It’s been another unusually long awards season, though not quite as long as last year’s. The window for Academy Awards eligibility extended out of 2020 into the first couple months of 2021, meaning that some notable 2021 releases, like the Best Picture-nominated Judas And The Black Messiah, have already had their day in the sun, while this year’s eligible crop hails from the final ten months of last year.
The window may be two months shorter, but that certainly didn’t seem to thin the herd any. For those of us who follow awards releases, the fall movie season was insanely crowded. Some movies were shuttled in and out of theaters in just a couple of weeks to make way for the next batch of contenders.
It’s all culminating now in an Oscar race that’s about as competitive as they come. There are frontrunners in a few categories, but nothing’s set in stone. Several categories are still wide open. The theatrical experience is still in jeopardy, but you wouldn’t know it from how many quality films are in the running for awards this year.
Of course, this list has little to do with all that. These are my picks, not a collective voting body’s. I’m sure you’ll see some of my picks get Oscar nods, too, but I generally tend to highlight work that falls slightly outside of the Academy’s tastes.
Here are my winners in all my favorite categories, including the ones I made up myself, ranked in descending order.
BEST ACTOR
Simon Rex – Red Rocket
Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power Of The Dog
Tahar Rahim – The Mauritanian
Andrew Garfield – Tick, Tick… Boom!
Hidetoshi Nishijima – Drive My Car
Honorable Mentions:
Matt Damon – Stillwater
Filippo Scotti – The Hand Of God
BEST ACTRESS
Penélope Cruz – Parallel Mothers
Ann Dowd – Mass
Martha Plimpton – Mass
Jessica Chastain – The Eyes Of Tammy Faye
Jasna Đuričić – Quo Vadis, Aida?
Honorable Mentions:
Michelle Pfeiffer – French Exit
Renata Reinsve – The Worst Person In The World
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Anders Danielsen Lie – The Worst Person In The World
Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power Of The Dog
Masaki Okada – Drive My Car
Robin de Jesús – Tick, Tick… Boom!
Mike Faist – West Side Story
Honorable Mentions:
Simon Helberg – Annette
Herbert Nordrum – The Worst Person In The World
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Tōko Miura – Drive My Car
Dakota Johnson – The Lost Daughter
Ruth Negga – Passing
Kirsten Dunst – The Power Of The Dog
Park Yoo-Rim – Drive My Car
Honorable Mentions:
Teresa Saponangelo – The Hand Of God
Aunjanue Ellis – King Richard
BEST ENSEMBLE
Mass
The Hand Of God
Licorice Pizza
No Sudden Move
Red Rocket
*
BEST DIRECTOR
Jane Campion – The Power Of The Dog
Paolo Sorrentino – The Hand Of God
Joachim Trier – The Worst Person In The World
Steven Spielberg – West Side Story
Pedro Almodóvar – Parallel Mothers
Honorable Mentions:
Sean Baker – Red Rocket
Denis Villeneuve – Dune
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jane Campion – The Power Of The Dog
Ryūsuke Hamaguchi & Takamasa Oe – Drive My Car
Steven Levenson – Tick, Tick… Boom!
Tony Kushner – West Side Story
Nicole Holofcener & Ben Affleck & Matt Damon – The Last Duel
*
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Fran Kranz – Mass
Joachim Trier & Eskil Vogt – The Worst Person In The World
Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza
Sean Baker & Chris Bergoch – Red Rocket
Paolo Sorrentino – The Hand Of God
BEST SCORE
Dune – Hans Zimmer
The Power Of The Dog – Jonny Greenwood
No Sudden Move – David Holmes
Parallel Mothers – Alberto Iglesias
The Card Counter – Robert Levon Been and Giancarlo Vulcano
*
BEST MUSICAL MOMENT
“Bye Bye Bye” – Red Rocket
“Jet Song” – West Side Story
“Therapy” – Tick, Tick… Boom!
“Premiere Performance of Baby Annette” – Annette
“I Need More” – Cyrano
WORST AT BEING RICH
Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield – The Eyes Of Tammy Faye
Kristen Stewart – Spencer
Lady Gaga – House Of Gucci
Bradley Cooper – Nightmare Alley
Mark Rylance – Don’t Look Up
*
. . . real nobody . . . 