89th Academy Awards: Results + Recap Post

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: THE JUNGLE BOOK

BEST EDITING: HACKSAW RIDGE

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

BEST MAKEUP/HAIRSTYLING: SUICIDE SQUAD

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: LA LA LAND

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: LA LA LAND

BEST SOUND MIXING: HACKSAW RIDGE

BEST SOUND EDITING: ARRIVAL

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: CITY OF STARS (LA LA LAND)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: LA LA LAND

BEST ANIMATED SHORT: PIPER

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT: SING

(Disclaimer: Not to be confused with the animated film of the same name)

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: THE WHITE HELMETS

BEST DOCUMENTARY: O.J.: MADE IN AMERICA

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: THE SALESMAN (from Iran)

BEST ANIMATED FILM: ZOOTOPIA

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: MOONLIGHT

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: VIOLA DAVIS (FENCES)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: MAHERSHALA ALI (MOONLIGHT)

BEST ACTRESS: EMMA STONE (LA LA LAND)

BEST ACTOR: CASEY AFFLECK (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

BEST DIRECTOR: DAMIEN CHAZELLE (LA LA LAND)

BEST PICTURE: LA LA LAND… Wait, sorry, my mistake… MOONLIGHT

THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW

Holy crap, that ending! Talk about one of the craziest endings in Oscars history! Anyway, I’ll get into that finale later. First, it’s time to talk about the show in general, and I must say, even with that crazy ending, this was a great ceremony. Now, as far as my experience with late-night talk shows is concerned, I’ll admit that I usually don’t watch them live. Like many, I tend to just watch a lot of these shows’ clips on YouTube when they’re posted the following day after a broadcast. The only one of these shows that I can say that I do watch live, on occasion, is Jimmy Kimmel Live! Jimmy Kimmel is an entertaining face in the current crop of late-night talk show hosts. He’s a likable TV personality and there are plenty of entertaining recurring segments on his show, including Mean Tweets and his legendary rivalry with a famous Hollywood star (who I won’t mention just yet…). Plus, seeing how he’s on a Disney-owned network, he almost always gets to debut the newest MCU trailer on his show. As for his turn as this year’s Oscar host, I thought that he did a great job. He got to use some of the classic segments from his show and he didn’t overload his monologues with political jokes, even when considering that this past year, in general, warranted a lot of material for those kinds of jokes. But, as he admitted in the opening monologue, he’s just not that kind of host. As for this year’s award results, I can’t complain with any of the winners. A lot of great films and performances got the recognition that they deserved.

And now it’s time for my favorite (and least favorite) moments from this year’s ceremony. And this year, I’m pleased to say that almost all these moments were great ones.

BEST: THIS PHOTOBOMB

Justin Timberlake orchestrated the best photobomb of the night, which he did to Emma Stone during an interview on the red carpet.

BEST: THIS REACTION SHOT

I can’t explain why, but this shot of Mel Gibson eating a Red Vine after Jimmy Kimmel made a joke directed at him might just be one of my new favorite reaction shots ever.

HILARIOUS: WHEN SUICIDE SQUAD WON AN OSCAR

Hands down, one of the biggest surprises of the night was when Suicide Squad beat Star Trek Beyond to win Best Makeup and Hairstyling. And, as I hinted at in my ‘Predictions’ post, this was a hilarious moment just because of the obvious reason that Suicide Squad was savaged by critics upon release. Of course, Twitter went nuts when this happened (one of my favorite tweets was one that said ‘Suicide Squad has more Oscars than you do’, and keep in mind, I’m saying this as someone who did like the film) but, like I said, at the very least, the makeup design for the film was one of its better aspects. I mean, it’s not like it won Best Picture or anything. The only real downside to this, if you ask me, is that DC fanboys are now going to use this win to belittle Marvel any chance that they get. Doctor Strange didn’t win Best Visual Effects, meaning that a DCEU film has won an Oscar before an MCU film. I’ll give you folks a minute to let that sink in…

BEST: GREAT MUSICAL PERFORMANCES

Surprisingly, the show started with one of the ‘Best Original Song’ performances right out the gate; Justin Timberlake performed his hit song ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ from the film Trolls, starting the night off on a great note. That was then followed by the performance of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Oscar-nominated song from Moana, ‘How Far I’ll Go’, performed by Auli’i Cravalho. Her co-star, Dwayne ‘the Rock’ Johnson, came out to introduce the performance, even managing to get in a part of his own solo from the film, ‘You’re Welcome’ (The Academy Awards’ apparent response to it being performed in full; “Nah, we’re good!”). Before Cravalho, Lin-Manuel opened the performance with an original rap, once again asserting his status as the musical genius that he is. And then, Cravalho once again asserted herself as one of the industry’s newest shining stars with an excellent performance of the song. Also, kudos to her for handling the moment when one of the flag twirlers behind her accidentally hit her with a flag like a champ. You had one job, flag twirler! Then, Sting came out to perform his song ‘The Empty Chair’ from the documentary Jim: The James Foley Story. As I said in my ‘Predictions’ post, I think it’s a decent song. The best part of his performance, though, was the finale, when a final image of James Foley appeared on-screen with a great quote from him about the importance of journalism. Finally, John Legend performed a medley of the two nominated songs from La La Land; ‘City of Stars’ and ‘Audition (The Fools Who Dream)’. While he did do a great job with the performance, I’ll admit that I’m rather mixed on him being the one performing the songs. Why not just let Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone do them, instead of just having the two of them introduce him? Ah, well…

BEST: AS USUAL, SOME GREAT SPEECHES

As always, there were some great speeches from this year’s award winners. Some were great because of how personal they were while others were great for their powerful political statements. In the case of the former, this included Mahershala Ali’s speech when he won Best Supporting Actor, in which he noted that he and his wife just had a baby a few days earlier (good for you, man!), Viola Davis’ amazing speech when she won Best Supporting Actress (“I became an artist, and thank god I did, because we are the only profession that celebrates what it means to live a life.”) and the speech by sound engineer Kevin O’Connell, who won for Best Sound Mixing for Hacksaw Ridge. In his speech, he thanked his mom, who helped him get his first job in the film industry. It’s also worth noting that this was his 21^st Academy Award nomination… and his first win. He’s got more Oscar nominations than Meryl Streep. He was previously nominated for films like the first two Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, Transformers, and The Rock. As for the more political speeches, the most notable of the bunch was when The Salesman won for Best Foreign Film. Prior to the show, controversy arose when it was revealed that, due to Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban, director Asghar Farhadi would’ve been barred from entering the U.S., therefore being unable to attend the show. In response, Farhadi decided to skip out on attending; instead, when the film won the award, it was accepted by Anousheh Ansari, the first Iranian astronaut to go up into space, and Firouz Naderi, a former NASA employee who was involved in some of NASA’s most iconic robotic space missions. Ansari then proceeded to read a prepared speech from Farhadi, in which he honored those who, like him, were affected by the ban. In short, while he may not have been there to say it himself, Farhadi had one of the best speeches of the night. Speaking of Ol’ Don…

BEST: THIS JAB AT DONALD TRUMP

Obviously, a few jokes from last night’s ceremony were directed squarely at Donald Trump. For me, the funniest of these occurred about halfway through the show. Jimmy Kimmel pointed out that, at that point, Trump hadn’t made any inflammatory remarks on Twitter, as he, of course, is known to do. In response, Kimmel sent out a tweet asking Trump if he’s up; a tweet which, might I add, somehow appeared online BEFORE he ‘posted it’ during the show. And then, he proceeded to post another tweet with the hashtag #Merylsayshi, which of course references the backlash that Meryl Streep got from Trump and his fan-base when she made her big speech at the Golden Globes back in January condemning some of his actions during the election. In other words, the one that got called ‘overrated’ got the last laugh…

BEST: FREE CANDY!

During the 86^th Academy Awards, host Ellen DeGeneres ordered pizza for the no-doubt very hungry Oscar crowd. Last year, host Chris Rock had a Girl Scout troop sell cookies in the audience. So, what did Jimmy Kimmel do this year to continue this apparent new tradition? He parachuted candy down from the theater roof, specifically Red Vines and Junior Mints. He did it again a second time, after doing a Lion King recreation with Sunny Pawar, who played young Saroo in Lion, sending down Lemonheads and Mike and Ike’s. This resulted in a rather hilarious ‘gif-able’ moment in which we see Casey Affleck looking up as the second batch of candy parachuted down. I was originally then going to say ‘someone get that man some candy, damn it!’, which was a reference to a tweet that the website The A.V. Club posted, but then I watched the footage on replay and noticed that Andrew Garfield tossed some candy over to him during the first round of candy dropping. And, finally, Kimmel gave the crowd something a little bit more ‘substantial’… cookies and donuts. Cue another hilarious crowd reaction, this time from Taraji P. Henson, which is fitting due to her playing a character named Cookie on Empire. You could see her urging her Hidden Figures co-star Octavia Spencer to share. In short, this was a fun little recurring segment which, to reference another tweet (this one by AMC Theaters), is something that I wouldn’t mind seeing happen in real life whenever we go to the theater. Just parachute down some Zours, Sour Patch, or Skittles and I’ll be a happy camper.

BEST: THE ‘HOLLYWOOD TOURISTS’

I’ll admit that there was a possibility that this gag could’ve turned out to be a disaster but, thankfully, it didn’t. It started when Jimmy Kimmel announced that he had orchestrated a plan in which a bunch of tourists on one of those Hollywood tour buses were to be led into the theater during the show, under the guise of it being for an Oscar dress exhibit (“And, in a way, it’s true, they will see dresses and gowns but they will be on people.”). When they were led in, on the count of ‘3, 2, 1, Mahershala!’, I must say that it was a cool little moment, seeing regular tourists interact with Hollywood stars. Highlights from this segment included Denzel Washington acting as a faux priest for a soon-to-be-married couple (“It’s Denzel, so it’s legal!”) and each of the tourists getting to touch Mahershala Ali’s Oscar on the way out. The only real downside to this segment was that it admittedly was a bit overlong, though not to the point where it ruined the whole thing. 

BEST: THE ‘ACTORS/ACTRESSES WHO INSPIRED ME’ SEGMENTS

(Disclaimer: Not the actual title; it’s just the best that I could come up with)

Another neat recurring segment that they did for this year’s show were a series of videos in which an actor or actress was seen sitting in a theater, watching a classic film, and praising the work of one of the film’s stars. After the video concluded, we then saw those two come out on stage together to announce the next award. Charlize Theron presented the award for Best Foreign Film with Shirley MacLaine after praising her work in the 1960 classic The Apartment. Javier Bardem praised Meryl Streep for her work in 1995’s The Bridges of Madison County before coming out together to announce Best Cinematography. The other two videos… well, I’ll get to those in a bit. Again, I thought this was a nice addition to the show. I’ve seen some be a bit more critical on these videos for mainly being montage-based. However, the reason why I appreciated them was because they celebrated iconic performances through the eyes of actors and actresses who were inspired by them. In fact, I honestly wouldn’t mind if they brought this back every year. As for my favorite of this year’s bunch…

BEST MOMENT OF THE NIGHT: SETH ROGEN AND MARTY MCFLY

For his ‘Actors/Actresses who Inspired Me’ segment, Seth Rogen highlighted the 1985 classic, and my personal favorite film of all time, Back to the Future. Cut to him and Michael J. Fox stepping out of the DeLorean to announce the winner for Best Editing, complete with Rogen wearing the iconic self-tying shoes from Back to the Future Part II. As if that wasn’t awesome enough, Rogen then proceeded to do something else on his ‘bucket list’; sing a song from Hamilton onstage. He sang part of ‘The Schuyler Sisters’ while Michael J. Fox chimed in with the lyric ‘Eliza’. Cue the appropriate response from Lin-Manuel Miranda in the audience and you have one of the most awesome things that I’ve ever seen. And yes, I know I’m clearly biased because I love Back to the Future and have also been on a Hamilton binge recently.  

BEST/HILARIOUS: THE MEAN TWEETS

Of course, being that this year’s show was hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, he got to use his popular ‘Mean Tweets’ gag, in which actors read trolling tweets from real-life Twitter users. As usual, it was hilarious to see some of the responses from the actors targeted by these mean tweets, as they were all clearly taking them like a champ. Some of my favorites include Natalie Portman responding to a tweet saying that she probably wouldn’t order an entrée at lunch by showing off her pregnant belly (which is why she didn’t attend the ceremony) and remarking “you’re wrong” to the user who sent that tweet, Jessica Chastain being confused (as I’m sure many of us were) by a user tweeting that they’d ‘white balance their TV on her chest’, and Robert De Niro responding to a tweet claiming that he’s “too old to be making gangster films” and should “start playing grandfather roles” by saying that he already does play grandfather roles and will soon be playing ‘great-grandfather roles’.  

BEST: IN MEMORIAM

As usual, the saddest moment of the show was the ‘In Memoriam’ montage. This year’s montage was particularly rough given the large number of celebrity deaths that occurred since the last Oscars, including but not limited to; Gene Wilder, Anton Yelchin, and of course, Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. In fact, that same day, we were hit with yet another passing; that of Bill Paxton, who got mentioned by Jennifer Aniston during her introduction of the segment. During the segment, Sara Bareilles performed the song ‘Both Sides, Now’, providing a nice melody for the moment. And I know that this segment of the show always gets flak for excluding a few names here and there but at the end of the day, it’s still always the most emotional moment of the show and this year’s montage concluded on the perfect note with Carrie Fisher, as Leia, saying the iconic line “May the Force be With You”. The only real mistake of this year’s montage was when they honored Australian costume designer Janet Patterson… but used a photo of Australian producer Jan Chapman, who is still alive. Whoops...

BEST: JIMMY KIMMEL’S TROLLING OF MATT DAMON

If you’re familiar with Jimmy Kimmel, then you’ll know that he’s had a long-running feud with Matt Damon, which has resulted in some of his show’s most iconic moments. Obviously, that feud was brought up again during the Oscars; in fact, it even came up during the opening monologue. But, in this moment, Kimmel surprisingly complimented Damon, though obviously in a backhanded way, by noting that Damon was originally set to star in Manchester by the Sea before the role went to Casey Affleck… and then went on to star in the rather controversial The Great Wall (“Smooth move, dumbass!”). But, ultimately, Kimmel’s biggest joke on Damon came when he and Ben Affleck came out to announce the winner for Best Original Screenplay. Prior to them coming out, there was another one of the previously mentioned segments in which an actor/actress praises the work of another actor/actress in a classic film of theirs. In this case, however, it was Jimmy Kimmel who was featured in this segment as he talked about a film that ‘inspired’ him, the 2011 film that Damon starred in, We Bought a Zoo. After that segment, the show’s announcer announced the next two presenters as Ben Affleck… and guest. And then, to top it all off, the usual ‘send-off’ music that’s sometimes played during an award winner’s speech (which, might I add, thankfully didn’t happen at all during this year’s ceremony) began to play while Damon was talking. The camera then panned down to reveal that Kimmel was leading the orchestra at that moment (“Wrap it up, we want to go home!”). What can I say? It would’ve been a missed opportunity had Kimmel not pulled this kind of move.

Time to talk about the only negative moment of this year’s show, in my opinion. In fact, it has nothing to do with anything during the show itself.

WORST: SOME OF THE BACKLASH TOWARDS LA LA LAND

Now, let me be clear for a moment; this is not in regards to what happened at the end of the show (I’ll get into that momentarily). I’m happy that Moonlight won Best Picture, as it is a great film that earned all the praise it got. But, going back to what I said in my ‘Predictions’ post, I still don’t understand some of the backlash that was being directed towards La La Land in the weeks leading up to the Oscars. Obviously, part of that backlash was from those who weren’t too big on the film. And that’s fine; film is subjective, after all. The side of this backlash that I didn’t get was the fact that some said that it would’ve been a huge mistake if La La Land swept the awards. To that, I ask… HOW? Seriously, what the hell would’ve been so wrong with La La Land winning a good chunk of this year’s Oscars? Because it was a musical about Hollywood that starred a predominantly white cast? Sure, that’s what it is on a technical level but I feel like this backlash severely negates the positive themes of the film. At its core, La La Land was a story about dreamers and romance, while also not being totally romanticized in how it addressed both these themes. With that said, I am aware that the main reason why many wanted Moonlight to win was due to the importance of its story. Instead of being a tale dedicated to classic Hollywood, like La La Land was, Moonlight was a personal story about a young African-American man struggling with his sexuality and identity in a rough neighborhood. Not only that, this became the first Best Picture winner to have an all-African-American cast.

But here’s the thing... if Moonlight didn’t win Best Picture last night, and La La Land did, that wouldn’t have diminished the importance of the former’s story in any way. Hell, Moonlight won Best Adapted Screenplay which, if you ask me, is probably the next best thing for the film to win (after Best Picture, of course) in terms of its story. La La Land didn’t even win Best Original Screenplay; Manchester by the Sea did. Again, if some of you out there didn’t like La La Land, that’s fine. No one’s forcing you to like it. But I swear, some people out there acted like the frigging world was going to blow up if La La Land won the biggest award of the night. Talk about one of the most extreme cases of hyperbole that I’ve ever seen. You see, this, folks, is why I don’t like to get very political when it comes to talking about film, hence why I’m not going to address the other big backlash of this year’s ceremony, which was mainly in regards to Casey Affleck winning Best Actor in the wake of the two sexual harassment lawsuits he got caught up in back in 2010. Because like I said before, those two lawsuits had NOTHING to do with Manchester by the Sea. In conclusion, to quote Jimmy Kimmel during the closing monologue, “it’s just an awards show”. There is no right or wrong in terms of who wins.

WTF: THAT MIX-UP

And now, here we are. We’ve finally come to what will forever be known as the definitive moment of the 89^th Academy Awards; the mix-up of La La Land and Moonlight for the biggest award of the night. It all started when Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway came out to announce Best Picture, with the two being paired together in honor of the 50^th anniversary of their classic film, Bonnie and Clyde. When the envelope was opened, Beatty hesitated for a bit before giving it over to Dunaway, who announced that La La Land had won. The film’s crew came up to accept the award but while looking behind them while they were up on stage, you could see that something was up as a few Oscar crew members were scrambling around. And then La La Land producer Jordan Horowitz came to the mic, announcing that there was a mistake. Moonlight was the real winner for Best Picture, resulting in the Oscars equivalent of when Steve Harvey announced the wrong winner at the 2015 Miss Universe pageant. So, now the question is this, what the heck happened in that moment? Well, not too long after the Moonlight crew came up to accept the award, Beatty returned to the mic and stated that the envelope that he had read ‘Emma Stone, La La Land’, which was for when Stone won Best Actress, hence why he hesitated at first. When Emma Stone was later asked about the situation, she stated that she had been holding her ‘Best Actress’ envelope that whole time. But then how did Beatty have that same envelope? Finally, this incident was explained by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the U.K.-based accounting firm in charge of tallying votes. They had made two sets of envelopes for each of the 24 winners; these two sets were then placed at opposite sides of the stage. So, clearly, someone must’ve just given Beatty and Dunaway the wrong envelope.

And there you have it, one of the craziest moments in Oscars history. And overall, while it’s undoubtedly one of the most genuinely surprising moments in recent Oscars history, it’s also quite a crappy situation in regards to how it impacted everyone who was involved in it. One of these people was, of course, Warren Beatty, who I’m guessing is currently becoming the butt of many internet jokes and memes. To that, I say… knock it off, it wasn’t his fault. Again, he hesitated when he opened that envelope, so it’s not like this was intentional or anything; he knew something was up. Then, of course, this was definitely a crappy moment for the cast and crew of La La Land. Going back to what I said about the ‘backlash’ towards the film, if you didn’t like the film, that’s fine. But after what happened last night, can I ask those who didn’t like it to at least take it easy on them? Because I think that we can all agree that it sucks to go through what happened to them in that moment. Hell, just ask Ariadna Gutierrez (she was the one who was announced by Steve Harvey as the winner of Miss Universe by mistake). Not only that, it even had a negative impact on Moonlight because it wasn’t a clean victory for them. Had this mistake not occurred and the proper envelope was opened, we wouldn’t be here right now. Again, let me be clear, I have nothing against Moonlight winning Best Picture. It may have only been my #3 pick out of the 9 Best Picture nominees but it was truly a great film that genuinely earned that award. But I’m guessing that even the filmmakers are thinking to themselves, “That could’ve gone better…”

And those are my thoughts on this year’s Academy Awards. This sure was an eventful ceremony. With that in mind, be sure to sound off in the comments below with your thoughts on them, particularly the big mix-up.

89th Academy Awards: Predictions

The time has come once again for the annual Academy Awards, the biggest show in the film awards circuit. The 89^th rendition of this iconic ceremony airs tonight and will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. And, overall, I must say that this is one of the most satisfying lists of nominees that I’ve ever seen in the 9 plus years that I’ve been following the buzz of the Oscar season. Admittedly, the main reason why I say this is because this year, we thankfully don’t have to endure another #OscarsSoWhite controversy. Yes, many of you will remember that the past two Oscar ceremonies were hindered by the widespread backlash that spawned from having an all-white group of nominees in the acting categories. Thankfully, that’s not the case this year; seriously, I don’t think the Oscars would’ve survived that controversy had it happened for the third year in a row. So, on that note, it’s time to do what I always do this time of the year; make a post in which I list my picks for this year’s ceremony, from the technical awards like ‘Best Visual Effects’ and ‘Best Score’ to the big ones like ‘Best Actor’, ‘Best Actress’, and of course, ‘Best Picture’. Per usual, I must advise that these are not meant to be the ‘be-all, end-all’ picks of who should win. These are just my personal picks and I’m not going to do the common ‘What Will Win/What Should Win’ routine that you tend to see everywhere online, nor am I going to focus on the controversial snubs that get brought up every year. Also, I won’t be covering every Oscar category only because there are some instances where I haven’t seen enough films from a certain category which, for me, is mainly the case for the Documentary, Short Film, and Foreign Film categories. With that said, here are my picks for the 89^th annual Academy Awards.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

*DEEPWATER HORIZON

*DOCTOR STRANGE

*THE JUNGLE BOOK

*KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

*ROGUE ONE: A STAR WARS STORY

MY PICK: DOCTOR STRANGE

Damn, this is arguably the most impressive lineup of ‘Best Visual Effects’ nominees that I’ve ever seen. They even recognized the art of stop-motion animation with Kubo and the Two Strings. The last time that this ever happened was with The Nightmare Before Christmas in 1993. But for my pick, I’m going with Doctor Strange… and no, it’s not just because I’m an MCU fan. It’s because I think it has a good chance of winning. The MCU films have always done a great job with their visual effects, but Doctor Strange truly went above and beyond with its effects, which is fitting considering that this film is based around the mystical side of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This paved the way for some truly gorgeous, and in many cases surreal and highly trippy, visuals and action sequences. Highlights include the scene where Dr. Strange first experiences the powers of the mystic arts and the big fight scene in New York near the end of the film that is very reminiscent of 2010’s Best Visual Effects winner, Inception. As of 2017, no MCU film has ever won an Academy Award. Many of them were nominated in this category in the past, like The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy, and some even managed to get nominated in other categories. Iron Man got nominations for Sound Mixing/Editing while Guardians of the Galaxy was nominated for makeup/hairstyling. But, sadly, none of these films managed to win one of these awards. So, I’ll admit… I kind of want Doctor Strange to win primarily just to prove that superhero films are worthy of awards like this amidst all that damn ‘fatigue’ talk that refuses to go away. But, if I had to pick a runner-up, I’ll go with The Jungle Book. I’m guessing that this is the other big front-runner this year given all the praise that the film has gotten for its photo-realistic animals and environments.

BEST FILM EDITING

*ARRIVAL

*HACKSAW RIDGE

*HELL OR HIGH WATER

*LA LA LAND

*MOONLIGHT

MY PICK: MOONLIGHT

I’m going to be quick here because I’ll admit that I can’t say much about a film in terms of editing. Simply put, Moonlight had some excellent editing, highlighted by the impressive long take at the beginning of the film. Interesting to note, the film was edited by two people; Nat Sanders handled Chapters 1 and 2 of the film while Joi McMillon edited the final chapter. As for a runner-up pick, I’ll go with Hacksaw Ridge as the editing had a major hand in making the film’s action sequences so impressive.  

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

*ALLIED

*FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

*FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS

*JACKIE

*LA LA LAND

MY PICK: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

For Best Costume Design, I’m going with my third favorite film of 2016* (as of the publishing of my ‘Top 12 Films of 2016’ list; I’ve seen some more films since then that would probably cause a few changes to that list), Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Like Doctor Strange with ‘Best Visual Effects’, I think that there’s a good chance of Fantastic Beasts possibly coming away with this award (along with maybe even another one that we’ll get to in a little bit). The film is a period piece set in 1920’s New York and, as such, featured some great 1920’s costume design by the legendary Colleen Atwood. Atwood’s already won 3 Oscars in the past for Chicago, Memoirs of a Geisha, and Alice in Wonderland so perhaps this Sunday will see her win her fourth. For my runner-up pick, I’m going with, admittedly, the only other film in this list that I’ve seen; La La Land. On that note, I’m well-aware that this nomination has been a bit controversial amongst some people who question why the film got nominated for this category seeing how the costumes in the film are basically just regular clothes for the most part. But, if you ask me, it’s hard to deny how iconic at least one piece of costuming from the film is; the yellow dress that Emma Stone wears during the ‘A Lovely Night’ sequence.

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING

*A MAN CALLED OVE

*STAR TREK BEYOND

*SUICIDE SQUAD

MY PICK: STAR TREK BEYOND

My favorite film from 2016 gets my pick for ‘Best Makeup and Hairstyling’, a category which, as usual, only sees three nominees a year compared to the usual 5. And, yes, the generally maligned Suicide Squad managed to get a nomination in this category. But, in its defense, the makeup design in the film was arguably one of its primary highlights… and yes, I’m referring to the film that featured Jared Leto’s eccentric take on the Joker without the slightest bit of irony. But, like I said, my pick goes to Star Trek Beyond. A notable tidbit about the film was that the makeup team created 50 new alien species for the film. And while many of them were no doubt just featured as extras, it’s still quite an impressive feat that also serves as a fitting tie-in with Star Trek’s 50^th anniversary. Plus, this isn’t the first time that a Star Trek film has competed in this category. Back in 2009, the first Kelvin-era Trek film was nominated for this same award… and it won! So, with that in mind, I have the feeling that we’ll be seeing Trek come away with this award again thanks to the excellent work done by the makeup team for Beyond (sadly, Star Trek Into Darkness didn’t get nominated back in 2013). Do I have a runner-up? Eh, I’ll go with Suicide Squad because like I said, at the very least the makeup design was solid, particularly for Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as Killer Croc, the latter of whom was done with practical (let me say that again, practical!) makeup effects. Also, it’d be pretty funny if it managed to win despite the critical bashing that it got upon release.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

*ARRIVAL

*LA LA LAND

*LION

*MOONLIGHT

*SILENCE

MY PICK: LA LA LAND

This was a hard category to pick because all these films (disclaimer: I haven’t seen Silence) had some great cinematography. So, with that said, why did I pick La La Land? Well, for one thing, cinematographer Linus Sandgren did a great job in capturing the old-school Hollywood style with his camera work, which of course fit perfectly with the film’s ‘Classic Hollywood’ feel. The film was shot in a style that mirrored the classic widescreen process known as ‘Cinemascope’, though it should be noted that the film wasn’t really shot in the Cinemascope format. The opening credit of ‘Presented in Cinemascope’ is only done as a tribute to the format. Aside from that, the film also had great use of color (e.g. Mia’s yellow dress) and its frequent use of long takes made the musical numbers even more memorable than they already were. For my runner-up pick, I’m going with Arrival, which was shot by Bradford Young (Selma and the upcoming Han Solo film). For that film, Young muted the overall color scheme, something that’s not usually seen in a sci-fi film like this, to create a ‘mundane’ (a term that Young has used to describe the cinematography) and simplistic feel.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

*ARRIVAL

*FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

*HAIL, CAESAR!

*LA LA LAND

*PASSENGERS

MY PICK: FANTASTIC BEASTS AND WHERE TO FIND THEM

Basically, I’m just going to reiterate the same thing that I said for ‘Best Costume Design’. Being a 1920’s period piece, Fantastic Beasts also had great production design in terms of how it recreated the world of 1920’s New York. But then you can also factor in the fact that this is a film set in the Wizarding World of J.K. Rowling, and her innate ability for worldbuilding is on full display here. For my runner-up pick, I’ll go with Arrival because you can tell that a lot of effort went into creating the film’s aliens as well as other various facets of the film (e.g. the alien ‘language’).

BEST SOUND EDITING/MIXING

MY PICK (FOR BOTH CATEGORIES): LA LA LAND

Because both of these categories tend to cover the same general aspect of filmmaking, I decided that La La Land earned my picks for both categories. After all, this is a musical we’re talking about. Sound design is very much a key aspect of that kind of production. And, of course, the sound design in La La Land was excellent… and that’s all I’m going to say because I know little about sound mixing and editing.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

*AUDITION (THE FOOLS WHO DREAM) – LA LA LAND

*CAN’T STOP THE FEELING – TROLLS

*CITY OF STARS – LA LA LAND

*THE EMPTY CHAIR – JIM: THE JAMES FOLEY STORY

*HOW FAR I’LL GO – MOANA

MY PICK: AUDITION (THE FOOLS WHO DREAM) – LA LA LAND

It’d be a genuine shock if La La Land didn’t win this award. Right now, the big front-runner in this category is the song that has become the definitive track from the film’s soundtrack, ‘City of Stars’, first sung by Ryan Gosling and then sung as a duet between him and Emma Stone. But while I do agree that it is a great song… admittedly, it’s not my favorite from the soundtrack. Instead, my favorite song from the film was Stone’s primary solo, ‘Audition (The Fools Who Dream)’, which she sings while at her character’s most successful audition. The song was featured in the second trailer for the film and because of this, it basically became my favorite song from the soundtrack before I even saw the film. And I think the key to it is that, in the context of its appearance in the film, Emma Stone is the only one onscreen during this sequence. It’s just like when Anne Hathaway sang ‘I Dreamed a Dream’ in Les Miserables; the focus is entirely on the lead singer/actress and, thus, fully displays their singing/acting ability. And that’s why it’s my favorite song from the soundtrack; heck, even Damien Chazelle stated that it was his favorite as well. But, if ‘City of Stars’ wins, I’ll be perfectly fine with that. As for the other songs, I really loved ‘How Far I’ll Go’ from Moana, an excellent representation of the film’s title character as developed by musical genius Lin-Manuel Miranda and brilliantly performed by Auli’i Cravalho. I also really enjoyed Justin Timberlake’s ‘Can’t Stop the Feeling’ from Trolls. Yeah, I know it’s easy to joke about the film that it is featured in and technically this song has been more of a chart-topping hit than an in-film song (I admittedly wouldn’t know how well it fits into Trolls as I haven’t seen the film) but it’s still a good song; it’s catchy and upbeat, which resulted in a highly enjoyable summer hit. And finally, we got ‘The Empty Chair’, performed by Sting for the documentary Jim: The James Foley Story. Anyone notice how, in this category, they always tend to pick one song from a lesser-known film? Anyway, it’s okay…

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

*JACKIE

*LA LA LAND

*LION

*MOONLIGHT

*PASSENGERS

MY PICK: LA LA LAND

Of course, a lot of the buzz surrounding La La Land has come courtesy of its songs, written by the duo of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. However, equally important to the soundtrack’s success is its score, provided by director Damien Chazelle’s Harvard University roommate Justin Hurwitz, who also did the scores for Chazelle’s previous two films, including Whiplash. Hurwitz provides us with a great array of upbeat and jazzy backing tracks to these great songs, from the grand opening number ‘Another Day of Sun’ to my pick for Best Song, ‘Audition (The Fools Who Dream)’. But there’s also a lot of great non-vocal tracks in the soundtrack as well, from the tune that plays during Mia and Sebastian’s visit to Griffith Observatory (‘Planetarium’) to the 7-minute melody that plays during the film’s amazing ending (‘Epilogue’). And of course, who can forget the film’s classic main motif, ‘Mia and Sebastian’s Theme’. Like with Best Original Song, it’d be a genuine shock if La La Land doesn’t win this category. But, if I had to pick a runner-up, I think I’ll go with Moonlight. That film’s soundtrack was done by Nicholas Britell, who notably served as a producer on both iterations of Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash; the 2013 short and the 2014 feature film. As for his work on Moonlight, there’s a nice melodic feel to it, especially due to the use of pianos and string instruments.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

*KUBO AND THE TWO STRINGS

*MOANA

*MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI

*THE RED TURTLE

*ZOOTOPIA

MY PICK: ZOOTOPIA

First off, I got to ask… why didn’t Finding Dory get nominated in this category? I mean, I’m guessing it probably wouldn’t have won it anyway considering the other films in the running but the film did do well with critics. It has a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes, for crying out loud! I’m honestly surprised that the film has been getting ignored by quite a few award shows. It didn’t even get a Golden Globe nomination. Ah well… anyway, my pick goes to Disney Animation’s first release of 2016, Zootopia. Their other 2016 effort, Moana, also got a nomination in this category and while I did really love that film, I’ll admit that I prefer Zootopia by just a slight margin. Don’t get me wrong, Moana is great too, particularly in regards to its great representation of Polynesian culture. So, with that in mind, Moana is my runner-up pick. However, I give the edge to Zootopia for the one thing that it did that turned it from an already great Disney animated film into a Disney film that was so good, you’d swear it was something that Walt would’ve made in his day. On the surface, Zootopia seems like a fun buddy cop comedy set within a world fully inhabited by animals. And while the film is most certainly a fun buddy cop story, it’s also a story that addresses themes like racism and prejudice which, suffice it to say, are quite timely themes. And that’s the reason why I think the film has been winning most of the primary ‘animated feature’ awards during this year’s award circuit. Again, that’s not to discredit Moana; it’s quite an impressive feat that both of Disney’s animated films this year were terrific. I also finally got around to seeing Kubo and the Two Strings and, like many others, I really liked it. It had an engaging story, lovable characters, and gorgeous animation. However, considering that this category usually ends up being won by Disney or DreamWorks, I have the feeling it’s not going to win this year.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

*ARRIVAL

*FENCES

*HIDDEN FIGURES

*LION

*MOONLIGHT

MY PICK: MOONLIGHT

For Best Adapted Screenplay, my pick goes to Moonlight. The film is based off a semi-autobiographical play titled In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue, which was written in 2003 by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney. When director Barry Jenkins adapted it to film, he implemented some of his own personal experiences into it as well. This results in a film in which you can genuinely sense how personal the story is for Jenkins and McCraney. For example, both had mothers who struggled with drug addiction and a good chunk of the film takes place in Miami’s Liberty Square apartment complex, where the two used to live growing up. Jenkins also decided to split up the story into three chapters, centering on the main character Chiron when he’s a kid, a teenager, and a young adult. He does a great job of balancing these three chapters out; none of them overshadow the other at any point. In other words, they’re each given the proper amount of time and character development. Thus, that’s why this film gets my pick for Best Adapted Screenplay; it’s got a great emotional core while also being well-balanced. For runner-up, I’ll go with Arrival. Screenwriter Eric Heisserer, who also wrote 2016’s well-received horror film Lights Out, adapted author Ted Chiang’s 1998 short story Story of Your Life to great success, especially in terms of conveying its layered storytelling and smart handling of its sci-fi elements.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

*HELL OR HIGH WATER

*LA LA LAND

*THE LOBSTER

*MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

*20^TH CENTURY WOMEN

MY PICK: LA LA LAND

Once again, we go back to director Damien Chazelle’s love letter to classic Hollywood. The great thing about Chazelle’s screenplay is that while it is a love story set in the City of Angels, it’s not a completely romanticized affair. Sure, there are some romanticized elements in the film (e.g. all the classic film references) but at its core, there’s a great sense of realism to the story, namely through things not always turning out well for its main characters. Case in point, the ending, which goes against the traditional narrative of the musical genre by not concluding with the straightforward happy ending. Simply put, Chazelle’s screenplay has such a great sublime quality to it, and that’s why it earns my vote. For my runner-up pick, I’ll be going with writer Taylor Sheridan’s Hell or High Water. In this film, Sheridan gave us incredibly layered characters and put them in a conflict that wasn’t black and white. In other words, it was a story in which the characters that would normally be the antagonists of a story of this nature are the protagonists, with the film being set in a gritty locale that was hard-hitting on an emotional level.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

*VIOLA DAVIS (FENCES)

*NAOMIE HARRIS (MOONLIGHT)

*NICOLE KIDMAN (LION)

*OCTAVIA SPENCER (HIDDEN FIGURES)

*MICHELLE WILLIAMS (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

MY PICK: VIOLA DAVIS (FENCES)

And now we get into the acting categories. Kicking things off with Best Supporting Actress, my pick goes to my fellow Rhode Island native, Viola Davis, for her emotional turn as Rose Maxson in Fences… though, technically, she’s the main female lead in that film, not ‘supporting’. Ah well, aside from that miscalculation, she did a fantastic job in the film, working well off co-star, and the film’s director, Denzel Washington. Poor Rose is put through a hell of a lot in Fences, particularly once she learns that her husband has been cheating on her, and Davis is dealt with a good chunk of the film’s emotional turmoil. If I had to pick her best scene in the film, it would have to be the one that was featured in the trailer, in which she rebuffs a comment made by her husband about him being stuck in the same place in life for nearly two decades by noting that she’s been right there with him the whole time and that she’s made her own sacrifices in life. For my runner-up pick, it’s a toss-up between Michelle Williams for Manchester by the Sea and Naomie Harris for Moonlight. Williams, who I can say is one of my favorite actresses working today, was terrific as usual in the role of Randi, the main character’s ex-wife. As for Harris, she very much went against type to great success in the role of the main character’s emotionally abusive and drug-addicted mother, Paula. I also want to highlight the other two nominees in the category, Nicole Kidman and Octavia Spencer, for their great performances in their respective films, in which both portrayed real-life people.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

*MAHERSHALA ALI (MOONLIGHT)

*JEFF BRIDGES (HELL OR HIGH WATER)

*LUCAS HEDGES (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

*DEV PATEL (LION)

*MICHAEL SHANNON (NOCTURNAL ANIMALS)

MY PICK: MAHERSHALA ALI (MOONLIGHT)

For Best Supporting Actor, my pick goes to first-time nominee Mahershala Ali, who plays a crack dealer named Juan in director Barry Jenkins’ emotional drama. It’s also worth noting that Ali is only in one-third of the film, the opening chapter. Once the middle chapter starts up, it’s revealed that Juan has died from undisclosed reasons. And while his screen time may be limited, Ali very much makes the most out of it. There’s a great sublime quality to his performance, as we see him befriend young Chiron and become more of a parental figure to him than his mother Paula ever was. It’s also quite fascinating how his role in the film comes to an end. The first chapter ends with Chiron asking Juan if he’s a drug dealer. Juan admits that he is and once he also reveals that he’d been selling drugs to Chiron’s mother, Chiron leaves his house. The final shot of Ali in the film sees him greatly ashamed of what he’s just admitted to his new friend, a major contrast to the cool, laid-back, and wise persona that he’s conveyed for the past half hour. That final scene alone is the main reason why Ali gets my vote. As for my runner-up pick, I’m going to go with Lucas Hedges, who played Patrick in Manchester by the Sea. The son of the main character’s recently deceased brother, Patrick goes through quite a lot in the film, from an emotional perspective, and Hedges, in a great breakout performance, handles all this material brilliantly.

BEST ACTRESS

*ISABELLE HUPPERT (ELLE)

*RUTH NEGGA (LOVING)

*NATALIE PORTMAN (JACKIE)

*EMMA STONE (LA LA LAND)

*MERYL STREEP (FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS)

MY PICK: EMMA STONE (LA LA LAND)

My pick for Best Actress goes to the shining starlet of La La Land, Emma Stone. The film gave Stone a perfect opportunity to showcase a lot of her talents as an actress, from her infectious charisma to her excellent singing ability, as I’ve already noted when I talked about her big solo in the film. It also helps that she has great chemistry with her co-star, Ryan Gosling; it is their third on-screen collaboration, after all. As for my runner-up pick, I’ll admit that I’ve only seen one of the other four films that featured this year’s Best Actress nominees; thus, that runner-up pick goes to Ruth Negga. In the true story that served as the basis for director Jeff Nichols’ Loving, she played Mildred Loving who, along with her husband Richard (Joel Edgerton), was forced to fight for their right to be married when the state of Virginia deemed their marriage as invalid. It’s an emotional story, for sure, and Negga does a phenomenal job in the role of the soft-spoken but kind-hearted Mildred. Like I said, though, I haven’t seen any of the other films in this category. This includes Florence Foster Jenkins, which earned Meryl Streep a record-setting 20^th Oscar nomination (P.S. don’t tell this to Donald Trump, though, if you know what I mean), Jackie, in which Natalie Portman starred as former First Lady Jackie Kennedy, and director Paul Verhoeven’s Elle, in which Isabelle Huppert stars as a woman who seeks revenge against the man who raped her. Of these other three, Huppert is notably being regarded as one of the category’s biggest frontrunners, especially after winning a Golden Globe for her performance back in January.

BEST ACTOR

*CASEY AFFLECK (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

*ANDREW GARFIELD (HACKSAW RIDGE)

*RYAN GOSLING (LA LA LAND)

*VIGGO MORTENSEN (CAPTAIN FANTASTIC)

*DENZEL WASHINGTON (FENCES)

MY PICK: CASEY AFFLECK (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

Many will no doubt agree that Casey Affleck has been one of the most underrated actors in the business, which probably has something to do with the fact that he happens to be the brother of 2-time Oscar winner Ben Affleck. However, he has been making a name for himself thanks to terrific performances in films like Gone Baby Gone and his latest effort, Manchester by the Sea. In it, he plays a janitor named Lee who is forced to take on the responsibility of being the guardian for his nephew Patrick when his brother Joe dies. As the film goes on, we see that poor Lee’s been through quite a lot in his life and this results in him being unsure about whether he’s able to properly take care of Patrick. In this highly emotional film, Affleck delivers an excellent and equally emotional performance through and through. On that note, though, I’m aware that there’s been a bit of controversy surrounding his potential win this Sunday due to a pair of sexual harassment lawsuits that he was hit with back in 2010 by two of the crew members who worked on the mockumentary I’m Still Here, which he directed. However, this doesn’t affect my pick at all for one simple reason; those lawsuits have nothing to do with Manchester by the Sea. It’s just like when Bryan Singer was hit with a pair of sexual abuse lawsuits a few weeks prior to the release of X-Men: Days of Future Past in 2014; these lawsuits were about incidents that occurred a long time ago so I kind of question why they’re being brought up now (2020 UPDATE: Actually, 2017 me, they do matter... full disclosure, folks, this was written long before the whole Weinstein epidemic hit the industry; needless to say, my views on situations like this are now far different than they were back then). For my runner-up pick, it’s a toss-up between Andrew Garfield, for his arguably career-best performances in Hacksaw Ridge, and Denzel Washington, who took on the double duty of director and lead actor for Fences.

BEST DIRECTOR

*DENIS VILLENEUVE (ARRIVAL)

*MEL GIBSON (HACKSAW RIDGE)

*DAMIEN CHAZELLE (LA LA LAND)

*KENNETH LONERGAN (MANCHESTER BY THE SEA)

*BARRY JENKINS (MOONLIGHT)

MY PICK: DAMIEN CHAZELLE (LA LA LAND)

2014’s Whiplash turned Damien Chazelle into one of the most exciting up-and-coming directors in the business. La La Land effectively made him one of the best in the business, even though it was only his third directorial effort to date. With that in mind, just like Viola Davis for Best Supporting Actress, I’m backing a fellow Rhode Island native in this category. For runner-up, my pick goes to Barry Jenkins; it seems like this category is a toss-up between him and Chazelle.

BEST PICTURE (RANKINGS)

For the third year in a row, I’ve managed to watch every single Best Picture nominee. Thus, this final section will be a rankings list of this year’s 9 nominees.

9. ARRIVAL

Well, it looks like I’m starting this list off with a controversial pick and by that, I refer to the fact that Arrival is my ‘least favorite’ of this year’s Best Picture nominees. Before you say anything, though, I want to make it clear that I do like this film. It’s a smart sci-fi film that benefits from great direction from Denis Villeneuve and terrific performances from its cast, particularly Amy Adams in the lead role of linguist Louise Banks (P.S. I’m not that upset over her snub in the Best Actress category; as I’ve made it clear in the past, I don’t get worked up over ‘snubs’ anymore). So why is it at the Number 9 spot on this list, you ask? Well, simply put, I guess that I just wasn’t as big on it compared to others. Now, it’s not because I didn’t get what was going on because I did. I mean, sure, I’ll admit that it took me a little while to figure out where they were going with the story but once I did, I found that all the film’s build-up led to a solid conclusion, especially the part in which we learn that the supposed flashbacks of Louise and her deceased daughter Hannah are instead moments from the future and that Jeremy Renner’s character, theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly, will become her husband. In the end, though, I’ll admit that I just liked these next 8 films more. Again, that’s not to discredit this film because it is a well-made film in every possible way. Remember, this is all just subjective opinion.

8. LION

Lion tells the true story of Saroo Brierley who, when he was five years old, was sadly separated from his family in India. He ended up getting adopted by the Brierleys, a couple from Australia, and around 25 years later, he begins to search for his original home with the help of the service Google Earth. It’s an emotional story, for sure, and first-time director Garth Davis does an excellent job of capturing that emotional depth on film. Sure, there are a few slow parts here and there but it’s still an engaging and uplifting story about a young man looking to find his way back home. It starts with the harrowing incident in which young Saroo becomes lost in India before transitioning into his adult life living in Australia. And then, after going through Saroo’s long quest to locate his old village (during which he learns that he’d been mispronouncing its name all these years), it all leads to an ending that’s both emotionally cathartic but also sad in a way. Saroo finally reunites with his family but learns that his older brother Guddu, who he was very close with when he was younger, had died on the same night that he ended up getting lost. And, of course, the film also features terrific performances from its main cast; Dev Patel as the grown-up Saroo, Rooney Mara as his girlfriend Lucy, and Nicole Kidman and David Wenham as Saroo’s adoptive parents. In short, Lion is an excellent directorial debut for Garth Davis though I’ll admit that, unfortunately, I don’t think it’s going to win anything on Sunday.

7. FENCES

Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by legendary playwright August Wilson, Fences is a hard-hitting film in terms of its emotional drama. In fact, some parts of this story, about a working African-American man from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania who struggles to keep his family together, are downright uncomfortable to watch (e.g. the scene where main character Troy Maxson admits to his wife Rose that he’s been having an affair and that his mistress is pregnant). But, it is worth it in the end as Fences is a terrific example of an actors’ showcase, with terrific performances from Denzel Washington and Viola Davis in the lead roles. Washington also serves as the film’s director and does a solid job of maintaining the narrative structure and spirit of Wilson’s play, with the screenplay being a direct copy of the original stage-play. Now, on that note, the film does have an undeniable ‘staginess’ quality to it, with almost all of it taking place within the Maxson household and consisting entirely of ‘dialogue’ scenes. And, admittedly, that can get a little tiring after a while, especially considering that this film is over two hours long. But, like I said, it is worth it for the great performances from the cast.

6. HIDDEN FIGURES

It’s safe to say that Hidden Figures is one of the big ‘fan favorites’ of this year’s Best Picture lineup. In other words, in terms of regular moviegoers, it’s been one of the most widely seen. It’s been a solid critical and commercial success ever since it hit theaters nationwide back in January, and it’s easy to see why this is such a big crowd-pleaser. Hidden Figures is the true story of mathematicians Katherine Johnson and Dorothy Vaughan and engineer Mary Jackson, who overcame all the racial tension of the 60’s to become some of the unsung heroes of the ‘Space Race’. Most notably, they helped John Glenn become the first U.S. astronaut to orbit the Earth. As for the film, it’s a solid crowd-pleaser. I’ll admit that it is a bit traditional in terms of narrative but this is a case where you will find yourself rooting for the film’s three main heroines whenever they manage to advance their careers in some way, from Jackson getting the opportunity to earn a degree in engineering to Johnson becoming a key figure in terms of calculating the trajectory for Glenn’s launch. There is a genuine satisfaction that comes from moments like this and the film also benefits from an excellent ensemble cast, especially leads Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, and Janelle Monáe.

5. HACKSAW RIDGE

In 1995, Mel Gibson won Oscars for Best Director and Best Picture for his big war epic, Braveheart. This year, he’s nominated in the same categories again for his latest directorial effort, Hacksaw Ridge, which served as his triumphant return to the director’s chair after his career was impacted by several public scandals in the early 2000’s. It tells the tale of soldier Desmond Doss, who overcame all the controversy that stemmed from him being a conscientious objector (i.e. not carrying a weapon into battle) to become the unsung hero of a pivotal WWII skirmish. The film admittedly starts off on a rather cheesy note but that all changes once it gets into the action. Through this film, Gibson gives us some of the most epic and intense action sequences that the war film genre has ever seen. And through it all, we follow an endearing main protagonist, played excellently by Andrew Garfield, whose peace-based beliefs are ones that we can all take note from. In short, Hacksaw Ridge is an outstanding war film that re-established Gibson as one of the industry’s premier action directors.

4. MANCHESTER BY THE SEA

As many have pointed out, writer/director Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester by the Sea is not an easy film to watch. Casey Affleck stars as Lee Chandler, a janitor from Quincy who is forced to take on the responsibility of being the guardian of his nephew Patrick (Lucas Hedges) after his brother Joe (Kyle Chandler) dies from a heart attack. And over the course of the film’s hefty 137-minute runtime, Lee struggles to figure out if he’s able to be a proper guardian for Patrick, especially after a traumatizing incident from his past that is revealed to be the reason why he’s become an extremely bitter loner. Obviously, there are quite a lot of heavy-hitting emotional moments in this film but, like Fences, it’s worth sitting through to see some great performances from its cast, especially from Affleck, Michelle Williams, and Hedges. And through it all, Lonergan does a great job in giving the story a great sense of ‘realism’. In other words, there’s absolutely no BS in this well-layered and somber tale of love, loss, and family.

3. MOONLIGHT

It’s safe to say that Moonlight is one of the two primary front-runners for Best Picture this year. And rightfully so as it’s a powerful and emotional film about a young man struggling to find his place in the world. That someone is Chiron, a young African-American man living in a rough Miami neighborhood, and the film focuses in on three distinct points of his life; first when he’s a child (Alex Hibbert), then as a teenager (Ashton Sanders), and finally as an adult (Trevante Rhodes). We see him go through various hardships over the years, including having to deal with his emotionally abusive and drug-addicted mother (Naomie Harris) and struggling with his sexuality, particularly through his relationship with his best friend Kevin (played by Jaden Piner as a child, Jharrel Jerome as a teenager, and Andre Holland as an adult). The story is simple but full of emotional depth and Barry Jenkins’ direction is fantastic as are the performances of its main cast. Mahershala Ali is especially sublime in his role as Juan, a drug dealer who befriends young Chiron in the first third of the film and who also only appears in that part of the film. In short, Moonlight may not be my ‘Number 1’ pick this year but it’s still a fantastic film in every sense of the word.  

2. HELL OR HIGH WATER

I remember first hearing about this film during the tail end of this past summer when I first saw the trailer for it during a screening of Jason Bourne. I thought that it looked interesting but I’ll admit that I didn’t get around to seeing it in theaters. However, when it did come out, I noticed that the film was getting rave reviews from all-around. Critics loved it and film fans loved it. I finally got around to seeing it once it got nominated for Best Picture and, ultimately, I found myself loving it just as much. Hell or High Water is about two brothers, Toby and Tanner Howard, who embark on a spree of bank robberies to acquire enough money to save their farm before it ends up being foreclosed by the bank. And that is a primary example of how well-layered writer Taylor Sheridan’s screenplay is. While you don’t condone what the two brothers are doing, their motivation for doing so shows that there is still a decent amount of humanity left in them. The film very much establishes the fact that it’s set in a place where people are just trying to get by in the rough economy and, as such, we see that this story of ‘cops and robbers’ isn’t so black and white. Chris Pine and Ben Foster do excellent jobs in the roles of Toby and Tanner, respectively, as do Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham in the roles of the two Texas Rangers who try and hunt them down. Pair that with excellent direction from David Mackenzie and you have a gritty modern-day Western that ends up being one of the genre’s best in recent years.

1. LA LA LAND

Well, at the risk of being incredibly predictable, my #1 pick goes to this year’s biggest front-runner, La La Land. It has a record-tying 14 nominations at this year’s ceremony and it’s surely going to win quite a few of them. However, with that said, I’m starting to notice some MAJOR backlash towards this film; namely, I’ve recently been seeing a lot of articles online in which the writers state that they’ll be extremely disappointed if the film ends up sweeping the awards. To that, I ask, why? What the heck would be so bad about this film winning all the awards? If it does, it genuinely earned them. Director Damien Chazelle’s love letter to Old Hollywood is a charming and original musical complete with terrific lead performances from Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone and outstanding musical numbers. And of course, it all concludes with one of the best endings to any film in 2016. I’ve already gone over it before in my Top 12 Films of 2016 posts so I won’t repeat myself too much here. Basically, the great thing about it is that Chazelle goes against the typical ‘happy ending’ seen in these kinds of films but, in a way, does give us a happy ending, just not the one we primarily expect. And that’s why the film ended up being my #4 favorite film of 2016 and subsequently my pick for Best Picture this year. Seriously, though, why do I feel like the internet is now trying to make me feel bad for liking this film? Seriously, I don’t get it…

And those are my picks for this year’s Academy Awards. Thanks for following along and be sure to check back here in the next few days for my ‘Results/Recap’ post. Also, be sure to sound off in the comments below with your own picks for this year’s ceremony.