A few years ago the Baseball Hall of Fame moved their announcements from the first week of January to around the third week of January. I have no idea why they did it and it kinda annoyed me. However, I had noticed that the Hall of Fame announcement is now just a day or two before the Oscar nominations announcement, and I suppose it's nice to not have to wait long before the end of the Hall of Fame season and the Oscar season. Well two days ago the Hall of Fame announced that Carlos Beltran and Andruw Jones are the two newest Baseball Hall of Famers, and today we have our newest batch of Oscar nominees.
And thanks to a couple of loyal readers (with a special shoutout to Sean Ramsdelk and Fernando Lemon), I was motivated to watch more shortlisted films prior to the unveiling of the nominees than ever before, with a whopping 13 of the 15 nominees checked off. So obviously, it means that one of the nominees would be the two that I'm missing. Which is just as well, because with how long it takes for me to write each review it'll give me a little bit more time to write the review for the four that I have seen. Anyways, your newest nominees are
Forevergreen
The Girl Who Cried Pearls
Papillon (Butterfly)
Retirement Plan
The Three Sisters
There's a lot to unpack. The Three Sisters is the film that I have yet to see, while Papillon and Retirement Plan were two of the films that were readily available from the shortlist unveiling. Forevergreen was made available on YouTube for 48 hours, while The Girl Who Cried Pearls had been available on the National Film Board of Canada website provided you live in Canada (or have a VPN).
The Three Sisters was an interesting case in that it was released under the name Timur Kognov, but it eventually came out that Kognov was an alias for the twice nominated Konstantin Bronzit (previously nominated for Lavatory Lovestory and We Can't Live Without Cosmos). I became curious as to if The Three Sisters did get nominated would it be awarded under Kognov, or Bronzit, or both. As it turns out, it was Bronzit that got listed under the nomination. Meanwhile the filmmaking team of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski behind The Girl Who Cried Pearls were also previously nominated in this category, for Madame Tutli-Putli. And Ron Dyens, one of the nominees for Papillon, won an Oscar last year for being one of the producers of Flow. Forevergreen's Nathan Englehardt and Jeremy Spears had worked on several Disney films that were nominated for and won Oscars, although they are no longer the faceless animators.
As far as the snubs go, the biggest one in my eyes might just be Éiru, the latest short from Cartoon Saloon, who had been nominated several times before including in this category with Late Afternoon. I was hoping they can get an Oscar this time around for this luscious fable, but the Academy went with another Irish short in Retirement Plan. Snow Bear was also a highly touted potential nominee, but Forevergreen pushed it out to claim the environmental film about bears slot. Meanwhile The Quinta's Ghost, the other shortlisted film I haven't seen, might remain forever unseen by me.
Anyways, in the realm of the categories that most of the world care about, Sinners is probably the biggest news of the day, as it toppled the 75-year-old record for most nominations by a film once held by All About Eve (and later tied by Titanic and La La Land). Sure one of them was in Best Casting, the first new category in decades, but even without it, it would have 15. The other front-runner, One Battle After Another, still had a strong showing with 13. I suppose the biggest surprise in the Best Picture lineup was F1: the Movie, as it launched from a surprise PGA nomination to get one at the Oscars too. People might have thought it could have gone to underwhelming blockbusters Avatar: Fire and Ash, which received only two nominations in Best Costume Design and Best Visual Effects, or Wicked: For Good, which was completely shut out. Or it could have gone to the Palme d'Or winning It was Just an Accident, but The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value were already represented in the Best Picture lineup, and there just wasn't room for three international features.
Speaking of the Best International Feature Oscar, I was delighted to see that Taiwan's submission Left-Handed Girl made it onto the shortlist. I do connect strongly with Taiwan considering that was where my parents were from and I always enjoy visiting (even if I haven't gone in almost 13 years). I have gone back and tried to see all of the previous Taiwan submissions. It helps that Sean Baker, the director behind last year's Best Picture winning Anora, worked closely with the production. However, Baker's influence can only go so far as Left-Handed Girl missed out on the Oscar nomination, alongside two other East Asian films in South Korea's No Other Choice or Japan's Kokuho, although the latter got a nomination for Best Makeup and Hairstyling.
With the other animation category, Kpop Demon Hunters continued to establish itself as the front-runner picking up not only the Best Animated Feature nomination but also one for Best Original Song for "Golden." The rest of the lineup is split between Disney/Pixar and international films, with Elio and Zootopia 2 getting in for the former while Arco and Little Amelie or the Character of Rain representing the latter. I know some of my friends were big fans of The Bad Guys 2, but that wasn't getting in, not with the first film getting snubbed.
Anyways, besides the two obvious front-runners in Sinners and One Battle After Another, the two international features in The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value, and the blockbuster action movie in F1, the rest of the Best Picture lineup consist of Frankenstein and Marty Supreme, both of which tied Sentimental Value with nine nominations. Meanwhile Bugonia and Trains Dreams made it in despite getting only four total nominations, the same as F1 and The Secret Agent. And then there's Hamnet, which received eight nominations.
That's about all I have to say with this year's nominees. Once again I've seen more Best Animated Short nominees than Best Picture nominees (of which I've only seen One Battle After Another). I've went ahead and tried to create an account with Polydont Productions, the distributing company behind The Three Sisters. Here's hoping I get approved so I can watch The Three Sisters, but I've got plenty of work to do with the other four nominees I have seen anyways.
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