The Film Experience

We've polled Team Experience one last time today to answer the following three questions to complete our Oscar Nomination Day reactions (apart from the podcast which is going up soon). We hope you'll chime in too.

Which nomination are you happiest about?
Which is the strongest category and which is the weakest?
Nominees always release totally generic statemetns about being "truly honored". But which nominee would you most like to have been a fly on the wall to watch their totally authentic reactions/conversations this morning.

Ready? You'll hear their answers after the jump...

WHICH NOMINATION MADE YOU HAPPIEST?

ABE FRIED-TANZER: : I Lost My Body for Best Animated Feature. While many were predicting it, the inclusion of a French-language moody piece about a severed hand was far was guaranteed, and this boost might mean that many more people get to experience this weird, wonderful film.

CHRIS FEIL:: Antonio Banderas. Though I felt more confident in this nomination's likelihood than some, the reward remains undiminished. A performance so attuned to the spirit and legacy of the filmmaker he's playing, that it's hard not to also see this as a nomination for Pedro as well (though, he of course deserved love in the screenplay and directing categories).

ERIC BLUME: I'm probably joining a chorus on this, but Antonio Banderas making Best Actor was the day's single biggest thrill. His performance is breathtaking: a layered, deeply felt, carefully calibrated charting of a man unexpectedly re-finding desire. Almodovar was robbed by Todd Philips, but it's exciting to have Pain and Glory represented by such a big nomination.

PAOLO: All the nominations for Marriage Story, especially for its screenplay. I can already remember the acoustics of the room as these characters bounce off each other.

CLAUDIO ALVES: No nomination made me happier than Petra Costa's The Edge of Democracy in Best Documentary. Not only is it an urgent doc, but it's also a beautiful, often painful, meditation on how the personal is political and vice-versa.

CAMILA HENRIQUES: The Edge of Democracy! After Invisible Life got shunned in International Feature and Fernando Meirelles's campaign didn't take off for The Two Popes, Brazil's hopes rested in Petra Costa's shoulder, and, in this political climate we're unfortunately experiencing in my country, to have a documentary about the shenanigans that led to the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff nominated for an Oscar... And just a few weeks after Brazil's current president said "it's been a while" since the country made a "good movie". Ha!

TRAVIS CRAGG: It's a draw between (now being able to say) "Oscar nominee Florence Pugh" and "Oscar nominee Rian Johnson."

SPENCER COILE: Florence Pugh sneaking in. Her delivery of, “I’m making a mold of my foot for Laurie to remind him I have nice feet” was worth the nomination alone!

MARK BRINKERHOFF: That South Korea *finally* has broken through Oscars’ (east) Asian resistance, with not only a nom for Best International Feature, but half a dozen thanks to Bong Joon-Ho and company.

JASON ADAMS: The gorgeous blacks and grays and blacks of The Lighthouse, which at least got in for Cinematography thank goodness. I'll try to pretend Midsommar road in on its A24 coattails.

MICHAEL FRANK: A nomination that put a huge smile on my face yet left me absolutely shocked, The Lighthouse crept its way into the Best Achievement in Cinematography with a nomination for Jarin Blaschke. Robert Eggers’ pseudo-horror film focusing on two lighthouse keepers, played with a wild fervor by Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe, constantly you a sense of eerie dread. The square aspect ratio along with the black and white filming makes you feel like you’re in a different era of society, a different era of film. The cinematography strikes like a bolt of lightning, with sheer beautiful craziness. Blaschke’s work gives fans of independent (and weird) cinema a reason to shout, cheer, and go absolutely insane.

LYNN LEE: Parasite's Best Picture nom because the fact that it seems like such a "duh" is remarkable in itself; no way would this have happened to a South Korean film had it not become such a zeitgeisty phenom!

BEN MILLER: I admittedly am not the biggest Leo fan and went into Once Upon a Time... with low expectations, but I think it's his best performance and I'm glad they decided not to gloss over it. I cannot wait to see which Oscar clip they choose. I'm hoping they choose a nugget from his trailer freakout.

NICK DAVIS: Setting aside the one flawless category (see below), I'm going to say Sound Mixing for Ad Astra. I think the movie deserves it, and I'm thrilled a James Gray movie is *finally* an Oscar nominee, and I appreciate it as a rare case of any branch thinking outside the box of the consensus "contenders" defined for them in advance by media narratives.

WHICH IS THE STRONGEST CATEGORY AND WHICH IS THE WEAKEST?

NICK DAVIS: If anyone answers anything other than Documentary Feature for the best category, I will be all ears for a solid explanation, though we'll see if I can be convinced.The four I've seen are all in my Top 10 or 12 releases of the year, and I only hear glowing reports about The Edge of Democracy. Also, women can direct and stuff! The worst category is Original Song. Again, I'll be shocked if I'm not one of many who thinks so. Specifying why is too depressing.

MARK: Worst: The Costume Design category, which reflects the obviousness and utter obliviousness of that branch toward newer, scrappier, more diverse and innovative talent. Best: Meanwhile, the Documentary Feature category continues to shows comparatively good taste.

EUROCHEESE: Single best - I may not love everything in Best Picture, but I'm glad they did nine and that it really does represent the year well. Single worst - So many are mixed bags, but Actress does feel like the worst possible lineup. If I could take the three (of the eight most consensus players) that missed over all five that made it, I'd do it.

SPENCER: Best: Original Screenplay was SO close to being the strongest. Sub out the lazy video game instruction manual that is 1917 and put in the lovely, melancholic, brimming with life screenplay for The Farewell and that’s an all-time great lineup; Worst: Greta Gerwig, Lulu Wang, Céline Sciamma, Lorene Scafaria, Marielle Heller, Mati Diop, Olivia Wilde, Joanna Hogg, Alma Har’el, Claire Denis... that’s just scratching the surface for how dynamic the Best Director lineup could’ve been.

BEN: I love the Original Screenplay category. I frequently moan about the lack of original stories in the world and the fact that we got Knives Out, Parasite and Once Upon a Time..., that's pretty great. I would have liked to sub The Farewell in for 1917, but beggars can't be choosers.

Best Actress is just...boring. The Academy really had a chance to throw some excitement in there with Lupita or Awkwafina or Alfre Woodard, but they went chalk.

CLAUDIO: The best is surely Best Production Design with Best Supporting Actor as a fraud-filled runner-up. The inclusion of Parasite is divine, but all the other nominees are deserving too. It's also the only category where I'd accept some Jojo Rabbit love, so there's that.

As for worst, Best Original Song is a dispiriting thing. If for no other reason, the fact I'll now have to watch Breakthrough is enough to make it the absolute vilest line-up.

CAMILA: Even if Joaquin Phoenix's work in Joker isn't a career best IMO, the best actor category was the best of the bunch this year. Yes, De Niro could have easily gotten DiCaprio's spot (I have Bob as my winner, actually), but any group that has Banderas, Pryce (Evita reunion!) and Driver nominated is ahead of the curve. As for the weakest, best original song wasn't as interesting as it was just last year. Do we really need another Diane Warren nomination? Mary Steenburgen and Beyoncé were right there!

JASON: It feels like every category is ruined by one nom... usually from Joker or The Two Popes. I guess Production Design is the best? I would've nominated some other things but all of the ones that were nominated are good, especially Parasite.

For the weakest category it's obviously Best Original Song, where even the movie I like -- Rocketman -- is coasting on a garbage tune. But very nearly every song that was in the running was trash. Time to trash that whole category which at this point only exists to get musicians their full EGOT.

ERIC: The sound mixing category has five nominees that provided rich moviegoing experiences due to the technical artfulness of the sound teams. The collective choices, both broad and subtle, made by the teams who worked on these five pictures, were astonishingly smart and added so much to the films. Bravo, Academy.

MICHAEL: The five nominees for Best Actor in a Leading Role all give strong performances, with special recognition given to Antonio Banderas for a killer dramatic turn in Pain and Glory. Jonathan Pryce being nominated for The Two Popes surprised many, but his subtle religious performance still received plentiful global acclaim. The frontrunners, Joaquin Phoenix and Adam Driver, give once-in-a-lifetime performances (Driver would be higher on my ballot). Rounding out the five is Leonardo DiCaprio, who give his most likeable performance in many years.

The weakest category actually just mirrors the strongest: Best Actress. Scarlett, Renee, and Saoirse deserved the nominations, but Cynthia and Charlize are both giving fine performances in below-average films. Awkwafina, Lupita Nyong’o, and Elisabeth Moss brought their A-game yet were shut out. Lupita specifically played two characters in one film, almost complete opposites, both to perfection. Justice for Lupita!

WHICH NOMINEE DID YOU MOST WANT TO SPY ON THEIR PRIVATE REACTION?

CHRIS: What are you talking about? Brad and I were having champagne in bed.

CLAUDIO: I'd love to see if Antonio Banderas' did a reenactment of that famous GIF upon hearing his about nomination. I certainly did something similar in my living room when he was announced.

BEN: I would love to see the Gerwig-Baumbach combo for their raucous celebrations of lightly nodding and a gentle peck on the cheek to congratulate each other

GINNY O'KEEFE:: I would die to see Florence Pugh’s reaction. Her insta post was hilarious and she was just lying naked in bed when she saw it on her phone. So what happened next? Did she call Greta? Did Ari Aster call to congratulate her? Did Zach Braff make her pancakes after?!

PAOLO: Taika Waititi. He would have worn a Hawaiian shirt that hit him properly, perfectly pomaded his hair, and after hearing his nominations he would have accidentally knocked off furniture just like he did in Toronto a few months ago. Great guy.

MARK: Considering that Honeyland wasn’t a sure thing in either category it was (historically) nominated, directors Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov must be on cloud nine, which I’d love to witness.

Perversely, I’m curious how Taron Egerton took the news of his non-nomination. As enthusiastically as he had been campaigning and that he managed to snag BAFTA & SAG nominations and a Golden Globe win, it must’ve been heartbreaking for him. (Awarding Rami Malek last year and not even nominating Egerton this year [for a superior performance and film] is so embarrassing for the Academy!)

SPENCER: I imagine Laura Dern just slowly bows her head with a knowing smile on her face. And it's that kind of peace that I think we were all searching for this morning.

ERIC: I'm picturing Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins sitting together in the Sistine Chapel, toasting with two glasses of a nice Chianti, talking about what a surprise it was to get two roles that great this late in their careers, and how even though the fanaticism around all things popes is ridiculous, Fernando Mereilles came along and made something special. Then they get drunk, and instead of watching a football game, they take a nap and snuggle.

MICHAEL: I would’ve loved to see Margot Robbie on this Oscar nomination morning. The absolute joy she has shown throughout this awards season makes me overjoyed with her success. Robbie got a nomination for Bombshell, and Tarantino’s film got a near clean sweep of nominations with 10. I’m sure she is having a ball right now, and by god she deserves it.

Your turn readers, finish OSCAR NOMINATION DAY (aka CHRISTMAS) off by telling us what your short film would have been like and which nominee you most wanted to peek in on.