Oscar Punditry: Who Will Be Our Surprise Acting Nominee and Who Could Still Be Snubbed?

By: Christopher James

Kristen Stewart looking for where her SAG nomination went.The SAG Nominations sure threw a lot of people’s Oscar predictions upside down. One can always expect SAG to throw in a major curveball or two (call it the Sarah Silverman in I Smile Back effect). However, few could’ve predicted that former frontrunner Kristen Stewart would be snubbed for her role as Princess Diana in Spencer. It was almost as surprising to see Aunjanue Ellis miss for King Richard, especially when the movie made it into Outstanding Cast!

As surprising as it all was, we now have a lot of answers (rather than guesswork) as to who the major players are in Oscar's acting races since the Globes have already announced their winners, the Critics Choice nominations have long been out, and we've also seen the BAFTA longlist. We can use math and past Oscar patterns with these precursors to determine who the acting nominees might be this year...

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Globe Reactions: MJ Rodriguez, Nicole Kidman, Ariana DeBose, and Rachel Zegler

by Nathaniel R

Check out MJ Rodriguez's wonderfully happy reaction to her historic Golden Globe win for Pose. She's the first trans actor to ever win a Globe. Other actress winners Nicole Kidman, Ariana DeBose, and Rachel Zegler also shared brief thank yous online...

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The silent wins of the Golden Globes

by Nathaniel R

No film truly dominated with Power of the Dog winning 3, and West Side Story 2

The Golden Globe ceremony did not air this year for only the second time in our lifetimes here at TFE. Some of you may recall the ceremony was cancelled once before due to the writers strike and the names were merely read out on television in a glorified press conference. This time, even less hoopla, given Hollywood turning their backs on the group and NBC refusing to telecast them this year. Neverthless they went ahead with their normal rounds of choosing nominees and winners. It's tough to expect that these prizes will mean anything more than, say, any winner lineup from a regional critics group, this year. Televised awards, with their red carpets and celebrity speeches and celebratory atmosphere are the only awards that receive enough mainstream attention to noticeably and consistently influence the Oscars, which always close "awards season".

Winners list and more commentary after the jump...

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Golden Globe Nominees: "Belfast" and "Power of the Dog" lead

by Nathaniel R

Kenneth Branagh's childhood memoir Belfast and Jane Campion's stirring psychosexual western Power of the Dog lead the 79th annual Golden Globe nominations with seven each. Among comedies or musicals, which are always the highlight of the Globes since that's the only award bodies to take those genres of film seriously, early releases like Cruella and In the Heights had to settle for just one nomination each (in acting) ... but December arrivals Cyrano, Don't Look Up, Licorice Pizza, tick tick..BOOM!, and West Side Story all snagged multiple nominations including Best Picture. 

This year, the HFPA threw no surprises at all into their top-of-the-line nominations (which is not like them) unless you count Javier Bardem in Being the Ricardos and Mahershala Ali in Swan Song as Drama Actor nominees but the Globes have always been kind to December films led by high profile stars, whether or not they have opened or proved anything like conversational staying power. But perhaps this 'no surprise... only assumed future Oscar nominees' field is because the Globes have had other things on their mind than screenings and their ballots...

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"Oh, Moses, Moses. You stubborn, splendid, adorable fool."

by Nathaniel R

It's 120 days until the Oscars. So for today's random number celebration let's talk Moses! According to the Bible he lived to be 120 years old. The most famous Moses film is inarguably The Ten Commandments (1956). We always forget that Charlton Heston wasn't actually Oscar-nominated for playing Moses in that now camp classic despite the film receiving seven Oscar nods including a Best Picture citation. Curiously and conversely, the film's only Golden Globe nomination was in Best Actor, Drama for Charlton Heston. How about that?

More Moses movie trivia after the jump...

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