Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

I'm just going to put everything here.

Best Picture -- Moonlight
I'm torn. I need to see some of these films again. If we had five films nominated and they were Arrival, Hell or High Water, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight and someone proposed expanding the Best Picture lineup to ten, I would say "Why?" These are very good films. La La Land is probably my favorite film of the year, but I think there would be something very powerful about Moonlight winning. As an endorsement of A24. As an independent film. As an LGBT film. As a black film not about slavery (next up, not about drug-dealers). And as a giant fuck you to Trump. It would feel cathartic.

I just watched Moonlight for the third time last night and I think I'd just like it to win, but right now my objective view of the films is likely:
1. La La Land
2. Moonlight
3. Arrival
4. Manchester by the Sea
5. Hell or High Water
6. Hidden Figures
7. Lion
8. Fences
9. Hacksaw Ridge


Best Director - Denis Villeneuve, Arrival
Chazelle and Jenkins would be very worthy winners as well.

Best Actor - Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea

Best Actress - Isabelle Huppert, Elle
This category could've been one of the best in ages if they nominated Amy Adams and Annette Bening instead of Ruth Negga or Meryl Streep. Or if Viola Davis was appropriately nominated in this category. Emma Stone will win and I'm fine with that. I'm always happy when someone wins for a romantic comedy perf, but Isabelle Huppert is just working on a different level here.

Best Supporting Actor - Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
To me, all the nominees are varying degrees of very good. Had Andre Holland or Ashton Sanders been nominated for Moonlight, I might go with them, but I keep going back to Jeff Bridges and how unexpectedly moved I was by his journey. It would be very satisfying to see Mahershala Ali win an Oscar, but Jeff Bridges is surely an actor who deserves a second Oscar for his career and Hell or High Water is probably his best nominated performance.

Best Supporting Actress - Naomie Harris, Moonlight
Best Original Screenplay - Yorgos Lanthimos & Efthimis Filippou, The Lobster
Best Adapted Screenplay - Eric Heisserer, Arrival

Best Original Score - La La Land
This is easily the best lineup of the decade so far.

Best Original Song - "City of Stars", La La Land

Best Cinematography - Arrival
Torn between Arrival and Moonlight. La La Land probably has this one in the bag for how much Damien Chazelle moves the camera, but he's a little less concerned with the perfect of every image. Some shots have visible wide angle lens-curving. I attribute the camera movements as much to directing as anything else.

Best Film Editing - Arrival
This will be one of La La Land's less deserving wins. Arrival's editing is more seamless while Moonlight's is more inspired.

Best Production Design - Hail, Caesar!
Best Costume Design - La La Land
Best Makeup - Star Trek Beyond
Jesus, these three lineups. I haven't seen Allied, Fantastic Beasts..., or Passengers so I don't know how they would affect my vote. But also who cares, moving on.

Best Sound Mixing - Arrival
Best Sound Editing - Arrival
Best Visual Effects - Doctor Strange

Sonic Youth wrote: I just felt like an idiot. I didn't realize, for example, that the brother in the hospital and the body in the morgue the following scene was the same person. I was really chastised by my friend with whom I went to see the film with. I guess I was just having an off-day.

I think that many were, like you, confused at some point (certainly that hospital scene you refer to is, at the beginning, sort-of ambiguous). But I also think that it was intentional on Lonergan's part - it mirrors the main character's confusion, unsolved feelings, and contradictory relationship with his own past. And I believe that it works - it requires maybe a bit of attention (which most movies today honestly don't need), but in the end it works. It's not a perfect effort - some of those flashbacks weren't, I think, so necessary (the "past" section of the movie, with the exception of a pivotal event, isn't as interesting as the "contemporary" one), the choice of music is sometimes too obvious (I think the last time one used Albinoni for a mourning scene was circa 1975!), and while I didn't expect the movie to end with an exclamation point, a kind-of full stop would have probably been better than those suspension points. Yet, one can't accuse Manchester by the sea of not being subtle, and nowadays (I'd say especially in the Trump era) even an excess of sublety is something that I personally treasure. For all its - several - flaws, this is still the best American movie I've seen this year.

1. Manchester by the Sea
2. La La Land
3. Moonlight
4. Hell or High Water
5. Lion
6. Arrival
7. Fences
8. Hidden Figures
9. Hacksaw Ridge

1. Manchester by the Sea
2. La La Land
3. Moonlight
4. Hell or High Water
5. Hacksaw Ridge
6. Lion
7. Hidden Figures
8. Arrival
9. Fences

1. Moonlight
2. Arrival
3. Manchester by the Sea
4. La La Land

01. La La Land
02. Moonlight
03. Arrival
04. Hell or High Water
05. Manchester by the Sea
06. Lion
07. Hidden Figures
08. Hacksaw Ridge
09. Fences

Finally watched all nominees ...

1. Manchester by the Sea
2. Moonlight
3. Arrival
4. Hell or High Water
5. Lion
6. Hidden Figures
7. La La Land
8. Fences
9. Hacksaw Ridge

I'm basically fine with No. 1-5 - didn't get excited but kinda like them. Don't like the last 4.

1. La La Land
2. Moonlight
3. Arrival
4. (Manchester By the Sea)

I've seen only eight 2016 releases this year. :shrugs:

Manchester By the Sea may not be the fourth best of the nominated films, but something in my head was, er... off as I was watching it. Simply put - and this is embarrassing - I had no idea going in that the film was not told in chronological order, and I spent most of my viewing experience trying to make sense of what was going on. I'm not usually confused by unconventional narratives, but I guess I was unprepared for this one, because I was sitting there mostly baffled, and then when I realized my mistake I just felt like an idiot. I didn't realize, for example, that the brother in the hospital and the body in the morgue the following scene was the same person. I was really chastised by my friend with whom I went to see the film with. I guess I was just having an off-day. Hence the parenthesis, since there were a lot of grace notes throughout. So, I DEFINITELY need to give it another chance.

1. Arrival
2. Hell or High Water
3. Manchester by the Sea
4. La La Land
5. Moonlight
6. Lion
7. Hacksaw Ridge
8. Hidden Figures
9. Fences

I like the first eight to one degree or another, although I have some pretty major issues with Lion, Hacksaw Ridge, and Hidden Figures. Have some problems with La La Land and Moonlight as well. The other three are a cut above, and I'd really need to watch them all again to determine my favorite. From a writing/storytelling perspective, I'd go with Manchester. From a sheer filmmaking perspective, I'd go with Hell or High Water, which I don't think has a single wasted scene or shot or edit. From an emotional perspective, Arrival hit me pretty hard, and I don't know exactly what the reasons for that were. Today I'm siding with my emotional self.

1. Manchester by the Sea
2. Arrival
3. La La Land
4. Moonlight
5. Hell or High Water
6. Fences
7. Lion
8. Hacksaw Ridge
9. Hidden Figures

Numbers 1 - 4 aren't separated by much. (And Jackie belongs with them.) Pretty substantial drop to number 5, then a chasm after that -- none of the bottom four are of much consequence, and my order here is close to arbitrary.

1. Moonlight
2. Manchester by the Sea
3. Hell or High Water
4. La La Land
5. Arrival
6. Hidden Figures
7. Lion
8. Fences
(Hacksaw Ridge: haven't and won't see)

1. Manchester By The Sea
2. Moonlight
3. Hell Or High Water
4. La La Land
5. Lion
6. Hidden Figures
7. Arrival
8. Hacksaw Ridge
9. Fences

1. Manchester by the Sea
2. Moonlight
3. La La Land
4. Arrival
5. Hell or High Water
6. Lion
7. Hidden Figures
8. Hacksaw Ridge
9. Fences

1. Moonlight
2. Arrival
3. La La Land
4. Hell or High Water
5. Manchester by the Sea
6. Lion
7. Hacksaw Ridge
8. Fences
9. Hidden Figures

1. Manchester by the Sea
2. La La Land
3. Moonlight
4. Hell or High Water
5. Hidden Figures
6. Lion
7. Hacksaw Ridge
8. Arrival
9. Fences

I must also say that the first four aren't less good than my number 1 choice from last year's nominees (Spotlight). But then number 5 to 9, while not necesarily atrocious, shouldn't be on the list.