93rd Academy Awards: A contrarian take on the Best Director field

Editor's note. The Supporting Actress Smackdown is running late and will arrive tomorrow. Apologies! Meanwhile we continue our rundown of Oscar categories with Best Director.

by Elisa Giudici

Five directors. One European filmmaker. one Asian-American director. One woman of color. Another woman nominated for her directorial debut. One old sport named David Fincher. This year's director ballot does not lack variety! Ten days from the Oscar night and this competition is nearly over. All of these movies are clearly personal achievements, but will any prove a cornerstone in the career of its director? Every nominated director is at a different stage of their life and career, each movie a fascinating chrysalis. Every nomination here is like a gentle pat on the shoulder, a "this movie was really good, we are really curious to see what you will do next time!" kind of nomination.

From least likely to win to the one who will probably take the Oscar home, let's investigate a little...

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BAFTA predictions? Why not!

by Nathaniel R

Rather famously the BAFTAs did a gigantic overhaul of their nomination process to insure gender parity and diversity in their nominations. Many of the individual category nominations were decided by tiny juries. But for the winners the whole voting body will vote. Given that the nominations themselves were impossible to foresee perhaps the winners will be too? So lets just try our hand at divining what might come to pass.

FILM

• The Father
• The Mauritanian
• Nomadland
• Promising Young Woman
• The Trial of the Chicago 7

WILL WIN: This is actually a tough call. BAFTA has disagreed with Oscar more than we commonly think for the top category...

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93rd Academy Awards: Best Film Editing

by Juan Carlos Ojano

Best Film Editing is noteworthy as an Oscar categoryfor its strong connection with the Best Picture race. With the exception of 2014’s Birdman (which prided itself for being a one-take film even if it actually isn’t), we have to go back to 1980 to find a Best Picture winner without a corresponding Film Editing nomination. However, the expanded ballot changed the Editing race. Since 2009, only four non-Best Picture nominees have gone on to be nominated in this category, with only one winning. This lends a preordained quality to the contenders.

This year is no exception, with all five nominees coming from Best Picture contenders. However, the predictability of the crop does not equate to the predictability of the race; this is one of those categories where one can see any of the five nominees realistically taking the award based on presumed strength in the awards season...

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Best Picture Nominees - Who's Up? Who's Down?

by Christopher James

Is Nomadland still looking like the clear winner for Best Picture?

Oscar nomination morning changes everything. What it takes to be nominated for an Oscar and win an Oscar are very different. As we enter this new phase for the Oscars, who is best set up for success on April 25th? The eight Best Picture nominees were all the most nominated movies of the year. Mank led with ten nominations. The rest of the nominees all had relatively good days, each earning six nominations except for Promising Young Woman, which received five nominations. Among non-Best Picture nominees, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom led with five nominations and News of the World with four nominations.

With the Oscar mainly coalescing around the eight Best Picture movies, which of them benefitted? Were any movies disappointments, despite a Best Picture nomination? Can anything beat current frontrunner Nomadland?

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Critics Choice Winners

The all virtual Critic's Choice Awards were held tonight. Eternally handsome Taye Diggs hosted direct to camera, which must have been one of the easiest gigs ever. No audience to play to, no flop sweat if jokes failed as thy often do for awards show hosts. Just an obedient laugh track (meant to be ironic or...?) and the camera. 

The Critics Choice voters often agreed with the Golden Globes including Best Picture for Nomadland which led the awards with 4 wins. But they went their own way in Best Comedy where Palm Springs took the prize. Sorry Borat but all was not lost because Best Supporting Actress went to  Maria Bakalova. The winners are after the jump...

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