Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Duong Tu Quynh and James Hong in Everything Anywhere All At Onceled the Oscar nominations on Tuesday.
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Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan, Duong Tu Quynh and James Hong in Everything Anywhere All At Onceled the Oscar nominations on Tuesday.
A24
The Oscar nominations were announced Tuesday morning, and while many of them have largely lived up to expectations, there are still some great nominations that will keep fans of the films from afternoon sun, lead role Paul Mescal received a nomination for best actor, Top Gun: Maverick, is the rare traditional summer blockbuster to earn a Best Picture nomination. There are also some omissions that hurt fans of individual artists as well as advocates of more inclusiveness in the Oscars. Let’s take a look at some titles.
War movies are still a solid path to awards
German adaptation All is quiet on the Western frontavailable on Netflix, doesn’t make much of a new breakout as a war movie for those who’ve seen the bloodiest scenes in the series. Saving Private Ryan and trench warfare of 1917. It screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in the fall to generally positive but not necessarily enthusiastic reviews. However, it received nine nominations, including best picture, best international film, and best adapted screenplay. There’s a long history of Oscars loving brutal depictions of young men at war, and it continues.
Everything Anywhere All At Once is a unique pioneer
If the Oscars have a longstanding love affair with war movies, they have no particular history with anything reminiscent. Everything Anywhere All At Onceidiosyncratic, multiverse family story leads the nominations with 11. Four acting nominations — for lead actress Michelle Yeoh, supporting actresses Tu Hy Vien and Jamie Lee Curtis, and male actors supporting actor Ke Huy Quan — along with best film, best director, best director of original screenplay, best costumes, music and visual effects and editing, all make up the success big for a movie unlike anything anyone’s ever seen before.
Yes, you can still run a campaign with a small budget and get a nomination
A few weeks ago, people talked about Andrea Riseborough’s performance in the low budget TV series To Leslie, which was critically acclaimed for her work and generally well reviewed upon its October release, began development. But it’s not on the radar of most awards, and then, when theories revolved around what connections might be behind the wave of support. And now, Riseborough has her nomination.
The complexity of this successful loser campaign is such that it’s easy to see it taking a place on the list that could go to a few critically acclaimed performances by Black actresses, especially is Viola Davis in Queen and Danielle Deadwyler in Until. But Riseborough doesn’t take up more space, like Ana de Armas in Yellow or Michelle Williams in Fabelman’s house, neither of which were universally lauded performances, and both were certainly supported by campaigns that were as active as anything that happened on Twitter. Those campaigns are based on access to funding rather than connections; both can lead to exclusions and inclusions based on factors other than achievement.
But you should expect that seeing a low-budget campaign like this succeed — not the first, but perhaps the first to go public on social media — will lead to come more.
The people who were nominated for the first time in the acting category are everywhere
Out of a total of 20 nominations in four acting categories, 16 were nominated for the first time. Only Cate Blanchett, Michelle Williams, Judd Hirsch and Angela Bassett are veterans. First-time contenders include new faces like Austin Butler (Elvis) and Stephanie Hsu (Everything Anywhere All At Once), but also familiar veterans like Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (Inisherin’s Banshees) and Bill Nighy (Life). Plus, of course, the back stories of Ke Huy Quan (Everything Anywhere All At Once) and Brendan Fraser (Whale).
No female directors… again, and update #OscarsSoWhite
Women have won two recent best director Oscars (Chloe Zhao cho nomadic land and then Jane Campion for The power of the dog). But as has been the case with many years of Oscar nominations, no women have been nominated this year, despite good films by established directors including Gina Prince-Bythewood (Queen) and Sarah Polley (women talkingnominated for best picture).
It’s also been a rough year for some of the most highly regarded Black artists in Hollywood. On top of Davis and Deadwyler and the movies they starred in, Jordan Peele’s thriller No were completely excluded from the nominations. While it doesn’t have the impact of a best picture nomination Get out, No is provocative and creative, and the complete closure is disappointing. While Angela Bassett became the first actress to be nominated for a Marvel film (for Black Panther: Wakanda forever) and the incredibly versatile Brian Tiree Henry were nominated for causewayThe discussions about #OscarsSoWhite in recent years are far from over.
