A Condensed Guide To The 2020 Oscars Best Picture Nominees And Why You Should Care

We can all agree that the Academy has made some confusing choices for the best prize at the Oscars. (Need I remind you that the reigning Best Picture is Green Book?)


case in point, the Academy is full of unpopular suggestions, from their hard stance against streaming-only movies to their membership criteria resulting in extreme imbalance. Remember any time Martin Scorsese mentioned Marvel movies aren’t cinema? Cinema, he mentioned, is about revelation, it’s about complexity in character, and confronting the unexpected, pushing the art to new places. “And that was the key for us: it was a art form,” he said.


Well, the Academy, as a body, sort of agrees with that assessment — don’t forget that the Academy is largely made up of people like Scorsese who came up in a certain era of film and who made film what it is today — and it’s with that mentality that they annually select the nominees.


So, to keep you from wondering, “This movie?!” at the end of Hollywood’s Biggest Night, we’ve damaged down how, in the eyes of Academy members, each of this year’s Best Picture contenders earned their spot.


1917


1917 moves like a symphony. Each segment of the film — the context, the music, the scenery — tells its own complete story in brilliant harmony. Every artist involved in building this film knew once to pull back and as soon as to push forward. The way the camera costs immediately after Lance Corporals Blake and Schofield, decided immediately after they got their orders to stop 1,600 soldiers from walking into a deadly trap, and then pans around front as they expressed doubts about succeeding; the stark change in scenery between muddy, body-filled No Man’s Land and the blooming cherry blossoms on the other side of the abandoned enemy trenches; the somber music overpowering the chatter of the soldiers Schofield hitches a ride with right after he contained a dying Blake.


That’s the sort of artistry the Academy loves. To that end, it’s no surprise that the film is also nominated in nine other categories: Cinematography, Directing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Combining, Visual Effects, and Writing. Noticeably, the film didn’t score any acting noms, which aligns with the Academy’s tendency to recognize overly accomplished males as instead of fresh young talent like George MacKay. (For proof, take a look at this year’s Actor and Supporting Actor categories, both stacked with rather recognizable, rather lauded names.)


Ford v. Ferrari


If there’s one thing to know about the Academy’s taste, it’s that they’re sort of cheesy. They love the mixture of bravado and earnestness in a story, reminiscent of classic Hollywood males who are kind, however manly, and who do the correct thing, yet do it their way. Starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale as two racecar drivers attempting to prove they know more about their craft than Ford — which has commissioned them to build a American vehicle competitive with Italian powerhouse Ferrari — Ford v. Ferrari taps into that exact brand of high-end cheese.


In general white-maleness aside, this movie is an excellent time, inducing cheers from theatergoers around every high-octane turn, and tapping into the sort of feel-good action we all can’t help although like. What this film does especially well is make viewers feel like they are indoor within the racecar, showing the human drama of a tight indoor turn over the sound of revving engines. That’s largely thanks to the sound and editing, and the Academy completely recognizes that; Ford v. Ferrari’s other nominations are in the Film Editing, Sound Editing, and Sound Combining categories.


The Irishman


The Irishman, Scorsese’s own contribution to this year’s pool, celebrates everything we love about classic gangster films. There really are tough guys, educated guys, hitmen, muscle males — all of whom also double as family member boys, with doting wives and docile children whom you better not threaten, or else. It’s the crime family member film you’ve seen before, starring familiar faces Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci — yet longer.


No, I am not referring to the three-and-a-half-hour runtime nevertheless that is very long). This film takes you from gangsters’ youth all of the way through their old age, based on the “true” story that the real man called the Irishman told on his deathbed. Nevertheless it does something different than the gangster stories we’re used to: Rather than glorify the life of crime, this film is all about dying. Each person is introduced alongside their date and cause of death, distributing a constant reminder of a ticking clock. In a way, this movie almost feels like the end of an era: Hollywood power players coming with each other one last time to push a genre to its end, as a new class steps in to modernize Hollywood.


The film also scored two Supporting Actor nods, and nominations for Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Production Design, Visual Effects, and Writing.


Jojo Rabbit


To appreciate this film is to appreciate the 12-year-old star Roman Griffin Davis’s preference segment of making this movie: "Kicking Hitler in the balls out of a window," he told E! News at the Golden Globes.


Jojo Rabbit is a whimsical telling of a painful segment of history, taking us indoors Nazi Germany any time the hype for Hitler was still fervent and exploring war by way of the eyes of a child on the incorrect side of history. There really are two key lessons in the film: (1) we are all people, and being people makes us all worthy of the same treatment; and (2) we can’t get so caught up in our perceptions that we forget to appreciate the dance of life.


The film doesn’t take itself also seriously, a signature of writer and director Taika Waititi’s general approach to storytelling, and that’s refreshing for Academy members to be able to see among the batch of dramas dominating awards season. Although the reality of WWII was terrible, and we do visualize some of that reality onscreen, you’re still able to leave this movie feeling hopeful, which makes this film — also also nominated for Supporting Actress, Costume Design, Film Editing, Production Design, and Writing — both artfully created and commercially consumable.


Joker


Definitely the most divisive film of the season, Joker symbolizes the sort of comic book movie that the Academy is ready to take seriously: gritty, uncomfortable, and exposing flaws in the way these stories are glorified. (It is no secret that the Academy as a whole derides comic book movies as ‘popular.’)


Contrary to the good time a Marvel movie promises, Joker is a dark look at a corner of reality that we don’t wish to face. It’s the people who are looked down upon for their mental illness, or for their economic status, or their general attractiveness, who feel fed up with being on the bottom.


This film wasn’t meant to exhibit showcase the twisted Joker we’ve loved in previous Batman films; Joker was meant to expose the faction of our society that identifies with the villain. And, as much as I hate to mention it, the film did the job it set out to do really, really well. Joker sickened people; it caused outrage and feelings of horror. And if film is art, and if art is meant to create people feel things, then Joker is a successful work of art. At least, the Academy usually think so: Joker is also nominated for Lead Actor, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Music, Sound Editing, Sound Blending, and Writing.


Little Women


Going into this awards season, we already knew the Academy has a soft spot for writer/director Greta Gerwig’s work; she is one of just five ladies to have ever acquired a Directing nomination — so it makes sense that voting members would pay attention to her follow-up to 2017’s Lady Bird. Yet there were two hurdles she had to clear: to not disaster up one of the most beloved stories in history, and to find a fresh way to retell this oft-told story.


Choosing to play with the timeline of the story, moving back and forth between past and present with the same actors playing their younger and older selves, was certainly a risk; much less familiar crowds could have conveniently gotten lost. That Gerwig pulled it off while remaining faithful to the source material is a feat the Academy could not disregard. Bolstering the appeal, Gerwig re-teamed with Lady Bird collaborators and Oscar darlings Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet, and added the currently irresistible Florence Pugh to her crew.


Honestly, this nomination feels like a no-brainer. Little Women is also nominated in the Lead Actress, Supporting Actress, Costume Design, Music, and Writing categories.


Marriage Story


Marriage Story is a long-established actor’s playground, flowing more like a play than a movie. It’s pure craft, using acting and dialogue because the driving storytelling force, leaving specifics like set design and costuming as secondary. Telling the story of a painful divorce between two creatives, characters are largely seen in front of minimalist sets — a undecorated apartment, a modern office conference room — so the only emotion you visualize onscreen is the emotion the actors themselves distribute. For this reason, it makes sense that the film snagged three Acting nods — Lead Actor, Lead Actress, and Supporting Actress — alongside Music and Writing nods.


The Academy cares much less about the film’s uncensored meme-ability, nevertheless I think we can all agree that also was high. In this film, every word uttered, every facial contortion, every wall punch was absolutely key to making this story come alive; that’s where the drama lived. And once emotions are also overwhelming for us to process, some days, the simplistic way to cope is through humor.


Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood


Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood is more than Quentin Tarantino’s “love letter to Hollywood”; it’s the culmination of his celebrated career. In this film, the filmmaker revisits some of his preference Western tropes and touts his deep knowledge of and fondness for Hollywood history. Using his signature decorating, Tarantino rewrites one of the darkest stains on his city’s history, the Manson Family member murders, and delivers a surprisingly earnest tale of aging heroes and second chances.


Although the most crucial part of the puzzle: Tarantino’s city is also the city of several Academy members, and the reasons Tarantino loves Hollywood are similar to the reasons several Academy members love Hollywood, so this film felt more personalized. (For some anecdotal evidence, it was nearly impossible to get a decent seat in any theater in Los Angeles over Once’s starting weekend, a honor generally bestowed only upon major blockbusters which totally conveyed the city’s excitement over this film.)


And the Academy ate this film up. It also snagged nominations for Lead Actor, Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Costume Design, Directing, Production Design, Sound Editing, Sound Combining, and Writing.


Parasite


The sole foreign language Best Picture contender, Bong Joon-ho's Parasite has been oozing prestige since it unanimously won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival last May. It’s one of these seemingly rare films that critics and crowds alike have enjoyed, and it also got the official Hollywood Stamp of Approval as soon as it was reported that HBO will turn it into a mini-series (which opens up involvement for more Academy members to be a segment of this story).


Nevertheless English-speaking crowds require subtitles for this film, the thrilling class story transcends culture, dealing with lessons fit for a genuinely global audience, and that can emotionally affect a length of crowds. That kind of storytelling is hard to do; this is entirely also evident by the Academy’s diversity problem, which has resulted in whines for more diversity beyond and in front of the camera, and pleas for movies that don’t center the white male viewpoint. Also nominated for Directing, Film Editing, International Feature Film, Production Design, and Writing, in this case, it almost feels like the Academy is recognizing what they should be doing moving forward, rather than what they have been doing for decades.