The Ten Best Slates of Nominees in Oscar History
10. Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, 1985
Won: Out of Africa (Stephen B. Grimes, Josie MacAvin)
Also nominated:Brazil (Norman Garwood, Maggie Gray)
The Color Purple (J. Michael Riva, Bo Welch, Linda DeScenna)
Ran (Muraki Yoshirô, Muraki Shinobu)
Witness (Stan Jolley, John H. Anderson)
Best Art Direction, like Best Costume Design, typically selects its nominees using a very narrow set of preferences, and while the results are often deserving, they also suffer from an irritating sameness. Which is what makes it such a treat when either of those categories go at all far afield, and this is about as far afield as it gets: only The Color Purple "feels" like an Oscary movie here, and even that would be one of the edgier nominees in a lot of years. Out of Africa is an unusual-looking early 20th Century period piece, while Witness, however much it relies on its production design to tell the story, is too weird a blend of times and tones to qualify as a shoe-in just because of that barn-raising scene. As for the two best nominees here Ran is, after all, Japanese, despite looking beautiful in the most Academy-friendly way, and while Brazil's legendary and iconic design ought to feel like it was a lock, it pays to remember how much Brazil was not on the radar in 1985.
9. Best Animated Feature, 2009
Won: UpAlso nominated:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
In its short life, this category has established some obvious favorites; and while I'm sure that the general high quality of animated features in 2009 helped, it was still hugely gratifying to see them abandon those favorites to embrace such a wide variety of styles. Yes, the winner was still a gorgeous CGI picture from Pixar, but it was the only fully-rendered movie in the lot: instead, we get a pair of stop-motion features that are about as different from one another as two movies made in that style could possibly be, and two old-school 2-D films, one made with the lushest expense of Disney in full command of its powers, another a gorgeously colored and stylistically askew indie movie from Ireland. Visual masterpieces all, and not a single one feels like an afterthought.
Won: Vivien Leigh, Gone with the Wind
Also nominated:
Bette Davis, Dark Victory
Irene Dunne, Love AffairGreta Garbo, Ninotchka
Greer Garson, Goodbye, Mr. Chips
For all that it's easy to accuse Oscar's taste in this category as being fixated on sad wives and prostitutes, I have actually found that Best Actress has, by a commanding margin, the best slates of acting nominees. For the Best Year of Hollywood Filmmaking Ever, they gave the nod to a fine selection of star turns: the great, brittle Davis in an unusually vulnerable, weepy place, Dunne showing the world how a middle-aged woman can turn a fine romantic drama into an all-time masterpiece through sheer strength of will, Garbo giving a wonderful comic performance that is simultaneously nestled in her well-worn persona, and completely different from anything she'd ever had to do, and Garson giving what is, to my tastes, by far the best performance she would ever give for the rest of her career in the movie that put her on the map. Best of all, of course, is Leigh's towering achievement as Scarlett O'Hara, one of the great works of film acting full stop, and almost certainly the best performance ever rewarded with an Oscar.
Won: Wings
Also nominated:
7th Heaven
The Racket
Before the Academy knew what the hell it was doing, it was actually quite a lot more fun: most of the categories in the first year of the awards are pretty damn great, none more than the first ever Best Picture slate, an unimaginable mix in any other year, and not just because with only three candidates, they were able to cut down on the dross (all in all, I prefer it to the tonier Most Unique and Artistic Production - Chang doesn't do much for me). The winner, despite not being Sunrise, is still an outstanding adventure film with great star turns and visual effects that hold up more than eight decades later; 7th Heaven is of course one of the most beautiful and delicate sentimental dramas of silent cinema's best year, and The Racket is a terrifically entertaining gangster picture from when that genre was still experimenting with its own identity.
Won: Here Comes Mr. Jordan, by Harry Segall
Also nominated:Ball of Fire, by Thomas Monroe & Billy Wilder
The Lady Eve, by Monckton Hoffe
Meet John Doe, by Richard Connell and Robert Presnell
Night Train to Munich, by Gordon Wellesley
I miss this category - a film can have a great story & not a great screenplay, and vice-versa - almost as much as I miss when the Academy would be this cool with nominating four comedies and a thriller in any category. And such comedies! They come in flavors ranging from the sticky-sentimental (Meet John Doe) to the witty and playful (Here Comes Mr. Jordan) to the manic (Ball of Fire) to the very manic (The Lady Eve), and in every case it's the scenario as much as the dialogue or even acting that gives the film its comic heft. Night Train, for its part, is a razor-sharp WWII adventure that is one of the best examples of British war pictures doing double duty as propaganda and entertainment.
Won: The Informer, by Dudley Nicholls
Also nominated:The Lives of a Bengal Lancer, by Grover Jones & William Slavens McNutt and Waldemar Young & John L. Balderston and Achmed Abdullah
Mutiny on the Bounty, by Talbot Jennings & Jules Furthman and Carey Wilson
Captain Blood, by Casey Robinson (write-in)
The names have changed, but it's basically Adapted Screenplay - and such fantastic adaptations! My favorite among the lot is Mutiny, for shaping the material in a more exciting narrative context and doing the best job in any medium of correctly balancing the emotional registers that frequently turn Bligh into a psychopath; but the other two official nominees are fantastic themselves: the driving sense of doom underpinning The Informer's moral drama, and the spirited sense of adventure that makes Bengal Lancer's jolly colonialism easier to take than most other "Brits in India" pictures of the '30s. Though I have to say, neither of them pleases me as much as Captain Blood making it to third place in the balloting without even having a nomination, despite distilling everything we love about matinee adventures, dashing hero-pirates, and kiddie-family political intrigue into one intoxicating mash.
Won: There Will Be Blood (Robert Elswit)
Also nominated:The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Roger Deakins)
Atonement (Seamus McGarvey)
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Janusz Kaminski)
No Country for Old Men (Roger Deakins)
The no-doubt-about-it worst of these, Atonement, is still one of the smartest-looking mid-century period pieces of modern times, with McGarvey able to save even the gaudiest of director Joe Wright's visual conceits with skill and class. And the other four are all unimpeachable: Kaminski's work is ill-served by shaky direction, but it still has as much imagination and cunning as anything he's done, while Elswit and Deakins both turn in career-best work, in careers that are certainly not wanting for high points. Indeed, all three films put in a strong bid for title of best-shot movie of the last 25 years, making it a little bit easier to swallow the fact that Deakins couldn't even win it when he had a 40% chance.
Won: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Also nominated:
Barry Lyndon
Dog Day Afternoon
Jaws
Nashville
I'm not sure which is more telling: that the winner, and easily my least-favorite here, is nonetheless one of the very best of all the '70s chamber-dramas-about-the-Zeitgeist, with a stunning ensemble cast; or that Jaws, one of the most perfect action-thrillers of all time and the best popcorn movie in history, would only have come in third on my ballot, behind Nashville's condensation of America at the dawn of its third century into a sprawling cityscape of pitch-perfect stories and moments, and Barry Lyndon's absolute reinvention of the artistic heights to which a costume drama could possible reach. Add in DDA, the second-best film of Sidney Lumet's career, and a magnificently nervy tale of urban life during the social chaos of the day, and you have an irreproachable blend of stories about the modern day and historical movements, outstanding character work and genre experiment, and as flawless a capsule of "this is what great cinema looked like in 1975" as anyone could ever hope to assemble.
Won: Judy Holliday, Born Yesterday
Also nominated:Anne Baxter, All About Eve
Bette Davis, All About EveEleanor Parker, Caged
Gloria Swanson, Sunset Blvd.
The legendary battle between two of the great film performances of the post-war era, Davis's epically bitchy theater diva and Swanson's grandly insane movie diva ended, of course, with the crowning of a neophyte, but it's not fair to jump all over Holliday, as some have taken occasion to do; she's incredible in a role that almost demands to be played more broadly and simply than she does here, in a performance so sly that it is impossible to appreciate just how deep it runs until a second or even third viewing. Baxter was never going to win with her co-star in the mix, but it's still a brilliant turn, far subtler and less theatrical and a perfect fit because of it, and you have to hand it to the Academy; if it came out today, she'd undoubtedly be thrown in Supporting Actress, but they had none of that bullshit in 1950. Parker is obviously the fifth wheel here; I'll admit to not having much use for her most of the time, but she's pretty damn great - career-best great, right in her big coming-out moment - in a woman in prison movie that has a lot more going on than the genre usually can muster up.
Won: Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather, Part II
Also nominated:John Cassavetes, A Woman Under the Influence
Bob Fosse, LennyRoman Polanski, Chinatown
François Truffaut, Day for Night
It was surprising, to me anyway, how many times in how many categories there would be four top-class, world-beating nominees, and then one complete throwaway there to ruin it all. Of these, the most galling was Best Picture '74, in which the Academy had to hunt way outside of its comfort zone to find The Towering Inferno, just about the only plausible choice that could keep that slate from making this list itself. Happily, Best Director nailed it (in fact, Director is stronger than Picture in all but one or two seasons of the Academy's 84-year history) with the densest cluster of geniuses ever: Polanski and Cassavetes making their respective masterpieces, Fosse making the best biopic of the decade, and Truffaut having all kinds of fun with cinema's most delightful and brilliant movie about movies. I wish Coppola had made it in for The Conversation, but that wasn't going to happen; and when you're nitpicking over which of Coppola's two best movies gets the nomination, you've run out of things to complain about.
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15 comments:
So happy to see numbers 3 & 4.
I also think 1974 is the greatest Best Picture lineup the academy's ever produced. Any list that includes films as wildly different as Jaws and Barry Lyndon deserves immense credit, but the great thing is the lack of what you call a throaway.
I've never seen Lenny but knowing Fosse, and given that Day for Night is probably my favourite film of all time, I can't say I disagree with that choice.
And regarding the 2009 animation nominations, while they're all truly great works, I'd swap any of them with Mary and Max. It's a classy list, but they could have done slightly better.
This list makes me excited to see the nominees I'm missing.
How about a top ten Oscar snubs list?
"when you're nitpicking over which of Coppola's two best movies gets the nomination, you've run out of things to complain about."
Haha that's a great line. This list was a pleasure to read. I find it interested that your choices for visual distinction are all in the last 30 years, and your choices for acting, writing, and directing are all older.
I love Ten for Monday!
Tim, have you ever thought about organizing all of your past Ten for Monday's and posting links to them in your archives? I'd love to be able to go back and read some of your old lists, but they're hard to find.
Heh, heh. I have to say "boo" at the comment on Atonement:). What can I say? I adore the film and all its technical merits. It's the third of the lot for me, oddly. It's Diving Bell > Jesse James > Atonement > No Country > There Will Be Blood for me, from favourite to least favourite which is such a great baromoter for how great the lineup is since the photography in that film is excellent.
AND I'm especially glad to see you trumpeting Baxter and Holliday, the former who is so often forgotten for the subtle and excellent work she does in the film (as a big fan of the film I think she's just as good as Davis) and the latter who is always given so much flack when the performance is a gem.
(AND, thanks for talking up that 2009 animated lineup. I was cheering for Coraline and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, but all five of those films were excellent achievements, which makes me even more dismal at the sorry lineup this year...which didn't even include Winnie the Pooh. Sigh.)
(This is an excellent idea for a top ten list, may I pilfer it - with your permission of course?)
Amir- 1975 is not, I am afraid, my most imaginative choice, but a good one anyway. And I agree with you at least some of the way on Mary and Max, but it still leaves behind five pretty great films.
RickR- A tempting idea, but that would be a hell of an undertaking, especially because prior to this decade, I don't really know what was "expected" to get nominated vs. what never had a chance in hell (e.g. Wild Strawberries missing Best Actor was not, in fairness, a "snub").
Daniel- I hadn't even noticed that! Though given my tastes in writing and acting, it doesn't surprise me in the least (incidentally, Best Actress 1995 was next up in that category). It also says a lot about the Academy's taste in editing and cinematography up through the '60s, I think; a lot of "how the hell did that get nominated?" in the early years of the visual categories.
Chris- Ask and it is given. Partially because you're not the first to ask.
Andrew- The problem is, Davis and Swanson grab you by the throat, while Baxter is much more conniving in her performance, and Holliday doesn't ultimately care if you recognise her brilliance or not, which is part of what makes them both so fantastic.
And let us not talk of this year's twiddly animation slate, which at least didn't have Rio or Cars 2, though I never personally thought the Pixar film had a hope in hell.
Lastly, pilfer away! I am not the first to do such a list and I do not wish to be the last.
Tim wrote-
"RickR- A tempting idea, but that would be a hell of an undertaking, especially because prior to this decade, I don't really know what was "expected" to get nominated vs. what never had a chance in hell (e.g. Wild Strawberries missing Best Actor was not, in fairness, a "snub")."
I see your dilemma, and anything that goes into a "snub" category ultimately boils down to a "my preferred hobby horse didn't win" argument, I suppose.
But you mention the 1975 Best Picture lineup, and "Jaws" is an interesting case in point. Nominated for Best Picture, but then you have to skip all the way down to Best Sound, Score and Editing to see its other nods (all of which won). No screenplay nomination? No acting nods? And nothing for Spielberg for direction? Apparently not. But still, that Best Picture nomination just sort of hangs there, as if the movie just made itself.
There's a great story about that. Spielberg allowed himself to be filmed watching the nomination announcement, because he was a 29-year-old who had no reason to assume he wasn't Christ come down from the mountain, and when Director came up, he says, in all earnestness, "I don't believe it. They went with Fellini over me".
To be honest, it was always Screenplay that seemed the biggest snub to me: they had to go with The Sunshine Boys and an Italian movie to avoid nominating Jaws there.
LOVED this!
Surely the year 1976 deserves a special mention: you can look at any of the top 8 categories (picture, director, the 4 acting awards and the screenplays) and make a case for all of them to be among the best slates ever assembled.
@Amir & Tim - I'd go all the way with the idea of a nomination for Max and Mary; in fact, I didn't realize it wasn't nominated. I'd easily trade out Up for that.
FYC- Best Original Song, 1984.
Love this. I totally agree with all of them. Specifically the 1975 best picture sand the 2009 animation races.
Interesting what a great year 2009 was for animation and what a bad year 2011 was.
I'm on board with most of all of these, but particularly the Best Story '41 (so many classics all in one place) and Best Cinematography '07. If I ran the world, I would've swapped Atonement for Harris Savide's brilliant work in Zodiac, but as it stands that is a very solid lineup. In any other year (such as the last one), Atonement would have been a standout.
Glenn- Thanks!
Neologist- Believe it or not, Picture and Supporting Actor are the ONLY categories that I've seen all five nominees that year, mostly because of Seven Beauties. But I agree, there's a lot of solid stuff in there. The '70s were, across the board, easily the best time for the Oscars ever.
Janice- I'd have probably dropped one of the 2-D films, myself, but there's no denying it should have been there.
Evan- I always forget just how many songs came out of Footloose. You're right, it's a great set, though in my peevishness, I didn't even consider any Best Song lists, because seriously, fuck Rio.
MJC- Exactly the adjustment I'd have made. Though after 2008, I can't begin to imagine what it would take for Savides to swing a nomination.
Robert- I'm tempted to say, in fact, that 2011 is the worst year the category has seen, although 2004 puts in a healthy bid, for Shark Tale alone.
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