Let’s just go through them, shall we? (nominations taken from Variety, hence why they’re not formatted as they usually would be on Beyond the Popcorn)
Visual Effects:
“Avengers Endgame”
“The Irishman”
“1917”
“The Lion King”
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker”
Thoughts: This category travelled as expected for me with the exception of Rise of Skywalker‘s nom. There’s a strong air this year of ‘ahh it’s the last Skywalker Saga movie we have to nominate it!’, which is annoying since, of the ones I’ve seen, TROS is probably the crappiest movie nominated.
Costume Design:
”The Irishman,” Sandy Powell, Christopher Peterson
“Jojo Rabbit,” Mayes C. Rubeo
“Joker,” Mark Bridges
“Little Women,” Jacqueline Durran
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Arianne Phillips
Thoughts: I’m happy with three of these. I could do without Irishman or Joker (the latter has one memorable costume and the former is just a bunch of suits) – swap them out with Rocketman and Dolemite and we’re in business.
Makeup and Hair:
“Bombshell”
“Joker”
“Judy”
“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil”
“1917”
Thoughts: I’m sorry, Maleficent got nominated over Once Upon a Time in Hollywood?!? Really?!? 1917‘s nom is, I imagine, mostly for it’s make-up – the only hair thing I can remember is that Colin Firth had a moustache.
Original Song:
“I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away,” “Toy Story 4”
“I’m Gonna Love Me Again,” “Rocketman”
“I’m Standing With You,” “Breakthrough”
“Into the Unknown,” “Frozen 2”
“Stand Up,” “Harriet”
Thoughts: Honestly, there was no original song this year that really stuck with me (no ‘Shallow’ equivalent), so I don’t have much investment in this category. If anything, I’m surprised they went with Breakthrough, which is one of those (from what I’ve heard) Christian propaganda films and barely got a release.
Original Score:
“Joker,” Hildur Guðnadóttir
“Little Women,” Alexandre Desplat
“Marriage Story,” Randy Newman
“1917,” Thomas Newman
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” John Williams
Thoughts: And the most unnecessary nomination of the night award goes to TROS. Let’s face it, the score in that movie was not up to the Star Wars standard and is nowhere near worth mentioning alongside great scores like 1917‘s and Joker‘s. Swap it out for Michael Abels’ underrated Us score and this’d be a perfect category.
Production Design:
“The Irishman,” Bob Shaw and Regina Graves
“Jojo Rabbit,” Ra Vincent and Nora Sopkova
“1917,” Dennis Gassner and Lee Sandales
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Barbara Ling and Nancy Haigh
“Parasite,” Lee Ha-Jun and Cho Won Woo, Han Ga Ram, and Cho Hee
Thoughts: I’m happy with all of these. Surprising, I know.
Sound Mixing:
“Ad Astra”
“Ford v Ferrari”
“Joker”
“1917”
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Thoughts: This is another good category – the sound mixing in four of these was excellent, and in Joker it was really good.
Sound Editing:
“Ford v Ferrari,” Don Sylvester
“Joker,” Alan Robert Murray
“1917,” Oliver Tarney, Rachel Tate
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Wylie Stateman
“Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” Matthew Wood, David Acord
Thoughts: Good stuff apart from the unnecessary TROS nom. The sound editing was good but all the sound effects were originally created for the Original, Prequel and Sequel Trilogies anyway so it hardly blew me away. Swap it out for Ad Astra – I think they just changed one movie between the sound categories to prove they know the difference.
Film Editing:
“Ford v Ferrari,” Michael McCusker, Andrew Buckland
“The Irishman,” Thelma Schoonmaker
“Jojo Rabbit,” Tom Eagles
“Joker,” Jeff Groth
“Parasite,” Jinmo Yang
Thoughts: I liked the editing in all of these movies, but an inexcusable snub is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which had some of the best (and flashiest) editing of the year. If I had to select a weak link among the nominees to replace with Hollywood, I guess I’d choose Joker, but it’s a difficult choice.
Best International Feature Film:
“Corpus Christi,” Jan Komasa
“Honeyland,” Tamara Kotevska, Ljubo Stefanov
“Les Miserables,” Ladj Ly
“Pain and Glory,” Pedro Almodovar
“Parasite,” Bong Joon Ho
Thoughts: Four out of these were nominated as expected, and then I’ve never heard of Corpus Christi (I guess it’s this year’s Never Look Away). I did some research and apparently it’s a Polish film about a guy who gets out of prison and decides to become a priest against the rules of the church, which dictate that a priest cannot have a criminal record. Sounds like very Oscar-y stuff. It’s due for release in the USA in April, with no date in sight for Australia.
(I’m not going to cover short films as I haven’t seen any of them and wouldn’t know where to start in talking about them)
Best Documentary Feature:
“American Factory,” Julia Rieichert, Steven Bognar
“The Cave,” Feras Fayyad
“The Edge of Democracy,” Petra Costa
“For Sama,” Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
“Honeyland,” Tamara Kotevska, Ljubo Stefanov
Thoughts: Is this the first time a movie has ever been nominated for best international and best documentary? Maybe. I predicted three of these. I hadn’t heard of The Cave before now (though I am familiar with the subject matter), and though I had heard of The Edge of Democracy I wasn’t predicting a nom for it. Since the latter’s (along with American Factory) on Netflix, I might get around to watching it so I have some investment in this category.
Cinematography:
“The Irishman,” Rodrigo Prieto
“Joker,” Lawrence Sher
“The Lighthouse,” Jarin Blaschke
“1917,” Roger Deakins
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Robert Richardson
Thoughts: This was one of the only categories I predicted 100% correctly, so that’s good.
Original Screenplay:
“Knives Out,” Rian Johnson
“Marriage Story,” Noah Baumbach
“1917,” Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” Quentin Tarantino
“Parasite,” Bong Joon-ho, Jin Won Han
Thoughts: Like most people, I was expecting The Farewell to take the fifth slot, but 1917 took it instead. This is very strange to me. I’m not claiming that Farewell is the best-written movie ever or anything, but it is very much a screenplay movie, unlike 1917, which is very much a visuals movie (in fact, the script is probably the weakest element with a couple of logic leaps that were a little too much for me). So for me this category is four good picks and one bad one.
Adapted Screenplay:
“The Irishman,” Steven Zaillian
“Jojo Rabbit,” Taika Waititi
“Joker,” Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
“Little Women,” Greta Gerwig
“The Two Popes,” Anthony McCarten
Thoughts: Another category that I’m mostly happy with save for one nom. Like 1917, Joker is not a screenplay movie, it’s a performance movie, and like 1917, the script is the weakest link (it has the following line: “They think that we’ll just sit there and take it, like good little boys! That we won’t werewolf and go wild!” What does that even mean?). I predicted A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood in Joker‘s place, which got a lot less love from the Academy than I was expecting.
Animated Feature:
“How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World,” Dean DeBlois
“I Lost My Body,” Jeremy Clapin
“Klaus,” Sergio Pablos
“Missing Link,” Chris Butler
“Toy Story 4,” Josh Cooley
Thoughts: This was one of the most surprising categories, as the film everyone had as their #2, Frozen II, didn’t get nominated. I can’t really comment on this category as I’ve only seen one of the movies.
Director:
Martin Scorsese, “The Irishman”
Todd Phillips, “Joker”
Sam Mendes, “1917”
Quentin Tarantino, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Bong Joon Ho, “Parasite”
Thoughts: Got all of these right. Yes, Todd Phillips is the odd man out in such a strong line-up, but he did a good job with Joker so I’ll cut him some slack. Note also the lack of female directors, despite the predictions of some that Greta Gerwig would get in. I guess since they had an Asian guy the Academy thought they already had enough diversity.
Supporting Actress:
Kathy Bates, “Richard Jewell”
Laura Dern, “Marriage Story”
Scarlett Johansson, “Jojo Rabbit”
Florence Pugh, “Little Women”
Margot Robbie, “Bombshell”
Thoughts: This was probably the most surprising category of them all. Jennifer Lopez misses the nom despite ticking every box going in! Nicole Kidman becomes the only one of the Bombshell trio to not be nominated! Scarlett Johansson gets a (probably underserved) double nomination across two categories! Kathy Bates gets in somehow! This category did quite the number on my prediction accuracy percentage, let me tell you.
Supporting Actor:
Tom Hanks, “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
Anthony Hopkins, “The Two Popes”
Al Pacino, “The Irishman”
Joe Pesci, “The Irishman”
Brad Pitt, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Thoughts: After the absolute Last Jedi of a category that was Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor panned out exactly as expected. I’m gunning for Pitt, I think we all are.
Lead Actress:
Cynthia Erivo, “Harriet”
Scarlett Johansson, “Marriage Story”
Saoirse Ronan, “Little Women”
Charlize Theron, “Bombshell”
Renee Zellweger, “Judy”
Thoughts: I got four of these right but I dropped in an ‘out-there’ prediction like I did with the Globes and I got it wrong – Cynthia Erivo got nominated over Lupita Nyong’o. A right shame.
Lead Actor:
Antonio Banderas, “Pain and Glory”
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
Adam Driver, “Marriage Story”
Joaquin Phoenix, “Joker”
Jonathan Pryce, “The Two Popes”
Thoughts: This category was a bit of a shitshow, to be honest. Robert De Niro got snubbed, as did Taron Egerton! Nobody was predicting Johnathan Pryce, but he got in anyway (don’t get me wrong, he was great in The Two Popes, but he was no De Niro)!
Best Picture:
“Ford v Ferrari”
“The Irishman”
“Jojo Rabbit”
“Joker”
“Little Women”
“Marriage Story”
“1917”
“Once Upon a Time in Hollywood”
“Parasite”
Thoughts: At this point, both Hopkins and Pryce had been nominated (plus a screenplay nom) so I was beginning to think that Popes was a lock for best picture, even though I had it at like #9 or #10 on my predictions. As it turns out, it seems the Academy didn’t love it that much. Otherwise, things turned out exactly as expected. I know I’ve done a lot of complaining, but it’s a good bunch of films this year. There’s no massive dud in the Picture category like there was with Vice last time. There are two or three five-star bangers in here, and the lowest it goes is three-and-a-half. I’m pretty happy, even if some of the other nominations were a bit dodgy.
Beyond the Popcorn 