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BY BILLY SUTER
HISTORY will be made at the 91st Oscars ceremony at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre on February 24 if the black-and-white art movie, Roma – a meditative slice-of-life drama about a family and their maid in 1970s Mexico City – takes the golden statuette for Best Picture.
Should it take that Oscar, the film, marking the first nomination for a movie created by and streamed on Netflix, will become the first foreign language film to take this top award.
The film is written, directed and shot by Alfonso Cuarón, who also produced and co-edited it.
Other films in competition for the Best Picture Oscar this year are Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Green Book, A Star Is Born and Vice.
Another slice of history – Black Panther is the first superhero movie to be nominated for the Best Picture statuette.
Roma has also been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, making it one of only five films ever to be nominated in both this category and the Best Picture category. The others are 1969’s Z, 1998’s Life Is Beautiful, 2000’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and 2012’s Amour.
If it takes statuettes for both Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, Roma will become the first film to do so.
Only eight other foreign language movies have been in contention for the Best Picture Oscar, among them Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which ties with Roma as the foreign language film attracting the most Oscar nominations, a total of 10.
The understated Roma is the most nominated film at this year’s Academy Awards event, tying with The Favourite, a period comedy.
Also interesting about Roma is that its 25-year-old Mexican star, Yalitza Aparicio, a former teacher, is up for the Best Actress Oscar in what is her first film role. She reportedly auditioned for the movie with no prior acting experience.
Wonderful to record that Glenn Close, fresh from her Golden Globe success, has received her seventh Oscar nomination for best actress in The Wife – and I, for one, am holding thumbs she takes the statuette. Lord knows it is long overdue and she is superb in The Wife.
Others nominated for Best Actress are Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born, Olivia Colman for The Favourite and Melissa McCarthy for Can You Ever Forgive Me?.
Nominees for the Best Actor statuette are Christian Bale for Vice, Rami Malek for Bohemian Rhapsody, Bradley Cooper for A Star Is Born, Willem Dafoe for At Eternity’s Gate and Viggo Mortensen for Green Book. My vote goes to Golden Globe-winner Malek, who was magnificent as late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.
Herewith all this year’s nominees for the Oscars, which will have no host this year after Kevin Hart pulled out and was not replaced. Instead an all-star cast will host the event.
PICTURE
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice
ACTOR
Christian Bale, Vice
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book
ACTRESS
Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Glenn Close, The Wife
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born
Richard E Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell, Vice
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Vice
Marina de Tavira, Roma
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite
DIRECTOR
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Adam McKay, Vice
ANIMATED FEATURE
Incredibles 2, Brad Bird
Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson
Mirai, Mamoru Hosoda
Ralph Breaks the Internet, Rich Moore, Phil Johnston
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, Rodney Rothman
ANIMATED SHORT
Animal Behaviour, Alison Snowden, David Fine
Bao, Domee Shi
Late Afternoon, Louise Bagnall
One Small Step, Andrew Chesworth, Bobby Pontillas
Weekends, Trevor Jimenez
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
BlacKkKlansman, Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins
A Star Is Born, Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
The Favourite, Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
First Reformed, Paul Schrader
Green Book, Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly
Roma, Alfonso Cuarón
Vice, Adam McKay
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Cold War, Lukasz Zal
The Favourite, Robbie Ryan
Never Look Away, Caleb Deschanel
Roma, Alfonso Cuarón
A Star Is Born, Matthew Libatique
DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Free Solo, Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi
Hale County This Morning, This Evening, RaMell Ross
Minding the Gap, Bing Liu
Of Fathers and Sons, Talal Derki
RBG, Betsy West, Julie Cohen
DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
Black Sheep, Ed Perkins
End Game, Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
Lifeboat, Skye Fitzgerald
A Night at the Garden, Marshall Curry
Period. End of Sentence., Rayka Zehtabchi
LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
Detainment, Vincent Lambe
Fauve, Jeremy Comte
Marguerite, Marianne Farley
Mother, Rodrigo Sorogoyen
Skin, Guy Nattiv
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
EDITING
BlacKkKlansman, Barry Alexander Brown
Bohemian Rhapsody, John Ottman
Green Book, Patrick J. Don Vito
The Favourite, Yorgos Mavropsaridis
Vice, Hank Corwin
SOUND EDITING
Black Panther, Benjamin A. Burtt, Steve Boeddeker
Bohemian Rhapsody, John Warhurst
First Man, Ai-Ling Lee, Mildred Iatrou Morgan
A Quiet Place, Ethan Van der Ryn, Erik Aadahl
Roma, Sergio Diaz, Skip Lievsay
SOUND MIXING
Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Roma
A Star Is Born
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Black Panther, Hannah Beachler
First Man, Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas
The Favourite, Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton
Mary Poppins Returns, John Myhre, Gordon Sim
Roma, Eugenio Caballero, Bárbara Enrı́quez
ORIGINAL SCORE
BlacKkKlansman, Terence Blanchard
Black Panther, Ludwig Goransson
If Beale Street Could Talk, Nicholas Britell
Isle of Dogs, Alexandre Desplat
Mary Poppins Returns, Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
ORIGINAL SONG
All The Stars from Black Panther, by Kendrick Lamar, SZA
I’ll Fight from RBG, by Diane Warren, Jennifer Hudson
The Place Where Lost Things Go from Mary Poppins Returns, by Marc Shaiman, Scott Wittman
Shallow from A Star Is Born by Lady Gaga, Mark Ronson, Anthony Rossomando, Andrew Wyatt and Benjamin Rice
When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, by David Rawlings and Gillian Welch
MAKE-UP AND HAIR
Border
Mary Queen of Scots
Vice
COSTUME DESIGN
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, Mary Zophres
Black Panther, Ruth E. Carter
The Favourite, Sandy Powell
Mary Poppins Returns, Sandy Powell
Mary Queen of Scots, Alexandra Byrne
VISIUAL EFFECTS
Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
First Man
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
.....SoSuterBill..... 