Pandemic Academy Awards Part I

Year in and year out I look to watch, well actually cross off a hand-written list hanging by my bed (I’m seven years old), each Best Picture nominee in hopes of having the most holistic view of the Academy Award recipient’s deservedness. Deservedness? Is that really a word? I can’t say I’ve actually ever said it out loud. Even writing it felt weird. Regardless, I learn, and cry, and laugh, and experience such wonderful flicks the few weeks leading up to the Oscars after the nominations announcement, a tradition starting in college when I learned other movies exist besides Step Brothers. In what most critics would consider a “down year” in the quality of films up for the award, you know, the big VID and all her dirty little complications and restrictions of filming and releasing movies to theaters; the truth is, I have never been more challenged and encouraged by the movies nominated. This class of Best Picture nominees is strong and should be celebrated. It took a global pandemic and a whole lot of heartache, professionally, to recount the pleasures that experiencing art can do to a person.

DeSeRvEdNeSs……. Woof.

Covid-19 has absolutely turned the world upside down. Death is so cruelly palpable and legitimate human-to-human contact, or the lack thereof, has spurred on a seismic mental health crisis that was technically already a crisis. A mental health crisis crisis, if you will. Moreover, public education, in which I find my employment and usual enjoyment, has not been immune to hitches in the wagon that Corona Virus has caused. Since August 2020, I have been brought to tears so many times desperately missing what used to be of my classroom; I’ve struggled to get my learners to understand some of the most rudimentary English skills -- pronouns and shit. The crux of all this, and I believe this to my core, is authentic relationships have been utterly removed from the classroom to accommodate for the hybrid model of learning we are in (zoom calls synchronously linked to their class schedule). And I know my students are just as miserable as me. Engagement is at an all-time low, stress, anxiety, and fear is at an all-time high. I just don’t know what they look like to see it on their face. Still, nearly eight months into the school year, I wouldn’t be able to recognize the majority of my students if we rant into each other on the street. Of my 153 students, 18 of them come in person.

I say all this not as a complaint or a large scale condemnation of the education system, I know the ramifications of the pandemic far supersedes my zoom English class, but rather to point to the joys of music, or art, or relationships, or faith, and how even watching a few movies can encourage us or bring us to reprieve in the wake of loss, racial inequality, political division, you name it. Escapism is such a fickle beast, however. Don’t I have plenty of tangible reasons to not want to be released, or perhaps distracted from reality? But what is the beauty of a critically acclaimed film if not for the ninety or so minutes spent thinking about something other than tomorrow’s woes? I’m striving towards the balance of both distraction and participation. Going on a year plus of ordering Taco Bell like a drug deal – keep a safe distance, drop the goods and I’ll drop the cash – issues stemming from Covid safety protocols continue to frustrate and handcuff all of us. But for now, we can stream movies from home and eat a cheesy gordita crunch as we do it. Below are my predictions for the most notable categories for the 93rd Academy Awards. Part II coming soon.

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*Prediction of winners in bold*

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE

RIZ AHMED

Sound of Metal

CHADWICK BOSEMAN

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

ANTHONY HOPKINS

The Father

GARY OLDMAN

Mank

STEVEN YEUN

Minari

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

SACHA BARON COHEN

The Trial of the Chicago 7

DANIEL KALUUYA

Judas and the Black Messiah

LESLIE ODOM, JR.

One Night in Miami...

PAUL RACI

Sound of Metal

LAKEITH STANFIELD

Judas and the Black Messiah

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE

VIOLA DAVIS

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

ANDRA DAY

The United States vs. Billie Holiday

VANESSA KIRBY

Pieces of a Woman

FRANCES MCDORMAND

Nomadland

CAREY MULLIGAN

Promising Young Woman

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

MARIA BAKALOVA

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

GLENN CLOSE

Hillbilly Elegy

OLIVIA COLMAN

The Father

AMANDA SEYFRIED

Mank

YUH-JUNG YOUN

Minari

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM

ONWARD

Dan Scanlon and Kori Rae

OVER THE MOON

Glen Keane, Gennie Rim and Peilin Chou

A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON

Richard Phelan, Will Becher and Paul Kewley

SOUL

Pete Docter and Dana Murray

WOLFWALKERS

Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young and Stéphan Roelants

CINEMATOGRAPHY

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

Sean Bobbitt

MANK

Erik Messerschmidt

NEWS OF THE WORLD

Dariusz Wolski

NOMADLAND

Joshua James Richards

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Phedon Papamichael

DIRECTING

ANOTHER ROUND

Thomas Vinterberg

MANK

David Fincher

MINARI

Lee Isaac Chung

NOMADLAND

Chloé Zhao

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Emerald Fennell

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

DA 5 BLOODS

Terence Blanchard

MANK

Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

MINARI

Emile Mosseri

NEWS OF THE WORLD

James Newton Howard

SOUL

Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Jon Batiste

BEST PICTURE

THE FATHER

David Parfitt, Jean-Louis Livi and Philippe Carcassonne, Producers

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH

Shaka King, Charles D. King and Ryan Coogler, Producers

MANK

Ceán Chaffin, Eric Roth and Douglas Urbanski, Producers

MINARI

Christina Oh, Producer

NOMADLAND

Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey and Chloé Zhao, Producers

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN

Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Emerald Fennell and Josey McNamara, Producers

SOUND OF METAL

Bert Hamelinck and Sacha Ben Harroche, Producers

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7

Marc Platt and Stuart Besser, Producers