By John H. Foote
In one week at 5:30 am Pacific time, 8:30 am here, January 13, 2020, the nominations for this year’s Academy Awards will be announced. One week until we know which films, performances and achievements will be vying for the best of 2019.
The year was rather extraordinary, with Netflix leaping into the Oscar race, potentially dominating it with at least six films that could and should show up with at least one nomination each. The Irishman, Martin Scorsese’s magnificent crime epic is expected to lead the nominations with Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood nipping at its heels. Netflix produced Scorsese’s film along with The Two Popes, Dolemite Is My Name, Marriage Story, Klaus, and The Highwaymen to have an astonishing year after Roma (2018) won major awards last year, announcing the arrival of the streaming company as a major awards player.
Two comedians, Eddie Murphy and Adam Sandler could find themselves in the Best Actor race, an extremely competitive field this year loaded with brilliant performances.
Disney made an obscene ten BILLION dollars at the box office with their smash hits Avengers: Endgame, Aladdin, The Lion King, Toy Story 4, Frozen 2 and the untold hundreds of millions Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker will add to that total. Owning Pixar, Fox, Marvel, Lucasfilm plus their own product has allowed them to take control of the film market, and now they have moved into streaming with Lady and the Tramp released on their new streaming site.
The supporting categories are expected to be dominated by previous winners and nominees, both categories bursting at the seams.
And from South Korea came Parasite, a huge hit that has caught everyone off guard in the manner it has been embraced across North America.
In each category, I list in brackets a wild card, the nominee that might slip in though I expect them to be snubbed. Nothing will make me happier than to see them nominated, but I have strong doubts. Neither short film, animated, narrative or documentary is included because I just do not see them all. Of the films qualifying for nominations in every other category, yes, I have seen them all.
No guts, no glory, here we go, my final written in stone final predictions. And yes, it has been one helluva great year at the movies!
Finally, though I suspect Margot Robbie will be nominated for Bombshell, my fervent hope is that she is instead nominated for her luminous, finally haunting performance as Sharon Tate in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
Best Picture
The Irishman
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
1917
Marriage Story
Parasite
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Ford v. Ferrari
Little Women
(The Two Popes)
Best Director
Martin Scorsese for The Irishman
Quentin Tarantino for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Boon Jong Ho for Parasite
Sam Mendes for 1917
Taika Waititi for Jojo Rabbit
(Greta Gerwig for Little Women)
Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix in Joker
Adam Driver in Marriage Story
Leonardo Di Caprio in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Antonio Banderas in Pain and Glory
Taron Edgerton in Rocketman
(Adam Sandler in Uncut Gems)
(Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes)
Best Actress
Renee Zellweger in Judy
Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story
Charlize Theron in Bombshell
Cynthia Erivo in Harriet
Lupita Nyong’o in Us
(Saoirse Ronan in Little Women)
(Jesse Buckley in Wild Rose)
Best Supporting Actor
Joe Pesci in The Irishman
Al Pacino in The Irishman
Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
Anthony Hopkins in The Two Popes
(Willem Dafoe in The Lighthouse)
Best Supporting Actress
Laura Dern in Marriage Story
Scarlett Johansson in Jojo Rabbit
Jennifer Lopez in Hustlers
Margot Robbie in Bombshell
Shuzhen Zhao in The Farewell
(Kathy Bates in Richard Jewell)
(Margot Robbie in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
Best Screenplay Adaptation
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
The Two Popes
(A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood)
Best Original Screenplay
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
The Farewell
Uncut Gems
Marriage Story
Parasite
(1917)
Best Animated Feature
Toy Story 4
Frozen 2
The Lion King
Missing Link
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Best International Feature (Formerly Foreign Language Film)
Parasite
Corpus Christie
Les Miserables
Pain and Glory
The Painted Bird
Best Feature Documentary
Apollo 11
The Cave
One Child Nation
The Biggest Little Farm
American Factory
Best Cinematography
The Irishman
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
The Lighthouse
1917
Ford vs. Ferrari
(Joker)
Best Musical Score
Little Women
1917
Joker
Ford vs. Ferrari
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
(Avengers: Endgame)
Best Make-Up/ Hairstyling
Bombshell
Judy
Joker
Rocketman
The Irishman
(Maleficent: Mistress of Evil)
Best Visual Effects
1917
The Irishman
The Lion King
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Avengers: Endgame
(Captain Marvel)
Best Sound
1917
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
The Irishman
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Rocketman
(Ford v. Ferrari)
Best Sound Editing
1917
Ford v. Ferrari
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Avengers: Endgame
Toy Story 4
Rocketman
(Once Upon a Time in Hollywood)
Best Production Design
The Irishman
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
1917
Jo Jo Rabbit
Downton Abbey
(Little Women)
Best Costumes
Little Women
Downton Abbey
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Rocketman
Jojo Rabbit
(The Irishman)
Best Film Editing
The Irishman
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Joker
Ford v. Ferrari
1917
(Jojo Rabbit)
Best Song
I’m Gonna Love Me Again (Rocketman)
Into the Unknown (Frozen 2)
Spirit (The Lion King)
Glasgow (Wild Rose)
Stand Up (Harriet)
John H. Foote is a well-recognized Canadian film critic/historian who has been an active critic for 30 years. His deep love for the movies began at a very young age. He began his career as co-host of the popular TV show Reel to Real where he remained for nine years. While on TV he began dabbling in education, eventually ascending to Director of the Toronto Film School, where he also taught film history. After leaving the college to care for his wife, he returned to teaching at Humber College where he taught both Film History and Method Acting Theory. John has written two books: “Clint Eastwood – Evolution of a Filmmaker” and the upcoming “Spielberg – American Film Visionary”. He is currently working on two books, one about the films of the seventies and another on the films of Martin Scorsese. Through his career he has worked in TV, radio, print and the web. John has interviewed everyone in the industry (more than 300 interviews) except Jack Nicholson, he says sadly. Highlights include Martin Scorsese, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Francis Ford Coppola and Kathryn Bigelow.
