With the Oscar vote officially underway, Academy members are settling in and updating all of this year’s extended eligibility films. Arguably the most difficult-to-read award season in modern history, there are dozens of interpretations of how the season will stir and where the minds of AMPAS voters are in the running.
I believe that there is an “X” factor in this award season that can potentially affect the way the experts perceive the nominations. In addition, there is also a disagreement about what this “X” factor could be. Some argue: just look at the guilds, this is the only overlap of Oscar voters. Others say that voters at the Academy are disconnected from the season and anything is possible. The truth is that it is somewhere in the middle – but my theory is that international voters can be the target of several films and performances.
There are no parties, screening events or casual confrontations with voters this year. We are reading the temperature through cell phones, emails and Zoom meetings. In the end, almost 10,000 voters can say one thing publicly and something different in particular – depending on who is on the other end of the line.
As we venture into the unknown, we thought it would be useful to recall the most shocking inclusions and rejections of the past decade that occurred on the Oscar nomination morning. A mention of the craftsman is also included, as the indications “below the line” (or lack thereof) provide an interesting reading of a film in general.
Read the list below.
2010 (83rd Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: Javier Bardem, “Biutiful” (best actor)
Shocking exclusion: Andrew Garfield, “The Social Network” (best supporting actor)
Artisan inclusion: “I Am Love” (best costume)
Craftsman exclusion: “Shutter Island” (best art direction, now called production design)
Previous winners often manage to enter the acting categories, and Javier Bardem was able to do so instead of names like Robert Duvall (“Get Low”) and Ryan Gosling (“Blue Valentine”) for the film by Alejandro González Iñárritu indicated in a foreign language “Biutiful” from Mexico. One of the eyebrow raises was Andrew Garfield’s omission to one of the best pioneers in cinema, “The Social Network” by David Fincher.
2011 (84th Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: “Extremely loud and incredibly close” (best photo)
Shocking exclusion: David Fincher, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” (best director)
Artisan inclusion: “A Cat in Paris” (best animated feature)
Exclusion of craftsman: “The Help” (best costume)
On the morning of the Oscar nomination, what looked like a probable list of the eight best films quickly won public acclaim when the title card flipped over and showed Tom Hanks and young Thomas Horn from Stephen Daldry’s “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”, a Warner Bros. received a lash from critics. Despite an almost perfect guild display for Fincher’s “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” except at the SAG Awards, Fincher and the film failed to make the top spot.
2012 (85th Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: Benh Zeitlin, “Beasts of the Southern Wild” (best director)
Shocking exclusion: Ben Affleck, “Argo” (best director)
Artisan inclusion: “Life of Pi” (best production design)
Artisan exclusion: “The Avengers” (best sound edition)
Who can forget the year that forgot the director of the winner of best film, “Argo”. Although equally shocking to the contempt of Kathryn Bigelow (“Zero Dark Thirty”), co-producer, director and star Ben Affleck has not had his name read by broadcaster and host Seth MacFarlane. Instead, AMPAS found the path to Benh Zeitlin’s Sundance success, “Beasts of the Southern Wild”, which yielded four important nominations, including the debuting filmmaker.
2013 (86th Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: Christian Bale, “American Hustle” (best actor)
Shocking exclusion: Tom Hanks, “Captain Phillips” (best actor)
Artisan inclusion: “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” (best makeup and hairstyle)
Craftsman exclusion: “12 Years a Slave” (best cinematography)
The addition of Christian Bale’s turn to David O. Russell’s “American Hustle” doesn’t seem so strange, considering he received the BAFTA, Globe and Critics Choice nods. But many doubted that he would be able to beat one of the most competitive candidates for leading actor in Oscar history, along with the doubt that the film would be able to get four acting nods, which hasn’t happened since Warren Beatty’s “Reds”. (1981) Well, he did, and during one of Tom Hanks’ most invigorating portraits as the captain of the ship hijacked in Paul Greengrass’s “Captain Phillips”.
2014 (87th Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: Bennett Miller, “Foxcatcher” (best director)
Shocking exclusion: Jake Gyllenhaal, “Nightcrawler” (best actor)
Artisan inclusion: “Birdman” (best sound edition)
Craftsman exclusion: “Birdman” (best film edition)
Bennett Miller was the first filmmaker to be the only nominated director in the expansion of the era of best film for the darkly rich “Foxcatcher”. Joining a list that includes Stephen Daldry, Miller’s first three films received a nomination for best film or director – “Capote” (2005), “Moneyball” (2011) and “Foxcatcher”. Although exciting, many felt nothing but sadness for Jake Gyllenhaal, who, despite receiving nods from BAFTA, Globes and SAG, was notoriously excluded from Dan Gilroy’s list of best actors in “Nightcrawler”.
2015 (88th Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: Tom Hardy, “The Revenant” (best supporting actor)
Shocking exclusion: Idris Elba, “Beasts of No Nation” (best supporting actor)
Inclusion of the artisan: “The 100-year-old man who went out the window and disappeared” (best makeup)
Craftsman exclusion: “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” (best production design)
Leonardo DiCaprio won best actor as the pioneer Hugh Glass in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “The Revenant”, and in the bubble for most of the awards season was his co-star Tom Hardy, who only got a Critics Choice nomination. on Oscar’s morning. Coming at the expense of SAG winner Idris Elba and Michael Shannon (“99 Homes”), Hardy paved the way for the mix, maintaining an interesting trend. Each of DiCaprio’s lead nominations brought a supporting actor nod to the tour – “The Aviator” (Alan Alda), “Blood Diamond” (Djimon Hounsou), “The Wolf of Wall Street” (Jonah Hill), “The Revenant” and, more recently, “Once upon a time in … Hollywood” (Oscar winner Brad Pitt).
2016 (89th Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals” (best supporting actor)
Shocking exclusion: Amy Adams, “Arrival” (best actress)
Artisan inclusion: “Kubo and the two strings” (best visual effects)
Artisan exclusion: “Skyfall” (best film edition)
Paul Giamatti (“Sideways”), Lupita Nyong’o (“Us”), Peter Sarsgaard (“Shattered Glass”), Maria Bello (“A History of Violence”) – Names like those sting when you think about their shocking absences from the escalations of performance of the last two decades. Amy Adams’ beautiful and striking performance in “Arrival” joined this unbearable list of talents, mainly because they seemed like the right things in their respective years, even as challengers for the eventual winners. His “Night Animals” co-star, Michael Shannon, appeared for the second time in his career with a nomination for best supporting actor without the recognition of Globes, SAG and BAFTA.
2017 (90th Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: Paul Thomas Anderson, “Phantom Thread” (best director)
Shocking exclusion: Martin McDonagh, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” (best director)
Inclusion of craftsman: “Logan” (best adapted script)
Craftsman exclusion: “Get Out” (best film edition)
Martin McDonagh’s “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” went to the Oscars for best film awards at the Globo and BAFTA, along with the SAG cast award. To imagine that the filmmaker would be left out, in favor not only of a shocking entry like Paul Thomas Anderson, but also doubled up with an indication of best related film – I’m not sure if many could predict such an outcome. Then he lost the Oscar main prize for “The Shape of Water” by Guillermo del Toro. These curved balls always make the award season more interesting.
2018 (91st Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: Marina de Tavira, “Roma” (best supporting actress)
Shocking exclusion: Bradley Cooper, “A Star is Born” (best director)
Artisan inclusion: “Bohemian Rhapsody” (best sound edition)
Craftsman exclusion: “First Man” (best original score)
Netflix’s “Roma” was coming on strong and was expected to bring some surprise nods, especially to its star Yalitza Aparicio as the Mexico City maid, which happened. She also attracted her glorious counterpart Marina de Tavira, who plays the mother of the family she serves. For the second year in a row, another shocking contempt for the director occurred, and with someone who looked like a “right thing” – Bradley Cooper, who also starred in, produced and co-wrote the script and several of the film’s songs. Peter Farrelly’s absence in “Green Book” was also shocking, considering that the film won the best film.
2019 (92nd Oscar)
Shocking inclusion: Todd Phillips, “Joker”
Shocking exclusion: Jennifer Lopez, “Hustlers” (best supporting actress)
Artisan inclusion: “O Farol” (best cinematography)
Artisan exclusion: “Apollo 11” (best documentary)
Todd Phillips uses the same description as Christian Bale’s entry on the “American Hustle” list. Reading all the tea leaves, it seemed like an easy decision, considering that “Joker” led the nominations with 11. BAFTA and Globos were all for him, and yet, probably due to the obstacles of inclusion of the superhero genre in the Academy, he seemed a long shot. But nothing astounded the world of experts than the blatant ignorance of Jennifer Lopez’s dynamic work on Lorene Scafaria’s “Hustlers”, one of the many outrages by POC last year – Lupita Nyong’o (“We”), Jamie Foxx (” Just Mercy “), Awkwafina and Zhao Shuzhen (” The Farewell “) and Taylor Russell (” Waves “).