Oscars 2019: Biggest Snubs and Surprises

The nominations for the 91st Academy Awards have been announced and, as always, there are quite a few snubs and quite a few surprises. These are going to be brief thoughts, but if you want more full analysis of these categories, feel free to read my initial predictions. They were fairly good considering what an unpredictable year it has been! But even I, with all of my Oscars obsession, couldn't line up a single category perfectly. And my gamble on predicting a Best Picture nomination for First Reformed proved foolhardy to say the least.

BIGGEST SNUBS:

Stephan James and Kiki Layne in If Beale Street Could Talk

Best Picture: If Beale Street Could Talk

I, like everyone else, believed that Barry Jenkins' follow-up to Moonlight was a shoo-in for a Best Picture nomination. But in my initial predictions I mentioned it was vulnerable after it was snubbed at both the SAG Awards and the PGA Awards. Still, it's surprising to see just how much it was snubbed considering the film's warm reception and Jenkins' prestige behind the camera.

Best Director: Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born and Peter Farrelly, Green Book

A Star is Born and Green Book did very well today, racking up 8 and 5 nominations respectively. But it was noticeable that the directors of these films, both of whom received DGA nominations, were left out of the running. Green Book has been on a bit of a roll lately, and had been picking up enough momentum to seem like a genuine contender to win the top prize, so Farrelly's exclusion here is a major blow. But the biggest surprise is the snub for Cooper. Much buzz has been made about how phenomenal his direction was for his first-time feature, and given that he's been nominated in this category at pretty much every other awards ceremony up until now, it's a rather glaring omission.


Best Actor: Ethan Hawke, First Reformed and John David Washington, BlacKkKlansman

For a while, this category had four of the nominees pretty much set in stone, with a fifth spot more up for grabs. Many thought that the fifth nomination would go to either John David Washington, who received a SAG nomination for BlacKkKlansman, or to Ethan Hawke, who gave what many consider the best work of his career in First Reformed. Hawke's snub here is probably the more surprising considering the buzz surrounding it, but I'm personally more disappointed in the snub for Washington. I thought he was great in the film, but more than that, in a year with a relatively high number of prestigious films made by black filmmakers, it's sad that not one of the nominees in either leading actor category is black.

Best Supporting Actor: Timothee Chalamet, Beautiful Boy

Beautiful Boy is a fairly unremarkable film, one which feels far too awards-grabby for its own good. But Timothee Chalamet seemed like a solid bet for a nomination in this category. He's a rising star who had been nominated at most other awards ceremonies for his performance. But the lack of excitement surrounding the film as a whole proved detrimental and he was left out. But, my guess is he'll be okay.

Best Documentary: Won't You Be My Neighbor?

The Mr. Rogers documentary Won't You Be My Neighbor? was a bit of a sensation. The highest-earning documentary of the year, it had a lot of buzz and seemed like the frontrunner in this competitive category. But the category proved SO competitive that it got left out of the running completely. This might just be the most surprising snub of the year. Although...I'm personally kind of glad to see this. As wonderful as Mr. Rogers is as a subject, I found the filmmaking of Won't You Be My Neighbor? pretty lackluster. It didn't manage to actually say anything beyond the point already made in the trailer. Apparently, the Academy agreed.

Best Cinematography: First Man

Although First Man stopped being a contender in the major categories like Best Picture a long time ago, it had always been in the running for the technical categories. And chief among those technical categories was cinematography. But it failed to earn a nomination in a year that really went against the grain, opting for more unconventional choices than this category has gravitated to in previous years. It went for three foreign language films (including two in black and white), one contemporary film, and one film with wild and experimental camerawork. The impressive cinematography of First Man might have just felt too mainstream to make the grade this year.

Best Film Editing: Roma, A Star is Born

While most people probably aren't too excited about Best Film Editing, this is actually a crucial category, and one which often lines up with the Best Picture category. As such, it's surprising that two of the strongest Best Picture contenders were snubbed this year. It's especially a blow for A Star is Born, as its Best Picture chances have plummeted now that it was snubbed both here and in Best Director. That might be too much for it to overcome to have any chance of winning.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling: Black Panther

This is the last category to only have three nominees instead of at least five, and one has to wonder how long that will be the case. Every year, this category gets more and more competitive. While the three nominees in this category are all strong, there were multiple other potential nominees which also could have easily joined their ranks. While some would call the snub of Bohemian Rhapsody particularly egregious, I think the bigger upset is the lack of nomination for Black Panther, whose makeup and hairstyling were crucial to the film's lauded overall aesthetic.

Best Sound Mixing: A Quiet Place

Sound Editing and Sound Mixing are two completely different art forms, yet at the Oscars the two are often linked, perhaps due to general ignorance from the voters as to how to accurately judge them distinctly. This year, four of the nominees for Sound Editing also received nominations in Sound Mixing...but it's bizarre that the fifth Sound Editing nominee (A Quiet Place) didn't join them. The use of sound in A Quiet Place is extraordinary, but while the editing is very good, the mixing is what truly makes this film brilliant. Its snub here is ridiculous, especially considering it was clearly on the Academy's radar.

Best Original Score: First Man

This was a competitive year for original scores, but it's still surprising to see Justin Hurwitz's atmospheric score for First Man excluded. I'll admit I wasn't as big of a fan of this score as other seemed to be, but based on accolades alone, its nomination here should have been a no-brainer. It's another technical category that First Man got shut out of.

Best Original Song: "Trip a Little Light Fantastic" from Mary Poppins Returns

The Original Song category is always difficult to predict, but this year everything about Mary Poppins Returns made this category more complicated. For one thing, the film's producers didn't submit "A Cover is Not the Book" for consideration even though it's easily the best song and number in the film. But then, the Oscars nominates "The Place Where Lost Things Go" over the heavily favored "Trip a Little Light Fantastic." It's an odd choice, although I doubt Marc Shaiman cares much. He still got a nomination here, as well as one for Best Score.

Best Animated Short Film: Bilby and Bird Karma

The animated short category has always been a great boon for Pixar. While its features tend to do well, it has managed to rack up significant Oscar glory in the shorts category, which has significantly faster turnout and allows them to cultivate the talents of younger animators who they're interested in working with further. This year, they're on track to win another Oscar here with the nominated Bao. But this year, for the first time, some felt that another major studio might give them some competition. Dreamworks has never made an original animated short film before, but this year they actually made two, and both of them made the shortlist. Both Bilby and Bird Karma are decent, but not particularly impressive as short films, but the studio backing behind them could have been enough to put them over the edge. Instead, Dreamworks is going to have to go back to the drawing board if they want to be competitors in this category. Personally, though, I'm much sadder about the snub for the animated short Pepe Le Morse. This French-language short (the English title is Grandpa Walrus) is absolutely brilliant, and was far and away the best of the shortlisted films in my eyes. Its snub here is an injustice, but you should all still watch it anyway.


BIGGEST SURPRISES:

Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira in Roma

Now that we've discussed the snubs, let's look at the better news! Here are the surprising inclusions, as opposed to the surprising exclusions!

Best Picture: Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice

While the nominations for these films aren't REALLY surprising considering they've both had a strong awards season so far, it's still a bit strange to see two films with Rotten Tomatoes scores in the low 60s included in the Best Picture race. The reaction to these movies has been decidedly mixed at best, but it proves that being a biopic is often all you need for the Academy to take notice.

Best Director: Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War

While I was surprised (and, yes, disappointed) to see Adam McKay get a nomination for Vice, that's not a surprise at all compared to the nomination for Pawel Pawlikowski for Cold War. Nobody could have seen this coming, but it's a wonderful treat! Pawlikowski is a major talent, and his work on Cold War is beautiful. Since the number of Best Picture nominees were expanded, this is only the second time a director has been nominated when their film wasn't, and it shows that the Oscars are still willing to reward auteur talent. Plus, with Cold War's three nominations, it has become the most nominated Polish film of all time.

Best Actress: Yalitza Aparicio, Roma

Aparicio gives my favorite performance of the year, and I always hoped she'd be nominated here. But it's a competitive category and she simply didn't have the most consistent awards season track record. But her powerhouse debut performance is extraordinary and this a wonderful and deserved surprise.

Best Supporting Actress: Marina de Tavira, Roma

The surprise of Aparicio's nomination is nothing compared to the nomination for Marina de Tavira in the same film. Absolutely no one was talking about de Tavira's work in Roma. But she does a wonderful job in the film, and her nomination shows that the Academy really loves Roma, which bodes well for its chances overall.

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

It's usually never a surprise when the Coen Brothers get a screenplay nomination, but in this case it definitely is. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs simply doesn't have the same acclaim behind it as most of their films do, and the screenplay is one of their weirdest. I didn't even realize that it was entered as an adapted screenplay (it's based off of short stories that the Coens themselves wrote) since its screenplay hadn't exactly received much attention until now. Like the film itself, its nomination here is odd but interesting.

Best Documentary: Minding the Gap

This nomination shouldn't be surprising. Minding the Gap has done really well all year, earning a lot of acclaim. But it's still exciting. It's a decidedly unglamorous, made from first-time filmmaker Bing Liu. It's personal and rough around the edges, but it has a lot of heart. To see it score a nomination over slick, big budget contenders like Won't You Be My Neighbor? is really exciting.

Best Cinematography: Never Look Away

This might have been one of the biggest headscratchers out of all of the nominees. Never Look Away hasn't even been released in the U.S. yet, but still managed to get a nomination here! Apparently the cinematography in this German film, also nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, is pretty great, as it beat out multiple higher-profile films to earn a nomination here.

Best Film Editing: Vice

The editing in Vice is terrible. Why the hell was it nominated? Is...is Dick Cheney somehow behind this?


FINAL THOUGHTS:

Is The Favourite indeed a favorite to win Best Picture?

It has been an unpredictable awards season all year, and today's nominations didn't help bring anything into focus. No clear frontrunner emerged, although A Star is Born getting excluded in both Best Director and Best Editing hurt it significantly. Roma looks like the film to beat, although its lack of an Editing nomination does statistically hurt its chances. The only films nominated for Best Director and Best Editing are The Favourite, BlacKkKlansman, and Vice. The Favourite has been solid all awards season long, and it or BlacKkKlansman could pull an upset victory. Alternatively, if Vice wins Best Picture, then I quit. But, as befitting a ceremony where we still don't know if anybody will host it, it's bound to be a night of significant surprises.