What Should Have Won (and wasn't even nominated) at This Year's Oscars

by Levi Homman

Despite being the closest thing to the Super Bowl for American movie lovers, The Oscars have always been a little silly. What the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences ends up awarding is always the result of a lopsided pie chart consisting of film festival momentum, public consensus of laymen who see three movies per year, and a biased seniority contest. Sometimes, more often on the technical awards like visual effects, they get it right (I don’t think anyone who saw Avatar: The Way of Water can deny that its visuals are an impressive feat, even if the movie was just okay), but even those moments are hard to come by. The other technical awards like cinematography and sound were dominated by All Quiet on the Western Front, the German movie that definitely was not the best nominee in any of its categories but won academy voters over anyway thanks to its topical subject matter; the film is an adaptation of the novel of the same name, set during World War I, which likely reminded Americans of the land war happening in Europe today. By the end of this year’s ceremony, only three films came away with more than one Oscar: the fan favorite Everything Everywhere All at Once, which also won best picture; the aforementioned All Quiet; and The Whale, propelled by Brendan Fraser’s endearing comeback story despite its iffy morals. 

As is my opinion virtually every year, I don’t think any of the winners on Sunday were the best in their category (even though a lot of them are really good!), largely because the Academy is uninterested in nominating (or even watching) more arthouse-adjacent releases and so-called “genre” films with less traditional chronology and more fake blood than they can stomach. So I’d like to take this opportunity to name my favorites in each category that were left out of the nominations. As a disclaimer: I’ve skipped some categories, either because I don’t think I know enough about the specific branch of filmmaking or because I think the actual nominees were deserving. Now let’s begin.  

Makeup and Hairstyling

Barbarian (Gergana Batanova)

X (Franca Gallo, Jose Noriega and Sanchia Reed)

WINNER - The Northman (Polly McKay, Kyra Pancheko, Sharon Watson and Robyn Wheeler)

 

While the first two nominees had some incredible “scary old lady” makeup, Robert Eggers’ The Northman is a mesmerizing feat of practical gore and historical accuracy. 

Production Design 

Flux Gourmet (Harold Chapman)

Prey (Kendelle Elliott)

Nope (Samantha Englender and Jake Cavallo)

WINNER - White Noise (Chris Farmer and Michael Scott Manne)

 

Flux Gourmet is an awesome performance art dreamscape thanks to its bizarre set dressing, Prey’s production design seamlessly sets it over 300 years ago, and Nope has some truly unforgettable sets, most notably a haunting sitcom soundstage. But the technicolor version of the 1980s that Noah Baumbach’s White Noise creates is so meticulously and lovingly constructed I can’t wait to examine it on further viewings.

Cinematography

 

Aftersun (Gregory Oke)

Bones and All (Arseni Khachaturan)

Nope (Hoyte van Hoytema)

The Batman (Greig Fraser)

Ambulance (Roberto De Angelis)

WINNER - Blonde (Chayse Irvin)

 

 

 

I’m a little bit of a nerd about cinematography, which might explain why I’ve picked so many nominees here. Aftersun has an incredibly unique and homemade feel to its camerawork, emulating home footage and childhood memories. Bones and All has some wonderfully soft and retro-feeling 35mm film photography as well. Nope is a legendary achievement in lighting and post-production color work. The Batman came close to winning here, if only for that single incredible anamorphic shot in which Robert Pattinson is backlit by a massive pyre, and Ambulance made use of revolutionary drone technology. But it’s hard to not hand it to Chayse Irvin’s work on Blonde despite the failings of the film’s script. There are too many incredible, seemingly impossible moments of digital wizardry throughout, and while I can’t recommend the film in its entirety, it is sure to be influential for future cinematographers.

Original Score

Bones and All (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)

Barbarian (Anna Drubich)

WINNER - The Batman (Michael Giacchino)

 

 

Bones and All has a deeply emotional stripped-down acoustic accompaniment that excellently compliments and augments its visuals, and Barbarian utilizes some haunting, synthesized droning notes that were stuck in my head for days after seeing it in a theater. The Batman, though, is one for the ages; Giacchino’s choice to combine a simple two-note melody with such bombastic instrumentation is already iconic. 

Original Screenplay

Kimi (David Koepp)

Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook and Chung Seo-kyung)

Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)

WINNER - Saint Omer (Alice Diop)

 

 

Kimi is a compact masterclass in writing a 90-minute thriller, and Decision to Leave is a tragically romantic epic thanks to its dialogue, but the last two nominees here, and especially Saint Omer, are deeply personal, introspective, and philosophical. Diop’s script is unforgettably dense, provocative, and conceptually expansive.

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Margot Robbie (Babylon)

Maika Monroe (Watcher)

Viola Davis (The Woman King)

WINNER - Tang Wei (Decision to Leave)

 

 

 

Margot Robbie and her costar Diego Calva carry Damien Chazelle’s heinously unsubtle Babylon with their humanistic performances, and Maika Monroe outstandingly plays a terrified woman questioning her own sanity while she is stalked by a serial killer. Viola Davis also gives an undeniably Oscar-worthy performance in Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical action blockbuster The Woman King. It’s been some time, though, since I’ve seen a performance as haunting and emotionally cathartic as Tang Wei’s in Decision to Leave, which leaves echoes at every moment throughout the film, even when she isn’t on screen.

Best Picture

White Noise 

Bones and All

Saint Omer

RRR

Decision to Leave

Nope

Flux Gourmet

The Northman

WINNER - Aftersun

So many good movies came out this past year, many of which I didn’t see, but I know two things for sure: 1. The Tollywood anti-imperialist megahit RRR deserved more recognition from the Academy, and 2. Aftersun is one of the most moving, aesthetically original and subtly devastating movies I have ever seen. 

Set during a vacation young protagonist Sophie takes with her father, Aftersun is an intimately devastating portrayal of memory, mental illness, and grief. It’s difficult to even describe the formal elements that make it so powerful and emotional, but I cannot recommend it enough.

There were a number of Oscar nominees that earned their recognition, and a number that didn’t. The awards show itself is not irrelevant. It remains an entertaining and notable touchpoint for where the status quo of the industry stands culturally, but it’s far from the be-all-end-all of what movies are actually “good”. There are too many good movies to count coming out virtually every day, and the Oscars can’t even come close to reflecting the scope of the way film history is being shaped. Anyone genuinely interested in the art form of filmmaking who limits what movies they see to what gets Oscar nominations or the biggest box office numbers is doing themselves a disservice; the best movies don’t always win awards, they have to be sought out.