lion)
• Production Design: Patrice Vermette (Arrival, The Young Victoria) & Zsuzsanna Sipos
• Score: Hans Zimmer (Dunkirk, Interstellar, Inception, Sherlock Holmes, Gladiator, The Thin Red Line, The Prince of Egypt, As Good as It Gets, The Preacher's Wife, The Lion King, Rain Man)
• Costume Design: Jacqueline West (The Revenant, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Quills) & Robert Morgan
• Sound
• Visual Effects
• Makeup & Hairstyling

Director: Villeneuve

Cast: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Zendaya, Jason Momoa, Stellan Skarsagård, Sharon Duncan-Brewster, Josh Brolin, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Chang Chen, Javier Bardem, Charlotte Rampling, Dave Bautista

I loved this movie. It's my favorite of the year. I haven't written anything about it yet, but I thought it was just so fucking cool. I am kind of stunned that it wasn't also nominated for Best Director, and I cannot wait until Part Two. Villeneuve's worldview is not always one I think is enjoyable, but I thought this movie was an absolute blast: rich, mysterious, and dynamic. There's so much I didn't understand, but it always felt as though Villeneuve was taking care of me, letting the information that I couldn't get right away come to me as mystery rather than as a failure in storytelling. I fell hard for this, and I think it's going to win a slew of below-the-line Oscars on March 27.

Will Win: Film Editing, Cinematography, Production Design, Original Score, Sound, Visual Effects, Makeup & Hairstyling

Could Win: Costume Design
My Rating: #1 out of 56

Belfast

7 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Kenneth Branagh (Henry V)
• Original Screenplay: Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet)
  
• Supporting Actor: Ciarán Hinds
• Supporting Actor: Judi Dench (Philomena, Notes on a Scandal, Mrs Henderson Presents, Iris, Chocolat, Shakespeare in Love, Mrs. Brown)
• Sound
• Song: Jim Morrison

Director: Branagh

Cast: Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan, Jude Hill, Lewis McAskie, Hinds, Dench

This was, for a long while, the frontrunner for Best Picture. Now, I honestly don't think it will win a single statue. I wrote about this in my review, but I actually would have nominated almost all of the actors in this. I think Balfe and Dornan were both amazing. They both campaigned in the supporting category, and so, as it turned out, they both missed getting nominated here. Balfe was expected to get a nomination, but then the Academy went for the actual supporting actress, Judi Dench. Ah well. I think it's good when category fraud doesn't pay off. But I think the acting in this movie is wonderful. And it's a fine movie; it just so happens that Belfast is an also-ran this year and won't win anything.
Will Win: N/A

Could Win: N/A

My Rating: #25 out of 56

West Side Story

7 Nominations

• Picture
• Director: Steven Spielberg (Lincoln, Munich, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, E.T.: the Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
  
• Supporting Actress: Ariana DeBose
• Cinematography: Janusz Kaminski (Lincoln, War Horse, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Saving Private Ryan, Amistad, Schindler's List)
• Production Design: Adam Stockhausen (Bridge of Spies, The Grand Budapest Hotel, 12 Years a Slave) & Rena DeAngelo (Bridge of Spies)
• Costume Design: Paul Tazewell
• Sound

Director: Spielberg

Cast: Ansel Elgort, Rachel Zegler, Mike Faist, Ariana DeBose, David Alvarez, Rita Moreno, Brian d'Arcy James, Corey Stoll, Josh Andrés Rivera, Iris Menas

Sure, sure. This deserves most of its nominations – except the one for Spielberg, and maybe it even deserves that. As I wrote in my review, this is a beautifully made remake that no one at all needed. I honestly do think it's weird that Mike Faist didn't get nominated. So much love for Ariana DeBose, but Riff is the star of this production of West Side Story. DeBose will win the Oscar for playing the same role that Rita Moreno won for in 1962. And that's fine too, I guess, although I find the whole business sort of underwhelming and tired. It's West Side Story. I'm over it. I will say that I am happy about Paul Tazewell's nomination. He's a stage designer, for the most part, and this is his first nomination. The costumes are gorgeous, and he did a fabulous job. So I am into that.

Will Win: Supporting Actress

Could Win: Cinematography, Production Design, Sound
My Rating: #35 out of 56

2. King Richard, Drive My Car, Don't Look Up, and Nightmare Alley
3. CODA, Licorice Pizza, Being the Ricardos, and The Lost Daughter
4. The Tragedy of Macbeth, Encanto, No Time to Die, and Flee
5. Tick, Tick... Boom!, Parallel Mothers, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and The Worst Person in the World
6. Cruella, Spencer, The Hand of God, and Lunana: a Yak in the Classroom
7. Cyrano, The Mitchells vs the Machines, Luca, and Raya and the Last Dragon
8. Spider-man: No Way Home, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Free Guy

9. House of Gucci, Coming 2 America, and Four Good Days

Lonely is not the right word...

My mother called me this evening, and so did my brother, and my friend Madison, and my friend Jill, and my friend Kristen.  I am not really lonely, but I hate the telephone.  I prefer to spend real actual time with people I love.  I'm not really bored either.  I am excited about my interview on Friday (what to wear!), and I just finished Jane Campion's In the Cut. 

Wahima offered me a job today that I flat refused.  I just couldn't do it.  Politically the implications of that are just way too fucking bizarre.  And yet... to do it somewhere else would be fun.

I was thinking that I wish someone with cojones like Wahima would have been in a position of power at that school when I was there... except that that person was me.   Not that I want to be an actor again, because I don't, really, but there are things that I want to say that I cannot say as a director that I could possibly say as an actor. 

I once had a friend named Justin.  He is not my friend anymore and I miss him.  How very maudlin that looks on paper.

And so it isn't the right word.  Perhaps the correct word is "lacking."  Perhaps it would be accurate to say that something is missing.  Some hole somewhere like Stuart Little's empty space.  I want permanent friendships with lots of time together.  I want soulmates who want to be with me.  I want a lover and a friend and a teammate.  When Jai asks me what I want to do for my birthday, the truth is that I want my friends to love me.  I want them to know what I want to do for my birthday.  I want them to be willing to do things that I want to do.  I want them to give a good goddamn about me and my life and my dreams.  Jaime's calling me... I'll finish this later.