25 Random Thoughts on This Year's Oscar Nominees

Priyanka Chopra & Nick Jonas announcing the Oscars
(wasn't it fun to have the announcers in the same room?)

I worked on Monday, and had a very busy day, so I couldn't really do our annual stream-of-consciousness to the Oscar nominations, but I'm going to attempt to recreate it based on tweets, texts, & the like that I sent afterward.  Below are 25 thoughts I had while perusing this year's Oscar nominations.

1. Two female directors, two directors-of-color, and three great films in that category...Best Director is not only one of the classiest lineups, it's arguably the best lineup overall from this year.

2. I am floored Promising Young Woman got into Best Picture...it is so out-of-character for the Academy.

3. I'm glad they actually saw The Father-one of the best films of the year with a truly heinous release schedule...see it now that you can, you won't regret it.

4. In a different year Chadwick Boseman would be considered vulnerable for Best Actor (Ma Rainey missing & The Father over-performing would be a sign), but I think he's a lock.

5. For all of the talk about the Best Actress field having a surprise up its sleeve, this is pretty much the lineup you'd have expected.  I assume Carey Mulligan is a mild favorite here considering the Emerald Fennell nomination, but honestly you can make a case for anyone other than Vanessa Kirby.

6. Boseman didn't need a second nomination, and they thankfully skipped Leto, so I'm happy, though it's bizarre that LaKeith Stanfield got in for his weakest performance since he became a breakout star (an unbelievable actor, and one of my favorites working, but he does nothing here).

7. Jesse Plemons needs to call his agent & demand residuals, cause apparently he's the lead in Judas and the Black Messiah (category fraud working overtime with Stanfield, Kaluuya, & Odom all nominated).  Kaluuya should still win, even with the mild vote-split (similar to Sam Rockwell three years ago).

8. I was genuinely worried that Amanda Seyfried would miss here considering her shock SAG snub, so that was my favorite nomination of the morning (she was my second favorite performance of 2020 after Hopkins).

9. Best Supporting Actress is bonkers, and you could make a case for any of these people winning, save maybe Colman, but unless Bakalova wins a surprise SAG Award, I have to assume it's going to be Close vs. Yuh-jung.

10. Close now ties Peter O'Toole for most nominations without a win.  I'm guessing that she's a threat for the win even if she misses with SAG, but the momentum in her victory is hard to gage because we honestly don't know what a Glenn Close Oscar looks like at this point.  I think it could happen, but I wouldn't bet on it yet (O'Toole lost on his eighth nomination even if Geraldine Page won).

11. I hate to acknowledge the Razzies, but after 38 years they finally added to the list of performances nominated for both an Oscar & a Razzie with Close; it's not a good sign for her that Amy Irving & James Coco both lost the Oscar in a similar situation.

12. Mank getting ten nominations but not getting in for its glorious screenplay is ridiculous.

13. Another Round is the frontrunner for International Feature Film after that Best Director citation, though having just seen Quo Vadis, Aida? I can say it shouldn't be (even if it's good).

14. I also have to assume Time wins with most of its competition shut out.

15. I liked Out better than Burrow (and I will royally miss not seeing the short films in theaters this year for the first time since I was in college, as I won't be vaccinated in time-another tradition torn up by the pandemic, and in this case by Trump's botched initial rollout of the vaccine).

16. The Father getting in for Production Design & Editing shows that those branches know truly wondrous work even if it isn't showy...it won't win either, but the nomination is proof of how brilliant that film's attention-to-detail is.

17. After Cherry got in with the ASC, I was sure that we'd get something crazy in the Cinematography category, but this is one of three fields (along with Animated Feature & Actor) that I called correctly.  Phedon Papamichel's nomination means that the branch continues its 90-year streak of at least one nominee being a former contender.

18. Emma getting in for Costume but not Production Design is definitely a "hmm."

19. I'm going to feel like I was punked until I finally see Roberto Benigni's random Pinocchio remake...I remember when the first one came out & what a gigantic catastrophe that was portrayed as in film magazines.  I hope he gets to attend if there is a ceremony.

20. The Best Score category is one of the better lineups, and a particularly solid one when you consider Alexandre Desplat (The Midnight Sky) and Thomas Newman (The Little Things), two of the Academy's favorite pets, were eligible but they thankfully skipped them for listless work.

21. Diane Warren is going to lose again, isn't she?  She's been nominated in six of the last seven Oscars, and all of them were for her film's only nomination somehow.

22. Greyhound getting in while Ma Rainey was left out makes me wonder if the combined Sound category will favor the former Sound Editing lineups more than the Sound Mixing ones.

23. I hate the word "snub" in these articles because it gets so overused, but I will say the biggest surprise this year was Mulan and Love and Monsters both besting Welcome to Chechnya.  I was sure the humanitarian angle (and the fact that it made the shortlist) would guarantee it a spot in the lineup.  With it out, that pretty much guarantees a trophy for Christopher Nolan's latest.

24. It was clear all season that people were overthinking the Animated Feature Film race.  Even I considered for a moment going with something crazy like Croods 2 or Calamity, but smartly stuck to my guns on a staid lineup.  Considering Pixar didn't need two nominations here, it'd be nice if Wolfwalkers finally got Tomm Moore a win (it won't-AMPAS isn't very creative with this category & seems to hate upsets).

25. I just saw Quo Vadis, Aida (review to come later this week), but otherwise I am only missing eight films from the OVP (The White Tiger, Farmageddon, Better Days, Collective, The Man Who Sold His Skin, Pinocchio, Eurovision, & Love and Monsters).  All of the other nominated OVP films are not only seen, but reviewed, and I have updated all of the tags so you can search them now.  I will be making every effort to see all of the remaining nominees between now-and-the-ceremony so keep coming back-the Oscar talk has just commenced!