Best Original Song: the Grammy award of Academy Awards. I always am fascinated by what the Academy does with this category. Films yield very different styles of song, so much so that it often feels inappropriate to compare them to each other in an awards category. But that is exactly what we are here to do.
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Production Design is essentially set design. It is the mise-en-scene vision of what will be filmed, whether it be on a sound stage or on location. This said, there were a lot of stellar production design schemes in film in 2016. There is a wide field to pick from, but I’m going to try.
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The song and score categories feel like foregone conclusions this year, with one film playing right to what the sound categories are looking for. The real question is what will fill the other four nominee slots.
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The Academy has narrowed down the Best Makeup & Hairstyling category to a shortlist of seven films: Deadpool; The Dressmaker; Hail, Caesar!; Florence Foster Jenkins; A Man Called Ove, Star Trek Beyond, and Suicide Squad. This makes our job a bit easier, buy by no means is there a definitive frontrunner here.
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The idea of a Best Film Editing award is strange. While editing is an arduous task that certainly deserves to be rewarded, the concept of judging a film’s editing is counter intuitive. The success of an edit is determined by the editor’s ability to hide the fact that cuts are occurring. A seamless experience is what marks a good editing job.
How do you judge a film by its editing, then? Part of it is a rhythm, a pulse in the cuts that contribute to the overall effect of a scene. In the case of a film like La La Land, it is an edit that has musicality and adds energy to a musical number. Another part of it is the editor’s ability to create that seamless experience.
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There is a general formula to the Academy’s taste for costume design, and it generally involves period pieces. This year will be no different, although La La Land is not a period piece, per se, it merely feels like it is coming from a classical Hollywood time.
Let’s get into Best Costume Design nominations.
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Where I find it difficult to compare the merits of screenwriting between films, I think judging the cinematics of a batch of films is somewhat easier. Quality cinematography strikes you in specific and noticeable ways, whereas a good script can sneak up on you. In 2016, we came across a number of visually striking movies. Let’s take a look at which ones will get Oscar nods.
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After watching hours upon hours of backlogged RedLetterMedia videos over the holiday, I am well aware of the fatigued nature by which Hollywood shoves pre-sold intellectual properties down our throats year in and year out so folks can cash in on an easy payday. With this in mind, it is nice to look at the refreshingly new and original ideas that Hollywood has put out in 2016. Let’s talk Best Original Screenplay nominations.
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Let’s talk about writing. More specifically, adapted screenplays. Now, I find it rather difficult to judge what film warrants an award for writing over another film. How do you objectively judge what film is better written than all the other films in a year? I guess in the case of an adapted screenplay, it is about the adequacy of translation, but even this is an unclear metric.
In the case of this year, I think there is a clear batch of films that could get a nomination. Who will emerge as the winner, on the other hand, is a different story.
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The 2017 race for Best Supporting Actress is possibly the most clear cut category in the bunch. The same five actresses have been nominated for both the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild awards. And these actresses will find themselves vying for the same Oscar statuette, unless something crazy happens.
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