Early this morning the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced this year's Oscar nominations, including the following music categories:
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)
DA 5 BLOODS – Terence Blanchard
MANK – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
MINARI – Emile Mosseri
SOUL – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste
ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)
“FIGHT FOR YOU” – Judas and the Black Messiah – Music by H.E.R. and Dernst Emile II; Lyric by H.E.R. and Tiara Thomas
“HUSAVIK” – Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga – Music and Lyric by Savan Kotecha, Fat Max Gsus and Rickard Goransson
“IO SI (SEEN)” – The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se) – Music by Diane Warren; Lyric by Diane Warren and Laura Pausini
“SPEAK NOW” – One Night in Miami… - Music and Lyric by Leslie Odom, Jr. and Sam Ashworth
Ninth nomination for James Newton Howard, his first since Defiance in 2008. Second and third for 2010 Score winners Reznor & Ross, second for Terence Blanchard. First score nominations for Emile Mosseri ( The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Kajillionaire) and Jon Batiste. Daniel Pemberton also got his first nomination this year, but for Trial of the Chicago 7's song.
BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
THE FATHER – David Parfitt, Jean-Louis LIvi, Philippe Carcassonne
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH – Shaka King, Charles D. King, Ryan Coogler
MANK – Cean Chaffin, Eric Roth, Douglas Urbanski
MINARI – Christina Oh
NOMADLAND – Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Chloe Zhao
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN – Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell, Josey McNamara
SOUND OF METAL – Bert Hamelinck, Sacha Ben Harroche
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 – Marc Platt, Stuart Besser
Based on the reviews, I'd thought Ma Rainey's Black Bottom and One Night in Miami... would be this year's major Black History nominees instead of Judas and the Black Messiah.
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
RIZ AHMED – Sound of Metal
CHADWICK BOSEMAN – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
ANTHONY HOPKINS – The Father
GARY OLDMAN – Mank
STEVEN YUEN – Minari
People seem to think Boseman is a lock in this category, not just because of his tragic passing but also because apparently he's amazing in the film.
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
VIOLA DAVIS – Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
ANDRA DAY – The United States vs. Billie Holiday
VANESSA KIRBY – Pieces of a Woman
FRANCES McDORMAND – Nomadland
CAREY MULLIGAN – Promising Young Woman
I'd thought Sophia Loren would get in instead of Andra Day, which suggests that the Actors Branch isn't nearly as sentimental as they used to be.
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
SACHA BARON COHEN – The Trial of the Chicago 7
DANIEL KALUUYA – Judas and the Black Messiah
LESLIE ODOM, JR. – One Night in Miami…
PAUL RACI – Sound of Metal
LAKEITH STANFIELD – Judas and the Black Messiah
Stanfield is a welcome surprise, but if he and Kaluuya are both supporting actors, who's the damn star of the film?
PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
MARIA BAKALOVA – Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
GLENN CLOSE – Hillbilly Elegy
OLIVIA COLMAN – The Father
AMANDA SEYFRIED – Mank
YUH-JUNG YOUN – Minari
I'd thought Seyfried seemed plausible but none of the reviews seemed to single her out. That was definitely not the case for Bakalova. It will be darkly amusing if Glenn Close loses out to Olivia Colman yet again. They can be the new Annette Bening & Hilary Swank.
ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
ANOTHER ROUND – Thomas Vinterberg
MANK – David Fincher
MINARI – Lee Isaac Chung
NOMADLAND – Chloe Zhao
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN – Emerald Fennell
I knew Another Round was a likely International Feature nominee, but I thought it was much more likely for Actor (Mads Mikkelsen) than Directing.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH – Screenplay by Will Berson & Shaka King; Story by Bill Berson & Shaka King and Kenny Lucas & Keith Lucas
MINARI – Written by Lee Isaac Chung
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN – Written by Emerald Fennell
SOUND OF METAL – Screenplay by Darius Marder & Abraham Marder; Story by Darius Marder & Derek Cianfrance
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 – Written by Aaron Sorkin
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: DELIVERY OF PRODIGIOUS BRIBE TO AMERICAN REGIME FOR MAKE BENEFIT ONCE GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN – Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern; Story by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Nina Pedrad
THE FATHER – Screenplay by Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller
NOMADLAND – Written for the screen by Chloe Zhao
ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI… - Screenplay by Kemp Powers
THE WHITE TIGER – Written for the screen by Ramin Bahrani
The White Tiger is the biggest surprise in the writing categories. Much as I liked the first Borat (as with nearly every other 2020 film, I haven't seen the second one), I still don't think films based so much on improvisation should get screenwriting nominations.
ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH – Sean Bobbitt
MANK – Erik Messerschmidt
NEWS OF THE WORLD – Dariusz Wolski
NOMADLAND – Joshua James Reynolds
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 – Phedon Papamichael
All are first-time nominees, except for Papamichael (nominated 7 years ago for Nebraska)
ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
THE FATHER – Yorgos Lamprinos
NOMADLAND – Chloe Zhao
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN – Frederic Thoraval
SOUND OF METAL – Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 – Alan Baumgarten
Zhao was nominated for Picture, Directing, Writing and Film Editing this year. That's pretty impressive if you think about it. Baumgarten was previously nominated as one of the three editors of American Hustle.
ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION DESIGN
THE FATHER – Peter Francis; Cathy Featherstone
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM – Mark Ricker; Karen O’Hara, Diana Stoughton
MANK – Donald Graham Burt; Jan Pascale
NEWS OF THE WORLD – David Crank; Elizabeth Keenan
TENET – Nathan Crowley; Kathy Lucas
Finally, some love for Tenet! (I haven't seen it, but I'd hate for Nolan's latest to get snubbed entirely).
ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
EMMA – Alexandra Byrne
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM – Ann Roth
MANK – Trish Summerville
MULAN – Bina Daigeler
PINOCCHIO – Massimo Cantini Parrini
Emma, a film I've actually seen! Ann Roth has been desigining costumes since at least 1964, when she did The World of Henry Orient, so she's been working longer than many of our readers have been alive (We do have young readers, right? If we don't that's okay.)
ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING
EMMA – Marese Langan, Laura Allen, Claudia Stolze
HILLBILLY ELEGY – Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle, Patricia Dehaney
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM – Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal, Jamika Wilson
MANK – Gigi Williams, Kimberley Spiteri, Colleen LaBaff
PINOCCHIO – Mark Coulier, Dalia Colli, Francesco Pegoretti
The makeup in the Pinocchio trailer looks amazing, which should be no surprise since Mark Coulier is a genius. He won for the age makeups in The Iron Lady and The Grand Budapest Hotel, and he should have been nominated for equally brilliant work in Stan & Ollie and Suspiria. I guessed all five correctly in this category, but a ten-movie shortlist makes that a whole lot easier.
ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
LOVE AND MONSTERS – Matt Sloan, Genevieve Camilleri, Matt Everitt, Brian Cox
THE MIDNIGHT SKY – Matthew Kasmir, Christopher Lawrence, Max Solomon, David Watkins
MULAN – Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury, Steve Ingram
THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN – Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones, Santiago Colomo Martinez
TENET – Andrew Jackson, David Lee, Andrew Lockley, Scott Fisher
Love and Monsters over Mank -- who'd have guessed? The only nomination for The Midnight Sky.
ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND
GREYHOUND – Warren Shaw, Michael Minkler, Beau Borders, David Wyman
MANK – Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Paker, Nathan Nance, Drew Kunin
NEWS OF THE WORLD – Oilver Tarney, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller, John Pritchett
SOUL – Ren Klyce, Coya Elliott, David Parker
SOUND OF METAL – Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortes, Phillip Bladh
I accidentally left out my preditions in this category from my recent column -- they were Greyhound, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Mank, Sound of Metal, and Tenet.
BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
FEELING THROUGH – Doug Roland, Susan Ruzenski
THE LETTER ROOM – Elvira Lind, Sofia Sondervan
THE PRESENT – Farrah Nabulsi
TWO DISTANT STRANGERS – Travon Free, Martin Desmond Roe
WHITE EYE – Tomer Shushan, Shira Hochman
BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
BURROW – Madeline Sharafian, Michael Capbarat
GENIUS LOCI – Adrien Merigeau, Amaury Ovise
IF ANYTHING HAPPENS I LOVE YOU – Will McCormack, Michael Govier
OPERA – Erick Oh
YES-PEOPLE – Gisli Darri Halldorsson, Arnar Gunnarsson
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
ONWARD – Dan Scanlon, Kori Rae
OVER THE MOON – Glen Keane, Gennie Rim, Peilin Chou
A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON – Richard Phelan, Will Becher, Paul Kewley
SOUL – Pete Docter, Dana Murray
WOLFWALKERS – Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young, Stephan Roelants
I prepared to predict this category by watching the trailers for all the eligible films, and this was the other category where I guessed all five correctly. And I've actually seen Onward, which makes two nominated films seen this year. A record for me, in the wrong way.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
COLETTE – Anthony Giacchino, Alice Doyard
A CONCERTO IS A CONVERSATION – Ben Proudfoot, Kris Bowers
DO NOT SPLIT – Anders Hammer, Charlotte Cook
HUNGER WARD – Skye Fitzgerald, Michael Scheuerman
A LOVE SONG FOR LATASHA – Sophia Nahli Allison, Janice Duncan
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
COLLECTIVE – Alexander Nanau, Bianca Oana
CRIP CAMP – Nicole Newnham, Jim LeBrecht, Sara Bolder
THE MOLE AGENT – Maite Alberdi, Marcela Santibanez
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER – Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed, Craig Foster
TIME – Garrett Bradley, Lauren Domino, Kellen Quinn
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
ANOTHER ROUND – Denmark
BETTER DAYS – Hong Kong
COLLECTIVE – Romania
THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN – Tunisia
QUO VADIS, AIDA?
Collective follows Honeyland as being a nominee in both International and Documentary categories. (Was Honeyland only last year? Time has felt different for these last twelve months. I can't imagine why.)
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