Winners will be bolded as they are announced.
Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams, Vice1Adams does a fine, showy performance with what she is given as a Lady Macbeth, but she’s a clear fifth in the category
Marina de Tavira, Roma
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite
Best Documentary Feature:
Free Solo
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Minding the Gap2It narrowly missed my top 25 films (in a tossup with another sports doc), but Minding the Gap is still a great and very worthy one that quickly becomes something much more than just facing adulthood.
Of Fathers and Sons3It’s a deeply compelling look (with a surprising amount of access) at the kind of family that understandably does not make for a frequent focus in docs. Watching a radical Islamist family grow up and train and all can be hard to watch, but the doc just sits back and lets it all unfold, offering the kind of insight into life in one of these families that you wouldn’t expect.
RBG
Makeup and Hair:
Goran Lundstrom and Pamela Goldammer, Border
Jenny Shircore, Marc Pilcher and Jessica Brooks, Mary Queen of Scots
Greg Cannom, Kate Biscoe and Patricia DeHaney, Vice4With an assist from Bale’s weight gain, this is entirely an award focused on their making him into Cheney and they sure do make him disappear into the role even if some of the aging effects for everyone else are more hit and miss.
Costume Design:
Mary Zophres, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs5Can’t say any of my complaints with the movie originated here, especially for the title segment.
Ruth E. Carter, Black Panther
Sandy Powell, The Favourite
Sandy Powell, Mary Poppins Returns
Alexandra Byrne, Mary Queen of Scots
Production Design:
Hannah Beachler and Jay Hart, Black Panther
Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton, The Favourite
Nathan Crowley and Kathy Lucas, First Man
John Myhre and Gordon Sim, Mary Poppins Returns
Eugenio Caballero and Barbara Enriquez, Roma
Cinematography:
Robbie Ryan, The Favourite
Caleb Deschanel, Never Look Away
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Matthew Libatique, A Star Is Born
Lukasz Zal, Cold War
Sound Editing:
Benjamin A. Burtt and Steve Boeddeker, Black Panther
John Warhurst and Nina Hartstone, Bohemian Rhapsody
Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan, First Man
Ethan Van der Ryn and Erik Aadahl, A Quiet Place
Sergio Diaz and Skip Lievsay, Roma
Sound Mixing:
Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor and Peter Devlin, Black Panther
Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali, Bohemian Rhapsody
Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño, Ai-Ling Lee and Mary H. Ellis, First Man
Skip Lievsay, Craig Henighan and Jose Antonio Garcia, Roma
Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic, Jason Ruder and Steve Morrow, A Star Is Born
Best Foreign Language Film:
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)6A deeply human at a poor family and what it means to be that term is just a great film to get immersed in an live in the world that it has created.
Film Editing:
Barry Alexander Brown, BlacKkKlansman7His work in the two speech scenes (especially the first even though I know the second is the more popular of the two) makes for some of the strongest scenes of the year and are crucial to the film’s success on a thematic level. If the editing didn’t work here, the scenes would risk feeling heavy handed or awkward, already treading a thin line of arty content, and yet they work brilliantly.
John Ottman, Bohemian Rhapsody
Yorgos Mavropsaridis, The Favourite
Patrick J. Don Vito, Green Book 8I didn’t notice it so that’s a positive I guess
Hank Corwin, Vice9I’m not going to blame Corwin for the fact that the film was an overloaded mess that kept jumping around, but he sure did a lot of work and I can’t say it was able to salvage the film.
Supporting Actor:
Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman10I haven’t always gone easy on Adam Driver in the past, but he’s a compelling watch here as another conflicted soul in the film.
Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell, Vice11Rockwell is great and all, but his performance just wasn’t that special. It was a somewhat broad, comedic performance that wasn’t funny which may be blamed partly on the poor script, but it certainly doesn’t reflect well on him.
Animated Feature:
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Winner
Animal Behaviour
Bao
Late Afternoon
One Small Step
Weekends
Best Documentary Short Subject:
Black Sheep
End Game
LIFEBOAT
A Night at the Garden
Period. End of Sentence.
Visual Effects:
Dan DeLeeuw, Kelly Port, Russell Earl and Dan Sudick, Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Lawrence, Michael Eames, Theo Jones and Chris Corbould, Christopher Robin
Paul Lambert, Ian Hunter, Tristan Myles and J.D. Schwalm, First Man
Roger Guyett, Grady Cofer, Matthew E. Butler and David Shirk, Ready Player One
Rob Bredow, Patrick Tubach, Neal Scanlan and Dominic Tuohy, Solo: A Star Wars Story
Detainment
Fauve
Marguerite
Mother
Skin
Original Screenplay:
Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara, The Favourite
Paul Schrader, First Reformed
Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, Peter Farrelly, Green Book
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Adam McKay, Vice12Yet another bad script that somehow got nominated. I appreciate what McKay was trying for, but his film suffers as it jumps all over the place and and from being far less clever than it actually is, creating an insufferable air about it that stems in no small part from the script.
Adapted Screenplay:
Eric Roth, Will Fetters & Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs13Dull and lacking any of the spark that populates their best work. I don’t know how what is close to the nadir of their career got nominated for a script that just feels lazy, tired, and predictable. I just don’t understand their career at all post-True Grit or why people keep lavishing their work with the same level of praise
Charlie Wachtel & David Rabinowitz and Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman14By most accounts, the book is a dull, forgettable read and yet the movie is a powerful, engaging, and complex work that feels vital to the time period. It’s exactly what an adaptation should be.
Barry Jenkins, If Beale Street Could Talk
Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Original Score:
Ludwig Goransson, Black Panther
Terence Blanchard, BlacKkKlansman15An effective score overall
Nicholas Britell, If Beale Street Could Talk
Alexandre Desplat, Isle of Dogs
Marc Shaiman, Mary Poppins Returns
Original Song:
Kendrick Lamar, SZA, “All the Stars” from Black Panther
Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson, “I’ll Fight” from RBG
Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman, “The Place Where Lost Things Go” from Mary Poppins Returns
Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice “Shallow” from A Star Is Born
“When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings” from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs16The movie should have ended when this song did
Lead Actor:
Christian Bale, Vice17The movie may have been a mess, but Bale certainly gave it his all and disappeared into the role (even if he did seem to give Cheney the Batman voice at times). Not sure that is enough to deserve a win (though we know full well it was that patented Bale weight gain that secured it), but this is a really weak year for nominees..
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate18The kind of movie that lives or dies on its central performance and Dafoe’s is a captivating one in a movie designed to keep you feeling a bit off balance.
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
Lead Actress:
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Glenn Close, The Wife
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Director:
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman19Spike Lee’s distinctive style has kind of been lost for a while even in his most recent successful works and it’s good to see it finally return and get that feeling that this is a true Spike Lee Joint in every respect.
Adam McKay, Vice20Is this just a politics thing? I get it, fuck Cheney and the Republicans. It’s a worth message but I can’t think of any other reason to honor McKay who was unable to reign in all his disparate ideas and fourth wall breaking to create a compelling or funny story from a talented cast.
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War
Best Picture:
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman21Spike Lee’s narrative career has been iffy for a while (even speaking as someone who liked Miracle at St. Anna), but he rebounded in a big way with his biopic about a black police officer who went undercover with the KKK. It takes a far more complicated view on race than most films do (both made by Lee and others) with the lead’s optimism (and naivety) for change and entire mission undercut continuously. The first speech scene (and I know the crosscutting second one gets more credit) is perhaps the scene of the year and manages to make it feel essential and compelling even when by every right it should have ground the plot to a halt and felt like preaching to the audience.
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book – Winner
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice22Just an overloaded, absolute mess of a movie. I admire in a way it’s ambitions to not be a typical biopic, but it’s not nearly as clever as it thinks it is and its ambitious elements only serve to grate on the nerves.