Stars & Popcorn 2020 Oscar Nominations Response

Time for a Rant about the 2020 Oscar Nominations

Gather round boys and girls for the official Stars & Popcorn response to the 2020 Oscar nominations. A lot of sites have already given their two cents on the matter, but I like to give it a day or two to kick things around in my head before I weigh in on the subject. Being but a humble independent film critic, there are a few nominations I still need to check out, but I’ll do my best to do so in plenty of time to put together my list of predictions before the ceremony on February 9th. In the meantime, the big takeaway for me on the 2020 Oscar nominations is, as always, I’m disappointed but not surprised.   

Let’s start by going over some of the good things in the 2020 Oscar nominations. I’m an optimistic guy in general, so I try to find the positive in most things. This year, I’m stoked that one of my favorite films of 2019, Parasite, received a number of nominations, including Best Picture. That’s pretty awesome considering that the film is from Korea, and the Academy typically leaves foreign films out of that category. Three other movies that earned a place among my picks for the best movies of the year also earned Best Picture nominations as well. I’m also glad to see that the recipient of Stars & Popcorn’s Actress of the Year award, Scarlett Johansson, received nominations for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, which is a pretty rare achievement. There are still a few movies that I need to see before I can fully comment on categories like Best Animated Feature Film and a few acting nominations. The rest of the 2020 Oscar nominations were pretty much as expected, but that hardly means I’m “happy” about them. 

We’ve been over the good and film fans know that means it’s time to move on to the bad. I’m going to ease my way into things by starting with Joker, which picked up a whopping 11 nominations. Does it deserve a lot of them? Sure! It was a pretty good movie after all, but I’m getting a little annoyed with how overrated it’s become. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but people are flipping their shit over this film. Next, we have The Irishman. I’ll admit that I’m still holding a bit of a grudge against Martin Scorsese for his small-minded comments about Marvel movies not being “cinema,” but I’m also not sold on how great The Irishman supposedly is. I saw it and thought, like Joker, it was good, but it was such a self-indulgent and excruciatingly (and pointlessly) long film that I found it hard to get through. Then again, the Academy is filled with old white men, which is why they probably loved a movie about old white men made by old white men. Finally, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: I find Tarantino to be insufferable, and many of his movies are shallow imitations that he claims to be “homages.” This wasn’t my least favorite of his films, but if there was one film I would pull from the 2020 Oscar nominations, it would be this.  

Here it is, film fans, the ugly. As I’m sure a lot of you know the Oscars are once again super white. Not only that, but it’s filled with guys. Not a single woman was nominated for best director, and not a single film directed by a woman was nominated for Best Picture. Booksmart, The Farewell, Honey Boy, and more, deserved much more than they got this year. I’m also more than a little pissed off that the Academy didn’t give Avengers: Endgame a nod as well. It was the biggest film of the year and the highest-grossing film of all time. That deserves a little respect. Other than that, there’s a real lack of color in the nominations. The only potential saving grace is, once again, Parasite. Still, with how much the backlash the Academy has gotten over the years because of this, you would think they would change their ways. It’s just further proof of the growing gap between the Academy and the rest of the world. If this keeps up, I doubt the Awards will continue to hold their legitimacy. 

When I make my predictions for the Academy Awards, I’m going to be torn between what I think will win and what I think should win. My hope is that Parasite will get the recognition it deserves. It won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, Best Foreign Film at the Golden Globes, and more. If the Academy doesn’t recognize it as not only the best Foreign Film but most likely the Best Feature Film, I’m going to throw one heck of a tantrum. As far as the other categories go, well, I don’t really have a dog in any of those fights. This year it’s much less about who I want to win and more about who I hope doesn’t. Some of it’s personal, sure. However, more than that it’s about seeing so many films nominated that I don’t feel deserve the honor. Then again, the Oscars have always been more political than anything else.

The 2020 Oscar nominations are less than thrilling in my opinion. There are a few things I’m thankful for. A comic book movie getting so much respect. A Korean film getting recognized for its greatness. A movie about how Nazi’s are bad in a time when (unfortunately) some of us need reminding of that fact. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the nominations though. Leave a comment below and don’t forget to check back when I make my predictions at the beginning of February. As always, I’ll be live-tweeting during the event, so be sure to follow @starsandpopcorn on twitter too!