My Alternative Oscar Picks

Unbelievably, this year’s Oscars actually got a lot right this year - and ALMOST made up for voting for Green Book as Best Picture in 2019. Parasite was a groundbreaking and thoroughly deserving winner of the top prize, but now that the dust has settled on the ceremony, here’s my alternative list of winners for the other awards.

All were eligible for inclusion, and made it onto the Academy’s longlist, but none of these picks were even nominated in their respective categories - clearly illustrating that the we still have a way to go before the Oscars truly represent the diversity of filmmaking around the world.

Best Director
Greta Gerwig, Little Women

Best Actress
Lupita Nyong'o, Us

Best Actor
Zack Gottsagen, The Peanut Butter Falcon

Best Supporting Actress
Jamie Lee Curtis, Knives Out

Best Supporting Actor
Willem Dafoe, The Lighthouse

Best Film Editing
Uncut Gems

Best Original Song
“I Punched Keanu Reeves” Randall Park & Dan the Automator from Always be My Maybe

Best Animated Feature
Weathering with You

Best Documentary
Diego Maradona

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Farewell

Best Original Screenplay
Booksmart

Comments

Roma (2018)

Having tackled a dystopian fertility crisis (Children of Men, 2006), and deep space existentialism (Gravity, 2013) and even a Harry Potter movie, acclaimed Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón turns his masterful cinematic gaze inward for his latest, the Netflix produced Roma - a meditative and epic reimagining of the director's upbringing in 70s Mexico City, told through the lens of the family's maid Cleo (played by newcomer Yalitza Aparicio). The movie has a suitably Gabriel García Márquez esque narrative, taking a family and showing us the broad sweep of their collective story - with underlying societal and political developments merely providing the backdrop to this domestic drama. Cuarón dedicates the film to 'Libo' the real life maid of his comfortably middle class family growing up, and the director himself is portrayed as the young boy 'Paco' on screen. The sense of place in the film is stunning - no doubt in part due to the face that Cuarón insis...

The Lighthouse (2019)

After his wholly original and deeply unsettling debut feature film The Witch (2015), those in the know have been waiting with bated breath to see what director Robert Eggers was going to come up with next. It’s safe to say that The Lighthouse will not leave them disappointed. Summarised by the filmmaker himself as “Nothing good happens when two men are left alone in a giant phallus”, The Lighthouse tells the story of a grizzled world weary lighthouse keeper (Willem Dafoe) who must induct relative newbie (Robert Pattinson) into the job, on a remote and desolate rock off the coast of Maine circa 1890. The pair immediately clash, and things rapidly descend as it becomes clear that an unexpected storm means they are trapped on the island for longer than anticipated. As their water runs out, and with only moonshine for hydration, time seems to become inconsequential in a haze of dehydration and desperation, with Willem Dafoe’s character asking of his second in command (and p...

First Love (2019)

Takashi Miike is one of the world's most prolific directors - having directed over one hundred theatrical, video and television productions since his debut in 1991. He is best known to Western audiences for the ultra-violent Itchi the Killer (2001), and cult horror Audition (1999), but is in slightly more offbeat fare such as this year's First Love ( Hatsukoi in the original Japanese) where his talents truly shine. The film follows young amateur boxer Leo (played with brilliant understatement by Masataka Kubota) who through some brilliantly implausible twists of circumstance, crosses paths with reluctant escort Monica (Sakurako Konishi) - ultimately leading to a chain of events which will see the pair encounter the full force of the Yakuza, Tokyo Police, Chinese mafia and an assassin with a heart of gold over the course of one rollercoaster of a night. Playing out like True Romance crossed with Free Fire, with a liberal dusting of Tarintino-esque comedic violence, First...

Talking Pictures

Search This Blog