And The Nominees Are

side_oscarThe 92nd Academy Awards are going down Sunday night, so here’s my uneducated predictions for the non-acting awards. I have seen a couple of these movies, so I will still mostly be going on gut feel and word of mouth with just a little bit of personal experience.

Best Original Screenplay

Rian Johnson, Knives Out
Noah Baumbach, Marriage Story
Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson-Cairns, 1917
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood
Bong Joon-ho and Han Jin-won, Parasite

I’ve seen none of these films, so this is a total shot in the dark, but I’ve heard lots of good things about Knives Out.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Steven Zaillian, The Irishman
Taika Waititi, Jojo Rabbit
Todd Phillips and Scott Silver, Joker
Greta Gerwig, Little Women
Anthony McCarten, The Two Popes

I’ve only seen one of these, but my guess is that Greta Gerwig takes home the prize.

Best Animated Feature

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
I Lost My Body
Klaus
Missing Link
Toy Story 4

I’m assuming the continuing adventures of the talking Mr. Potato Head and friends will be the winner.

Best Cinematography

Rodrigo Prieto, The Irishman
Lawrence Sher, Joker
Jarin Blaschke, The Lighthouse
Roger Deakins, 1917
Robert Richardson, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Well, again, I’ve seen one of these, so I will go with the war effort 1917.

Best Costume Design

Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson, The Irishman
Mayes C. Rubeo, Jojo Rabbit
Mark Bridges, Joker
Jacqueline Durran, Little Women
Arianne Phillips, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood

Quentin Tarantino’s tale of 1960s Hollywood is my choice to win this particular prize.

Best Documentary Feature

American Factory
The Cave
The Edge of Democracy
For Sama
Honeyland

I haven’t heard of any of these, so it is a total shot in the dark.

Best Documentary Short Subject

In the Absence
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)
Life Overtakes Me
St. Louis Superman
Walk Run Cha-Cha

This is a total guess for a category that I know nothing about.

Achievement in Film Editing

Andrew Buckland and Michael McCusker, Ford V Ferrari
Thelma Schoonmaker, The Irishman
Tom Eagles, Jojo Rabbit
Jeff Groth, Joker
Yang Jin-mo, Parasite

Film editing seems like an award that a sweeping war epic should win, but since there aren’t any of those nominated, I’ll pick the one about race cars.

Best Foreign Language Film

Corpus Christi, Poland
Honeyland, North Macedonia
Les Misérables, France
Pain and Glory, Spain
Parasite, South Korea

A group of films that I have never, and likely will never, see, but Parasite is nominated for Best Picture, so it would make sense for it to win this.

Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan, and Vivian Baker, Bombshell
Nicki Ledermann and Kay Georgiou, Joker
Jeremy Woodhead, Judy
Paul Gooch, Arjen Tuiten, and David White, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Naomi Donne, Tristan Versluis, and Rebecca Cole, 1917

Just a guess at this point.

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

Joker, Hildur Guðnadóttir
Little Women, Alexandre Desplat
Marriage Story, Randy Newman
1917, Thomas Newman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, John Williams

The sentimental favorite has to be John Williams in his final entry in the Star Wars saga.

Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song)

I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away from Toy Story 4 by Randy Newman
(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again from Rocketman by Elton John and Bernie Taupin
I’m Standing with You from Breakthrough by Diane Warren
Into the Unknown from Frozen II by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez
Stand Up from Harriet by Joshuah Brian Campbell and Cynthia Erivo

This seems like too obvious a choice.

Achievement in Production Design

The Irishman, Production Design: Bob Shaw; Set Decoration: Regina Graves
Jojo Rabbit, Production Design: Ra Vincent; Set Decoration: Nora Sopková
1917, Production Design: Dennis Gassner; Set Decoration: Lee Sandales
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Production Design: Barbara Ling; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh
Parasite, Production Design: Lee Ha-jun; Set Decoration: Cho Won-woo

I’m picking the team behind 1917 in a pure guess.

Best Animated Short Film

Dcera (Daughter), Daria Kashcheeva
Hair Love, Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver
Kitbull, Rosana Sullivan and Kathryn Hendrickson
Memorable, Bruno Collet and Jean-François Le Corre
Sister, Siqi Song

Best Live Action Short Film

Brotherhood, Meryam Joobeur and Maria Gracia Turgeon
Nefta Football Club, Yves Piat and Damien Megherbi
The Neighbors’ Window, Marshall Curry
Saria, Bryan Buckley and Matt Lefebvre
A Sister, Delphine Girard

These two picks are based on nothing but pure alchemy.

Achievement in Sound Editing

Ford v Ferrari, Donald Sylvester
Joker, Alan Robert Murray
1917, Oliver Tarney and Rachael Tate
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Wylie Stateman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Matthew Wood and David Acord

I’m going to go with 1917, for no particular reason.

Achievement in Sound Mixing

Ad Astra, Gary Rydstrom, Tom Johnson and Mark Ulano
Ford v Ferrari, Paul Massey, David Giammarco, and Steven A. Morrow
Joker, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic and Tod Maitland
1917, Mark Taylor and Stuart Wilson
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Michael Minkler, Christian P. Minkler, and Mark Ulano

I’ll go with the vroom vrooms of the car movie.

Achievement in Visual Effects

Avengers: Endgame, Dan DeLeeuw, Matt Aitken, Russell Earl and Dan Sudick
The Irishman, Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, and Nelson Sepulveda
The Lion King, Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones, and Elliot Newman
1917, Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, and Dominic Tuohy
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Roger Guyett, Neal Scanlan, Patrick Tubach, and Dominic Tuohy

I could make an argument for Avengers or Star Wars, but I’m going with Endgame, just for the scope of its effects.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.