Academy Shortlists in Nine Categories
Monday, December 16, 2019 at 6:20PM 
We HATE that the Oscars do this all at once. We like time to discuss and parse but here are the lists together which we will have to now wade through piecemeal and by the time we get to some of them they'll be old news *cries*. Now that this preliminary round is over the Academy members don't vote again until January 2nd-through 7th, 2020 when they turn in their nomination ballots.
See all the lists after the jump...
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
159 films were eligible. 15 advance. They are...
“Advocate”
“American Factory”
“The Apollo”
“Apollo 11”
“Aquarela”
“The Biggest Little Farm”
“The Cave”
“The Edge of Democracy”
“For Sama”
“The Great Hack”
“Honeyland”
“Knock Down the House”
“Maiden”
“Midnight Family”
“One Child Nation”
NOTICEABLE EXCLUSIONS? Not many as they picked nearly all high profile titles this year. But fans will surely miss films like The River and the Wall, Diego Maradona, Midnight Traveler, Linda Ronstadt The Sound of My Voice, Hail Satan?, Jawline, and Toni Morrison The Pieces I Am.
96 films qualified and 10 advanced now. They are:
“After Maria”
“Fire in Paradise”
“Ghosts of Sugar Land”
“In the Absence”
“Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)”
“Life Overtakes Me”
“The Nightcrawlers”
“St. Louis Superman”
“Stay Close”
“Walk Run Cha-Cha”
INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM
91 Films were eligible (after 2 were disqualified from too much English language dialogue from the initial list of 93 submissions. 10 films advance to the next round. 7 of those were chosen by members from all branches who volunteer to vote in this category (they have to see a certain # of films to cast their ballots) and 3 were selected by the Executive Committee (who see MUCH more of the submission list). The gag is that they never tell us which is which.
Czech Republic, “The Painted Bird” -a Holocaust drama
Estonia, “Truth and Justice” - a three hour drama about a farmer
France, “Les Misérables” - a contemporary civil unrest drama
Hungary, “Those Who Remained” - a Holocaust drama
North Macedonia, “Honeyland” - the acclaimed beekeeping documentary
Poland, “Corpus Christi” - a religious drama
Russia, “Beanpole” - a postwar drama
Senegal, “Atlantics” - a mesmerizing contemporary drama
South Korea, “Parasite” - the shape-shifting class disparity thriller
Spain, “Pain and Glory” - Almodovar's memoirish take on his health and youth
IMMEDIATELY NOTICEABLE EXCLUSIONS: Brazil's "The Invisible Life," Sweden's gorgeous "And Then We Danced," Germany's "System Crasher," Iceland's "A White White Day," Denmark's "Queen of Hearts" and Colombia's "Monos"
MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
Members from the branch viewed seven minute clip reels from various films before voting in what's known as a "bake off" Now 10 films advance. They are...
“Bombshell”
“Dolemite Is My Name”
“Downton Abbey”
“Joker”
“Judy”
“Little Women”
“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”
“1917”
“Once upon a Time…in Hollywood”
“Rocketman”
170 scores were eligible and now it's down to 15. They are...
“Avengers: Endgame”
“Bombshell”
“The Farewell”
“Ford v Ferrari”
“Frozen II”
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Joker”
“The King”
“Little Women”
“Marriage Story”
“Motherless Brooklyn”
“1917”
“Pain and Glory”
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”
“Us”
75 songs were eligible (though they strangely no longer share that list) and 15 now advance before we get the five nominees.
“Speechless” from “Aladdin”
“Letter To My Godfather” from “The Black Godfather”
“I’m Standing With You” from “Breakthrough”
“Da Bronx” from “The Bronx USA”
“Into The Unknown” from “Frozen II”
“Stand Up” from “Harriet”
“Catchy Song” from “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part”
“Never Too Late” from “The Lion King”
“Spirit” from “The Lion King”
“Daily Battles” from “Motherless Brooklyn”
“A Glass of Soju” from “Parasite”
“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from “Rocketman”
“High Above The Water” from “Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am”
“I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from “Toy Story 4”
“Glasgow” from “Wild Rose”
92 films qualified from which the animation branch selected the following 10 to compete for nominations...
“Dcera (Daughter)”
“Hair Love”
“He Can’t Live without Cosmos”
“Hors Piste”
“Kitbull”
“Memorable”
“Mind My Mind”
“The Physics of Sorrow”
“Sister”
“Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days”
191 films qualified (whoa!) and now these 10 will advance to the nomination round...
“Brotherhood”
“The Christmas Gift”
“Little Hands”
“Miller & Son”
“Nefta Football Club”
“The Neighbors’ Window”
“Refugee”
“Saria”
“A Sister”
“Sometimes, I Think about Dying”
VISUAL EFFECTS
After the "bake off" where members of the branch's Executive Committee watched clips, it's been narrowed down to ten. Members from the branch will now be able to view clip reels themselves to vote on the nominations. Ten films remain in the running...
“Alita: Battle Angel”
“Avengers: Endgame”
“Captain Marvel”
“Cats”
“Gemini Man”
“The Irishman”
“The Lion King”
“1917”
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”
“Terminator: Dark Fate”
THAT'S A LOT TO PARSE. WHERE TO BEGIN? Nominations for the 92nd Academy Awards will be announced on Monday, January 13, 2020. The 92nd Oscars® will be held on Sunday, February 9, 2020.
Reader Comments (39)
Pain and Glory, and Us in original score!
Fingers crossed for “Glasgow”, one of the best songs/performances in a film for a while!
The Irishman score is great. The main theme just terrific..was it ruled ineligible or just didn't make it? Kinda not sure sometimes how it all goes.
Joker isn't good but the score is quite affecting. That and the ostensibly light (then not) Marriage Story stick out a bit
Also, on Monos..not sure it doesn't overreach but it's definitely good and some of the filmmaking is quite exceptional...and one shot, in particular, is quite unbelievable and deserving of being in a masterpiece.
Ew, the score for Marriage Story? My spouse and I both commented on how rinky dink it sounded, it was one of the few things I *didn't* like about it. Randy Newman is a hack, there I said it.
I am super super disappointed that two of the best films this year didn't make the top 10: Sweden (And Then We Danced) and Brazil (Invisible Life). And I also really liked Denmark's Queen of Hearts. Too bad. If documentary gets top 15 I feel like International Feature Film should as well.
Super super thrilled that Hungary and Czechia made the top ten. Those Who Remained is amazingly good - I was so surprised when I saw it that no one was talking about it. And The Painted Bird is so hard to watch but so worth it in the end.
I've watched 8 of the 10 films - just need to watch Estonia and Poland.
It feels like the 5 nominees will be:
France
North Macedonia
Senegal
South Korea
Spain
Wow, people will look back on 2019 and realize how many people missed the boat on AD ASTRA. Not even Visual Effects, AMPAS? For shame.
The new CATS song didn't make the cut.
If PARASITE manages to break through into Best Song, we'd definitely have ot coutn it as a possible contender for the Best Picture win!
I am not going to waste my time mourning for the omissions I loved (well, not right now, anyway), because there are a lot of great inclusions I should be pleased about instead. My hopeful final five for Best Documentary and Best International Picture categories are:
“Apollo 11”
“Honeyland”
“Knock Down the House”
“Maiden”
“One Child Nation”
France, “Les Misérables”
North Macedonia, “Honeyland”
Russia, “Beanpole”
South Korea, “Parasite”
Spain, “Pain and Glory”
Eight out of 10 international film nominees are from Europe. Nothing from South America was worthy? Only people from Europe can make films? Not hating, just saying.
That Taylor Swift's powers couldn't deliver a short-listing for the CATS song sends Fiasco Watch 2019 into overdrive
I wish the beautiful score of "I Lost My Body" was on the list. Definitely more deserving than the rinky dink (great description Rob) score of "Marriage Story."
Us for Score, Atlantics for International Film, and Hair Love for Animated Short are the ones that made me the happiest.
It's not crazy to think that Les Miz will get nominated, right?
QUEEN OF HEARTS has to be better than some of those Foreign pics. I've only seen PAIN AND GLORY an PARASITE, but QUEEN OF HEARTS is almost at the same level.
Wow it seems the Academy does not like Brazilian films indeed! After snubbing The Second Mother some years ago they came with a new snub with The Invisible Life out of the competition as well. Really shocked! Both films were internationally acclaimed and were had so Oscar likeable themes. SHOCKED!
Iam so sad they looked over The invisible life... It was such a strong year for brazilian cinema but they just can't get enough of WW II stories
Thrilled for Atlantics, shocked that Taylor Swift couldn’t even make the shortlist. Cats is going to be a fascinating time capsule for so many reasons.
The five movies I’m predicting for doc all made it - American Factory, Apollo 11, Honeyland, One Child Nation and Far Sama/The Cave (I can’t decide which). My pick for doc short (the girl skateboarding one) made the list, too.
International feature I’d be looking at Atlantics, Les Mis, Pain and Glory, Parasite and Beanpole, but I can also see Honeyland making it in there, too! I really want to predict it over Les Mis (which I didn’t care for and would easily swap out for Honeyland).
Disappointing to see Us left out of Makeup & Hair.
VISUAL EFFECTS
“Cats”
[shudder]
Best Score Shortlist: https://youtu.be/MdtLu4ByoKA
Best Song Shortlist: https://youtu.be/Mto_qwbR0cs
Yay - The Great Hack in Doc
Boo - No Ad Astra in Visual, no Taylor Swift in Song (hey, it was good) and no And Then We Danced. :(
I like Glenn's predicted documentary nominees. Sub out Apollo 11 for Advocate (thrilled this under-the-radar documentary made the list) or The Edge of Democracy, and that would be a great list of five.
1. Odd that Parasite broke through for best song but not best score. I would've predicted it to make this list over, say, The Farewell (which I really liked as a score and actually have the album).
2. 8 out of 10 from Europe for foreign film? Little disappointing given the acclaim for some of the Latin American films (particularly Brazil and Colombia, though I was also curious about Bolivia's and Mexico's submissions). Though I think the biggest problem right now with this category is just that a lot of these sound really interesting and they'll likely disappear without a trace for me. I don't think I've seen more than ten submissions from any given year, and I'm probably overestimating.
3. CATS for best visual effects all the way. Yes, I be trolling. Shame Ad Astra missed out (it really was beautiful) and that it got disqualified from score (Max Richter's gotta get nominated soon, right? I'm actually curious what gets nominated there. There's a lot of junk cinema in that group.
4. Me, The Irishman was ruled ineligible because of the prominence of the (unoriginal) songs.
System Crasher deserved a nomination. Don't remember a film this unafraid to be emotionally raw and unapologetically discomfiting in its commentary on how we and our systems horribly fail our children because of how unequipped we are.
Thanks Arkaan! I thought maybe that was the case.
Thanks also for the Ad Astra note. Yeah, they'd be on my list, personally.
Full Steen Ahead! Go Steenburgen go!!
Full Steen ahead! Go Steenburgen!
(Sorry if multiple posts, commenting is messing up on my end I hope)
I know the category favors period and fantasy, but I wish the Makeup/Hair for Hustlers were given its due. There is a rich story being told there that something like Downton Abbey doesn't even try for.
The Hungarian movie's story is a post-Holocaust one.
Does anyone know when the reminder list is released. Always fun to dig into some of the more obscure titles (and watch some truly terrible trailers).
I'm pulling for the Motherless Brooklyn score, most exciting thing about the film.
Thanks to the Academy for their love for our European Cinema. A greatful continuation from last year best director branch
Boo - no more hope of Robert Pattinson singing Willow on the show.
SO disappointed by the Foreign Film list. I've seen nine of the ten films and this is truly the most disastrous list in years. They ignored daring LGBT stories that were told beautifully (Bolivia, Peru, Sweden), dazzlingly innovative filmmaking (Colombia) and original stories (Bulgaria, Germany, Mongolia) for three technically well-made but mostly dull Eastern Euro dramas (Estonia, Hungary, Russia) and "Atlantics", whose critical acclaim I've not understood.
Not surprised there hasn't been any comments on the Best Animated Short category, but I will note that half of the shortlisted films are currently available in full online:
Hair Love
Hors Piste
Kitbull
Sister
Uncle Thomas: Accounting for the Days
WTF
#justicefortaylor
I'm shocked discover how divisive Randy Newman's Marriage Story score is. Personally, I loved this "rinky-dink" work! I found myself moved by it during the film's runtime, and then wasn't surprised to see in the credits that it was by Newman -- of whom, I admit, I was already a fan.
Michael Abels making the short list for original score for Us is such a welcome surprise. The music branch is more open to horror than a lot of the other branches and Us has such a cool, unique sound for the genre. I don't think it's dynamic enough to get the nomination. It is great to see a new composer get that kind of attention. He's only scored 5 films and his first was Get Out two years ago.
Time to exchange Brazil's entry in final 5 with Golden Satellite winner in International Film category with Estonia's "Truth and justice". It can surprise everybody :)