Thoughts from and Stats for the 2023/2024 Oscar Nominations

-The nationalities of the 20 best actor nominees are:

16 US nominees though 2 are second-generation Latin American: Colman Domingo’s parents are from Guatemalan and Belize, America Ferrera is Honduran; 1 Canadian in Ryan Gosling; 1 Irishman in Cillian Murphy 1 German in Sandra Huller; 1 British (2nd generation Irish) in Carey Mulligan

-Zasie Baetz was announcing like she was giving away cars on either the Price is Right or Opera. At first, I was convinced that she was stanning American Fiction but that was likely my bias. Jack Quaid is one of my favorite young stars of Hollywood, but isn’t there still room in Hollywood for Jack and his dad? #FarFromHeavenforever

-I’ve seen 6 of the 10 nominees (Check: Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, Anatomy of a Fall, Maestro, Poor Things, Holdovers, Didn’t See: American Fiction, Zone of Interest, Past Lives, Barbie) and 14 of the 20 nominees (Paul Giamatti, Cillian Murphy, Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Emma Stone, Sandra Huller, Annette Bening, Lily Gladstone, Robert DeNiro, Mark Ruffalo, Robert Downey Jr, DaVine Joy Randolph, Emily Blunt, and Jodie Foster). Of the remaining four, I haven’t seen Zone of Interest holds the least interest to me. I don’t pressure myself to see everything that’s out there.

-The woke crowd will probably be split, but with the surprise inclusion of Sterling K Brown, America Ferrera, and the fact that one woman was still nominated (Justine Triet), they don’t have much basis that the patriarchy squeezed their voices out. To the degree that foreign film enthusiasts overlap with woke advocates (a lot of foreign films are made by white people and that’s all that counts to the woke), there’s much to celebrate on that front as three foreign films have never been among the final ten. I saw Anatomy of a Fall and the subtitles made the story difficult to follow, so audiences will have to adjust.

-Killers of the Flower Moon is the 12th Best Picture Nominee that Robert DeNiro has appeared in: Godfather II, Taxi Driver, Deer Hunter, Raging Bull, Soldier’s Story, Awakenings, Goodfellas, Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle, Irishman, Joker, and now Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s likely a new record. Leonardo DiCaprio is close behind at 11; Matt Damon, Willem Dafoe; Jesse Plemons (who’s had a streak of 6 in 7 years: Brides of Spies, The Post, Vice, Irishman, Judas and the Black Messiah, Power of the Dog), and Bradley Cooper…