Category: Awards

Academy Award Predictions: Roma vs. Green Book vs. Black Panther?

All good things must come to an end, though based on your personal opinions this awards season may not have been a good thing. Films came and went (First Man, Mary Poppins Returns, First Reformed) and others (Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book, The Favourite) stayed to varying degrees of anger or pleasure. A Star Is Born kicked off the season as the de-facto frontrunner and fumbled when things started to get competitive; it hasn’t been able to regain any of the lost momentum as the season has drummed along. 

Roma has seemingly taken its place, but there’s still a bunch of uncertainty swirling around its chances as an actual winner. With wins at the Golden Globes, the PGA and TIFF’s People’s Choice Award, Green Book is seemingly next in line despite a ton of controversy and valid criticisms against the film. Also not a stranger to controversy, Bohemian Rhapsody‘s success both financially and awards wise despite it being a terrible film continues to confound even the most tenured Oscar watchers. Do people really love Queen that much? Evidently, yes. The heat around Vice was extinguished the moment the embargo was let up. Eight nominations is nothing to balk at, but nobody seems to be rushing to give this Frankenstein of a movie any awards. There seems to be a lot of love for The Favourite, but it doesn’t sound like it translates into the widespread kind of love needed to succeed on the preferential ballot. 

And then there’s Black Panther, which has both the box office receipts, critical acclaim to and a SAG ensemble win that makes it a worthy Best Picture winner. But a disappointing nomination count, despite a win at the Screen Actors Guild, is giving me pause from thinking it’s as big of a threat as the other aforementioned films. 

With each film having their own list of pro’s and con’s, it feels like a huge toss up in predicting who will win. Nevertheless, I take a stab at it below. 

Continue reading →

Surprises and Snubs: Screen Actors Guild Nominations

Oh the SAG awards. I know that the Golden Globes get a lot of flack for being out there with their choices, but this is the same voting body that is responsible for nominations like Judi Dench in Victoria and Abdul, Naomi Watts in St. Vincent and everyone’s favorite, Emily Blunt for The Girl on the Train. 

This year we have shockers like Margot Robbie in Mary Queen of Scotts, no love for If Beale Street Could Talk (huge loss to Regina King this morning who was also snubbed in television), continued love for BlackKklansman, a double whammy for Emily Blunt and a Bohemian Rhapsody ensemble nomination (YIKES).

Take a look at the full list of film nominees below. 

Continue reading →

76th Annual Golden Globe Nominations Include “A Star Is Born” and “Black Panther”

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (otherwise known as the people who vote on the Golden Globes) have announced their crop of nominations. As usual, they marched to the beat of their own drum; and while there was nothing as shocking as The Tourist being nominated in 2010, there were some surprises.

The HFPA went hard for BlacKkKlansman, a film that needed a boost after coming out much earlier in the year, Green Book (despite its under performance at the box office) and of course, A Star Is Born. Bradley Cooper was nominated for both Director and Lead Actor (Drama), while Lady Gaga was nominated for her performance and songwriting for “Shallow” in Original Song.

Black Panther solidified itself as a formidable contender after getting a nomination in Best Motion Picture (Drama), while both Vice and Mary Poppins Returns planted their flags as late breaking contenders.

Read the full list of nominations below.

Best Motion Picture- Drama:

  • Black Panther
  • BlacKkKlansman
  • Bohemian Rhapsody
  • If Beale Street Could Talk
  • A Star Is Born

Best Motion Picture- Comedy or Music:

  • Crazy Rich Asians
  • The Favourite
  • Green Book
  • Mary Poppins Returns
  • Vice

Best Director:

  • Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
  • Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
  • Peter Farley, Green Book
  • Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
  • Adam McKay, Vice

Best Performance By an Actor in a Motion Picture- Drama:

  • Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
  • Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate
  • Lucas Hedges, Boy Erased
  • Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
  • John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman

Best Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture- Drama: 

  • Glenn Close, The Wife
  • Lady Gaga, A Star is Born
  • Nicole Kidman, Destroyer
  • Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
  • Rosamund Pike, A Private War

Best Performance By an Actor in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical:

  • Christian Bale, Vice
  • Lin Manuel Miranda, Mary Poppins Returns
  • Viggo Mortensen, Greenbook
  • Robert Redford, The Old Man and the Gun
  • John C. Reily, Stan & Ollie

Best Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture- Comedy or Musical:

  • Emily Blunt, Mary Poppins Returns
  • Olivia Colman, The Favourite
  • Elsie Fisher, Eighth Grade
  • Charlize Theron, Tully
  • Constance Wu, Crazy Rich Asians

Best Supporting Performance By an Actor in a Motion Picture: 

  • Mahershala Ali, Green Book
  • Timothée Chalamet, Beautiful Boy
  • Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
  • Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
  • Sam Rockwell, Vice

Best Supporting Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture:

  • Amy Adams, Vice
  • Claire Foy, First Man
  • Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
  • Emma Stone, The Favourite
  • Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

Best Screenplay:

  • Roma
  • The Favourite
  • If Beale Street Could Talk
  • Vice
  • Greenbook

Best Original Song:

  • “All the Stars,” Black Panther
  • “Girl in the Movies,” Dumplin’
  • “Requiem for a Private War,” A Private War
  • “Revelation,” Boy Erased
  • “Shallow,” A Star Is Born

Best Original Score: 

  • A Quiet Place
  • Isle of Dogs
  • Black Panther
  • First Man
  • Mary Poppins Returns

Best Animated Film: 

  • Incredibles 2
  • Isle of Dogs
  • Mirai
  • Ralph Breaks the Internet
  • Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse

Best Foreign Language Film: 

  • Capernaum
  • Girl
  • Never Look Away
  • Roma
  • Shoplifters

 

Alfonso Cuarón’s “Roma” Named Best Film at New York Film Critic’s Circle

The New York Film Critics Circle have announced their winners for their annual awards, swinging big for Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. Cuarón’s follow up to 2013’s Gravity was named Best Film, and won two additional prizes for Director and Cinematography. After winning the top prize at Venice Film Festival this past fall, it’s hard to not consider it the film to beat. 

Other big winners include Richard E. Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Regina King (hot off her win at the National Board of Review) and Ethan Hawke (hot off his win at the Gotham Awards). 

Take a look at the full list of winners (with some brief commentary) below.

Continue reading →

Final Academy Award Predictions

Tomorrow morning, the nominations for the 90th Academy Award ceremony will be revealed. Based on precursors, it’s going to be a big morning for The Shape of Water (which has been nominated by every major guild and won with the Producer’s) and Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri (our Best Picture frontrunner). I fully expect Get Out, Lady Bird and Dunkirk to get a healthy amount of nominations as well. The biggest question is how well passion picks like I, Tonya, Mudbound and Call Me By Your Name will do. Will the Academy resist the Netflix aspect of Mudbound‘s distribution? Was the BAFTA love for Darkest Hour a fluke? 

Below are my full list of nomination predictions. 

Continue reading →

Golden Globe Predictions:

It’s not easy to predict the Golden Globes, but somebody’s gotta do it. Notoriously, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association nominates and votes for what they like in a way that differs from groups like the Screen Actors Guild or the Academy Awards. Sometimes they make bold, daring choices; in 2014 they nominated Ava DuVernay for Best Director after she was ignored by the Academy and Directors Guild. They also ignored the Oscar campaign for both Rooney Mara and Alicia Vikander to ridiculously be placed in Supporting Actress for Carol and The Danish Girl, nominating them both in Best Actress instead. But sometimes they nominate films like The Tourist and stars Angelina Jolie and Johnny Depp in the Comedy Actor/Actress categories. 

So yeah, it’s not easy to figure out which way the Globes will swing this year. Especially in a year with no sure Best Picture frontrunner. And the fact that both Get Out and Lady Bird are separated from Three Billboards and The Shape of Water doesn’t help clear anything up. But that’s what makes this fun, because anything is possible.  

Continue reading →

Making Sense of the SAG Nominations: “Get Out,” “Lady Bird,” and “Three Billboards” Soar

This morning the Screen Actors Guild named their annual nominees for excellence in acting. Much like with the Golden Globes, we saw a lot of the usual suspects, such as Sally Hawkins from The Shape of Water, Timothée Chalamet from Call Me By Your Name and Mary J. Blige from Mudbound pop up, with a few surprises like Steve Carrell from Battle of the Sexes in the Supporting Actor category and a complete shut out of Steven Spielberg’s late release heavy hitter The Post; not even Meryl Streep managed a nomination in Best Actress.

Three films emerged this morning as the strongest: Lady Bird, Get Out and Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. All three nabbed a nomination in Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture (SAG’s equivalent to Best Picture) with individual nominations for its principal actors. As the largest voting block in the Academy, SAG definitely just shifted the race. 

Continue reading →