The nominations have arrived, like guests who will move in to my house and monopolize my time, energy and resources for the next seven weeks. You can see the complete list here.
I have to say, I'm pretty pleased with the group I'll be hanging out with. I've gotten to know a lot of them already so this should be pretty comfortable. (If you're new here, every year I watch every film nominated for an Oscar in any category and review them all.) There are 22 strangers in the mix; 22 films I need to see in the time afforded. Hopefully they won't be too hard to find on streaming or in theaters. I've got to get to know my new guests.
My most honored guest is Sinners with 16 nominations! Which is a record, by the way! I'm so happy as this is by far my favorite movie of the year. I hope it wins a healthy amount rather than receive all this love just to get shut out by One Battle After Another. I'm also super happy for Delroy Lindo's nomination for this film. What a nice surprise.
I'm super excited to hang out with some amazing witches from 2025. The past year has been so incredibly great for witch representation in film! The traditional backstory of any witch is that they signed their name in a book to pledge fealty to the devil and receive their powers. That's just not the reality of our...uh, I mean, THEIR practice. Writers seem to assume that just because they have magic they have to be evil. Well not any more!
I have Agnes Shakespeare from Hamnet (played by Jesse Buckley) as a guest and I don't think I've seen a more beautiful depiction of a witch of the wood before. She works with herbs, has a kind of precognition, is just as comfortable sleeping in tree roots as a bed and is feral as hell! Her character is everything I aspire to be.
Annie from Sinners (played by Wunmi Mosaku) is another out of this world depiction of a magical woman grounded in her practice as a rootworker. She has a powerful skill for protection and reading the future as well as a wealth of knowledge for all things supernatural. And best of all, when she speaks in her community, people listen. Her value is respected deeply and I love to see it.
Gladys Lilly (played by Amy Madigan) from Weapons is also here! Now it's true she controls and murders people, but hear me out. She isn't doing it for any man or evil god; she's just looking out for number one. She has many different ways that she shows up in the world from terrifying to silly and light and she is extremely powerful. I'm happy to have her as a guest.
Hopefully I'll meet another witch as I learn more about my new guests! Speaking of new guests, I'm not looking forward to getting to know Avatar: Fire and Ash. There could be a witch in there but I hear this one is long winded and repetitive. Wish me luck.
There are a few guests that were not invited by the Academy and I'll sorely miss them. Paul Mescal was somehow left out for Hamnet and that's unfortunate. Also Teyana Taylor was nominated for One Battle After Another but not Chase Infiniti? I don't understand that at all. I'm disappointed that All the Walls Came Down wasn't nominated. It's a short doc about my town burning so I felt pretty invested.
But most glaring is No Other Choice receiving NO nominations whatsoever. Many people, including me, thought it was one of the best films of the year and it's crazy that it got completely shut out. Did Park Chan-wook do something to make everyone mad? He and his movie will be sorely missed at my house.
I've got to go get everyone settled in. I'll start reviews later today. After all, it's not just a welcome to the nominees today. It's also a welcome to you, my good readers. Let's have a great season of Gluttony together!
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