The annual guessing game to read the minds of inscrutable Oscars voters is here.
Sound
Nominees:
- Maestro
- Oppenheimer
- The Zone Of Interest
- The Creator
- Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part I
Let's begin with this intriguing category with five films that train us to listen carefully to movies, besides just watching them. Maestro is a film about sonic gravity, and the Mahler in the Bradley Cooper-directed film is as orchestrally absorbing as it could be on a TV speaker (we only have it on Netflix here). But the two films that treat sound design as essential and an expression of cinematic inventiveness are Jonathan Glazer's The Zone Of Interest and Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer.
The Zone Of Interest is a movie made up of two planes of perception: The serene, Edenic visual world of a false Nazi paradise, and the hellish, muffled screams of Auschwitz prisoners next door. The jarring aural dimension is designed to disturb the frigid beauty of what our eyes are taking in. Meanwhile in Oppenheimer, the sound elevates the cosmic ambition of the character, and Nolan's sound designers had to come up with the sounds that no one had ever heard before, such as the Big Bang and the dispersal of atomic particles. It's a little too theatrical, too fancy at times, as it should be, so I think Oppenheimer plays more to the Hollywood ear and will win the Oscars in sound.
International Feature
Nominees:
- Io Capitano (Italy)
- Perfect Days (Japan)
- The Zone Of Interest (UK)
- Society Of The Snow (Spain)
- The Teachers' Lounge (Germany)
A very impressive crop of nominations, disparate in style and temperament, but altogether excellent filmmaking. The four finalists are European, while Perfect Days, the world's most beautiful toilet movie, is submitted by Japan and tells an entirely Japanese story through the hand (and soul) of German master Wim Wenders.
The Spanish submission gained a buzz earlier, with the story of a band of survivors after a plane crash in the Andes (on Netflix). The Italian film by Matteo Garrone is a migrant ordeal, topical and immediate, and was recently screened in Bangkok at the Italian Film Festival. The German film is more or less a thriller set in a school, triggered by a stolen object. But at this point, we all know that the winner is either The Zone Of Interest or Perfect Days. One is a highly formalist arthouse construction designed to produce a chill in your marrow; the other is so warm-hearted, sun-dappled and Zen-contented that you might overlook the undercurrents of sorrow coursing through it. As much as I admire the cold brutality of The Zone and as much as the film seems like a favourite, I fly the Wenders flag and root for Perfect Days. Go Japan!
Cinematography
Nominees:
- El Conde
- Maestro
- Killers Of The Flower Moon
- Oppenheimer
- Poor Things
In a different film-world, El Conde should nick this. The shimmering black-and-white film directed by Pablo Larrain and shot by Edward Lachman imagines an alternate Chile perched between history and hallucination, in which General Pinochet is a blood-lusting vampire who has lived for four centuries feeding on human hearts (on Netflix, what a shame. The film was conceived to be shown on the big screen). It's not going to win.
Poor Things zings because of its decided weirdness, the fish-eyed lens et al. But I would think that Oppenheimer's Hoyte van Hoytema will have to fend off an impressive challenge mounted by Rodrigo Pietro's Killers Of The Flower Moon. Hoytema operates within the frame of classical cinematography but expands our eye-line beyond it; Pietro is efficient, expressive and precise. In the end, it's going to be Hoytema's night, and Oppenheimer too.
Animated Feature
Nominees:
- The Boy And The Heron
- Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse
- Elemental
- Nimona
- Robot Dreams
Confession: I haven't imbibed all the five nominees. But it's pretty obvious that we are talking about either Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson) or The Boy And The Heron, by the Ghibli master Hayao Miyazaki. For all the clout, the worldwide reverence and philosophical insinuation of Miyazaki's supposedly swansong film, The Boy And The Heron is too cerebral for the Oscars. This is not to belittle Spider-Man as a less worthy contender. On the contrary, the film is American pop-art at its most sophisticated, and without making those two words an oxymoron. I enjoyed it very much and there shouldn't be any upset here. Spider-Man will win.
Screenplay (Original/Adapted)
Nominees for Original Screenplay:
- Past Lives
- Anatomy Of A Fall
- The Holdovers
- Maestro
- May December
Nominees for Adapted Screenplay:
- Barbie
- Poor Things
- Oppenheimer
- American Fiction
- The Zone Of Interest
Two competitive categories, with some of the best writing we've seen in years on themes ranging from guilt, grief, growth and aborted romance to the sublime evil of bureaucracy. In the original screenplay battle, four American films are up against the frontrunner from France, the psychologically intricate and genre-mashing Anatomy Of A Fall (written by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari). It's a film that proves popular for audiences and critics alike, and its polyglot mercuriality, the tough legal-speak, and the oh-so-French literary pretensions are exhilarating in their formidability.
If one of the American films on that nomination list can upset the French whodunit, it's either Celine Song's Past Lives or David Hemingson's The Holdovers (the latter directed by Alexander Payne). Why? Because there's a tradition of awarding the screenplay prize to small independent American films. Past Lives is bittersweet and heartbreaking. The Holdovers is genuine, warm and doesn't betray the audience with a fake uplifting ending. And yet, Anatomy Of A Fall is a hard one to beat.
The adapted screenplay field is more hairy, more anything-goes. Barbie and Poor Things are about the awakening of female consciousness, delivered in totally different colour palettes and acrobatic ambitions. Oppenheimer is all grim and Shiva-serious, a story about a man whose ego ends up wounding him. Then there's The Zone Of Interest, a shrewd piece of adaptation that discards most of the detail and structure in the Martin Amis novel and yet retains its underlying moral message. And lastly, American Fiction is, as the title suggests, the most "American" story of the 21st century in its discussion of race and identity politics. Again, if the Oscar voters wish to show their appreciation to a small, well-written film, American Fiction is the answer. Otherwise, I'd root for Poor Things.
Actor in the Supporting Role
Nominees:
- Sterling K. Brown ( American Fiction )
- Robert DeNiro ( Killers Of The Flower Moon )
- Ryan Gosling ( Barbie )
- Robert Downey Jr ( Oppenheimer )
- Mark Ruffalo ( Poor Things )
Four guys here have such crazy fun with their characters, especially Ryan Gosling as Ken, because he knows exactly what he's doing in Barbie by exaggerating the typecast in the hope of transcending it. Here's Adam kicked out of heaven and bringing the snake of patriarchy back from hell. Mark Ruffalo in Poor Things mopes and moans, emasculated and humiliated. Sterling K. Brown revels in the role of a black gay plastic surgeon. And Robert DeNiro lights up every scene with his oleaginous smiles-smirks.
But the serious one will win. Robert Downey Jr redeems all his years as Iron Man with his role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, ignored by history and rebuffed by Einstein. This one is a shoo-in.
Actress in the Supporting Role
Nominees:
- Emily Blunt ( Oppenheimer )
- America Ferrera ( Barbie )
- Da'vine Joy Randolph ( The Holdovers )
- Danielle Brooks ( The Color Purple )
- Jodie Foster ( Nyad )
The Oppenheimer crew are expected to go home with a haul -- and I wish Emily Blunt could be one of the winners. Momentum and tea leaves dictate otherwise. Riding high is Da'vine Joy Randolph, playing a cook in an elite boarding school who has lost her son to the Vietnam War.
Actor in the Leading Role
Nominees:
- Paul Giamatti ( The Holdovers )
- Bradley Cooper ( Maestro )
- Jeffery Wright ( American Fiction )
- Cillian Murphy ( Oppenheimer )
- Colman Domingo ( Rustin )
Paul Giamattit has lots of fans from his turn as a strict disciplinarian in The Holdovers. Bradley Cooper overcame initial doubts to prove himself as Leonard Bernstein in Maestro. Jeffrey Wright may be solid as a black writer grappling with racial politics in American Fiction. But this is a no-brainer. Cillian Murphy is revising his acceptance speech right now. I am become death, the destroyer of worlds! And also, finally, justly, an Oscar winner!
Actress in the Leading Role
Nominees:
- Carey Mulligan ( Maestro )
- Annette Bening ( Nyad )
- Lily Gladstone ( Killers Of The Flower Moon )
- Emma Stone ( Poor Things )
- Sandra Huller ( Anatomy Of A Fall )
This is a tight race made all the more capricious by see-sawing buzz, bellwether award results and irrational fandom popularity. Early in the awards season, Carey Mulligan was deservedly heaped with critical adulation for her turn in Maestro as Felicia Montealegre, the wife of Leonard Bernstein. As the new year kicked in, Emma Stone surged, the narrative about her winning the second Oscar gaining momentum. Stone's turn as the Frankensteinish patchwork of a woman called Bella Baxter, graduating from babyish innocence to erotic triumphalism and feminist humanism in the course of the film, is a thing of heft and bravado.
But then Lily Gladstone won the Screen Actors' Guild two weeks ago, and the scale decidedly shifted in her favour. And through all of this, Annette Bening and Sandra Huller have prowled the Oscars safari like veteran lionesses -- especially Huller, the sole European contender, lording in her role as a bisexual German wife accused of killing her depressed French husband in their Alpine chalet.
If you follow the American press, the verdict is Lily Gladstone, playing the proud and wounded wife in Killers Of The Flower Moon. If you hang with the arthouse crowd, you know they're all for Huller. But if you ask me, who means nothing to anyone away, my allegiance is with either Stone or Huller.
Director
Nominees:
- Justine Triet ( Anatomy Of A Fall )
- Martin Scorsese ( Killers Of The Flower Moon )
- Yorgos Lanthimos ( Poor Things )
- Jonathan Glazer ( The Zone Of Interest )
- Christopher Nolan ( Oppenheimer )
Think about it, one of the greatest American directors has won the Best Director Oscar just once, not for Raging Bull, not for Taxi Driver, not even for Gangs Of New York, but for The Departed, a remake of a Hong Kong film. In Killers Of The Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese has made one of the strongest films in his career, an indictment of America's moral corruption told with epic sweep and dark humour.
But alas, Scorsese is not going to win. Neither is Jonathan Glazer, with his highbrow formalism of The Zone, nor Yorgos Lanthimos, with his intellectualised weirdness of Poor Things, nor Justine Triet, the French director tossed into this most American of all awards. Christopher Nolan will get his first Oscar, congratulations.
Best Picture
- American Fiction
- The Holdovers
- The Zone Of Interest
- Anatomy Of A Fall
- Oppenheimer
- Poor Things
- Past Lives
- Barbie
- Maestro
- Oppenheimer.
Where to watch:
The Zone Of Interest, Perfect Days, The Holdovers, Anatomy Of A Fall are in selected Thai cinemas.
Maestro, El Conde, Society Of The Snow, Nyad, Nimona, Rustin, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, The Teachers' Lounge are on Netflix.
Oppenheimer, Killers Of The Flower Moon, Barbie, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse are on Apple TV. Barbie is also on HBO Go.
Elemental and The Creator are on Disney+.
