Of the 9,487 eligible Academy members, I know one. She lives in Mumbai, and happens to be a descendant of Raja Harishchandra - unbribeable. Won’t let me know whom she voted for.
So I’m dressed in my evening dress (read black silk pjs, because Covid) but have opened a fresh box of orange pekoe tea and brewed myself a pot to watch the nominations live on Twitter and YouTube.
There are 276 movies fighting to be seen, 23 categories and 47 days to the Oscar Award ceremony on March 27. There are 10 films nominated in each category, which means it’s a bible to write, but as is fashionable, we shall mention only the cream of the crop.
My relationship with the nominations is like a classic hero’s journey. The hero sets out to defeat something or someone that has hurt the hero in some way. On this journey, the hero will meet the heroine and make friends on the way. Perhaps the friends will join the gang and they will face the evil villain together. There will be setbacks on the way and the hero will learn valuable lessons and so on and so forth and ultimately evil will be vanquished.
In my case, there have been many, many setbacks: I have never ever managed to get the predictions of best heroine, music, and even supporting actors right. But the best picture?! It’s like I'm an 8 ball and the answer is always ‘yes’. A shout out to the now dead Jack Sparrow network that brought me movies from the Academy Screening Rooms with the watermark!
My winning streak started with The King’s Speech, The Artist, Argo (Amour though still has my heart), 12 Years A Slave (I would have given the Oscar to Dallas Buyer’s Club), Birdman, Spotlight, Shape Of Water and Greenbook (I predicted it, but Roma should’ve won). Parasite and Nomadland were like slam-dunk predictions.
This year, Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog earns 12 nominations! And the Japanese film Drive My Car gets well-deserved nominations. I’m sad that McBeth is not in the best picture list but that’s because some people down the centuries have made Shakespeare ‘literature’ and ‘difficult to understand’. Sigh. But that is a debate for another day… It’s a beautiful film and you can watch it on Apple TV.
Also read: Nudity in cinema: Benedict bares a bit
As always, they leave the best film of the year nomination for the very end. But I always eat dessert first, so here are the super cool nominations:
Jane Campion’s 'The Power Of The Dog'. Imagine Benedict Cumberbatch as a combination of Pran and Amrish Puri, hating on his brother’s new bride and her son… Jane Campion is so good, she got us staring at Harvey Keitel in his birthday suit in a movie about a mail order bride (Oscar winner The Piano). They say that Benedict Cumberbatch went so deep that he stayed in the mood and role all through filming. The movie gets not one but two Best Supporting Actor Male nominations. You can watch what the awesomeness is all about on Netflix. Well done, Netflix!
Also read: Oscar 2022: 'The Power of the Dog' receives 12 nominations, 'Dune' bags 10
Kenneth Branagh’s 'Belfast' is a coming of age story. You get to hear some awesome Irish accents and a story about working-class families in the tumultuous '60s (the Oscars love such stories). Plus, it has Judy Dench who is the oldest person to be nominated as best supporting (she’s had seven nominations!). Belfast gets nominated for best original screenplay, sound.
Ask anyone if they’ve read Haruki Murakami, and no hipster will ever look apologetic and admit that they haven’t. 'Drive My Car' is a Japanese road movie so good, it deserves its nomination for Best adapted screenplay too. The film will get into your head and remain just as Burning does. It is three hours long and rather meditative, but what a story. It has been nominated for best picture (foreign), best adapted screenplay, cinematography, and for best director categories. Director Ryusuke Hamaguchi has directed really interesting films (Voices from the Waves, Happy Hour and Scent of Memories, among them).
CODA is a film about music in a family where everyone except one is hearing impaired. Hence the name: Child of Deaf Adults. The film will break your heart and offer you tears of hope simultaneously. It’s available on Apple TV, so beg someone with a subscription or subscribe to watch this wonderful film nominated for so many categories I lost count. Among them are best picture and best supporting actor male.
Don’t Look Up is on Netflix and it is nominated for the best picture. If you haven’t seen it, do, because it is so amazing you will laugh and cry when you see parallels between American politics and ours. Though satirical, you can actually imagine what they’re doing to science today, both in the US and in India. The who's who of acting talent makes up this film and it’s sad that Leonardo Di Caprio doesn’t get any nominations… He’s so much fun as a middle-aged dad-bod wallah science prof.
If Will Smith doesn’t get an acting Oscar, then King Richard - the story of Serena and Venus Williams’ father - is super unlucky. The film showcases his talent like you’ve never seen. His determination and drive to succeed at all costs is scary real for some of us who have seen how far Indian parents will go to push their kids towards success. The film gets best picture, best actor (male) and a superb inclusion of best supporting actor (female) nomination for Aunjanue Ellis. She’s magnificent in the film. Watch it on HBO Max.
Licorice Pizza, Nightmare Alley both receive best picture nominations, but I haven’t seen them because Jack Sparrow is no more and it’s been tough getting my hands on these films. The best to these films. The only irritant in the best film category is West Side Story. It’s so pathetic and although it has great costumes and dance numbers, this is one film that should not have been remade forget nominated for best picture. Only because it’s Steven Spielberg... But it doesn’t take away from the performance of Ariana DeBose who is stunningly beautiful.
That brings us to a category that has a big name missing. Best acting by a female performer. Lady Gaga who shone in 'House of Gucci' is missing from this line-up. But look at the stunning list: Jessica Chastain, Olivia Coleman (The Lost Daughter), Penelope Cruz (Parallel Mothers), Nicole Kidman (Being the Ricardos), and the one I pin my hopes on: Kristen Stewart who plays Lady Diana in Spencer. She captures Diana’s seething jealousy, anger and helplessness as well as the cold fear (that is literal and figurative) when she spends that eventful Christmas with the Windsors…I have never seen vulnerability portrayed so beautifully.
Dune is magnificent, and gets nominated for best picture, best adapted screenplay, best cinematography and sound, visual effects as well as costume design. That is a big screen watch, and I hope many of you have seen the film.
Among the documentaries from around the world that tackle different subjects - Ascension (a contemporary tale on Chinese hopes and dreams), Flee (confronting past secrets, Danish), Attica (about the largest prison riots in the US) - is a documentary from India. Writing with Fire is a documentary about Dalit women publishing a newspaper called Khabar Lahariya. You know whom to root for when the winners are announced, right?
One regret that I have, the song Bruno! Does not get nominated because the makers of the excellent film Encanto missed the deadline! It’s on Disney+Hotstar and here’s a humble request, watch it with everyone in the family. It’s a miracle of a movie. Even the Hindi dubbing is good, and that’s a relief!
I feel bad too for Tick Tick Boom! Because I’ve watched Rent on Broadway, and to see Andrew Garfield take us through the heartache and pain of creating and then selling a musical is a wonderful thing. You can watch it on Netflix and see for yourself. Should have edged out Westside Story. Bah!
And last but not the least, the academy missed out on Jared Leto, who is exceptional in House of Gucci. He should have received a nomination for best supporting actor!
But no time to regret. There are movies to be watched and your best of the best lists to be made and remade. We have time to figure out if I retain my luck with the best movie list, or end up swearing at the TV when the Oscars are aired live at some godforsaken hour 47 days later!
Also read: Oscars 2022 nominations: Academy announces list of nominees
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