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.
The Academy Awards, best known as the Oscars, has many different awards that are given that are tied to the best movies of the past year. There are a lot of important details that go into making an incredible movie. We have already gone through the nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Best Animated Feature Film, and Best Cinematography. Now we are going to go into the category of nominations for the Best Costume Design.
The first nomination in the category for Best Costume Design is for the movie, The Irishman. More specifically the nominees are Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson for their costume designs. The designers did an excellent job replicating the outfits worn by mobsters during the time the film takes place. There is not a single costume that feels out of place for this film.
After The Irishman, we have the historical comedy Jojo Rabbit which shows us a lonely German boy’s world being turned upside down when he discovers his single mother is hiding a young Jewish girl in their attic. In order to make the movie feel like an authentic timepiece, the costumes need to fit the period. Costume designer Mayes C. Rubeo did just that and it immerses you in the movie to keep you entertained.
Moving on, we have the movie that is most likely to win a couple of awards, the biggest of all being Best Picture. That movie would be Joker, and it has incredible costume designs to go with its intricate characters. The person behind all of those designs is Mark Bridges, without whom the movie wouldn’t portray the characters the way they were.
Next up, we have a movie that was adapted from a novel and it is a movie that is a period piece. So, in order to be immersed in the movie and experience the time period, the costumes must fit it perfectly. Jacqueline Durran did just that and the hard work is shown on screen when we see the people on screen appearing just as they would at that time.
Finally, the last movie that we are taking a look at on the nomination list is Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood. There seems to be a bit of a trend on the list of nominations for Best Costume Design. They are all movies that take place in older time periods. Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood is set strongly at the end of Hollywood’s Golden Age. Thus, we end up with clothing that perfectly emulates the time period and makes the world feel like how it was at the end of the 60’s. The designer of which is Arianne Phillips.
First of all, Sony Pictures Classics is a company that distributes, produces and acquires specialty films such as documentaries, independent films, and art films. They do all of this in the United States and even internationally. As such, they are distributing Charm City Kings while the producers of the film are Overbrook Entertainment, run by Will Smith, James Lassiter, and Jada Pinkett Smith. Charm City Kings is unique in that it is a film adaption of the documentary 12 O’Clock Boys. It is directed by Angel Manuel Soto, from a screenplay by Sherman Payne, from a story by Kirk Sullivan, Chris Boyd, and Barry Jenkins. The movie stars Jahi Di’Allo Winston, Meek Mill, Will Catlett, Teyonah Parris, Donielle Tremaine Hansley, and Kezii Curtis.
Charm City Kings tells the story of a young man called Mouse and his attempts to fit in. Mouse (Jahi Di’Allo Winston) desperately wants to join Baltimore’s infamous Midnight Clique, a fearless group of dirt bike riders who rule the summertime streets. When Midnight’s leader, Blax (Meek Mill), takes 14-year-old Mouse under his wing, Mouse soon finds himself torn between the straight-and-narrow and a road filled with fast money and violence. Charrm City Kings will make its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 27, 2020. It is scheduled to be released everywhere else on April 10, 2020, by Sony Pictures Classics.
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