92nd Annual Academy Awards

Well folks: it's Labor day. Summer's over and the Oscar-caliber fall movies are about to come out. I think it's a good time to start talking about what 2019 movies may or may not getting Oscar nominations. The proper way to start an Oscar thread is a calendar of the top awards.

December 3: National Board Of Review

December 10: Golden Globe nominations

December 11: Screen Actor's Guild nominations

January 5: Golden Globes

January 6: Writer's Guild Nominations

January 7: Nominations for Producer's Guild and Director's Guild

January 13: Oscar noms

January 18: Producer's Guild Awards

January 25: Director's Guild Awards

January 26: Screen Actor's Guild Awards

February 1: Writer's Guild Awards

February 9: 92nd Annual Academy Awards

Wikipedia reports that Makeup is expanding to a 5-film category and the Foreign Language Film category is being renamed to Best International Film (foreign animated films and foreign documentaries are eligible for this revamped category).

I didn't find anything online about whether there's going to be a 2019 Popular Film Oscar.

Isn't it a bit early to open this thread?

Anyway, despite how much my friends and I disliked the film, Once Upon a Time ... in Hollywood is clearly going to get nominated for an Oscar

Avengers Endgame. No?

Right now it's anyone's game.

I think another good Oscar movie so far is The Peanut Butter Falcon.

In the past quarter century, only twice have all Oscar-winning performances been fictional characters.

These exceptions have been 1997 (As Good As It Gets, Good Will Hunting and LA Confidential) and 2016 (Manchester By The Sea, La la Land, Moonlight, Fences).

Most likely, at least one 2019 Acting Oscar will award a depiction of a real-life person.

Tom Hanks could earn a Best Actor Oscar for playing Mr. Rogers, Renee Zellweger could earn Best Actress for playing Judy Garland, Margot Robbie could earn a Supporting Actress Oscar for playing Sharon Tate, some British guy could earn a Best Actor Oscar for playing the adult version of Sir Elton John.

Looking at this year’s highest-grossing movies, none of them really stand out in terms of storytelling, characters, and acting, so I’m guessing that the Oscars will be dominated by lesser-known movies again. (Which is fine. There’s no reason to nominate blockbusters unless they really are good. This isn’t the People’s Choice Awards.)

The exception is Us, which I’ve heard good things about and might get some major nominations. (Haven’t seen it; horror really isn’t my thing, at all.)

Rocketman will likely get nominations; Hollywood does love its biopics, especially biopics about entertainers.

Wouldn’t be surprised by Once Upon a Time in Hollywood getting nominations either. Hollywood especially loves movies about Hollywood.

Edited by Galadriel on Oct 6th 2019 at 5:05:46 AM

What, why wouldn't Endgame be one of them?

Because, apart from being a call-back to all the previous MCU movies and a special effects extravaganza, it wasn’t anything particularly special in terms of storytelling, character, acting, etc?

Remember when they were going to have that "Best Popular Film" category?

Glad they got rid of that. If a popular film is also high-quality, it can be recognized in the usual categories,

The last battle between everyone and Thanos begs to differ.

You got that right.

Going by that logic, Black Panther shouldn't have been a candidate for Best Picture.

Edited by theLibrarian on Oct 6th 2019 at 5:28:56 AM

Black Panther actually asked hard questions and gave hard answers. It definitely deserved its spot.

I can see a 50/50 chance that the Academy might nominate Endgame in one of the “shut up, we nominated it, you happy” slots they added after The Dark Knight’s snub, but it isn’t going to be genuinely considered beyond that.

Edited by Tuckerscreator on Oct 6th 2019 at 3:35:16 AM

Black Panther had a good story and stong themes and nuanced characters. (And its characters were developed over the course of the movie, not relying primarily on previous movies, a major difference from Endgame.) A lot of the themes were as much in the subtext as they were actually voiced, but many, many people saw them and resonated with them. Differences in how resident and diaspora communities view their home country. Nationalism versus internationalism. The contadictions and complexities of Killmonger’s identities and goals (he’s trying to take over Wakanda in the name of liberating black people worldwide...but he’s an American, trained by the American military and intelligence system, and employing their methods for destabilizing and taking over foreign countries. He’s both defined by his heritage and fundamentally alienated from it.) And much more.

Edited by Galadriel on Oct 6th 2019 at 6:58:19 AM

Alright so Endgame should get a nomination too.

I mean do these awards really mean anything?

Edited by slimcoder on Oct 6th 2019 at 4:05:13 AM

Honestly, Endgame doesn't really come close to having the same thematic coherence as Black Panther. The only thing I could see it getting nominated for is *maybe* special effects or original score, but even that's a stretch.

I can definitely see Rocketman getting some noms though. Ad Astra seems like a strong contender for Best Picture as well. Us might get a couple of noms too, possibly for best actress or for the score? I've heard a lot of good things about Parasite, so that could be in the running for best international feature film. ^note  i'm putting this one in the notes because i don't think it'll happen, but it'd be nice if bill hader got a nom for best supporting actor in it: chapter 2, because he did a really good job there.

Disregarding the evident fragility of the oscars, I'd say Endgame could logically be nominated for several technical categories (special effects, make-up, sound mixing, e.t.c). Personally, I'd also nominate it for Best Adapted Screenplay but the Oscars would never do such a thing.

Aside from Rocketman, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood, Us, you have the likes of Ad Astra, Midsomnar, and the great bet in the form of Scorcese's The Irishman (that I expect to absolutely clean shop in the Oscars).

Wow, I wasn’t even aware of Ad Astra, and it looks really interesting. (Original sci-fi, yay!) And it’s in theatres now! Thanks for making me aware of it!

I was disappointed by Ad Astra. I found the hero to be a selfish jerk who gets several people killed and ultimately accomplishes basically nothing.

Definitely deserves recognition for the technical stuff though.

Edited by HamburgerTime on Oct 6th 2019 at 6:39:06 AM

Now that I think about it, what do you think they'll nominate for Best Animated Feature? The Lion King remake, presumably, but beyond that I can't really remember any animated movies that came out this year besides, say, The Lego Movie 2.

Toy Story 4 was generally well-recieved; it should be nominated. So will Frozen 2, if it’s good (or maybe if it isn’t; name recognition counts for a lot with the Academy when it comes to animation).

Don’t know about How to Train Your Dragon 3.

Edited by Galadriel on Oct 6th 2019 at 8:44:17 AM

It's been made pretty transparent that the academy doesn't really care about animation, they usually just choose the Disney or Pixar movie most years, so Toy Story 4 winning is a good bet. I don't think they even see most of the movies that get nominated.

Edited by Draghinazzo on Oct 6th 2019 at 8:43:37 AM

Toy Story 4 is definitely getting it.