It feels wrong to give the Oscars serious-minded attention as if they are legitimate awards. Still, we continue to comment on them because the awards still dominate our cultural conversation around achievement in filmmaking; or rather, because we allow them to. In fact, the Academy espouses a finely tuned white supremacy, wherein films made by minorities—especially black people—cannot be perceived as meaningfully challenging the status quo if they are to be rewarded. Moonlight, the rare exception in terms of its actual quality, still falls in line because the film’s drama hews to popular expectations of black and queer struggle. Academy voters surely interpreted the film as “universal,” though it is not—its images and ideas are specific, and push the form much like the works of art that made way for it: the films of Claire Denis, Julie Dash’s Daughters of the Dust, and Charles Burnett’s The Killer of Sheep, for example.
This year, what is left out is much more notable than what was allowed in. Both Atlantics and Uncut Gems were not simply among the best films of this year, but in film history, period. They were entirely shut out of this year’s Academy-sponsored shitshow. Even though The Irishman was rightly recognized by the Academy in all the major categories, voters missed the chance to nominate Robert DeNiro for Best Actor. Instead, we get the usual masterpiece classics performances: Jonathan Pryce in The Two Popes, Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, Adam Driver in Marriage Story, Antonio Banderas in Pain and Glory, and Leonardo DiCaprio in Once Upon A Time...in Hollywood. Adam Sandler, who should have won that award for his performance in Uncut Gems, is absent, as is Eddie Murphy for Dolemite Is My Name.
Instead of continuing to discuss the Oscars like they should matter to us, below I’ve included my nominations for the best achievements in filmmaking and screen acting this year that I know of. Full disclosures: I’ve excluded the categories I admit to knowing little about like visual effects, make-up, animated films (of which I saw zero released in 2019), short films, and sound editing and mixing. I didn’t include Best Documentary both because I haven’t seen enough documentaries this year and I don’t believe it should be a separate category, like Best International Feature Film. Notably missing are Parasite and Ad Astra, which I haven’t yet seen mostly by accident—you may de facto count those as among my own unfair omissions. There is an asterisk next to the films and performances that were indeed nominated by the Academy in those categories.
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Beyond the films listed, there are many more released last year that are worth seeing and which most awards memberships would never recognize, like The Hottest August and Empty Metal. Find those, and more, by reading and watching as widely as possible. I’ll continue to do the same.
Actress in a Leading Role
Alfre Woodard, Clemency
Lupita Nyong’o, Us
Cynthia Erivo, Harriet*
Elizabeth Moss, Her Smell
Adèle Haenel, Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Actress in a Supporting Role
Agyness Deyn, Her Smell
Mia Goth, High Life
Janelle Monáe, Harriet
Nicole Sougou, Atlantics
Florence Pugh, Little Women*
Actor in a Leading Role
Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems
Robert DeNiro, The Irishman
Eddie Murphy, Dolemite Is My Name
Sterling K. Brown, Waves
Paul Walter Hauser, Richard Jewell
Actor in a Supporting Role
Richard Ayoade, The Souvenir
Aldis Lodge, Clemency
Joe Pesci, The Irishman*
Tom Burke, The Souvenir
Stephen Graham, The Irishman
Best Picture
Atlantics
Uncut Gems
Her Smell
The Souvenir
Portrait of a Lady On Fire
The Farewell
The Irishman*
Advocate
Best Director
Josh Safdie and Benny Safdie, Uncut Gems
Mati Diop, Atlantics
Céline Sciamma, Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Martin Scorsese, The Irishman*
Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir
Rachel Leah Jones and Phillipe Bellaïche, Advocate
Cinematography
Atlantics
Claire Mathon
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Claire Mathon
Her Smell
Sean Price Williams
Uncut Gems
Darius Khondji
High Life
Yorick Le Saux, Tomasz Naumiuk
Best Editing
Her Smell
Robert Greene
The Irishman*
Thelma Schoonmaker
Atlantics
Aël Dallier Vega
Uncut Gems
Ronald Bronstein and Benny Safdie
Us
Nicholas Monsour
Best Original Screenplay
Uncut Gems
Josh Safdie, Ronald Bronstein, and Benny Safdie
Portrait of a Lady On Fire
Céline Sciamma
The Souvenir
Joanna Hogg
The Farewell
Lulu Wang
High Life
Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau, Geoff Cox, Andrew Litvack, and Nick Laird
Best Adapted Screenplay
The Irishman*
Steven Zaillian
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Noah Harpster and Micah-Fitzerman-Blue
Little Women
Greta Gerwig
Best Score
Uncut Gems
Daniel Lopatin
Her Smell
Keegan DeWitt
High Life
Stuart Staples, Tindersticks
Us
Michael Abels
Costume Design
Portrait of a Lady On Fire
Dorothée Guiraud
Little Women*
Jacqueline Durran
Us
Kym Barrett
Harriet
Paul Tazewell
Production Design
Harriet
Warren Alan Young (Production Design), Marthe Pineau (Set Decoration), Kevin Hardison and Christina Eunji Kim (Art Direction)
The Souvenir
Stéphane Collonge (Production Design), Rebecca Gillies and Mimi Winsor (Set Decoration), Pedro Moura (Art Direction)
Her Smell
Fletcher Chancey (Production Design), Paige Mitchell (Set Decoration), John Arnos (Art Direction)
In Fabric
Paki Smith (Production Design), Adrian Greenwood (Set Decoration), Felicity Hickson (Art Direction)
Us
Ruth De Jong (Production Design), Florencia Martin (Set Decoration), Cara Brower (Art Direction)
