The biggest takeaway from this year’s Oscar nominations was a trend that began since the Academy began to diversify and expand its membership even before the #OscarsSoWhite controversy a few years ago. More films with cinephile and diverse subject matter are making the cut. There will always be room for a “Dunkirk,” “Darkest Hour” or “The Post” to get in, but that’s based on their prestige credentials more than anything else. In many ways, the likely current frontrunner, Guillermo del Toro’s “The Shape of Water,” checks off all those boxes in many respects. But, we’ve got a lot of time to dig into the “Shape” of the race as contenders try to avoid the slings and arrows of those trying to tear them down. In fact, we’ve got an extra week to ponder all of this because of the annual Winter Olympics delay. Exciting, huh?
2018 Oscars: Snubs and Surprises
Keeping all that in mind, let’s take a few minutes to review the 90th Academy Awards nominations by considering them in a Best and Worst context, shall we?
Best: Christopher Plummer comes through
Despite the Mark Wahlberg and Michelle Williams pay discrepancy controversy it appears the Acting Branch was still impressed enough with their co-star’s last minute contribution to “All The Money in the World” to reward him for it. And, let’s be clear, Plummer’s nomination was well deserved. He’s the best performance in the film and that’s not even taking into account he had just a week’s notice and 10 days to film his scenes. And at 88-years-old he’s one of the oldest acting nominees ever.
Best: Oscars didn’t F it up with Jordan Peele and Greta Gerwig
Listen, history will say that Sean Baker (“The Florida Project”) and Luca Guadagnino (“Call Me By Your Name”) were historic snubs in this category, but the Academy’s directing branch did the right thing rewarding the efforts of Peele and Gerwig. Nothing would have been worse during the 90th Academy Awards than having either a worthy African-American or female director left off the list (although I’ll go to my grave saying Dee Reese, Patty Jenkins or Angelina Jolie were more worthy, but no one wants to hear that). The final five nominees had to be a huge “whew” from The Academy who would have faced a massive social media backlash if either of them hadn’t earned a nod.
Best: Focus Features has a moment
A perfect example of how the Academy Awards are a marathon and not a sprint is the impressive output of nominations for a resurgent Focus Features. Yes, Fox Searchlight dominated with 20 nominations, but Focus was right behind them with 14 thanks to six each for “Darkest Hour” and “Phantom Thread” and two additional for “Victoria & Abdul.” The fact both “Darkest Hour” and “Phantom Thread” each earned Best Picture nominations after many thought they didn’t have a chance after guild snubs showed that not only are Academy members their own beast, but you should never, ever give up until nomination voting is over.
Best: James Franco was never getting nominated anyway
Well, that’s a…relief? After the accusations of sexual harassment came out against Franco there was concern that because it dropped so late in the game (just a few days before the nomination voting deadline) that it would be slightly awkward to have him attend the telecast. While he managed to appear at the SAG Awards on Sunday night with little drama (he didn’t walk the red carpet) there was serious concern on how a nomination would reflect on the granddaddy of awards shows. Luckily, it didn’t matter. He wasn’t making the cut in any case.
Best: Diversity and inclusion wins
Where do we start? A female directing nominee (Greta Gerwig), an African American directing nominee (Jordan Peele), the first female cinematography nominee (Rachel Morrison), four PoC acting nominees (Denzel Washington, Octavia Spencer, Mary J. Blige, Daniel Kaluuya), four female screenplay nominees (Gerwig, Dee Rees, Vanessa Taylor, Emily V. Gordon), a film with a transgender lead actress was nominated for Foreign Language Film (“A Fantastic Woman”) and openly gay nominees everywhere (James Ivory, Luca Guadagnino, Benj Pasek, Scott Rudin, among others). Should the Academy be patting itself on the back? Not really. There are way too many “firsts” this year considering its the 90th Oscars, but it’s a certainly a positive sign for the future.
Worst: “The Florida Project” can’t make it to Fantasyland
As someone who selected Sean Baker’s masterpiece as my no. 1 movie of 2017 seeing it miss out on a Best Picture nomination was somewhat distressing. Willem Dafoe earned a Supporting Actor nod, but it turns out he’ll be representing the film on his own Oscar Sunday. The disappointment isn’t just over recognition of a fantastic film, but the fact without that top honor it’s highly unlikely a larger audience will ever see it (the domestic box office currently stands at just $5.5 million and it never went wider than 229 theaters). Did The Academy and industry simply reject the movie? The Spirits and Gothams certainly heralded it. Was A24 distracted by “Lady Bird” and “The Disaster Artist” and take a nod for granted for too long? You can armchair quarterback it and say that’s the case, but any judgement is clearly speculation. Whatever the case, at least we’ll always have this iconic Brooklynn Prince moment.
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