The day of the year I so look forward to is here, the day of the Oscar nominations.  I have had a tradition for decades of compiling my list of predictions for those nominations (I love the Oscars) and then groaning loudly when the Academy choices do not reflect my own, or the ones that I so studiously presented as those that I thought Academy voters would actually choose.  Every year there are surprises, of course, and some of those are happy ones, but I never did get it right.  This year I didn’t even try.

Part of my reticence involved quantity.  I recently printed out the Oscar Reminder List, which names the 366 feature films eligible for awards — this is the highest number since 1970.  I had only seen 27, and am still catching up (and will be for a long time).  Strangely enough, I’ve seen five other 2020 films that were not made available for the eligibility list, and they were mostly decent.  I have no idea why Honest Thief, The Lost Husband, The Postcard Killings, Unhinged or (most surprising) The War with Grandpa were not eligible, but they aren’t on the list.  But I saw them and reviewed them here in Filmbobbery.

Of those 27 films that I did see, only 5 received nominations of any kind.  The 2020 Oscar noms are spread over 38 films on the Reminder List (three of the “international” films are not there, nor are any of the short films).  38 represents a nice spread — it is almost a dozen more than I actually saw from the entire list.  I’ve seen just two of the eight Best Picture candidates, although one more has been playing at theaters near me for more than a month, I just haven’t gotten around to seeing it yet.  But 27 is a pitiful total.  If you are reading this, then the chances are that as a movie fan you’ve most likely seen more than I have, which embarrasses me.

Streaming is the primary culprit.  I have nothing against seeing movies at home, but they are far more powerful — or disappointing — when you make the effort to go somewhere else to pay for and see them on a big screen.  So I don’t stream much.  And at least two of the biggest films this year, by nomination quantity anyway, are only available on streaming services.  That means that I’ll have to make the adjustment and try to keep up with the modern way of watching movies, no matter how much it galls me to do so.

This limited survey of last year’s films also means that I cannot judge very well the veracity or quality of the nominations.  I was happy to see Tenet limited to two technical nominations and WW84 ignored entirely, since neither was very good.  I was rooting for Promising Young Woman since that is the best film I’ve seen from last year, and I expected Nomadland to do well.  But where is the love for News of the World?  I haven’t seen any of the Supporting Actress nominees but they must be great if they are better than Helena Zengel’s turn in News of the World.  She deserved a nomination, and as far as I am concerned, she was snubbed.

I cannot really judge any of the performances I haven’t seen, but I do have one other complaint.  It riles me that Judas and the Black Messiah received two acting nods, both in the Supporting Actor category.  How can that be?  Who is the star?  Who has the most important role?  Isn’t it Daniel Kaluuya as Fred Hampton?  How can he be a Supporting Actor?  I think this was done so the odds favored two nominations from this film instead of one, but it bugs me that common sense billing is twisted for the sake of garnering nominations, if that is indeed what is happening.  Usually two leads will battle it out in the main category; here the reverse seems to be true.  And I don’t like it.

As I mentioned before, every now and then a surprise pops up, someone or some movie totally unknown grabs a nomination.  I’ll never forget when Michelle Pfeiffer was nominated for Love Field (1993).  I had never even heard of that film and was flabbergasted.  This year I am absolutely gobsmacked.  I have heard of Minari, but only in the last few days.  It’s success is astounding.  And Sound of Metal?  Complete, total surprise.  Never heard of it, nor the Supporting Actor nominee Paul Raci.  Good for them, but where the heck did they come from?  Same thing for Vanessa Kirby in Pieces of a Woman and Thomas Vinterberg’s direction of Another Round and Lee Isaac Chung’s direction of Minari.  The times, they are a’changin’, and it feels like they’re leaving me behind.

Having said that, it’s certainly worthwhile, and necessary, to adapt, to be inclusive, to invite new faces and ideas to the table.  Some things don’t change that much — Glenn Close earned her eighth nomination, with Anthony Hopkins and Frances McDormand rising to six apiece.  But there are a great many new talents now enjoying the biggest stage in entertainment.  I just wish that I had been aware of their coming.