THE TIME HAS COME. I've been pretty pleased with the crop this year. (Alas, re: the short films remain out of reach!) In the listings below, the ones in green are those I watched before the nominations were released, and blue are the ones I watched afterwards. (I wrote all of this before the awards show, but I went ahead and indicated who won, since I'm posting it afterwards.)
Also: OH MY GOD, that ceremony took a turn from amusingly uneven to HOLY CRAP really quickly. I did some livetweeting through the ceremony, if you're curious.
Best Picture
Belfast (full review)
WINNER: CODA (full review)
Don’t Look Up (full review)
Drive My Car (full review)
Dune (full review)
King Richard (full review)
Licorice Pizza (full review)
Nightmare Alley (full review)
The Power of the Dog (full review)
West Side Story (full review)
A lot has been said about how diverse this year's crop of Best Picture contenders are. Plus, they are all totally okay! Don't Look Up is a weird one--it just doesn't fit in the genre as well as the others. Nightmare Alley would also be a weird inclusion, except that Del Toro has won it before. Power of the Dog has been the frontrunner for a long while, but I remain completely ambivalent about its existence. Had I My Druthers, I'd probably give this to Drive My Car as the best, with CODA a close second.
Best Director
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
WINNER: Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Steven Spielberg, West Side Story
I'm not one to claim that all the "bests" should go to the same film--a movie is overall a collection of elements and it's impossible for every single element to be unmatched. Every single of these films are crafted beautifully--my favor only lands with Spielberg's West Side Story because it has some moving parts that the other films didn't. What with the dancing and singing and all.
Best Actor
Javier Bardem, Being the Ricardos (full review)
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Andrew Garfield, Tick, Tick … Boom! (full review)
WINNER: Will Smith, King Richard
Denzel Washington, The Tragedy of Macbeth (full review)
Will Smith has been the frontrunner forever, and rightly so. I'd say Denzel Washington would be a good choice this year, too, but there's also the truth that as Macbeth, he had a fairly well-trod character to inhabit.
Best Actress
WINNER: Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye (full review)
Olivia Colman, The Lost Daughter (full review)
Penélope Cruz, Parallel Mothers (full review)
Nicole Kidman, Being the Ricardos
Kristen Stewart, Spencer (full review)
Jessica Chastain had the silliest role here and I rather think she did a lot with it. It would be easy enough to make the character of Tammy Faye fairly formidable, with layers and layers of fear and ambition and willful self-deception.
Best Supporting Actor
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
WINNER: Troy Kotsur, CODA
Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
J.K. Simmons, Being the Ricardos
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog
Troy Kotsur was just so good in CODA.
Best Supporting Actress
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
WINNER: Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Judi Dench, Belfast
Kirsten Dunst, The Power of the Dog
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Ariana DeBose, OBVIOUSLY.
Best Original Screenplay
WINNER: Belfast
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza
The Worst Person in the World (full review)
I am legit surprised The Worst Person in the World didn't get more nominations. It's exquisite. The still scene alone, my god.
Best Adapted Screenplay
WINNER: CODA
Drive My Car
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog
I'd give this one to The Lost Daughter--while the weaving of past and present is present in Ferrante's text, I'm pretty sure, but the film makes things seem seamless. Also, Olivia Colman did a lot to make a complex role out of a melancholy one.
Best Costume Design
WINNER: Cruella (full review)
Cyrano (full review)
Dune
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story
Look, I am irritated that Cruella even exists, but the trash gown cannot be denied.
Best Original Score
Don’t Look Up
WINNER: Dune
Encanto
Parallel Mothers
The Power of the Dog
Duuuuuuuuuuuune.
Best Animated Short
Affairs of the Art
Bestia
Boxballet
Robin Robin
WINNER: The Windshield Wiper
Again, I haven't watched these ones, but y'all, it is ASTONISHING how disturbing the animated shorts are every single year.
Best Live-Action Short
Ala Kachuu — Take and Run
The Dress
WINNER: The Long Goodbye
On My Mind
Please Hold
Hopefully this batch features fewer dead children than the past couple of years.
Best Documentary Feature
Ascension (full review)
Attica (full review)
Flee (full review)
WINNER: Summer of Soul (… Or When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) (full review)
Writing With Fire (full review)
Summer of Soul is a helluva good time, but I think Ascension manages to make an extremely specific argument without saying, literally, anything.
Best Documentary Short
Audible
Lead Me Home
WINNER: The Queen of Basketball
Three Songs for Benazir
When We Were Bullies
I've actually seen The Queen of Basketball--I considered using it in one of my classes. Having not seen any of the others, though, I can't really say it's the best one.
Best International Feature
WINNER: Drive My Car, Japan
Flee, Denmark
The Hand of God, Italy (full review)
Lunana: A Yak in the Classroom, Bhutan (full review)
The Worst Person in the World, Norway (full review)
I'm fairly certain this will go to Drive My Car, but I actually think Flee is the most impressive. That said, Lunana is the most delightful and I stand by that.
Achievement in Sound
Belfast
WINNER: Dune
No Time to Die (full review)
The Power of the Dog
West Side Story
This is totally going to Dune, isn't it? Sound and sound editing always go to the action movies.
Best Production Design
WINNER: Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story
I would 100% give this to The Tragedy of Macbeth, but I also like the production design the most because it looks the most like a stage play. My theatre bias almost always wins out.
Best Film Editing
Don’t Look Up
WINNER: Dune
King Richard
The Power of the Dog
Tick, Tick … Boom!
I want to give this to Tick, Tick…Boom! I honestly can't say why, though.
Best Cinematography
WINNER: Dune
Nightmare Alley
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth
West Side Story
Oh, man, this is definitely one to give to The Power of the Dog. As ambivalent as I am about the narrative itself, it's wholly gorgeous.
Best Visual Effects
WINNER: Dune
Free Guy (full review)
No Time to Die (full review)
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (full review)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (full review)
All of these are excellent, but I'd go with Spider-Man or Dune here. (Shang-Chi was wonderful, but the fantastical nature of the monsters at the end made things feel…less, somehow. They flew too close to the sun! If we were to give an award for practical effects, however, they deserve that for the bus scene alone.)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Coming 2 America (full review)
Cruella (full review)
Dune
WINNER: The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci (full review)
If we were going with makeup alone, it would be Tammy Faye. But makeup AND hair? It's got to be Coming 2 America.
Best Animated Feature
WINNER: Encanto (full review)
Flee
Luca (full review)
The Mitchells vs. the Machines (full review)
Raya and the Last Dragon (full review)
Encanto's got the advantage of being new, but I'd go Raya all the way--I'm still enraptured by how they differentiated between the different locals.
Best Original Song
“Be Alive,” King Richard
“Dos Oruguitas,” Encanto
“Down to Joy,” Belfast
WINNER: “No Time to Die,” No Time to Die
“Somehow You Do,” Four Good Days (full review)
Just give Lin-Manuel Miranda his Oscar already, geez.
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