‘Emilia Pérez’ wins six spots, but ‘Anora’ goes MIA

Oscar shortlists are like exit polls released on Election Day before voting closes: they’re the best information available so far about how actual voters feel, but they don’t necessarily tell you the whole story.

Tuesday’s announcement of this year’s 10 shortlists — chosen, as always, by various branches of the Academy, not the full membership — saw a great demonstration of Netflix’s power Emilia Perezwith the leading six mentions; and very solid results from Universal Wickedwith four; and Fox’s Alien: RomulusApple’s BlitzWarner’s Dina: The second partParamount’s Gladiator II and Universal Wild robotwith three each.

But the fact that it is, say, Neon AnoraSpotlights Real pain and Amazon/MGMs Nickel Boys appeared on no the shortlist is not really an indication that they fail to resonate in the Academy. After all, given the specificity of those films, where would have appeared? They don’t have original songs, and their makeup/hair, score, sound, and visual effects aren’t really key to their appeal the way the writing, direction, and acting are.

To me, the most interesting cases are films for which some of these areas of work are are central to their appeal, but this has had mixed or poor results.

There were divided verdicts for Fokus Conclave (score but not sound or visual effects) i Nosferatu (shortlisted for makeup/hairstyle and score, but sound or visual effects), Mubi’s Substance (makeup/hairstyle, but not visual effects) and Spotlights Complete unknown (sound, but not make-up/hair or visual effects).

And then there was the complete rejection of sequels to two films that were much better than their predecessors: Warners’ Joker: Folie à Deux was shortlisted only for sound, while in 2019 Joker was shortlisted for make-up/hair and scoring, ended up being nominated for both and won for scoring; and Warners’ Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga was not shortlisted for anythingwhile in 2015 Mad Max: Fury Road was shortlisted and nominated for its visual effects and won because of sound and makeup/hairstyle. This seems pretty unfair to me, considering that the craftsmanship on the 2024 films, which the voters were supposed to be judging, was no less impressive than the earlier films. C’est la vie.

As for this year’s narrow choices?

The document’s feature list of 15 includes all the titles widely considered contenders for the top tier — Nat Geo Sugar caneLorber’s Cinema Coup d’état soundtrackNetflix’s Daughters and MTV Black Box Diaries — except for Warners’ Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story. True, the scientific community has long had a strange aversion to celebrity docs, but this year did shortlist of Netflix Will & Harper and US-distributor-less There.

This could have major implications for the rest of the documentary feature race. After the branch narrows the list to five nominees, the entire Academy chooses the winner, and they usually look at and reward the most populist choice among them. WITH Superman out of the mix, all eyes will be on whether they like it or not Will & Harper makes a list of five; if it does, that’s your likely winner.

In any case, Netflix took one fifth of the document shortlist, with Daughters and W&H he joined The extraordinary life of Ibelin. One-third of the places went to self-distributed papers on social issues — Hollywoodgate, The porcelain war, Union and two about Israel, There is no other countrywhich won critics group awards, and Files Bibi. Two documents in the shortlist also appeared in other shortlists (Mubijev Dahomey was also Senegal’s entry for Best International Film and is a finalist in that category, while W&H the tune “Harper and Will Go West” is a finalist for Best Original Song). And two films that did not make it into the shortlist of documentaries did make other shortlists (Disney’s Elton John: It’s never too late and focus’ Piece by piece both produced original song finalists).

All the usual suspects for international films made the top 15, except Netflix’s In her placeChilean entry from Love Alberdiwhose movie is from 2020 Agent Mole was shortlisted in the category (and nominated for Best Documentary) and has now been adapted for Netflix Ted Danson series The man inside.

Some may wonder why Sideshow/Janus’ Indian film Everything we imagine as light — voted Best Foreign Language Film of 2024 by the New York and Los Angeles Film Critics and the Gotham Awards, and nominated for the respective Golden Globe and Critics Choice Awards — is not on the shortlist. You can, again, blame the Indian selection committee, which filed without a US distributor instead Lost ladieswhich was not shortlisted.

The music branch had no major surprises among its 15 songs that advanced, except for exemptions Miley CyrusThe song “Beautiful That Way” from the album Roadside was nominated for a Golden Globe and Critics’ Choice The last showgirl. Emilia Perezas expected, it was the only film to get more places, especially for “El Mal” and “Mi Camino”. The branch, however, caught many off guard by omitting two former Oscar winners and perennial favorites from the 20-song setlist, Jon Batistewho composed music for Sony Saturday night in a very unusual and impressive way; and Alexandre Desplatwhich was behind the results for both Netflix Piano lesson and Amazon/MGMs Unstoppable.

Other notable hits and misses? Both 2024 movies in which Sebastian Stan is undergoing a major physical transition — A24 A different man and Briarcliff/Rich Spirit’s Trainee — shortlisted out of 10 makeup/hairstyles, as well as a company without a distributor Waltz with Brandoin which Billy Zane turns into Marlon Brandobeating many higher profile titles. Netflix’s Maria didn’t make the shortlist of 10 sounds, even though the people on that team made it sound like Marija Kalas. And Well Go Thai movie with crazy US title How to make millions before grandma diesis among the 15 subtitled pictures that continue in the race for Best International Film.