In preparation for our Alternate Oscars Podcast, we present to you our nominees for the Alternate Oscars. Vote now:
We are always outraged by the Oscar Snubs year in and year out. The 2020 Snubs seemed to be especially painful to The Movie Isle. Rather than writing some Think Piece/Hot Take on the subject. We decided to do something about it. Like all good websites in 2020…
We are going to Podcast about it.
Moreso, than Podcast. We’re going to create our own Alt-Oscar Nominee List and Award Show. Here how it works. All of the nominees are culled from people NOT nominated for an Oscar this year. Looking at the list below one could say that we’ve “fixed” the Oscars. Others will probably say we’re crazy.
Each Writer was allowed to pick a Primary and Backup nominee. Based on their lists a group of Four was selected. Below each writer who nominated said Film or Artisan will discuss the reasons why she/he/it was chosen.
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Voting in each category will be open until Saturday, January 25th at 9:00 am EST when we will record our Podcast. Vote as often as you want!
Without further ado;
Best Picture
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Portrait of a Lady on Fire – Neon
“Portrait of a Lady on Fire is as ravishing a love story as put on screen in a very long time. This methodical, brilliant, beautiful, warmly executed romantic drama defies all misconceptions of what a “costume drama” and what a “romantic” film are. The film breaks your heart as it makes it soar.” – Adam Kautzer
Transit – Music Box Films
“Transit is what you get if Kafka wrote Casablanca and set it in 2019. The gates of hell are the visa offices in the US Embassy, and purgatory is a wine bar in Marseille.” – Marie O’Sullivan
Uncut Gems – A24
“Uncut Gems is a frenetic, tension-filled, grotesque piece of entertainment that features an otherworldly performance from Adam Sandler. With meticulous direction from Josh and Benny Safdie, this film should have easily taken a Best Picture spot.” – Shane Singletary
Waves – A24
“Trey Edward Shults is a master at telling stories of family dysfunction. This tale of a family slowly coming unraveled should’ve received many nominations including Best Picture.” – Scott Phillips
Best Director
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Céline Sciamma – Portrait of a Lady on Fire
“The film’s visually arresting style is akin to the style of painting at the time. The beautiful color and chiaroscuro lighting of the perfect framing always informs on the emotional state of the two young women of different class, social, and emotional levels. This is not empty visuals nor knee jerk bursts of emotions. Sciamma directs a simmer romance that’s the equivalent of a Henry James or Edith Wharton novel brought to life in 35mm.” – Adam Kautzer
Greta Gerwig – Little Women
“A few years ago Greta Gerwig was nominated for her astounding work with Lady Bird. Little Women seems like her graduation. Cementing her place in the ranks of top tier directors working today. With zero female directing nominations in 2020, it’s a shame that Gerwig wasn’t recognized for her brilliant work with Little Women.” – Shane Singletary
Mati Diop – Atlantics
“A stunning feature directing debut which is socially relevant, hopelessly romantic and beautifully ethereal.” – Marie O’Sullivan
The Safdie Brothers – Uncut Gems
“The Safdie’s have a truly unique style to their films and prove themselves once again to be some of the most interesting auteurs of the 21st century.” – Scott Phillips
Best Actor – Female
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Awkwafina – The Farewell
“No performance was as surprising as the one given by Awkwafina. No other performance this year gave the depth of emotion with that perfect twinge of comedic ump than Awkwafina. I will be as so bold as to say that her performance is reminiscent of the ones given by Robin Williams in his prime years as a dramatic/comedic performer. Yes, that’s how damn good she is.” – Adam Kautzer
Lupita Nyong’o – US
“Walking out of Us last year one thing really left me speechless. That was Lupita Nyong’o’s mesmerizing and transformative performance. The choices she made in the film were risky, brave and inspired. To me, she was unparalleled in 2019.” – Shane Singletary
Florence Pugh – Midsommar
“Horror never gets awards love, but Ari Aster’s sophomore effort lives or dies based on the quality of its leading lady, and Florence Pugh hit this performance out of the park.” – Scott Phillips
Tao Zhao – Ash is the Purest White
“Tao Zhao embodies China itself in Ash is Purest White and her evolution through the three phases of the film, over 15 years, from under the thumb to total agency is mesmerising.” – Marie O’Sullivan
Best Actor – Male
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Taron Egerton – Rocket Man
“I’m going to try to contain my ire at the Academy for a certain best actor win last year. I cannot contain my ire at them for NOT nominating Egerton’s wonderful and heartbreaking performance as Elton John. It’s one thing to mimic someone. It is entirely different to take on the iconography and voice of a performer, one that is still alive. Twenty years from now everyone is going to wonder why he didn’t win… honey he wasn’t even nominated.” – Adam Kautzer
Eddie Murphy – Dolemite is My Name
“One of the funniest films of 2019 was Dolemite is My Name. Unfortunately, it always felt like Eddie was on the outside looking in relative to Oscar nominations. That’s a shame. Considering his brilliant role in the central performance holds the whole film together and deserved to be one of the Best Supporting Actor nominees.” – Shane Singletary
Franz Rogowski – Transit
“His face, his posture, his indecision, his determination, his emotion, his stoicism. He’s Ilsa Lund and Rick Blaine combined. He’s amazing.” – Marie O’Sullivan
Adam Sandler – Uncut Gems
“Maybe he’s made too many lazy movies during his career, and it prevented the single best lead performance of 2019 from receiving an Oscar nomination. Sandler disappears into the role. I found myself forgetting it was even him behind the teeth and the glasses.” – Scott Phillips
Best Support Actor – Female
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Diana Lin – The Farewell
“Sometimes a performance is so on the nose perfectly realized that people take it for granted. Diana Lin’s performance as Billi’s mother Lu Jian. If you have had an Asian Mother in your life, you know how amazingly realize this performance is (yes, both my grandmother and mother are of Asian descent). Lin gives a performance that’s filled with anger, sadness, frustration, and joy. Best of all; it’s done mostly through looks and reactions.” – Adam Kautzer
Jennifer Lopez – Hustlers
“This was an omission I never saw coming. Jennifer Lopez’s performance in Hustlers was overwhelmingly lauded by critics and fans alike. I don’t really have any answers for why she was overlooked but to me, it’s an egregious mistake. She was the best thing about Hustlers and gave one of the truly great supporting performances of the entire year.” – Shane Singletary
Taylor Russell – Waves
“Kelvin Harrison, Jr. carries the first half of Trey Edward Shults’ family drama, and Russell carries the second half. The baton that Harrison hands to Russell midway through the film is a heavy one, but she carries it with ease, making audiences care about the “little sister” caught in the wake of her big brother’s choices.” – Scott Phillips
Octavia Spencer – Luce
“Spencer plays the teacher on the receiving end of Luce’s impenetrability, under stress from all sides. She’s perplexed, confused, and potentially victimised – and the audience feels every second of it.” – Marie O’Sullivan
Best Supporting Actor – Male
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Willem Dafoe – The Lighthouse
“Do I really need to say why? This was the most egregious omission of them all.” – Scott Phillips
Song Kang-Ho – Parasite
“Foreign language films have almost universally been shutout of the standard acting categories but based on what I had seen from the critics’ groups I was a bit surprised that Song Kang-ho was not nominated. His portrayal as the patriarch of the Kim family is stunning. He perfectly plays the beaten down, working-class character with such relatability that even when the 3rd act shift takes place we follow along without skipping a beat. A fantastic performance.” – Shane Singletary
Tzi Ma – The Farewell
“Tzi Ma is just a wonderful performer. None-more so than here as Billi’s father Haiyan Wang who plays a lot of the movie drunk. Drunk is a hard thing to pull off. Harder still a Chinese man who is losing his mother pouring his emotions into a bottle – drunk. Tzi Ma makes it look all too easy. Trust me, it’s not and it is a rare treat to see something so delicately detailed as Haiyan Wang’s slow meltdown is.” – Adam Kautzer
Wendell Pierce – Burning Cane
“A soul-wrenching performance as Reverend Tillman – a man of God, yet with feet of clay. He preaches to his congregation, but his own words ring hollow in his own heart. Pierce makes him pathetic yet very human.” – Marie O’Sullivan
Best Screenplay (Adapted and Original)
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Christian Petzold – Transit (adapted from the novel by Anna Seghers)
“Petzold has beautifully and seamlessly transferred the ideas from the original novel set in 1942 to a contemporary day setting, capturing the plight of modern-day refugees while maintaining a traditional WWII-style atmosphere.” – Marie O’Sullivan
The Safdie Brothers & Ronald Bronstein – Uncut Gems
“A layered complex script that plays like the entire film is improvised. The overlapping dialogue and gambling lingo gives Uncut Gems an authenticity that most gritty, urban films never achieve.” – Scott Phillips
Trey Edward Shults – Waves
“Trey Edward Shults is a fascinating filmmaker that seems interested in making films that defy the standard form. This is definitely the case with his latest film, Waves. His script starts down one road and midway through it skirts onto the shoulder, jumps the curb and heads for another road entirely and I praise this bold choice. The film literally broke my heart not once, not twice but numerous times throughout. While it’s not the easiest watch, it’s a script that truly moved me and one I won’t soon forget.” – Shane Singletary
Lena Waithe – Queen and Slim
“Like a ton of bricks. That’s how Queen and Slim hit me on a random Saturday night in December when my fiancee and I decided to watch it. The script from Waithe (who’s TV Show The Chi is The Wire-Level type good) is layered in so many different ways about Culture. From Love Jones to making your own choices to Skinny Luther or Fat Luther to family to trust to violence. Waithe creates a heady brew that is unlike anything we have seen before.” – Adam Kautzer