2019 Oscar nominations: Roma and The Favourite take pole position with ten nods apiece

After weeks and weeks of fiery arguments and bad blood between critics and awards fanatics, the Academy have finally spoken with their contenders for the 2019 Oscars.

This year’s line-up sees the Netflix drama Roma and the historical dramedy The Favourite share the joint-lead with ten mentions apiece including the coveted Best Picture accolade.

Roma, which centres on a Mexican maid and the middle-class family she works for, also landed surprise acting nominations for Yalitza Aparacio (as domestic worker Cleo) and Marina De Tavina (as struggling single mother Sra. Sofia). Filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón enjoyed a very good day as he landed nods for his producing, directing, writing AND cinematography though surprisingly missed out on an Editing mention.

The Favourite, which focuses on an unlikely love-triangle between Queen Anne, her aide and a servant, scored three acting nods for actresses Olivia Colman (as monarch Queen Anne), Emma Stone (as servant girl Abigail) and Rachel Weisz (as royal aide Lady Sarah Churchill) while Yorgos Lanthimos was shortlisted for Best Director. The film is also in contention for Best Original Screenplay, Production Design, Cinematography, Editing and Costume Design.

Elsewhere, there are eight nods apiece for the romantic drama A Star is Born and the political biopic Vice which includes Best Picture. Despite being snubbed for Best Director, Bradley Cooper is nominated for Best Actor (as alcoholic singer Jackson Maine) as well as Best Adapted Screenplay. Singer Lady Gaga landed two mentions for Best Actress (as former waitress-turned-singing sensation Ally Maine) and Best Original Song for the hit track “Shallow” while veteran Sam Elliott (as Jackson’s older brother Bobby) finally received his first Oscar nod in Best Supporting Actor.

Vice also claimed three acting nominations for stars Christian Bale (as controversial vice-president Dick Cheney), Amy Adams (as Cheney’s wife Lynne) and Sam Rockwell (as former President George W. Bush) with Adam McKay nodded for his directing and writing. Adams will be looking to finally win an Oscar at the SIXTH attempt with her main competition for Supporting Actress being Regina King (as concerned mother Sharon Rivers) for the indie-drama If Beale Street Could Talk.

Also looking to finally get her due is Glenn Close as the veteran landed her seventh nomination in Best Actress for her role as frustrated wife Joan Castleman in the drama The Wife. Close is shortlisted alongside Melissa McCarthy (as disgraced author Lee Israel) for Can You Ever Forgive Men? plus the aforementioned Aparacio, Colman and Gaga.

Meanwhile, the Marvel blockbuster Black Panther received an impressive seven nominations to cap off a remarkable year. It became the first superhero film to landed a Best Picture mention and also performed well in the technical categories. Remarkably, Avengers: Infinity War only managed one nod for its visual effects despite performing better at the box-office.

Another film to perform well was Spike Lee’s crime drama Blackkklansman which scored six mentions including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Supporting Actor for Adam Driver (as Jewish surrogate Phillip Zimmerman). Coincidentally, this recognition for Lee came thirty years after he landed his first nomination for his screenplay of Do the Right Thing (1989).

Having been torn apart by critics upon its release late last year, the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody earned five nominations including Best Picture as well as a deserved Best Actor nod for Rami Malek (as legendary singer Freddie Mercury). The Golden Globe-winning film was also acknowledged for Editing, Sound Mixing and Sound Editing.

The last Best Picture contender is the light-hearted biopic Green Book which scored five nods including Best Picture as well as acting recognition for Viggo Mortensen (as Italian-American driver Tony Lip) and Mahershala Ali (as classic pianist Don Shirley). The film recently pulled off a surprise win at the Producers Guild Awards on Saturday night so a Best Picture success is not out of the question.

The other actors acknowledged by the Academy are veteran Willem Dafoe (as tortured artist Vincent Van Gough) for At Eternity’s Gate and British star Richard E. Grant (as Lee Israel’s friend Jack Hock) for Can You Ever Forgive Me?. Grant is one of nine first-time nominated actors which include Rami Malek, Olivia Colman, Lady Gaga and Sam Elliott.

There was also a surprise nomination in Best Director for Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski who is recognised for his work on the Polish drama Cold War. That film is also up against Roma in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

Elsewhere, Disney’s Mary Poppins Returns earned four nominations including Best Original Song while other mainstream films to land mentions included Christopher Robin, First Man, Mary Queen of Scots, A Quiet Place, Ready Player One and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

The best Animated Feature category sees recent Golden Globe-winner Spider-Man: In the Spider-Verse up against formidable flicks like Pixar’s Incredibles 2, Isle of Dogs and Ralph Breaks the Internet.

However the most controversial nomination of the day came in Live Action Short for the crime-based short Detainment. The film recreates police interviews with the two young killers of Liverpool toddler James Bulger that unsurprisingly led to a petition being made calling for its omission. Unfortunately, the Academy still nominated it despite 90,000 signatures that has has sparked outrage from James’s mother Denise Fergus.

There were a number of notable omissions in terms of acting with the biggest being Emily Blunt. The British actress was snubbed in both Best Actress and Supporting Actress for her roles in Mary Poppins Returns and A Quiet Place. Another Brit to be ignored was Claire Foy who failed to land a nod for the sci-fi biopic First Man.

Despite securing key nominations at the Golden Globes, Screen Actor’s Guild and BAFTAS, Timothee Chalamet was surprisingly left out of Supporting Actor for his role in Beautiful Boy. Another actor to suffer despite a large number of critic award wins was Ethan Hawke who was overlooked for his performance in First Reformed.

Other major films to get snubbed altogether included Crazy Rich Asians, Stan & Ollie, Ant-Man and the Wasp, Eighth Grade, Hereditary, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, The Old Man and the Gun, Paddington 2, Widows and Won’t You Be My Neighbor?.

This year’s Oscar ceremony is set to be without an official host following the recent controversy involving original choice Kevin Hart.

The 91st Academy Awards will take place in Los Angeles on February 24th.

The full list of nominations are below (winner predictions in blue):

BEST PICTURE
BLACK PANTHER
BLACKKKLANSMAN
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
THE FAVOURITE
GREEN BOOK
ROMA
A STAR IS BORN
VICE

BEST DIRECTOR
Alfonso Cuarón, ROMA
Yorgos Lanthimos, THE FAVOURITE
Spike Lee, BLACKKKLANSMAN
Adam McKay, VICE
Pawel Pawlikowski, COLD WAR

BEST ACTOR
Christian Bale, VICE
Bradley Cooper, A STAR IS BORN
Willem Dafoe, AT ETERNITY’S GATE
Rami Malek, BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
Viggo Mortensen, GREEN BOOK

BEST ACTRESS
Yalitza Aparacio, ROMA
Glenn Close, THE WIFE
Olivia Colman, THE FAVOURITE
Lady Gaga, A STAR IS BORN
Melissa McCarthy, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali, GREEN BOOK

Adam Driver, BLACKKKLANSMAN
Sam Elliott, A STAR IS BORN
Richard E. Grant, CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Sam Rockwell, VICE

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, VICE
Marina De Tavina, ROMA
Regina King, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
Emma Stone, THE FAVOURITE
Rachel Weisz, THE FAVOURITE

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE FAVOURITE, Deborah Davies & Tony McNamara
FIRST REFORMED, Paul Schrader
GREEN BOOK, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie & Peter Farrelly
ROMA, Alfonso Cuarón
VICE, Adam McKay

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
BLACKKKLANSMAN, Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott & Spike Lee
CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?, Nicole Holofcener & Jeff Whitty
IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK, Barry Jenkins
A STAR IS BORN, Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper & Will Fetters

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
BLACK PANTHER
THE FAVOURITE
FIRST MAN
MARY POPPINS RETURNS
ROMA

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
COLD WAR
THE FAVOURITE
NEVER LOOK AWAY
ROMA
A STAR IS BORN

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS
BLACK PANTHER
THE FAVOURITE
MARY POPPINS RETURNS
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
BORDER
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS
VICE

BEST EDITING
BLACKKKLANSMAN
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
THE FAVOURITE
GREEN BOOK
VICE

BEST SOUND MIXING
BLACK PANTHER
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
FIRST MAN
ROMA
A STAR IS BORN

BEST SOUND EDITING
BLACK PANTHER
BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY
FIRST MAN
A QUIET PLACE
ROMA

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR
CHRISTOPHER ROBIN
FIRST MAN
READY PLAYER ONE
SOLO: A STAR WARS STORY

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Terence Blanchard, BLACKKKLANSMAN
Nicholas Britell, IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK
Alexandre Desplat, ISLE OF DOGS
Ludwig Goransson, BLACK PANTHER
Marc Shaiman, MARY POPPINS RETURNS

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS, “When a Cowboy Trades his Spurs for Wings”
BLACK PANTHER, “All the Stars”
MARY POPPINS RETURNS, “The Place Where Lost Things Go”
RBG, “I’ll Fight”
A STAR IS BORN, “Shallow”

BEST ANIMATED FILM
INCREDIBLES 2
ISLE OF DOGS
MIRAI
RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET
SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDER-VERSE

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
CAPERNAUM (Lebanon)
COLD WAR (Poland)
NEVER LOOK AWAY (Germany)
ROMA (Mexico)
SHOPLIFTERS (Japan)

BEST DOCUMENTARY
FREE SOLO

HALE COUNTY THIS MORNING, THIS EVENING
MINDING THE GAP
OF FATHERS AND SONS
RBG

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT SUBJECT)
BLACK SHEEP
END GAME
LIFEBOAT
A NIGHT AT THE GARDEN
PERIOD. END OF SENTENCE.

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)
DETAINMENT
FAUVE
MARGUERITE
MOTHER
SKIN

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)
ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR
BAO
LATE AFTERNOON
ONE SMALL STEP
WEEKENDS

Be the first to comment on "2019 Oscar nominations: Roma and The Favourite take pole position with ten nods apiece"

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published.


*