⚡️ Oscar Nominations Thoughts
A Comprehensive Guide To This Year's Oscar Noms
Early this morning, Zazie Beetz and Jack Quaid announced the nominees for the 96th Academy Awards. Here’s the list of the hopefuls for all twenty-three categories, along with some off-the-cuff commentary (and hot takes) from yours truly…
and not me spelling “Nominations” wrong in the title and not catching it before sending the email…
If the Oscars are the Super Bowl of movies, the reveal of the nominees mark the start of the playoffs. Finding out who was nominated can be just as exciting as seeing who won, as it can be much harder to predict and more open to chaos. This year seemed to be unpredictable, thanks to a very deep bench of Oscar contenders, but the field winnowed as we got closer to Oscars voting. If there were only a couple major shocks this morning, that’s only because there were so many films with a legitimate shot in each category.
My nominations predictions this year were pretty solid, getting 94 of 120 (78%) correct. But please don’t put any money on who I think will win. Last year, I correctly predicted a whopping 13 out of the 23 winners, which goes to show that an Oscars obsessive doth not an oracle make.
For most of the categories, only the members of a specific branch of the Academy choose the nominees for their respective craft. (The cinematographers pick the nominees for the Cinematography award; the actors pick the nominees for the Acting categories.) But the entire Academy votes on the winners. Certain categories had a preliminary shortlisting stage, and the nominees can only come from those lists. If you want to read all about the Oscars campaigning process, Alissa Wilkinson wrote a great primer for Vox a few years ago.
(Note: films that I haven’t seen yet are italicized. I’ve seen 21 of the 38 nominated films, which is lower than I would have liked. Predictions will certainly change before the Oscars are handed out on March 10!)
The Big Categories
Picture
“American Fiction,” Ben LeClair, Nikos Karamigios, Cord Jefferson and Jermaine Johnson, producers
“Anatomy of a Fall,” Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion, producers
“Barbie,” David Heyman, Margot Robbie, Tom Ackerley and Robbie Brenner, producers
“The Holdovers,” Mark Johnson, producer
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” Dan Friedkin, Bradley Thomas, Martin Scorsese and Daniel Lupi, producers
“Maestro,” Bradley Cooper, Steven Spielberg, Fred Berner, Amy Durning and Kristie Macosko Krieger, producers
“Oppenheimer,” Emma Thomas, Charles Roven and Christopher Nolan, producers
“Past Lives,” David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler, producers
“Poor Things,” Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Yorgos Lanthimos and Emma Stone, producers
“The Zone of Interest,” James Wilson, producer
A month ago there were maybe fifteen movies with a credible shot at a Best Pic nom, but the lineup ended up being fairly predictable to those who were tracking the various “precursor” awards given out by the various guilds. This is the best Best Picture lineup since the field expanded beyond five nominations in 2009. Not a single stinker here; I didn’t care for Maestro but it has its moments. If that’s the worst film on this list, it’s a pretty good list.
Some fun Oscars trivia: all three of Greta Gerwig’s movies have now been nominated for Best Picture (Lady Bird, Little Women, Barbie). Christine Vachon, who has been a massive influence on independent filmmaking, particularly with queer cinema, got her first ever nomination this morning, which is long overdue.
Will win: Oppenheimer. It’s not going to be close. Blockbuster hit, critically acclaimed, industry beloved, feels like a Best Picture. No other movie on this list can credibly claim to check all four of those boxes. Second and third place will probably be The Holdovers and Poor Things.
Rooting for: Oppenheimer. (AKA Men Talking.) I know some people who found the movie to be dull or meaningless and this is my safe space to say that I simply think those people are cinema illiterate.
Should’a Been a Contender: Of the films that had a remote possibility of getting a Pic nomination, I’d put Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. and Across the Spider-Verse in here over Maestro or American Fiction. Besides those latter two, I’d be happy if any of the nominees ended up winning. But it’s going to be Oppenheimer.
Director
Justine Triet — “Anatomy of a Fall”
Martin Scorsese — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Christopher Nolan — “Oppenheimer”
Yorgos Lanthimos — “Poor Things”
Jonathan Glazer — “The Zone of Interest”
There was some hand-wringing that we’d end up with an all-male Director lineup, but Justine Triet’s appearance has staved off a few days of internet discourse. This is an incredible set of nominations. All of these films are fantastic, and all of them are the fullest realizations of a director’s vision, which is my personal criteria for evaluating this category. The only real tensions within the Director’s branch would have been between the Hollywood old guard, which probably sprung for the oh-so-close Alexander Payne (The Holdovers), and the newer international cohort, who reliably get one of their own in the mix in recent years (this year that’s Triet, who is French).
Will win: Christopher Nolan. There hasn’t been a Pic/Director split since 2005, and that’s not gonna change this year.
Rooting for: Martin Scorsese. Completely overhauling your screenplay during pre-production in order to re-center the narrative from the FBI to the Osage takes guts, and he pulled it off.
Should’a Been a Contender: Say what you will about the movie itself, but Emerald Fennell directed the hell out of Saltburn. I don’t even like the movie that much but she knew what she wanted to do, and she did it.
Leading Actor
Bradley Cooper — “Maestro”
Colman Domingo — “Rustin”
Paul Giamatti — “The Holdovers”
Cillian Murphy — “Oppenheimer”
Jeffrey Wright — “American Fiction”
Another strong lineup. I can’t comment on Colman Domingo’s performance since I haven’t seen Rustin, but I’m glad that he’s gotten some recognition. He was great in Zola and seems like a nice dude. Jeffrey Wright and Cillian Murphy each do career best work in rare starring turns. Bradley Cooper wants an Oscar so badly.
Will win: Paul Giamatti. Taking his Golden Globe to In-n-Out sealed the deal.
Rooting for: Paul Giamatti. He honestly was the best actor this year, and I want The Holdovers to have some success on Oscar night.
Should’a Been a Contender: Swap out Bradley Cooper for Dave Bautista in Knock at the Cabin. I’m serious. For a more traditional performance, Koji Yakusho was excellent in Perfect Days.
Leading Actress
Annette Bening — “Nyad”
Lily Gladstone — “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Sandra Hüller — “Anatomy of a Fall”
Carey Mulligan — “Maestro”
Emma Stone — “Poor Things”
No complaints here either! I made a “no guts no glory” prediction that Ava DuVernay would have pulled off her gonzo networking campaign to snag Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor a nomination for Origin, but there is no Andrea Riseborough nomination this year.
Will win: Lily Gladstone. But I’m pretty shaky on this one. My current set of predictions have her as the only winner among Killers of the Flower Moon’s ten nominations, which doesn’t feel right; either Marty’s movie wins a few, or it gets completely shut out like The Irishman did in 2019. Emma Stone is next in line.
Rooting for: Sandra Hüller. She commands the screen in Anatomy of a Fall, tilting between the edges of innocence and guilt. And we need to hear that steel-drum cover of “P.I.M.P.” at some point during the telecast.
Should’a Been a Contender: The Academy’s actors branch doesn’t like to reward subtler performances. But it would have been nice to see Michelle Williams get a nod for Showing Up. I love Carey Mulligan but I’d swap her for Williams in a heartbeat.
Supporting Actor
Sterling K. Brown — “American Fiction”
Robert De Niro – “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Robert Downey Jr. — “Oppenheimer”
Ryan Gosling — “Barbie”
Mark Ruffalo — “Poor Things”
I went five for five on predicting this category, and any one of these would be a deserving win. Willem Dafoe was definitely in sixth place.
Will win: Robert Downey Jr. Beloved celebrity, flashy role, his first time actually having to act since the first Iron Man.
Rooting for: Ryan Gosling. Comedic performances are just as challenging as dramatic ones, and hey, he’s just Ken. (Initially, it seems ironic that Ken got an Oscar nomination and Barbie did not. But that’s not true; Margot Robbie was nominated for producing Barbie, a position that wields the most power over a film set.)
Should’a Been a Contender: The wrong member of the Oppenheimer ensemble got nominated. It should have gone to Alden Ehrenreich, who plays Downey Jr.’s unnamed Senate aide. It would have been nice to see John Magaro (Past Lives) or Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers) get recognition, but I wouldn’t drop anyone else out of this field.
Supporting Actress
Emily Blunt — “Oppenheimer”
Danielle Brooks — “The Color Purple”
America Ferrera – “Barbie”
Jodie Foster — “Nyad”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph — “The Holdovers”
A strong Lead Actress lineup comes at the expense of the Supporting Actresses, which is the weakest of the acting groups. America Ferrera was a surprise to some, but she’s been doing a lot of campaigning, and say what you will about her Monologue, but it’s the type of thing that gets recognized by the actors branch.
Will win: Da’Vine Joy Randolph. She’s swept up all the precursor awards, and there’s no reason to think there will be a shock come Oscars night.
Rooting for: Danielle Brooks. Every scene she appears in The Color Purple are the only ones that make it seem like a good movie.
Should’a Been a Contender: I would replace everyone but Randolph with these four women: Sigourney Weaver (Master Gardener); Patti LuPone (Beau Is Afraid); Rachel McAdams (Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.); Rosamund Pike (Saltburn)
The Specialty Films
Documentary Feature Film
“Bobi Wine: The People’s President,” Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek
“The Eternal Memory”
“Four Daughters,” Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha
“To Kill a Tiger,” Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim
“20 Days in Mariupol,” Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath
This is the first category to have big surprises, with star-studded docs like American Symphony and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie missing out. The former was a big surprise, as the Jon Batiste-centered movie appeared on multiple shortlists in other categories, which is usually a good sign. This branch is charitably described as “insular,” but this year, an all-international lineup probably speaks more to a downturn in financing and production for American docs than to any enlightenment within this group.
Will win: 20 Days in Mariupol. From what I’ve heard, it’s amazing, and topical yet uncontroversial documentaries are the likely winners.
Rooting for: I’ve only seen one of the nominees here, the very good Four Daughters, so I can’t really have an opinion yet.
Should’a Been a Contender: Frederick Wiseman’s four-hour portrait of a French fine dining restaurant, Menus Plaisirs – Les Troisgros, should have been considered.
International Feature Film
“Io Capitano” (Italy)
“Perfect Days” (Japan)
“Society of the Snow” (Spain)
“The Teachers’ Lounge” (Germany)
“The Zone of Interest” (United Kingdom)
Will win: The Zone of Interest. It’s also nominated for Best Picture so it would be really weird if it couldn’t snag this award.
Rooting for: Perfect Days. One of the best movies I saw last year!
Should’a Been a Contender: The selection process for this category is really stupid (each country submits only one movie, usually controlled by their government). I would remove the inert Io Capitano and slot in The Taste of Things, which was France’s submission, and the best movie I saw last year. If I could put any foreign-language movie here, I’d go with the bombastic Godzilla Minus One or the subtle Remembering Every Night, both of which happen to be from Japan.
Animated Feature Film
“The Boy and the Heron,” Hayao Miyazaki and Toshio Suzuki
“Elemental,” Peter Sohn and Denise Ream
“Nimona,” Nick Bruno, Troy Quane, Karen Ryan and Julie Zackary
“Robot Dreams,” Pablo Berger, Ibon Cormenzana, Ignasi Estapé and Sandra Tapia Díaz
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,” Kemp Powers, Justin K. Thompson, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller and Amy Pascal
There was some hope that composer Joe Hisaishi would be recognized for The Boy and the Heron, and that Across the Spider-Verse could garner nominations in Score, Visual Effects, and even Picture, but it didn’t wind up happening. While that’s disappointing to many people, the reality is that it’s extremely hard for animated films to “score” any nominations outside of this category, which was created after Beauty and the Beast got a Best Pic nom and that scared people.
A weak slate from the traditional animation studios opened up space for more indie-leaning productions, which I’m always happy to see.
Will win: Across the Spider-Verse. I think it was close to getting nominations in other categories, and the Academy members will overlook how the animators and effects artists were overworked.
Rooting for: The Boy and the Heron. Hayao Miyazaki’s been nominated three times, only winning once, for Spirited Away. That should change. (I think I’ll love Nimona and Robot Dreams, once I see them.)
Should’a Been a Contender: It would have been nice for The First Slam Dunk to get some recognition, an anime film that gorgeously rendered the game of basketball, or Suzume, the talking chair/Tohoku earthquake allegory. There’s a definite bias against anime in this branch unless Studio Ghibli is involved.
The Scripts
Adapted Screenplay
“American Fiction,” written for the screen by Cord Jefferson
“Barbie,” written by Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach
“Oppenheimer,” written for the screen by Christopher Nolan
“Poor Things,” screenplay by Tony McNamara
“The Zone of Interest,” written by Jonathan Glazer
The writers branch delivered the biggest shock of all the nominations, with Killers of the Flower Moon missing out.
Will win: Oppenheimer.
Rooting for: Oppenheimer.
Should’a Been a Contender: One film that got zero nominations today was All Of Us Strangers, which ingeniously transmogrified a Japanese ghost story into a personal journey through grief and sexuality.
Original Screenplay
“Anatomy of a Fall,” screenplay by Justine Triet and Arthur Harari
“The Holdovers,” written by David Hemingson
“Maestro,” written by Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer
“May December,” screenplay by Samy Burch; story by Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik
“Past Lives,” written by Celine Song
Will win: The Holdovers. A throwback, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore type of character-driven movie that is impeccably written.
Rooting for: Past Lives. I’m happy with The Holdovers too, though.
Should’a Been a Contender: Christian Petzold’s dry comedy Afire is sharply written, and Rye Lane was the best 2023 release I saw, though it wasn’t submitted for Oscar consideration (it was a streaming-only release in the US). I’d remove Maestro to make room for either of these scripts.
The Visual Crafts
Cinematography
“El Conde” – Edward Lachman
“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Rodrigo Prieto
“Maestro” – Matthew Libatique
“Oppenheimer” – Hoyte van Hoytema
“Poor Things” – Robbie Ryan
Will win: Oppenheimer. Last year’s Nope was shut out from every category, most egregiously in Cinematography, but at least Hoyte van Hoytema is likely to win this year.
Rooting for: Oppenheimer.
Should’a Been a Contender: Although Poor Things and Killers of the Flower Moon are nice looking movies, Saltburn is gorgeously, gorgeously shot, and The Taste of Things delivers some salivating food porn, and I would have preferred to see those get nods.
Production Design
“Barbie,” production design: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer
“Killers of the Flower Moon,” production design: Jack Fisk; set decoration: Adam Willis
“Napoleon,” production design: Arthur Max; set decoration: Elli Griff
“Oppenheimer,” production design: Ruth De Jong; set decoration: Claire Kaufman
“Poor Things,” production design: James Price and Shona Heath; set decoration: Zsuzsa Mihalek
Will win: Napoleon. Going out on a limb here to predict that this film’s massive battle scenes (which I haven’t seen yet) will take the prize over the Best Picture nominees that round out this category.
Rooting for: Poor Things. Anything that reminds me of Pushing Daisies would get my vote. I’d be equally happy with Barbie.
Should’a Been a Contender: I don’t think I’d change this lineup at all, but The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes had terrific set design.
Film Editing
“Anatomy of a Fall” – Laurent Sénéchal
“The Holdovers” – Kevin Tent
“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Thelma Schoonmaker
“Oppenheimer” – Jennifer Lame
“Poor Things” – Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Living legend Thelma Schoonmaker joins living legend Michael Kahn in having the most noms in this field, with eight apiece.
Will win: Oppenheimer.
Rooting for: Anatomy of a Fall. I was impressed with how Oppenheimer was structured, but the physical limitation of the IMAX film platter, which kept the movie from being longer than three hours, resulted in an edit that could have given scenes more room to breathe. (Yes, I am saying that Oppenheimer should have been longer! But only like five minutes more would have really improved the narrative flow.) Anatomy is tightly edited though.
Should’a Been a Contender: How To Blow Up A Pipeline would have been nice to see here (it stood no chance of getting a nomination). I’d reluctantly drop Poor Things to make room. The film I saw last year with the most inventive editing was Fox Maxy’s Gush, a sensory overload of digital millennial nightmare.
Costume Design
“Barbie” – Jacqueline Durran
“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Jacqueline West
“Napoleon” – Janty Yates and Dave Crossman
“Oppenheimer” – Ellen Mirojnick
“Poor Things” – Holly Waddington
Will win: Barbie.
Rooting for: Barbie.
Should’a Been a Contender: I didn’t care for Passages at all, but everything Franz Rogowski wears in that movie is iconic. Not sure which of these movies I’d drop, though. All the costumes in this category (that I’ve seen) are well designed.
Makeup and Hairstyling
“Golda,” Karen Hartley Thomas, Suzi Battersby and Ashra Kelly-Blue
“Maestro,” Kazu Hiro, Kay Georgiou and Lori McCoy-Bell
“Oppenheimer,” Luisa Abel
“Poor Things,” Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston
“Society of the Snow,” Ana López-Puigcerver, David Martí and Montse Ribé
I just think it’s funny that there are two teams of makeup artists who are nominated for essentially putting a big nose onto a non-Jewish actor. The biggest snubs in this category happened at the shortlisting stage, where Barbie was left off, perhaps because that movie had no prosthetics. But that doesn’t explain how Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 also failed to make the shortlist, even though it broke the world record for most prosthetics used in a film.
Will win: Maestro. Ugh.
Rooting for: Poor Things, I guess?
Should’a Been a Contender: Beau Is Afraid, Guardians 3, Barbie, Sick of Myself, and Wonka would have been a far more inspiring list. But I don’t wear makeup, and the limit of my hairstyling is using a blow dryer, so maybe don’t trust my taste on this one.
Visual Effects
“The Creator,” Jay Cooper, Ian Comley, Andrew Roberts and Neil Corbould
“Godzilla Minus One,” Takashi Yamazaki, Kiyoko Shibuya, Masaki Takahashi and Tatsuji Nojima
“Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” Stephane Ceretti, Alexis Wajsbrot, Guy Williams and Theo Bialek
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” Alex Wuttke, Simone Coco, Jeff Sutherland and Neil Corbould
“Napoleon,” Charley Henley, Luc-Ewen Martin-Fenouillet, Simone Coco and Neil Corbould
Will win: The Creator. I haven’t seen it yet, but everyone who has watched it has raved about how well integrated the computer generation imagery is with the global locations.
Rooting for: Godzilla Minus One. Most Hollywood productions employ hundreds of visual effects artists (it’s why the credits are so long for Marvel movies). This movie did it with a team of 35.
Should’a Been a Contender: What Poor Things lacks in realism it more than makes up for in inventiveness. I didn’t think Mission: Impossible had particularly groundbreaking VFX work.
The Auditory Crafts
Sound
“The Creator,” Ian Voigt, Erik Aadahl, Ethan Van der Ryn, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
“Maestro,” Steven A. Morrow, Richard King, Jason Ruder, Tom Ozanich and Dean Zupancic
“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” Chris Munro, James H. Mather, Chris Burdon and Mark Taylor
“Oppenheimer,” Willie Burton, Richard King, Gary A. Rizzo and Kevin O’Connell
“The Zone of Interest,” Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn
Will win: The Zone of Interest. Never bet against a film that uses sound to advance the storytelling.
Rooting for: The Zone of Interest. I saw this movie way back in May and the soundscape still haunts me.
Should’a Been a Contender: My uninformed opinion is that sound design for animated movies, in some ways, can be harder to do than live action. So seeing a nod here for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse or The First Slam Dunk would have been inspired. Again, Mission: Impossible would be my sacrifice.
Original Score
“American Fiction” – Laura Karpman
“Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” John Williams
“Killers of the Flower Moon” – Robbie Robertson
“Oppenheimer” – Ludwig Göransson
“Poor Things” – Jerskin Fendrix
Will win: Oppenheimer. But don’t count out Killers of the Flower Moon, as a posthumous win for Robbie Robertson would be a fitting tribute to his career.
Rooting for: Oppenheimer. Who knew that the guy who did the music for Community and New Girl, and produced all of Childish Gambino’s early joke raps, would wind up being one of the best young composers of today?
Should’a Been a Contender: Nicholas Brittell’s brilliant work in Carmen was better than the movie it was written for. And of all the potential places where Across the Spider-Verse could have gotten a nomination, this category is where it hurts the most. The score for American Fiction did nothing for me, and though I’ve yet to see it, the John Williams nomination feels perfunctory.
Original Song
“The Fire Inside” from “Flamin’ Hot,” music and lyric by Diane Warren
“I’m Just Ken” from “Barbie,” music and lyric by Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt
“It Never Went Away” from “American Symphony,” music and lyric by Jon Batiste and Dan Wilson
“Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)” from “Killers of the Flower Moon,” music and lyric by Scott George
“What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie,” music and lyric by Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell
The Academy thought that giving Diane Warren an honorary award last year would make her go away but it didn’t work. The once-legendary songwriter has now been nominated a whopping fifteen times, and this marks the seventh year in a row that she’s gotten an invitation to the ceremony. Because she should have won for her first four nominations (especially for “I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing”), and did not win, we’re now cursed with her as a perennial candidate in this category. All seven of these most recent songs are awful, and for movies that barely exist. At this point, I think the music branch nominates her every year just as a cruel joke.
However, the nomination for “Wahzhazhe,” which is performed by the Osage at the end of Killers, was very inspired.
Will win: “What Was I Made For?” in Barbie. It’s a great song and it was actually used in the movie. A lot of these nominations come for tracks that are just played in the end credits, and if I could change one thing about the Oscars, it would be to disqualify such songs.
Rooting for: “I’m Just Ken” in Barbie. But the real prize is getting to see Ryan Gosling perform this at the ceremony.
Should’a Been a Contender: If we were gonna give Diane Warren an obligatory nom this year, it should have been for the 80 for Brady song! It’s mediocre, but at least it would have been fun to see Dolly Parton, Belinda Carlisle, Cyndi Lauper, Gloria Estefan, Debbie Harry perform on the Oscars stage. As for songs that I actually liked, the duet between Eve Hewson and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in Flora & Son is phenomenally charming. But the most egregious snub: “Camp isn't home, but is it, kind of? Kind of it is. I think it kind of is.” Justice for Theater Camp!
The Shorts
I haven’t seen any of the nominated shorts yet, so I have no thoughts yet on the quality of these short films. When it comes to predicting the winner of these categories, I think of an old tweet from a film journalist: imagine you’re the dumbest member of the Academy, and predict what they would vote for. (I can’t seem to find the tweet anymore, otherwise I’d link to it.)
Animated Short Film
“Letter to a Pig,” Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter
“Ninety-Five Senses,” Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess
“Our Uniform,” Yegane Moghaddam
“Pachyderme,” Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius
“War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko,” Dave Mullins and Brad Booker
I was a bit surprised that Once Upon a Studio, Disney’s centennial tribute to its animation studio, didn’t get a nod. Guess the people in the animated branch aren’t Disney adults. Fun fact: Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess are the filmmakers behind Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre.
Will win: 🤷♂️
Live Action Short Film
“The After,” Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham
“Invincible,” Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron
“Knight of Fortune,” Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk
“Red, White and Blue,” Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane
“The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar,” Wes Anderson and Steven Rales
Will win: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
Documentary Short Film
“The ABCs of Book Banning,” Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic
“The Barber of Little Rock,” John Hoffman and Christine Turner
“Island in Between,” S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien
“The Last Repair Shop,” Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers
“Nǎi Nai & Wài Pó,” Sean Wang and Sam Davis
Will win: 🤷♂️
Congratulations to those who were nominated, condolences to those who were not. And thanks for making it to the end!
It’s time for me to start planning my Oscars dinner in earnest, where I serve a food or drink that pairs with each of the ten Picture nominees. I also do an Oscars party where the cocktails, wine, and snacks are paired with a nominated film. If you have any ideas, please send them my way.
“…this is my safe space to say that I simply think those people are cinema illiterate. ” actually made me laugh out loud 😂