Cinema and Popcorn

There have been a lot of backlash against the "so white" Academy Awards 2020 nominees lineups, but my question is: was 2020 a good year for movies from/about people of color? To be honest, my answer is "not the best year". At this precise moment, the only remarkable movies about people of color that come to my mind are Dolemite Is My Name , Waves , Queen & Slim , Parasite and The Farewell . From all these, only Parasite managed to be recognized by the Academy - no wonder why, since it is such a worldwide phenomenon! Of course Lupita Nyong'o was THIS CLOSE of a nomination for Best Actress for Us and  Dolemite Is My Name would be a lock for Best Costume Design ( Ruth E. Carter ) and Eddie Murphy could have been a Best Actor nominee. As for The Farewell , I'm still wondering how Zhao Shuzhen missed Best Supporting Actress and how Lulu Wang missed Best Original Screenplay - it was one of the very best movies of 2020 by far, yet I believe not enough

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) is composed by more a less 8000 members in a total of 17 branches. Every branch nominate and pick the winners of a certain field (the Actors branch pick the 4 acting categories, directors pick Best Director, writers pick Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplay and Documentary pick Best Documentary Feature and Best Documentary Short Subject, for example), but all the branches have a vote for Best Picture! And that's why the guild awards are so important! Despite not being as selective as the Academy in terms of membership, the guild awards mirror a certain branch's most popular film! In every category, the nominee with most votes wins the Oscar - but not in Best Picture! There's a thing called: preferential balloting! It means, AMPAS members rank the Best Picture nominees for #1 choice to (in this year's case) #9.... and Best Picture winner must have 50% of votes for Best Picture +1 - and it goes for

What I love about Charlie and Nicole... the way they look at each other.

We live in a world where Todd Phillips ( Joker ) is an Academy Award nominee for Best Director! I think I need a drink... But we also live in a world where Scarlett Johansson is a two times Academy Award nominee and Tom Hanks has just broken his Oscar curse and he got his first Academy Award nomination since Cast Away ! Joker scored 11 nominations, while The Irishman , 1917 and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood scored 10 nominations each - wich means Oscar voters were a bit "lazy". And the nominees are: BEST PICTURE Ford v. Ferrari The Irishman Jojo Rabbit Joker Little Women Marriage Story 1917 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Parasite BEST ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE Antonio Banderas , Pain and Glory Leonardo DiCaprio , Once Upon a Time in Hollywood Adam Driver , Marriage Story Joaquin Phoenix , Joker Jonathan Pryce , The Two Popes BEST ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE Cynthia Erivo , Harriet Scarlett Johansson , Marriage Story Saoirse Ronan

Here's the rest of my Academy Awards 2020 nominations predictions. Just have a look:

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY Marriage Story ’s essence is all about the script, it’s all about Baumbach’s words and silences – the actors even admitted it was all on paper – and it’s brilliant! The movie offers a raw approach to divorce and the end of a love story, which recalls its auteur own life – Baumbach is a safe bet for a Best Original Screenplay Oscar nomination. And Quentin Tarantino enters the Best Original Screenplay race again, this time with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood ! Tarantino’s latest channels Hollywood and the late 60’s beautifully, plus the dialogue is top-notch and the third act is as hilarious as it is surprising: and the AMPAS loves Tarantino as the screenwriter, so, no big deal! A daring movie, with a dynamite social satire, Parasite is a big Oscar contender across the board and Best Original Screenplay is no exception. The late awards season surprise Knives Out became a much bigger Oscar contender than most people were expecting! Best Picture is on the tab

Best Director feels like a wide-open category this year if you think about the win, but it seems locked in terms of nominees. Martin Scorsese leads the race with The Irishman – he has the name, the prestige passion project that received critical acclaim, strong box-office numbers (despite Netflix release strategy), a streaming giant backing the campaign and enough precursor awards love – in fact, The Irishman is one of the only 3 movies this year that secured nominations with the major guild awards (PGA, DGA, WGA and SAG). Bong Joon-ho directs Parasite and the movie is enough of a worldwide hit in order to generate Bong an Oscar nomination for Best Director – a Palme d’Or winner, multiple prizes winner and a cultural phenomenon – and he has just been nominated for the DGA (and the BAFTA, and the Golden Globe, and…). Quentin Tarantino is back to the Best Director race this year with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and he also feels like a lock in this category since the movie is expe

1. Parasite (기생충) Full of social commentary, with a big couple of life lessons to tell to its audience, Parasite starts as a simple comedy/drama and then it turns into something completely different. You watch the characters develop and you star wondering why are you rooting for them. The narrative and directing abilities of Bong Joon-ho are what makes this movie so special. It's a movie you can respect and love at the same time, made to put a spell on both critics and audiences. And it features such a shocking third act...! 2. Marriage Story I believe Marriage Story is a movie with the ability to touch hearts in very different ways, because you can feel related to that couple in one way or another. But don't get me wrong: it isn't showy filmmaking, in fact, the director sacrifices a more showy directing style so he can let his screenplay shine through the cast amazing performance. Both Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson deliver some of the last decade best