**for
my Top 10 favorites of 2016, click here**
It’s
that time of year again! With the final
gaudy celebration of film just around the corner, I’ve done my usual prep and
am now presenting my picks for the 2016 Academy Awards.
I
don’t have much to add in terms of commentary.
It’s a wonderful relief that a lot of minority artists and
minority-centered works have been nominated, but that is tempered somewhat by
me knowing that the whitest film of the bunch, La La Land, is quite likely to waltz away with the most awards,
including the big ones. Not that that’s
surprising, but since I already went off at length about this topic in lastyear’s picks, there’s not much new I have to say about that a year later,
so this time around I’ll lay off the heavy politicking, and instead go straight
to the goods!
Writing
(Original Screenplay): Hell or High Water, La La
Land, The Lobster, Manchester by the Sea, 20th Century Women
My
Pick: Manchester by
the Sea
Not
a hard pick this year at all, with Manchester
by the Sea far and away my favorite film on this list.
Writing
(Adapted Screenplay): Arrival,
Fences, Hidden Figures, Moonlight,
Lion
My
Pick: Moonlight
Much
in the vein of Linklater’s Boyhood, Moonlight masterfully weaves together
the connecting threads of three very separate events in a man’s life to show
what brought him to become the man he eventually became.
Visual
Effects: Deepwater
Horizon, Doctor
Strange, The Jungle Book, Kubo and the Two Strings, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
My
Pick: Kubo and the
Two Strings
Damnit,
Kubo was amazing, and deserves all
the awards (I will elaborate on this later).
Sound
Mixing: Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, La La Land, Rogue One: A Star
Wars Story, 13 Hours: The Secret
Soldiers of Benghazi
My
Pick: Arrival
Arrival
had the best overall use of sound and music of any film I saw this year,
utilizing its shifts and cues perfectly to alter the tone or feel of a
scene. This was especially potent in the
“contact” scenes of the film, easily some of the best first interaction moments
I’ve ever seen in this kind of movie.
Sound
Editing: Arrival, Deepwater Horizon, Sully, Hacksaw Ridge, La La Land
My
Pick: Arrival
Same
reasons as above.
Short
Film (Live Action): Ennemis
Interieurs, La Femme et la TGV, Silent Nights, Sing, Timecode
My Pick: N/A
As
always, none of these works got a wide release, and the only people with full
access to them are insulated Academy members who don’t even bother to watchthem all, so as always, I can’t pick a winner.
Short
Film (Animated): Blind
Vaysha, Borrowed Time, Pear Cider and Cigarettes, Pearl, Piper
My Pick: N/A
See
above.
Production
Design: Arrival, Hail, Caesar!, La La Land, Passenger, Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
My
Pick: Hail, Caesar!
It
has been way, way too long since a Coen Brothers movie won an Oscar, and Inside Llewyn Davis was
irresponsibly snubbed, so I’ll take what I can get. My close second is Arrival, and it will probably win.
Music
(Original Song): “Audition (The Fools Who Dream)” from La La Land, “Can’t Stop The Feeling”
from Trolls, “City of Stars” from La La Land, “The Empty Chair” from Jim: The James Foley Story, “How Far I’ll
Go” from Moana
My
Pick: “How Far I’ll Go” from Moana
Lin-Manuel
Miranda needs an Oscar. Right now.
Music
(Original Score): Jackie,
La La Land, Lion, Moonlight, Passengers
My
Pick: Moonlight
I’m
not that blown away by this year’s nominees, to be honest (where the hell is Arrival??), but out of all of them Moonight made the most out of its use of
music, and it’s one of the nominees that most deserves some good award love
over more overrated fare like La La Land.
Makeup
and Hairstyling: A
Man Called Ove, Star
Trek Beyond, Suicide Squad
My
Pick: Star Trek
Beyond
This
and Original Song are always the weakest categories, since they often allow
tripe like Trolls and Fifty Shades of Grey to sneak in and
forever-after get to refer to themselves as “Oscar-nominated,” while legions of
vastly more worthy films are denied.
Last year at least had Mad Max
and The Revenant leading the pack,
but this year isn’t quite as strong.
That said, having a Star Trek film take a trophy would be a nice change
of pace for once.
Foreign
Language Film: Land
of Mine, A Man Called Ove, Toni Erdmann, Tanna, The Salesman
My
Pick: Toni Erdmann
At
long last, a German film is nominated, and I am pulling for it all the
way. German cinema has been on a solid
upswing recently, something I might look at more closely in a future post.
Film
Editing: Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, La La
Land, Moonlight
My
Pick: La La Land
There,
I picked La La Land for something,
just to ward off the Bad Juju. And the
editing was really good.
Documentary
(Short Subject): Extremis,
4.1 Miles, Joe’s Violin, Watani: My
Homeland, The White Helmets
My
Pick: The White
Helmets
The
White Helmets are volunteers who for years now have been risking their lives to
save the lives of victims of the fighting in war-torn Aleppo, Syria. They are true heroes representing the best of
humanity, and deserve every bit of recognition and aid we can provide them
with, and them winning an Oscar might prompt more people to go out and
materially support them as well.
Documentary
(Feature): 13th,
OJ: Made in America, Life, Animated, I Am Not Your Negro, Fire At
Sea
My
Pick: 13th
I
love the fact that 3 of the nominees
this year are works centered around widely-ignored/misunderstood parts of the racial
history of the US, and that another deals with the refugee crisis in the
Mediterranean. It’s one of the
best-possible middle fingers the Academy could have given The Orangutan. While I have heard nothing but good things
about all of these films, 13th
is still my film of the year, so it’s my pick here.
Directing:
Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, La La Land,
Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight
My
Pick: Moonlight
Barry
Jenkins really draws out the best of everyone in his cast, bringing us up close
and personal to experience their pains and trials with them, and I can’t wait
to see what he does next.
Costume
Design: Florence
Foster Jenkins, Fantastic Beasts and
Where To Find Them, Allied, Jackie, La La Land
My
Pick: La La Land
There,
I picked La La Land for something,
just to ward off the Bad Juju.
Cinematography:
Arrival, La La Land, Lion, Moonlight, Silence
My
Pick: Arrival
Arrival was, overall, one of the year’s
best just in terms of creating a consistent mood, and its camerawork was every
bit as integral to that as its Sound Design, which I’ve already lauded to the
skies here.
Animated
Feature Film: Moana,
Zootopia, The Red Turtle, My Life as a
Zucchini, Kubo and the Two Strings
My
Pick: Kubo and the
Two Strings
I
know Zootopia will win in reality,
but by God, it’s about time Laika won one of these, and Kubo really was the best animated work of 2016.
Actress
(Supporting Role): Viola Davis (Fences), Naomie Harris (Moonlight),
Nicole Kidman (Lion), Octavia Spencer
(Hidden Figures), Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)
My
Pick: Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures)
This
is a hard one for me. Naomie Harris does
a powerful job as the mother in Moonlight,
and my sense is that she’s likely to win, but Hidden Figures is criminally underrepresented in the acting
categories, and I want to see it win at least one trophy as well, so I’ll take
a hard knock here.
Actor
(Supporting Role): Mahershala Ali (Moonlight), Jeff Bridges (Hell
or High Water), Lucas Hedges (Manchester
by the Sea), Dev Patel (Lion),
Michael Channon (Nocturnal Animals)
My
Pick: Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
My
favorite part of Ali’s character is how seamlessly he transitions from the
street-tough dealer we see him as first (in many ways seeming to confirm the
hardened stereotypes people have of such people) to the kind, fatherly softie
who takes the main character under his wing.
Also, as far as I can tell, he would be the first Muslim to win an Oscar
in an acting category, and in these times?
Hoo boy, would that be important.
Actress
(Leading Role): Isabelle Hupert (Elle), Ruth Negga (Loving),
Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins),
Emma Stone (La La Land), Natalie
Portman (Jackie)
My
Pick: Ruth Negga (Loving)
I
have to be brutally honest; due purely to time constraints, I have so far only
seen one of the movies nominated here (La
La Land), and I may not be able to see any of the others by next Sunday (I
refuse to see Florence), and to be
frank, Emma Stone just didn’t impress me much.
It STAGGERS me that Taraji Henson from Hidden Figures was ignored here, because if she were, she would be
my pick. This is the price of
determinedly nominated Meryl Streep for literally everything, all the
time.
So
here, I take out my Importance Hat again, and give my vote to the only woman of
color here, who also happens to be nominated for a film about a part of
American racial that a lot of people don’t think about much anymore, but that
remains as necessary as ever.
Actor
(Leading Role): Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea), Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge), Ryan Gosling (La
La Land), Viggo Mortenssen (Captain
Fantastic), Denzel Washington (Fences)
My
Pick: Casey Affleck (Manchester
by the Sea)
Another
fairly easy pick for me, since part of what made Manchester such an emotional experience for me was seeing how much
pathos Affleck managed to bring to his role despite rarely, if ever, altering
his facial expressions.
Best
Picture: La La Land,
Moonlight, Lion, Hell or High Water,
Hacksaw Ridge, Hidden Figures, Arrival, Manchester by the Sea, Fences
My
Pick: Arrival
Manchester by the Sea and Arrival are my two favorites out of this
bunch, but while Manchester came in
higher in my personal Top 10 list, I am flipping them here and to give Arrival Best Picture. It may end up being more influential within
its genre than Manchester, and its
themes of broader communication and the need for human unity is something we
will really, really need more of in the years to come.
And
finally, a tally of which films gets what in my book, for those of you who are
like me and obsessively keep score.
Arrival-
Best Picture, Cinematography, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing (4)
Moonlight-
Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Directing, Supporting Actor (4)
Manchester
by the Sea- Best Actor, Original Screenplay (2)
Kubo
and the Two Strings- Visual Effects, Animated Feature (2)
La
La Land- Film Editing, Costume Design (2)
Hidden
Figures- Best Supporting Actress
Loving-
Best Actress
Star
Trek Beyond- Makeup/Hairstyling
Hail,
Caesar!- Production Design
Moana-
Original Song
Toni
Erdmann- Foreign Language Film
The
White Helmets- Documentary Short
13th-
Documentary Feature
-Noah Franc
No comments:
Post a Comment