11 Quick Observations about the Oscar Nominations

Did you toon into the Oscar nominations this morning. Jack Quaid and Zazie Beetz (in particular) did a fine enthusiastic job of announcing the nominations in Oscar's 23 categories. There were surprises and shut-outs and overperformers as per usual. You can see the complete list of nominations at the Oscar Charts Index Page (though the individual charts per category are not yet updated).

Herewith 11 quick obversations about the nominations before we dive in to individual categories.

1. BARBIE FATIGUE (SORT OF)
While America Ferrera nabbed the Oscar nod we predicted for her in Best Supporting Actress (we went 5/5 on that volatile category in our predictions) Barbie received just 8 nominations overall. That's a lot, of course, but it isn't a lot in terms of expectations and how well the film had been performing at precursors...

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Oscar Volley - Best Actor

For today's Oscar volley, Lynn Lee and Glenn Dunks discuss the Best Actor race.

LYNN: Glenn, it’s been a while since I’ve felt this strongly about the Best Actor race, so I’ll just lay my cards on the table: I really, really want both Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) and Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction) to be nominated, would love Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers) to join them --though I think he’s a long shot-- and really DON’T want Leonardo DiCaprio to get in for Killers of the Flower Moon.

It’s extra personal for me because I saw American Fiction, All of Us Strangers, and The Holdovers back to back at the Middleburg Film Festival earlier this year and loved all of them. More to the point, while all three films have their flaws, each one worked like gangbusters largely because of the fantastic acting --especially the outstanding male lead performance...

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Colman Domingo could make Oscar history

by Cláudio Alves

Rustin is now in theaters, enjoying a limited qualifying release before it hits Netflix on November 17th. With this biopic on civil rights activist Bayard Rustin, Colman Domingo may earn his first Oscar nomination, in the Best Actor category. His hopes seem amply justified when you look over the production's premise and early reviews. It looks like a project calibrated to appeal to the Academy's taste, finely tuned for the campaign trail. After all, it's telling a real-life story full of inspirational details and a sense of great social importance, directed by George C. Wolfe from a screenplay coauthored by Dustin Lance Black.

That last name is especially interesting for it recalls Milk's triumph in 2008 and contextualizes Domingo's Oscar as a chance to make history…

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Best Lead Actor - First Round Predictions

by Nathaniel R

Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer) and Colman Domingo (Rustin) are both working the classic 'biopic' angle

As with the first round of Best Supporting Actor predictions, we're opting to pretend that the strike will be resolved in time for most of the movies that are scheduled for awards season to continue with their current plans. We use the word "pretend" because it feels increasingly likely that this awards season will be an unprecented combo of fewer than usual releases and zero celebrity campaigning. We hope the studio powers-that-be will wake from their incessant greed and learn to share the wealth with the people without whom they can't make money (actors/writers) but we're not going to hold out breath lest we asphyxiate.

On to Best Actor. This category is often heavy on biographical 'great men' roles and there's little reason to expect this year will be any different. Cillian Murphy, Colman Domingo, Bradley Cooper, Joaquin Phoenix, and Adam Driver will all potentially benefit from that tried and true awards-appeal genre...

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Colman Domingo, Taiki Waititi, and Idris Elba give starpower to the Best Animated Short Oscar race

by Nathaniel R

Colman Domingo in "New Moon" based on one of his plays

This year's Best Animated Short Oscar finalists come from about a dozen countries and feature a pleasing variety of animation strategies. The shorts feature talking animals, naturally, as well as plenty of heightened surreal adventures. All of this is to be expected in this always intriguing category (provided you are able to find the films!).  Less expected: this year the race has more than a little star power via voice casts. We'll review all the films here as we screen them.

Read on for brief run downs of the finalists and if and where you can watch the films right now (if you can). Links go to official sites if we could find them...

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