So, that happened. Three-ish weeks on from the Oscars, the dust is starting to settle, so I think it's high time we have a look at this year's winners and losers and assess the situation. After such a weird year for movies, it's actually interesting to look at the lineup of nominees and realise that, for the most part anyway, it was actually a fairly solid selection. Before we start, I should say that, out of the best picture nominees, I didn't actually get a chance to see The Father or Judas and the Black Messiah, which kind of limits me a little in talking about some of the bigger wins those films netted. There's a few other blindspots for me here and there, but I did manage to see every other acting nominee and good amount of the other big awards films. Anyway, let's break it down, category by category. I'll be tackling all of them-apart from the shorts- but I'll be brief on each, but if you want to skip ahead to anything, I'll have the categories themselves in bold
Best Original Screenplay
If you've read my Promising Young Woman review, you might be able to gather that I kind of like that film a little bit and so I'm slightly absolutely over the moon that it won Original Screenplay. I preferred Minari and Sound of Metal as movies (more on that later), but I think Emerald Fennell's takedown of the quiet, venomous misogyny at work in society had one of the finest scripts of last year. Not a line was out of place, and the very precise deployment of the film's key insights lends it this wickedly smart and surprisingly emotional sting that I don't think any of the films it was up against could match. I'll also say this now: much as I actually quite liked Trial of the Chicago 7, it really wasn't on the level of any of its competitors, and actually felt like a compilation of the best and worst of Sorkin. When it was good it was really good, but when it missed, it felt embarrassing. Sorkin's a great writer but he needs to stop directing his own scripts because the dialogue suffers for how he presents it onscreen. Anyway, really happy for Emerald Fennell, and hopefully this means we get to see more gems from her in the future
Best Adapted Screenplay
As for adapted, it wasn't a bad lineup either. Can't comment on The Father but seeing Borat: Subsequent Moviefilm nominated was a thrill, and seeing Regina King read the full title without missing a beat was more deserving of an Oscar than her win for Beale Street. Speaking of, it's such a shame that One Night in Miami struck out in every category it was nominated for because it's a real gem, and serious props to Kemp Powers for translating his play to the screen while still managing to make it cinematic. Nomadland obviously went on to be the big winner of the night so I don't mind that it didn't win here, especially because it's not really a film that wants you to focus on its script.
Best Visual Effects
Another year, another VFX category full of films only notable for their effects. Tenet was the obvious winner here, and it absolutely deserved its win, but it was actually a fairly stacked category across the board. Midnight Sky and The One and Only Ivan are solid nominees, and it's nice to remember that the Mulan remake actually did some things right, too. I do think Love and Monsters arguably had better effects than Tenet, but I'm not complaining, because Nolan's film does feature some mind-bending visuals, beautifully realised, and deservedly recognised.
Best Editing
Pretty formidable category here too. Sound of Metal is a great choice to win, but Nomadland was no slouch either, and Promising Young Woman deserved a nod for those incredible montages. Trial of the Chicago 7 actually doesn't feel out of place here. The montages that bridge the different takes on the protests were genuinely fantastic, and the quieter scenes were put together in such an effective way that really gives them time to breath. Make no mistake though: this was Mikkel E.G. Nielsen's category, and his win here highlights just how beautifully Sound of Metal was constructed. When a film this good looks absolutely effortless, that's when you know there's a good editor around.
Best Costume Design
Am I the only one who was really surprised at how well Ma Rainey's Black Bottom did? Alright, it only won two Oscars, but still, apart from Boseman for actor, it was never a film I had tipped to be a frontrunner in any category. I don't mind its win at all, but personally I thought Emma. was the clear frontrunner here with those beautifully intricate period dresses. The other nominees weren't quite as strong but still fairly notable. I do like the costumes of Mank and Mulan, and while I can't speak for Pinocchio, any of the images I can find from it confirm that it absolutely deserved its nomination
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Ma Rainey again, and again, it's a hard one to argue with. There's a lot of overlap between this and costume design, and I think that Ma Rainey was definitely the best of the bunch. I do think that Hillbilly Elegy is a random addition here. It's definitely one of the least awful things about that film but paired with the bizarre performances of the actors wearing it, it made for one of the weirdest makeup nominations in recent memory.
Best Cinematography
Am I the only one who thought Mank was a worthy winner here? Beautiful crisp B+W imagery, strong shot composition, some incredible visual storytelling and a few cheeky nods to Citizen Kane, it's easily one of the best looking films of last year. Nomadland seemed like a lock for this category and Joshua James Richards delivers pure visual poetry and it's a shame these films didn't have better competition (although I haven't seen Judas and the Black Messiah), but they were easily two of the best shot films of the year. Minari seems like an odd omission here though, especially because it got good attention in the other categories, and I'd argue that it's much, much stronger than New of the World or Trial of the Chicago 7 in terms of its cinematography
Best Production Design
Another fairly unimpeachable win for Mank. It's interesting to see Tenet here, and that definitely speaks to Nolan's dedication to practical craftsmanship. Other than that? No real surprises here. The other three are pretty much what I expected from this category, although I would say that Saint Maud (which was eligible) seems like a bit of a snub here. One Night in Miami is another strange omission, especially as far as period pieces go. Still, nothing could have beaten Mank, which recreates 1940s Hollywood so faithfully that it's honestly slightly hard to believe it's not a lost film from that era
Best Sound
It still doesn't sit right with me that this was made into one category, but either way, nothing this year was beating Sound of Metal. And that's only right: so much of this film's story is told in its soundscape, and with sound this rich and packed with meaning, it's only right that it takes the gong here. Apart from that, it was a fairly strong category. I think Mank and Soul are great shouts here, and the latter is especially interesting considering how animated films are usually confined to their designated category
Best Original Score
Speaking of Soul, it had maybe my favourite score of this lineup out of context, although I am partial to Emile Mosseri's gorgeous soundtrack for Minari. Reznor and Ross team with Jon Batiste in such an effective way, resulting in another in a well-documented library of incredible Pixar scores. I do think that Terrence Blanchard's score for Da 5 Bloods is the one that complements its respective film the best. It matches his score for Blackkklansman, so huge and nuanced and perfectly melding with Newton Thomas Sigel's haunting images of the Vietnamese jungle. If I'm being honest, any of these scores could have won and I'd be happy, so Soul was a deserving winner, and more proof that Reznor and Ross are among the most exciting and effective composers working right now
Best Original Song
This is an odd one. I don't really love any of these songs over the others, they're all just pretty solid. I guess if I had to pick, I do like Speak Now. I don't know, this just wasn't an especially strong category this year. Even the songs on the shortlist- with the exceptions of Rain Song and Wuhan Flu- are all just alright at best. I won't say Jaja Ding Dong was snubbed but they definitely missed a trick by leaving it out, if only for the meme fodder it would have created. Fight For You is good and I do like H.E.R., but again, it doesn't really stand out over any of the other nominees. It was a decent category this year, but that's kind of it
Best Documentary Feature
Why was Dick Johnson is Dead left on the shortlist? Why was Boys State left on the shortlist? Where were Feels Good Man, Disclosure and American Utopia? It's not a bad lineup (although My Octopus Teacher was a bizarre choice to win), but it feels like with the exceptions of Time and Collective, the best stuff wasn't even in the final category. There were some good nominees but I don't think this category represented the best that documentary filmmaking had to offer in 2020. Some of the most creative and insightful docs this year didn't even make the cut, and the one that the Academy deemed better than all of them was just okay at best. Shoutout to the octopus I guess, but this was a real dud of a category this year
Best International Feature Film
Yeah, of course it was Another Round, and rightfully so. In all honestly Thomas Vinterberg should have won this a lot sooner, but still, it was great to see him win, and his speech was easily my favourite of the night. This was an interesting category this year with how diverse and consistently good the nominees were. It's a shame most of these films didn't get a huge amount of buzz, and Another Round's status as an unbeatable frontrunner probably didn't do anything to help that. I'm always amazed by how strong this category is every year, and again there's a lot of films here that could match any of the BP nominees, like Quo Vadis, Aida? and Collective
Best Animated Film
Another year, another easy win for Pixar that makes everyone pretend their nominated films weren't any good. Soul was my favourite film here, but I would have really liked to see Wolfwalkers get the gong too. Cartoon Saloon are now in as one of the most notorious Oscar-losers, and their latest is truly beautiful, and it would've been nice for it to win over something as obvious as Soul. For how obvious of a forgone conclusion this was though, it's hard to say that Soul didn't deserve its win. It's a lot easier to argue against Onward's nomination. I like the film an awful lot, but it's presence in this category over something like Weathering With You or even Trolls 2 kind of speaks to how bound to Pixar the Oscars are. Again, it's not a bad film, but it's hard not to feel like there should be a limit to the amount of films a studio can have nominated. On a completely unrelated note, it's great to be able to say the words "two-time Academy Award nominee Shaun the Sheep." If nothing else, that's the best takeaway from this category
Best Supporting Actress
This is an odd one. First off, Glenn Close was awful in Hillbilly Elegy, and she shouldn't have been nominated. I just hate how she's been reduced to being in this kind of trashy, pandering Oscar bait. Also, can we talk about her doing Da Butt at the ceremony? What a weird moment that was, the absolute lowpoint of an unnecessary, unfunny and overlong sequence. Apart from that, there's a pretty good Amanda Seyfried in Mank, and also Olivia Colman in The Father, which I still haven't seen. I'm so happy that Youn Yuh-jung won for her incredible performance in Minari, but honestly my pick to win was easily Maria Bakalova. She delivers a note-perfect comedic performance (something that the Oscars are perpetually unable to recognise), and she's the only one of these nominees who actively feels like she's risking something in her performance. She's playing this believably off-kilter character in some unbelievably dangerous circumstances, and most of the time she only had one take to do that in. Hell, she deserved it for the Giuliani scene alone, easily the most horrifyingly vital moment in any 2020 film, and the moments where's she's just riffing and Sacha Baron Cohen has to follow her lead make for some of the funniest gags in recent memory
Best Supporting Actor
Yeah, I should really see Judas and the Black Messiah. It looks like they made the right call though, and I'm so happy for Daniel Kaluuya. From Get Out to Widows, he's just been going from strength to strength, and I really wouldn't be surprised if he won again in the near future. I do think it's absolutely ludicrous that him and Lakeith Stanfield were both in supporting, and that definitely speaks to some of the Academy's more bothersome biases, but still, it's nice to see him get this honor. Apart from that, there's Leslie Odom Jr. and Sacha Baron Cohen, both really good but hardly standouts in this category. I actually would've put Kingsley Ben-Adir or Eli Goree ahead of Odom Jr. as far as the ONIM cast goes, and while Baron Cohen is good in Trial, he's much, much better in Borat 2, and I think that should've been the film he got recognised for. But the pick of the bunch for me was Paul Raci. I adored Sound of Metal, and while I'm not surprised that it only did well in the technical categories, Raci gave one of the most beautifully nuanced supporting turns from the last decade, and should have gotten recognised at more of the awards shows than he did
Best Director
How crazy is it that it's taken 93 years for more than one woman to be nominated for best director? God the Academy are so behind, but all the same, really happy to see Zhao and Fennell in this category. This is a cool one because much like a very proud teacher, I think everyone nominated in this category was a winner in their own right. Personally I think they made the right call on Zhao, but I do think that Lee Isaac Chung is worth a mention for Minari, and the way he very delicately brings childhood memories to the screen makes me quite emotional just thinking about it. But yeah, no wrong answers here, from Fennell's careful uncorking of PYW's tension to Fincher's brassy rush through 1940s Hollywood and Vinterberg's realising of his boozy epic. Oh well, at least we don't have to worry about Todd Philips getting it this year. Every cloud and all that
Best Picture
The Academy didn't leave it till last, so I won't either. And what a boneheaded decision that was. I'll rant about it more when we get to actor but Christ this was such a jarring move for the Academy to make for such a terrible reason. Thankfully, the lineup this year wasn't bad. The Father and Judas were always locks so not surprised to see them here. Trial of the Chicago 7 again shouldn't have been nominated for most of the awards it was up for, especially not Best Picture. I mean when festival big-hitters like Kajillionaire and One Night in Miami, big blockbusters like Tenet and especially something like Da 5 Bloods get passed over in favour of Aaron Sorkin's decent but hardly revolutionary social commentary, you know you have a problem. It just feels like a lot of things Sorkin has done, and in turn, it feels like a Frankensteinian hodge-podge of Oscar bait.
There's also Mank, which everyone decided to hate for some reason but I really love. It's Hollywood on Hollywood, Fincher adapting Fincher and Bill Nye the Science Guy playing Upton Sinclair: all the makings of an awards classic. All joking aside, I can't overstate how much I hate this trend of everyone being excited for a film, enjoying it when it comes out and then acting like it's absolute trash when it starts getting awards love. Obviously you don't have to love or even like Mank, but for so many people to shit on what is at the very least a well made film? I don't know about that one. So add Mank to the list, on top of Jojo Rabbit, Vice, Three Billboards, etc. etc. Should it have won? Honestly, not in my opinion, but it absolutely deserved to be in the category, and I hope we don't have to wait another 6 years for more Fincher
And then there's my top 4. Promising Young Woman was great, and I loved seeing it get Original Screenplay. Soon as that happened though, I kind of knew that it was out of the Best Picture race and that's okay. It's just nice for these really important genre films to get made and be recognised like this. As for Nomadland, I was really happy to see it win. Beautiful, very socially relevant visual poetry from Chloé Zhao that will hopefully mark a trend of the Academy going for quietly powerful films instead of big shouty issue movies. Was it my favourite nominee? No, but it's the one that honestly felt most necessary in 2020, and I have a feeling that what it's commenting on won't be going away anytime soon
But yeah, no two nominees came close to Minari and Sound of Metal for me this year. Minari is just gorgeous, a beautiful exploration of childhood memories and the trials of parenting, of assimilation and the pursuit of the American dream. Lee Isaac Chung's film is patient and poignant, bathing in this really powerful atmosphere and inviting the viewer to invest in this instantly lovable family. And although it's a period piece, few films last year felt this crucial to the discussion of what it is to be American. And then there's Sound of Metal, second only to Saint Maud as far as 2020 films go for me. An honest, empathetic and warm-hearted tale of a man looking for solutions and only finding more problems. It took what could have easily been a very dour, hard to watch subject matter and turned it into something so quietly poignant. Everything Sound of Metal did felt right, from the manic opening until the truly beautiful ending. If I had a vote, it would have gone to this film. One of the best films of the last few months by some distance
Best Actress
This was not a hard category to pick a favourite from. Andra Day is quite good in the very awful The United States vs. Billie Holiday, but she's consistently held back by how lumpen and awkward the script and storytelling are. I don't know, I'm excited to see where her career goes from here, but the film and performance just felt way too conventional as far as biopics go. I'm really happy for Vanessa Kirby, but her turn in Pieces of a Woman just felt way too keen to remind you that she's ACTING in all caps. Big, showy and ultimately a little dull. I did love what Viola Davis brought to Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, taking this huge character and channeling her into a film that maybe didn't deserve a performance this great. Still, great to see her firing on all cylinders. Carey Mulligan is amazing in Promising Young Woman, expertly juggling empathy, comedy and rage. She brings this very specific character to the screen perfectly, and honestly she gave maybe the best turn of the five. But I can't argue with Frances McDormand. I love Nomadland, and I love her in it. It's a very unshowy performance, and she strikes gold in how minimal she is, often putting the most important character beats in what she's leaving unsaid
Best Actor
Okay, let's talk about the worst thing that happened during the ceremony. For the whole night, it felt like they were building up to giving Chadwick Boseman Best Actor, and fair enough. I didn't love Ma Rainey, and I felt that he was much better in Da 5 Bloods, but it's a powerhouse performance that deserved all of the buzz it was getting. If that's the direction they wanted to go in, I wouldn't have had a problem with it. But rearranging the categories, making it seem like they were going to end on a big tribute and then just ducking out of that last minute was such a horrible, disrespectful decision. It just feels so tasteless, like they were using the huge current of love for Boseman in the wake of his death to drum up higher ratings for a tribute that didn't even happen. It's truly disgusting that they pulled this kind of stunt, and the fact that the ceremony just kind of stopped after this is really telling of how bad of a decision this really was
All the same, great to see Anthony Hopkins win again, and everything I've heard about The Father makes it sounds like he deserves it. It's a stacked category when Gary Oldman's the weakest one here, but amazing as he was in Mank, he just wasn't on the level of his competitors. Boseman gave a spirited, fiery performance that's maybe not as good as his spiritual turn in Da 5 Bloods but still rates up there as one of the many highlights of his tragically short career. Steven Yeun stuns in Minari, another very quiet performance that I'm so happy to see recognised. But again, I have to go for Sound of Metal and Riz Ahmed here. He is utterly transformational, truly becoming Reuben Stone and creating such an empathetic lead character. Pound for pound I don't think there was a better performance nominated in any of the categories this year. Ultimately I think the Best Actor lineup was an incredibly strong category with no wrong answers, but the Academy still managed to mess it up by turning it into a weird stunt and using Chadwick Boseman's death to get clout. And after a year like 2020, that was the last thing anyone needed
So that was my roundup of the 93rd Academy Awards. Overall it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Things are slowly getting more progressive, although right now most of the good stuff is in theory rather than practice. For everything the Academy got right in 2021, there was another harebrained risk that didn't pay off. They had a lineup that, while not perfect, represented a lot of the great cinema 2020 had to offer, before honoring it a ceremony that just felt kind of off for the entire duration before rapidly descending in its last half an hour. Still, if they're becoming more open to recognising women and people of colour, and not giving awards to obvious Oscar bait, then we can't be doing too bad. Things are getting better, and while nothing this year was as monumental as Parasite's win, there's still a lot of positives we can take away from this year's Oscars. Phew, this was a long one. I've been the Scoundrel of the Screen, and I'm going to have a lie down now
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