91st Oscar Nominations

The nominations have been announced with numerous surprises throughout. Things started out with a surprise with the nomination of Marina de Tavira in Supporting Actress over Claire Foy, showcasing not only First Man‘s ultimate collapse and Roma‘s dominance. The only place Roma didn’t show up was Film Editing, giving it a tough path to the Oscar for Best Picture. Never Look Away performed far better than expected, pulling in a nomination for cinematography that no one saw coming. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs went from also-ran to three-time nominee picking up nods in writing, song, and costume design. Green Book took a hit with director Peter Farrelly out of the Best Directing race. If Beale Street Could Talk was unfairly marginalized, losing out on a Best Picture spot it sorely deserved. Carol 2.0 was an apt description. Bohemian Rhapsody did well, but not insanely, losing out on an expected Makeup nomination and showing up nowhere important other than Best Picture. That’s all I have to say about these now. I’ll write something up a bit more in depth later.

I’ll leave you with one last thing. Best Picture nominees in Film Editing: BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Green Book, and Vice. Writing categories saw BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, A Star Is Born, and Vice. In acting, BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, A Star Is Born, and Vice were nominees. In Best Directing, it was BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, Roma, and Vice (another rare year where a non-Best Picture nominee, Cold War, made it onto the list). These are the four sets of categories where Best Picture contenders must show up to have a chance of winning. Black Panther is the only one of the eight films not appearing in any of them. Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born feature in only two. Green Book and Roma are included in three. That leaves BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, and Vice to make all four categories. That puts those three films on incredibly solid ground for a Best Picture win with Green Book and Roma fighting tradition. I have an article specifically about these kinds of statistics in the works and hope to have it put together in the next couple of weeks.

Nominations Tallies

(10) The Favourite, Roma
(8) A Star Is Born, Vice
(7) Black Panther
(6) BlacKkKlansman
(5) Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book
(4) First Man, Mary Poppins Returns
(3) The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Cold War, If Beale Street Could Talk

The Nominations

Picture

Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice

Animated Feature

Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Directing

BlacKkKlansman – Spike Lee
Cold War – Pawel Pawlikowski
The Favourite – Yorgos Lanthimos
Roma – Alfonso Cuaron
Vice – Adam McKay

Actor

Christian Bale – Vice
Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born
Willem Dafoe – At Eternity’s Gate
Rami Malek – Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen – Green Book

Actress

Yalitza Aparicio – Roma
Glenn Close – The Wife
Olivia Colman – The Favourite
Lady Gaga – A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy – Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali – Green Book
Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman
Sam Elliott – A Star Is Born
Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell – Vice

Supporting Actress

Amy Adams – Vice
Marina de Tavira – Roma
Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk
Emma Stone – The Favourite
Rachel Weisz – The Favourite

Original Screenplay

The Favourite
First Reformed
Green Book
Roma
Vice

Adapted Screenplay

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
BlacKkKlansman
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Star Is Born

Original Song

All the Stars – Black Panther
I’ll Fight – RBG
The Place Where Lost Things Go – Mary Poppins Returns
Shallow – A Star Is Born
When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings – The Ballad of Buster Scruggs