There are numerous categories involved with the Academy Awards, and while there are the bigger categories such as best picture, best actor, best actress, etc., there are other categories that are important to the film making process. One such category is film editing, without which a film would not at all look coherent. So we will now be going through the list of nominees for the film editing category.
First up on the list of nominees for Best Film Editing is Ford v. Ferrari, and more specifically Michael McCusker and Andrew Buckland. Ford v. Ferrari sees visionary auto designer Carroll Shelby and race car driver Ken Miles teaming up to build a high-performance race car for the Ford Motor Company, hoping to defy the odds and defeat the dominant Ferrari at the 1966 Le Mans. Without proper film editing, we wouldn’t experience moments in the film the way we were intended to and the nature of the film would be lost.
Next on the list, we have The Irishman which has been nominated for a good amount of awards other than just this one. The head of the editing being Thelma Schoonmaker who was responsible for it being on the list. The Irishman sees World War II vet Frank Sheeran reflecting on his life as a hustler and mob hitman, working alongside many notorious figures, including Jimmy Hoffa, the subject of one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history.
Following that we have Jojo Rabbit, and more specifically we have Tom Eagles to thank for it. Jojo Rabbit shows us, during WWII, a lonely German boy’s world turned upside down when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. Aided only by his idiotic imaginary friend Adolf Hitler, Jojo must confront his blind nationalism. Without the editing on this one a lot of the comedy in the film could have been lost and it wouldn’t look right.
Then, we have Jeff Groth for his film editing work on the movie Joker. Joker is done so well that it, like The Irishman, is nominated for a large number of awards. In Gotham’s fractured society, a young man longs to be a stand-up comic, but finds the joke is always on him. Caught in a cycle of apathy, cruelty and ultimately, betrayal, the comedian makes one bad decision after another, bringing about a chain reaction of escalating events.
Finally, we have Yang Jinmo, for his work with the editing on the movie Parasite. Greed, class discrimination and a mysterious interloper threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan. Parasite was a surprise hit and the editing of the film definitely contributed to how well it did.
We have also covered the nominees for categories such as Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, Best Documentary Feature, and Best Documentary Short.
The classic tale of Peter Pan tells us the story of a girl named Wendy and her siblings being brought to a place where no one ages. In the traditional story, Wendy cares for her siblings while trying to navigate the magical land and the boy who brought them there. All stories are made to be retold however, and that is what this movie is meant to do. Director Benh Zeitlin, who directed Beasts of the Southern Wild, re-imagines the original story into a ragtag epic. Written by Benh Zeitlin & Eliza Zeitlin, produced by Becky Glupczynski, Dan Janvey, Paul Mezey, and Josh Penn, and brought to us by Fox Searchlight, we have ‘Wendy.’
‘Wendy’ sees the titular character lost on a mysterious island where aging and time have come unglued. Wendy must fight to save her family, her freedom, and the joyous spirit of youth from the deadly peril of growing up. A re-imagining of the classic tale from the point of view of Wendy Darling, the movie of the same name shows us just how her life and the lives of her family are affected by their journey to a land where they never age. The movie is headlined by a cast of first time actors, and we will get to see how well they do when the film hits theaters on February 28, 2020.
With the number of categories that are a part of The Oscars, it is no surprise that we have the titular category. It is different from the other category for Best Documentary, because this one only covers short subjects, while the other category is for feature length films. We’ve already gone through nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Director, and, as mentioned, Best Documentary Feature. We will now be going over the nominees for the Best Documentary Short award.
First up on the list of nominees is the short documentary In the Absence. Directed by Seung-jun Yi, the movie shows us that justice must be found even years later. When the passenger ferry MV Sewol sank off the coast of South Korea in 2014, over three hundred people lost their lives, most of them schoolchildren. Years later, the victims’ families and survivors are still demanding justice from national authorities.
The next Documentary Short nominee is for a film called Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl). The director, Carol Dysinger, shows us how young girls in Kabul deal with their surroundings. It is the story of young afghan girls learning to read, write, and skateboard, in Kabul. Skateboarding gives them courage and life skills that help them thrive and adapt to the challenges that lie ahead.
Following that documentary short we have Life Overtakes Me. From directors Kristine Samuelson and John Haptas comes a short documentary exploring the effects the threat of deportation can have on refugee children. Hundreds of refugee children in Sweden who have fled with their families from extreme trauma in their home countries have become afflicted with Resignation Syndrome. Facing deportation, they withdraw from the world into a coma-like state, as if frozen, for months or even years.
The next documentary short is one called St. Louis Superman. Directed by Smriti Mundhra and Sami Khan, St. Louis Superman follows black rapper and activist Bruce Franks, who was inspired to run for office by the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., in 2014. Bruce Franks Jr. was elected to the overwhelmingly white and Republican Missouri House of Representatives, must overcome both personal trauma and political obstacles to pass a bill critical to his community.
The final documentary short on the list of nominees is Walk Run Cha-Cha. This short documentary, directed by Laura Nix, shows Chipaul and Millie Cao reunited in 1980s Los Angeles after being separated by the Vietnam War. Forty years later, they become ballroom dancers to reconnect again and make up for lost time.
The Oscars are fast approaching with only a couple of weeks left until the big day. There are numerous categories with a large number of nominees to go through. So far, we have covered the nominees for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, and Best Director. As stated in the title above, we will be going over the nominations for Best Documentary Feature.
The first documentary to find its way onto the list of nominations is The Edge of Democracy. Directed by Petra Costa, this film follows the leaders of Brazil as they deal with their ideologically divided country. It shows us how the country of Brazil has changed and has started to slip back into the ideology of a dictatorship and the disconnect between political figures and the people they are meant to represent.
The next nomination for Best Documentary Feature is a film called For Sama. From directors Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts, For Sama shows an intimate and epic journey into the female experience of war. It tells the story of Waad Al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria, her falling in love, getting married, and giving birth to her daughter Sama, all while surrounded by conflict.
Following that, we have a documentary film called Honeyland. Directed by Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov, Honeyland takes its audience to the mountains of Macedonia. We get to see a woman’s use of ancient beekeeping techniques in order to cultivate honey while living in the mountains. It shows the formation of tension between her and a neighboring family when they try to do the same thing and they disregard her wisdom and advice.
The next documentary to make its way onto the nominations list for Best Documentary Feature is American Factory. Directors Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar show us a clash between high-tech China and working class America in post-industrial Ohio. A Chinese billionaire opens a new factory in the husk of an abandoned General Motors plant. Early hope and optimism give way to setbacks, which, in turn, gives way to conflict.
The final nomination on the list for Best Documentary happens to be a film called The Cave. Directed by Ferras Fayaad, we see him return to his native, wartorn Syria to follow a dedicated team of female doctors who tirelessly treat casualties in an underground hospital while battling systemic sexism.
In just a couple of days, a movie adapted from a popular 100 year old novella will be released to theaters. The novella in question is called The Turn of the Screw, and it released in October of 1898. Turn of the Screw was a novella which told a ghost story, the result of which is its popularity as a criticized literary work. To say it was truly criticized feels incorrect, however, as people were just trying to figure out the meaning of the story. The original author, Henry James, refused to acknowledge any of the guesses about what his work represented and remained ambiguous to the end.
This is not the first adaptation of the novella, as it has been a radio drama, film, stage, and television, including a 1950 Broadway play, and the 1961 film The Innocents. The true horror of the story in question comes from the second guessing of the sanity of the characters involved. This has been the biggest subject scrutinized by critics for years, trying to find some kind of theme and analyze something that may not even be there. The author’s commitment to this ambiguousness is why it has remained so relevant, even today.
The Turning takes us to a mysterious estate in the Maine countryside, where newly appointed nanny Kate is charged with the care of two disturbed orphans, Flora and Miles. Quickly though, she discovers that both the children and the house are harboring dark secrets and things may not be as they appear. The movie stars Mackenzie Davis (Terminator: Dark Fate, The Martian), Finn Wolfhard (It, Netflix’s Stranger Things), newcomer Brooklynn Prince (The Florida Project) and Joely Richardson (Red Sparrow, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). The movie was directed by visualist Floria Sigismondi (The Runaways, Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale), and will harken back to the story it originated from.
The Turning releases in just a couple of days, January 24, 2020, to theaters domestically and select theaters internationally.
We have previously gone over the nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature Film, Best Cinematography, and most recently, Best Costume Design. Moving forward we will now be going over the nominees for Best Directing and the movies that got them nominated.
The first director on our list of nominees is Martin Scorsese for his directing work on The Irishman. As an old man, World War II vet Frank Sheeran reflects on his life as a hustler and mob hitman, working alongside many notorious figures, including Jimmy Hoffa, the subject of one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history. Scorsese is a director known for many Box Office successes and this movie is one that adds yet another loved movie to his repertoire.
The next director on our list is Todd Phillips for his directing for the movie Joker. In Gotham’s fractured society, a young man longs to be a stand-up comic, but finds the joke is always on him. Caught in a cycle of apathy, cruelty and ultimately, betrayal, the comedian makes one bad decision after another, bringing about a chain reaction of escalating events. Phillips is a director who has made a few different movies that have been loved before, and now he’s done one that may end up taking home a few awards.
Following that, we have director Sam Mendes who is responsible for directing the movie 1917. During World War I, two British soldiers are sent on a dangerous mission to stop an attack by the British 7th Division that will result in a massacre by the Germans. Their assignment takes on extra urgency as one of the young soldiers’ brothers is fighting in that Division. Mendes had taken stories from his grandfather and created a compelling narrative that has managed to make it a nominated film.
Then, the next director shouldn’t really be much of a surprise, but it is Quentin Tarantino for his directing of Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. In Los Angeles in 1969, aging TV star Rick Dalton and his longtime stunt double Cliff Booth struggle to make their way around an industry and a city they hardly recognize anymore. Tarantino did everything to ensure he had control over all directing decisions, and it can be seen very easily in the final product.
Lastly, the final directing nominee is Bong Joon Ho for his work on the film Parasite which surprised a lot of people. Greed, class discrimination and a mysterious interloper threaten the newly formed symbiotic relationship between the wealthy Park family and the destitute Kim clan. Parasite was a hit that nobody expected to see this year. That just shows how well done it was, and how he ended up as a nominee.
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