Oscars

It's possible to have a stand-out performance in an otherwise mediocre film. But if a film gets 6 nominations - including lead and supporting acting categories and best picture, as well as technical categories, there is something else going on. Last year it happened with Bohemian Rhapsody because the director went AWOL from the project, had to be replaced, and was in the middle of a sex crime scandal. There are no such problems with Greta Gerwig!

It's not true that she hasn't been nominated for Director anywhere for Little Women, either - several critics groups have nominated her.

And you really shouldn't judge a film without seeing it - this Little Women is distinctly different from previous adaptations.

Having said that, my constant refrain with awards is that they're nonsense, designed to make a big noise to call attention to the industry itself, and if actual noteworthy work gets rewarded it's more of a happy accident than an indication that awards are worthwhile. People will remember the films and performances that made an impact on them regardless of how many awards they won. 

In fact, after a couple of years no-one outside of awards nerd even remembers who won what. I was surprised the other day to be reminded that Pheonix didn't win Best Actor for Walk The Line.

Based on average score, the best films released in the USA in 2019 according to film critics. The ones in bold were directed by a woman. The ones in red were nominated for Best Director.

1. Parasite
2. Portrait of a Lady on Fire
3. The Irishman
4. Marriage Story
5. The Souvenir
6. Little Women
7. Uncut Gems
8. The Farewell
9. Long Day's Journey Into Night
10. Pain and Glory

39. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

1917 and Joker did not make the top 50.

While there's never an accurate way of measuring 'best' when it comes to art, I'd say it seems clear that the work of Céline Sciamma, Joanna Hogg, Greta Gerwig and Lulu Wang would be more than worthy of being nominated this year. But let's say, well, Portrait of a Lady on Fire was distributed by the film studio NEON who also had Parasite and therefore gave that film a bigger campaign. Well, The Souvenir is a small British indie that audiences didn't take to in the way that critics did. Well, The Farewell is mostly in Mandarin (we'll ignore the fact that Parasite is a foreign language film) so maybe that held it back.

Little Women is a six-time nominated film. It was nominated for Best Picture. It has just passed $100million in the worldwide box office on week three of its release. Audiences love it, critics love it and the Academy liked it enough to nominate it for six awards. So yes, I'm not sure how anyone could say that Gerwig did not deserve to be nominated. 


Gerwig won the award for Best Director from the National Society of Film Critics. Most filmmakers would consider that a more prestigious honour than being nominated for a Golden Globe, which are voted on by a group of around 90 European journalists, not critics or filmmakers.

Her film got two performances Oscar nominated and won or was nominated for a lot of ensemble awards over the course of the awards season, proving that it wasn't just the case of one standout performance.

How many Scorsese films have we had about gangsters? How many Tarantino films have we had that follow the same type of structure as Once Upon a Time in Hollywood including the extreme violence? How many war films have we had? How many films featuring the character of the Joker have we had? Of the Best Director nominated films, only Parasite can really claim to be doing something that hasn't been done a million times before.

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People continue to (probably willingly) miss the point. This isn't about this year alone. This is about the larger scheme of things. Yesterday, 5 men were nominated for best director. In the last 92 years of the Oscars, 5 women have been nominated for best director. The same amount of men that were nominated for directing yesterday is the same amount of women that have been nominated in 92 years of Oscar history. There is no way that people can claim with a straight face that that is all down to merit and that there is no bias there. Of course there is.

A quote from Gerwig, published two days before Oscar nominations:

Two days later, five films featuring male violence are nominated for Best Director. She knows what she's talking about. 

I find it hilarious how you are so certain it won't be as good when you haven't even seen it!

I haven't seen Little Women because it doesn't interest me, it never has in any version, though I do like some of the actress's in this one (as opposed to Wynona Ryder which is why I didn't see the last one) so I may see it eventually on streaming.

In the end as someone said above, it doesn't matter really, awards are all bollocks which is why I don't know why everyone gets so butthurt about it. I imagine as a film maker that your film being a success and people actually seeing it is the most important thing. Sure it is nice to win things, but surely having the people who actually paid money to watch your film and enjoyed it is the main thing.

I loved once upon a time in hollywood better then Django. Loved Jango though. If you go on quora there are many that love Joker. I refuse to see it

Brad Pitt was amazing

Why out of interest?

I'd agree with all of the above.

Bombshell's greatness comes from its performances. Theron IS Kelly, she is amazing. Lithgow is also suitable vile as Ailes. Robbie however has the big scenes and nails them to perfection. She is heartbreaking. It's not perfect and clearly not as informative or comprehensive as the 7 hour Loudest Voice - the guy truly was one of the most repugnant things ever to walk the earth, but it is a good representation of this particular area of his utter vileness.

Lighthouse like The Witch before it, is a very singular vision carried out to perfection on screen. Much like Midsommar it is a hard watch, but it's so well realised you can't not admire it, even if you don't 'like' it. 

I agree that they should extend the category but I also know that if they did it would almost certainly just end up a reflection of Best Picture for the most part (in the same way both sound categories are usually mostly identical except for maybe one difference). The Academy just isn't really made up of experts. That's why it's so annoying that you know they ultimately are pointless and mean nothing but the general public hold them in the highest regard of all the awards ceremonies so you complain that they're not better but they'll never be better without systematic reform to the voting pool.

Precisely. All you have to do is listen to voters' reasoning for their choices (especially in the more fringe categories like the shorts, technical or even animation which isn't that fringe but most admit to voting for their kid's favourite or whichever is Disney/Pixar) to realise that the Academy really has little integrity. The issue is that it's given the most weight despite that and you can't just ignore it because it really does influence how well a film does.

Well they finally got it right for once (actually I loved The Shape of Water but I know it's a controversial opinion to think it deserved best picture). I'm just back from seeing Parasite about an hour ago and it was utterly brilliant and well deserved the win (I've not seen 1917 or Ford v Ferrari yet but I'm expecting they'll be well made but nothing special so I doubt my opinion on the best of the year being this film will change). See it!