I'm Still Here - 3 nominations

 

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  • Best International Feature Film
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  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

  • Fernanda Torres
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  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

I'm Still Here marks the 5th time that Brazil has had a nominee in the International Feature film category without any wins, and this one has the best chance so far to capture the statuette. This compelling film based on a true story recounts the political disappearance of a former Brazilian congressman, Rubens Paiva. He lives with his wife Eunice and their 5 children while secretly helping families who can't find loved ones arrested by the military. When the revolutionaries come to his door, his wife is in a panic, and eventually is arrested herself with her daughter to see if they are aware of Paiva's secret activities. She is held and tortured for 12 days, and though eventually released, she never stops looking for her husband to try to get some indication of what happened to him. 25 years later, she becomes a renowned expert on Indigenous Rights, all the while petitioning for a true accounting of what happened to husband from the government.

I'm Still Here was a powerful film and reminded me just a bit of the 1982 Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon movie Missing. What they have in common is unbelievably powerful performances and a total sense of fear and outrage at what is happening. How easy it is to live a life ignoring a coup, a descent from democracy to authoritarianism. How awful it is to realize that "they" has now become "you" and the injustice is so entrenched that it's too late to fight against it. This is not particularly the story of the Paiva family - after all, Rubens was disappeared for trying to do SOMETHING, even something small. But the lessons from Brazilian history are far too resonant today. It makes you wonder how much eggs cost before the coup.

My only criticism of the film is that there seemed to be multiple endings, the last of which was unnecessary. I suppose the filmmakers were very committed to showing the entire story of the strong and brave Eunice's life, but the very last bit was overkill. I recommend seeing the movie, just be aware that the post-script at the is for the sake of itself.

Emilia Perez - 13 nominations

 

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  • Best International Feature Film, France
• • Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling

  • Julia Floch-Carbonel 
  • Emmanuel Janvier 
  • Jean-Christophe Spadaccini
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  • Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)

  • Clément Ducol 
  • Camille
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  • Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song), "El Mal"

  • Clément Ducol 
  • Camille 
  • Jacques Audiard
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  • Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Song), "Mi Camino"

  • Clément Ducol 
  • Camille 
  Jacques Audiard
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  • Best Sound

  • Erwan Kerzanet 
  • Aymeric Devoldère 
  • Maxence Dussère 
  • Cyril Holtz 
  • Niels Barletta
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  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

  • Pascal Caucheteux 
  • Jacques Audiard
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  • Best Achievement in Directing

  • Jacques Audiard
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  Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

  • Karla Sofía Gascón
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  • Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

  • Zoe Saldana
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  • Best Adapted Screenplay

  • Jacques Audiard 
  • Thomas Bidegain 
  • Léa Mysius
  • Nicolas Livecchi
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  • Best Achievement in Cinematography

  • Paul Guilhaume
• • Best Achievement in Film Editing

  • Juliette Welfling

Remember when I said that being nominated 4 times for a single movie was pretty impressive? Well Jacques Audiard is nominated 5 times for this single movie, where he seems to have done everything except craft services. Guess what else? The film is nominated for Adapted Screenplay, because Audiard had already produced an opera libretto which was based on a book.

The story follows Rita, a discontented defense attorney who is engaged by a cartel kingpin to give him the cover he needs to transition to being a woman, including helping him fake his own death and relocating his wife and children to Switzerland. Once she has transitioned, she begins to live a new life as a philanthropist and do-gooder (with a hint of corruption on the side), and she decides that she misses her family terribly and asks Rita to bring them back to Mexico to live with her. Her ex-wife rekindles an affair she was having while still married, and adds another layer of complication to this already complicated life. The film reflects on criminality, corruption, family, and the question of whether life truly changes when the core personality does not.

Before I saw the film, I had no idea it was a musical. Selena Gomez turns out to be a non-fluent Spanish speaker who pulls off acting and emoting while speaking the language. Zoe Saldana turns out to be a trained dancer who can also really sing. And those were just the smallest of surprises. Everything about this film is not what you expect it to be, in all of the best ways. I loved it, the music and the songs are excellent and beautifully choreographed. The cinematography was exceptional. I imagine that Selena Gomez was a breath away from a Supporting Actress nomination (which would have tied EP with the three other films in history to garner 14 nominations, the record.) The whole of this film is even greater than the sum of its parts, and its parts are pretty magnificent.

Dune Part Two - 5 nominations

 

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  • Best Sound

  • Gareth John 
  • Richard King 
  • Ron Bartlett 
  • Doug Hemphill
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  • Best Achievement in Visual Effects

  • Paul Lambert 
  • Stephen James 
  • Rhys Salcombe 
  • Gerd Nefzer
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  • Best Motion Picture of the Year

  • Mary Parent 
  • Cale Boyter 
  • Tanya Lapointe 
  • Denis Villeneuve
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  • Best Achievement in Cinematography

  • Greig Fraser
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  • Best Achievement in Production Design

  • Shane Vieau (set decorator) 
  • Patrice Vermette (production designer)

Before I describe a bit about Dune Part 2 (and frankly, the story is complicated enough rendering it nearly indescribable in a short blog post), I want to remind you that Dune Part 1 was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 6 of those. At the time, I thought surely that when Part 2 came out, it would be the leading candidate for Best Picture and that Denis Villeneuve (who took the unfilmable story and made it very filmable) would be a shoo-in for Best Director.  He's not even nominated, and beyond the Best Picture nomination, all the accolades are in the technical categories for production craft.

So what happened? I can't pretend to know. But if you look at the other films nominated for Best Picture, there is a way to describe the stories, there is something that sticks with you. Wicked's got hummable songs and a power cast. Emilia Perez has songs and a power cast. Nickel Boys has history and a whole different way of telling a story. A Complete Unknown has Timothee Chala... ok, that's one for Dune 2, as well.

In addition to all of that, Dune has also released a tv show which has the same characters and family intrigue, and it's just possible that people are simply Dune-d out. When you add that the movie inconveniently is very hard to describe, it's hard to get the buzz. (You know, that movie with the sand monsters and something about spice, maybe? is hardly the catchy narrative that some of the other nominees can claim.)

To be sure, the second film is as good as the first and certainly as impressive as a work of science fiction and I enjoyed it once my memory kicked in from the first installment. (I highly recommend doing some sort of review of the first film before you begin the second, there is no "last time on Dune 1"...) But if I were cutting the nominees down to just 5, Dune 2 would not make my list. And frankly, if I had to kick one out to make room for Sing Sing (review coming soon), this would be the one I would choose. And no, there is no chance of my being able to describe the plot succinctly, so for the first time in 12 years of blog posts, I'm skipping even trying.