The Oscars are right around the corner, and it’s time to get a taste of what some of the voters have been championing.
Below is an edited conversation I had with a member from the Producers branch. Before we dive into some of the main categories, here are some of their thoughts on the current state of the awards season as well as the Academy’s controversial efforts to shorten the ceremony:
I feel like the streamers had an advantage this year more than others because of the pandemic. I think it’s been challenging the last couple years, as everybody knows, to release films theatrically. And so I think that films readily available on streaming probably had a leg up in getting nominated.
“With the Academy removing some categories out of the ceremony, I’m very sad about it. I think it’s terrible, but at the same time, I understand the pressure the Academy is under with ABC. They’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. I honestly don’t know how I would change things or if I even could change things if I had the opportunity to, because it’s like, what else can you cut? I suppose you can cut all of the extraneous joke bits? I mean, we’ll see what stays in. We’ll see what’s there, and I can tell you after Sunday what else I would cut out to put those eight categories back in. To be totally honest, I think awards shows are pretty boring, and I haven’t sat through a full awards show in years. I usually watch the clips afterwards or refresh Twitter to see who won. Audience habits have just changed, and I’m sure this is even more pronounced among younger audiences. I’m not sure any tweaks to the show are going to change that.”
And now, their thoughts on some of the major categories:
Best Picture
The nominees are…
“Drive My Car was far and away my number one choice, and everything else were distant second, third, fourth, fifth, etc.
But I also liked Dune and West Side Story. Those are very technically incredible films and well-acted and well-directed, so I enjoyed them as spectacles. I know that West Side Story is pretty cookie cutter. Obviously it’s a remake, and so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, but I was just very impressed with the technical mastery of all of it, the cinematography, production design, choreography, etc. And it does have a very dark ending, which everyone’s allergic to these days. Nobody likes a dark ending anymore. Everyone in Hollywood wants levity. They want happy, fluffy stuff right now. So I appreciated that too, that it stuck to its dark origins.
Both West Side Story and Dune were old-fashioned theatrical films, which is an endangered species! Drive My Car was a theatrical film as well. So yeah, the rest, they were fine. And the two that I just didn’t care for were Belfast and Licorice Pizza. I’m normally a Paul Thomas Anderson fan, but this did not do it for me. Both of these felt hampered by the personal nostalgia of its makers.”
Best Director
The nominees are…
“Hamaguchi for sure. Again, this movie was far and away my favorite. It’s such a unique and bold film structurally, and it just surprised at every turn. To make a three-hour film consistently mesmerizing is very challenging!”
Best Actor
The nominees are…
“For me, it was a tossup between Will Smith and Andrew Garfield. I ended up choosing Will Smith because I realized he’s never won an Oscar before. Sometimes you vote not necessarily for this particular performance, but for the career. And I think that there are voters who are motivated to think about the actor’s career because we know how random the whole awards process can be–how certain films and performances are favored over other equally deserving ones in any given year, whether it’s because the studio spent a ton of money campaigning or there was something in the zeitgeist. And Andrew Garfield works all the time. Everyone wants to work with him. He’s going to get a role someday that’s going to win him an Oscar. But yeah, I’ve always liked him and I was impressed with this performance. Who knew he could sing and dance in addition to act?”
Best Actress
The nominees are…
“Penélope. I just love her, and I love her collaborations with Almodóvar. She fully embodies her roles, she is wonderful. I loved a lot of these performances. Olivia Colman is always great. And I thought Kristen Stewart was excellent in Spencer. So those are my three favorites, but Penélope had the edge for me.”
Best Supporting Actor
The nominees are…
“Troy Kotsur. I just think he had so much humanity in his performance. And I know that CODA is getting trashed on Twitter, which is pretty awful. I understand the criticism, it’s not the most sophisticated filmmaking, but I was moved by the film, and I was moved by his performance. One goal that many filmmakers have is to build empathy, to touch audiences that wouldn’t normally go outside of their comfort zone. And I think CODA does that well.”
Best Supporting Actress
The nominees are…
“I voted for Ariana DeBose. She’s a triple threat, super talented, and I can’t wait to see what she does next. I also really loved Jessie Buckley. She’s been great in everything I’ve seen her in, from Chernobyl to I’m Thinking of Ending Things. She’s also the real deal.”
Best Original Screenplay
The nominees are…
“The Worst Person in the World. Not a perfect film, but very engaging, with some moments that were really resonant, like the scene where Anders Danielsen Lie’s character gives his poignant Gen X spiel. It felt like a very polished Mumblecore movie for the Millennial generation.”
Best Adapted Screenplay
The nominees are…
“Drive My Car!”
Best International Feature Film
The nominees are…
“Take a wild guess! (Drive My Car.)”
Best Animated Feature Film
The nominees are…
“I really liked The Mitchells vs. The Machines. Flee was great, too. Flee was obviously a very different kind of movie than the rest. This category is so weird because you have the Disney movies, and then you have Flee. So this is a tough category. I thought the Disney movies were very sweet, but I really enjoyed Mitchells. It was hilarious, smart, and also moved me. It was one of the most entertaining films, moment-for-moment, that I’ve seen in a long time.”
Best Documentary Feature Film
The nominees are…
“This one was tough. I ended up choosing Writing with Fire. It’s the underdog, and I love underdogs. But I just really loved the women in the film, and loved what the story was about–journalism in India against all odds and in the face of real dangers. The film was well-made, too. But I did almost vote for Flee. This was a really tough one. But yeah, I did end up voting for Writing with Fire because I felt like most people would vote for Flee. So I thought, “Oh, I’ll just vote for the underdog.”
Overall comment on the tech categories…
“I chose Dune for a lot of them, because it was just such a beautiful film, and I’m all for tentpoles that are NOT in the superhero genre. I appreciate that you can have a big, commercial tentpole, but also be artistic. That’s why I liked Dune and West Side Story, frankly, because these are big, theatrical movies that feel like events, and yet they don’t lack for art. Not to diss superhero movies because those can be artful too. But yeah, Dune was pretty stellar across the board.”
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