#(and that they think da'vine joy randolph is going to win the oscar for it)

[pinktinselmonstrosity]

wooooo i did it!!! i watched every film nominated for best picture and here are my final rankings. if i could rank maestro any lower than 10th i would

[dweemeister]

Instant reactions to the 96th Academy Awards

A rough night for me. But there have been rougher ones before. I imagine most of my comments put me in a very lonely minority, as has been apparent the last few months.

But here goes:

For all intents and purposes, yours truly was on the Killers of the Flower Moon train. An extraordinary crime epic from Scorsese, with astounding craftsmanship and fantastic performance from Lily Gladstone. More than what I previously believed possible, a major studio production went out of its way to make sure that its Indigenous American representation on-screen was as genuine as it could possibly be (still imperfect, as the film acknowledges, but what an effort). And yet, KOTFM goes 0/10. I've never had a favored Best Picture nominee be shut out in such a way before. And I'm not surprised at all by it. It was clear that non-American and non-Canadian audiences didn't get the context to the film (a criticism I understand, given the screenplay) and, in other quarters, folks thought it was too long (I admittedly have a higher tolerance for longer movies) and others have said something akin to the fact that they are getting tired over "racial guilt" movies from America. I'm not in the mood to respond to the last one. I think it deserved better tonight. I particularly think Lily Gladstone deserved better tonight.

Stat upheld: two non-white actresses have never won on the same night in Oscar history. History, in and of itself, was always against Gladstone.

Oppenheimer winning? Fine, I guess. It was my #4 choice of the ten Best Picture nominees. I guess Christopher Nolan was overdue, but I have always been a Nolan skeptic. The film certainly is his most humanistic, and I appreciate that. As for the narrative organization and editing trickery? It mostly serves to take me out of the movie. And I don't think Nolan truly understands what thematic film music can accomplish for his movies. I think RDJ should have had much more competition all season long, but he did not. Most people are gonna say this is the return of the Academy's favorite subgenre... the Great Man Biopic. But in composition and structure, Oppenheimer (and even Maestro) resembles very little of the past Great Man Biopics. It'll be interesting to see how history treats this movie.

I disliked Poor Things. I didn't care for its sense of humor, didn't agree with many folks' opinions that it was a magnum opus of female empowerment. I thought it was incredibly male gaze-y and troublingly sanitized its scenes of sex work. Jerskin Fendrix's score was unlistenable outside the context of the film and distracting within it. But it has four Academy Awards and people love this movie, so my opinion can go to heck?

Well done Da'Vine Joy Randolph for her win as Supporting Actress for The Holdovers. I truly hope this opens up a lot more new opportunities for her going for! Wonderful speech.

And speaking of wonderful speeches, both documentary winners got me very emotional. The Last Repair Shop is on YouTube for American and Canadian viewers, and it's simply wonderful. Perhaps the happiest I was all night long! And then came Mstyslav Chernov's speech after winning for 20 Days in Mariupol. Chernov had, arguably, the speech of the night. And I agree with him. I, too, wish he never had to make his film and that he never won this Oscar. But he did his job to document what happened in Mariupol. And for that he (and the Ukrainians suffering and dying in their war versus Russia) deserves our plaudits and support.

Once more, Hayao Miyazaki cannot be bothered to show up to an awards ceremony. It's hilarious! I would have voted Robot Dreams, but The Boy and the Heron is not a winner to sniff at. Spider-Verse will have one more shot.... whenever the third movie comes out?

Good lord, they selected the worst possible winner in Animated Short with War Is Over!. There's an unwritten rule that the Academy, among the fifteen nominated shorts, must select one which will piss me the hell off. And for the second straight year in Animated Short, they have done exactly that, choosing something akin to a soft drink commercial.

Billie Eilish and Finneas are now the youngest and second-youngest ever to win two Oscars, after Luise Rainer (Best Actress for 1936's The Great Ziegfeld and 1937's The Good Earth). That feels very, very weird. In both cases of this record.

The "I'm Just Ken" performance? Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (Like Ken)??? Busby Berkeley choreography? What do the kids say? Inject that straight into my veins? It was wonderful.

And speaking of nods to cinema history, I'm so glad they led off the stunt performers tribute with Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, and Harold Lloyd. :,)

And congratulations to Godzilla Minus One and its Best Visual Effects win! After seventy years, Godzilla is now an Oscar-winning franchise, and its win percentage is 100%! Simply wonderful!

I think the moral of the story is that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) has been gradually internationalizing over the last decade. And the results of that were very clear tonight. Does that mean I'm too provincial in my tastes? I don't know. But wins such as Emma Stone's, Anatomy of a Fall, The Boy and the Heron, and Godzilla are demonstrative of that.

I'm glad this season is over. I certainly hope that Killers of the Flower Moon will be looked upon more kindly by history and time, without the bells and whistles of awards campaigning and a fuller understanding of why it was made the way it was.

This month has been fun! But now it's time to see movies again without the lens of awards for a long, long while.

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

I hope this is okay to vent here but I hate the discussion around the oscar noms right now. Ww are crying and pissing and shitting abiut Margot not getting an oscar, but America Ferrera DID get nominated. Hell, even Lily Gladstone got nominated (who im actively rooting for) but its not a white fave so who cares right? /s

So my thing with oscars (beyond the anti blackness that very few Black actors get nominated or win when they deserve it ex Denzel and Angela) is that comedies are not the way to get a lead actor nom.

THAT SAID... my sister reminded me that Emma Stone won a lead oscar for lala land which is definitely a comedy/musical/drama.

But like... ok... I know I SHOULD be glad for America Ferrera because I've been a fan of hers since Real WOmen have curves... but like I don't think she should get it for Barbie? Especially with that shitty line that her character had about Barbieland being like the indigenous population of the new world and getting infected easily by the European diseases. WHich is some white feminist bullshit because the Europeans had a history of distributing disease ridden blankets to the indigenous people of the Americas. What's more there's a history of diseases being used like that in Europe going back to the Black plague where they'd through corpses over the walls of cities to infect them with the plague.

I'm sorry you didn't ask for this rant and its just me going off on a tangent but I'm gonna be really fucking sick to my stomach if America Ferrera gets the oscar over Danielle Brooks or Da'vine Joy Randolph.

It's just a shit show all around tbh but of course ytwomen are being characteristically selfish and only centering Margot when like last year JLC won over 2 women of color.

...I'm just so tired.

mod ali

[aliveandfullofjoy]

the big oscars question (other than who's gonna win best actress, visual effects, and live action short) is just how many awards is oppenheimer gonna win? i have it down for seven right now, which would tie eeaao last year as the biggest oscar haul since slumdog millionaire, but i feel like i might be underestimating it in some of the more toss-up categories.

it feels like at the very least seven is its basement -- picture, director, actor, supporting actor, cinematography, film editing, and score. any of those awards going to a movie not named oppenheimer is almost impossible to imagine at this point.

i have it firmly top two in sound, along with the zone of interest, which is clearly well-liked and has a unique and undeniable achievement. if the sweep is real, adapted screenplay is going to be the tell: american fiction has won basically everything it could have, and it overperformed with nominations, and it's a classic screenplay winner, and even in the 90s, movies like braveheart and titanic had no trouble losing screenplay and winning basically everything else. fiction is the one to beat, but if oppy wins, well. the night will get even more predictable than it already is lol.

i'm currently predicting (perhaps unwisely) that every best picture nominee (except past lives, sadly) wins at least one award: oppenheimer owns the night with those seven awards; the zone of interest is locked to win international feature and could win sound; the holdovers is represented by da'vine joy randolph's guaranteed win; poor things is looking good to win production design and/or costume design; barbie has song on lock; maestro could eke out a makeup win; killers of the flower moon could be spared a goose egg by lily gladstone; american fiction and anatomy of a fall are the frontrunners in the two screenplay categories. not only do i think all of those are extremely possible, it would be fun in a year with such an unstoppable best picture winner to still see the wealth be spread a little bit (and that doesn't even take into account whatever wins animated feature and visual effects, two categories with no crossover with best picture this year).

but maybe i'm underestimating just how crazy the industry is about oppenheimer! who knows.

[honeybumblebeebee]

oscar predictions:

best picture: oppenheimer all the way. it's been set that way since july last year. ofc i'd argue that barbie, kotfm, the holdovers, anatomie d'une chute and poor things deserve it just as much. and past lives!!

director: obviously nolan. with such an achievement AND years of movies behind him, it would be crazy not to give it to him. but i think it's a really good combo this year, any other year justine triet or yorgos would get it.

actor: obviously cillian murphy. i couldn't be more sure about this. he was incredible. but also paul giammati? andrew scott snubbed.

actress: this one is a tossup between emma stone and lily gladstone. me personally I don't reallyyy think lily did enough (EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS AMAZING) but they would get a lot of backlash for not giving it to her. emma would win every other year. also carey mulligan jesus. or sandra huller could come out of nowhere and get it. margot snubbed.

supporting actor: i think rdj will get it and he totally deserves it but god comedy roles never get recognised and ryan gosling was just so so good. also charles melton was snubbed

supporting actress: da'vine joy randolph all the way. i have no idea who else it could go to (stacked group this year though)

animated: i think it should go to spiderverse, but i think there is a fair chance it goes to boy and the heron too.

snubs: charles melton, greta gerwig, paul mescal, margot robbie, andrew scott, priscilla, saltburn (for cinematography especially), the iron claw, bottoms!!!, theater camp, asteroid city, all of us strangers in general

[love-little-lotte]

2024 OSCAR PREDICTIONS

Here I go again with my annual Oscars predictions that may or may not be accurate. Unfortunately, I haven't seen every nominee — my personal best was still last year with 50 out of 52 movies — but I think I still have seen enough to make, uh, proper predictions.

With that said, here's my predictions for the 2024 Academy Awards:

Best Picture: Oppenheimer

Best Director: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

Best Actor: 🩷Cillian Murphy🩷, Oppenheimer

Best Actress: 🩷Lily Gladstone🩷, Killers of the Flower Moon

Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer

Best Supporting Actress: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

Best Original Screenplay: Past Lives (PLEASE LET CELINE SONG WIN THIS CATEGORY)

Best Adapted Screenplay: American Fiction (very underrated but I like this film so much!)

Best Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (still haven't seen The Boy and The Heron, unfortunately, but Spider-Man is still very fun and well-liked)

Best International Feature Film: The Zone of Interest

Best Documentary Feature Film: 20 Days in Mariupol

Best Documentary Short Film: The Last Repair Shop (my favorite out of the bunch)

Best Live Action Short Film: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Academy Award Winner Wes Anderson WHEN?!?!)

Best Animated Short Film: War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko (mmm, it's not good but Oscar people love this kind of stuff; my personal favorite is Our Uniform)

Best Original Score: Oppenheimer (duh)

Best Original Song: What Was I Made For?, Barbie (duh part 2)

Best Sound: The Zone of Interest (or maybe Oppenheimer, but I will put my fave in this one idc)

Best Production Design: Poor Things (I'm sorry, Barbie 😭)

Best Cinematography: Oppenheimer

Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Maestro (sigh... but people like huge onscreen transformations so 🤷🏽‍♀️)

Best Costume Design: Poor Things (or Barbie, but Poor Things just stand out more)

Best Film Editing: Oppenheimer

Best Visual Effects: The Creator (the one category I'm not really sure about lmao I sadly haven't seen Godzilla yet!)

[bisamwilson]

mak's 96th oscar picks

hello and welcome to my 96th oscar picks! if you're new here, this is the second year in a row i've completed the "death race" and watched every movie nominated for an oscar! (you can find my rating and either a joke or real review on my letterboxd, as well as a ranking of all the narrative feature length films i've watched that released in 2023 if you're interested). the list below is mostly for me to just have in the future to look back on post show tbh

anyways, below is every award listed in the order they appear on the 2024 oscars wikipedia page, with my preferred winner, my preferred runner up, any snubs i'm angry about if applicable, anything i'd be angry about winning if applicable, AND what i think is going to win, regardless of my feelings! note: just bc i have something i prefer winning doesn't mean it's necessarily my personal favorite of the category. for example, i think zone should take international film, but i personally liked perfect days better

anyways, here's my picks for this year's academy awards!

BEST PICTURE:

my preferred winner: oppenheimer

my preferred runner up: the zone of interest

nominee i'd be actively angry if it won: maestro, barbie

snub i'm still upset about: spider-man: across the spider-verse

my predicted winner: oppenheimer

BEST DIRECTOR:

my preferred winner: christopher nolan, oppenheimer

my preferred runner up: jonathan glazer, the zone of interest

snub i'm still upset about: celine song, past lives

my predicted winner: christopher nolan, oppenheimer

BEST ACTOR:

my preferred winner: cillian murphy, oppenheimer

my preferred runner up: colman domingo, rustin

snub i'm still upset about: andrew scott, all of us strangers

nominee i'd be actively angry about: bradley cooper, maestro

my predicted winner: cillian murphy, oppenheimer

BEST ACTRESS:

my preferred winner: lily gladstone, killers of the flower moon

my preferred runner up: sandra hüller, anatomy of a fall

snub i'm still upset about: greta lee, past lives and cailee spaeny, priscilla

nominee i'd be actively angry about: annette benning, nyad and carey mulligan, maestro

my predicted winner: lily gladstone, killers of the flower moon

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

my preferred winner: robert downey, jr., oppenheimer

my preferred runner up: sterling k. brown, american fiction

snub i'm still upset about: charles melton, may december

nominee i'd be actively angry about: mark ruffalo, poor things

my predicted winner: robert downey, jr., oppenheimer

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

my preferred winner: da'vine joy randolph, the holdovers

my preferred runner up: danielle brooks, the color purple

snub i'm still upset about: sandra hüller, the zone of interest

nominee i'd be actively angry about: jodie foster, nyad and america ferrera, barbie

my predicted winner: da'vine joy randolph, the holdovers

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:

my preferred winner: anatomy of a fall

my preferred runner up: past lives

nominee i'd be actively angry about: maestro, may december

my predicted winner: anatomy of a fall

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:

my preferred winner: american fiction

my preferred runner up: oppenheimer

snub i'm still upset about: the killer, all of us strangers

nominee i'd be actively angry about: barbie, poor things

my predicted winner: american fiction

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE:

my preferred winner: spider-man: across the spider-verse

my preferred runner up: the boy and the heron

snub i'm still upset about: teenage mutant ninja turtles: mutant mayhem

my predicted winner: the boy and the heron

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM:

my preferred winner: the zone of interest

my preferred runner up: perfect days

snub i'm still upset about: the promised land

nominee i'd be actively angry about: the teacher's lounge

my predicted winner: the zone of interest

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM:

my preferred winner: four daughters

my preferred runner up: to kill a tiger

snub i'm still upset about: kokomo city

nominee i'd be actively angry about: eternal memory

my predicted winner: 20 days in mariupol

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM:

my preferred winner: the last repair shop

my preferred runner up: nǎi nai & wài pó

nominee i'd be actively angry about: the abcs of book banning

my predicted winner: the abcs of book banning

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM:

my preferred winner: the wonderful story of henry sugar

my preferred runner up: invincible

nominee i'd be actively angry about: the after

my predicted winner: the wonderful story of henry sugar

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM:

my preferred winner: ninety-five senses

my preferred runner up: our uniform

nominee i'd be actively angry about: war is over! inspired by the music of john and yoko, letter to a pig

my predicted winner: war is over! inspired by the music of john and yoko

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE:

my preferred winner: ludwig göransson, oppenheimer

my preferred runner up: ludwig göransson, oppenheimer but a second time

nominee i'd be actively angry about: literally any nominee that isn't ludwig göransson, oppenheimer

my predicted winner: ludwig göransson, oppenheimer

BEST ORIGINAL SONG:

my preferred winner: "i'm just ken" - barbie

my preferred runner up: "what was i made for?" - barbie

snub i'm still upset about: dear alien (who art in heaven) - asteroid city

nominee i'd be actively angry about: "the fire inside" - flamin' hot

my predicted winner: "what was i made for?" - barbie

BEST SOUND:

my preferred winner: the zone of interest

my preferred runner up: oppenheimer

snub i'm still upset about: ferrari

nominee i'd be actively angry about: maestro

my predicted winner: oppenheimer

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN:

my preferred winner: poor things

my preferred runner up: barbie

snub i'm still upset about: asteroid city

my predicted winner: poor things

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:

my preferred winner: oppenheimer

my preferred runner up: killers of the flower moon

nominee i'd be actively angry about: maestro, el conde

my predicted winner: oppenheimer

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING:

my preferred winner: poor things

my preferred runner up: society of the snow

snub i'm still upset about: priscilla

nominee i'd be actively angry about: maestro, golda

my predicted winner: maestro

BEST COSTUME DESIGN:

my preferred winner: barbie

my preferred runner up: napoleon

my predicted winner: barbie

BEST FILM EDITING:

my preferred winner: oppenheimer

my preferred runner up: anatomy of a fall

nominee i'd be actively angry about: the holdovers

my predicted winner: oppenheimer

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS:

my preferred winner: the creator

my preferred runner up: godzilla minus one

snub i'm still upset about: oppenheimer

nominee i'd be actively angry about: guardians of the galaxy vol. 3

my predicted winner: godzilla minus one

and that's every category! if you made it this far, i'm shocked tbh, but interested to hear your thoughts as well!

[fandomshatepeopleofcolor]

speaking of oscar noms, I'm happy for Da'Vine Joy Randolph and Danielle Brooks being nominated and I don't trust the oscar voters especially if they choose Emily Blunt for the sole reason that she's in Nolan's Oppenheimer. It'll be like JLC all over again (with war propaganda from the oppenheimer film)

Yeah...

I see a specific scenario potentially playing out at the Oscars this year. Where either Lily Gladstone wins for Best Actress and Emily Blunt wins for Oppenheimer, or Emma Stone wins for Poor Things and either Danielle Brooks/Da'Vine Joy Randolph wins for best supporting (becos god knows the Academy still has a diversity quota to fill this year).

But I think Randolph has better odds of winning than Brooks simply becos of the type of role she played in The Holdovers, while she's good, The Holdovers are going to have a special place in the voters' hearts becos it's a dramatic film done by and starring White men, set in an elite academic institution. Meanwhile, Color Purple is a film created by and starring majority Black people, which might result in many Academy voters might find the film unrelatable.

Still, despite my disappointment with this year's Oscar snubs, I still wish all these amazing actresses of color all the best at the Oscars and their careers.

- mod sodapop