The 93rd Academy Awards

Posted by: Edo in Blog April 21, 2021 1 Comment

The 93rd Academy Awards are almost upon us!

This will actually be the first Covid-affected Oscars as last year’s event happened just before it all went to shit and in fact many people agree Parasite winning Best Picture was the last good thing that happened in 2020 before the rest of the year descended into an absolute dumpster fire.

This year’s ceremony will be emanating from the Dolby Theatre in LA. The Academy have gone to great lengths to make it known that this won’t be a “Zoom meeting” awards ceremony and there will in fact be actors and stars in attendance, without a mask requirement. Delaying the ceremony from the usual February time period to April has paid off as over 180 million Americans have now been vaccinated against the virus and therefore its actually possible to host an event that somewhat resembles the usual fanfare.

For the third year in a row there is no host, just an assortment of presenters including Bong Joon-Ho, Halle Berry, Brad Pitt and Laura Dern. The show is being produced by Steven Soderbergh (!), Jesse Collins and Stacey Sher. They have said this year’s event will be shot “like a movie”, whatever that means.

The Academy also expanded the eligibility criteria for this year’s event so it’s not just Invisible Man and Sonic the Hedgehog competing for Best Picture. In fact, I’ve watched all eight Best Picture nominated films as well as a handful of other films that are contenders in the other categories and let me tell you that the last twelve months were actually pretty goddamn great when it came to movies. Trial of the Chicago 7, Promising Young Woman, The Father, Minari. These are all fantastic films, with terrific performances and interesting stories to tell, most of which I don’t feel are like the traditional “award season” fare. Interestingly, Mank leads the pack this year with ten nominees, but it’s my least favourite Best Picture contender.

In terms of films that I thought were snubbed, I’m disappointed not to see One Night In Miami and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom not get recognized in the Best Picture category. Especially since they can have up to ten Best Picture nominations and they only opted to use eight. Those two films are worth your time and easy to track down on Netflix and Amazon Prime. Delroy Lindo also deserved a Best Actor nom from Da 5 Bloods.

Anyway, with that said, here are my predictions for the 93rd Academy Awards.

Predictions

BEST PICTURE

Nominees: The Father, Minari, Nomadland, Trial of the Chicago 7, Judas and the Black Messiah, Mank, Sound of Metal, Promising Young Woman

Who Should Win

It’s honestly one of my favourite line up of Best Picture nominees in years. It’s not quite 1995 (Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump, Four Weddings and a Funeral) but four of these films are great, three are really great and one’s alright.

The Father and Sound of Metal are wonderful films but I think they deserve recognition in the Best Actor categories for Anthony Hopkins and Riz Ahemd’s performances. Promising Young Woman has a fantastic premise and is well executed, if a little rough around the edges. Trial of the Chicago 7 is just a super enjoyable courtroom drama with an awesome ensemble cast that are a joy to watch.

The standouts for me this year are Minari and Nomadland. Both are sublime cinematic productions, with great performances and memorable scenes. I personally connected more directly with Minari, Lee Isaac Chung’s family drama about a Korean-American family that move from California to the Ozarks to start a farm. I don’t think in my heart of hearts that its going to win the award, but it’s definitely my pony in this race.

Minari

Who Will Win

Following the trends at the award shows preceding the Academy Awards, I believe Nomadland is in the frame to win this one. It would be yet another milestone victory at the Oscars, given that it is directed by Chloe Zhao, the first Asian woman to even land a nomination for Best Director.

Nomadland‘s biggest competition is Mank, David Fincher’s polished and well reviewed drama about the uncredited original screenwriter of Citizen Kane. I think its by far the safest and most conventional film in the category, but the fact that it leads the race this year with ten nominations total, means its appeal to the Academy voters can’t be discounted. After last years shock win for Parasite though, I feel safer making the call that Nomadland wins the big one.

Nomadland

BEST DIRECTOR

Nominees: Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round), David Fincher (Mank), Chloe Zhao (Nomadland), Emerald Fennell (Promising Young Woman), Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)

Who Should Win

There’s some weird nominations in this category, man. I’m not sure how Vinterberg and Fennell got on this shortlist at the expense of Regina King (One Night In Miami) or George C.Wolfe (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom). For that matter, who did Aaron Sorkin (Trial of the Chicago 7) piss off to not get a nomination?

As is the case in most years, my thoughts and opinions on who deserves Best Picture is heavily tied to who should get Best Director. Chung and Zhao are both more than worthy winners in this category but I know that Frances McDormand approached Chloe Zhao to get involved with Nomadland whereas Minari is a straight up labour of love for Chung who conceptualized, wrote and directed his film.

Lee Isaac Chung

Who Will Win

I didn’t think a year after Bong Joon-Ho won Best Director that we’d be looking at back-to-back Asian winners but here we are.

Fincher is a very good chance to win this award. The academy loves movies about Hollywood itself. The origins of the film (written by Fincher’s late father Jack) make for a nice “feel good” story. I wouldn’t be totally surprised if he wins. But I’d be even more surprised if Chloe Zhao doesn’t get the goods. Nomadland is just such a beautifully made, skillfully crafted cinematic experience. All the momentum is on Zhao’s side here.

Chloe Zhao

BEST ACTOR

Nominees: Riz Ahmed (Sound of Metal), Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Anthony Hopkins (The Father), Gary Oldman (Mank), Steven Yeun (Minari)

Who Should Win

This category is tough. There are some absolutely incredible performances in this line up.

The two stand outs for me are Riz Ahmed and Anthony Hopkins. Ahmed plays Ruben, a drummer in a metal band who starts to lose his hearing. Ahmed is a man who clearly takes his craft seriously as he learned sign language and how to play the drums for the role. It’s worth it because the performance he delivers is absorbing, complex and nothing less than totally convincing. I didn’t really know much about Sound of Metal before I watched it but I was blown away thanks to Riz Ahmed. It’s a film that deserves a wider audience.

Hopkins is another incredible story. He has nothing left to prove at 83 years of age, having already won a Best Actor Oscar for Silence of the Lambs. Yet his performance in The Father, of an elderly man succumbing to dementia, is so extraordinary and masterful, I think it’s gotta be him. In a career flush with legendary performances, this might actually be one of his very best. It’s an emotionally draining film to watch but you absolutely should because he’s so damn good at what he does.

Anthony Hopkins

Who Will Win

Cancer fucking sucks. Like everyone else, I felt totally blindsided and devastated when we lost Chadwick Boseman who had privately been battling colon cancer whilst making a name for himself worldwide as the Marvel superhero Black Panther.

Boseman was a talented actor but I suspect most people didn’t fully appreciate just how good he could be in a more serious role, when he wasn’t donning the superhero tights. Ma Rainey is a fantastic showcase for his talents and I have no qualms with Boseman picking up the sentimental send-off Oscar win for this performance.

Chadwick Boseman

BEST ACTRESS

Nominees: Viola Davis (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom), Andra Day (United States vs Billie Holiday), Frances McDormand (Nomadland), Carey Mulligan (Promising Young Woman), Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman)

Who Should Win

I haven’t seen as many films in this category as I would like with both United States vs Billie Holiday and Pieces of a Woman on my watchlist still.

Viola Davis delivered one of my favourite performances this year in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. She is tough as nails, pissed off, powerful and takes absolutely no shit from anyone, least of all the crooked recording studio producers that she sees straight through. It was a film that I initially mistook to set up Ma as an out-of-touch diva who gets bamboozled by Chadwick Boseman’s smooth talking trumpeter Levee, but Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom didn’t exactly unfold the way I expected and it was all the better for it.

I can’t see Davis winning this category but holy cow was it a great performance.

Viola Davis

Who Will Win

What an absolute force of nature Frances McDormand is. I’ve loved her ever since her debut performance in the Coen Brother’s neo-noir classic Blood Simple. She made us root for her as Marge Gundersson in Fargo. Then lately she put her name back up in lights all over again in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.

In Nomadland, McDormand plays the role of Fern, a homeless woman living out of her van who lives through hardship, heartache and grief. It’s a subtle but impressive performance, and almost certainly will win her the Best Actress award. It’s the closest thing to a sure thing on this night.

Frances McDormand

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Nominees: Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah), Leslie Odom Jr (One Night In Miami), Paul Raci (Sound of Metal), LaKeith Stanfield (Judas and the Black Messiah)

Who Should Win

Someone stuffed up somewhere because apparently the Academy nominated both Judas (Stanfield) and the Black Messiah (Kaluuya) for a Best Supporting Oscar. Who’s the lead in the movie then???

Sacha Baron Cohen’s performance as the disruptive activist Abbie Hoffman absolutely rules and is one of the most flat out entertaining performances I’ve seen. If I’m honest though, I actually like Frank Langella and Mark Rylance’s performances from the same film even better.

Leslie Odom Jr, of Hamilton fame, is fantastic as Sam Cooke in One Night in Miami. He closes out the film with an incredible rendition of “A Change Is Gonna Come” that has had me listening to hours of Sam Cooke records ever since.

I’ve seen every performance on this nomination list, they’re all worthy, but I gotta tip the hat to Leslie Odom Jr.

Leslie Odom Jr

Who Will Win

I dunno hey. This is a tricky category to pick since I expect the night to mostly be the “Mank and Nomadland show” and they’re not represented in this category.

I’ve flipped a coin, rolled some dice, drew straws and decided it’ll be Sacha Baron Cohen. In ordinary circumstances I think Kaluuya would get it but I think his chances are hurt by Stanfield also being nominated and splitting the vote for people who liked Judas and the Black Messiah.

Sacha Baron Cohen

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Nominees: Maria Bakalova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm), Glenn Close (Hillbilly Elegy), Amanda Seyfried (Mank), Youn Yuh-jung (Minari), Olivia Coleman (The Father)

Who Should Win

What the hell is Maria Bakalova doing on this list? Why is Glenn Close here? I think they could have done a way better job with the nominations.

Olivia Coleman is brilliant as the patient and compassionate daughter dealing with a father in the final stages of dementia in The Father. I would be delighted to see her get the award.

My personal favourite however would be Youn Yuh-jung’s enormously entertaining and sweet performance as the cantankerous grandmother in Minari who swears, watches pro wrestling and teaches her grandson how to win at cards. A hilarious but also sweet-natured and heart-warming performance.

Youn Yuh-jung

Who Will Win

Mank did nothing for me personally but clearly the Academy loves it and I think Amanda Seyfried is a lock here. I’ve been a fan ever since Mean Girls and she seems really passionate about her work so I can’t begrudge her winning this Oscar.

Amanda Seyfried

QUICK PICKS

Original Screenplay

Judas and the Black Messiah – Will Berson and Shaka King
Minari – Lee Isaac Chung
Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell
Sound of Metal – Abraham Marder and Darius Marder
The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Aaron Sorkin

Adapted Screenplay

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm – Screenplay by Sacha Baron Cohen, Peter Baynham, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Erica Rivinoja and Dan Swimer
The Father – Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller
Nomadland – Chloé Zhao
One Night in Miami… – Kemp Powers
The White Tiger – Ramin Bahrani

Cinematography

Judas and the Black Messiah – Sean Bobbitt
Mank – Erik Messerschmidt
News of the World – Dariusz Wolski
Nomadland – Joshua James Richards
The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Phedon Papamichael

International Feature Film

Another Round (Denmark) – Thomas Vinterberg
Better Days (Hong Kong) – Derek Tsang
Collective (Romania) – Alexander Nanau
The Man Who Sold His Skin (Tunisia) – Kaouther Ben Hania
Quo Vadis, Aida? (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – directed by Jasmila Žbanić

Editing

The Father – Yorgos Lamprinos
Nomadland – Chloé Zhao
Promising Young Woman – Frédéric Thoraval
Sound of Metal – Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
The Trial of the Chicago 7 – Alan Baumgarten

Original Score

Da 5 Bloods – Terence Blanchard
Mank – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross
Minari – Emile Mosseri
News of the World – James Newton Howard
Soul – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste

Visual Effects

Love and Monsters
The Midnight Sky
Mulan
The One and Only Ivan
Tenet

Costume Design

Emma. – Alexandra Byrne
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – Ann Roth
Mank – Trish Summerville
Mulan – Bina Daigeler
Pinocchio – Massimo Cantini Parrini

Animated Feature

Onward
Over the Moon
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul
Wolfwalkers