Thirty Thoughts I Had About Today's Oscar Nominations

At this point, if you read this blog you're probably already beyond having reaction thoughts (it's been 12 hours...you've got the nominees memorized by now!), but we have done this every year since the blog began, telling my initial reactions to the nominations.  People always want to know (the Oscars are my identity in real life too) what I think, and each year it's so overwhelming (all of the new names, things to memorize, actors whose careers have just been reconsidered) that I honestly am shell-shocked for a few days.  So to capture that feeling, here are thirty things I thought while looking at this year's Oscar nominations.  Enjoy, and share your biggest headlines!

1. This is a lot better Best Picture lineup than I was expecting, even if it's not necessarily what I would've picked.  I only dislike two of these movies, which for me is pretty solid.

2. Ostlund making it instead of Berger makes me wonder if All Quiet can get any trophy other than International Feature.

3. Spielberg's still going to win though...right?

4. Five first-timers in Best Actor, and four of them were really good.  First time this has happened since 1934.

5. Holy shit, Andrea Riseborough!

6. I saw a lot of people criticizing this nomination and how she got it, and those people can go jump in a lake.  This is a cool nomination even if you (like me) don't think she deserved it based on the merits of the film.  Taking a movie this small and getting it a major Oscar nomination is badass when you're competing against billion-dollar companies with 6-7 figure ad buys.

7. A friendly reminder that if you want to include a performer, you need to say whom you'd remove from the list.  Saw a lot of very upset people for Best Actress, but not a lot of indication that they'd, say, want to cut anyone other than de Armas (which...fair).

8. Brian Tyree Henry's nomination means that I'll have to finish Causeway, which I started and found a bit of a snooze.

9. Judd Hirsch getting in instead of Paul Dano perplexes me, based both on the size of his role and that Dano is better in the movie (and I don't like Paul Dano).  Hirsch's nomination gets him the record for biggest gap between first & second nominations.

10. I guessed Best Supporting Actress 100% right, and this is a fun field even if I'd only keep one of them (Condon) for my personal awards.

11. When there was only one nomination left and they hadn't said The Whale or Women Talking, my heart sank, but thankfully the Writing Branch made the correct choice.

12. That is a stupendous Original Screenplay category.  When the worst member of your field is the inventive plotting of Everything Everywhere All at Once, you've done well.

13. I spent most of the season thinking that wild card fifth slot for Animated Feature Film would go to Disney, but instead Netflix got its man.  Cartoon Saloon ends its streak, and I have to believe had Wendell & Wild gotten a theatrical run it would've made it.

14. That said, only one Disney-Pixar film making it while Pinocchio totally biffed in every other category (it was in contention for at least three other awards) makes me curious if we're underestimating Turning Red (see 2012, 2014, & 2019 for proof).

15. Decision to Leave missing for International Feature Film is the morning's greatest failing.

16. At some point will Disney try again with Animated Short Film?

17. Riz Ahmed said "my year of dicks" and I just have to ask...how do I get on the calendar?

18. John Williams gets an unreal 53rd Academy Award nomination...I'm still lighting a candle that he gets his sixth trophy this year.

19. The devil works hard, Diane Warren works harder.  Even after nabbing an Honorary Oscar, she gets in for a movie that...is it a real movie?  I can find no evidence of it on streaming, and it doesn't even have a Wikipedia page as of this writing.

20. Rihanna & Lady Gaga make it, but Taylor Swift once again gets left behind.  Swift should offer to cowrite a song with Diane Warren to see if the unstoppable force can take on the immovable object.

21. Elvis was such a mixed bag that I genuinely had to check my notes for every one of these tech nominations it got, as half of them it actually deserved and the others were an eyebrow-raise.

22. For example, film editing (eyebrow raise)

23. Ireland gets its first International Feature Film nomination on a day when its thespians dominated the acting categories.

23. Colin Farrell, whom I've been fan of for over twenty years, gets my favorite "nomination I knew was coming" but right after him is the sheer joy of Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris.

24. That Cinematography field needs a better focus...yikes.

25. The Whale's Makeup nomination will age about as well as milk on a hot Arizona morning.

26. Marvel makes it for Visual Effects, but...why?  Black Panther's water scenes next to Avatar's play so badly...why not something like Nope instead?

27. That said, All Quiet and its effects (primarily that shot with the tank in the trench which looked like it was shot for a 1980's horror film) is worse.

28. Does Everything Everywhere making Best Costume count as a contemporary nomination?

29. Alfonso Cuaron gets up to seven nominations, tying Kenneth Branagh's record seven (he was nominated for Live Action Short)...which one of them gets an Animated Short done first?

30. Allison Williams & Riz Ahmed did a great job.  I loved them just doing a fun, straightforward press conference.  This is the best way to approach these nominations-please continue this next year.