I’ve been putting in some serious movie time to see as many Oscar nominees this year. Down to a week now and have a few to go. This is all I have left of the major categories. I’m not bothering with shorts or documentaries at this point. Also Coco is all that matters for animated. Darkest Hour Roman J Isreal Esq All the money in the world Mud bound Molly’s Game
Four of the documentary features are on streaming services but I haven’t gotten around to seeing any of them yet. In terms of the major awards, The Florida Project is the only one I haven’t seen.
Just saw Dunkirk again in theaters and I forgot just how insanely tense it is. Nolan is probably my outside favorite to take Director
That list really gives you an idea of how bad the winners have been over the years. The Hurt Locker wasn't even the 14th best movie of the year it came out.
I'm still very confused about the love for certain films. The Hurt Locker, Million Dollar Baby and Unforgiven specifically. Maybe I was too young to appreciate the latter two.
What goes into those rankings is the retropect each movie has achieved, particularly its influence on film and culture since. Say if Three Billboards or Shape of Water wins BP, there is no way of knowing how we view either film 10 years from now. BTW I was joking about Avatar
The Hurt Locker beating Inglorious Basterds in pretty much every category (including, somehow, Original Screenplay!) was such a damn letdown. Also, I mean, that list thinks the Academy should've doubled down on Roman Polanski and given Best Picture to The Pianist in 2002, so I don't know how much stock anyone should put in its rankings.
I like Million Dollar Baby more than I did before, but too many people overlook Eastwood's laziness as a coach of actors.
Assuming that documentaries and films in foreign languages cannot win Best Picture, these are the films that should have won this century: 2000: You Can Count on Me 2001: The Royal Tenenbaums 2002: Punch-Drunk Love 2003: Lost in Translation (Gerry is just too weird for them) 2004: Before Sunset 2005: The New World 2006: Children of Men 2007: There Will Be Blood 2008: Synecdoche, New York 2009: Inglourious Basterds 2010: Another Year 2011: The Tree of Life 2012: The Master (probably too weird for them, but 2012 is a weak year for American film) 2013: Before Midnight 2014: Boyhood 2015: Carol (although A Very Murray Christmas deserves it) 2016: Manchester by the Sea 2017: I haven't decided yet, Phantom Thread or The Lost City of Z
2000: Yi Yi 2001: Mulholland Drive 2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers 2003: Lost in Translation 2004: Before Sunset 2005: Brokeback Mountain 2006: Children of Men 2007: There Will Be Blood 2008: Synechdoche, New York 2009: Inglourious Basterds 2010: The Social Network 2011: The Tree of Life 2012: The Master 2013: The Wolf of Wall Street 2014: Under the Skin 2015: Magic Mike XXL 2016: Moonlight 2017: A Ghost Story
I think feature length docs can be considered for nomination. Ebert was lobbying hard for Hoop Dreams to get a BP nod in 1994 and Michael Moore submitted Fahrenheit 9/11 for BP.
I know they can literally be nominated and win, but it is not at all realistic no matter how much I like something like The Act of Killing.
Up and Toy Story 3 were nominated for Best Picture even though they had their own category. Still, docs and foreign language films being nominated for BP seems unlikely. Crouching Tiger got a BP nom, but it had a pretty sizable American audience. I just remembered Amour got nominated too, though.