What's in the Box

Seth Rogen caused a bit of a stir last week when he questioned whether people outside the film industry should be invested in the Oscars, saying “no other industry expects everyone to care about what awards they shower upon themselves”. Logically, Rogen is right; the Oscars are ultimately an elitist, closed-off Hollywood ego-massager whose opinion doesn’t decree what is the pinnacle of cinema (Parasite’s clean sweep being an exception). Yet, despite how outdated they have historically proven to be, film buffs cannot prevent themselves from being hooked on the process of Oscar buzz, nominations and the glamorous awards ceremony itself.

This year’s nominations constitute an eclectic mix of traditional Oscar-bait crowd-pleasers and films that don’t usually appear on the Academy’s radar. Jane Campion’s Netflix-backed neo-Western The Power of the Dog leads the way with 12 nods, including Best Picture, Director and Actor (Benedict Cumberbatch). Second is Dune, with 10, although it seems more likely to gain success in less headline-grabbing categories such as Best Score and Cinematography, with Denis Villeneuve being passed over for a Best Director nomination. Pleasingly, Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s masterpiece Drive My Car managed to penetrate the Hollywood saturation by receiving a Best Director and Picture nomination, suggesting foreign language films are slowly starting to become more palatable to the Academy’s highly Westernised tastebuds.

I was both surprised and happy about the runaway success of The Power of the Dog. Campion’s first film in over a decade is an understated, deeply affecting drama that breaks down the conceited toxic masculinity of its time period. Its greatest strength is its ambiguity, something not often rewarded during Oscar season, and like all the best films, it becomes much more gratifying upon repeated viewings. For now, it has the most momentum off the back of its Golden Globes success, with wins for Campion as Best Director and young Kodi Smit-McPhee (whose performance steals it for me) as Best Supporting Actor. However, the old adage is that the Baftas are the real precursor to which way the Oscar pendulum will swing, and due to the delayed nature of the Awards season this year (the Oscars take place at the end of March as opposed to its usual slot around the beginning), it still seems slightly too early to judge whether anything is a certainty for Awards glory.

The Oscars wouldn’t be the Oscars without a few egregious snubs, and this year they seemed to save most of these for the Best Actress category. Rachel Zegler and Alana Haim both delivered outstanding performances in West Side Story and Licorice Pizza respectively; made even more remarkable considering for both it was their feature film debut. Zegler in particular really carries the emotional soul of Spielberg’s remake whilst having to support a dour Ansel Elgort as her romantic opposite. Looking through certain individuals in the nominations, names like Penelope Cruz, Nicole Kidman and Jessica Chastain, it feels very much a case of here we go again, with the Academy seemingly not willing to take a chance on the next generation of female talent. Other questionable omissions included Titane for Best International Feature, one of my favourite films of last year, but clearly too weird and edgy for the Oscars to handle.

In terms of predictions, as I’ve already alluded to, it is quite a slippery slope at this stage. Hopefully The Power of the Dog will edge out more conventional Oscar fare such as Belfast and West Side Story for Best Picture, and I would more be confident about proposing that Campion will come away with the Best Director gong, considering how exquisitely the film is constructed. Best Actor and Actress are definitely hard to call; Andrew Garfield and Will Smith picked up the individual awards in musical/comedy and drama at the Golden Globes. For my money, Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance is the most layered and deserving, though a childish part of me would love to see Garfield win just for his reaction alone. Despite saying she “didn’t give a shit” about the Oscars, Kristen Stewart did get nominated for Spencer, and the fact that the film was blindsided in every other category (even Jonny Greenwood’s haunting score) might be an indicator that her performance is distinctive in its high acclaim. It would definitely make for an interesting acceptance speech.