The Oscar Nominations

Some personal observations in the wake of the announcement of the Academy Award nominations earlier this week.

• The hue and cry from the general movie going public was the "snub" of Greta Gerwig, who did not receive a nomination for Best Director for "Little Women."  Personally, I am not remotely qualified to judge all of the movies and directors out there, but "Little Women" was one of the best movies that I saw last year, and I would have loved to see Ms. Gerwig snag a nomination, if not the Oscar itself.  Whether sexual politics were involved in the nominations is an argument that I will let others fight.
• I have seen four of the nine Best Picture nominees: "Ford v Ferrari", "The Irishman", "Little Women", and "Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood."  All are worthy nominees.  Of these four, my personal favorite was "Once....", and it would get my vote, although I would be delighted if "Little Women" grabbed the top prize.
• My thoughts on the five Best Picture noms I have not seen:
• "Jojo Rabbit" - A story where Hitler is played as comic imaginary friend, does not appeal to me, although enough people whose opinions I respect say don't let that turn me away from this one.  I may need to see this one.
• "Joker" - Everything that I have heard about this one tells me that it is just not my kind of movie.  Doubt that I will see this.
• "Marriage Story" - The story of a marriage falling apart.  A custody battle for the kid.  Oh, yeah, THAT'S something I want to see.  I am also told that it is writer/director Noah Baumbach's own personal story, so I want pay to see his self-therapy?  Mrs. Grandstander watched this and she said it was "okay", but she also said that she knows that I wouldn't like it.  I don't care how good the acting is, and I am sure that it is, I don't want to sit through her people's misery.
• "1917" - I am not drawn to this one, although I am intrigued by the idea of how it was shot in a series of long continuous takes.   I will probably check this out at some point.
• "Parasite" -  I am also not drawn to a foreign language film with subtitles, but, again, enough folks whose opinions I value say that this is really a good one, so I may try to catch the one.
• A big surprise was the lack of love shown by the Academy for "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood."  Its only nomination was for Tom Hanks for Best Supporting Actor.
• Speaking of Best Supporting Actor, that is the category that can best  be described as a true All-Star Ballot: Tom Hanks, Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, and Brad Pitt.  All have Oscars on their resumes (although's Pitt's is as a producer, not an actor).  The front runner for this one appears to be Pitt, and I hope that he does get the win.  
• No love for Robert De Niro for "The Irishman"????
• Scarlett Johansson get nominated for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress.  When this has happened in the past, the actor usually snares the Supporting award.
• "The Irishman" garnered ten nominations, and it will be interesting how the Academy will treat this one since it is a Netflix production.  Will be there anti-Netflix, anti-Movies-made-primarily-for-streaming-services bias?  That will be an interesting storyline to follow.  (This applies to "Marriage Story"  and "The Two Popes" as well.)
• My guess is that the Best Director winner will be between two of Hollywood's darlings, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino.  Two factors will tilt it towards Tarantino, I think.  One, the anti-Netfix factor against Scorsese, and two, Tarantino's movie as almost a love letter toward Hollywood, and Hollywood loves to honor itself, so QT finally gets his Best Director Oscar.
• The Best Actor/Actress categories seem to be fait accomplis  for Joaquin Phoenix ("Joker") and Renee Zellweger ("Judy").   Nominated for a fourth time, I would love to see Saoirse Ronan win her first Oscar, but it will be hard to top Zellweger's performance.
• The Academy could make up for Gerwig's Best Director snub by awarding her the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay, although Steven Zallian could get this one as a way to honor "The Irishman".
• The Original Screenplay award could go to Tarantino if he doesn't get the Director Oscar for "Once Upon a Time...In Hollywood."  That has happened for him in the past ("Pulp Fiction" and "Django Unchained").
• Every year there is a movie that gets a ton of nominations in different categories but ends up getting shut out on Oscar night.  What will be that movie this year?  I fear that it could be "Little Women."

The Grandstander will put forth some official predictions as the night of the awards draws nearer.  In the meantime, a couple of plugs for my favorite movies of the year....