"The Favourite" Leads the OFCS Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The Online Film Critics Society have released their nominations for their 21st annual awards. The Favourite leads (as it has quite often this season -- the typical advantage of being an acclaimed period piece with stellar performances) with Roma just behind it. There are some pleasant surprises among their honors and some unpleasant non-surprises (category fraud)

Their full list of nominees is after the jump...

BEST PICTURE

• Annihilation (its only nomination)
• BlacKkKlansman
• Eighth Grade
• The Favourite
• First Reformed
• Hereditary
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Roma
• A Star Is Born
• Suspiria (only 1 other nomination)
• You Were Never Really Here

11 nominees for Best Picture. Hmmm. Interesting that Black Panther and Green Book both couldn't manage despite a large category but are both featured in the supporting actor category. Still trying to wrap my head around the critical support of Suspiria this year. An interesting and somewhat ambitious movie but "best of the year". Curious.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

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

These are looking more and more like the 5 for Oscar unless the 'letting everyone vote' thing dooms Mirai for something with a higher profile like Grinch or Smallfoot or whatnot.

BEST DIRECTOR

• Alfonso Cuarón – Roma
• Barry Jenkins – If Beale Street Could Talk
• Yorgos Lanthimos – The Favourite
• Spike Lee – BlacKkKlansman
• Lynne Ramsay – You Were Never Really Here

Very diverse Best Director list here and multinational too with Mexican, Scottish, Greek, and US directors represented. 

BEST LEAD ACTOR

• Christian Bale – Vice
• Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born
• Ethan Hawke – First Reformed
• Joaquin Phoenix – You Were Never Really Here
• John David Washington – BlacKkKlansman

Malek and Mortensen miss but they probably don't have to worry about their Oscar bids since they're both populist choices. 

BEST LEAD ACTRESS

• Yalitza Aparicio – Roma
• Toni Collette – Hereditary
• Olivia Colman – The Favourite
• Regina Hall – Support the Girls
• Lady Gaga – A Star Is Born

This tracks for how online critics have been behaving about Best Actress. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Mahershala Ali – Green Book
• Adam Driver – BlacKkKlansman
• Richard E. Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• Michael B. Jordan – Black Panther
• Steven Yeun – Burning

If only Ali (a leading man) had been replaced with Sam Elliott this would have been a spectacular list and way better than what Oscar will eventually come up with. 

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Elizabeth Debicki – Widows
• Regina King – If Beale Street Could Talk
• Thomas McKenzie – Leave No Trace
• Emma Stone – The Favourite
• Rachel Weisz – The Favourite

SIGH YET AGAIN 60% LEADING LADIES IN THE SUPPORTING CATEGORY. WHY ARE CRITICS RUBBERSTAMPING THIS. WHY ARE THEY SO BEHOLDEN TO STUDIO STRATEGIES INSTEAD OF USING THEIR CRITICAL THINKING SKILLS?

But yay for Debicki and King.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• Eighth Grade
• The Favourite
• First Reformed
• Roma
• Sorry to Bother You

Someone will have to explain to me sometime what appeal there is in Roma's screenplay. (And I love the movie). It's entirely visual storytelling and Cuarón didn't even show anyone else working on it the "script"

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• BlacKkKlansman
• Can You Ever Forgive Me?
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Leave No Trace
• Widows

It's a surprise to see Widows show up since it's been so largely forgotten already in awards season

BEST EDITING

• The Favourite
• First Man
• Mission: Impossible – Fallout
• Roma
• Widows

It's strange that Fallout doesn't seem to have any Oscar traction, even in craft categories, isn't it, given how hugely popular it was?

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Cold War
• The Favourite
• First Man
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Roma

This would be a great Oscar list though I wonder if A Star is Born will be Oscar-nominated. Matthew Libatique is so talented and those concert scenes in particular are beautifully shot. 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

• Black Panther
• First Man
• If Beale Street Could Talk
• Isle of Dogs
• Suspiria

Great list. And one of only 2 nominations for Black Panther.

BEST DEBUT FEATURE

• Ari Aster – Hereditary
• Bo Burnham – Eighth Grade
• Bradley Cooper – A Star Is Born
• Carlos López Estrada – Blindspotting
• Boots Riley – Sorry to Bother You

Debut features are so perfect for critics awards and critics should always be considering new talent and if they're going to "predict" anything it should well be which directors have voices worth paying attention to moving forward.

BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• Burning
• Cold War
• Roma
• Shoplifters
• Zama

Critics *do* love Zama... 

BEST DOCUMENTARY

• Free Solo
• Minding the Gap
• Shirkers
• Three Identical Strangers
• Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

I liked Three Identical Strangers but have to admit that the unanimous critical support as "best" is somewhat surprising. The movie is involving but it often feels quite evasive and coy about details of the story. Minding the Gap and Shirkers have such passionate support among critics but it still feels like an Oscar nomination would be a surprise for either.

Comments

[Bruno]

More outrageous snubbing of Glenn Close by "hip" outlets.

[Brown Cow Stunning]

OFCS are always the best. They should be the Oscars

[/3rtful]

Still trying to wrap my head around the critical support of Suspiria this year. An interesting and somewhat ambitious movie but "best of the year". Curious.

Says the man who finds Beale Street cold. 2018 Suspiria is the Darren Aronofsky movie he fails to create every time he centers women.

[Rob]

It's looking more and more possible that Glenn Close could be an also-ran for the Oscars this year, which would be a shame. I really did like her in The Wife so much. I hope she at *least* gets nominated.

Finally saw The Favourite and it was so good! One of the year's best. But Emma Stone is absolutely not a supporting player - you could *possibly* make the case for Rachel Weisz being supporting if you absolutely had to designate one of the 3 women as such, but really the story is one with three co-leads. 100% agree that It's absurd that so many people are going along with this fraudulent practice once again.

[Lucky]

"Someone will have to explain to me sometime what appeal there is in Roma's screenplay."

Being a visual medium, creating a succession of images is indeed the job of the screenwriter. Documentaries and experimental films have screenplays, even if they disarray it in editing. There is structure work in deciding to show one moment before another one, even if nothing much happens within them. That being said, I don't particularly think Roma's script is that appealing, as you've said its strenghts lie mainly in the direction.

[Glenn]

As a voter in this group, I honestly cannot understand the Mackenzie nomination. Also, it’s always so weird to know how many films can be nominated that I haven’t even seen yet. However, SUPPORT THE GIRLS!!

[Owl]

@ Rob & Bruno

Sad but I am no longer surprised that Glenn Close was not included among the nominees. Like both of you I thought she was excellent in The Wife but maybe it was too quiet and subtle and unassuming a performance to be cited as the best. Either that or the critics thought there were other female performances that were much better.

FWIW, I watched Glenn Close in Mother of the Maid at the Public Theater a few days ago with my wife. Glenn Close as Isabelle Arc was riveting, effectively affective, and towards the end, truly heartbreaking. I was in tears after that penultimate scene. Watching her in an small and intimate setting can be very involving.

I have seen way too many movies in the last few days but I am in the minority who thinks Close gave the year's best actress performance.

[Bruno]

@Owl: I'm not that surprised that critics aren't awarding her for The Wife. They tend to go for "cause celebres," of which I think both Toni Collette and Olivia Colman fit the bill better. But not even nominating her in the category, as has happened a few times, is ridiculous. And I think they've seen The Wife and like the performance, they're just out to tamp down any momentum she had from before awards season started so they can get their "cause celebres" a better shot at nominations. They may just end up torpedoing her chances.

[FR]

I will blame y'all crazy bitches if Glenn loses another Oscar over this tomfoolery of Gaga

[Jaragon]

I loved " The Favourite" until that WTF fade out

[Bruno]

@FR: Anybody but Gaga. I'd feel better if she lost to Regina Hall or Elsie Fisher or any actress that didn't sing their way to awards attention.

[Ryan Crowe]

Owl, I completely agree with you that Glenn Close gave the best performance of the year. In regards to awards, all I care about this year is her winning the Oscar for Best Actress.

[leon]

I mentioned this before, but if Gaga or Colman wins over Close and Kidman... There will be blood here. And tbh, this scenario is more and more likely each day passing.

[Alex Hartsell]

Mirai and Ready Player One better get some Oscar nominations after hearing their awards attention (especially for Mirai) or else!

[NATHANIEL R]

Owl -- i loved Glenn in Mother of the Maid too.

[Arkaan]

re: Glenn Close

a) I think one thing you're seeing is the "hip" critics definitely trying to tamp down on the year long "it's going to be Glenn" coronation narrative you saw SPC trying to foment.

b) I also think the push for Glenn Close to win an oscar as a career tribute is SERIOUSLY hampered by her fairly mild visibility as an oscarable actress in the internet age. If you look at post-Dangerous Liaisons, she literally has very little work to fall back on as a career honour (Reversal of Fortune, 101 Dalmations, Albert Nobbs...?). I'd argue that someone like Debra Winger or Sigourney Weaver (or, sigh, Michelle Pfeiffer) would have equal difficulty coming up with "career momentum" points to win an oscar without an undeniable performance in a major vehicle. Let's be clear, if she Close had won for Danger Liaisons, she wouldn't even be in the discussion this year.

c) Yes, I saw The Wife. Yes, I'd nominate at least five ladies before her. I know that makes Bruno think I'm a moron (as per his previous comments) so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

d) I actually think Coleman is supporting, not lead. On the other hand, if any of the three characters were male, I'd think I'd nominate all three as lead. At any rate, the only performer you can argue is supporting is Coleman, so of course, the exact opposite is happening.

e) Nathaniel's question about how critics are beholden to studio strategies when it comes to category fraud is a fascinating one

--I don't think critics are immune to the rhetoric surrounding the roles themselves.
--I don't think critics are immune to the rhetoric surrounding the stars.
--I think a groupthink settles in, where people start worrying about if their vote matters if they break free from the pack (also true when supporting non-mainstream or underpredicted contenders).
--I don't think every case is ironclad (I actually think, Nathaniel, you're a little more generous boosting up dominant supporting performers to lead - Christian Bale in The Fighter; Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight; that said, in those two cases you also didn't complain about the supporting designation).

[Owl]

@Ryan Crowe

I want Close to win the Oscar too even if I grudgingly admit that it may not happen next year/anymore. She may not even be nominated. But I want to be (pleasantly) surprised.

I saw The Favourite tonight and I am unsure whether I like it or not. I like films that do not try to please the audience. Or self-consciously make the film inaccessible to gain respect, so my being in the fence with The Favourite means I will be thinking more about it. Am I also in the minority who thinks that Rachel Weisz is first among equals? While the characters are savagely funny and skates the line of unlikeable, Weisz's Lady Sarah was fully-fleshed out and not just a caricature. She was not granted as much agency as Emma Stone's Abigail, or the campy and at times poignant characterisation of Olivia Colman to the unstable Queen Anne, but I found myself wanting to see more of Lady Sarah in this crazy tableau. The real Lady Sarah and her husband were banished but after Queen Anne's demise, they returned to power. The ending was appropriately ambiguous which tells more about how people may not be the best judge of other people they elect to trust. It is like Sartre's No Exit premise once again.

I join the chorus which insists that The Favourite produced a genuine 3-way lead performance from the three excellent actresses. Like many of you including Nathaniel's own obvious displeasure with category fraud, I too detest the hustling that comes from the studios and producers to have a performance be considered lead or supporting. Lanthimos himself said in one interview that he is not happy with the placement of Stone and Weisz as supporting as he thought he created a story with equal valence of power to the three ladies.The Academy should address this issue before it becomes widely ridiculed (if it hasn't yet). But I also admit it's a tricky business to identify what constitutes lead performance. Will it be for the one with the most screen time? Or the one whose POV is privileged by the camera. Or will it be the one whose presence is felt even when absent?

[cb]

Arkaan, you took the words right outta my mouth. I am a big Glenn Close fan, but were she already an Oscar winner (definitely for DL, if I could have my way), she would not even be in consideration this year. It’s a decent performance in an average, gimmicky movie. If she is to ever win an Oscar, I’d like it to be for a role resembling one from her heyday, not for something like “The Wife”.

[Bruno]

@Arkaan: I'm perfectly capable of calling someone names of my own volition rather than have someone incorrectly interpolate such a response for me based on their own desire to foment an argument. Thank you very much.

[Glenn]

There have been more than five great female performances this year. I think Glenn is great although the film is bad. There are simply other actresses I would nominate before her (and OFCS voters are only offered three slots per category (except Picture). I imagine she’d be many people’s fourth or fifth, but missed out for people stumping for their faves like Hall and Collette.

[Janice]

Maybe as Oscar winners, once Colman decided to go lead, the other two wanted to stay out of her way and attempt zero internal competition for her in lead?

[NATHANIEL R]

Arkaan - the Ledger thing I regret now... but i got so worked up about the rampant category fraud that sometimes I err on over correction. And antagonist roles even when they're very large are not often leading roles. That's why i'm comfortable with Waltz (Basterds) and Bardem (No Country) as supporting even though I believe they both have the most screen time in their movies.

as for The Fighter, I still believe that it's an equal story about the relationship between two brothers (the women are obviously supporting since the movie is not truly about them) both get a lot of screen time apart from the other one to define their journeys.

[Me]

Lol @ interpolate and foment. Best way to talk online.

I would have said same thing about category fraud. I watched No Country For Old Men last week and was trying to understand how Bardem is supporting....and have seen Jones go lead for some.

The Fighter is definitely led by Wahlberg, as he shrinks while the crazy cast of Family support around him.

I actually see the case for Waltz in Django Unchained. He's there throughout but feels like he is literally supporting Foxx. Not just saying that cuz he's great in a movie that annoys me. Really see the argument ghere.

In Inglorious Basterds, it's an ensemble.

Which leads me to Pulp Fiction. Never understood Travolta in lead while Jackson in supporting. Can't be that way. And to me it's clear they should all be supporting.

Lastly, YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE. Thank you. Sucks about Close tho, who is amazing and the film is very good (gimmicky is nonsense).

[brookesboy]

Me, you realize you just did the same thing you're ridiculing another poster of doing.

[Me]

Wait, what did I do?

[c]

obsessed with Suspiria, get on it!!

[Suzanne]

Nat, I wouldn't be surprised at all for a nomination for Minding the Gap. It feels like it will be many people's #1 choice in that category, and it won Best Documentary at IDA.