With 8 days to go until Hollywood's High Holy Night let's compare our two pictures with 8 nominations each this year, Denis Villeneuve's thinky sci-fi drama and Barry Jenkins' ravishing memory/identity drama. While both films might come up empty handed on Oscar night they each have a reasonable shot at one or two statues -- Moonlight could theoretically win Supporting Actor and/or Adapted Screenplay and Arrival's best Oscar shot is probably in one or both of the Sound categories unless it surprises with Adapted Screenplay itself in what could arguably be a five way race if Moonlight is not as strong as pundits suspect there.
| ARRIVAL | MOONLIGHT |
 |
 |
|
Their 8 Nominations |
|
| Picture | Picture |
| Director | Director |
| Supporting Actress | |
| Supporting Actor | |
| Adapted Screenplay | Adapted Screenplay |
| Cinematography | Cinematography |
| Production Design | |
| Film Editing | Film Editing |
| Original Score | |
| Sound Mixing | |
| Sound Editing | |
In the categories where they're competing which film do you prefer?
For extra fun, though, let's find out if the either of these films have any exact Oscar doppelgangers from the past shall we?
DO ANY PAST FILMS EXACTLY MATCH THE OSCAR BIDS FOR MOONLIGHT OR ARRIVAL?
Unless an old classic eluded our greedy eyeballs the answer is no. But in the quest to find a doppelganger some interesting near-misses emerged.
I almost got there for Arrival with four very different films: Apocalypse Now (1979), The Right Stuff (1983), No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood (both from 2007). But each of those films was nominated in one acting category (all for male actors) instead of one of Arrival's other nominations.
Here's another fun statistic. Arguably the closest match to Arrival is Raiders or the Lost Ark (1981), which could not be more different in subject or temperament. It has all but one of Arrival's 8 nominations if you count its special Oscar for Sound Editing (though it didn't get a screenplay nomination and got a visual effects nominations that Arrival was weirdly denied). But then the problem is since that nomination technically doesnt count as one of its 8 competitive nominations (sound editing was still a couple of years away from being a regular Oscar category) it had an extra nomination with which to match Arrival so it's cheating a bit. Raiders was also nominated in the category Arrival was disqualified in -- Original Score! Just think: if Arrival had not been deemed ineligible for that category it would 100% have been nominated there and they'd be almost identical Oscar twins with those two polar opposite films... but for the screenplay.
It would have been fun in both senses of the word "gay" if Brokeback Mountain were a match for Moonlight but they have a difference of one category -- Moonlight has no leading actor nomination and Brokeback had no Film Editing nomination. The other closest Academy siblings I could find to Moonlight were weirdly three Oliver Stone pictures! Like Brokeback, JFK (1991) has the exact same nominations but one: in place of Naomie Harris's supporting actress, there's a sound nomination. Two other Oliver Stone titles Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Platoon (1986) are different by two nominations. A Room With a View in 1986 also matches but for two categories (Room had art direction and costume design instead of Moonlight's score and film editing).
Finally, Moonlight misses being an exact Oscar match for Prizzi's Honor (1985) and All The President's Men (1976) by the same two nominations; Cinematography and score are preventing a match with President's (nominated for art direction and sound instead) and Prizzi's (nominated for leading actor and costume design instead).
I hope you enjoyed today's odd Oscar train of thought. Choo-choo.