Little Women - 6 nominations

Best Motion Picture of the Year - Amy Pascal

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role - Saoirse Ronan

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role - Florence Pugh

Best Adapted Screenplay - Greta Gerwig

Best Achievement in Costume Design - Jacqueline Durran

Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) - Alexandre Desplat

According to IMDB.com, there have been 8 versions of Little Women (7 films, 1 tv mini series), the first of which premiered in 1918.  In fact, this is not the first time that Little Women has been nominated for Best Picture (1933), nor the first time that Little Women has received multiple Oscar nominations (1933, 1949, 1995).  Every single major film version has also starred the premier actresses of the time in the roles of Meg, Jo, Amy, and Beth (and Marmie) - we're talking the likes of Kathryn Hepburn, June Allison, and Winona Ryder.  And yet, with all of the similarities among all of the tellings, this was a truly new, innovative telling of Little Women, and as a die hard fan of the book, you can imagine how nervous I was to see the movie.  (I loved this book so much, I was the only person I knew as a child who also read Little Men.)

I needn't have worried.  This film was true to the book and yet entirely new.  You will fall in love with Alcott's characters and embrace Greta Gerwig's interpretation of them.  Meg's heart, Jo's fiery determination and earnestness, Amy's growth, and Beth's unyielding kindness.  But Gerwig focuses more on the characters in their adult journeys than their childhood, which gives us more empathy for the self-centered Amy, and a more realistic view of Jo's flaws.  There are no truly good and truly bad sisters (ok, except for the too-good-for-this-world, Beth), and this shift makes Little Women a more mature version of the story - and the narrative is far better for it.

With his 10th Oscars nomination, Alexandre Desplat crafted a musical score that is beautiful and true to the time in which the film is set.  The costumes are magnificent (and we know the Academy loves period pieces).  I can't say enough good things about this film, and Greta Gerwig has to be lauded for this beautiful achievement.  (I know that many are very upset that she didn't receive a directing nomination, but I will point out that if we go "by the numbers' - there are 5 men nominated for Best Director.  Of those, 4 of their films each received 10 or more Oscar nominations.  Only Parasite received the same number of nominations as Little Women, and one could argue that since Director is one of Parasite's noms, a side by side comparison has Little Women at 6 nominations, and Parasite at 5.  If we are going to go by the "who is responsible for all of this greatness" rule for nominating a Director, we'd have to knock out Bong Joon Ho from the category.  And I think what ultimately won him that 5th spot is how different Parasite is from anything anyone has ever seen.  Having said this, if we could get more women into directing roles, I suspect their films would also be garnering the long list of noms that those other films did.  Sadly, this controversy is not so simple.)

Of course referring you to source material is an easy task for this blog post, and here you are with the wonderful book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott (by the way, she wrote 4 novels with these characters - Little Women, Good Wives, Little Men, Jo's Boys).

But while I'm at it, I'd like to recommend another film by Greta Gerwig.  She came on the scene like gangbusters with Lady Bird, but going back a little further, you should see another film she wrote and starred in called France Ha.  It's a coming into your own voice story, and Little Women is certainly another stop on Gerwig's brilliant journey as a writer and director.  Give this one a watch.

See the trailer: