4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films is all about letting the visuals do the talking.
4 Shots From 4 Films
The Star (1952, dir by Stuart Heisler)
The Oscar (1966, dir by Russell Rouse)
In & Out (1997, dir by Frank Oz)
Tropic Thunder (2008, dir by Ben Stiller)
I have to admit that I was tempted to be a little bit snarky in my review of the 1988 Best Picture nominee, The Accidental Tourist. I was going to say that The Accidental Tourist was a perfect example of a genre of film that has always been oddly popular with the Academy, the emotionally stunted man in New England learns to love again genre.
But, then I realized that I was wrong. The Accidental Tourist does not take place in New England. It takes place in Baltimore which may be located up north but which is technically considered to be part of the mid-Atlantic. But, even with that in mind, it was impossible for me to watch The Accidental Tourist without thinking of other New England-set Oscar nominees, such as Mystic River and Manchester By The Sea.
As for the film itself, it’s about a man whose depressing life would be unbearable to watch if not for the fact that everyone around him is so extremely eccentric. Macon Leary (William Hurt) is a travel writer. He’s writes books giving people advice on how best to behave while seeing the world. Throughout the film, we hear snippets of his prose. Macon warns people about overpacking. He warns them about arriving late at the airport. He warns them about not properly planning out their trip. He suggests that travelers bring a book to read but not too many books. And don’t bring magazines because they get wrinkled too easily. Now, to be honest, I liked most of Macon’s advice but then again, I’m OCD and I spend most of my time trying to make sure that everything I own is properly organized and can be equally divided.
A year ago, during a fast food robbery, Macon’s son was shot and killed. Withdrawing from the world, Macon barely reacts when his wife, Sarah (Kathleen Turner), leaves him. After breaking his leg while trying to convince his dog to climb down the stairs into the laundry room, Macon ends up moving in with his three siblings: autocratic Porter (David Ogden Stiers), slightly less autocratic Charles (Ed Begley, Jr.) and sweet but neurotic Rose (Amy Wright).
And so it goes. Even when his agent, Julian (Bill Pullman), starts to date Rose, Macon can’t bring himself to open up emotionally. Fortunately, Macon meets Muriel (Geena Davis), a quirky dog trainer. Though it takes a while, Muriel starts to pull Macon out of his shell. Soon, Macon is spending his nights over at her apartment and bonding with her sickly son.
(Why does every single mother in these type of movies have a sickly son? Just for once, couldn’t a single mother be portrayed as having a child who is well-adjusted, popular, and healthy?)
But, just when everything seems to be perfect, Macon’s phone rings. It’s Sarah and she wants to give their marriage another chance…
Just judging from the tone of this review, you’re probably thinking that I disliked The Accidental Tourist. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. While the film’s mix of grim reality and relentlessly quirky supporting character can be a bit overwhelming at first, the film works if you stick with it. That’s the thing — you have to stick with it. When William Hurt first stares at the camera with his dead eyes and starts to drone about the importance of not spending too much money while in Paris, it’s tempting to just give up. But, as the film progresses, it improves and so does Hurt’s performance. By the time he finally worked up the strength to hold Muriel’s son’s hand while walking the boy home from school, I had tears in my mismatched eyes.
The Accidental Tourist is low-key but rather sweet film. While the film centers around the performances of Hurt and Geena Davis (who won an Oscar for her work here), my favorite performances came from Bill Pullman and Amy Wright. I honestly would happily watch a film that was just about their characters.
The Accidental Tourist was nominated for Best Picture but lost to Rain Man.
In this scene, from the 1952 showbiz melodrama The Star, Bette Davis plays a faded film actress who has found the perfect drinking companion.
Interestingly enough, Bette Davis was nominated for an Oscar for getting drunk with Oscar.
Happy Oscar Sunday!
Today is an unofficial holiday among the humans. Today is the day that rich people give awards to other rich people and the whole world watches on TV!
Have a wonderful Oscar Sunday and be sure to remember: awards don’t make a film great. Greatness makes a film great!
Plus, how can you take any awards show seriously when there’s no category for Best Animal Performance? This year’s winner? Keanu the Kitten!
The Academy has spoken.
This year’s winner for Best Animal Actor!
Enjoy the Oscars on ABC at 7 eastern/4 pacific! And check back on the Shattered Lens for a whole day of Oscar-related stuff (and maybe some non-Oscar related stuff as well!)
Okay, here’s the moment that I’m sure you’ve all been looking forward to!
It’s time for me to make my Oscar predictions!
Yay! It’s good to see that everyone’s excited!
Here is who I think will win tomorrow night:
Best Picture — La La Land
Best Director — Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best Actor — Denzel Washington, Fences
Best Actress — Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
Best Supporting Actor — Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Best Supporting Actress — Viola Davis, Fences
Best Original Screenplay — Manchester By The Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay — Arrival
Best Animated Feature — Zootopia
Best Art Direction — La La Land
Best Cinematography — La La Land
Best Costume Design — La La Land
Best Editing — La La Land
Best Makeup — A Man Called Ove
Best Sound Mixing — La La Land
Best Sound Editing — Hacksaw Ridge
Best Visual Effects — The Jungle Book
Best Original Song — “City of Stars” from La La Land
Best Original Score — La La Land
Best Documentary Feature — 13th
Best Foreign Language Film — The Salesman
Best Animated Short — Pear and Cider Cigarettes
Best Documentary Short — The White Helmets
Best Live Action Short — Timecode
To be honest, the only prediction that I’m 100% comfortable making is that this year’s Oscar ceremony is probably going to be the most political one in history. Some people will love that. Some people will be outraged. Me, I just care about movies.
The Oscar air tomorrow on ABC, at 4 eastern and 7 pacific. I will be live tweeting the awards and, of course, we’ll be posting Oscar-related stuff here on the Shattered Lens all through Sunday!
Even Charles Foster Kane is excited!
And by the way, if you want get a head start on next year’s Oscars, why not check out my way too early predictions for January and February?
Enjoy!
The 1953 film Roman Holiday is one that I’ve watched quite a few times. If you know anything about the film and/or me, you won’t be surprised by that. I love Audrey Hepburn. I love Rome. I love romance. And I love bittersweet endings. And Roman Holiday has all four of those!
Speaking of Audrey Hepburn, I’ve shared this picture before but I’m going to share it again:
That is Audrey Hepburn, the morning after she won the Best Actress Oscar for Roman Holiday. Roman Holiday was Audrey Hepburn’s motion picture debut and it continues to hold up as one of the greatest film debuts of all time. Watching how easily she controls and dominates the screen in Roman Holiday, you would think that she had made over a 100 films previously.
The film tells a simple story, really. Audrey plays Ann, the crown princess of an unnamed country. Princess Ann is touring the world. The press is following her every move. Her royal handlers are carefully choreographing every event. Her ever-present bodyguards are always present to make sure that no one gets too close to her. In public, Ann is the epitome of royal discretion, smiling politely and always being careful to say exactly the right thing. But, in private, Ann is restless. Ann knows that she has never been allowed to see the real world and yearns to escape, if just for one night, and live a normal life. So far, her handlers have managed to keep her under control but then she arrives in Rome and…
…well, who can resist Rome?
Despite having been given a sedative earlier, Ann stays awake long enough to sneak out of her hotel room and see the enchanting Rome night life. Of course, the sedative does eventually kick in and she ends up falling asleep on a bench. It’s there that she’s discovered by an American, a cynical reporter named Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck). Not realizing who she is and, instead, assuming she’s just a tourist who has been overwhelmed by Rome, Joe allows her to spend the night at his apartment.
The next morning, Joe finds out who Ann actually is. Realizing that getting an exclusive interview with Ann could be his ticket to the big time, Joe and his photographer, Irving (Eddie Albert), rush back to Joe’s apartment. Joe doesn’t tell her that he’s a reporter. He just offers to take her on a tour of Rome. Ann, however, wants to experience Rome on her own.
What follows is a wonderful and romantic travelogue of the glory of Rome. Though Ann does explore on her own for a while, she eventually does meet back up with Joe and Irving. Whenever I watch Roman Holiday, I always try to put myself in the shoes of someone in 1953, sitting in the audience during the film’s first week of release. For many of them, this film may have been their first chance to ever see Rome. (The opening credits of Roman Holiday proudly announce that the entire film was shot on location, properly acknowledging the Rome is as much a star of this film as Hepburn, Peck, and Albert.) If you’re not already in love with Rome (and I fell in love with the city — and really, the entire country of Italy — the summer after I graduated high school), you will be after watching Roman Holiday.
(If you truly want to have a wonderful double feature, follow-up Roman Holiday with La Dolce Vita.)
The film’s most famous scene occurs at the Mouth of Truth and… well, just watch…
This scene was improvised, on the spot, by Gregory Peck. Audrey Hepburn’s scream was very much real as Peck didn’t tell her what he was planning on doing. As great as this scene is, it’s even better after you’ve actually been to Rome and put your own hand in the Mouth of Truth.
It’s a very sweet movie, one that stands as both a tribute to romance but also proof of what pure movie star charisma can accomplish. It’s not just that Audrey Hepburn gives a great performance as Princess Ann. It’s that Gregory Peck gives one of his most natural and surprisingly playful performance as well. It’s that Peck and Hepburn have an amazing chemistry. By the end of the film, you know that they deserve Rome and Rome deserves them.
And then there’s that ending, that bittersweet ending that always brings tears my mismatched eyes. It’s a sad (though not depressing) little ending but somehow, it’s also the only ending that would work.
Roman Holiday was nominated for best picture but it lost to From Here To Eternity.
That’s right — Roman Holiday and From Here To Eternity were released one after another.
1953 was a very good year.
Well, it’s that time again!
Every month this year, I am updating my predictions for which films and performers will be nominated for Oscars in 2018. At this point in the year, this is largely an academic exercise. The nominees below are a mix of wild guesses, instinctual feeling, and wishful thinking. Usually, a clear picture of the Oscar race doesn’t start to form until October at the earliest. (Last year, at this time, nobody had even heard of Moonlight or Hell or High Water.) In other words, take these predictions with a grain of salt.
This update is heavily influenced by what happened at the Sundance Film Festival last month. In fact, it’s probably a bit too influenced by Sundance. If these predictions turned out to be 100% correct, the 2018 Oscars would be the Sundance Oscars. That said, it seems that there’s always a few successful Oscar campaigns that start during Sundance. (And then there’s always a few Sundance sensations that totally fizzle during awards season. Birth of a Nation, anyone? Or perhaps The End of the Tour.) But, as of right now, Sundance is pretty much the only thing that we have to go on, as far as future Oscar contenders are concerned.
Again, take all of this with a grain of salt. Just because I may brag about knowing what I’m talking about, that doesn’t necessarily mean that I do.
Check out January’s predictions here!
And without further ado…
Mudbound
Best Picture
Battle of the Sexes
The Beguiled
The Big Sick
Call Me By Your Name
Darkest Hour
Downsizing
Dunkirk
The big additions here are Mudbound, The Big Sick, and Call Me By Your Name, all three of which got a lot of attention and acclaim at Sundance. Both Mudbound and Call Me By Your Name are already being mentioned, by some Oscar bloggers, as possible winners for best picture. The Big Sick may seem like more of a dark horse but, from what I’ve read, it sounds like the sort of movie that could emerge as a surprise contender. With its Muslim protagonist and its mix of comedy and drama, it sounds like it could catch the cultural zeitgeist.
Dropping from the list: T2, All Eyez On Me, and War Machine. T2 has gotten good but not great reviews in the UK. As for All Eyez on Me and War Machine — well, it’s just a feeling I have. Both of them could be good but it’s easier to imagine a scenario in which they’re both disappointments.
Best Director
Luca Guadagnino for Call Me By Your Name
Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk
Alexander Payne for Downsizing
Dee Rees for Mudbound
Denis Villeneuve for Blade Runner 2047
Guadagnino and Rees are new contenders. Rees would be the first black woman ever nominated for best director.
Best Actor
Chadwick Boseman in Marshall
Timothée Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name
Tom Cruise in American Made
Kumail Nanjiani in The Big Sick
Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour
I’m a little bit iffy on Chadwick Boseman. In Marshall, he will be playing Thurgood Marshall, which sounds like a good, Oscar baity role. But Marshall itself sounds like a rather standard biopic. Timothee Chalamet and, especially, Kumail Nanjiani received a lot of Sundance acclaim. The fact that Nanjiani has been outspoken in his opposition to Trump’s travel ban will probably help his chances.
Sundance was also responsible for Logan Lerman falling off this list. Sidney Hall got terrible reviews.
Best Actress
Judi Dench in Victoria and Abdul
Danielle MacDonald in Patti Cake$
Carey Mulligan in Mudbound
Lois Smith in Marjorie Prime
Emma Stone in Battle of the Sexes
Among the new additions, Danielle MacDonald was one of the break-out stars at Sundance. Carey Mulligan is due to get another nomination (and Mudbound is expected to be a major Oscar contender). As for Lois Smith, she’s a respected veteran actress who gets to play a rare lead role in Marjorie Prime. So, why not a nomination?
Best Supporting Actor
James Franco in The Masterpiece
Armie Hammer in Call Me By Your Name
Jason Mitchell in Mudbound
Bill Skarsgard in It
Michael Stuhlbarg in Call Me By Your Name
I’m continuing to predict a nomination for James Franco and yes, it probably is just wishful thinking on my part. But dammit, I just like the idea of Franco getting a nomination for playing Tommy Wiseau.
Skarsgard is probably wishful thinking as well. If It works, it will be because of Skarsgard’s performance as Pennywise.
Finally, Hammer, Mitchell, and Stuhlbarg are our Sundance nominees. Many people think that all three are overdue for some Academy recognition. (There’s some debate over whether Hammer should go supporting or lead for Call Me By Your Name. I’m going to assume that he’s going to pull a Viola Davis and go supporting.)
Best Supporting Actress
Mary J. Blige in Mudbound
Holly Hunter in The Big Sick
Melissa Leo in Novitiate
Kristin Scott Thomas in Darkest Hour
Tilda Swinton in War Machine
As always, this is the most difficult category to predict. Blige, Hunter, and Leo are all Sundance nominees. (Hunter is especially said to be award-worthy in her Big Sick role.) For the second month in a row, Scott Thomas and Swinton are listed more because of who they are than any other reason.
The Big Sick
Okay, I’ve had plenty of time to think about today’s Oscar nominations and now I’m ready to share my thoughts. Obviously, my picks were a lot different from what the Academy selected. That’s okay. That’s the way it goes every year. I don’t mind being a contrarian.
So, let’s take a look at what was nominated, category-by-category.
(If you need a refresher as to what was nominated, here’s a complete list of nominees!)
Best Live Action Short, Best Animated Short, Best Documentary Short: I’m sure that these three categories are full of wonderful nominees that were created by wonderful people but I don’t believe that I’ve seen a single one of them. So, with that in mind, I can only imagine that the Academy did a perfect job selecting all 15 of these nominees! Good work, Academy!
Best Foreign Language Film: Again, I have seen none of the nominees so I really can’t comment one way or another. Normally, this would make me feel like a failure but I imagine that 90% of the people reading this post are in the same boat. I imagine Toni Erdmann will win, just because of all the good things I’ve read about it. But, since I haven’t actually seen any of the nominees, I will refrain from making any sort of prediction.
Best Documentary Feature: I’m disappointed that my favorite documentary, The Witness, was not nominated. And, quite frankly, I’m shocked that Weiner was not nominated. That said, I can’t complain about any of the documentaries that actually were nominated. It was a good year for documentaries. In fact, it could be argued that it was a better year for documentaries than for features.
Should Win: O.J.: Made in America
Will Win: 13th
Best Original Song: Not a single song from Sing Street was nominated and that is amazingly disappointing. Original song can be surprising. Remember last year when that terrible song from SPECTRE somehow won? That said, I’m expecting that this year will see a huge sweep by La La Land and one of its nominated songs will probably win.
Should Win: Audition (The Fools Who Can Dream) from La La Land
Will Win: City of Stars from La La Land
Best Original Score: The Neon Demon deserved a nomination but I’m not surprised it was snubbed. There’s no way the Academy was going to honor Nicholas Winding Refn’s subversive masterpiece. La La Land is going to win this one easily.
Should Win: La La Land
Will Win: La La Land
Best Visual Effects: I was glad to see that Kubo and the Two Strings was nominated and I wish that Arrival had been nominated as well. I’m going to go ahead and predict that Doctor Strange will be the first MCU film to win an Oscar.
Should Win: Doctor Strange
Will Win: Doctor Strange
Best Sound Editing and Best Sound Mixing: Let’s be honest. I couldn’t explain the difference between sound editing and sound mixing and, unless you specifically work in the sound department, neither could you. As a result, these categories are always difficult to predict. But Hacksaw Ridge has to get some love somewhere and I bet it would happen here if not for La La Land.
Should Win (Both): Hacksaw Ridge
Will Win (Both): La La Land
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: As soon as I saw that Deadpool wasn’t nominated here, I knew it wouldn’t be nominated anywhere. Can you believe that fucking Suicide Squad is now an Oscar nominee? I haven’t seen A Man Called Ove but I’m going to predict its victory because I just can’t imagine the Academy honoring either Star Trek Beyond or Suicide Squad.
Should Win: Star Trek Beyond (that had good makeup in it, right?)
Will Win: A Man Called Ove
Best Film Editing: I can’t complain about any of the films nominated here. La La Land is pretty much a guaranteed winner here.
Should Win: La La Land
Will Win: La La Land
Best Costume Design: I was shocked that Love & Friendship was not nominated. If La La Land sweeps, it’ll win here. When I made out my list of my personal picks for the Oscars, I gave the costuming Oscar to La La Land but now that I’m looking at the actual nominees, I’m remembering just how good everyone looked in Allied.
Should Win: Allied
Will Win: La La Land
Best Cinematography: My personal pick for this award was The Neon Demon but it wasn’t nominated. Out of the nominated films, I would go with Moonlight but I think La La Land is going to sweep.
Should Win: Moonlight
Will Win: La La Land
Best Production Design: Well, it won’t be Passengers! How the Hell did that get nominated for anything? I think, of the nominees, Arrival deserves the award for making science fiction feel and look like science fact. But, again, I think La La Land is going to win here. (Are you sensing a theme in my predictions?)
Should Win: Arrival
Will Win: La La Land
Best Animated Feature: I was happy that Kubo and the Two Strings, Zootopia, and Moana were all nominated. I haven’t seen The Red Turtle or My Life as a Zucchini but, on the whole, the Academy has a record of nominating the right films for this award. I loved Kubo and I think it might win, just because it picked up that Visual Effects nomination as well. Zootopia, however, would allow the Academy to make a political point and Moana has Lin-Manuel Miranda. I’m going to go out on a limb and predict a Kubo victory but I wouldn’t be surprised if any of these five nominees won.
Should Win: Kubo and the Two Strings
Will Win: Zootopia Kubo and the Two Strings Moana Zootopia Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Adapted Screenplay: With La La Land likely to sweep the technical awards and Manchester By The Sea and Moonlight set to pick up some acting awards, this category will give the Academy a chance to acknowledge Arrival.
Should Win: Arrival
Will Win: Arrival
Best Original Screenplay: I think this is one of the few awards that La La Land will not win. This category gives the Academy a chance to honor Hell or High Water.
Should Win: Hell or High Water
Will Win: Hell or High Water
Best Supporting Actress: Viola Davis is a guaranteed winner, even though her performance was a lead role.
Should Win: Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Will Win: Viola Davis, Fences
Best Supporting Actor: I was really happy to see that Michael Shannon got a nomination because Shannon is a great actor who always seems to be taken for granted. That said, Mahershala Ali is almost as much of a lock as Viola Davis.
Should Win: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Will Win: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight
Best Actress: Let’s just get this out of the way. Amy Adams not only deserved a nomination, she also deserved the Oscar. Arrival works because of a twist that occurs halfway through the film. The twist works because of Amy Adams’s performance. If not for Amy Adams, Arrival would never have been nominated for best picture. The fact that she was not nominated will be remembered as one of the biggest mistakes in Academy history.
This morning, I was happy to see that a lot of people on twitter agreed with me about the Amy Adams snub. What took me by surprise was how many people also agreed with me that Meryl Streep essentially took a spot that should have been given to Amy Adams. This morning, among other things, I discovered that there’s actually a growing backlash against the annual tradition of automatically nominating Meryl Streep, regardless of whether the film was any good or not.
Could Meryl win yet again? It depends on whether or not the Academy wants to hear another Meryl Streep speech. Given the political climate, I wouldn’t discount that as a possibility. Since I’m on the subject and it’s possible that everyone stopped reading a few categories ago, I’m going to go ahead and admit my unpopular opinion. While I’m definitely not a fan of the new President, Meryl’s Golden Globe speech felt like almost a parody of upper class white liberalism. Listening to her, it was easy to imagine Meryl at a cocktail party, bragging about how she’s on a first name basis with her maid.
But, I’m in the minority as far as that opinion is concerned. The Industry loved Meryl’s speech and, after Donald Trump’s overreaction to it, giving an Oscar to Meryl and giving her a chance to repeat the speech on a much bigger stage would be the perfect way to give the finger to the current administration.
That said, I think Emma Stone will be carried along in the La La Land sweep. Whether justified or not, many members of the Academy will look at her character and see themselves.
Should Win: Amy Adams in Arrival (Yes, she wasn’t nominated but she should still win, goddammit.)
Will Win: Emma Stone in La La Land
Best Actor: Could anyone other than Casey Affleck win this one? Denzel Washington is popular and giving him an Oscar for Fences would be a nice to way to reward all of the effort that he put into bringing this acclaimed play to the screen. Affleck was sued for sexual harassment by a producer and a cinematogrpaher and ended up settling with both of them. However, I doubt if it will stop him from winning the Oscar. If the allegations were going to hurt Affleck’s chances, it would have happened long before now.
As for the nominees — well, I have no complaints. While I wasn’t as impressed with Affleck’s performance as some, I think he did well enough. I would have liked to have seen either Sully‘s Tom Hanks or Hell or High Water‘s Chris Pine nominated. I’m glad that Andrew Garfield picked up his first nomination.
Should Win: Denzel Washington, Fences
Will Win: Casey Affleck, Manchester By The Sea
Best Director: I’m going to go out on a limb and predict a minor upset. I think La La Land is going to win in a lot of categories but I think that Moonlight‘s Barry Jenkins will win this Oscar. Best Picture and Director have been split fairly regularly over the past few years and, after both the #OscarsSoWhite controversy and the 2016 presidential election, it may be felt that it’s time for a black director to finally win the Oscar. Based on the skill shown in Whiplash and La La Land, Damien Chazelle will have other opportunities.
Should Win: Denis Villeneuve, Arrival
Will Win: Barry Jenkins, Moonlight
Best Picture: Though I don’t necessarily think it was one of the best films of the year, I would have loved it if Deadpool had actually scored a nomination. It would have been an unexpected surprise and it would have shaken up a race that’s gotten rather predictable.
But no. Deadpool received no nominations and the expected films were nominated. Perhaps the only thing that could be considered surprising (though not that surprising) was that Martin Scorsese’s passion project, Silence, was not only snubbed for best picture but also only picked up one nomination. Passengers picked up more nominations that Martin Scorsese’s latest film. When it comes to total number of nominations, Silence is tired with Suicide Squad.
La La Land is going to win. It’s probably going to win nearly all 14 of the Oscars it has been nominated for. My pick for the best film of 2016 was American Honey. Of the nominees, I think Arrival is the one that deserves to win. But La La Land is an exuberant valentine to both the Academy and the industry.
La La Land‘s going to win.
Should Win: Arrival
Will Win: La La Land
Here are the Oscar nominations. La La Land tied Titanic’s record with 14 nominations and I’m going to predict right now that it’ll win nearly everything that it’s been nominated for. Amy Adams was totally snubbed. Meryl Streep was technically nominated for Florence Foster Jenkins but we all know it was actually for her Golden Globes speech.
I may have more to say about this later but until then, here are the noms:
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Animated Feature
Best Production Design
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Best Sound Mixing
Best Sound Editing
Best Visual Effects
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
Best Documentary Feature
Best Foreign Language Film
Best Live Action Short
Best Documentary Short
Best Animated Short Film
With the Oscar nominations due to be announced tomorrow, now is the time that the Shattered Lens indulges in a little something called, “What if Lisa had all the power.” Listed below are my personal Oscar nominations. Please note that these are not the films that I necessarily think will be nominated. The fact of the matter is that the many of them will not. Instead, these are the films that would be nominated if I was solely responsible for deciding the nominees this year. Winners are starred and listed in bold.
(You’ll also note that I’ve added four categories, all of which I believe the Academy should adopt — Best Voice-Over Performance, Best Casting, Best Stunt Work, and Best Overall Use Of Music In A Film.)
(Click on the links to see my nominations for 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, and 2010!)
Best Picture
Best Director
*Andrea Arnold for American Honey
Shane Black for The Nice Guys
Barry Jenkins for Moonlight
David MacKenzie for Hell or High Water
Nicholas Winding Refn for The Neon Demon
Denis Villeneuve for Arrival
Best Actor
Andrew Garfield in Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling in The Nice Guys
Tom Hanks in Sully
Chris Pine in Hell or High Water
Ryan Reynolds in Deadpool
*Denzel Washington in Fences
Best Actress
*Amy Adams in Arrival
Kate Beckinsale in Love & Friendship
Viola Davis in Fences
Sasha Lane in American Honey
Emma Stone in La La Land
Anya Taylor-Joy in The Witch
Best Supporting Actor
*Mahershala Ali in Moonlight
Tom Bennett in Love & Friendship
Jeff Bridges in Hell or High Water
Alden Ehrenreich in Hail Caesar!
John Goodman in 10 Cloverfield Lane
Patrick Stewart in Green Room
Best Supporting Actress
*Naomie Harris in Moonlight
Felicity Jones in A Monster Calls
Riley Keough in American Honey
Jena Malone in The Neon Demon
Helen Mirren in Eye in the Sky
Angourie Rice in The Nice Guys
Best Voice Over and/or Stop Motion Performance
Auli’i Cravalho in Moana
Ellen DeGeneres in Finding Dory
Ginnifer Goodwin in Zootopia
*Liam Neeson in A Monster Calls
Art Parkinson in Kubo and the Two Strings
Charlize Theron in Kubo and the Two Strings
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Animated Film
Best Documentary Feature
The Confessions of Thomas Quick
Best Casting
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Editing
Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Best Original Score
Best Original Song
*”Audition (The Fool Who Dreams)” from La La Land
“How Far I’ll Go” from Moana
“Waving Goodbye” from The Neon Demon
“I’m so Humble” from Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping
“Drive It Like You Stole It” from Sing Street
“Go Now” from Sing Street
Best Overall Use Of Music
Best Production Design
Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
Best Stunt Work
Best Visual Effects
Films Listed By Number of Nominations:
13 Nominations — La La Land
1o Nominations — Hell or High Water
9 Nominations — Moonlight, The Neon Demon
8 Nominations — American Honey, Arrival, Kubo and the Two Strings, A Monster Calls
6 Nominations — The Nice Guys
5 Nominations — Deadpool, Love & Friendship
4 Nominations — Captain America: Civil War, Hacksaw Ridge, Hail Caesar!, Moana, Sully
3 Nominations — Doctor Strange, Green Room, Sing Street
2 Nominations — The Conjuring 2, Everybody Wants Some!!, Fences, Finding Dory, The Jungle Book, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Witch, Zootopia
1 Nomination — The Confessions of Thomas Quick, Don’t Breathe, Eye in the Sky, Holy Hell, Jason Bourne, The Legend of Tarzan, O.J.: Made in America, Pop Star: Never Stop Never Stopping, Rigged 2016, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Sausage Party, The Secret Life of Pets, Weiner, The Witness
Films Listed By Number of Oscars Won:
4 Oscars — American Honey
3 Oscars — La La Land
2 Oscars — Arrival, Moonlight, The Neon Demon
1 Oscar — Deadpool, Doctor Strange, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Kubo and the Two Strings, Love & Friendship, A Monster Calls, Sully, 10 Cloverfield Lane, The Witness
Will the Academy agree with my predictions? Probably not but we’ll find out on Tuesday!
Through the Shattered Lens 