Oscar voting is officially over for the 98th Academy Awards, and now we are just patiently waiting until the awards are handed out on March 15th. As we do every year, Will Mavity and I spoke with several Academy voters about what they are voting for and why. We’ll be posting some of those thoughts for your amusement in the lead-up to the Oscars (because that’s all this is at the end of the day). Remember, as you read these, they represent only a tiny fraction of the 11,000+ people who vote on the Oscar winners. While these may help provide some insight into how voters make their selections, they are far from the be-all and end-all of what will eventually win and should always be taken with a grain of salt.
Best Picture:
I saw “Bugonia” at Telluride and haven’t stopped thinking about it since. It’s a very unusual, deep, and unnerving film that doesn’t provide easy answers for its questions, complexities, and polarities. I know it doesn’t have a shot in hell at winning, but for me, that was my film of the year. No 2 was “Marty Supreme,” no 3 was “One Battle After Another,” no. 4 was “Sinners,” no. 5 was “Sentimental Value,” no. 6 was “The Secret Agent,” no. 7 was “Hamnet,” no. 8 was “Train Dreams,” no. 9 was “Frankenstein” and no. 10 was “F1.”
Best Director:
Paul Thomas Anderson is a master. He’s made many masterpieces, and this film is another masterful one, but I’m going to go with Josh Safdie here for how well he assembled all of the different elements of the story, kept it still gritty and chaotic, but exhibited a degree of control, refinement, and sophistication we haven’t seen from him yet. I think he’ll be talked about on the same level as PTA someday.
Best Actress:
This was so hard between Rose, Emma, and Jessie, but I ultimately went with Rose.
Best Actor:
Jesse Plemons should’ve been nominated. Man, he was so good in that film. I’ve been hearing a lot about all this campaign stuff for Chalamet, but I don’t really know anything about it. I stay offline as much as I can and try my best to judge these performances on their own merits. Michael B. Jordan also did a really great job, and I think he’s going to win. It’s tough between those two for me, but I give the edge to Chalamet.
Best Supporting Actress:
Elle Fanning is playing a bad actress, or rather a miscast actress, and I’m not sure people have appreciated just how difficult that is to pull off when you’re as talented as she is.
Best Supporting Actor:
I went with Benicio. I really love that character and what he brought to the movie overall.
Best Adapted Screenplay:
“Bugonia” is so sharp and the updates Will brought to the original film to adapt it to fit not just Yorgos’ sensibilities but also make it feel more relevant for us today is exactly the kind of adaptation work we should be celebrating. “One Battle After Another” does this too but I prefer “Bugonia” just a little bit more. It holds a dirty, broken mirror up to who and where we are right now as a society, while still being funny and entertaining.
Best Original Screenplay:
I chose “Marty Supreme” for this one. There’s lots of quotable dialogue. So many interesting characters to write for, and it’s a great character study of youthful confidence that made sense for the time period and was clearly very personal to its filmmaker.
Best Animated Feature:
I had to abstain this year. I just didn’t get around to all of them in time for the deadline.
Best Documentary Feature:
Same. It’s a shame because there’s such great work here.
Best International Feature Film:
This was very hard, but I ultimately chose “Sentimental Value.” I’m still debating if I made the right call. Either one of these could win, and it would be deserved.
Best Casting:
Do these characters all feel like they belong in the same universe? That is a question I asked myself when it came to this new category, and for me, the one that answered that the clearest was “Marty Supreme.”
Best Cinematography:
“One Battle After Another“ for the car chase alone. The shots going over those hills…it was exhilarating to watch in the theater.
Best Costume Design:
“Frankenstein” wasn’t my favorite Guillermo del Toro, but the designs across all areas of production was pretty incredible.
Best Film Editing:
The pacing of “One Battle After Another“ is head and shoulders above all the other films here.
Best Makeup & Hairstyling:
“Frankenstein“ kind of by default. I found time to watch the other nominees and thought they would blow me away more but “Frankenstein” still stood out the most.
Best Production Design:
I decided to break up the “Frankenstein“ love and go with “Sinners“ here. People seem to think it’s just the juke joint, and the film has so much more going on than that. There’s the town in the beginning, and Wunmi’s character’s shack. Just a lot of detail informed by the characters that make everything feel grounded in a genre film.
Best Original Score:
What “Sinners“ accomplishes by merging its history, culturally specific music, and different tones and genres together is why he (Ludwig) is going to win again. It’s very hard to do what he pulled off with this one.
Best Original Song:
“Sinners.“ I know “Golden“ is the big song, but I prefer “I Lied to You“ as a song and how it’s used in the film.
Best Sound:
“Sirāt “was the most impactful sound work I heard in a movie this year. When you leave that film, you leave thinking about the sound, whether it’s the score, the explosions, those cars driving through the desert. It’s very memorable.
Best Visual Effects:
I had to abstain as I didn’t get a chance to watch some of these that only have one nomination.
Best Animated Short Film:
“The Girl Who Cried Pearls“ had a great story, sound work, and animation. The moral quandary at the center of the fable and how it unfolds was very engaging to me, and I’m also just a sucker for stop-motion.
Best Documentary Short Film:
I really wanted to vote on this, as I did with the other shorts, but I had to abstain because I didn’t see all the nominees in time. I don’t like how much I had to abstain this year, but there’s a new rule now that you have to have seen all the nominees to vote on a category. I know I could just do it any way, since it’s on an honor system of sorts, and I certainly would’ve made specific choices from those I have seen, but I take this seriously. So, I just do what I can, and you try to do better next time.
Live Action Short Film:
“Two People Exchanging Saliva“ is definitely the most fully-realized, creative, and well-crafted of the nominees. Its world-building and concept hooked me from the beginning, telling a complete story that left me wanting more when it was over.
**This voter is a member of the producers’ branch.**
Please let us know your thoughts on our X account and be sure to listen to our final Oscar predictions podcast episode coming this Sunday. Please click here for more important upcoming dates this awards season, here for our most recent Oscar predictions, and here for the most recent tally of awards season winners for the current year.
You can follow Matt & Will and hear more of their thoughts on the Oscars & Film on Twitter at @NextBestPicture & @mavericksmovies
