Matt at the Movies: Oscar Reactions
The Academy Awards are one of the last true shared experiences. Matt breaks down this year's history-making nominees.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences unveiled their nominations for the 95th Academy Awards on March 12th.
Some films that made big noise on the awards circuit shone once again. Everything Everywhere All at Once garnered eleven nominations. The Banshees of Inisherin and All Quiet on the Western Front, which caught fire at the BAFTAs, each came away with nine. Blockbuster favorites like Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water jumped into the race for Best Picture as a nod to the larger audience. With the Academy filling all ten nomination slots, these two selections, along with Elvis, may bring in the more casual viewer.
We can’t have celebrities assault each other on stage every year!
Gut reactions, snubs, and surprises by the Academy are on the menu today. I’m going to cover Best Picture, the acting categories, and Best Director in this edition. We’ll save all other categories until the Oscar article which will tackle screenplays, technical awards, and predictions. There will be plenty of head scratching going on online along with celebrations for a successful but uneven year in film.
Keep in mind that nominees are selected each year by seventeen individual branches (guilds) - for example, directors nominate the Best Director nominees. The final awards themselves are selected by the entire voting body of over 9,000 Academy members, which increasingly diversified over the past decade.
Use this link to follow along with the full list of nominees from the official Academy website as we make our way through the categories. Let’s start with the biggest prize of them all, Best Picture.
Best Picture
ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT
Malte Grunert, Producer
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin and Martin McDonagh, Producers
ELVIS
Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Gail Berman, Patrick McCormick and Schuyler Weiss, Producers
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert and Jonathan Wang, Producers
THE FABELMANS
Kristie Macosko Krieger, Steven Spielberg and Tony Kushner, Producers
TÁR
Todd Field, Alexandra Milchan and Scott Lambert, Producers
TOP GUN: MAVERICK
Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer, Producers
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
Erik Hemmendorff and Philippe Bober, Producers
WOMEN TALKING
Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner and Frances McDormand, Producers
Gut Reaction: The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once have taken the lion’s share of awards so far. That probably won’t change, but dark horse Tár could surprise them all. The Best Picture category goes by preferential voting so if a film like Tár isn’t the first choice on most ballots, but consistently comes in at second or third, an upset could happen similar to CODA last year. CODA was a an underdog to Netflix’s Power of the Dog, but ended up taking home the statue.
Snubs: My biggest gripe was Aftersun losing out to Triangle of Sadness. Big Jim was always going to get the nod for Avatar: The Way of Water which while compelling visually, but felt like an absolute slog to get through. We knew Babylon was going to be divisive, but it struck out in all major performance categories to my dismay as a card carrying member of #BabylonHive. The Whale’s notable absence may dampen Brendan Fraser’s chances at a Best Actor win
Surprises: Women Talking just saw it’s wide release but Sarah Polley’s film, combined with the backing of Academy darling Frances McDormand, gave it enough of a push to join the dais. Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness made the final cut as well with a film that’s satirical look at classicism hit the right note with especially with foreign academy voters.
Best Director
THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN
Martin McDonagh
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert
THE FABELMANS
Steven Spielberg
TÁR
Todd Field
TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
Ruben Östlund
Gut Reaction: Steven Spielberg made a beautiful ode to his family with The Fabelmans that may not be his best work, but showcases his undeniable skill behind the camera. The Academy may reward his swan song to celebrate an extraordinary career.
Snubs: Where are the women? After two straight wins from Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog) and Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), women directors were shut out. Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) may have snuck in here. Otherwise, this is a stacked deck of directors with plenty of steam from the various guild award wins in the past month. My heart goes out to Damien Chazelle and Babylon. This film was an absolute spectacle and pulled off an incredible vision. I’m hoping he gets more chances to push the boundaries in the future.
Surprises: Ruben Östlund has been on the scene for years and raked in international awards for his work on Force Majeure (2014) and The Square (2017). His over the top look into the absurdness of higher society is always a delight, and I was happy to see him rewarded for this film. I did not have Todd Field penciled in for Tár but upon a recent rewatch I noticed the storytelling that lifts from having all eyes on the maestro Lydia to a pseudo-haunting ghost story. It was quite magnificent. All of these auteurs had a real story to tell this year.
Best Actor
AUSTIN BUTLER
Elvis
COLIN FARRELL
The Banshees of Inisherin
BRENDAN FRASER
The Whale
PAUL MESCAL
Aftersun
BILL NIGHY
Living
Gut Reaction: This is a three-horse race with Colin Farrell for Banshees, Austin Butler for Elvis, and Brendan Fraser for The Whale. Personally, I’m tired of biopic winners getting an automatic pass for subpar performances (looking at you, Rami Malek). Would love for Farrell or Fraser to bring this one home.
Snubs: This was an unsurprising slate of performers. What was lacking was Hae il Park for his starring role in Decision to Leave, which was inexplicably shut out of the nominations.
Surprises: My man! Paul Mescal has been incredible since I first saw him in the BBC/Hulu series Normal People. He was excellent in a small role in last year’s The Lost Daughter and this year’s independent film God’s Creatures. In Aftersun, he plays a single father struggling with many demons while trying to provide his daughter Sophie a fun holiday in the Mediterranean. He delivers a heart-wrenching and loving performance as an adult who’s lost his way.
Best Actress
CATE BLANCHETT
Tár
ANA DE ARMAS
Blonde
ANDREA RISEBOROUGH
To Leslie
MICHELLE WILLIAMS
The Fabelmans
MICHELLE YEOH
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Gut Reaction: This is a frustrating category this year, despite Michelle Yeoh’s history-making nomination. We have a “grassroots” campaign for Andrea Riseborough (I hope you can see me making air quotes at my keyboard), category fraud with Michelle Williams, and a nomination for Ana de Armas’s portrayal of Marilyn Monroe in Blonde, one of the most hated films of the year (and up for multiple Razzies). Cate Blanchett should win her third Oscar for her work in Tár, even with heavy weight given to Yeoh’s wonderful performance in Everything Everywhere All at Once.
Snubs: Black leads such as Viola Davis in The Woman King lost out to Riseborough’s last minute online push. This isn’t to disparage Riseborough, because campaigning has always been part of the nominating politics. However this “organic” trek includes tweets and screenings from everyone such as Ed Norton to Gwyneth Paltrow. Her co-star in the film To Leslie is Marc Maron who’s WTF Podcast is one of the largest mouthpieces in the country for plaudits.
If these shenanigans interest you I would recommend the insider Hollywood episode of The Town with Matthew Belloni to scratch the itch. Either way, it feels like a Hollywood Good ol' Boys Club gatekeeping over other deserving performances. The Academy is also looking into the nominating process over backlash received for the nod. I’m saddened by the Academy passing on Margot Robbie from Babylon, who is an absolute force on screen.
Surprises: Michelle Williams had an outside chance at the nomination playing a true-to-life version of Spielberg’s mother in The Fabelmas. It was thought her co-star Paul Dano might get the plaudits, but Williams received her fifth Oscar nod. It is still surprising it took the Academy this long to knowingly nominate an Asian woman for Best Actress; when Yeoh-led Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2001, it was shut out in every acting category.
Best Supporting Actor
BRENDAN GLEESON
The Banshees of Inisherin
BRIAN TYREE HENRY
Causeway
JUDD HIRSCH
The Fabelmans
BARRY KEOGHAN
The Banshees of Inisherin
KE HUY QUAN
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Gut Reaction: Vote splitting will likely doom the two nominees from The Banshees of Inisherin. That’s a shame since both Brendan Gleason and Barry Keoghan turned in beautiful, dry, and funny performances. Fresh off his Golden Globes victory, all the momentum seems to be going Ke Huy Quan’s way for Everything Everywhere All at Once. He delivers a heartwarming performance as the forgotten husband of Michelle Yeoh’s character. If he can give anything close to this speech again come March we’ll all be in for a treat.
Snubs: Paul Dano, as mentioned above, from The Fabelmans. His role as Spielberg’s father wasn’t very showy but was a level contrast to the chaotic nature of Michelle Williams’ performance. This was one of the lighter categories in terms of what should be nominated, so there don’t seem to be as many gripes.
Surprises: Judd Hirsch ended up with the nod for The Fabelmans over Dano. To me, he was the best part of the film and comes in like a lightning rod. His life as a performer on the road is the push that young Steven needs to pursue his love of film. Due to his career and age, I wouldn’t be surprised if this nomination becomes a sneaky dark horse win from the elder voting body. Brian Tyree Henry getting a nomination for Causeway was a great mulligan for being snubbed for If Beale Street Could Talk a few years back. He rules, go Brian!
Best Supporting Actress
ANGELA BASSETT
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
HONG CHAU
The Whale
KERRY CONDON
The Banshees of Inisherin
JAMIE LEE CURTIS
Everything Everywhere All at Once
STEPHANIE HSU
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Gut Reaction: Similar to the supporting actor category you’ll see a split with two actresses (Hsu and Curtis) in Everything Everywhere All at Once. Condon was my personal favorite for her dry wit in Banshees but momentum seems to point to Angela Bassett grabbing the Golden Globe for Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. This could be rarified air as only the third acting win for a comic book adaptation, joining Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight) and Joaquin Phoenix (Joker). If Bassett doesn’t win, it’s still the first acting nomination for the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Snubs: Very solid overall group, but the main omission to me was of Dolly De Leon who carried the third act of Triangle of Sadness. One may have felt that Carey Mulligan for She Said or any of the supporting actresses in Women Talking would have filled a spot here but fewcomplaints from me.
Surprises: Hong Chau was honestly better in The Menu than in The Whale but it was nice to see her name pop up; with her, Hsu, Yeoh, and Quan nominated, it was the first time Asian actors received four nominations from the Academy in one year. After a storied career, Jamie Lee Curtis receives her first nomination as a hard-ass hot dog finger wielding tax agent in Everything Everywhere All at Once. It was a fun role and it’s nice to see both her and co-star Stephanie Hsu recognized for the insanity that was this film.
Other Oscar notes:
Adapted Screenplay features two sequels in Glass Onion and Top Gun: Maverick. I’m not sure what everyone else was watching, but Maverick didn’t exactly blow me away with dialogue or story.
Original Screenplay is a murderer’s row. This category to me is like the ‘27 Yankees as each script was thoughtful, expansive, and had an excellent story to tell.
Bardo gets a lone shout out in Best Cinematography, but should yield to All Quiet on the Western Front. Was sad to see Top Gun: Maverick snubbed in this category as the practical shooting was both impressive and inventive. Roger Deakins also gets another nomination as he continues to be the straw that stirs Hollywood’s drink in this category.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed was my favorite selection for Best Documentary as an amazing story of artist Nan Goldin’s assault on the Sackler family, the wealthy pharmaceutical giants who profited off America's opioid crisis.
International Best Picture seems to lean towards All Quiet on the Western Front, which was an excellent war film even though it tailed slightly from the original text. I could not be more disappointed in the omission of South Korea’s entry Decision to Leave which was easily the most rewarding foreign film I’ve watched this year.
Guillermo del Toro’s stop-action remake of Pinocchio should garner Netflix a win for best animated feature. Many fans of Marcel the Shell with Shoes On hope otherwise.
Best Song may well end up getting RRR an award for their hit “Naatu Naatu”. A sneaky fun fact is that David Byrne was nominated for the song “This Is a life” from Everything Everywhere All at Once. Byrne, who was the front man of The Talking Heads, has already garnered a Tony and Grammy award. This win would get him 3/4 of an EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony) with just an Emmy left.
Overall a great slate for this year from the academy. While being disappointed by the exclusion of Babylon and Decision to Leave, there were many things to be content with, including Paul Mescal’s deserved Best Actor nomination. At that end of the day we’ll leave it to David Byrne in summation:
“We’re only tourists in this life
Only tourists but the view is nice…”