The nominees for the 2019 Oscars are only a few days away from walking down the red carpet on their way to the Dolby Theatre, where the renowned awards ceremony is held every year. This year the big night will be broadcasted by ABC, with academy members, nominees and important people from the film industry attending.
After the list of nominees was released, on February 24th it will be announced which actors, actresses and films will be awarded a coveted Oscar. As always, the list of nominees included many surprises and the nominations did not leave film lovers and critics impassive.
"Roma", with ten nominations and having previously won a Golden Globe for Best Picture, this delicate and contemplative film written, directed and co-produced by Alfonso Cuarón, has become one of the favorites. The Mexican film made history after receiving 10 nominations, including Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role and Foreign Language Film.
It is a masterpiece and hyper-realistic, difficult to see in the eyes of some. In the words of director Alfonso Cuarón himself -who competes in the category for Directing-, the film seeks to pay tribute to the women of his life and for this reason, it focuses on the matriarch of an upper-class family in Mexico in the 1970s and their maid, the two pillars of his education.
Another one of the favorites is "A Star is Born," a film that grabbed eight nominations: Best Picture, Actor in a Leading Role, Actress in a Leading Role, Actor in a Supporting Role, Original Song, Sound Mixing, Cinematography and Adapted Screenplay. Not surprisingly, the nominations for Bradley Cooper's own adaptation of the original 1937 screenplay stand out for their empathetic and excellent interpretation of the tormented country singer Jackson Maine, who tries to introduce to the world Ally's (Lady Gaga) talent while watching the decline of his artistic life.
If there's one thing this film stands out for it is definitely its faithful and authentic representation of the musical world. Not in vain is Lady Gaga among the nominees for Actress in a Leading Role and Bradley Cooper in the category of Actor in a Leading Role.
"The Green Book" which is also in the race for Best Picture, premiered in 2018 during the Toronto International Film Festival, and has earned a People's Choice Award and three Golden Globes. In the lead roles, Mahershala Ali, nominated for Actor in a Supporting role, stands out as a black pianist and Viggo Mortensen, his Italian-American bodyguard earned an Actor in a Leading Role nomination. The film shows the United States during the 1960s subjugated by racism and prejudice, where these two characters survive because of kindness and a great sense of humor.
Another contender is “The Favorite” by Yorgos Lanthimos with Olivia Colman nominated for Actress in a Leading Role. In total, it has ten nominations, including Best Picture, Directing, Actress in a Supporting Role, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design and Costume Design.
4 times nominee Damien Chazelle's "First Man" with Ryan Gosling does not seem to have much momentum where as Adam McKay's "Vice President: Beyond Power" (Vice) with Christian Bale nominated for Best Actor for Dick Cheney's performance, could win a statuette for Makeup and Hairstyling, among others, as it got eight nominations.
Marvel Studios' "Black Panther" has 7 nominations, including Best Picture, and was the surprise amongst the Best Picture nominees for the 2019 Oscars. Ryan Coogler's film was the only one of its kind to enter this competitive award race. The story takes place in the fictional world of Wakanda and it’s the first superhero film to compete for Hollywood's most coveted award.
You can't miss Barry Jenkins' third film "If Beale Street Could Talk", an African-American drama that hopes to attract attention with its script, nominated for Adapted Screenplay, Actress in a Supporting Role and Original Score; the biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody" with Rami Malek who could sneak in as winner for Actor in a Leading Role, for his interpretation of Freddie Mercury.
One director who is always welcomed on the nominee list is Spike Lee. This year his film "BlacKkKlansman", got nominations for Directing, Best Picture, Film Editing, Original Score and Adapted Screenplay. This film tells the true story of Ron Stallworth as the first African-American policeman to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan and gives audiences the perfect balance between denunciation and fun.
As for the actresses, although several of the biggest were in competition (Julia Roberts for "Ben is Back", Nicole Kidman in "Destroyer"), it was only Glenn Close for "The Wife", who got an Actress in a Leading Role nomination.
Also on the list of contenders is Melissa McCarthy, with her leading role in the dramatic comedy "Can You Ever Forgive Me" where she shows that her talent goes beyond comedy portraying the sagacious Lee Israel, a biographywriter who was blacklisted by the industry after it was discovered that she had forged numerous letters written by great authors from the golden circles of culture and literature.
Curiosities of the 91st Oscar Presentation
One of this year’s surprises is that so far there is no master of ceremony for the Oscars gala due to the resignation of Kevin Hart, as a result of some controversial tweets. Nevertheless, the Board of Governors of the Academy considered many options, and organized a selection of celebrities for coming on and getting off the stage to make the ceremony more dinamic.
For its part, "Roma", Cuarón's film, will also be the first film entirely in Spanish, including dialogues in Mixtec, to compete for Best Picture. Other foreign language films that have competed in the Best Film category are:"Amour" (French), "Letters from Iwo Jima" (Japanese),"Life is Beautiful" (Italian), "Il Postino" (Italian).
With more than $700 million raised worldwide, "Black Panther" is the ninth highest grossing movie in history and will be the first superhero film to compete for an Oscar for Best Picture and six other nominations.
In this edition of the Oscars, two Mexican actresses, Marina de Tavira and Yalitza Aparicio, from "Roma" are competing for the Oscar and with them, there are six Mexican actresses who have been nominated by the Academ yincluding Katy Jurado (1954), Salma Hayek (2002), Adriana Barraza (2006) and Lupita Nyong'o winner (2014).
The Academy also announced that the date for the 92nd edition of the Oscar Awards will be moved to February 9th, 2020, without affecting the voting or nomination deadlines.
With information from:
www.premios-cine.com/oscars/noticias/
https://www.espinof.com/premios-oscar/
