The 95th Oscars Shortlists Are Here!

by Cláudio Alves

"All Quiet on the Western Front" | © Netflix

Like in the last few seasons, the Academy has announced shortlists in 10 Oscar categories – Documentary Feature, International Film, Original Score, Song, Sound, Visual Effects, and the three Shorts races. As always, there are surprises along with expected honors and the domination of certain frontrunners. One imagines this is an especially sweet batch of finalists for fans of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and All Quiet on the Western Front, who rule over all other contenders with mentions in five different categories. Not far behind, we find Avatar: The Way of Water with four categories.

Expect more commentary at a later time, but for now, let's look over the complete lists and fire off some instant reactions…

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ASC and CAS nominations: 'Dune' & 'Power of the Dog' make both lists

by Nathaniel R

The American Society of Cinematographers and the Cinema Audio Society have released their nominations for outstanding work in film and television last year. As with the Art Directors yesterday, there are surprise omissions of notable contenders. West Side Story, for example, is not nominated for cinematography while another musical tick, tick...BOOM! misses with the sound guild. It's all leading up to an Oscar nomination morning that could be volatile.  The full list of nominations with notes after the jump...

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Oscar Finalist List Predictions!

by Nathaniel R

On Monday (December 21st) we'll be hearing the Oscar finalists list in the 10 categories that use that process to winnow down the vast array of possibilities before nomination balloting. There were 9 previously but Oscar has added Sound into the mix this year. That category has had quite a rollercoaster of late, given that it was two categories just two years ago, it was conjoined for 2020, and now it joins the "bakeoff" groups; in short it's getting smaller and smaller each year! After Monday's massive reveal we can really dig in to each Oscar race (and closely revamp each Oscar chart) individually. Isn't it strange that the finalist lists in these 10 categories are coming so much earlier than the actual nomination ballots (which don't go out for another 5 and a 1/2 weeks.

Anyway, let's quickly predict the finalist lists, shall we? You can use this cheat sheet to laugh at me or praise me later, depending on my success rate. If there's a link we've previously written about the picture...

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FYC: "Flee" in Best Sound

by Chris James

Sound can be more visceral than sight when recalling painful moments from the past.Flee is a unicorn of a film, a hybrid of so many styles of storytelling. In the most basic of terms, it’s a first person documentary feature as Amin recounts his journey from Afghanistan to Denmark. The use of animation in telling Amin’s story serves a few different purposes. On a social responsibility level, animating the entire film helps protect the subject and their family. From a stylistic perspective, the animation draws us into Amin’s crisp memories, only to have the traumatic flight from Afghanistan be painted with broader, more dramatic strokes. It’s as if Amin’s memory is protecting him from the details. Come the time of Oscar nominations, it could be the first film nominated for International Feature, Documentary Feature and Animated Feature. Matt St. Clair has already done a great job lobbying for it in Best Picture, which would be richly deserved. 

There is one other category that the Academy should make sure to consider Flee in - Best Sound. 

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What films are we underestimating for tech nominations?

By Ben Miller

With the film year winding down, the higher-profile films are packing the predictions of Oscar pundits everywhere.  As easy as it is to predict Dune and Nightmare Alley to have plenty of technical nominations, what films are we underestimating?

For the last 18 years, at least one film has received a single Oscar nomination in a below-the-line category.  While it is not unusual for a film to receive a single nomination in Best Original Song, Original Score or Cinematography but these are the categories awards pundits and the Oscars themselves don't tend to pay as much attention to...

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