Our Dream Oscar Nominees
Four choices for movies and performances that should, in a better world, be nominated for Academy Awards.
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With the Oscar nominations due to be revealed on Jan. 23 (delayed six days by the devastating Los Angeles fires), a cultural critic’s thoughts turn to the nominees. We yearn, quietly, to see the Academy Awards be the best version of themselves, and not the version that awards Best Picture to Braveheart.
In recent years, after the #OscarsSoWhite debacle, the Academy membership has grown younger and more diverse, and the template for what makes an Oscar movie has broadened beyond World War II stories and biopics. (Not too far, though.) Below, we’ve each selected one slightly offbeat film or performance that we would like to see score an unexpected Oscar nomination. And while we are not holding out breaths, we can still dream, right?
Joan Chen in Didi, Best Supporting Actress
Every Academy Awards has at least one surprise nomination, in which an actor receives an Oscar nod even though they received little to no buzz or major awards recognition. (Thirteen-year-old Keisha Castle-Hughes from Whale Rider comes immediately to mind, and this list has some other examples as well.)
I hope that Joan Chen is this year's beneficiary. She is phenomenal as the mother of Chris, a Taiwanese American preteen navigating the rocky road to becoming a full-fledged teenager while straddling two different identities. What I love and appreciate the most is that even though the film is about Chris, Joan imbues her character, Chungsing, with as much depth as a main character, including an inner life of longing and unfulfilled ambitions. Chen doesn't try to steal scenes, but she does so anyway, because you can't take your eyes off her each time she is on screen. Even in her quiet moments, Chungsing's face communicates so much: regret and resentment for her circumstances, and bewilderment and fiery love for her son. The duo's final scene alone should clinch her the Oscar. — Kirthana Ramisetti
Sing Sing for Best Picture
This beautiful film blends reality and fiction in the best ways: It stars Colman Domingo as Divine G, a man incarcerated at Sing Sing Correctional Facility, where his one source of hope is the Rehabilitation Through the Arts theater program that helps inmates put on plays. It’s based on a true story, with a cast populated by both professional actors and formerly incarcerated men who once participated in the real-life program, including Clarence “Divine Eye” Maclin in a major role as himself. Care was taken to involve real-life figures and places; the real Divine G helped develop the script, and it was shot in decommissioned prisons. What could have come off as cheesy, judgmental, or sensationalistic instead turned out to be grounded, empathetic, touching, and human, under the careful direction of Greg Kwedar. And the approach to the production—everyone on set was paid the same and received equity—represents a revolutionary kind of based-on-a-true-story filmmaking that allows its subjects to be humanized instead of exploited. As someone who has supported RTA and attended several real-life productions at Sing Sing, I went into this skeptical. I came out crying, and saying, “More of this kind of filmmaking, please.” Such creativity and thoughtfulness deserve the highest recognition. —Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
Maja Ostaszewska in Green Border, Best Supporting Actress
If you ask my children, their most fervent Oscar-related wish is that the quirky, bittersweet romance Robot Dreams, about the relationship between a dog and a robot in 1980s Manhattan, be nominated for Best Animated Feature.
I will strongly endorse that opinion (I dare you to see Robot Dreams without crying) and add to it my preference that the Oscars go international in the supporting-actress category and nominate Maja Ostaszewska for her role in Agnieszka Holland’s harrowing immigration drama Green Border. Ostaszewska plays Julia, a mild-mannered, apolitical therapist living near the Polish border with Belarus who is radicalized when she discovers two Syrian refugees drowning near her home.
Through little more than a glint in her eye and a newfound steel in her backbone, Ostaszewska quietly makes us believe each step of her transformation, following her as she treads fearlessly into the gap left by a deliberately cruel government. Julia asks us a question with deep applicability to life in 2025: when society begins to crumble, just how far are you willing to go to fight for what’s right? —Saul Austerlitz
Josh O’Connor in Challengers, Best Actor
If the Oscars handed out a prize for Best Performance by an Actor Playing a Dirtbag, O'Connor would squash the competition. The lanky Brit, formerly known for playing Prince Charles in The Crown, dropped his posh accent to play American underdog athlete Patrick Zweig in Luca Guadagnino's thrilling sports drama. While joining a low-level tennis tournament in suburban New York, Patrick finds himself facing off with former friend Art (Mike Faist), a champion on a losing streak, and Art's wife and coach, Tashi (Zendaya), who wants to win at all costs. A love triangle emerges, and it is messy. And fun to watch. And very well-played. Somehow, O'Connor transforms a dirtbag character into the film's unlikely hero. And he does it with ease and swagger, and a devilish twinkle in his eye. What could Zendaya possibly see in THAT GUY? At first, it's head-scratching. But then you see it: They are bonded by an unbreakable love of a sport that does not always love them back. —Erin Carlson
Let us know what under-the-radar movies you’re cheering for come nomination time!
Ministry Book Corner 📚
Here at MOPC, not only are we pop culture writers, we’re also authors! Every Monday, we’re going to recommend each other’s work. And if you’d like to check out all of our books, visit our bookstore at Bookshop.org.
Kirthana recommends...I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy, by Erin Carlson
There are a lot of books, articles and documentaries dedicated to the life and career of Nora Ephron, and rightfully so. But if you ever wanted to learn more about the legendary writer and filmmaker, start here. Reading about Ephron’s life and the backstories behind her famous films is as pleasurable as watching Harry and Sally banter. Erin’s writing is witty and insightful but also isn’t afraid to cast a critical eye, delving past Ephron’s iconic persona to show the flawed, interesting woman who truly lived by her credo, “Everything is copy.”
I wouldn’t often describe a biography as a warm hug, but I’ll Have What She’s Having has the same smarts and charm that have made Nora Ephron movies beloved.