1917 - 10 nominations

Best Motion Picture of the Year - Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Callum McDougall

Best Achievement in Directing - Sam Mendes

Best Original Screenplay - Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns

Best Achievement in Cinematography - Roger Deakins

Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling - Naomi Donne, Tristan Versluis, Rebecca Cole

Best Achievement in Production Design - Dennis Gassner, Lee Sandales

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) - Thomas Newman

Best Achievement in Visual Effects - Guillaume Rocheron, Greg Butler, Dominic Tuohy

Best Achievement in Sound Mixing - Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson

Best Achievement in Sound Editing - Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate

Another thank you to IMDB for this, you've saved me a ton of time!

Welcome to one of my favorite movies this Oscars cycle.  Every now and then I have friends who say to me, I have time to see 3 films from the nominated list, which ones should I choose?  Friends, THIS IS ONE OF THE THREE.  You see those 10 Oscars nominations?  Here's something that should stand out to you - there is not a single acting nomination.  There are 23 total award categories and this film is eligible for 16 of those (for example, it couldn't be nominated for Animated Feature).  If you remove the four acting awards, that means of 12 categories for MAKING this movie, 1917 captured nominations for 10 of those 12.  This should tell you something.

The achievement of shooting this film is remarkable.  In a way, it feels like you are watching this movie in real time.  Like a camera followed the lead actor around for several hours without any breaks and then put it on the screen.  The editing is that seamless.  I'm actually a bit shocked that the lead actor, Dean Charles Chapman, wasn't nominated (and had no buzz either) because his acting achievement is remarkable.

The story is simple.  Two young British soldiers are selected to run to the front lines to call off a battle which had them walking into a German ambush.  One of the two has a brother in the battalion, providing more incentive for them to get there in time.  The film follows their journey, and the insane obstacles that arise along the way.  It is a story of courage, but what pours through the screen is the difficulty and the exhaustion that comes with accomplishing this task.  Having sat on my butt for 2 hours watching the film, I was sympathetically wrung out when the movie finished.  It's not a typical war movie - you aren't sitting through endless battles and fire fights.  What you do experience is a magnificent telling of one story of World War 1, and the kind of movie making for which the Oscars were invented.

In keeping with my newer habit of sharing source material for films that really turned you on, I must recommend a documentary from Peter Jackson called They Shall Not Grow Old.  Using archival footage and impeccable research, Jackson brings World War 1 to life in ways we have never seen before.  It blew me away, and I'm sorry it didn't make the short list for the documentary category this year.

1917 Trailer: