“Sinners” and “Wicked” lead the Oscar shortlists

by Cláudio Alves

Despite poor reviews WICKED: FOR GOOD is beloved by the industry. | © Universal Pictures

The Oscar shortlists announcement is an occasion that many a pundit anticipates, sometimes fears. Because it’s a day when narratives change, some consolidate, some emerge, while others crumble into nothingness. Three years ago, the shortlists were the first hint of just how big All Quiet on the Western Front was about to become, for example. For the 98th Academy Awards, there is no surprise champion, as Sinners and Wicked: For Good earn the most categories in a year when Casting and Cinematography are also among the shortlisted races. More surprisingly is Sirât’s surge, a cinematography selection full of antithetical picks and a Best International Film race where ten out of fifteen finalists arrive from outside of Europe, a rarity that should be celebrated.

Without further ado, here are the Oscar shortlists with some commentary…

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Gotham Awards Revue: "The Perfect Neighbor"

by Nick Taylor

Geeta Gandhbir’s The Perfect Neighbor has to be one of the most widely accessible films nominated at this year’s Gotham Awards, premiering only a few weeks ago on Netflix. With a title so banal as to signal immediate dread, the true-crime subject matter made it priority viewing to some even before it received this citation. My own queasiness with the genre kept me from watching it until now, and it's an intriguing object to consider in how it relates to other activist documents. Assembled almost exclusively of footage collected from police bodycams, security cameras, drone footage, news archives, and court tapings, the film chronicles the boiling tensions in an Ocala, Florida neighborhood over two years that culminated in the killing of Ajike Owens by Susan Lorincz on June 2, 2023. It’s an upsetting document of an all-too-familiar American tragedy, streamlined into a more broadly resonant object but possibly verging on exploitative and under-contextualized in the process . . . . 

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Oscar Volleys: Best Documentary shows why awards matter

The Oscar Volleys are back for some post-nomination talks. Cláudio Alves and Ben Miller discuss Best Documentary Feature Film...

NO OTHER LAND | © Antipode Films

CLÁUDIO: War, ethnic cleansing, sexual assault, anti-colonial fight, and more ethnic cleansing - this year's Best Documentary Feature Oscar race has it all. As often happens, the populist fare and celebrity-focused docs got a lot of precursor attention but failed to convince the Academy's more politically-minded Academy branch. No Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story or Jim Henson: Idea Man here. That leaves us with no fluff or even the potential for levity, no feel-good conclusion or catharsis of any sort. And, to be honest, these pictures and the race in general are better for it. But it does make it hard to discuss, which is why I'm elated that I got such a great conversation partner. If anyone can make this convo enjoyable, if not outright fun, it's you, Ben.

BEN: Nothing brings me more joy to talk about than five films that are big fat bummers.  I do wish we had something with a little more light or levity, but that is the byproduct of documentaries in general.  They depict real life, and our real lives are bummers right now…

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The First Oscar Eligibility Lists are Here!

by Cláudio Alves

PIECE BY PIECE is the only film competing in both the ANIMATED and DOCUMENTARY Oscar races.

At long last, AMPAS has started divulging its eligibility lists for the 97th Academy Awards. As is usual, the first categories to be announced are the special feature races – Animated, Documentary, and International Film (click on each category to see their prediction pages). This year, 31 cartoons vie for the Oscar, while 167 docs form the non-fiction race. In Best International Feature Film, this year has 85 official submissions. This state of affairs differs from some of the earlier reports that pointed toward 89 films contending, but we're used to many disqualifications. It's a steep decline from the past few years, and it's the first time since 2018 that the number of total submissions is below 90. We have to go back to 2015, with 82 nations competing, to find a year with even fewer films in contention.

You can read more about such trivia in Nathaniel's extensive two-part overview of the Best International Film race. Still, I added some additional trivia for all three categories in this write-up. Find out more after the jump…

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Doc Corner: 'Navalny' is the first Oscar contender of '22

By Glenn Dunks

What luck it is to be a filmmaker in the room at such moments of historic opportunity. Canadian director Daniel Roher has made one previous feature, a music bio-doc about The Band, which probably isn’t the sort of bellwether for somebody who is about to capture evidence of the plot to assassinate the political rival of Vladimir Putin. But here we are.

Because of that luck and whatever directorial smarts got him there, Roher and his film Navalny are surely very real contenders for the documentary Oscar, the first such major title of the year.

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