Oscars 2022

VoR

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I know we have the awards season thread, but I'm making unusually good headway on watching the nominated films this year and I'd like a space to chat about the ones that probably won't get much traction as individual threads.

Just finished Flee (Best Animated Feature, Best Documentary Feature, Best International Feature) - a lovely Danish animated documentary, hence the unusual triple whammy of cross-genre nominations.

Harrowing in places but ultimately really beautiful and quietly hopeful. I appreciated that it reckoned with some of the more grey areas around the subject's story, without ever losing sympathy for him. Also, a handful of Nordic pop classics get deployed to truly :disco: effect.

 
I recommend Affairs Of The Art as the best Animated Short. Unfortunately it seems to have disappeared from YouTube. Either way, it’s head and shoulders above the rest.
 
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Just watched The Hand of God, which is the Italian nominee for Best International. It was kind of a tonally bizarre mess, I couldn't tell if the family were absurd caricatures or if that's just what Italians are like. Some decent moments and some lovely performances, but on the whole I was whelmed.

 
Now that I've seen the main categories in full I'm ready to rank.

Best Picture

1. Licorice Pizza
2. Drive My Car
3. CODA
4. Belfast
5. Dune
6. West Side Story
7. The Power of the Dog
8. King Richard
9. Nightmare Alley
10. Don't Look Up

Nothing I hated here! The bottom 3 are some distance below the top 7 though.

Best Actor

1. Andrew Garfield (Tick Tick Boom)
2. Will Smith (King Richard)
3. Benedict Cumberbatch (The Power of the Dog)
4. Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of MacBeth)
5. Javier Bardem (Being The Ricardos)

A weak category, this. Fine with Smith winning, though it was really just more of the same. Only Garfield truly impressed me. Javier Bardem was actively bad.

Best Actress

1. Jessica Chastain (The Eyes of Tammy Faye)
2. Olivia Colman (The Lost Daughter)
3. Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers)
4. Nicole Kidman (Being The Ricardos)
5. Kristen Stewart (Spencer)

Not a bad category, but not a lineup for the ages either. Chastain was a riot and also totally inhabited the character. Colman and Cruz were great in flawed movies. Kidman was fine but I still think fundamentally miscast. Stewart was OK but it was a weak film and the one where I most felt the ACTING happening.

Best Supporting Actor

1. Troy Kotsur (CODA)
2. Ciaran Hinds (Belfast)
3. Kodi Smit-McPhee (The Power of the Dog)
4. Jessie Plemons (The Power of the Dog)
5. JK Simmons (Being The Ricardos)

Troy Kotsur should walk this one, although my sentimental Irish side secretly roots for Ciaran Hinds. The Power of the Dog actors were both fine, JK Simmons is one of those stupid 'he won a few years ago so let's just nominate him for anything to make up the numbers' things.

Best Supporting Actress

1. Ariane De Bose (West Side Story)
2. Aunjanue Ellis (King Richard)
3. Kirsten Dunst (The Power of The Dog)
4. Judi Dench (Belfast)
5. Jessie Buckley (The Lost Daughter)

DeBose by a mile here, what an absolute star turn. Ellis was very good in King Richard and she's one of those consistently reliable character actresses who is always nice to see getting a profile boost. I didn't quite see in Dunst what everybody else seems to have but she was fine. Dench's nom is ridic, and Jessie Buckley's should have gone to either Dakota Johnson or Dagmara Domińczyk, both of whom were far more interesting in the same film.

Best Director

1. Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza)
2. Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car)
3. Jane Campion (The Power of the Dog)
4. Steven Spielberg (West Side Story)
5. Kenneth Branagh (Belfast)
 
I was thinking of doing the same. Still got 3 International Features to see and unfortunately some of the shorts are still unavailable.

ALL of your acting rankings pretty much match mine! :o
 
The Documentary Feature category is great this year - Writing With Fire is phenomenal.

The shorts not so much.
 
The Documentary Feature category is great this year - Writing With Fire is phenomenal.

The shorts not so much.

Just finished all the documentaries. I agree, all very good in different ways.

The one I just finished was Ascension, which explores aspects of modern China in a way that I found so beguiling.

 
A few more rankings after a productive weekend

Best International Feature

1. The Worst Person In The World
2. Flee
3. Drive My Car
4. Lunana
5. The Hand of God

The top three all great. Lunana was fairly low-impact but sweet. Hand of God I just didn't gel with at all.

Best Live Action Short

1. Ala Kaachuu - Take & Run
2. On My Mind
3. Please Hold
4. The Long Goodbye
5. The Dress

Take & Run was *wonderful* and I really hope it wins. I would have happily watched two hours of it. On My Mind was also very good. Please Hold was decent but very Black Mirror lite. The Long Goodbye was just a bit too short and bleak to really do much for me. The Dress was an interesting little low-stakes character study for the first 20 minutes but completely turned me off with a needlessly cruel ending that I absolutely hated. Shame.

Best Animated Short

1. Bestia
2. Boxballet
3. Affairs of the Art
4. Robin Robin
5. The Windshield Wiper

Bestia was absolute nightmare fuel :D but really interestingly made and distinctive. Boxballet was quite sweet, and Affairs of the Art was mildly entertaining. Robin Robin was a pretty run-of-the-mill kids film that didn't particularly impress me, The Windshield Wiper was instantly forgettable. Not the strongest category TBH.
 
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I guess we’ll switch to this thread for the ceremony tomorrow

Here’s my ranking of the nominated movies I watched

 
A few more rankings after a productive weekend

Best International Feature

1. The Worst Person In The World
2. Flee
3. Drive My Car
4. Lunana
5. The Hand of God

The top three all great. Lunana was fairly low-impact but sweet. Hand of God I just didn't gel with at all.

Best Live Action Short

1. Ala Kaachuu - Take & Run
2. On My Mind
3. Please Hold
4. The Long Goodbye
5. The Dress

Take & Run was *wonderful* and I really hope it wins. I would have happily watched two hours of it. On My Mind was also very good. Please Hold was decent but very Black Mirror lite. The Long Goodbye was just a bit too short and bleak to really do much for me. The Dress was an interesting little low-stakes character study for the first 20 minutes but completely turned me off with a needlessly cruel ending that I absolutely hated. Shame.

Best Animated Short

1. Bestia
2. Boxballet
3. Affairs of the Art
4. Robin Robin
5. The Windshield Wiper

Bestia was absolute nightmare fuel :D but really interestingly made and distinctive. Boxballet was quite sweet, and Affairs of the Art was mildly entertaining. Robin Robin was a pretty run-of-the-mill kids film that didn't particularly impress me, The Windshield Wiper was instantly forgettable. Not the strongest category TBH.

I really enjoyed Lunana, such a warm movie (and those kids melted my heart). I couldn’t be bothered with Hand of God.

I don’t usually do shorts but I would like to watch Bestia. I hope it gets picked up by some streaming service.
 
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Hand Of God is so, so good. Much warmer than The Great Beauty and somewhat slighter too, but I didn't hold that against it. That said, my international ranking would be:

1. Worst Person In The World (I'd LOVE this to get Original Screenplay tonight)
2. Flee
3. The Hand Of God
4. Drive My Car
5. Yak

That said, the Top 4 are all incredibly fine and up with my favourites of the year across everything.
 
Hand Of God is so, so good. Much warmer than The Great Beauty and somewhat slighter too, but I didn't hold that against it. That said, my international ranking would be:

1. Worst Person In The World (I'd LOVE this to get Original Screenplay tonight)
2. Flee
3. The Hand Of God
4. Drive My Car
5. Yak

That said, the Top 4 are all incredibly fine and up with my favourites of the year across everything.
Swap your 1 & 2, but otherwise, same.
 
They're ridiculously close for me, I'd be happy with either to be honest. Not that Drive My Car is going to lose it anyway.
I’m not quite so sure. I know the Honest Oscar ballots are such a small portion of the voters (and some of the comments have been utterly ludicrous), but they’ve all been praising The Worst Person In The World and Flee. I think I only saw one say anything positive about Drive My Car.
 
I’m not quite so sure. I know the Honest Oscar ballots are such a small portion of the voters (and some of the comments have been utterly ludicrous), but they’ve all been praising The Worst Person In The World and Flee. I think I only saw one say anything positive about Drive My Car.
Interesting. Any divergence from a DMC vote would be split between the two others though, rather than there being a single challenger to coalesce around, so I still think it'll be DMC. And if you're voting for one of the main contenders in Best Picture, DMC would probably get your vote here.

How are you feeling about Best Actress?
 
@VoR WHERE did you find Take And Run and The Dress? I can’t find them anywhere.

Both available to rent on VIMEO




Have you had any luck with When We Were Bullies? That's the only one I still can't find...
 
Both available to rent on VIMEO




Have you had any luck with When We Were Bullies? That's the only one I still can't find...
THANK YOU!

When We Were Bullies was added to YouTube a few weeks ago. It must have disappeared. Some of the others were briefly on there two but for a very limited time.

When We Were Bullies was dreadful anyway.
 
Interesting. Any divergence from a DMC vote would be split between the two others though, rather than there being a single challenger to coalesce around, so I still think it'll be DMC. And if you're voting for one of the main contenders in Best Picture, DMC would probably get your vote here.

How are you feeling about Best Actress?

There’s so much talk of a potential Penelope Cruz surprise upset, which I would be all for! But still have my money on Chastain.
 
I'm so pleased Kidman has drifted on Actress. I love her but I still maintain that she was badly miscast as Lucille Ball.
 
I really hope Penélope clinches it. Nicole hasn't done any of the events so even she feels like she's out.

Jessica Chastain would be a classic career win rather than for the part itself, but I couldn't deny she's earned that. It does very much feels like her "moment".
 
This Honest Oscar ballot was mostly ridiculous but this comment on West Side Story had me howling :D

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Best Picture

WILL: CODA
WANT: The Power Of The Dog

Best Actor

WILL: Will Smith
WANT: Andrew Garfield

Best Actress

WILL: Jessica Chastain
WANT: Penélope Cruz

Best Supporting Actor

WILL: Troy Kotsur
WANT: Kodi Smith-McPhee

Best Supporting Actress

WILL: Ariane De Bose
WANT: Ariane De Bose

Best Director

WILL: Jane Campion
WANT: Jane Campion

Best Original Screenplay

WILL: Don’t Look Up
WANT: The Worst Person In The World

Best Adapted Screenplay

WILL: CODA
WANT: Drive My Car

Best International Feature

WILL: Drive My Car
WANT: The Worst Person In The World

Best Animated Feature

WILL: Encanto
WANT: Flee

Best Documentary Feature

WILL: Summer Of Soul
WANT: Flee

Best Score

WILL: Dune
WANT: The Power Of The Dog

Best Sound

WILL: Dune
WANT: Dune

Best Production Design

WILL: Dune
WANT: Dune

Best Cinematography

WILL: The Power Of The Dog
WANT: Dune

Best Hair & Make-up

WILL: The Eyes Of Tammy Faye
WANT: Dune

Best Costume Design

WILL: Cruella
WANT: Cyrano

Best Editing

WILL: King Richard
WANT: Tick Tick Boom

Best Visual Effects

WILL: Dune
WANT: Dune

Best Song (cancel this ridiculous category please)

WILL: No Time To Die
WANT: No Time To Die

Oscars Fan Favourite

WILL: :zombie:
WANT: :manson:

Oscars Cheer Moment

WILL: :evil:
WANT: :bruised:
 
Just played all the Best Song contenders.

Fucking hell, why are we still nominating Dianne Warren for the EXACT SAME (CRAP) SONG every single year? :zombie:
 
Everyone seems to be hitting it out of the park tonight

 
He’s usually not for me but this is pretty hot
 
Brandon Maxwell on the ABC red carpet is a disaster
 


This is the opposite of festive
 
Dune looks to be cleaning the technical categories
 

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