The Oscars and World War I

by Cláudio Alves

Tomorrow we might witness Oscar history being made with the crowning of the very first non-English Best Picture winner. Of course, it is just as likely that we'll see history repeating itself. If Parasite falters and 1917 claims the top prize, that's another muscular war film joining the ranks of the Best Picture pantheon. More specifically, a World War I epic of great technical ingenuity and daring, a project not too unlike the original Best Picture winner, Wings. From 1927 to 2019, movies with similar historical settings have found great success with the Academy, though World War I stories were more regularly found on the big screen when that conflict was still an actual memory for the living. 

For the Oscars' first decade, many war pictures won plaudits. For a time Hollywood let go of the heroic romantics of Wings and adopted a more melancholy view of recent History, with antiwar sentiment as well as complicated class studies that saw a broken society through the prism of war. All that would change with the arrival of World War II. The newer global nightmare readily took the place of the old war in the Academy's eyes, first as propaganda and then as more ponderous retrospective. To this day, people still joke that a sure way to win an Oscar is to do a World War II drama.

But back to the first World War. Here are the 12 Best Picture nominees that have told stories from that global conflict...

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Best Live Action Short Film Category Reviewed

by Eric Blume

The Live Action Short category offers a much more diverse slate for this category than last year, when almost every short film centered around young boys in danger.  There’s some fine filmmaking here, all witness to the talent of their directors who should all have bright futures ahead of them.

Brotherhood comes to us from production companies across four countries (Canada, Tunisia, Qatar, and Sweden…quite a combo!) and deals with a Tunisian family.  The son returns from fighting in Syria with a young new wife, much to the consternation of his father.  Director Meryam Joobeur delivers a nice twist on the “sins of the father” genre here, and she has an excellent sense of how to use the camera.  The actors are often taking up 80% of the frame, and she creates an ambiguous sense of location and wonderful sense of dislocation with this smart framing...

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Review: The Lodge

by Chris Feil

Horror films of the moment are somewhat defined by their expressiveness, rendering intimate terrors with expulsive force. Jordan Peele is at the fore turning intellectual and social ills into visceral experiences, while Ari Aster borders on expressionism while working within a bizarre emotional toolbox. Elsewhere, the genre has been finding something essential in loudly lurid aesthetics and points of view, like Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria and Coralie Fargeat’s Revenge. Even some of the last month’s horror duds try to find the soul of their scares through bolder stylistic swings.

What makes The Lodge so darkly thrilling is how it goes against the grain at every opportunity to go big. Instead, it does the opposite - what terrifies is when it looks inward toward the void, only a blunt emptiness flows out in response...

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Oscar Ceremony: The Greatest Oscar Presentation

by Murtada Elfadl

Remember the Oscar ceremony in February 2009. Hugh Jackman was the host, he brought the house down with his charming opening number. Then it was time for the first award of the evening, best supporting actress. Five former winners came out and what transpired was without doubt the best Oscar presentation in the history of the Academy.

The gasps. How? What? Who? They repeated the same scenario 3 more times that night with the other acting awards. Nothing beat the surprise of that first one though. As someone who loves acting and actors, it was valhalla. A long stretch of time spent on celebrating each nominated performance by previous Oscar winners. No one was in a rush, the jokes were minimal, it was sincerne, it was earnest, it worked. 

The winner from the year before Tilda Swinton talked about Marisa Tomei. Whoopi Goldberg got Amy Adams, Goldie Hawn waxed poetic about Taraji P Henson. Eva Marie Saint paid tribute to Viola Davis and the eventual winner Penelope Cruz was congratulated in Spanish by Anjelica Huston. Bring this back Academy. I don't care how long it is or how too earnest it could get, this is why we tune to the ceremony and why we talk about it all year.

What is your favorite Oscar presentation of all time?

Defending The Irishman's costumes

by Cláudio Alves

While we may love to criticize the Academy, sometimes we're also a little bit to blame for the perpetuation of their prejudices. For instance, Oscar watchers love to deride the way voters confuse "Best" with "Most". This is especially true in Best Costume Design, where period work rules and contemporary styles are locked out. Still, when a movie is nominated for a wardrobe that's not very glamorous or showy, that prioritizes male attire instead of women's fashion, the grumblings take on another color. Suddenly, it's as if such design work is lesser because it isn't showy.

It's not erroneous to criticize the costume branch for being so myopic this year, having only singled out Best Picture nominees. However, to look at the costumes of The Irishman and say they're unworthy of praise is utter nonsense…

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