2020 Oscar Nominations

Welp, it’s finally here. The 2019 films race will finally come to a close at the 92nd Academy Awards ceremony next month. The nominees were pretty much what many of us expected, with few surprises (the biggest one of all is ‘Joker’ having the most nominations - 11!!!!). Every Oscar Season has at least one villain (last year’s was ‘Green Book’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’), and we can officially confirm this year’s villain is, ironically, one of the most infamous villains of all time - ‘Joker’. And Todd Phillips. The only Oscar I believe the film should win is Best Actor for Joaquin Phoenix.

After the #OscarsSoWhite controversies in 2015 and 2016, The Academy has made an effort to increase the number of women and people of color to its membership, of which there are over 6,000 members. This initiative has led to some surprising yet well-deserved nominations and wins, including ‘Moonlight’, ‘The Shape of Water’, and ‘Black Panther’. But as we saw last year when ‘Green Book’ won Best Picture, or with acting categories still predominantly white, or with the directing field filled with men, The Academy still has a long ways to go before these problems can be solved.

The nominees for this year’s ceremony is indicative of the problems that still persist within The Academy’s voting body. 19 out of the 20 acting nominees are white, despite actors like Alfre Woodard, Lupita Nyong’o, Awkwafina, Jodie Turner-Smith, Daniel Kaluuya, Eddie Murphy, Ana de Armas, Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Jamie Foxx, Zhao Shuzhen, and the entire ‘Parasite’ cast giving us celebrated (and for some, career-best) performances. All of the directing nominees are men (four out of five are white), a huge disappointment considering the outstanding works given to us by Lulu Wang, Lorene Scafaria, Melina Matsoukas, Greta Gerwig, Olivia Wilde, Alma Har’el, Julia Hart, and Marielle Heller. And seven out of the nine Best Picture nominees star white men.

Despite all of this, there are some things worth celebrating from the list of nominees. ‘Parasite’ made history by becoming the first South Korean film to be nominated at The Oscars. It scored six nominations, including Best Picture, Director, and Original Screenplay. For such a character-driven film, I’m sad none of the actors were recognized - especially Song Kang-ho and Park So-dam. I was relieved ‘Little Women’ received six nominations as well, including Best Picture and Adapted Screenplay. While Gerwig definitely deserved an Oscar nom for the film, I’m just glad the film was nominated at all, considering it’s been mostly ignored in many of the major Oscar precursors. Florence Pugh received a her first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress nominated (yay!), and Rian Johnson received his first Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay (yay!).

As we get closer to Oscars Night (February 9th) I’ll release my annual predictions for the ceremony. Despite the disappointing nominees, I’m hoping there can be a few major surprises (like ‘Parasite’ sweeping, please GOD).

The following is a list of all nominees for the 92nd Academy Awards, separated by category. Bolded nominees are ones I predicted would be nominated.

Best Picture

1. Ford v Ferrari

2. The Irishman

3. Jojo Rabbit

4. Joker

5. Little Women

6. Marriage Story

7. 1917

8. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

9. Parasite

Best Director

1. Martin Scorsese (‘The Irishman’)

2. Todd Phillips (‘Joker’)

3. Sam Mendes (‘1917’)

4. Quentin Tarantino (‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’)

5. Bong Joon-ho (‘Parasite’)

Best Actor

1. Antonio Banderas (‘Pain and Glory’)

2. Leonardo DiCaprio (‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’)

3. Adam Driver (‘Marriage Story’)

4. Joaquin Phoenix (‘Joker’)

5. Jonathan Pryce (‘The Two Popes’)

Best Actress

1. Cynthia Erivo (‘Harriet’)

2. Scarlett Johansson (‘Marriage Story’)

3. Saoirse Ronan (‘Little Women’)

4. Charlize Theron (‘Bombshell’)

5. Renee Zellweger (‘Judy’)

Best Supporting Actor

1. Tom Hanks (‘A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood’)

2. Anthony Hopkins (‘The Two Popes’)

3. Al Pacino (‘The Irishman’)

4. Joe Pesci (‘The Irishman’)

5. Brad Pitt (‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’)

Best Supporting Actress

1. Kathy Bates (‘Richard Jewell’)

2. Laura Dern (‘Marriage Story’)

3. Scarlett Johansson (‘Jojo Rabbit’)

4. Florence Pugh (‘Little Women’)

5. Margot Robbie (‘Bombshell’)

Best Original Screenplay

1. Knives Out

2. Marriage Story

3. 1917

4. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

5. Parasite

Best Adapted Screenplay

1. The Irishman

2. Jojo Rabbit

3. Joker

4. Little Women

5. The Two Popes

Best Animated Feature

1. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World

2. I Lost My Body

3. Klaus

4. Missing Link

5. Toy Story 4

Best International Feature Film

1. Corpus Christi (Poland)

2. Honeyland (North Macedonia)

3. Les Miserables (France)

4. Pain and Glory (Spain)

5. Parasite (South Korea)

Best Documentary Feature

1. American Factory

2. The Cave

3. The Edge of Democracy

4. For Sama

5. Honeyland

Best Documentary Short Subject

1. In the Absence

2. Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)

3. Life Overtakes Me

4. St. Louis Superman

5. Walk Run Cha-Cha

Best Live Action Short Film

1. Brotherhood

2. Nefta Football Club

3. The Neighbors’ Window

4. Saria

5. A Sister

Best Animated Short Film

1. Dcera (Daughter)

2. Hair Love

3. Kitbull

4. Memorable

5. Sister

Best Original Score

1. Joker (Hildur Guonadottir)

2. Little Women (Alexandre Desplat)

3. Marriage Story (Randy Newman)

4. 1917 (Thomas Newman)

5. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (John Williams)

Best Original Song

1. “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” - Randy Newman (‘Toy Story 4’)

2. “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” - Elton John & Bernie Taupin (‘Rocketman’)

3. “I’m Standing with You” - Diane Warren (‘Breakthrough’)

4. “Into the Unknown” - Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez (‘Frozen 2’)

5. “Stand Up” - Joshuah Brian Campbell & Cynthia Erivo (‘Harriet’)

Best Sound Editing

1. Ford v Ferrari (Donald Sylvester)

2. Joker (Alan Robert Murray)

3. 1917 (Oliver Tarney)

4. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Wylie Stateman)

5. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Matthew Wood & David Acord)

Best Sound Mixing

1. Ad Astra (Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson & Mark Ulano)

2. Ford v Ferrari (Paul Massey, David Giammarco & Steven A. Morrow)

3. Joker (Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic & Tod Maitland)

4. 1917 (Mark Taylor & Stuart Wilson)

5. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Michael Mikler, Christian P. Minkler & Mark Ulano)

Best Production Design

1. The Irishman (Bob Shaw & Regina Graves)

2. Jojo Rabbit (Ra Vincent & Nora Sopkova)

3. 1917 (Dennis Gassner & Lee Sandales)

4. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Barbara Ling & Nancy Haigh)

5. Parasite (Lee Ha-joon & Cho Won-woo)

Best Cinematography

1. The Irishman (Rodrigo Prieto)

2. Joker (Lawrence Sher)

3. The Lighthouse (Jarin Blaschke)

4. 1917 (Roger Deakins)

5. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Robert Richardson)

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

1. Bombshell (Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan & Vivian Baker)

2. Joker (Nicki Ledermann & Kay Georgiou)

3. Judy (Jeremy Woodhead)

4. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (Paul Gooch, Arjen Tuiten & David White)

5. 1917 (Naomi Donne, Tristan Verslui & Rebecca Cole)

Best Costume Design

1. The Irishman (Sandy Powell & Christopher Peterson)

2. Jojo Rabbit (Mayes C. Rubeo)

3. Joker (Mark Bridges)

4. Little Women (Jacqueline Durran)

5. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (Arianne Phillips)

Best Film Editing

1. Ford v Ferrari (Andrwe Buckland & Michael McCusker)

2. The Irishman (Thelma Schoonmaker)

3. Jojo Rabbit (Tom Eagles)

4. Joker (Jeff Groth)

5. Parasite (Yang Jin-mo)

Best Visual Effects

1. Avengers: Endgame (Dan DeLeeuw, Matt Aitken, Russell Earl & Dan Sudick)

2. The Irishman (Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli & Nelson Sepulveda)

3. The Lion King (Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones & Elliot Newman)

4. 1917 (Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler & Dominic Tuohy)

5. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach & Dominic Tuohy)