And The Winner Is....
Laure Sudreau's guide to the Oscars.
Laure Sudreau knows the world of film-making. We asked her to give us a scorecard for tonight’s Academy Awards. What follows is her reply.
This year’s Academy Awards includes a very diverse slate of nominees both in genre and, for the first time, nationality. Foreign films are now included in all categories, instead of having a category of their own. This is an interesting shift for the movie industry and its “marketplace.” Original content from foreign nations is replacing American “re-makes’ of the same content. This is very good news for film-lovers and film-goers, as industry market makers are actively searching for more diverse content.
Given the very large slates of nominees, this “scorecard” will be limited to the main categories of Best Film, Best Actor and Actress in a lead role and supporting role and Best Director. Like last year, there are two categories: (2) The film or person I think deserves the award and (2) who I believe will win.
“And the Nominees are…”:
1) Best Film:
Close call! This is a very tight category. Working backwards, I believe neither “Barbie” nor “Killers of the Flower Moon” should/will win. Despite being important cultural movies, and containing fantastic performances, both movies are long, indulgent in different ways, fail to keep your attention and as such, fall short of their fellow nominees. This is also true of “Maestro”. Conversely, three of the nominees (Oppenheimer, Poor Things, and The Zone of Interest) are extremely well crafted, compelling each in their own way, and contain spellbinding performances. My choice and my predictions for the winner is “Oppenheimer”, a more commercially successful film and more approachable than “The Zone Interest”. “Poor Things” is a strong second but the pervasive sexism in Hollywood rules it out like it does “Barbie”, unfortunately.
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