BREAKING: We don't like this new system of announcing ALL the finalist lists (in the categories that get finalist lists, that is) on the same day as it doesn't give you time to individually think about each list and write multiple thorough articles. So we'll have to investigate more deeply over the next few days. But for those who are okay with just the quick take list format you can see the lists and a few gut reactions right after the jump. Every Oscar chart will be updated this week to reflect recent awards season madness and these new lists.
Without further ado, the finalist lists before the nominations are announced on January 22nd....
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FINALISTS
- Charm City
- Communion
- Crime + Punishment
- Dark Money
- The Distant Barking of Dogs
- Free Solo
- Hale County This Morning, This Evening
- Minding the Gap
- Of Fathers and Sons
- On Her Shoulders
- RBG
- Shirkers
- The Silence of Others
- Three Identical Strangers
- Won't You Be My Neighbor?
very quick take: all of this year's eight-figure grossing docs are here which means they went very populist this year. High profile docs dropped: The Sentence, Maria by Callas, Whitney, The Gospel According to Andre, Jane Fonda in Five Acts, and McQueen. Critical darlings that were eliminated: Bisbee 17, Matangi/Maya/M.I.A., Monrovia Indiana
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
- Black Sheep
- End Game
- Lifeboat
- Los Commandos
- My Dead Dad's Porno Tapes
- A Night at the End of the Garden
- Period. End of Sentence.
- '63 Boycott
- Women of the Gulag
- Zion
ANIMATED SHORT FILM
- Age of Sail
- Animal Behaviour
- Bao
- Bilby
- Bird Karma
- Late Afternoon
- Lost & Found
- One Small Step
- Pépé le Morse
- Weekends
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
- Caroline
- Chuchotage
- Detainment
- Fauve
- Icare
- Marguerite
- May Day
- Mother
- Skin
- Wale
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
OSCAR PREDICTION CHART HAS BEEN UPDATED
AYKA is the lowest-profile finalist (probably due to the lack of a US release date) but maybe it shouldn't be since it already won Best Actress at Cannes
- Colombia, Birds of Passage
- Denmark, The Guilty
- Germany, Never Look Away
- Japan, Shoplifters - INTERVIEW
- Kazakhstan, Ayka
- Lebanon, Capernaum - *INTERVIEW COMING SOON*
- Mexico, Roma
- Poland, Cold War - *INTERVIEW COMING SOON*
- South Korea, Burning - *this would be South Korea's first nomination if nominated - the other countries in the finalist list have all been nominated previously*
very quick take: most of the expected titles are here so Roma has tremendous viable competition, despite its probable cake walk to win given the publicity and buzz. High profile pics that were dropped: Belgium's Girl, Sweden's Border, Italy's Dogman. Box office hits dropped:Israel's The Cakemaker, Personal beloved dropped: Iceland's Woman at War (just opened for a Jodie Foster remake), Critical darlings / Award winners dropped: United Kingdom's I Am Not a Witch, Paraguay's The Heiresses, Turkey's The Wild Pear Tree
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
OSCAR PREDICTION CHART HAS BEEN UPDATED
Yay for Stan & Ollie making the finals. The fatsuit on Reilly is very convincing.
- Black Panther
- Bohemian Rhapsody
- Border
- Mary Queen of Scots
- Stan & Ollie
- Suspiria
- Vice
very quick take: This list is always strange as each year we struggle to see what the Makeup artist are looking for (they're very inconsistent!). Films with very noticeable hair or makeup department work which are not reflected in this finalist list are: BlacKkKlansman, At Eternity's Gate, Destroyer, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, The Favourite, Alpha, Aquaman, Deadpool 2, Mary Poppins Returns, Mortal Engines, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Vox Lux, and A Wrinkle in Time.
ORIGINAL SCORE
OSCAR PREDICTION CHART HAS BEEN UPDATED
Alan Silvestri ("Infinity War" and "Ready Player One") is one of only two composers in the finals with two scores. The other is Nicholas Britell ("If Beale Street" and "Vice")
- Annihilation (Barrow & Salisbury)
- Avengers: Infinity War (Silvestri)
- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Burwell)
- Black Panther (Goransson)
- BlacKkKlansman (Blanchard)
- Crazy Rich Asians (Tyler)
- Death of Stalin (Willis)
- Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (Howard)
- First Man (Hurwitz) *INTERVIEW COMING SOON*
- If Beale Street Could Talk (Britell)
- Isle of Dogs (Desplat)
- Mary Poppins Returns (Shaiman)
- A Quiet Place (Beltrami)
- Ready Player One (Silvestri)
- Vice (Britell)
very quick take: noticeably missing scores include Max Richter's Hollywood Music Award Best Score winner Mary Queen of Scots, Alan Silvestri's Welcome to Marwen, Thom Yorke's Suspiria, and music branch favorite Alexandre Desplat's Sister Brothers. Neither of Daniel Pemberton's scores for Into the Spider-Verse or Oceans Eight made it.
ORIGINAL SONG
OSCAR PREDICTION CHART HAS BEEN UPDATED
The music branch is not immune to the charms of comic relief songs, so might "Slaughter Race" surprise with a nomination?
- “When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
- “Treasure” from Beautiful Boy
- “All The Stars” from Black Panther
- “Revelation” from Boy Erased
- “Girl In The Movies” from Dumplin’
- “We Won’t Move” from The Hate U Give
- “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns
- “Trip A Little Light Fantastic” from Mary Poppins Returns
- “Keep Reachin’” from Quincy
- “I’ll Fight” from RBG
- “A Place Called Slaughter Race” from Ralph Breaks the Internet
- “OYAHYTT” from Sorry to Bother You
- “Shallow” from A Star Is Born
- “Suspirium” from Suspiria
- “The Big Unknown” from Widows
very quick take: WE DO NOT LIKE this new format where you can't see the list of 70+ eligible songs and only finalists. We do not like. Noticeably absent songs: "Hearts Beat Loud" from Hearts Beat Loud, "Gravity" from Free Solo, "Flower in the Universe" from A Wrinkle in Time, "Ashes" from Deadpool 2, "Love Lies" from Love Simon, and Golden-Globe-nominated "Requiem for A Private War" from A Private War.
VISUAL EFFECTS
OSCAR PREDICTION CHART HAS BEEN UPDATED
We don't see a way for Ant-Man and the Wasp to get around its higher profile studio mates to snag this nomination but it would be wondrous since it has the most fun visual fx of the three marvel films in the mix
- Ant-Man and the Wasp
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Black Panther
- Christopher Robin
- First Man
- Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
- Mary Poppins Returns
- Ready Player One
- Solo: A Star Wars Story
- Welcome to Marwen
what they eliminated in this round: Aquaman, Bumblebee, Fantastic Beasts 2, Mission Impossible Fallout (BOO... that shoulda stayed in), Mortal Engines, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, A Quiet Place as well as most of the animated / semi-animated titles Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs, and Paddington 2 (sniffle). And of course they'd previously eliminated Annihilation which we think an insane choice to toss aside so quickly.