Oscar Shortlists in 9 Categories Reveal Some Surprising Picks
The Oscar nominations won’t be announced until next month, but we can already get a sense of how nine categories are shaping up, since the Academy released shortlists Monday for many crucial races. Which films moved on to the next phase, and which got their bad news early? Below, I’ll walk you through the findings from six of those lists. (The three others, for the various shorts categories, contain entries that have not yet been widely screened.)
Foreign Language Film
Colombia, “Birds of Passage”
Denmark, “The Guilty”
Germany, “Never Look Away”
Japan, “Shoplifters”
Kazakhstan, “Ayka”
Lebanon, “Capernaum”
Mexico, “Roma”
Poland, “Cold War”
South Korea, “Burning”
Though most of this year’s acclaimed foreign films, like “Roma” and “Cold War,” made the cut, many expected Belgium’s “Girl” to at least appear on the shortlist: The film about a young dancer dealing with her gender transition, to be distributed by the deep-pocketed Netflix, won several prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. Still, many trans critics have spoken out against the film, which was made by a cisgender director and is, in their opinion, exploitative and dangerous. It’s telling that even though six of the foreign-language picks are decided by a group of Academy volunteers, and are then augmented by three picks chosen by an executive committee, none of those “saves” were spent on “Girl.”
Visual Effects
“Ant-Man and the Wasp”
“Avengers: Infinity War”
“Black Panther”
“Christopher Robin”
“First Man”
“Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom”
“Mary Poppins Returns”
“Ready Player One”
“Solo: A Star Wars Story”
“Welcome to Marwen”
One of this season’s primary questions is whether “Black Panther” can nab Marvel its first best picture nomination, but the visual effects category, which has proved far more hospitable to superhero movies, has three Marvel entries at the top of its shortlist. Still, “Aquaman” failed to make the cut, and this winter’s “Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald” missed out, too. Another snub: “Paddington 2” was one of the most acclaimed films of the year, but the visual-effects branch, which failed to nominate this computer-generated bear the first time, remained unmoved.
Makeup and Hairstyling
“Black Panther”
“Bohemian Rhapsody”
“Border”
“Mary Queen of Scots”
“Stan & Ollie”
“Suspiria”
“Vice”
The makeup and hairstyling branch were somewhat more discerning when it came to superhero entries: Only “Black Panther” made the list, and the countless characters of “Avengers: Infinity War” received a shrug. Voters were more taken with Rami Malek’s fake Freddie Mercury teeth in “Bohemian Rhapsody” and Tilda Swinton’s gender-bending “Suspiria” transformation.
Documentary Feature
“Charm City”
“Communion”
“Crime + Punishment”
“Dark Money”
“The Distant Barking of Dogs”
“Free Solo”
“Hale County This Morning, This Evening”
“Minding the Gap”
“Of Fathers and Sons”
“On Her Shoulders”
“RBG”
“Shirkers”
“The Silence of Others”
“Three Identical Strangers”
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”
In a huge year for documentary film, all of the top-performing docs made the shortlist: “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” about Mister Rogers; the Ruth Bader Ginsburg doc “RBG”; the twisty “Three Identical Strangers”; and the stunningly filmed “Free Solo.” Still, voters found no place for the long-delayed Aretha Franklin documentary, “Amazing Grace,” or “Quincy,” about Quincy Jones, who has been hobnobbing at many of this year’s big award-season parties.
Original Song
“When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” from “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”
“Treasure” from “Beautiful Boy”
“All the Stars” from “Black Panther”
“Revelation” from “Boy Erased”
“Girl in The Movies” from “Dumplin’”
“We Won’t Move” from “The Hate U Give”
“The Place Where Lost Things Go” from “Mary Poppins Returns”
“Trip a Little Light Fantastic” from “Mary Poppins Returns”
“Keep Reachin’” from “Quincy”
“I’ll Fight” from “RBG”
“A Place Called Slaughter Race” from “Ralph Breaks the Internet”
“OYAHYTT” from “Sorry to Bother You”
“Shallow” from “A Star Is Born”
“Suspirium” from “Suspiria”
“The Big Unknown” from “Widows”
Though as many as two songs can be nominated from a single film, many music-driven movies only submit one, so as not to split votes. That’s an approach that appeared to work for “Shallow,” from “A Star is Born,” and “All the Stars,” from “Black Panther,” but it’s worth noting that “Mary Poppins Returns” submitted two songs and, at least at this point, got both of them in. I’m tickled, too, that both the Coup and Thom Yorke made the shortlist for contributions to “Sorry to Bother You” and “Suspiria,” respectively. Should Yorke be nominated, he’ll follow in the footsteps of his Radiohead bandmate Jonny Greenwood, nominated last year for composing the score for “Phantom Thread.”
Original Score
“Annihilation”
“Avengers: Infinity War”
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”
“Black Panther”
“BlacKkKlansman”
“Crazy Rich Asians”
“The Death of Stalin”
“Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald”
“First Man”
“If Beale Street Could Talk”
“Isle of Dogs”
“Mary Poppins Returns”
“A Quiet Place”
“Ready Player One”
“Vice”
Though I’m still steamed that Nicholas Britell’s gorgeous score for “If Beale Street Could Talk” failed to snag a Golden Globe nomination, at least the Academy hasn’t yet made the same mistake: It’s represented on the short list, alongside scores from “Black Panther” and “First Man.” Missing here was the soundtrack for “A Quiet Place,” which does a lot of that horror movie’s heavy lifting.
Among the other shortlists announced on Monday were the following:
Documentary Short Subject
“Black Sheep”
“End Game”
“Lifeboat”
“Los Comandos”
“My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes”
“A Night at the Garden”
“Period. End of Sentence.”
“’63 Boycott”
“Women of the Gulag”
“Zion”
Animated Short Film
“Age of Sail”
“Animal Behaviour”
“Bao”
“Bilby”
“Bird Karma”
“Late Afternoon”
“Lost & Found”
“One Small Step”
“Pépé le Morse”
“Weekends”
Live Action Short Film
“Caroline”
“Chuchotage”
“Detainment”
“Fauve”
“Icare”
“Marguerite”
“May Day”
“Mother”
“Skin”
“Wale”
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