By Liam Heffernan
In the 91 year history of the Academy Awards, only three films have succeeded in winning Best Picture in isolation, without any additional Oscars to its name. To find them you need to look a long way back in the archives. Could the same thing happen tomorrow night? In the age of the preferential ballot and with this particular awards season being as unpredictable as ever, perhaps it is time that we should expect the unexpected. The first lone Best Picture winner was "Broadway Melody" in 1929. It had three nominations, only winning Outstanding Picture. Then "Grand Hotel" in 1932, winning with its only nomination. Then finally was "Mutiny on the Bounty," way back in 1935, winning only one of seven nominations including director, editing, screenplay, and three acting nods. Over the years a gradual trend has established itself in awards season, with a smaller concentration of films winning more awards each. This is potentially driven by more categories and more focussed awards campaigns delivered by specialist "prestige" studios. In other words, even unanimously unpopular Best Picture winners such as "Crash" can still win more than one Oscar. Now factor in the new(ish) preferential ballots, and it becomes highly improbable that we will ever see a film repeat the one-hit wonder heights of its three predecessors. That was until we entered one of the most divisive, controversial and unpredictable seasons of all time. It seems no major contender this year has escaped a backlash, whether it's for representation of institutional racism or its embracement of new streaming services into the motion picture world or lacking crucial nominations elsewhere which usually tells us what will win Best Picture. Heading into the Oscars, five different films have shared five of the biggest Academy indicators; "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Green Book" have the Globes, "Black Panther" won SAG, while BAFTA honored "The Favourite" (Outstanding British Film) and "Roma" (Best Film). The Producers’ Guild giving their top prize to "Green Book" may look like the difference maker to many; however, such a split across the season indicates a major lack of cohesion among voters. The consequence of which may just be an unprecedented spread of Oscars between all eight Best Picture nominees, and the increasing likelihood of a lone Oscar winner for Best Picture for the first time in over 80 years with the closest being "Spotlight" in 2015 winning only 2 Academy Awards. The preferential ballot creates additional uncertainty, as this voting system typically rewards the most broadly popular, as opposed to the most loved. Understanding the different permutations of this process, which is based on ranking films from most to least preferable in each category, will ultimately help us to answer the following two questions on Monday... 1. How did that film win? 2. How did that film win Best Picture and nothing else? The best way to answer this is to look at each Best Picture nominee in turn, and how this scenario could potentially play out.
|
BEST PICTURE Nomadland (12) - AWFJ, BOFCA, BSFC, CFCA, CIC, GOTHAM, GWNYFCA, IFJA, NDFS, NSFC, TIFF, VENICE Promising Young Woman (4) - COFCA, MCFCA, SCA, SDFCS First Cow (2) - FFCC, NYFCC Minari (2) - NCFCA, OFCC Another Round - EFA Da 5 Bloods - CIC Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - CIC Small Axe - LAFCA The Trial Of The Chicago 7 - HFCS BEST DIRECTOR Chloé Zhao (16) - AWFJ, BOFCA, BSFC, CFCA, COFCA, FFCC, GWNYFCA, IFJA, LAFCA, MSFCA, NCFCA, NDFS, NSFC, NYFCC, OFCC, SDFCS Spike Lee (2) - CIC, HFCS Darius Marder - SCA Andrew Patterson - GOTHAM Thomas Vinterberg - EFA BEST ACTRESS Frances McDormand (11) - AWFJ, BOFCA, CFCA, FFCC, GWNYFCA, HFCS, IFJA, NCFCA, NDFS, NSFC, OFCC Carey Mulligan (4) - COFCA, LAFCA, MCFCA, SCA, SDFCS Sidney Flanigan (2) - BSFC, NYFCC Paula Beer - EFA Nicole Beharie - GOTHAM Viola Davis - CIC BEST ACTOR Riz Ahmed (7) - COFCA, GOTHAM, GWNYFCA, NDFS, OFCC, SCA, SDFCS Chadwick Boseman (5) - AWFJ, CFCA, CIC, LAFCA, MSFCA Delroy Lindo (6) - BOFCA, HFCS, IFJA, NCFCA, NSFC, NYFCC Anthony Hopkins (2) - BSFC, FFCC Mads Mikkelsen - EFA BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Youn Yuh-jung (10) - AWFJ, BSFC, COFCA, GWNYFCA, LAFCA, MCFCA, NCFCA, OFCC, SCA, SDFCS Maria Bakalaova (9) - BOFCA, CFCA, CIC, FFCC, IFJA, MCFCA, NDFS, NSFC, NYFCC Olivia Cooke - HFCS BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR Paul Raci (11) - BOFCA, BSFC, CFCA, COFCA, FFCC, GWNYFCA, HFCS, NSFC, OFCC, SCA, SDFCS Sacha Baron Cohen (3) - MCFCA, NCFCA, NDFS Chadwick Boseman (2) - CIC, NYFCC Leslie Odom Jr. (2) - AWFJ, IFJA Glynn Turman - LAFCA BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Nomadland (8) - AWFJ, CFCA, COFCA, GWNYFCA, HFCS, IFJA, NCFCA, OFCC I'm Thinking Of Ending Things (3) - BOFCA, BSFC, FFCC The Father (2) - SCA, SDFCS Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - CIC BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Promising Young Woman (6) - AWFJ, CIC, COFCA, LAFCA, NDFS, OFCC Never, Rarely, Sometimes, Always (5) - CFCA, GWNYFCA, IFJA, NSFC, NYFCC Minari (3) - FFCC, NCFCA, SDFCS The Trial Of The Chicago 7 (3) - CIC, HFCS, MCFCA Another Round - EFA The Forty-Year-Old-Version - GOTHAM Fourteen - GOTHAM BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Nomadland (12) - AWFJ, BOFCA, BSFC, CFCA, CIC, COFCA, GWNYFCA, MCFCA, NCFCA, NDFS, NSFC, SDFCS Mank (3) - FFCC, OFCC, SCA Small Axe (2) - LAFCA, NYFCC Hidden Away - EFA Tenet - HFCS BEST COSTUME DESIGN Emma. (2) - CFCA, SDFCS Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2) - CIC, HFCS Hidden Away - EFA BEST FILM EDITING The Trial Of The Chicago 7 (4) - CIC, COFCA, HFCS, MCFCA Nomadland (4) - AWFJ, BOFCA, GWNYFCA, NDFS I'm Thinking Of Ending Things (2) - BSFC, CFCA The Invisible Man (2) - MCFCA, SDFCS The Father - LAFCA Once More Unto The Breach - EFA BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING The Endless Trench - EFA Mank - HFCS Ma Rainey's Black Bottom - CIC BEST ORIGINAL SCORE Soul (9) - BOFCA, CFCA, CIC, COFCA, FFCC, GWNYFCA, LAFCA, NCFCA, OFCC Tenet (3) - IFJA, MCFCA, SCA Mank (2) - HFCS, NDFS Berlin Alexanderplatz - EFA Minari - BSFC BEST ORIGINAL SONG One Night In Miami (3) - CIC, HFCS, MCFCA Over The Moon - NDFS BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN Mank (8) - CFCA, CIC, FFCC, HFCS, LAFCA, MCFCA, NDFS, SDFCS The Personal History Of David Copperfield - EFA BEST SOUND Little Girl - EFA Sound Of Metal - HFCS BEST VISUAL EFFECTS Tenet (3) - HFCS, NCFCA, SDFCS The Invisible Man (2) - CFCA, CIC The Platform - EFA Possessor - FFCC BEST ANIMATED FEATURE Soul (9) - AWFJ, CCA, CIC, FFCC, IFJA, MSFCA, NCFCA, NDFS, OFCC Wolfwalkers (7) - BOFCA, CFCA, COFCA, GWNYFCA, LAFCA, NYFCC, SDFCS Josep - EFA The Wolf House - BSFC BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM Another Round (6) - AWFJ, CFCA, EFA, IFJA, MCFCA, NCFCA Bacurau (2) - BOFCA, NYFCC The Life Ahead (2) - HFCS, SDFCS Minari (2) - COFCA, GWNYFCA And Then We Danced - NDFS Beanpole - LAFCA Collective - NSFC His House - CIC Identifying Features - GOTHAM La Llorona - BSFC Los Fuertes - FFCC Martin Eden - OFCC BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE Dick Johnson Is Dead (5) - CCA, CFCA, COFCA, IFJA, NCFCA Time (5) - GOTHAM, GWNYFCA, LAFCA, NYFCC, SDFCS All In: The Fight For Democracy (2) - AWFJ, NDFS Boys State (2) - CIC, OFCC Collective (2) - BSFC, EFA The Painter And The Thief (2) - AWFJ, BOFCA Beastie Boys Story - HFCS The Social Dilemma - MCFCA A Thousand Cuts - GOTHAM You Don't Nomi - FFCC AuthorsNicole Ackman Archives
January 2021
Categories
All
|