Thoughts on the Academy Award Nominations

As many of you already know, the nominations for the Academy Awards were announced this morning. Check out my thoughts after reading the nominees below.

Best Picture Black Panther BlacKkKlansman Bohemian Rhapsody The Favourite Green Book Roma A Star Is Born Vice

Best Actor Christian Bale- Vice Rami Malek- Bohemian Rhapsody Bradley Cooper- A Star Is Born Willem Dafoe- At Eternity’s Gate Viggo Mortensen- Green Book

Best Actress Yalitza Aparicio- Roma Glenn Close- The Wife Olivia Colman- The Favourite Lady Gaga- A Star Is Born Melissa McCarthy- Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Supporting Actor Mahershala Ali- Green Book Richard E. Grant- Can You Ever Forgive Me? Sam Elliott- A Star Is Born Sam Rockwell- Vice Adam Driver- BlacKkKlansman

Supporting Actress Regina King- If Beale Street Could Talk Amy Adams- Vice Marina De Tavira- Roma Rachel Weisz- The Favourite Emma Stone- The Favourite

Best Director Spike Lee- BlacKkKlansman Pawel Pawlikowski- Cold War Yorgos Lanthimos- The Favourite Alfonso Cuaron- Roma Adam McKay- Vice

Adapted Screenplay The Ballad of Buster Scruggs BlacKkKlansman Can You Ever Forgive Me? If Beale Street Could Talk A Star Is Born

Best Original Screenplay The Favourite First Reformed Green Book Roma Vice

Best Cinematography Cold War The Favourite Never Look Away Roma A Star Is Born

Film Editing BlacKkklansman Bohemian Rhapsody The Favourite Green Book Vice

Best Costume Design The Ballad of Buster Scruggs Black Panther Mary Poppins Returns The Favourite Mary Queen of Scots

Production Design Black Panther The Favourite First Man Mary Poppins Returns Roma

Original Score Black Panther BlacKkKlansman If Beale Street Could Talk Isle of Dogs Mary Poppins Returns

Makeup and Hairstyling Border Mary Queen of Scots Vice

Original Song “All the Stars”- Black Panther “I’ll Fight”- RBG “The Place Where Lost Things Go”- Mary Poppins Returns “Shallow”- A Star Is Born “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings”- The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Sound Editing Black Panther Bohemian Rhapsody First Man A Quiet Place Roma

Sound Mixing Black Panther A Star Is Born Bohemian Rhapsody Roma First Man

Visual Effects Avengers: Infinity War Christopher Robin First Man Ready Player One Solo: A Star Wars Story

Animated Feature Incredibles 2 Isle of Dogs Mirai Ralph Breaks the Internet Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse

Foreign Language Film Capernaum (Lebanon) Cold War (Poland) Never Look Away (Germany) Roma (Mexico) Shoplifters (Japan)

Best Documentary Free Solo Hale County This Morning This Evening Minding the Gap Of Fathers and Sons RBG

Documentary Short Subject Black Sheep End Game Lifeboat A Night at the Garden Period. End of Sentence.

Short Film Animated Animal Behaviour Bao Late Afternoon One Small Step Weekends

Short Film Live Action Detainment Skin Marguerite Fauve Mother

While many will claim the most egregious snub is Bradley Cooper's lack of directing nomination, I would counter that it’s Ethan Hawke being overlooked for Best Actor for First Reformed as well as Won't You Be My Neighbor? being left out of the documentary nominees. Ethan Hawke not only gave the best performances of his career, but he was the best performance of the year. One could say that it was a tiny movie and not many people saw it, but couldn't one say the same thing about Willem Dafoe in At Eternity's Gate? I couldn't concentrate on his performance in that movie thanks to the unnecessary shaky cam and I would argue the profile on that movie was smaller than First Reformed. Won't You Be My Neighbor? also appeared to be the front runner in the doc category, thanks to its moving portrait of a great, caring man that the world desperately needs right now. It's an uplifting story and its exclusion is confounding.

Also surprising to me is the support behind the Coens’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, most noticeably in the screenplay category. I liked the film, but this came out of nowhere for me and took away from recognizing a film like Leave No Trace or Black Panther in this category.

Speaking of Black Panther, I think there were some places where it could have gotten another nomination or two. I already mentioned screenplay (which if I were a betting man, I would have put money on this winning screenplay) but also in Makeup and Cinematography. Black Panther is an anomaly but its cultural milestones are too large to ignore so its Best Picture nomination feels justified for me.

A film that got little to no real love is First Man. This is unfortunate as the film is a stirring and grounded portrait of the moon landing. Ryan Gosling is incredible, yet very subtle, in his portrait of Neil Armstrong. That subtlety is probably what cost him awards attention. The film definitely deserved nominations for script, the score and cinematography. Speaking of the cinematography category, Caleb Deschanel's nomination most likely knocked out either First Man or If Beale Street Could Talk which are both more than worthy of nominations.

I am also disappointed in the amount of Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice nominations. Both of those films are a mess but are anchored around fantastic performances. The fact that both films got picture nominations and others like First Man or the amazing If Beale Street Could Talk didn't, stings.

So that's my thoughts on the Oscar nominations. All in all, they were a very mixed bag. A lot of them were the expected nominations but the surprises weren't the good kind. The Oscars are unpredictable this year, but not in a good way.

In the coming weeks, I'll be breaking down each of the major categories and offering my analysis concluding with what I think will win each major category.