The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that it is extending the Oscar voting deadline by two days due to the devastating wildfires in and around Los Angeles. Nominating ballots, which previously had a deadline of Sunday, January 12th, can now be submitted until Tuesday, January 14th. The nomination announcement was originally scheduled for Friday, January 17th, but will now take place on Sunday, January 19th. Following this news, pre-Oscar venues have been postponed or canceled one after another. As plans for January’s premiere, luncheon, and awards ceremony change, we witness an almost amoral spectacle of Tinseltown’s frivolities colliding with Mother Nature’s basic imperatives. It became. Why not? In California, the two annual woes of hot-air awards season and wildfire season have steadily become longer and longer, to the point that each can be considered a year-round event.
The academy has tended to respond to large-scale disasters with an attitude of intransigence, some might say inflexibility, rooted in its own alarming arrogance. During the pandemic, when all other awards ceremonies for the 2020-21 season were canceled or relegated to Zoom, the Academy spent millions on a scaled-down but extravagant in-person ceremony. , with full COVID-19 safety protocols in place and allowing guests to remove their masks while cameras are rolling. The message was clear. The show must go on, but only on the Academy’s terms. From this point of view, it is difficult to reconcile the uncontroversial logic of the Academy’s short term extension with a certain horrifying absurdity. Will two days really make a difference for voters who have been affected in some way by the wildfires? Would the evacuees who were wondering if their homes were still standing really choose this moment to finally stop by a screening theater of “The Conclave” or find a theater showing “The Brutalist”? Or do you try to remember if you saw Gladiator II?
Or maybe she does. Film is both a professional interest and an escape for me, and the process of watching, thinking about, and writing about a film is one that, while rarely this difficult, has helped me overcome many obstacles. It has become a very pleasant pastime. On Wednesday, I spent most of my wildfire evacuation anxiously waiting for reports of fire damage in my hometown of Pasadena, and when the news got too heavy, I put the finishing touches on my own fantasy Oscar ballot. I spent a lot of time on that. If I were to vote for the Academy Awards, and like most critics I don’t, here are the films, directors, performances, and screenplays I would nominate in this year’s eight categories. All nominees are listed alphabetically, with my favorite winner in bold. As with all matters and activities related to award-giving and list-making, I view this as a more fickle endeavor than rigorous. My own choices are likely to change dozens of times by the voting deadline, and I wish all voters the pleasure of mulling over their favorites in the tough days ahead.
Best work award
“Everything we imagine as light.”
“Anora”
“Brutalist”
“Close your eyes.”
“Another man”
“Don’t expect too much from the end of the world”
“Evil does not exist”
“Green Border”
“La Chimera”
“Nickel Boys”
The Academy’s efforts to diversify its membership have made it a more international organization than it was just a few years ago, and that change is happily reflected in the increase in the number of non-English films nominated for Best Picture. Members from 10 years ago placed either the Japanese drama “Drive My Car” (2021) or the primarily German-Polish drama “The Zone of Interest” (2023) in this category. It’s hard to imagine it being nominated, let alone the Korean thriller “Parasite” being nominated for best movie of the year (2019). While this may be encouraging, it is still far from enough, and unfortunately it looks likely that we will see a setback this year. The only foreign film likely to win Best Picture is Jacques Audiard’s popular but controversial “Emilia Pérez.” The film is a French-language, Spanish-language musical crime thriller with trance themes that recently won the Golden Globe Award for Best Musical or Comedy. Best Film – Non-English Language Award
“Emilia Perez” probably won’t be on my list, but if it wasn’t the only import song in this race, like “All We Imagine as Right,” I would I would be happy to include it. Indian director Payal Kapadia’s incisive drama, or Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s macabre eco-drama “Evil Doesn’t Exist,” a masterpiece from the director’s previous work that ideally should have garnered just as much critical and industry attention. Same as “Drive My Car”.
Most of the other eight films on my personal Best Picture ballot also appeared on the 2024 year-end list. The fact that most of them are not seen by Academy members seems to me to be much of a reason to advocate for them here. Films include the haunting and melancholy Spanish film mystery Close Your Eyes; The explosively entertaining Romanian road movie “Don’t Expect Too Much from the End of the World.” “Green Border” is a dark yet uplifting refugee drama. and La Chimera, a magical archaeological fable set under the Tuscan sun (and sand and dirt). Given their critical acclaim and stateside pedigree, the films likely to be on voters’ radar include The Nickel Boys, a masterful adaptation of Colson Whitehead’s novel, and Masks and Identity, “A Different Man” is a labyrinthine dark comedy with a theme of art and art. Skill. I’ll also add “Anora” and “The Brutalist”, two key favorites that unfortunately didn’t make my list. Both are vibrant and thrilling manifestations of independent, deeply personal American cinema, and both have achieved enough to earn a place in the Best Picture conversation.
Best Director Award
Victor Erice “Close your eyes”
Agnieszka Holland “Green Border”
Radu Jude: “Don’t expect too much from the end of the world”
Payal Kapadia: “Everything we imagine is light”
Ramel Ross “Nickel Boys”
One of the formal strengths of Kapadia’s debut feature, All We Imagine as Right , is its seamless blend of dramatic narrative and specimens of documentary realism. It’s a subtle touch that recalls Kapadia’s previous work, a hybrid of fiction and nonfiction. “The Night of Knowing Nothing” (2021). Ross’s accomplishment is similar, but it’s also common. His previous film, the Oscar-nominated This Morning, Tonight (2018), is one of the great lyrical works of nonfiction film in recent years, and The Nickel Boys is also poetic and original. Playing with movies is equally thrilling. language. And then there’s Jude. His formally unruly comedy tends to overturn conventional notions of fiction and nonfiction in the first place. His latest work, the hilarious and whimsical Don’t Expect Too Much from the End of the World, is no exception.
In the Best Director category, there are talented upstarts like Brady Corbet (The Brutalist), who at 36 is the youngest of this year’s leading nominees, and more respected talents like Steven Spielberg and Martin Scorsese. will often compete against each other. This year, I’m nominating Holland, 76, who has never won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, except for a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Europa, Europa (1990). Arguably one of her best works, a nomination for “Green Border” would celebrate a career defined by her fearless humanism and political advocacy. Another veteran favorite of mine is Elise, who is 81 years old. His Close Your Eyes was the most emotionally overwhelming experience I had in a movie theater last year. This is the work of a legend in world cinema who looks back on a decades-long career filled with disappointing setbacks and unfulfilled dreams. Giving Elise the first Oscar nomination for Best Director of her career would acknowledge some of that disappointment and try to reverse it.
Best Actress Award
Marianne Jean-Baptiste “Hard Truth”
Mikey Madison “Anora”
Ilinka Manolace: “Don’t expect too much from the end of the world”
Julianne Nicholson “Janet Planet”
Fernanda Torres: “I’m still here”
In 1997, Jean-Baptiste became the first black British woman to be nominated for an acting Oscar. This honor was given to her for her quietly graceful performance in director Mike Leigh’s Secrets and Lies. Nearly 30 years later, she’s likely to receive a second nomination for Lee’s latest film, Hard Truths, in which she portrays a woman beset by deep misfortune as an intense, funny and ultimately gives a devastating performance. The film has already won accolades from several critics’ organizations (two of which are the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the National Society of Film Critics, of which I am a member), which have earned her a place in the film. It should push it to the forefront of the category. Alone. But critical acclaim only translates well into Academy support, which is why some of this year’s other great actresses have even less of a chance: Manorash, “Not Too Much at the End” While Nicholson is shocking as a harried production assistant and a rebellious TikTok personality in “Don’t Expect It”, Nicholson is befitting the title role of “Janet Planet” and has a gravitas to everyone around her, including the audience. exerts a gravitational force close to that of
