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Predictions for the 96th Annual Academy Awards

These are my Oscar predictions. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to live-tweet the Endy Award winners during the ceremony again this year. Maybe. Nominees listed in alphabetical order, predicted winners in bold. Guaranteed to get 16-18 correct, no more, no less.

BEST PICTURE

American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro 
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest 

BEST DIRECTOR

Anatomy of a Fall
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest 

BEST ACTOR

Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction

BEST ACTRESS

Annette Bening, Nyad
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Emma Stone, Poor Things

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Maestro
May December
Past Lives 

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

American Fiction
Barbie
Oppenheimer
Poor Things 
The Zone of Interest 

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

El Conde
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things 

BEST FILM EDITING

Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things 

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

The Creator
Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon 

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things 

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things 

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

Golda
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Society of the Snow 

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

American Fiction
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things 

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“The Fire Inside” from Flamin’ Hot
“I’m Just Ken” from Barbie
“It Never Went Away” from American Symphony
“Wahzhazhe (A Song For My People)”
from Killers of the Flower Moon
“What Was I Made For?” from Barbie 

BEST SOUND

The Creator
Maestro
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer
The Zone of Interest 

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Bobi Wine: The People’s President
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
To Kill a Tiger 
20 Days in Mariupol 

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

Io Capitano
Perfect Days
Society of the Snow
The Teachers’ Lounge
The Zone of Interest 

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Island in Between 
The Last Repair Shop 
Nai Nai & Wai Po

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

The After
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Red, White and Blue
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar 

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Letter to a Pig
Ninety-Five Senses
Our Uniform
Pachyderme
WAR IS OVER! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko 

Predictions for the 95th Annual Academy Awards

These are my Oscar predictions. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to live-tweet the Endy Award winners during the ceremony again this year. Maybe.

BEST PICTURE

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick
Triangle of Sadness
Women Talking

BEST DIRECTOR

Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Todd Field, Tár
Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

BEST ACTOR

Austin Butler, Elvis
Colin Farrell, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brendan Fraser, The Whale
Paul Mescal, Aftersun
Bill Nighy, Living

BEST ACTRESS

Cate Blanchett, Tár
Ana de Armas, Blonde
Andrea Riseborough, To Leslie
Michelle Williams, The Fablemans
Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Brendan Gleeson, The Banshees of Inisherin
Brian Tyree Henry, Causeway
Judd Hirsch, The Fabelmans
Barry Keoghan, The Banshees of Inisherin
Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Angela Bassett, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Hong Chau, The Whale
Kerry Condon, The Banshees of Inisherin
Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Stephanie Hsu, Everything Everywhere All at Once

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Todd Field, Tár
Tony Kushner and Steven Spielberg, The Fabelmans
Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All at Once
Martin McDonagh, The Banshees of Inisherin
Ruben Östlund, Triangle of Sadness

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie from a story by Peter Craig and Justin Marks, Top Gun: Maverick
Kazuo Ishiguro, Living
Rian Johnson, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Sarah Polley, Women Talking
Edward Berger, Ian Stokell, and Lesley Paterson, All Quiet on the Western Front

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

All Quiet on the Western Front
Bardo
Elvis
Empire of Light
Tár

BEST FILM EDITING

The Banshees of Inisherin
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Tár
Top Gun: Maverick

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Black Panther
Top Gun: Maverick

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
Babylon
Elvis
The Fabelmans

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Babylon
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

All Quiet on the Western Front
The Batman
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Elvis
The Whale

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

All Quiet on the Western Front
Babylon
The Banshees of Inisherin
Everything Everywhere All at Once
The Fabelmans

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

Applause – Tell It Like a Woman (Diane Warren)
Hold My Hand – Top Gun: Maverick (Lady Gaga, BloodPop)
Naatu Naatu – RRR (MM Keeravaani, Chandrabose)
Lift Me Up – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Tems, Ludwig Göransson, Rihanna and Ryan Coogler)
This Is A Life – Everything Everywhere All at Once (Ryan Lott, David Byrne, Mitski)

BEST SOUND

All Quiet on the Western Front
Avatar: The Way of Water
The Batman
Elvis
Top Gun: Maverick

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio
Marcel the Shell With Shoes On
Puss In Boots: The Last Wish
The Sea Beast
Turning Red

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

All That Breathes
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Fire of Love
A House Made of Splinters
Navalny

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany)
Argentina, 1985 (Argentina)
Close (Belgium)
EO (Poland)
The Quiet One (Ireland)

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

The Elephant Whisperers
Haulout
How Do You Measure a Year
The Martha Mitchell Effect
Stranger at the Gate

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

An Irish Goodbye
Ivalu
Le Pupille
Night Ride
The Red Suitcase

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse
The Flying Sailor
Ice Merchants
My Year of Dicks
An Ostrich Told Me the World is Fake and I Think I Believe It

This Week in Rankings

I’ve reviewed a bunch of movies since the last update: Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy, Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes, Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, Licorice Pizza, The Eternals and Venom: Let There Be Carnage, The Card Counter, Cloudy Mountain, Limbo, Inside the Red Brick Wall, and In Front of Your Face. I also put all my reviews of the Once Upon a Time in China films in one convenient place.

If you like what I do here or at Seattle Screen Scene, The Chinese Cinema, or anywhere else, please consider donating at my kofi page. Every little bit helps.

These are the movies I’ve watched or rewatched over the last few weeks, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

The Skeleton Dance (Walt Disney) – 7, 1929
Frankenstein (James Whale) – 5, 1931
Lonesome Ghosts (Burt Gillett) – 16, 1937
Porky in Wackyland (Bob Clampett) – 9, 1938

Trick or Treat (Jack Hannah) – 20, 1952
Ali Baba Bunny (Chuck Jones) – 26, 1957
The Abominable Snow Rabbit (Chuck Jones & Maurice Noble) – 14, 1961
It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Bill Melendez) – 2, 1966

The Wicker Man (Robin Hardy) – 21, 1973
The Iron Rose (Jean Rollin) – 22, 1973
Michael Jackson’s Thriller (John Landis) – 7, 1983
Something Wicked This Way Comes (Jack Clayton) – 28, 1983

Clue (Jonathan Lynn) – 19, 1985
Bram Stoker’s Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola) – 7, 1992
Jumanji (Joe Johnston) – 66, 1995
Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion (David Mirkin) – 37, 1997

Resident Evil (Paul WS Anderson) – 19, 2002
School of Rock (Richard Linklater) – 18, 2003
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (Alexander Witt) – 38, 2004
Corpse Bride (Tim Burton & Mike Johnson) – 37, 2005
The Holiday (Nancy Meyers) – 27, 2006

Resident Evil: Extinction (Russell Mulcahy) – 13, 2007
Resident Evil: Afterlife (Paul WS Anderson) – 12, 2010
Resident Evil: Retribution (Paul WS Anderson) – 7, 2012
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (Paul WS Anderson) – 7, 2016

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (Peter Ramsey, Bob Persichetti, Rodney Rothman) – 15, 2018
The Fable (Eguchi Kan) – 38, 2019
Inside the Red Brick Wall (Honk Kong Documentary Filmmakers) – 12, 2020
Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (Yamaguchi Junta) – 19, 2020

Drive My Car (Hamaguchi Ryūsuke) – 1, 2021
In Front of Your Face (Hong Sangsoo) – 3, 2021
Licorice Pizza (Paul Thomas Anderson) – 4, 2021
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Hamaguchi Ryūsuke) – 5, 2021
The French Dispatch (Wes Anderson) – 6, 2021

The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes) – 7, 2021
Bergman Island (Mia Hansen-Løve) – 8, 2021
The Power of the Dog (Jane Campion) – 13, 2021
Limbo (Soi Cheang) – 17, 2021
Dune (Denis Villeneuve) – 18, 2021

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (Robert Weide) – 22, 2021
Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Andy Serkis) – 25, 2021
The Witches of the Orient (Julien Faraut) – 26, 2021
Cliff Walkers (Zhang Yimou) – 27, 2021
The Fable: The Killer Who Doesn’t Kill (Eguchi Kan) – 32, 2021

Muppets Haunted Mansion (Kirk Thatcher) – 33, 2021
The Many Saints of Newark (David Chase) – 35, 2021
Eternals (Chloé Zhao) – 36, 2021
Cloudy Mountain (Li Jun) – 39, 2021

Predictions for the 93rd Annual Academy Awards

These are my Oscar predictions. I’m not sure yet if I’m going to live-tweet the Endy Award winners during the ceremony again this year. Maybe.

BEST PICTURE

The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

BEST DIRECTOR

Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
David Fincher, Mank
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Chloe Zhao, Nomadland
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman

BEST ACTOR

Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Gary Oldman, Mank
Steven Yeun, Minari

BEST ACTRESS

Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
Leslie Odom, Jr., One Night in Miami…
Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
Lakeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman, The Father
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Judas and the Black Messiah
Minari
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
The Father
Nomadland
One Night in Miami…
The White Tiger

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
News of the World
Nomadland
The Trial of the Chicago 7

BEST FILM EDITING

The Father
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Love and Monsters
The Midnight Sky
Mulan
The One and Only Ivan
Tenet

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Father
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
News of the World
Tenet

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Emma
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Mulan
Pinocchio

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

Emma
Hillbilly Elegy
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Pinocchio

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Da 5 Bloods
Mank
Minari
News of the World
Soul

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Fight For You,” Judas and the Black Messiah
“Hear My Voice,” The Trial of the Chicago 7
“Husavik,” Eurovision Song Contest
“Io Sì (Seen),” The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)
“Speak Now,” One Night In Miami…

BEST SOUND

Greyhound
Mank
News of the World
Soul
Sound of Metal

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Onward
Over the Moon
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul
Wolfwalkers

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Collective
Crip Camp
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher
Time

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

Another Round
Better Days
Collective
The Man Who Sold His Skin
Quo Vadis, Aida?

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Colette
A Concerto Is a Conversation
Do Not Split
Hunger Ward
A Love Song for Latasha

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

Feeling Through
The Letter Room
The Present
Two Distant Strangers
White Eye

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Burrow
Genius Loci
If Anything Happens I Love You
Opera
Yes-People

Books of 2020

This is a ranked list of the books I finished reading in 2020:

1. Middlemarch, George Eliot
2. Stoner, John Williams
3. The Postman Always Rings Twice, James M. Cain
4. The Dharma Bums, Jack Kerouac
5. Train Dreams, Denis Johnson
6. The Girls of Slender Means, Muriel Spark
7. A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin
8. Angels & Saints, Eliot Weinberger
9. Oranges, John McPhee
10. What Hath God Wrought, Daniel Walker Howe
11. A Distant Mirror, Barbara Tuchman
12. They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Horace McCoy
13. The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula K. Le Guin
14. A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
15. Bartleby, the Scrivener, Herman Melville
16. Jesus’s Son, Denis Johnson
17. My Life in Middlemarch, Rebessa Mead
18. Hong Kong Cinema: The Extra Dimensions, Stephen Teo
19. The Siamese Twin Mystery, Ellery Queen
20. Big Sur, Jack Kerouac
21. The Earth Dies Streaming, AS Hamrah
22. Highbrow/Lowbrow, Lawrence W. Levine
23. The Farthest Shore, Ursula K. Le Guin
24. Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann
25. Coming Into the Country, John McPhee
26. Thieves Like Us, Edward Anderson
27. Saga Book One, Brian K. Vaughn
28. Saga Book Two, Brian K. Vaughn
29. Saga Book Three, Brian K. Vaughn
30. The Pine Barrens, John McPhee
31. Complete Short Stories of Lew Archer, Ross MacDonald
32. Call for the Dead, John LeCarre
33. Wonder Woman: Dead Earth, Daniel Warren Johnson
34. Kingdom Come, Mark Waid
35. Bollywood: The Films! The Songs! The Stars!, Various Authors
36. The Mighty Thor, Vol 1, Walter Simonson
37. Tao Te Ching: A Book About the Way and the Power of the Way, Ursula K. Le Guin
38. This Isn’t Happening, Stephen Hyden
39. All Star Superman Vol 1, Grant Morrison
40. All Star Superman Vol 2, Grant Morrison
41. Answers in the Form of Questions, Claire McNear
42. Batman Year One, Frank Miller
43. The Sprawl, Jason Diamond
44. The March of Folly, Barbara Tuchman
45. We’ve Got People, Ryan Grimm
46. Death in the Air, Agatha Christie
47. Batman: Arkham Asylum, Grant Morrison
48. A Murder of Quality, John LeCarre
49. No Time to Spare, Ursula K. Le Guin
50. Superman: Red Son, Mark Millar
51. Murder in Three Acts, Agatha Christie
52. Heir to the Empire, Timothy Zahn
53. Steering the Craft, Usula K. Le Guin
54. We3, Grant Morrison
55. Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Alan Moore
56. Slugfest, Reed Tucker
57. Montaigne: Philosopher of Life, Sarah Bakewell
58. Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury
59. Secrets of the Buzzer, Fritz Holznagel
60. More Sex, Better Zen, Faster Bullets, Stefan Hammond

And here are the books I’m still working on, in order of how long I’ve been reading them:

  1. Against the Day, Thomas Pynchon
  2. The Fourth World Omnibus, Jack Kirby
  3. The Path to Power, Robert Caro
  4. The Republic for Which it Stands, Richard White
  5. City of Quartz, Mike Davis
  6. Emerson: The Mind on Fire, Robert D. Richardson
  7. The History of Jazz, Ted Gioia
  8. Moby-Dick, Herman Melville
  9. Don Quixote, Cervantes
  10. Crabgrass Frontier, Kenneth T. Jackson
  11. American Renaissance, FO Matthiessen
  12. The Ramayana: A New Retelling, Linda Egenes & Kumuda Reddy
  13. James Joyce, Richard Ellman
  14. Shakey: Neil Young’s Biography, Jimmy McDonough
  15. Before the Storm, Rick Perlstein
  16. Debt: the First 5000 Years, David Graeber
  17. Crisis on Infinite Earths (plus Crossovers), Marv Wolfman, etc
  18. The Stand, Stephen King
  19. Bach: The Learned Musician, Christoph Wolff
  20. The Dragon Waiting, John M. Ford
  21. Ghosts of My Life, Mark Fisher
  22. Libra, Don DeLillo
  23. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë

Predictions for the 92nd Annual Academy Awards

These are my Oscar predictions. During the ceremony Sunday night, as I’ve done for the past couple of years, I’ll be live-tweeting the winners of the 2019 Endy Awards, the nominees for which can be found here. Follow along on twitter @TheEndofCinema.

BEST PICTURE

Ford v Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Marriage Story
1917
Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood
Parasite

BEST DIRECTOR

Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
Todd Phillips, Joker
Sam Mendes, 1917
Quentin Tarantino, Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood
Bong Joon Ho, Parasite

BEST ACTOR

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

Cynthia Erivo, Harriet
Scarlett Johansson, Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan, Little Women
Charlize Theron, Bombshell
Renée Zellweger, Judy

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
Al Pacino, The Irishman
Joe Pesci, The Irishman
Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Kathy Bates, Richard Jewell
Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit
Florence Pugh, Little Women
Margot Robbie, Bombshell

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Knives Out, Rian Johnson
Marriage Story, Noah Baumbach
1917, Sam Mendes & Krysty Wilson-Cairns
Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood, Quentin Tarantino
Parasite, Bong Joon Ho & Han Jin Won

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Irishman, Steven Zaillian
Jojo Rabbit, Taika Waititi
Joker, Todd Phillips & Scott Silver
Little Women, Greta Gerwig
The Two Popes, Anthony McCarten

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

The Irishman, Rodrigo Prieto
Joker, Lawrence Sher
The Lighthouse, Jarin Blaschke
1917, Roger Deakins
Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood, Robert Richardson

BEST FILM EDITING

Ford v Ferrari
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Parasite

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avengers: Endgame
The Irishman
The Lion King
1917
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
1917
Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood
Parasite

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Little Women
Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

Bombshell
Joker
Judy
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
1917

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Joker, Hildur Guðnadóttir
Little Women, Alexandre Desplat
Marriage Story, Randy Newman
1917, Thomas Newman
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, John Williams

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from Toy Story 4, Randy Newman
“(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman, Elton John & Bernie Taupin
“I’m Standing With You” from Breakthrough, Diane Warren
“Into The Unknown” from Frozen II, Kristen Anderson-Lopez & Robert Lopez
“Stand Up” from Harriet, Joshuah Brian Campbell & Cynthia Erivo

BEST SOUND EDITING

Ford v Ferrari
Joker
1917
Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

BEST SOUND MIXING

Ad Astra
Ford v Ferrari
Joker
1917
Once Upon a Time In… Hollywood

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
I Lost My Body
Klaus
Missing Link
Toy Story 4

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

American Factory
The Cave
The Edge of Democracy
For Sama
Honeyland

BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE FILM

Corpus Christi (Poland)
Honeyland (North Macedonia)
Les Misérables (France)
Pain and Glory (Spain)
Parasite (South Korea)

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

In The Absence
Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)
Life Overtakes Me
St. Louis Superman
Walk Run Cha-Cha

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

Brotherhood
Nefta Football Club
The Neighbors’ Window
Saria
A Sister

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Dcera (Daughter)
Hair Love
Kitbull
Memorable
Sister

Predictions for the 91st Annual Academy Awards

These are my Oscar predictions. During the ceremony Sunday night, as I’ve done for the past couple of years, I’ll be live-tweeting the winners of the 2018 Endy Awards, the nominees for which can be found here. Follow along on twitter @TheEndofCinema.

BEST PICTURE

Black Panther
Blackkklansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Roma
A Star Is Born
Vice

BEST DIRECTOR

Spike Lee, Blackkklansman
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Adam McKay, Vice

BEST ACTOR

Christian Bale, Vice
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book

BEST ACTRESS

Yalitza Aparicio, Roma
Glenn Close, The Wife
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Sam Elliott, A Star Is Born
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell, Vice

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams, Vice
Marina De Tavira, Roma
Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The Favourite
First Reformed
Green Book
Roma
Vice

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
BlacKkKlansman
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Star Is Born

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Cold War
The Favourite
Never Look Away
Roma
A Star Is Born

BEST FILM EDITING

BlacKkKlansman
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
Green Book
Vice

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Avengers: Infinity War
Christopher Robin
First Man
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Black Panther
The Favourite
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther
The Favourite
Mary Poppins Returns
Mary Queen of Scots

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

Border
Mary Queen of Scots
Vice

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins Returns

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“All The Stars,” Black Panther
“I’ll Fight,” RBG
“The Place Where Lost Things Go,” Mary Poppins Returns
“Shallow,” A Star Is Born
“When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings,” The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

BEST SOUND EDITING

Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
A Quiet Place
Roma

BEST SOUND MIXING

Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Roma
A Star Is Born

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Mirai
Ralph Breaks the Internet
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

Free Solo
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Minding the Gap
Of Fathers and Sons
RBG

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

Capernaum
Cold War
Never Look Away
Roma
Shoplifters

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Black Sheep
End Game
Lifeboat
A Night at the Garden
Period. End of Sentence.

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

Detainment
Fauve
Marguerite
Mother
Skin

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Animal Behaviour
Bao
Late Afternoon
One Small Step
Weekends

Predictions for the 90th Annual Academy Awards

These are my Oscar predictions. During the ceremony tomorrow night, as I’ve done for the past couple of years, I’ll be live-tweeting the winners of the 2017 Endy Awards, the nominees for which can be found here. Follow along on twitter @TheEndofCinema.

BEST PICTURE

Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Florida Project
Get Out
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
The Post
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST DIRECTOR

Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan
Get Out, Jordan Peele
Lady Bird, Greta Gerwig
Phantom Thread, Paul Thomas Anderson
The Shape of Water, Guillermo del Toro

BEST ACTOR

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel, Esq.

BEST ACTRESS

Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Meryl Streep, The Post

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

The Big Sick
Get Out
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Call Me by Your Name
The Disaster Artist
Logan
Molly’s Game
Mudbound

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Mudbound
The Shape of Water

BEST FILM EDITING

Baby Driver
Dunkirk
I, Tonya
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Blade Runner 2049
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2
Kong: Skull Island
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
The Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

Beauty and the Beast
Darkest Hour
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Victoria & Abdul

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING

Darkest Hour
Victoria & Abdul
Wonder

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Mighty River,” Mudbound
“Mystery of Love,” Call Me by Your Name
“Remember Me,” Coco
“Stand Up for Something,” Marshall
“This is Me,” The Greatest Showman

BEST SOUND EDITING

Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

BEST SOUND MIXING

Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

The Boss Baby
Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Abacus: Small Enough to Jail
Faces Places
Icarus
Last Men In Aleppo
Strong Island

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

A Fantastic Woman
The Insult
Loveless
On Body and Soul
The Square

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

Edith+Eddie
Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405
Heroin(e)
Knife Skills
Traffic Stop

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT

DeKalb Elementary
The Eleven O’Clock
The Silent Child
All of Us
My Nephew Emmett

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

Dear Basketball
Garden Party
Negative Space
Lou
Revolting Rhymes

This Week in Rankings

RainingintheMountain2.jpg

The end of the year came and went since the last rankings update, which meant a handful of round-up posts here at The End: Books (and Other Words), Film Discoveries, and Endy Award Nominations.

At Seattle Screen Scene I reviewed The Post, The Last Jedi, The Disaster Artist, Pitch Perfect 3, Downsizing, Hostiles, and Goldbuster. We also recorded a couple episodes of The Frances Farmer Show: one on The Last Jedi and one a 2017 Year-in-Review.

At Frame.land, I wrote about the films of Chang Cheh and contributed a brief review of Private Eye Blues. At Mubi, I launched a column on Contemporary Chinese Cinema. The first two are on 2017 in Chinese Film and the pair of Youth and The Thousand Faces of Dunjia.

I wrote some brief year-end stuff at other sites as well: Double Features for Mubi, Cinematic Moments (Claire’s Camera) and Underseen Movies (Our Time Will Come) for Frame.land, and about On the Beach at Night Alone for InReview Online’s Year in Review. This year we of the Seattle Film Critics Society gave out our first official awards, which named Get Out Best Picture and somehow didn’t nominate Baahubali: The Conclusion for anything at all.

Over at The Chinese Cinema, I’ve been rewatching all of Hong Sangsoo’s films in chronological order and reviewing them along the way. So far I have reviews up for The Day a Pig Fell Into the Well, The Power of Kangwon Province, Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate, Woman is the Future of Man  and Tale of Cinema. I’ve revised all of my previous writing about Hong Sangsoo and indexed it, and done the same for my writing about King Hu. I also reviewed Evan Yang’s Sun, Moon and Star and Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai’s Running on Karma. My The Chinese Cinema List at letterboxd is up-to-date with 434 titles as well. And I also made a list of Shu Qi’s movies.

If you like what I do here or at Seattle Screen Scene, The Chinese Cinema, or anywhere else, please consider donating at my kofi page. Every little bit helps.

These are the movies I’ve watched or rewatched over the last few weeks, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

Sun, Moon and Star (Evan Yang) – 19, 1961
A Charlie Brown Christmas (Bill Melendez) – 4, 1965
Legend of the Mountain (King Hu) – 3, 1979
Raining in the Mountain (King Hu) – 11, 1979
Dance of the Drunken Mantis (Yuen Woo-ping) – 25, 1979

The Miracle Fighters (Yuen Woo-ping) – 3, 1982
Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand) – 12, 1983
Drunken Tai Chi (Yuen Woo-ping) – 45, 1984
Flirting (John Duigan) – 12, 1991
In the Heat of the Sun (1994) – 4, 1994

The Day a Pig Fell into the Well (Hong Sansgoo) – 31, 1996
The Dream Factory (Fen Xiaogang) – 37, 1997
The Power of Kangwon Province (Hong Sangsoo) – 16, 1998
Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors (Hong Sansgoo) – 7, 2000
Bring It On (Peyton Reed) – 20, 2000

On the Occasion of Remembering the Turning Gate (Hong Sangsoo) – 4, 2002
Running on Karma (Johnnie To & Wai Ka-fai) – 1, 2003
Woman is the Future of Man (Hong Sangsoo) – 37, 2004
Tale of Cinema (Hong Sangsoo) – 8, 2005
Assembly (Feng Xiaogang) – 28, 2007

If You are the One 2 (Feng Xiaogang) – 37, 2010
Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson) – 3, 2014
The Force Awakens (JJ Abrams) – 29, 2015
Rogue One (Gareth Edwards) – 40, 2016
Kedi (Ceyda Torun) – 69, 2016
Citizen Jane (Matt Tyrnauer) – 112, 2016

Mother! (Darren Aronofsky) – 5, 2017
Lady Bird (Greta Gerwig) – 6, 2017
Phantom Thread (Paul Thomas Anderson) – 13, 2017
The Last Jedi (Rian Johnson) – 17, 2017
Downsizing (Alexander Payne) – 21, 2017
The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts (Don Hertzfeldt) – 22, 2017

Lucky (John Carroll Lynch) – 26, 2017
Youth (Feng Xiaogang) – 35, 2017
Kaatru Veliyidai (Mani Ratnam) – 45, 2017
The Work (Jairus McLeary & Gethin Aldous) – 55, 2017
Pitch Perfect 3 (Trish Sie) – 63, 2017
Blade of the Immortal (Takashi Miike) – 70, 2017

Girls Trip (Malcolm D. Lee) – 71, 2017
Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold (Griffin Dunne) – 80, 2017
Last Flag Flying (Richard Linklater) – 90, 2017
Goldbuster (Sandra Ng) – 94, 2017
Molly’s Game (Aaron Sorkin) – 96, 2017

Wonder Woman (Patty Jenkins) – 97, 2017
The Thousand Faces of Dunjia (Yuen Woo-ping) – 98, 2017
The Disaster Artist (James Franco) – 103, 2017
I, Tonya (Craig Gillespie) – 106, 2017
The Fate of the Furious (F. Gary Gray) – 107, 2017
Hostiles (Scott Cooper) – 113, 2017

This Week in Rankings

The last few weeks have been eventful here at The End. Since the last update I made a list of 150 of my Favorite Chinese-Language Films and announced a grand restructuring of my now four-year long and seemingly never-ending project on The Chinese Cinema. It was also awards time, and in addition to the 2016 Endys, I handed out fake movie awards to the films of 1989 and 1988.

Over at Seattle Screen Scene, I wrote about Hong Sangsoo’s Yourself and Yours, Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall, and Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro. At the Mubi Notebook, I wrote about Tsui Hark and Stephen Chow’s Journey to the West: Demons Strike Back.

These are the movies I’ve watched and rewatched over the last few weeks, and where they place on my year-by-year rankings.

First Avenue, Seattle, Washington, No. 8 (James H. White) – 1897
Romance of a Fruit Peddler (Zhang Shichuan) – 10, 1922
Romance of the Western Chamber (Hou Tao) – 8, 1927
The Goddess (Wu Yonggang) – 18, 1934
Song of China (Fei Mu & Luo Mingyou) – 25, 1935

Sunday in Peking (Chris Marker) – 30 1956
Diao Chan (Li Han-hsiang) – 18, 1958
Eight Taels of Gold (Mabel Cheung) – 10, 1989
A Fishy Story (Anthony Chan) – 18, 1989
Miracles: Mr. Canton & Lady Rose (Jackie Chan) – 30, 1989

James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket (Karen Thorsen) – 40, 1990
Once Upon a Time in China IV (Yuen Bun) – 71, 1993
Once Upon a Time in China V (Tsui Hark) – 45, 1994
Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons (Stephen Chow & Derek Kwok) – 6, 2013
Our Sunhi (Hong Sangsoo) – 12, 2013

Blanket Statement #2: It’s All or Nothing (Jodie Mack) – 54, 2014
Yourself and Yours (Hong Sangsoo) – 10, 2016
I Am Not Your Negro (Raoul Peck) – 15, 2016
Curses (Jodie Mack) – 47, 2016
Cave of Sighs (Nathan Douglas) – 53, 2016

A Chinese Odyssey Part 3 (Jeffrey Lau) – 79, 2016
The Great Wall (Zhang Yimou) – 99, 2016
Weeds on Fire (Chan Chi-fat) – 109, 2016
On the Beach at Night Alone (Hong Sangsoo) – 1, 2017
Get Out (Jordan Peele) – 2, 2017

Chang-ok’s Letter (Shunji Iwai) – 3, 2017
Journey to the West: Demons Strike Back (Tsui Hark) – 4, 2017
The LEGO Batman Movie (Chris McKay) – 5, 2017
John Wick Chapter 2 (Chad Stahelski) -6, 2017