Oscar Nominations: An Analysis

This won’t be anything too in depth, but the Academy Awards signal the end of the award season, and the golden Oscar statues are probably the highest recognition you can get for your craft in the industry. The Academy Awards typically follow the Golden Globes for the most part, but it’s the deviations and differences create some talking points nonetheless! The glaring success story from the nominations is Get Out, with 4 nominations, including one for Best Picture. I’ve pointed out before, but Get Out as a film has acted as a catalyst for forwarding how serious of a contender the horror/thriller genre is now in the film industry. I would say it’s safe to assume that the film would be lucky to win in any of its categories, but the nominations still represent a good achievement. Similar to that of the Golden Globes, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Shape of Water dominate nominations, and we will likely see a bit of a sweep of the awards between the two films. It wouldn’t be too wild to suggest that Frances McDormand has the Oscar for Actress in a Leading Role nailed down at this stage. My theory is that with Martin McDonagh not being nominated for Best Director, Guillermo Del Toro will take the Best Director and Three Billboards will then win Best Picture, like the Golden Globes, but that’s just my guess. A massive achievement and something to note is the nomination of Greta Gerwig for Best Director, as it follows massive strides in the likes of the #TimesUp movement. Will she win? I would say probably not if you look at previous award ceremonies, and who’s won at each, but again nominations are a very serious thing! The ‘issue’ with women directors is something I wrote about this time last year, and I think this represents a strong potential change in the industry where we will hopefully see more directing power put into the hands of capable women. I would say three to four years is where we can start to ask whether a change has happened, and what the movements this year have meant for the industry. The Oscars creep up on us every year, but the nominations pose a focused image of where the industry is, and I think this year is no different. There’s a lot of progress, but it’s a question of will this carry on down the line over the next few years?