Oscar noms

[drednm]

While reading several critics wonder by Carol didn't get a best film nomination, I went back and reviewed Oscar's seeming male/female bias.

In 87 previous awards, 55 best actress winners also had their film nominated for best film and only 10 also won best film.
In 87 previous awards, 68 best actor winners also had their film nominated for best film and 24 of those won best film.

The last best actress/best film combo was Hilary Swank for Million Dollar Baby. Three best actress/best film combos also included a best actor win.

[maliejandra]

Here is the list:

• BEST PICTURE
  The Big Short
  Bridge of Spies
  Brooklyn
  Mad Max: Fury Road
  The Martian
  The Revenant
  Room
  Spotlight
  
  BEST ACTOR
  Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
  Matt Damon, The Martian
  Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
  Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs
  Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
  
  BEST ACTRESS
  Cate Blanchett, Carol
  Brie Larson, Room
  Jennifer Lawrence, Joy
  Charlotte Rampling, 45 Years
  Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn
  
  BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
  Christian Bale, The Big Short
  Tom Hardy, The Revenant
  Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
  Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
  Sylvester Stallone, Creed
  
  BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
  Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
  Rooney Mara, Carol
  Rachel McAdams, Spotlight
  Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
  Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
  
  DIRECTING
  Adam McKay - The Big Short
  George Miller - Mad Max: Fury Road
  Alejandro G. Iñárritu - The Revenant
  Lenny Abrahamson - Room
  Tom McCarthy - Spotlight
  
  ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
  Anomalisa
  Boy and the World
  Inside Out
  Shaun the Sheep Movie
  When Marnie Was There
  
  COSTUME DESIGN
  Carol
  Cinderella
  The Danish Girl
  Mad Max: Fury Road
  The Revenant
  
  DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
  Amy
  Cartel Land
  The Look of Silence
  What Happened, Miss Simone?
  Winter on Fire
  
  DOCUMENTARY SHORT
  Body Team
  Chau, Beyond the Lines
  Claude Lanzmann
  A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness
  Last Day of Freedom
  
  MAKEUP AND HAIR STYLING
  Mad Max: Fury Road
  The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared
  The Revenant
  
  ORIGINAL SONG
  "Earned It" - Fifty Shades of Grey
  "Manta Ray" - Racing Extinction
  "Simple Song #3" - Youth
  "Til It Happens to You" - The Hunting Ground
  "Writing's on the Wall" - Spectre
  
  ANIMATED SHORT
  Bear Story
  Prologue
  Sanjay's Super Team
  We Can't Live Without Cosmos
  World of Tomorrow
  
  SOUND EDITING
  Mad Max: Fury Road
  Sicario
  Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  The Martian
  The Revenant
  
  FILM EDITING
  The Big Short
  Mad Max: Fury Road
  The Revenant
  Spotlight
  Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  
  FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
  Embrace of the Serpent
  Mustang
  Son of Saul
  Theeb
  A War
  
  ORIGINAL SCORE
  Bridge of Spies
  Carol
  The Hateful Eight
  Sicario
  Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  
  PRODUCTION DESIGN
  Bridge of Spies
  The Danish Girl
  Mad Max: Fury Road
  The Martian
  The Revenant
  
  VISUAL EFFECTS
  Ex Machina
  Mad Max: Fury Road
  The Martian
  The Revenant
  Star Wars: The Force Awakens
  
  ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
  The Big Short
  Brooklyn
  Carol
  The Martian
  Room
  
  ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
  Bridge of Spies
  Ex Machina
  Inside Out
  Spotlight
  Straight Outta Compton
  
  BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
  Carol
  The Hateful Eight
  Mad Max: Fury Road
  The Revenant
  Sicario

I have seen some of the films and intend to see a few more before the awards. It is always fun to have a dog in the race. I know What Happened Miss Simone? is on Netflix so I'll probably catch that there, and some of these films are on DVD already and I will check my local library. I was shocked to see The Martian up for Best Picture because while I enjoyed it enormously, I didn't think of it as anything more than a fun blockbuster movie. I saw Brooklyn and see its artistic merits, but it also didn't resonate with me emotionally the way I expect a best picture winner to.

Although I have not seen them yet, when I saw the previews for The Revenant and The Danish Girl I thought they were surefire Oscar bait.

[Spider]

I was shocked to see The Martian up for Best Picture because while I enjoyed it enormously, I didn't think of it as anything more than a fun blockbuster movie.

Same here. It seems like a strange choice for a Best Picture nomination.

[s.w.a.c.]

Bridge of Spies was OK, but not great Spielberg. Certainly a damn sight better than Warhorse, and less lugubrious than Lincoln. He does pile it on a bit thick towards the end though. Mark Rylance is the best thing in the film though, deserving of his supporting actor nomination.

I'd like to see Charlotte Rampling get some recognition, haven't seen 45 Years yet, but the trailer had me intrigued. Was just looking at the trailer for Stardust Memories and thinking how wonderful she was in that film. But they haven't been much for giving out "nostalgia" awards lately, so it seems unlikely. Saoirse Ronan was lovely in Brooklyn, she really knows how to work a close-up, in a "they had faces then" kind of way.

[drednm]

Bridge of Spies was OK, but not great Spielberg. Certainly a damn sight better than Warhorse, and less lugubrious than Lincoln. He does pile it on a bit thick towards the end though. Mark Rylance is the best thing in the film though, deserving of his supporting actor nomination.

I'd like to see Charlotte Rampling get some recognition, haven't seen 45 Years yet, but the trailer had me intrigued. Was just looking at the trailer for Stardust Memories and thinking how wonderful she was in that film. But they haven't been much for giving out "nostalgia" awards lately, so it seems unlikely. Saoirse Ronan was lovely in Brooklyn, she really knows how to work a close-up, in a "they had faces then" kind of way.

Rampling would be a great choice but she has never had the "rep" like a Redgrave, Dench, or Mirren and spent a lot of her time in Euro films so she's not all that well known in this country. She was certainly Oscar worthy in The Verdict with Paul Newman. I was still hoping Blythe Danner would get some recognition for I'll See You in My Dreams in which she was wonderful. Oh well.

[Donald Binks]

Here are my selections - probably based on a selection method not too far removed from that of the Academy.

BEST PICTURE

'Bridge of Spies'

This was a long picture but I was riveted to it from beginning to end. It had all those ingredients that are usually missing in modern pictures - such as good acting, directing, cinematography and script. I would give an honourable mention to "Brooklyn" but there just didn't seem to be something right with that girl.

BEST ACTOR

Leonardo DiCaprio, "The Revenant"

Only because he is due for one. He has made many performances that should have qualified him to win an Oscar. (I won't actually see this current film of his as it sounds too gruesome for my taste).

BEST ACTRESS

Charlotte Rampling, "45 Years".

Like DiCaprio she has put in some sterling performances over the years and is due for some big recognition.


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Mark Rylance, "Bridge of Spies"


BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

I can't include in this category as I have not seen the films mentioned (or more likely, want to see them).

DIRECTING

Can't say I am altogether pleased with the bunch up for grabs this year so I think it will be a toss between these two:-

George Miller - "Mad Max: Fury Road"
Alejandro G. Iñárritu - "The Revenant"

Neither picture appeals to me sufficient to pay good money to see - so I am only going on the hype.

[boblipton]

I expect every Nitratevillain to talk up the silent movie nominated for an Oscar this year: the Shaun the Sheep Movie.

For best director, I'd go with Adam McKay for The Big Short for the imaginative way he explains abstruse technical financial terms: he sticks Margot Robbie in a bubble bath and has her tell the audience.

Finally, for best movie, I like The Martian. I love movies in which competent people do things well. However, since it involves doing and showing people that technology, good will, hard work and brains will get things done, Hollywood will probably go with a dark fantasy like Room, or demonstrate their high moral standing as being against forcing children to have sex with Catholic priests, Spotlight.

Bob

[Brooksie]

Bridge of Spies was OK, but not great Spielberg. Certainly a damn sight better than Warhorse, and less lugubrious than Lincoln.

I liked Bridge of Spies, but it's a perfect example of a film that should have ended about twenty minutes before it did.

(Spoilers ahead)

The place to end it would have been straight after the prisoner swap. Everything after it would have been far better off left to the imagination of the viewer.

[drednm]

Bridge of Spies was OK, but not great Spielberg. Certainly a damn sight better than Warhorse, and less lugubrious than Lincoln.

I liked Bridge of Spies, but it's a perfect example of a film that should have ended about twenty minutes before it did.

(Spoilers ahead)

The place to end it would have been straight after the prisoner swap. Everything after it would have been far better off left to the imagination of the viewer.

The bane of most films of the last 20-30 years: TOO LONG

[Donald Binks]

The bane of most films of the last 20-30 years: TOO LONG

Never a truer word said!

[entredeuxguerres]

The bane of most films of the last 20-30 years: TOO LONG

Never a truer word said!

One of the reasons I love early '30s productions, few of which exceed about 80 min, with many well under that length.

[Mike Gebert]

I liked Bridge of Spies and wish there were more movies about the Cold War (what there ought to have been is an all-star movie about the Berlin Airlift with Burt Lancaster, Frank Sinatra, Elke Sommer, Oscar Homolka etc.*) but watching Tom Hanks (SPOILER) simply hold out like a stick in the mud till he got everybody back was somewhat underexciting, like watching a guy painstakingly get his luggage back from the airline. The best thing was Rylance, a wonderful actor whose alien stillness is riveting.

* They'd never do it now because it would violate the rule that America is always the same as the other guys. On some occasions, perhaps, but not that one. I do admire Spielberg for giving that cliche the thumb in the eye in the parallel shots of people climbing walls in Berlin and in suburbia.

[s.w.a.c.]

The bane of most films of the last 20-30 years: TOO LONG

Never a truer word said!

The last 20-30 years? I finally watched Preminger's Exodus a couple of weeks back, and I've got the roadshow version of Hawaii coming my way shortly. It's nothing new.

But I do agree with you there, I enjoyed The Revenant, but they could have kept it to two hours without losing any of the story line.

[drednm]

The bane of most films of the last 20-30 years: TOO LONG

Never a truer word said!

The last 20-30 years? I finally watched Preminger's Exodus a couple of weeks back, and I've got the roadshow version of Hawaii coming my way shortly. It's nothing new.

But I do agree with you there, I enjoyed The Revenant, but they could have kept it to two hours without losing any of the story line.

Of course exceptions. Lots of "big" pictures passed the 2-hour mark, but these days Woody Allen seems to be the only filmmaker who consistently keeps his films from running too long. Very few films can sustain a running time longer than 2 hours ... but that's just my opinion.

[R Michael Pyle]

Gotta admit I absolutely loved "The Revenant"! BUT: by the end I nearly had jaundice from a certain need to go, and I was sitting in the middle of an aisle, so I didn't get up until the end. I'm sure I was yellow-faced - and the length was the cause. Yeah, it was long. Yeah, it was long. Yeah, it was long...

[entredeuxguerres]

...Very few films can sustain a running time longer than 2 hours ... but that's just my opinion.

Hence, the great superiority of BBC's multi-part productions of literary classics over H'wood's similar efforts.

[entredeuxguerres]

Gotta admit I absolutely loved "The Revenant"! BUT: by the end I nearly had jaundice from a certain need to go, and I was sitting in the middle of an aisle, so I didn't get up until the end. I'm sure I was yellow-faced - and the length was the cause. Yeah, it was long. Yeah, it was long. Yeah, it was long...

You didn't think to bring a Dixie cup with you?

[R Michael Pyle]

Gotta admit I absolutely loved "The Revenant"! BUT: by the end I nearly had jaundice from a certain need to go, and I was sitting in the middle of an aisle, so I didn't get up until the end. I'm sure I was yellow-faced - and the length was the cause. Yeah, it was long. Yeah, it was long. Yeah, it was long...

You didn't think to bring a Dixie cup with you?

I'm presently in Dixie for the winter. You'd think they'd supply the cups. No, what I really needed to be was IN my cups - a good bottle of Lafite, or three - but, then I wouldn't have enjoyed the film. Would I...?