Academy Awards Special

This year’s Academy Awards (The Oscars) will be taking place on Sunday 9 February. In this month’s article I will be going through all the major awards, who has been nominated and give you my thoughts on all of the big nominees.

Where I think the Awards will go…

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Irishman – Steven Zallian
Jojo Rabbit – Taika Waititi
Joker – Todd Phillips and Scott Silver
Little Women – Greta Gerwig
The Two Popes – Anthony McCarten

My pick is Steven Zallian for The Irishman for its incredible adaption of the book “I heard you Paint Houses.” If he wins this will be second best adapted screenplay having won the award 26 years ago for Schindler’s List.

Best Original Screenplay

Knives Out – Rian Johnson
Marriage Story – Noah Baumbach
1917- Sam Mendes and Krysty Wilson Cairns
Once upon a Time… in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino
Parasite – Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won

A very challenging category to pick a winner from with so many great screenplays, however I am going to pick Noah Baumbach’s script for Marriage Story. This is due to its incredible dialogue and its natural portrayal of the emotions of divorce.

Best Director

Martin Scorsese – The Irishman
Todd Phillips – Joker
Sam Mendes – 1917
Quentin Tarantino – Once upon a Time… in Hollywood
Bong Joon Ho – Parasite

It’s almost certain that Sam Mendes will win his second Oscar for best director but if it was up to me, I would pick Martin Scorsese. He battled for a decade to get this film made and cut no corners and took a risk on making a 3 ½ hour long film.

Best Film

Ford V Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
1917
Once upon a time… in Hollywood
Parasite

There are 9 nominations this year and in many other years any one of the 9 I have watched could have won best picture. Without a doubt the Academy has their work to pick out a winner from this list. My vote would go to The Irishman, because of it’s screenplay, Direction and criminally underrated performance from Robert DeNiro (didn’t even get nominated)

Reviews by Matthew Farrelly

February’s Releases

In terms of my normal picks for the month, February is a quiet release month, the only major releases are…

Birds of Prey – February 7

Sonic the Hedgehog – February 14

The Invisible Man- February 28

Look out for my reviews for these films next month as well as my picks for March. Enjoy Oscar night!

Best Supporting Actress

    • Kathy Bates – Richard Jewell
    • Laura Dern – Marriage Story
    • Scarlett Johannsson – Jojo Rabbit
    • Florence Pugh – Little Women
    • Margot Robbie – Bombshell

I’m torn between two nominations, Florence Pugh and Laura Dern. If I had to make the choice I would probably go for Florence Pugh simply because she’s a newcomer and stood out from a very strong cast.

Best Supporting Actor

  • Tom Hanks – A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
  • Anthony Hopkins – The Two Popes
  • Al Pacino – The Irishman
  • Joe Pesci – The Irishman
  • Brad Pitt – Once upon a time… in Hollywood

My pick would be Brad Pitt simply because his performance stole the whole film from Leonardo DiCaprio.

Best Actress

    • Cynthia Erivo – Harriet
    • Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story
    • Saorise Ronan – Little Women
    • Charlize Theron – Bombshell
    • Renee Zellweger – Judy

I suspect Renee Zellweger will take home the Oscar for her performance as Judy Garland. However my pick will probably be Scarlett Johannsson for Marriage Story. Simply because both her and Adam Driver gave very natural, believable performances in Marriage Story.

Best Actor

    • Jonathan Pryce – The Two Popes
    • Joaquin Phoenix – Joker
    • Adam Driver- Marriage Story
    • DiCaprio- Once Upon a time… in Hollywood
    • Antonio Banderas – Pain And Glory

As above whilst I think this award will go to Joaquin Phoenix for Joker, my pick would still be Adam Driver for the same reason as Johannsson in Marriage Story.

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Reviews by Matthew Farrelly