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Good evening and welcome to the Academy Awards live blog and prediction post. I’m your host yeah right. Yeah I’m pulling double duty today but what the fuck ever. It’s Oscar time! 

Yes, I do love the Oscars and I watch every year. Live as it airs even! I’ll be watching along with whoever else is watching tonight.

I feel I’ve got a pretty good handle on this year’s awards having seen almost all of the nominated films, Missed the documentaries and shorts and a few foreign language films but I have the biggies covered.

Now we’ll break down the categories and I’ll give a quick highlight or two and venture a guess as we go along.

My predictions will be in BOLD

To the categories!

 

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

NOMINEES

BRADLEY COOPER
Maestro

COLMAN DOMINGO
Rustin

PAUL GIAMATTI
The Holdovers

CILLIAN MURPHY
Oppenheimer

JEFFREY WRIGHT
American Fiction

Bradley Cooper was solid, he basically turned into Bernstein and the scene of him conducting Mahler’s 2nd was fucking stunning. Colman Domingo was outstanding in Rustin. I had never heard of him prior to this movie. Just excellent. Giamatti was his usual self. Played a solid drunk

 Cillian Murphy was good but he left me a little cold.

Jeffrey Wright deserves this damn award and I hope he gets it because both his role and the film are the best I’ve seen in some time.

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

NOMINEES

STERLING K. BROWN
American Fiction

ROBERT DE NIRO
Killers of the Flower Moon

ROBERT DOWNEY JR.
Oppenheimer

RYAN GOSLING
Barbie

MARK RUFFALO
Poor Things

Sterling K Brown was dynamite in American Fiction, DeNiro was better than he has been in a bit but Oppenheimer has too damn much mojo working right now.

Mark Ruffalo will have to console himself with the fact that he got to pretend bang Emma Stone. 

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

NOMINEES

ANNETTE BENING
Nyad

LILY GLADSTONE
Killers of the Flower Moon

SANDRA HÜLLER
Anatomy of a Fall

CAREY MULLIGAN
Maestro

EMMA STONE
Poor Things

Lily Gladstone was a revelation. For those of us who’ve seen Reservation Dogs we had a little glimpse of her potential prior to this but this award is hers and she deserves it. Annette Bening got nominated because she got into Crossfit. Sandra Hüller was damn good too.

Emma Stone? Girl? Emily baby! You won an Oscar being cute and singing and dancing in Lala Land and you’re jonesing so hard for another that your going to flaunt all your lady bits? Not that I’m complaining mind you. She was damn good too.

 

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

NOMINEES

EMILY BLUNT
Oppenheimer

DANIELLE BROOKS
The Color Purple

AMERICA FERRERA
Barbie

JODIE FOSTER
Nyad

DA’VINE JOY RANDOLPH
The Holdovers

Going for an upset here but Da’vine Randolph was wonderful in The Holdovers. Jodie Foster got nominated because she did Crossfit with Annette Bening

 

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

NOMINEES

THE BOY AND THE HERON
Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki

ELEMENTAL
Peter Sohn and Denise Ream

NIMONA
Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary

ROBOT DREAMS
Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz

SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE
Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal

No idea on this one having seen exactly none but littlest right dug Spider-Man so there.

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

NOMINEES

EL CONDE
Edward Lachman

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Rodrigo Prieto

MAESTRO
Matthew Libatique

OPPENHEIMER
Hoyte van Hoytema

POOR THINGS
Robbie Ryan

Here comes the Oppenheimer train rolling down the goddamn track. Killers of the Flower Moon could easily win this as well.

The vision and “eye” of Poor Things was incredible. Very bold and Tim Burton like. 

 

COSTUME DESIGN

NOMINEES

BARBIE
Jacqueline Durran

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Jacqueline West

NAPOLEON
Janty Yates and Dave Crossman

OPPENHEIMER
Ellen Mirojnick

POOR THINGS
Holly Waddington

It’s got to be “Barbie” right? I think it gets its only win here.

 

DIRECTING

NOMINEES

ANATOMY OF A FALL
Justine Triet

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Martin Scorsese

OPPENHEIMER
Christopher Nolan

POOR THINGS
Yorgos Lanthimos

THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Jonathan Glazer

Come up and get your hardware Nolan. Jonathan Glazer will get his one day but not for Zone of Interest. Yikes that was a tricky watch.

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

NOMINEES

BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE’S PRESIDENT
Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek

THE ETERNAL MEMORY
Maite Alberdi

FOUR DAUGHTERS
Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha

TO KILL A TIGER
Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL
Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath

Haven’t seen any of these but this pick feels right.

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM

NOMINEES

THE ABCS OF BOOK BANNING
Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic

THE BARBER OF LITTLE ROCK
John Hoffman and Christine Turner

ISLAND IN BETWEEN
S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien

THE LAST REPAIR SHOP
Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers

NǍI NAI & WÀI PÓ
Sean Wang and Sam Davis

See previous comment.

 

FILM EDITING

NOMINEES

ANATOMY OF A FALL
Laurent Sénéchal

THE HOLDOVERS
Kevin Tent

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Thelma Schoonmaker

OPPENHEIMER
Jennifer Lame

POOR THINGS
Yorgos Mavropsaridis

Thelma Schoonmaker has been working with Marty for 50 fucking years and she definitely knows what the fuck she’s doing. For the record this was my second favorite film of the year.

 

INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

NOMINEES

IO CAPITANO
Italy

PERFECT DAYS
Japan

SOCIETY OF THE SNOW
Spain

THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE
Germany

THE ZONE OF INTEREST
United Kingdom

Random observation; any time a film is up for best picture and best foreign film, it never wins best picture but almost always wins best foreign film. That’s my logic and I’m sticking with it. Society of the Snow was very well done and was the only other “International” film I watched besides The Zone of Interest.

 

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

NOMINEES

GOLDA

Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue

MAESTRO

Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell

OPPENHEIMER
Luisa Abel

POOR THINGS
Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston

SOCIETY OF THE SNOW
Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé

Formatting got a bit fucked up there but I think Poor Things gets its win for this. 

 

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

NOMINEES

AMERICAN FICTION
Laura Karpman

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY
John Williams

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Robbie Robertson

OPPENHEIMER
Ludwig Göransson

POOR THINGS
Jerskin Fendrix

Sentimental award here since Robbie Robertson passed away right after finishing the score and just prior to the movie release. It’s earned though, the score was fucking incredible.

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

NOMINEES

THE FIRE INSIDE
from Flamin’ Hot; Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

I’M JUST KEN
from Barbie; Music and Lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt

IT NEVER WENT AWAY
from American Symphony; Music and Lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson

WAHZHAZHE (A SONG FOR MY PEOPLE)
from Killers of the Flower Moon; Music and Lyric by Scott George

WHAT WAS I MADE FOR?
from Barbie; Music and Lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell

Basic rule of thumb? Never bet against Billie Eilish.

SOUND

NOMINEES

THE CREATOR
Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic

MAESTRO
Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor

OPPENHEIMER
Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin O’Connell

THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn

Slight upset here but the sound for Maestro was basically the selling point wasn’t it? Zone of Interest also has a strong chance because the background sounds were basically the reason the film got here.

 

VISUAL EFFECTS

NOMINEES

THE CREATOR
Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould

GODZILLA MINUS ONE
Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 3
Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and Theo Bialek

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – DEAD RECKONING PART ONE
Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil Corbould

NAPOLEON
Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco and Neil Corbould

Pure conjecture on my part having seen not a damn one of these films.

 

WRITING (ADAPTED SCREENPLAY)

NOMINEES

AMERICAN FICTION
Written for the screen by Cord Jefferson

BARBIE
Written by Greta Gerwig & Noah Baumbach

OPPENHEIMER
Written for the screen by Christopher Nolan

POOR THINGS
Screenplay by Tony McNamara

THE ZONE OF INTEREST
Written by Jonathan Glazer

Have you seen American Fiction? Watch American Fiction!

 

WRITING (ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY)

NOMINEES

ANATOMY OF A FALL
Screenplay – Justine Triet and Arthur Harari

THE HOLDOVERS
Written by David Hemingson

MAESTRO
Written by Bradley Cooper & Josh Singer

MAY DECEMBER
Screenplay by Samy Burch; Story by Samy Burch & Alex Mechanik

PAST LIVES
Written by Celine Song

Strictly a hunch here. Past Lives was a wonderful film.

 

BEST PICTURE

NOMINEES

AMERICAN FICTION
Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and Jermaine Johnson, Producers

ANATOMY OF A FALL
Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion, Producers

BARBIE
David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, Producers

THE HOLDOVERS
Mark Johnson, Producer

KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON
Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and Daniel Lupi, Producers

MAESTRO
Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger, Producers

OPPENHEIMER
Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan, Producers

PAST LIVES
David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, Producers

POOR THINGS
Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, Producers

THE ZONE OF INTEREST
James Wilson, Producer

 

If I’m ranking this list in the order of my favorite movies this year it would be:

American Fiction. Just watch this ok?

Killers of the Flower Moon. A bit lengthy but very well done. Beautiful, horrible and a great soundtrack. 

Poor Things. See above about Emma Stone’s lady bits also this will be one of the most quoted and memed movies ever. Just watch. 

The Holdovers. Nothing world shaking but a really solid heartfelt film. Great cast and solid acting. *just read the plagiarism thing and “woof” if that’s true*

Oppenheimer. No disrespect, it was gorgeous to behold but the characters were cold and they could have trimmed the “hearings” element down by a good 45 minutes. 

Past Lives. A terrific watch. You may get a little teary eyed.

Barbie. I thought it was fun and clever but I could see how some folks just wouldn’t get it. 

Maestro. I very much enjoyed this movie but it wasn’t a big audience film. Felt like it existed for one scene. 

The Zone of Interest. Creepy as fuck. Disturbing. Very well shot and directed. Unsettling. You probably won’t share the fact that you watched it. Unique take on a hard subject. 

Anatomy of a Fall. Very good film. Beautiful location. Great filmmaking. Just not that compelling of a story. 

 

Now let’s watch the program and see how we all did. 

Where’s my bougie pinot noir?