Awards Season 2018

[criterionoop]

It’s the second time two foreign language film directors were nominated for Best Director (Ingmar Bergman was nominated for FACE TO FACE and Lina Wertmuller was nominated for SEVEN BEAUTIES in the same year).

It is the first time two directors have been nominated for films that were simultaneously nominated for Best Foreign Language Film. I believe it is also the first time that three films were nominated for Best Cinematography and were simultaneously nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

[domino harvey]

It's not even the Academy's fault at this point. the guilds had some even worse options. And the Globe winners were terrible. So many nominations for foreign films this year (including two for Director, probably the first time ever) just enhances the impression that voters were not happy with the Hollywood options they had.

Nope, Lina Wertmuller and Bergman in 1976

[mfunk9786]

How Spike Lee’s family reacted to the BlacKkKlansman Best Picture nomination

Would be oh so nice to see this win

[Persona]

This selection is really weird. Vice and Bohemian Rhapsody are barely fresh on RT. I can't even remember the last time we had two Best picture nominees sitting at 60%. Green Book is doing a lot better, and yet it's considered one of the favorites to win.

It's not even the Academy's fault at this point. the guilds had some even worse options. And the Globe winners were terrible. So many nominations for foreign films this year (including two for Director, probably the first time ever) just enhances the impression that voters were not happy with the Hollywood options they had.

But what's surprising to me with the foreign thing is the Best Foreign Film and Cinematography nominations for Never Look Away. I never would have expected the Academy to throw a couple big nominations at a foreign film that I can't even find a mention for on Critierion Forum! I have no idea if the film is good or not, but I have to assume this has something to do with Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck's cache from The Lives of Others and even more than that, apparently Disney is listed as the distributor (though it hasn't played in my neck of the woods as far as I know). So, yeah, Disney.

Disney Oscar-blocked Burning.

[domino harvey]

No one saw Never Look Away's Cinematography nom coming. It wasn't even one of the 50+ movies listed as possible in the category by Gold Derby

[mfunk9786]

Here is the piece in the New Yorker that I mentioned earlier

[Brian C]

Would be oh so nice to see this win

Agreed. The number of Best Picture winners that I've liked as much as BlacKkKlansman is not very long - in the last 20 years, only 12 Years a Slave and No Country for Old Men are really in the discussion. Seems doubtful that it'll happen, but I'll hope.

apparently Disney is listed as the distributor (though it hasn't played in my neck of the woods as far as I know). So, yeah, Disney.

Looks like Sony Pictures Classics has it in the US.

Honestly I'm surprised none of us had heard of it (I hadn't either), since the director isn't exactly super-famous but is at least known.

[DarkImbecile]

Would be oh so nice to see this win

Agreed. The number of Best Picture winners that I've liked as much as BlacKkKlansman is not very long - in the last 20 years, only 12 Years a Slave and No Country for Old Men are really in the discussion. Seems doubtful that it'll happen, but I'll hope.

As much as I love Roma and as much as I like hearing Cuarón speak, I really want to hear an acceptance speech from Lee.

[domino harvey]

He is the odds-on favorite to win Best Adapted Screenplay, better to lay your hopes there than Director

[Never Cursed]

Is there any chance that Schrader gets Original Screenplay, or are the Vallelongas going to clean up in that category again?

[domino harvey]

Fun fact: the front runners for Best Actor (Bale) and Best Actress (Coleman) were both born on the exact same day: January 30, 1974. Additional fun fact: nine years later, so was I!

[DarkImbecile]

Is there any chance that Schrader gets Original Screenplay, or are the Vallelongas going to clean up in that category again?

It’ll definitely be an early indicator of Roma’s chances if it manages to take that category.

[criterionoop]

Here are some more sidebars from the Academy’s press release:

91ST ANNUAL ACADEMY AWARDS® SIDEBARS

Black Panther is the first comic book-based film to earn a Best Picture nomination. Skippy, nominated for Outstanding Production at the 4th Academy Awards, was based on a comic strip.

A Star Is Born is the fourth film version to receive Academy Award nominations, for a total of 26 nominations. The acting nominations for Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga are the third for both the lead characters (after Fredric March and Janet Gaynor in 1937, and James Mason and Judy Garland in 1954).

With ten nominations, Roma has tied the record held by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000) for the most nominations received by a foreign language film. It is the tenth foreign language film nominated for Best Picture. Roma is the fifth film to be nominated for both Foreign Language Film and Best Picture in the same year. Each of the previous four (Z, 1969; Life Is Beautiful, 1998; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000; Amour, 2012) won for Foreign Language Film but not Best Picture.

Alfonso Cuarón is the fourth person to receive four nominations in four different award categories for the same film. Warren Beatty did so twice, with Best Picture, Directing, Leading Actor and Writing nominations for Heaven Can Wait (1978) and Reds (1981). Ethan Coen and Joel Coen received nominations for Best Picture, Directing and Writing and shared a nomination for Film Editing under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes for No Country for Old Men (2007). Alan Menken received four nominations in two Music categories for Beauty and the Beast (1991).

For the first time, two directors of films nominated in the Foreign Language Film category (Paweł Pawlikowski, Cold War and Alfonso Cuarón, Roma) have received Directing nominations.

Bradley Cooper is the fifteenth person to direct himself to an acting nomination and the ninth to do so on his feature film directing debut.

In the acting categories, eight individuals are first-time nominees (Yalitza Aparicio, Olivia Colman, Marina de Tavira, Adam Driver, Sam Elliott, Richard E. Grant, Regina King, Rami Malek). Five of the nominees are previous acting winners (Mahershala Ali, Christian Bale, Sam Rockwell, Emma Stone, Rachel Weisz). Two were also nominated for acting last year (Willem Dafoe, Sam Rockwell).

Yalitza Aparicio is the second actress nominated for a debut performance in a spoken language other than English. The first was Catalina Sandino Moreno, nominated for her leading role in Maria Full of Grace (2004).

Lady Gaga is the second person to receive acting and song nominations for the same film. Mary J. Blige was the first, with her nominations for Mudbound last year.

The Cinematography nominations for Cold War and Roma mark the first time since 1966 that two black-and-white films have been nominated in the category in a single year. Since 1967, when the Academy eliminated a separate award category for black-and-white cinematography, there have been 15 black-and-white films nominated for Cinematography.

Sandy Powell has the most nominations for Costume Design of any living person with 14. The overall record in the category belongs to Edith Head with 35 nominations.

Best Picture Release Dates:
Black Panther - February 15, 2018 BlacKkKlansman - August 9, 2018
A Star Is Born - October 4, 2018 Bohemian Rhapsody - November 1, 2018 Green Book - November 15, 2018
Roma - November 21, 2018
The Favourite - November 22, 2018
Vice - December 24, 2018

[thirtyframesasecond]

This selection is really weird. Vice and Bohemian Rhapsody are barely fresh on RT. I can't even remember the last time we had two Best picture nominees sitting at 60%. Green Book is doing a lot better, and yet it's considered one of the favorites to win.

It's not even the Academy's fault at this point. the guilds had some even worse options. And the Globe winners were terrible. So many nominations for foreign films this year (including two for Director, probably the first time ever) just enhances the impression that voters were not happy with the Hollywood options they had.

But what's surprising to me with the foreign thing is the Best Foreign Film and Cinematography nominations for Never Look Away. I never would have expected the Academy to throw a couple big nominations at a foreign film that I can't even find a mention for on Critierion Forum! I have no idea if the film is good or not, but I have to assume this has something to do with Florian Maria Georg Christian Graf Henckel von Donnersmarck's cache from The Lives of Others and even more than that, apparently Disney is listed as the distributor (though it hasn't played in my neck of the woods as far as I know). So, yeah, Disney.

Disney Oscar-blocked Burning.

I kept thinking von Donnersmarck was the guy who did the Diana movie, but that was Hirschbiegel (Downfall) - still, von Donnersmarck did The Tourist which was only marginally less bad. But then even a more talented director like Sorrentino struggles with English language films, so maybe I should cut him some slack.

[Brian C]

Roma is the fifth film to be nominated for both Foreign Language Film and Best Picture in the same year. Each of the previous four (Z, 1969; Life Is Beautiful, 1998; Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, 2000; Amour, 2012) won for Foreign Language Film but not Best Picture.

See? This is what I was talking about earlier. Four is not exactly a huge sample size to determine trends, and Roma seems generally respected, but I'd be surprised if it had the muscle to win both Foreign Film and Best Picture. Especially since critics' faves tend to not win Best Picture in the first place.

[criterionoop]

Honestly I'm surprised none of us had heard of it (I hadn't either), since the director isn't exactly super-famous but is at least known.

I am employed by the Academy so I am actively in the know of the Foreign Language category. I also live in LA and it had a qualifying run at the theater chain I work for.

I’ve seen it. It’s good, loosely based on the life of Gerhard Reichter and the cinematography is gorgeous. It’s not as great as THE LIVES OF OTHERS, but it’s still really good (it’s also three hours long, but the time flew by for me).

I also have to put up the disclaimer that although I am employed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, my opinions do not reflect the opinions of AMPAS. My opinions also do not reflect the opinions of the voting members.

[Persona]

Maybe Roma will be freed up to win BP by Never Look Away winning Best Foreign Film. I mean, Never Look Away already got this far, somehow!

[Boosmahn]

At least Mamoru Hosoda is getting the attention he deserves. (Wolf Children is his magnum opus, though, in my opinion. Then again, I haven't seen Mirai...)

Also: not even a nod for Widows? Bad Times at the El Royale is one I was hoping for but wasn't expecting at all.

[Cremildo]

Maybe Roma will be freed up to win BP by Never Look Away winning Best Foreign Film. I mean, Never Look Away already got this far, somehow!

Why not Cold War?

[Finch]

Would be funny if they gave Best Foreign Picture AND Best Picture to Roma. Can't believe it was nominated for both in the first place.

[Persona]

Maybe Roma will be freed up to win BP by Never Look Away winning Best Foreign Film. I mean, Never Look Away already got this far, somehow!

Why not Cold War?

I was being silly. Out of the Best Foreign Film nominees, I'd prefer Cold War to win (and Roma win BP).

But I really have no idea about Never Look Away. For all I know it's deserving.

[furbicide]

Would be funny if they gave Best Foreign Picture AND Best Picture to Roma. Can't believe it was nominated for both in the first place.

But what's the alternative? If Roma wins best picture, then it clearly has to be the best "foreign" picture of the year, unless we are to construe the best foreign picture award in cases like this to be some kind of runner-up prize. But of course, it's a fool's errand to impose any logic on any of this.

Let's face it: however many token "foreign" contenders they throw into the mix – or even give awards to – the Oscars' approach to non-US/UK productions has always been totally nonsensical. Is the Academy Awards a ceremony for the best United States films of the year? If so, that'd be perfectly legitimate, and I guess it'd be reasonable enough in that case to have a special booby prize category for best foreign-language or international production (many explicitly national film awards like the Césars and the AACTAs do this). But if it's supposed to be a global ceremony (which I suspect is kind of what they want it to be perceived as), why are the vast majority of nominees Hollywood productions? Are they saying that the norm is for great films to come from America, but that occasionally a foreign-language film is so good that it actually reaches that lofty standard of cinema? Because that kind of seems to be what they're saying.

Ultimately, they just want to have their cake and eat it too; while I guess it'd be nice if Roma wins (as it's a genuinely excellent film, and that way more people will get to see it), the whole endeavour is still kind of an absurd exercise.

[domino harvey]

The difference between this and other years where there's been an overlap is that this is the first year the foreign film is seen as the frontrunner

[Brian C]

But what's the alternative? If Roma wins best picture, then it clearly has to be the best "foreign" picture of the year, unless we are to construe the best foreign picture award in cases like this to be some kind of runner-up prize. But of course, it's a fool's errand to impose any logic on any of this.

Let's face it: however many token "foreign" contenders they throw into the mix – or even give awards to – the Oscars' approach to non-US/UK productions has always been totally nonsensical. Is the Academy Awards a ceremony for the best United States films of the year? If so, that'd be perfectly legitimate, and I guess it'd be reasonable enough in that case to have a special booby prize category for best foreign-language or international production (many explicitly national film awards like the Césars and the AACTAs do this). But if it's supposed to be a global ceremony (which I suspect is kind of what they want it to be perceived as), why are the vast majority of nominees Hollywood productions? Are they saying that the norm is for great films to come from America, but that occasionally a foreign-language film is so good that it actually reaches that lofty standard of cinema? Because that kind of seems to be what they're saying.

Ultimately, they just want to have their cake and eat it too; while I guess it'd be nice if Roma wins (as it's a genuinely excellent film, and that way more people will get to see it), the whole endeavour is still kind of an absurd exercise.

It doesn't seem all that baffling to me. It's an award show put on by an American organization devoted to rewarding themselves and their friends. Occasionally, people in the voting pool are taken with a film that comes from outside their usual circles.

That's pretty much all there is to it, except that in this case, Cuaron is also well-established in Hollywood.

[furbicide]

It's an award show put on by an American organization devoted to rewarding themselves and their friends.

Well, yes, effectively. But if that's all they made it out to be, and all people interpreted it as, then it wouldn't have anywhere near the cultural clout that it does (and I doubt we'd be talking about it right now!)