The Official 2019 Oscars Nomination Announcements Discussions & Predictions Thread (1 Viewer)

[Jake Lipson]

My favorite film of 2018 was Avengers: Infinity War. That was an astounding creative achievement. But there's no question in my mind that Black Panther is the more personal film, that its success is more driven by its director and the specific people he hired to lead the various departments.

Yep. Also, Infinity War works extraordinarily well because it is the culmination of 18 previous films. It requires you to have a strong foundational knowledge of most of those movies and doesn't make any attempt to work for people who aren't already on board the Marvel train. This was absolutely the right call for the Russos to make for that film -- it had so much going on and so many threads to juggle that it would have been impossible to make a version of it that could do everything it did and also serve as an entry point for newbies. But that decision also makes it more difficult for the Academy to honor that film in a major above-the-line category, because they haven't been on the Marvel train up to this point.

I hope that they can still look at Infinity War and award it Visual Effects because the seamless integration of Thanos with the other characters alone is incredibly easy to recognize as a significant achievement, let alone all the other incredible effects work. But in terms of, say, Best Picture, or writing or directing (hypothetically), Infinity War simply wouldn't mean anything to the Academy members who have thus far ignored the (non-Black Panther) MCU.

In addition to all its other qualities which you described, Black Panther is an excellent standalone movie with a compelling message that you can latch onto even if you've never seen another Marvel movie. I think that makes a great deal of difference in the Academy's ability to recognize its achievements where they haven't been able to do that before with Marvel's various other more interconnected films.

 

[Mike Frezon]

On the other hand, they can't possibly be this stupid next year. Right?

The one benefit to this whole fiasco is that they should know not to repeat the same missteps that blew up in their face this year, so we won't have to go through this again.

If there's one thing I can be sure of in this life, Jake...it's that organizations rarely learn from such events NOT to repeat them. Instead, they tend to repeat them over and over.

I work in government. Whether it's a public governmental organization or a private film academy...they are both political in structure and cannot help themselves but to do things the same way over and over...even when the results are far less than desired. It's the way "they know" and often the dysfunction is institutionalized.

I think its clear here that AMPAS has no clear vision of what the Awards show should be...and, instead, is willing to bend whichever way the wind is blowing (to try and achieve some amorphous vision regarding fitting within a time structure yet not offend certain constituencies) even if it is to the point of breaking.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I think its clear here that AMPAS has no clear vision of what the Awards show should be...and, instead, is willing to bend whichever way the wind is blowing (to try and achieve some amorphous vision regarding fitting within a time structure yet not offend certain constituencies) even if it is to the point of breaking.

You're right, although that's a depressing thought.

If they want an example of what the show shouldn't be, the fiasco that this year has been from the get-go provides one.

Maybe they'll take notice. Probably they won't.

Even though they have restored all the categories, I feel like I'm ready to get the whole thing over with, rather than like I'm excited to watch. I suspect the leadership of the Academy feels the same way.

 

[bujaki]

Never Look Away is a masterpiece. The 3+ hours flew by. What a great year for foreign film nominees. The weakest one, imo, is Capernaum.

 

[Jake Lipson]

Never Look Away is a masterpiece. The 3+ hours flew by.

Glad to hear this. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

What a great year for foreign film nominees.

Agreed. Plus, The Guilty (from Denmark) would actually get my vote if it had made it past the shortlist, which it should have. And The Cakemaker (from Germany) is excellent as well.

The weakest one, imo, is Capernaum.

That's saying something, indeed. I felt like Capernaum could have won it easily in a less competitive year. There's certainly not a dud in the bunch (at least of the four I've seen.)

 

[Wayne_j]

Two nominations for Foreign Film directors and three nominations for Cinematography a testaments to how good the foreign films are this year.

 

[MartinP.]

And Bohemian Rhapsody apparently was a travesty when it came to accurately recounting Freddie Mercury's life. At least from the criticism that I have seen on the net.

Every biography film ever made has had detractors one way or another. The internet has allowed criticisms like that to grow exponentially. And the truth is that you can make a great film that totally distorts the subject of a biography. (The documentary Triumph of the Will doesn't tell the whole story, but is considered by many to be great propagandistic filmmaking.)

Quote from a Never Look Away review:

Never Look Away is inspired by the life of the German painter Gerhard Richter, who saw the film and described it as "an abuse and grossly distorted version" of his biography.

This is the same Academy that nominated Beauty and the Beast for Best Picture in 1991 when there were only five possible nominees.

Wow! One Best Picture nomination for an animated film in over 60 years at that time! If they hadn't gone to more than 5 nominees that would never have happened again. Then they decided to have a Best Animated Category. The year after Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin could have been Best Picture nominated with that group of five. (In fact, members who were interviewed at the time about that exact possibility were inclined to say "been there, done that.") In 2008 Wall-E had won a bunch of Best Film Awards from critics groups and that didn't make it, along with The Dark Knight.

It's because Best Picture requires broad support, while the other categories require the largest plurality. If you're an Academy voter, and you're passionate about a film, you'll probably vote it for it in all or most of the categories where it's been nominated. If there's enough people who feel that way, you get a sweep. But then you get to Best Picture, and if the people who didn't share that opinion all rank it low on their weighted ballots, it probably won't prevail even if it got the most #1 votes.

Sort of like voting for President last time?

To me that indicates they should go back to just 5 nominees for Best Picture. As I wrote awhile ago, AMPAS isn't doing themselves any favors when they keep saying that they want more eyeballs on their telecast (it's true that higher rated Oscar telecasts have films nominated that the general public likes) and a recent NY Times article shows that in the last fifteen years plus nearly all the movies that win best picture aren't even in the top 20 films of the year, when they nearly all used to be before that time. I'm not saying all the films AMPAS has been choosing aren't worthy, but especially since the weighted ballot era, audiences are not flocking to movies like Moonlight, Spotlight, Birdman, The Shape of Water, 12 Years a Slave, The Hurt Locker and the like. So go ahead AMPAS, award Roma Best Picture. That should do it.

 

[PMF]

[...] the Best Picture nominees will be introduced by 8 non-entertainment related people telling how said film affected them.[...]

Does anyone else think this is (what word?) __________.

[...]

Unnecessary.

 

[Mike Frezon]

Sort of like voting for President last time?

No. The Electoral College works in a completely different way and for a completely different purpose.

 

[MartinP.]

^^^

That's why I said "sort of" like, not "exactly" like.

________________

Gold Derby is reporting a rumor that Whoopi Goldberg is hosting the Oscars.
https://www.goldderby.com/article/2019/whoopi-goldberg-oscars-host-91st-academy-awards/

She has been off The View for a couple weeks.


(So AMPAS and ABC want the show shorter and Whoopi hosted the longest one ever?)

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I loved when Whoopi hosted - what was that, the 90s? I thought she did a phenomenal job.

 

[PMF]

I loved when Whoopi hosted - what was that, the 90s? I thought she did a phenomenal job.

Wherever there's Whoopi could Billy be far behind?

 

[Matt Hough]

Whoopi has hosted more than once.

 

[Mike Frezon]

^^^

That's why I said "sort of" like, not "exactly" like.

Well, it's still not even "sort of" like.

 

[Tino]

Whoopi AND Billy should host!

 

[Jake Lipson]

Unfortunately, Whoppi's not hosting. The reason she's off The View is because she's recovering from pneumonia.

https://tvline.com/2019/02/20/whoopi-goldberg-oscars-host-2019-surprise/

I love Whoopi and it would be great for her to host again, but if that was hosting, there would be no reason for ABC to deny it; they would want to promote her presence. It would be an actual good thing to happen which they could use to try to take focus off some of the dumb crap that they've done this year.

So in this case, I actually do believe that Goldberg has pneumonia. Best wishes to her for speedy recovery.

 

[PMF]

[...]But this thread isn't about the Electoral College, so we should get back on topic. There, I just officially reprimanded myself!

Upon turning age 18, I came to learn that there was no such university.

 

[B-ROLL]

Upon turning age 18, I came to learn that there was no such university.

Thankfully there are Clown and Beauty/Barber colleges ... Unlike the school of hard knocks ...

 

[JQuintana]

Had Whoopi hosted that would be my #1 reason to avoid it. She is now just a crackpot media hack.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I don't know if this has been reported somewhere, but ABC was promoting in between sitcoms tonight that Queen and Adam Lambert will open the show.

Queen I understand because Bohemian Rhapsody, but why Adam Lambert? Does he normally perform with them now? Or does the network just want another name actor?