Ideal 2020 Academy Awards Nominees & Winners
As per always, this weekend’s Academy Awards are always more fun as a thought experiment than an actual reality.
Since this is the case, I like to go through every year and highlight my personal picks for who should’ve been nominated and won in the major categories (sans all that ugly award-season Hollywood politicking and weird acting category distinctions).
Of course, I too have my limitations (for example: I can’t stomach horror films so apologies to Midsommar and Us, which I’m told are quite swell), so I’m hardly claiming these picks to be definitive (for reference, here’s a list of every 2019 movie I saw).
With all that said, here’s my view of the award-worthy cinematic efforts of 2019:
(*=Oscar nominated | bold = winner)
Best Picture
Apollo 11
Booksmart
The Farewell
Little Women*
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood*
Parasite*
Toy Story 4
1917*
I assume that the old white Oscar voters didn’t bother seeing The Farewell, right? I can’t think of another reason why it’s not up for any awards considering it should be the type of movie these awards celebrate. Baffling. Similarly, Apollo 11 is just about perfect documentary filmmaking, but it’s not even nominated in the docs category. Did the fact that it’s about well-known history hurt it (due to lack of end-result drama)? That’s the only explanation.
As a comedy, Booksmart never stood a chance, but the cast of characters that occupy its world absolutely light up the screen. I think Toy Story 4 is being totally slept on because it’s not the best film in the franchise… but not being the best film in the franchise is still better than 95 percent of films out there.
Of the films actually in contention for Best Picture, I lean slightly in favor of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood over Parasite. While rewatching Once Upon…, it was astounding how many times I was struck with the thought, “Oh yes! This scene is coming up!” There are at least a dozen scenes that absolutely sing with edge of your seat drama, comedic flair, and virtuoso acting. While Parasite is excellent and certainly more culturally relevant, I can’t help but love the pure and artful cinematic fun of Once Upon….
Best Director
Bong Joon-ho (Parasite)*
Greta Gerwig (Little Women)
Olivia Wilde (Booksmart)
Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood)*
Sam Mendes (1917)*
While the actual Oscars continues to be women-free in this category, there are obviously more than a few that should be considered. While Gerwig rather obviously should’ve been nominated for the smooth grace she brought to re-telling an old story, people are really sleeping on the many moments of brilliant directing by Wilde. I’m not sure any sequence was a flawless as the stretch from Amy entering the pool through her fight with Molly. It’s so far beyond what you’d expect from a first-time filmmaker.
That said, there’s no knocking the top three betting favorites for Best Director: Mendes, Joon-ho, and Tarantino. Even if you don’t love 1917 the planning and vision to execute it all is marvelous. But in Once Upon a Time, Tarantino manages to get career-best performances from Pitt, Robbie, and arguably even DiCaprio while crafting scenes showcasing technical wizardry (the Lancer one-shot), joy (Tate in the theater), and tension (Spahn Ranch).
Best Actor
Brad Pitt (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood)*
Joaquin Phoenix (Joker)*
Leonardo DiCaprio (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood)*
Robert Pattinson (The Lighthouse)
Song Kang-ho (Parasite)
I just don’t think there’s anything supporting about Pitt’s role in Once Upon…. His Cliff Booth might be supporting Rick Dalton (DiCaprio — who I think should win Best Actor among the actual nominees) in the actual story, but on screen that we watch they’re equals who each get their shine. He’s a co-lead. Booth seems like the role Pitt was born to play, oozing charisma and dangerous charm.
Phoenix carries Joker, but it’s not the best portrayal of the character (see: Ledger, Heath) and he was better as a murderous man dealing with mental health issues in a cruel world in last year’s You Were Never Really Here. The Oscars aren’t too keen on nominating non-famous actors in non-English speaking roles, but Song Kang-ho certainly deserves the recognition. And Pattinson is at his haunted, mad best in The Lighthouse.
Best Actress
Awkwafina (The Farewell)
Charlize Theron (Bombshell)*
Mimosa Willamo (Aurora)
Renée Zellweger (Judy)*
Saoirse Ronan (Little Women)*
It’s a discouraging year for the Best Actress category. After breaking out in Crazy Rich Asians, Awkwafina deserves credit for nailing a role that’s leagues more nuanced in The Farewell. My favorite deep cut film of the year is the Finnish film Aurora — a tale of a young go-nowhere party girl who tries to help a Iranian refugee find a wife to secure his citizenship — and the main reasons are the cinematography (we’ll get to that shortly) and the captivating titular performance by Mimosa Willamo.
Out of the three nominees that crossover the Oscar’s list and my own, I’d lean towards Ronan’s Jo in Little Women. There’s just more depth of character to she has to convey compared to the other two. Ronan manages to capture Jo’s range of youthful exuberance, crushing sorrow, feminine defiance, and all the blurry emotions in between without missing a beat.
Best Supporting Actor
Jonathan Majors (The Last Black Man in San Francisco)
Shia LaBeouf (Honey Boy)
Timothée Chalamet (Little Women)
Tom Hanks (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood)*
Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse)
Sorry, olds. There were just better acting performances than those in The Irishmen and The Two Popes (and again, I consider Pitt to be a co-lead in Once Upon…). Jonathan Majors is the slightly off-kilter emotional bedrock of The Last Black Man in San Francisco. Shia LaBeouf went big by playing his own dad in Honey Boy, yet it doesn’t seem forced. Dafoe is at his crazed best in The Lighthouse, you have to fear his insanity for the movie to work at all.
Amongst the pack, Chalamet rises to the top for the subtleties of his portrayal of Laurie in Little Women. Sure, he’s grand being a petulant little rich boy, but there’s so much wonderfully detailed physicality to the performance: infatuated eye-darting, sympathetic gazing, aloof slouches, et al. It’s a characterization that need to be both difficult and charming for the interplay between Jo and Amy to fully blossom.
Best Supporting Actress
Billie Lourd (Booksmart)
Margot Robbie (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood)
Laura Dern (Little Women)
So-dam Park (Parasite)
Zhao Shuzhen (The Farewell)
The Academy’s Best Supporting Actress category this year is an absolute mess. Dern in Marriage Story is the single worst acting I saw all year — just like the much of the rest of the film the performance came off as totally fake. And it’s a lock to win. Dern is 1,000 times better in Little Women, making it all the more dumbfounding. Furthermore, Robbie is also nominated for the wrong film. She’s fine in Bombshell, but she’s astounding as Sharon Tate in Once Upon…. She is the emotional core of the film. Without us caring about her through moments like the pure magical glee she gets watching an audience watch her movie, the impending events wouldn’t hit.
The trickster coyote that is Billie Lourd’s Gigi is my single favorite character of the year thanks to her addled mysticism. So-dam Park is another overlooked Parasite acting highlight (Jessica, only child, Illinois Chicago… forever).
But with all that said, this is Zhao Shuzhen’s category. Her hilarity, stubbornness, and heart transcends language barriers to become The Farewell’s driving force. The viewer has to care as much about Nai Nai as Awkwafina’s Billi does in order for the film’s conflict to resonate, and Shuzhen aces the part.
Best Cinematography
Arsen Sarkisiants (Aurora)
Adam Newport-Berra (The Last Black Man in San Francisco)
Robert Richardson (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood)*
Roger Deakins (1917)*
Hong Kyung-pyo (Parasite)
If you take one thing from this write-up, it should probably be: Seek out Aurora. (*whispers* It’s streaming on Amazon Prime at the moment.) All these films are beautiful in their own way, but there are just a few stunning shots in Aurora (like Aurora hanging out of a car window) that I are burned into my brain in the best way possible.
Best Original Screenplay
Bong Joon-ho & Han Joon-ho (Parasite)*
Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, & Katie Silberman (Booksmart)
Lulu Wang (The Farewell)
Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood)*
Rian Johnson (Knives Out)*
Knives Out is supremely clever; Booksmart is loaded with great characters; The Farewell shines a caring light on cultural differences while laughing and crying along the way; Once Upon a Time… is Tarantino at his most accessible. But Parasite manages to have layers upon layers of twists and turns while telling a tale of class struggle that resonates across cultures. It is simply a sublime story.
Best Adapted Screenplay
Andrew Stanton, John Lasseter, Martin Hynes, Will McCormack, Rashida Jones, Valerie LaPointe, & Stephany Folsom (Toy Story 4)
Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely (Avengers: Endgame)
Greta Gerwig & Louisa May Alcott (Little Women)*
Noah Harpster & Micah Fitzerman-Bluem (A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood)
Taika Waititi & Christine Leunens (Jojo Rabbit)*
So this category was rough this year. There aren’t even a dozen viable films worth a nomination, and I’m still not sure why The Farewell doesn’t count as an adapted screenplay considering there was a This American Life about it first (it’d be the winner if here if eligible). I don’t even adore Jojo Rabbit that much, and there are parts of A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’s script which absolutely do not work in my estimation (the dreamlike sequences near the end, to be specific). But that’s where we are.
I will say this: It’s rather insane to me that Joker might actually win this award (despite being totally hollow and having no real theme or take away message), while Avengers: Endgame is clearly the best comic book script of the year.
Do y’all realize the degree of difficulty Avengers: Endgame faced? It had to wrap up a decade-long cinematic arc featuring dozens of characters, and Markusand McFeely totally nailed it. Just compare the reaction — both among fans and critics — between Endgame and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. I waffled back and fourth between Little Women (an admittedly tremendous modern adaptation) and Endgame, but ultimately wrapping a bow on the main phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is simply more impressive given the circumstances.
