Blog: If We Were Oscar Voters

The 93rd Academy Awards are coming up, and for fun I decided to make my own nomination list from all the movies I saw that were eligible (just over 80) and pick what I think are the truly deserving films. I’ve enlisted Rachel Ho, frequent podcast guest, to help out with this exercise and we will make notes on both our own picks, and the other persons (in case they need some gentle teasing).

Let’s start with acting categories to keep your interest level up high.

Best Supporting Actress

Dakota – This is a bit of a tricky category for me where I wasn’t as blown away by some of the other potentials. I’ve always been a Seyfried fan going back to Mean Girls and Big Love, and while Mank was not a good movie, she shined in every scene she was in. Margo Martindale is my complete off the board pick as a nominee for a dark comedy I doubt many people checked out. 

Rachel – Completely agree with you that there wasn’t a stand out supporting actress performance this year. I’m not part of the Seyfried fan club as you are, but I really liked her in Mank and it’s definitely turned my mind about her. Going to throw some love at Han Ye-ri in Minari as I thought she was incredible as Monica and I was surprised she didn’t pick up more recognition across the awards shows. My wild card is Helena Zengel. I didn’t think I’d pick News of the World for anything, (and maybe it’s the weaker category) but her performance keeps popping up in my head when thinking about this category. Also hold up, neither of us picked Glenn Close??

Dakota – What am I a Razzie voter? I made my picks and Glenn Close will have to deal with potentially just winning a real Oscar (undeserved) this year. I actually had Han Ye-ri as my 6th Best Actress, interesting you put her here.

Best Supporting Actor

Dakota – It has to be Kaluuya right? Unlike the Oscars, I know that LaKeith Stanfield was the lead in that movie, but Daniel Kaluuya steals every scene he is in with a magnetic charisma needed to make a rainbow coalition. Delroy Lindo got snubbed, and while Da 5 Bloods, wasn’t a great movie by any stretch, his end monologue is an all-timer for Spike Lee. Aldis Hodge playing Jim Brown was the quiet rock in Miami that got overshadowed by Leslie Odom Jr.’s final song.

Rachel – 100% it’s Kaluuya and deservedly so! Fred Hampton is a giant of a man to take on and Kaluuya did it with precision. We’ve nominated all the same movies but I went a different way with Chicago 7 and One Night in Miami…. Eli Goree for me was shockingly accurate as Cassius Clay/Muhammed Ali and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II made my heart hurt as Bobby Seale. I love the nod to Aldis Hodge from you, truly overlooked in that movie.

Best Actress

Dakota – Sidney Flanigan was a first time performer and gave everything to a scared young woman needing to cross state lines to get an abortion. The film’s title scene when she is being asked difficult questions by a nurse to determine if she is in danger is a clinic of letting emotions slowly build up and letting your eyes do the talking. Hot take, Malcolm and Marie is a great film that was misunderstood by critics and Zendaya was phenomenal in it. How did Buckly go back to back year’s with some of the best performances (Wild Rose, now this) and still get snubbed?

Rachel – Part of me thinks critics hated Malcolm and Marie because the movie criticized them. I really enjoyed that movie and Zendaya and John David Washington were both awesome. For me though, Vanessa Kirby gave the performance of the year in Pieces of a Woman. She didn’t once overplay her role, which I think could have been really easy, and she had the perfect balance of vulnerability and strength, anger and unadulterated sadness. Clark gave an incredible performance, as did Elisabeth Moss in Invisible Man who just missed the cut, and not even the faintest of buzzes around them!

Dakota – Redemption for Malcolm and Marie! I really want to watch Saint Maud, but I’m a bit too much of a chicken, but I know some corners will be very happy that you gave some love to horror movies here.

Best Actor

Dakota – I’ve got three of the five actual Oscar nominees, but the Academy missing Kingsley Ben-Adir as Malcolm X and Mads Mikkelsen from Another Round is shameful. I wanted to include Steven Yeun, but he ended up just barely in 6th place. A very tough category. 

Rachel – By far the most competitive category this year. I pretty much agree with the Academy’s nominations this year with the exception of Gary Oldman — Mads’ performance is much more effecting. I like your inclusion of Ben-Adir! Like Fred Hampton/Kaluuya, Malcolm X is another one of those behemoth historic figures that must be intimidating to approach and Ben-Adir did it really well. Yeun edges it out ever so slightly for me, but as you said, very tough category.

Let’s switch gears to things that need to be written, like scripts and scores.

Best Original Score

Rachel- There were two Oscar snubs that bothered me the most this year: Soul not getting a Best Picture nod, and Ludwig Göransson not getting a nomination for his score in Tenet. We will right that wrong here. To create the Tenet score, Göransson took the inversion themes of Tenet to heart. He reversed the lines of music for his musicians, recorded them playing, and then reversed the audio recording. If we aren’t going to reward this sort of madness, what are we doing here?

Dakota – You’re so right. I love Hans Zimmer, he’s one of the GOATs, but the last decade or so his work has been pretty stale. Nolan partnering up with Göransson, mostly known as the invisible partner of Childish Gambino and the composer on the shapeshifting TV show Community, did a bang up job breathing new life into the music scene. Also I loved all the sea shanties from Blow the Man Down, just a unique way of approaching music.

Best Original Song

Rachel – I’m always amazed with this category every year. There are always some incredibly beautiful songs created specifically for movies every year and I feel like unless you seek them out, you just won’t hear them. I picked “Running With The Wolves” because of how well it went with Wolfwalkers. Usually I don’t like when film songs are so incredibly on the nose, but it really worked for me in this case. The high notes AURORA hits mimicking the howls of a wolf was a particular touch that I loved. Also fun fact: “Rain Song” is sung by Han Ye-ri who plays Monica in Minari!

Dakota – It is a travesty that “Running With The Wolves” was not nominated. On a recent episode of the podcast, Jeff Bulmer from Classic Movies Live went on a rant about how this category has become the best end credits song, something that usually has nothing to do with the film. I’m with him and as such most of my picks occur during the movies. Also speaking of actors performing theme songs, Sharon Van Etten who played the mother in Never Rarely Sometimes Always and is best known as an alternative folk singer did “Staring at a Mountain” too.

Best Original Screenplay

Rachel – The Kid Detective! Such a great pick, I can’t wait to see what writer/director Evan Morgan gets up to next. For me, I really loved the dialogue in Another Round. The conversations among the men discussing their lives, their failed hopes and dreams were exceptionally eloquent, beautiful, and real. An off board choice, Night of the Kings is a movie from Côte d’Ivoire about storytelling and folklore. I’d never seen a movie like this before and the culture it depicted was completely foreign to me. The stories told were captivating and painted such beautiful imagery, I had to give it a nod. 

Dakota – Every scene in Promising Young Woman, Cassandra gives the would be predators and accomplices an option to do the right thing, sometimes several times. When they inevitably make the wrong choices, it is of no fault but their own. I also love the tonal shifts the movie does, switching between romantic comedy and bleak black horror comedy. The Vast of Night is a film that is all about listening and talking. There are two excellent monologues where people share their stories with potential extra terrestrials, and we as viewers hang onto their every word. The Kid Detective does a great job setting up Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew type tropes before the movie becomes something so much darker than the characters ever could have envisioned.

Best Adapted Screenplay

Dakota – Both One Night in Miami… and The Father are based on plays and they do a pretty great job of keeping what worked so well about the original productions and how to make it better for screen.

Rachel – I’ve got a lot of love for plays adaptations so no surprise I’d pick The Father, One Night in Miami…, and Happy Place (a brilliant Canadian film about PTSD and mental health) to fill out my nominations and also be my overall pick. But I feel like people are massively overlooking The Personal History of David Copperfield. Armando Iannucci and Simon Blackwell take the literary classic by Dickens and give a truly unique take on the story, injecting their trademark humour that fans of Veep and In the Thick of It will be familiar with.

Dakota – I had really wanted to catch Copperfield last year at TIFF, but missed out, then it took forever to come out and when it finally did only got so-so reviews. So I ended up skipping it. Good to know that if you’re a fan of Iannucci you’ll probably like it, which I am.

Let’s go to some more technical awards to hand out.

Best Cinematography

Dakota – Call me crazy, but I really loved Malcolm and Marie. The black and white cinematography that was nice and grainy in bright scenes was beautiful. The back and forth as Marie stood calmly outside smoking while Malcolm energetically paced back and forth with the camera matching him was a great sequence. First Cow and Minari were just genuinely stunning films too.

Rachel – The lack of respect Malcolm and Marie got is atrocious isn’t it? Completely agree with you on all points. The black and white adds such a depth and beauty to the movie. It’s interesting comparing it to Mank which focused more on the highlights in shots, where Malcolm and Marie worked more in the shadows. There’s also the whole digital vs. film debate which we won’t get into here! As for my other picks, I loved how The Vast of Night shows New Mexico — so desolate and cold, yet really homey at times; Tenet to me is just a marvel of visual effects and cinematography; and agree with you, First Cow and Minari are visually stunning, the landscapes they both capture are gorgeous.

Dakota – Here I thought I was the only hipster picking The Vast of Night earlier (and more later), but I’m so happy you saw it too!

Best Sound

Dakota – It’s pretty much a given that Sound of Metal will win Best Sound and it’s extremely deserving of it. Mimicking the loss of hearing then what happens when you get a cochlear implant is sound work we’ve never before heard on screen. The Vast of Night similarly uses sound just as effectively, using radio waves to transport viewers to the 1950’s in a very unique way. 

Rachel – I think Sound of Metal winning Best Sound is the surest bet across all categories this year. Sound of Metal was my favourite movie of last year and a big reason for that was the immersion which was pretty much down to the sound. Farmageddon and Invisible Man make it onto my list for similar reasons, they both rely on sound and not dialogue. Farmageddon is purely sound effects and adds to the playfulness of the movie. Invisible Man uses silence and amplified pin-drop sounds from a person we don’t see to build the tension and the terror. I had to really think about this category and I’m quite grateful for that exercise! Sound plays such an integral part to filmmaking that I don’t think I appreciate properly.

Dakota – I actually changed around my picks after realizing I was missing Soul from my picks and seeing yours. Sorry for stealing your choice.

Rachel – We can’t all be perfect, Dakota! 😀

Best Costumes

Dakota – Unlike the Academy I don’t just pick all the period films with pretty flowing dresses. Although in the case of my winner in Emma., ya I did that. While Rebecca was a pretty bad movie and Mulan wasn’t anything special, the costumes were great. I’m a sucker for great suits and The Gentleman had that a plenty.

Rachel – The styling of Ma Rainey was on another level to me. The dresses for Ma in the performance and in the recording studio were magnificent, the colours, the material, the cutting, all of it. The Gentleman and Tenet both had some sharply dressed men in some lovely tailored suits which I appreciated. Birds of Prey is probably the pick that will raise an eyebrow or two, but I stand by it. The design of janky superhero outfits were on point and the colours were all very in keeping with the comic book aesthetic. 

Best Hair and Makeup

Rachel – The grease paint, the wigs, the grill — the ‘20s aesthetic of Ma Rainey was so striking and  different to what we typically see from the era (i.e. Mank, which I also picked because even though it’s more typical, it played to the black and white perfectly). The intentionally amateur looks in Borat really emphasized the mockumentary style of the movie. And while I know Bill and Ted isn’t a movie usually nominated in these award shows, the prosthetic work was most excellent.

Dakota – Viola Davis really was transformed in her role, but I went more of the hairstyle route and Emma. had plenty of great options. Pinocchio does have a fever dream element that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemies, although I couldn’t stop laughing any time Cricket was on screen. 

Let’s go back to some more fun categories with another set of big three, Animated, Documentary and International.

Best Animated Feature

Dakota – I’m going to be honest here. I’ve only seen five animated films, so they’re the exact same as the Oscars. Soul is a stone cold classic, but I love the unique art and way to tell a story using Irish folklore in Wolfwalkers. I’m also an underdog kind of guy and Disney/Pixar have enough Oscars.

Rachel – I’m with you, I don’t watch a lot of animated movies save for the odd animated Batman flick, so I’m going to have to go with the Academy nominations too. However, I will not deny Soul! The fantastic story aside, the actual animation in this movie is out of this world. It’s easy to give Disney and Pixar a high bar given their track record, and Soul clears it with the greatest of ease. The imagining of the Great Beyond is just insane — so simple yet so effective. I will say though that Wolfwalkers is a great movie, and in a year without Soul, it would definitely be my pick, too.

Best Documentary

Dakota – American Utopia might be the second best concert doc I’ve ever seen after The Last Waltz (sadly I’ve never seen The Talking Heads doc Stop Making Sense, a little ironic here I know). The Painter and the Thief is a really unique way of showing how two people can experience the same timeline and view it completely differently. I know Michelle Lattimer is persona non grata with her either fraudulently claiming Indigenous blood at worst or at best just claiming to be a member of a tribe that she has no connection to at all, but Inconvenient Indian is a marvellous doc that should be mandatory viewing for history students.

Rachel – I didn’t watch very many documentaries last year but I’m thankful that Inconvenient Indian was one of them. It’s quite astonishing what was left out of our history books growing up and I’ve been trying to educate myself on the history and culture of the Indigenous people of Canada. The subject matter of Inconvenient Indian is fascinating and full of beautiful art, music, and stories. I also really loved how there weren’t any talking heads in this doc, the way they used imagery to narrate instead was really fitting and evocative. I haven’t seen American Utopia though and after reading your description, I clearly need to catch up with it!

Best International Feature

Rachel – I said earlier that Sound of Metal winning Best Sound was the surest bet — I’m going to add Another Round for Best International to that, too. It picked up some hype in Hollywood most likely because of Mads Mikkelsen’s involvement, and deservedly so. It’s a great movie that has some fun bits around drinking, but what makes it special for me is the exploration of the mundanity and staleness of life. Dear Comrades! is a very obvious pick for me as I love Russian history. It’s incredibly interesting with some decadent highs and some very, very dark lows. This movie looks at the latter and is a very compelling recounting of the Novocherkassk massacre. A must for any history buff!

Dakota – You’re right about Another Round, it being up for Best Picture ensures its win. The Painter and the Thief was a documentary from Norway that explored an artist that had a painting stolen and the thief who did it and the friendship they ended up forged afterwards. It’s beautiful and makes you think long and hard about what constitutes punishment and forgiveness. The Life Ahead was the Sophia Loren film that actually is nominated for Best Original Song and I quite liked it. Normally this is my favourite category of the year and I’m so-so on so many non-English and American films. It is interesting how three of my picks are docs though…

Let’s go back to technical categories, but the super duper important ones.

Best Visual Effects

Rachel – I continue my retribution for horror movies. It’s honestly shocking that The Invisible Man didn’t even make it to the Academy’s shortlist for this category. I also wanted to give a nod to another horror flick, Host. For those who haven’t seen it, Host is about a séance gone wrong and was created during the early days of COVID. Because of lock down, all actors were given direction over Zoom and did their own setups. The visual effects in the movie are all practical and done with what the actors had at hand in their homes. An interesting comparison is with Tenet — a lot of practical effects were used here too, but it’s backed by a $200 million budget and supplemented with high quality CGI. The visual effects of Tenet and Host are on opposite ends of the spectrum, and both serve their stories perfectly. 

Dakota – Possessor is a Canadian film directed by Brandon Cronenberg (son of the legendary David), and this film is chock full of gore and violence, all done with practical effects. It’s SciFi adjacent so there’s lots of weird things going on, but not only were they all practical effects, but everything was done in camera. Seriously watch videos of behind the scenes footage to see just how impressive it all is. For the same reason as above, I have to give love to Tenet and Christopher Nolan who decided it was cheaper and easier to buy and crash a real plane into an airport than do it CG.

Best Production Design

Dakota – Here you see that I have given Emma. three awards, the most any film will receive from me. Why do you ask? Because it is stunning to look at and kept me laughing the whole way through. Despite One Night in Miami… and The Father taking place in single settings, it works so perfectly to tell the story.

Rachel – We have pretty much the exact same picks with the exception of our winners! I went with Minari here because each and every set they used absolutely nails the 1980s new immigrant life. From the trailer to the different shops and even the doctors office, each place was designed perfectly to make audiences feel the authenticity of the experience. 

Best Film Editing

Dakota – I love editing. I mostly base my picks on not just the most visible editing, but ones where tension and suspense is key to tell the story. Suspense is built almost entirely on film editing. Both i’m thinking of ending things and The Father utilize very similar styles to confuse the audience while Promising Young Woman uses tonal shifts to move the story forward.

Rachel – This is one of my favourite categories. Editing can really make or break a movie and it’s really interesting to watch a movie with an eye to how they cut scenes and what the payoff is. Part of the reason The Father worked so well is the fantastic editing that creates the unreliable narrator. We experience everything Hopkins is experiencing — his confusion and his horror. I love this category. Palm Springs is another movie where the editing creates the initial confusion brilliantly and also elevates the comedy. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is such a great pick. Charlie Kaufman really has a particular style and that is so dependent on good editing.

Now it’s time for the big ones. First up is the directing award.

Best Director

Rachel – I found this one really difficult to pick. Ultimately I went with the five movies that I think benefited most from their director. I feel like a broken record banging on about this, but Darius Marder really created the most immersive experience I’ve had watching a movie in a really long time. Every aspect of the film is purposeful and adds to this end result. For each element to work together and create an exceptional movie, you need an innovative and confident captain of the ship and Marder was just that. My sixth pick here is Lee Isaac Chung, who I need to mention because Minari is amazing and Chung got incredible performances out of two child actors, never an easy task.

Dakota – In picking my nominees, I went with directors who really put their imprint on the film, not necessarily the best film, but ones where the directors choices and vision were fully on display. I truly believe that more often than not Best Picture and Best Director should not go to the same film. In this Charlie Kaufman puts so much thought and creativity into his film, even if in the end it doesn’t totally work, or even leaves the audience baffled and cold. The Father and Florian Zeller’s work is the flip side to that same coin. 

And now the moment you are all waiting for! Because it is our rules, this category will have 10 nominees. Screw this anywhere between 5-10 nonsense.

Best Picture

Dakota – I’ve been thinking of this category all year, every time I would watch a movie I loved and wonder if it stood a chance to get nominated. I thought I was pretty comfortable with how things were looking, until I saw Minari and Judas and the Black Messiah and they both were so incredible I knew they would top my list.The quiet pain of Never Rarely Sometimes Always was too small for the Academy I suppose, but not for me.

Rachel – I’ve been stumping for Sound of Metal since I watched it but then The Father just went and changed everything. What an incredible movie that is deceptively simple. The genre bending and use of an unreliable narrator are so incredibly effective. And of course, Hopkins and Colman are extraordinary. I’ve also included not one but two animated movies here as I truly think both Soul and Wolfwalkers were exceptional films that deserve Best Picture consideration as much as a Mank or a Trial of the Chicago 7. 

Dakota – Do you have any picks that just missed the cut here?

Rachel – Never Rarely Sometimes Always! I know I didn’t pick it for any category but it’s probably that movie that was always the next one up for me. Really well done and I’m actually surprised the Academy didn’t pick it as their indie darling option this year. And probably the most glaring absence on my list is the movie that will probably actually win. I liked Nomadland, don’t get me wrong. It’s a technically great movie, but it just didn’t interest me in the way that my other picks did. How about you?

Dakota – Oh I have some thoughts! The Assistant just missed my cut off, the way we see at how many points it is a next to impossible situation for women working for powerful men that are abusers can’t make the right choice is a haunting and cautionary tale. Soul, The Kid Detective and Wolfwalkers are movies that made my list elsewhere were considered and the complete disregard for First Cow by the Academy was frustrating. 

There you have it, all of our picks for most of the Oscars. Frankly I like our lists much more than what the Academy came up with. Follow Rachel at @rachel_kh and visit rachelkh.com to see more of her work. Special thanks to Stephanie Prior for designing the custom graphics.