Thoughts on the Academy Award Nominations for 2018

The Academy has listed its nominations for 2018 and overall I am more than a little disappointed. Here are my thoughts, in brief:

1. I have stated my opinion that Roma is perhaps the best film of the century, so I was pleasantly surprised to see how many nominations (10) that it received. I consider it a crime (i.e. an offence against the history of the film industry) that I had to watch Roma on Netflix.
2. Only two of my top fifteen films received Best Picture nominations, which is quite disappointing, especially when I believe half of the films nominated don’t deserve to be on the list.
3. Two of the best films of 2018 (You Were Never Really Here, Leave No Trace) were made by women. These films are nowhere to be found among the nominations. Very sad.
4. Related to the above, my favourite performance of 2018 was by Joaquin Phoenix in You Were Never Really Here. Not even nominated.
5. I understand why critics think The Favourite is a brilliant film, but Lanthimos is beginning to scare me a little and I think his film is overrated, so the 10 nominations are a lot.

Using the Academy’s nomination list, here are my votes in eleven key categories:

Best Picture: Roma

Best Director: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma

Best Actor: Viggo Mortensen, Green Book (haven’t seen At Eternity’s Gate)

Best Actress: Glenn Close, The Wife

Best Supporting Actor: Mahershala Ali, Green Book

Best Supporting Actress: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk

Best Adapted Screenplay: If Beale Street Could Talk

Best Original Screenplay: First Reformed

Best Foreign Language Film: Roma

Best Cinematography: Roma

Best Original Score: If Beale Street Could Talk