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Clockwise from top: On Body and Soul; I, Tonya; Unrest, Mudbound, First They Killed My Father, The Beguiled |
What a year, what a year. A lot had happened since we last
checked in on the Oscars. And I mean, a
lot.
Most of this conversation, however, has focused solely on
whether Greta Gerwig will receive an Oscar nomination for Best Director and increasing
her status in the race. The topic even inspired Indiewire to pen what is,
without a doubt, the stupidest article ever written on the Oscar race by proclaiming that
Gerwig’s omission at the Golden Globes gives reason to abolish an award for
Best Director altogether. For the record, I love Lady Bird and think it’s a commendable feature by Gerwig, but I
think its strengths are more attributable to the quality of Gerwig’s
screenplay than her direction. I’d rather see that director nomination go to, say, Angelina Jolie,
who might simply be less popular with the cool kids despite delivering the best
of the foreign language contenders this year or be doubly burdened by the language barrier of a foreign film and by Netflix prejudice.
I think Gerwig will be nominated and that doesn’t bother me
since Lady Bird is, after all, a
great film. But if she isn’t nominated, should the Twitter explode with toxic
rage? There are a lot of other worthy (worthier?) women who aren’t part of this
conversation altogether, like Kathryn Bigelow (Detroit), Sofia Coppola (winner of
Best Director at Cannes for The Beguiled), and even Agnès Varda,
who offers one of the best examples of directorial vision with Faces Places, but no documentary has
ever been considered in the director category, so that isn’t happening. These
three films and Jolie’s all show masterful hands for composition and greater
feats of technical mastery—I mean, who doesn’t get hot just thinking about The Beguiled? I don’t say this to dismiss
Gerwig’s effort on Lady Bird, but only
to note that focusing solely on one director puts a lot of weight on her and
doesn’t do the other women any favours by dropping them from the conversation.
One step is simply to move beyond the Best Director
category. (Don’t cut it by any means, though.) There are several notable
contenders hovering at the margins for a nomination and who could help shape
the industry by having more exposure for women come Oscar night. Here are five
categories where women could break through the pack:
Best Foreign Language Film: On Body and Soul, Hungary, directed by Ildikó Enyedi
It really surprises me that not a single expert at GoldDerby pegs Ildikó Enyedi’s outstanding On
Body and Soul as a nominee. This film of staggeringly intimate, soulful
beauty might be the only contender on the foreign shortlist to offer some light
amidst a bleak group. The offbeat romance envelops the viewer in an
intriguingly speculative tale about two employees at a slaughterhouse who forge
a strange relationship when they both have dreams in which they appear as deer
and become romantic partners. It’s as odd as it sounds, but Enyedi pulls it off
with a buoyantly masterful tone that relies on performances that are as
understated and natural as the golden light that brings the slaughterhouse to
life. The scenes with the deer—real deer, not CGI—are so beautiful and
impressive for Enyedi’s ability to direct the two creatures as they fall in
love in a snowy thicket. Winner of four prizes at the Berlin Film Festival
including the Golden Bear and the FIPRESCI prize, the European Film Award for
Best Actress Alexandra Borbély, and a nominee for the ASC spotlight award after
cinematographer Máté Herbai topped the Camerimage festival, On Body and Soul might have enough
street cred to creep into the pack. Like last year’s dark horse nominee Tanna, it has a very small core of
passionate champions. The film hits
Netflix February 2nd.
Best Documentary Feature: Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing, One of Us; Jennifer Brea, Unrest
I’m not counting Agnès Varda here for Faces Places, directed with JR, since the doc is a favourite in the
category. Otherwise, the documentary feature race offers two longshot
contenders directed by women: One of Us
by Jesus Camp directors Rachel Grady
and Heidi Ewing and Unrest by Jennifer
Brea. Grady and Ewing have been here before and their compelling study of three
apostates from New York’s Hasidic community poses the kinds of production
challenges, ripe social issues, and great characters that often add up for
recognition. However, as one of four Netflix contenders remaining, it’s sort of
become the neglected child of the streaming giant, which has instead found more
success with the true crime tale Strong
Island, the eco doc Chasing Coral,
and the doping saga Icarus. It is the
least rewarded film on the shortlist despite being one of the stronger titles.
On the other hand, Brea has the best story of the shortlist after making an
intimate film that chronicles her own experience with chronicle fatigue
syndrome and her struggle to receive proper diagnosis and treatment. While Unrest might be a little rougher of a
production than the other contenders are, largely due to the circumstances in
which it was made, it might not be as sexy, although one could just as easily
flip the argument and be awed by Brea’s ability to connect her story with
others across the world. She’s done remarkably well for a film without
distribution and is the underdog of the race. Moreover, Unrest is one of the only films to add representation for
filmmakers and subjects with disabilities to the conversation of
representation, and that aspect is long overdue.
Best Film Editing: Tatiana S. Riegel, I, Tonya
Women generally perform better in the editing category than
they do in some of the other categories, like directing and cinematography,
although their presence is still disproportionately small. From as early as
1940 to as recent as 2015, women like Anne Bauchens (North West Mounted Police) to Margaret Sixel (Mad Max: Fury Road) have taken home Oscars in this category with
Adrienne Fanzen (Gigi), Claire
Simpson (Platoon), and three-time
winner Thelma Schoonmaker (Raging Bull,
The Aviator, The Departed) among the others joining them along the way. This
year, I, Tonya’s Tatiana S. Riegel is
the only woman to have a solo film nomination from the American Cinema Editors’
Eddie Awards (The Post’s Sarah
Broshar shares hers with Spielberg regular Michael Kahn.) Riegel’s work
deserves recognition here since much of I,
Tonya’s balance of comedy, violence, and darkness comes in the editing. The
way Riegel cuts on the action adds to the visceral sting of the punches while
using comedic timing as a left hook. The documentary-style sequences add to the
complexity of the film as Siegel fuses different forms and rules of editing,
accentuating I, Tonya’s play on the
elusiveness of truth by presenting shards of stories that are refuted and
refracted. The film is gaining heat on the strength of its performances and I
think I, Tonya could be this year’s Dallas Buyers Club to surprise on the
morning of the nominations. If I, Tonya
makes the cut for Best Picture and Margot Robbie lands her all but assured Best
Actress nomination, then she makes history as the first woman to score nominations for acting and producing the same film.
Best Cinematography: Rachel Morrison, Mudbound
Rachel Morrison made history by becoming the first woman
nominated for the American Society of Cinematographers award this year and
there’s a good chance she’ll achieve the same milestone with the Oscars on
January 23. (Mandy Walker should have had the honours for Down Under dramas Australia and Tracks.) The director of photography is earning raves for her
classically composed view of the mud-soaked and sweaty south in this drama by
Dee Rees, and it really is important for a woman to be recognized in this
category since recent numbers show that only four percent of cinematographers
are women. Four percent! That’s a terrible stat by any measure and one that
even Morrison struggles to explain in a recent interview with Scott Feinberg for his podcast Awards Chatter. The talk is also very insightful for Morrison’s
account of the difficulties she had shooting the film and overcoming the
limitations of the budget to lens the film. The biggest hurdle for Morrison,
however, might be the fact that Mudbound
is Netflix’s big dramatic push. The small-screen streaming giant could face
resistance from cinematographers, whose work is arguably the effort that gets
diminished the most when one removes the theatrical experience from the
equation.
Best Adapted Screenplay Angelina Jolie and Luong Ung, First They Killed My Father; Sofia Coppola, The Beguiled
Finally, Dee Rees can expect to share a nomination with
Virgil Williams for their Mudbound adaptation,
but three other women have been almost entirely absent from the relatively weak
pool of contenders for Best Adapted Screenplay: Angelina Jolie and Luong Ung
adapting Ung’s book First They Killed My
Father and Sofia Coppola for her revision of The Beguiled. The paltry field of contenders, and problematic pool
of voters, is evident in the fact that Logan,
of all movies, received nominations from both the Writers Guild of America and
the USC Scripter. Imagine a Marvel movie up for Best Screenplay! Anyways, Jolie
and Ung bring her true story to the screen with humanist sensitivity that draws
audiences into Luong’s journey as a refugee during the onset of the Cambodian
genocide. The adaption excels with the tricky feat of conveying a complicated
slice of history by zeroing in on the family matters at hand. Coppola, on the
other hand, injects The Beguiled with
feminist sensibility as Nicole Kidman and company get hot in the company of
Colin Farrell’s soldier and take control of the situation with ladylike
double-entendres. By moving the story post-emancipation, moreover, and leaving
the women to tend to their own meals and yard work, Coppola situates the
vengeful bitches in a decaying a way of life.
Updated Oscar Predictions:
Overall, I think it's really close in many categories. There could be a strange spread of nominations depending on how numbers fall. Personal bias has me holding onto The Post in several categories, but it's also Spielberg and it could be a late-breaker like American Sniper that misses with most of the guilds but hits the target that counts most. My inclusion of Spielberg over Peele in the director category is solely attributable to the fact that the Academy traditionally shies away from horror films.
*New or moved
Best Picture
Best Director
Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird*
Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird*
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Steven Spielberg, The Post
What about: Jordan Peele, Get Out, Sean Baker, The Florida Project; Luca Guadagnino, Call Me By Your Name; Paul Thomas Anderson, Phantom Thread; Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049; Joe Wright, Darkest Hour*
Best Actress
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Meryl Streep, The Post
Meryl Streep, The Post
What about: Jessica Chastain, Molly’s Game; Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul
Best Actor
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Tom Hanks, The Post
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out*
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out*
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
What about: Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.; James Franco, The Disaster Artist; Jake Gyllenhaal, Stronger*
Best Supporting Actress
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water
What about: Catherine Keener, Get Out*, Tiffany Haddish, Girls Trip*; Hong Chau, Downsizing*, Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread*
Best Supporting Actor
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water*
Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri*
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World*
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri*
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World*
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
What about: Bob Odenkirk, The Post; Mark Rylance, Dunkirk*; Armie Hammer, Call Me By Your Name*, Michael Stuhlbarg, Call Me By Your Name*
Best Documentary
Jane
Strong Island
Strong Island
Also shortlisted: Abacus: Small Enough to Jail, Chasing Coral, Ex-Libris, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power, Icarus, LA 92, Last Men in Aleppo, Long Strange Trip, One of Us, Unrest
Best Foreign Language Film
Germany - In the Fade*
Hungary – On Body and Soul
Israel - Foxtrot
Lebanon - The Insult*
Russia - Loveless
Hungary – On Body and Soul
Israel - Foxtrot
Lebanon - The Insult*
Russia - Loveless
Also shortlisted: The Square (Sweden) A Fantastic Woman (Chile), Félicité (Senegal), The Wound (South Africa)
Other submissions reviewed: Happy End (Austria), Racer and the Jailbird (Belgium), Hochelaga, Land of Souls (Canada), Amerika Square (Greece), Turah (Indonesia), Song of Granite (Ireland), Kati Kati (Kenya), Razzia (Morocco), Thelma (Norway), Birdshot (Philippines), Saint George (Portugal), The Fixer (Romania), The Square (Sweden), The Divine Order (Switzerland)
Best Animated Film
Coco
Ferdinand
LEGO Batman
Ferdinand
LEGO Batman
Loving Vincent
What about: Despicable Me 3 (but it's really terrible), LEGO Batman, Window Horses (FYC Stick Girl!)
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Beguiled - Sofia Coppola
Call Me By Your Name – James Ivory
The Disaster Artist - Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber*
Call Me By Your Name – James Ivory
The Disaster Artist - Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber*
Molly's Game, Aaron Sorkin*
Mudbound – Dee Rees
What about: First They Killed My Father – Angelina Jolie, Luong Ung*; Wonderstruck – Brian Selznick*
Best Original Screenplay
Get Out - Jordan Peele
I, Tonya - Steven Rogers
I, Tonya - Steven Rogers
Lady Bird - Greta Gerwig
The Shape of Water - Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri - Martin McDonagh
What about: Dunkirk, Phantom Thread, The Big Sick*, The Post*
Best Cinematography
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
Darkest Hour
Mudbound*
Mudbound*
The Shape of Water
What about: The Beguiled, First They Killed My Father, Call Me By Your Name, Hostiles, Wonderstruck, The Post
Best Film Editing
Baby Driver*
Blade Runner 2049
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
I, Tonya
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water
What about: The Post*, Get Out*, Darkest Hour, Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri; Wonder Woman
Best Original Score
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread*
Phantom Thread*
The Post*
The Shape of Water
The Shape of Water
Wonderstruck
What about: Coco*, Hostiles*, Beauty and the Beast*, Battle of the Sexes*, Jane*, Three Billboards*, Darkest Hour*
What about: Coco*, Hostiles*, Beauty and the Beast*, Battle of the Sexes*, Jane*, Three Billboards*, Darkest Hour*
Best Song
Beauty and the Beast – “How Does a Moment Last Forever?”
Call Me My Your Name – “The Mystery of Love”
“This is Me” from The Greatest Showman
What about: Battle of the Sexes (“If I Dare”), Beauty and the Beast (“Evermore”)*, Despicable Me 3 (“There’s Something Special”), An Inconvenient Sequel (“Truth to Power”), LEGO Batman (“Friends are Family”), Step (“Jump”)*, Call Me By Your Name ("Visions of Gideon")*
Best Costumes
Beauty and the Beast
The Greatest Showman*
Muder on the Orient Express*
Muder on the Orient Express*
Phantom Thread
Victoria & Abdul
What about: The Beguiled, Blade Runner 2049, My Cousin Rachel, Mudbound, Wonder Wheel, Hostiles*, Wonderstruck*, Darkest Hour*, I, Tonya*
Best Make-up
Darkest Hour*
I, Tonya*
Wonder*
Also shortlisted: Bright*, Ghost in the Shell*, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2*, Victoria & Abdul*
Best Make-up
Darkest Hour*
I, Tonya*
Wonder*
Also shortlisted: Bright*, Ghost in the Shell*, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2*, Victoria & Abdul*
Best Production Design
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
The Greatest Showman*
Murder on the Orient Express
The Shape of Water
Best Sound Mixing
Baby Driver*
Blade Runner 2049
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water*
Star Wars: The Last Jedi*
Star Wars: The Last Jedi*
What about: Atomic Blonde, Darkest Hour, Wonderstruck. mother!*, Detroit*, The Post*, Wonder Woman*
Best Sound Editing
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes
Wonder Woman
Best Visual Effects
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk*
The Shape of Water*
Dunkirk*
The Shape of Water*
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes
Also shortlisted: Alien: Covenant*, Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2*, Kong: Skull Island*, Okja*, Valerian*