Monday Miniatures: Bugonia, Nouvelle Vague, and Cover-Up

Welcome to Monday Miniatures, where I tell you about some of the stuff I’ve been watching in the past week that I wouldn’t otherwise get to share.

The week of Nov. 3-Nov. 9, 2025:

Bugonia, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

How I watched it: In theaters (AMC Americana)

As much of the world did, I fell in love with Lanthimos as a filmmaker after seeing 2010’s Dogtooth. I have greatly enjoyed watching his evolution as a filmmaker and the evolution of his films over the past 15 years. Bugonia represents the director as his most Dogtooth since Dogtooth, and it’s a breath of fresh air – or a sigh of relief if, like I was, you were feeling a little stultified after the one-two punch of Poor Things and Kinds of Kindness.

Bugonia is a tense, electrifying (pun intended, if you’ve seen the movie) thriller about humanity’s dual needs to find something or someone to blame for why things feel so bad right now and for that something or someone to be not our fault and out of our control. All conspiracy theories are born from the need to make order out of chaos, to find meaning in randomness. The proliferation of the internet and, in particular, social media has only made it easier for people selling answers to find a ravenous audience of buyers. Of course, just because you bought it doesn’t make it real, another key fact of the internet age.

I have not seen the 2003 South Korean film Save the Green Planet!, on which this is based. I would like to, and my understanding is that Bugonia writer Will Tracy (The Menu) hews pretty close to the original text. That said, there are elements that feel very 2020s. A few examples: 22 years ago, internet rabbit holes didn’t exist the same way they do now; conspiracies in 2003 existed at the fringes of society, not as an essential thread of our political fabric; the pharma CEO played by Emma Stone, girl-bossing and leaning in, could only have come from the past decade.

All of which is to say this feels like an essential film for our moment. Jesse Plemons’ conspiracy-obsessed kidnapper feels real and tragic in the same way it feels to watch anyone construct the architecture of his own demise. You have brought this upon yourself, but that doesn’t make it any less sad that we live in a world in which your brain can break in this way. It is in fact a world that profits and feeds off your brokenness.

There are some missteps in the third act that I have been grappling with since seeing this movie, but the final images are so haunting and poetic, and not just a little prophetic, that I’m willing to forgive a lot. I guess what I’m saying is: It’s good to have Lanthimos back in his wheelhouse. At his best, no one is doing it like him.

Nouvelle Vague, directed by Richard Linklater

How I watched it: In theaters (Landmark Playhouse, Pasadena)

A movie about one of the most iconoclastic filmmakers of all time making one of the most influential films of all time shouldn’t be this darn conventional, but here we are. I was trepidatious based on the trailer that Linklater, in directing this movie about Jean-Luc Godard directing Breathless, would attempt to ape the master’s style. The trailer is cut in such a way to remind one of later-period Godard. At least Linklater does not do that. Unfortunately, he failed to substitute in any style of his own.

Loaded with a Marvel level of Easter eggs, film history buffs will enjoy the dopamine hit of recognition when they see French New Wave figures paraded around for little reason other than to acknowledge that they were there, too. ‘Look! It’s Agnes Varda and Jacques Demy! Did you know they were married?’ The movie even helpfully puts a little chiron on the screen telling you who each person is as they flash by on screen, just so the audience knows the movie knows what it’s doing.

The worst sin this kind of movie can commit, to my mind, is to have the characters be humorously unaware of the future, those moments when the filmmakers try to have a little wink-wink, nudge-nudge metatextual fun with the audience. I call it Pirates of Silicon Valley syndrome, a made-for-TV movie from 1999 in which Steve Jobs berates Bill Gates while questioning, “Windows? What the heck is Windows?” Even as a kid, I knew that was silly.

A lot of this movie, however, falls into that trap, with Jean Seberg (Zoey Deutch) and Jean-Paul Belmondo (Aubry Dullin) remarking early and often on how glad they are no one will ever see this stinker of a film they’re making. The moneymen on screen doubt the film will ever make a dime, which I’m sure was true, but you can feel the movie winking.

Kudos to Guillaume Marbeck, who plays Godard, for infusing some of the real man’s anarchic spirit into the film, even if the rest of the movie lacks that same soul. Marbeck captures perfectly what one imagines the young, cocky, but unproven Godard to be like as he made his cinematic debut. As a whole, the movie is fun if you absolutely, positively love the French New Wave, and even then, only just fun enough.

Cover-Up, directed by Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus

How I watched it: In theaters (Aero Theatre)

Poitras originally wanted to make a documentary about investigative journalist Seymour Hersh back in 2005. He declined, and in the ensuing 20 years, Poitras herself has proven to be one of the great investigative documentarians of her time. More than that, she is one of the great chroniclers of individuals standing up for truth (or their interpretation of truth) in the face of overwhelming power and pressure.

Her Oscar-winning Citizenfour, about whistleblower Edward Snowden, is the defining document of the post-9/11 surveillance era. She followed that up with portraits of Julian Assange and WikiLeaks (Risk) and Nan Goldin’s battle against the Sackler family (All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, for my money, her masterpiece). Now, she returns to the subject of Hersh at a critical time for truth in politics, guts in media, and the journalist’s own legacy.

Poitras appeared at the Aero Theater on Saturday for an advanced screening of the film and a wide-ranging and thoughtful, if not terribly hopeful, Q&A afterward. I can’t say for certain what Poitras’ approach would have been in 2005, but it is clear two decades of involvement in the geopolitical happenings in this country have informed the filmmaker’s approach to the material.

It would be easy enough to make this film a hagiography of Hersh, whose accomplishments as a journalist include breaking the My Lai massacre, furthering the Watergate investigation, and uncovering evidence of torture at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. Poitras, however, is smarter than that and well aware that the past 15 years or so have not been kind to Hersh’s legacy, whether because of shoddy reporting, poor instincts, or single-sourcing some of his pieces. These are all fair criticisms that do nothing to diminish Hersh’s accomplishments, but it takes just one stain to tarnish a brand built on truth.

Instead, Poitras and co-director Obenhaus use Hersh’s reporting to craft a timeline that lays out 60 years of government lies, scandals, and (lending the film its title) cover-ups. From Vietnam to Iraq to today, the machinery of power has operated in much the same fashion. And even in the time of Watergate, it took a monumental amount of effort across a vast network of journalists even to begin to dismantle that machinery. Today, for so many reasons, it feels less possible than ever.

From the perpetuation of conspiracies to the consolidation and conglomeration of media, the debasement of journalism, and the undermining of the very concept of facts, it has never been more difficult to speak truth to power. Poitras has built a career depicting people who preach openness, honesty, and accountability, but at the end of the day, the filmmaker herself may be the greatest practitioner of that which they preach.

Goodfellas, directed by Martin Scorsese

How I watched it: Blu-ray I own

Sometimes, it’s just good to remind yourself why the great ones are great. I threw this on while working the other day and found myself glued to the screen, even still for a movie I’ve seen 40 or 50 times. It never gets old, and the filmmaking remains as vital today as the day it was released. If you haven’t seen this in a while, do yourself a favor and pop it on.

Oppy on toppy: Christopher Nolan’s epic dominates 96th Academy Awards

As the fates foretold, Christopher Nolan’s historical epic Oppenheimer was the bigger winner Sunday night, taking home Best Picture, Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, and a trio of below-the-line awards. It is now the third-highest grossing Best Picture winner of all time, behind just Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. It also ties last year’s Everything Everywhere All at Once as the third-winningest Best Picture winner of the 21st century, behind just The Return of the King and Slumdog Millionaire.

After Oppenheimer, the other big winner of the night was Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things, which tallied four awards, including Best Actress for Emma Stone. The race between Stone and Killers of the Flower Moon star Lily Gladstone came down to the wire, but it was clear voters simply loved the Stone film more. We’ll get to Killers in a minute. Poor Things also won for Costume Design, Production Design, and Makeup and Hairstyling.

Cillian Murphy earned a well-deserved Best Actor trophy, while Robert Downey Jr. took home Best Supporting Actor, kicking off his post-marvel career with a bang. As was widely predicted, Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress, the first award handed out at the show. Randolph’s speech was genuine, emotional, and moving, starting the night off on the right foot.

Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest joined Oppenheimer and Poor Things as the only films to win multiple awards on the night, taking home Best International Feature and Best Sound in a truly inspired victory.

Justine Triet and Arthur Harari’s original screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall bested The Holdovers in that category, while Cord Jefferson’s script for American Fiction triumphed in the adapted category. 

Ludwig Göransson picked up his second career Academy Award for his Oppenheimer score, while Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell made history with their Original Song win for “What Was I Made For?” from Barbie. Eilish (22) and O’Connell (26) are now the youngest and second-youngest, respectively, two-time winners in Oscars history, having previously won two years ago for their James Bond theme “No Time to Die.”

In addition to Göransson, cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema and editor Jennifer Lame picked up Oscars in their respective categories for their work on Oppenheimer.

Martin Scorsese now has the ignominious distinction of having directed three of the seven films in history to earn double-digit nominations and go home empty-handed after Killers of the Flower Moon was blanked. Wildly, this is his second such film in a row, following The Irishman pulling the same feat in 2019. Bradley Cooper’s Maestro (0-for-7) and Celine Song’s Past Lives (0-for-2) were the only other Best Picture nominees not to win an award.

For my money, the speech of the night award goes to Msytslav Chernov, director of Documentary Feature winner 20 Days in Mariupol. Chernov’s film, which documents the Russian siege of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, is one of the most powerful and important pictures of the year. The filmmaker met the moment with an impassioned plea for the world to recognize and remember the ongoing atrocities in Ukraine. He specifically called on the Hollywood elites in the room to use their power and influence to ensure that these atrocities are never forgotten.

Elsewhere, Hayao Miyazaki, who could not attend the ceremony, won his second award for Animated Feature for his beautiful The Boy and the Heron. While not my preferred choice, it’s hard to begrudge the Japanese master an award for what most likely will be his final film.

Another winner from Japan came in the form of Godzilla Minus One, which won the Visual Effects Oscar for director Takashi Yamazaki and his team. Delightfully, Yamazaki and his fellow winners brought to the stage with them the Godzilla models that helped win them the award. Yamazaki had to hand his Godzilla off to one of his compatriots in order to hold both his Oscar and his speech.

I went 3-for-3 in the shorts categories for only the second time in my predicting career, as Wes Anderson won his first Oscar for Live Action Short contender The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Last Repair Shop triumphed in Documentary Short, and WAR IS OVER! took the Animated Short category. WAR IS OVER! executive producer Sean Ono Lennon joined the team onstage and wished his mother a happy Mother’s Day – as we learned repeatedly throughout the evening, Sunday was Mother’s Day in the UK.

As for my predictions overall, this was the fewest misses I’ve ever had, as I went 18-for-23. Three of my misses came from underestimating the Academy’s love for Poor Things. One of those was in Production Design, where I changed my prediction at the last minute from Poor Things to Barbie. I won’t do that again. I thought Maestro would have to win something, so I went there for Makeup and Hairstyling. A mistake. And, the Stone vs. Gladstone race probably deserves a longer separate piece, so I’ll save that discussion for another time.

I thought the show, in general, was excellent. Jimmy Kimmel feels like a safe pair of hands as host at this point. You know what you’re getting, and it’s a perfect fit for the show the Academy wants to put on. The opening monologue was fleet-footed and funny and ended with an inspired tribute to the IATSE members who are in the midst of contract negotiations. Kimmel brought out the union members working on the broadcast to a standing ovation and pledged that the talent in the room would stand with IATSE should the time for collective action come.

There was no fat on the broadcast, with the lone clip package reserved for a tribute to Hollywood stunt performers. One wishes that montage had ended with the announcement of a new award for stunts, but it did not. However, with a casting Oscar on the way in 2025, I would say it’s only a matter of time before this pivotal role in the moviemaking machine gets its Academy due.

I enjoyed that the Academy brought back the practice of having five previous winners in the acting categories deliver personalized tributes to this year’s nominees. The Supporting Actress tributes were particularly emotional, as a number of the folks involved had personal connections. Frankly, the rest of the tributes throughout the night couldn’t quite live up to that standard, but it’s a lovely idea that I hope the Academy continues with.

The comedy bits were quick, inspired, and on point, with John Cena’s “nude” presentation of Best Costume Design a particular standout.

For the second year in a row, one perfectly timed Original Song performance brought the house down and gave the show the energy boost necessary to carry on into the final awards of the night. Last year, it was “Naatu Naatu” from RRR, while this time around, Ryan Gosling absolutely nailed his performance of “I’m Just Ken.” 

Gosling started in the crowd, then walked up onstage to join a chorus line of dancers. He did some crowd work, getting folks like Margot Robbie, Greta Gerwig, and Stone involved in singing the song. Finally, Guns ‘n’ Roses guitarist Slash made a surprise appearance to shred a solo over the climax of the song. It was exactly the kind of joyous, energetic, buzzworthy moment the Oscars need to get people talking, and Gosling and Co. delivered.

Off the top of my head, my first-blush reactions are: 1) I’m pleased with a stripped-down show that was allowed to foreground the nominees; 2) Oppenheimer is a great film that will hold up well with the title of Best Picture attached to it; and 3) I’ll be reflecting on the Stone vs. Gladstone race for quite a while and will probably need to publish a separate piece on it once the dust has settled.

For now, that’s all from here. Congrats to Nolan and his team on their remarkable triumph, as well as to all the winners. And, thank you to everyone who has followed along on the site. I do this out of love, and nights like tonight are a wonderful reminder of what I love so much about the movies.

Countdown to the Oscars: Best Actress

Welcome to this year’s edition of Last Cinema Standing’s Countdown to the Oscars, where we will break down each of the 23 categories, analyze the films, and make some guesses at their awards prospects.

Best Actress

The nominees are:

Annette Bening in Nyad

Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon

Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall

Carey Mulligan in Maestro

Emma Stone in Poor Things

Annette Bening in Nyad

Bening is one of the more prominent cases of Oscars bridesmaid syndrome, having been nominated for an Academy Award now five times without a win over four consecutive decades. Nyad represents her first nomination since 2010 for The Kids Are All Right, though for my money, she was absolutely robbed for career-best work in Mike Mills’ 20th Century Women in 2016.

Diana Nyad is an interesting figure. She’s prickly and difficult and hard to love, and Bening makes the decision not to soften any of the edges, engaging directly with the kind of intensity and single-mindedness it would take to pull off the athletic feats she does. It’s actually an incredibly daring choice for the performer, which is not even to get into the physicality of the role. Of course, portraying a top-level athlete exacts an immense physical toll, and Bening went all the way there, as well. 

Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon

It’s telling that in a Martin Scoresese picture also starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro, Gladstone is the standout. Her Mollie Kyle is the heart of the story, and Gladstone is the heart of the film. She demonstrates a remarkable stillness and reserve that contrasts perfectly with the weasley operator played by DiCaprio. It’s a star-making part that should put Gladstone in a position to do whatever she wants with her career.

Throughout this season and throughout the promotion of the film, she has spoken eloquently about the history of indigenous portrayals in Hollywood, the treatment of native peoples by the government, and the need for greater representation in all media. It cannot be easy to be thrust into the position of speaking for an entire population, but Gladstone has handled the responsibility with dignity and grace. Here’s hoping this marks a real turning point for indigenous actors in the industry.

Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall

From my piece on the best performances of 2023, where I placed Hüller’s performance at the top of the list: “I have heard this character called cold. Some have suggested she is a sociopath. These are simplistic readings of a woman who will not be pinned down so easily. The script by [Justine] Triet and her partner, Arthur Harari, is of course superb, but it is Hüller who makes every moment sing. The tension derives from the disconnect between what we see in this character, what we know about her, and what we can never know, and few actors are as capable of living in that kind of tension the way Hüller does here. Love her, hate her, that’s not the point. Because of Hüller, we understand her, and that is so much more interesting.”

Carey Mulligan in Maestro

I can’t say with any certainty that Bening will ever win one of these things, despite being a wonderfully talented performer. However, I feel fairly certain Mulligan, who is on a similar trajectory, will eventually get over the hump. This is Mulligan’s third career nomination, all for Best Actress. Her previous nods came for An Education in 2009, when she was just 24, and for Promising Young Woman in 2020.

Across dark dramas and thrillers like Wildlife, Shame, and Drive, she has proven herself one of the most adept performers in film at digging into the psychology of a character and making that inner life manifest on screen. She is one of my favorite actresses working today. I would not call Maestro one of her best roles, though she does a wonderful job with the material she is given. It is a highly technical role, calling for an incredibly specific accent as well as all manner of tics and mannerisms. But, the character is rarely given the opportunity to shine apart from her effect on the protagonist of the film.

Emma Stone in Poor Things

From my piece on the best performances of 2023, where I placed Stone at No. 2: “There is nothing studied about Stone’s take on Bella Baxter, which is important since Bella begins as a character unstudied in just about everything. The beauty of the performance comes in the joy of discovery. Bella lives in the here and now because as far as she knows, she has no past and the future is boundless. Stone makes us believe she is learning everything in the moment it comes to her – the freedom of dance, the pleasures of the flesh, the sting of inequality. … With Poor Things, the 35-year-old performer has planted her flag on the mountaintop. No doubt, there will be future mountains to climb and flags to plant.”

This is Stone’s fourth acting nomination at the Oscars. She is also a nominated producer on Poor Things, making her just the second woman ever nominated for both awards for the same film. She joins Frances McDormand, who won Best Actress and Best Picture for Nomadland in 2020. Stone has one previous win for Best Actress for La La Land in 2016. Her other prior nominations came for Supporting Actress in Birdman and The Favourite.

The final analysis

This is the only major race with some manner of intrigue, and it will be difficult to know exactly who has the edge here right up until the envelope is opened tomorrow night. It’s a battle between Gladstone and Stone, though of course, to call it a battle adds a competitive element that is fun for us but does not exist between the two performers. As the awards season has gone on, they have been nothing but gracious in interviews and thrilled for each other when winning awards, which has happened a lot.

At the Golden Globes, Stone won for best actress in a comedy, while Gladstone took home the drama award. Gladstone delivered a tremendously powerful speech that in most years would have sealed the victory for her. Then, Stone won the Critics Choice Award and the BAFTA, while Gladstone was not even nominated by the BAFTAs. The momentum seemed to be swinging that direction, but then Gladstone triumphed at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, and that flipped things back toward her.

So, at this stage, I would call it neck and neck, with a slight edge to Gladstone after the SAG win. The SAG winners have matched the Oscar winners 4-for-4 in each of the past two years. Last year, Brendan Fraser’s SAG win was how we knew he had pulled away from Austin Butler in Best Actor, while Jamie Lee Curtis’ win was the way we learned she was inching ahead of Angela Bassett in Supporting Actress. So, I’m predicting Gladstone here for what will be a historic win. She would be the first indigenous winner of Best Actress in Academy history, and it would be well deserved.

Will win: Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon

Should win: Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall

Should have been here: Julianne Moore in May December

A note about my favorite snub: Moore was actually campaigned in Supporting Actress for this performance, but I don’t have to play that game. May December has three leading performances, and Moore gets my nod just ahead of Natalie Portman, who is also tremendous in the film. Moore’s performance is just so psychologically complex and difficult to pin down. We can never be sure how much the character knows or understands about her situation, but we always have the feeling that Moore knows, which is all we need to stay anchored in this shifty story. Once again, Moore proves she’s one of the best in the game.

Oppenheimer, Poor Things Lead Oscar Nominations, Gerwig Snubbed Again

Nominations for the 96th Academy Awards were announced Tuesday morning, and as expected, Christopher Nolan’s atomic-age biopic Oppenheimer led the way with 13 nominations, one shy of tying the all-time record. The epic story of J. Robert Oppenheimer and the program to build the first atomic bomb was nominated in all the big categories, including Director, Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Adapted Screenplay, along with significant below-the-line support, and it remains the frontrunner for the top prize. Right now, it’s simply a matter of how big that win will be.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ and Emma Stone’s comic fantasy Poor Things earned 11 nominations, including Picture. Lanthimos and Stone are both producers on the movie, so each ended up with multiple nominations on the day, Lanthimos for Picture and Director and Stone for Picture and Actress. Mark Ruffalo also was nominated for Supporting Actor, his fourth such nomination.

Killers of the Flower Moon, Martin Scorsese’s recounting of the Osage oil murders, landed 10 nods, including Picture, Director, and Actress for Lily Gladstone, who becomes the first indigenous woman nominated for Best Actress.

Barbie came next with eight nominations, including Best Picture, but Greta Gerwig missed out in the directing category, which will go down as the biggest snub of the year. Despite broad crafts support, the film also failed to nab an Actress nomination for Margot Robbie or an Editing nod. Nevertheless, both Ryan Gosling and America Ferrera earned supporting recognition in their respective categories, so the love is out there for the billion-dollar behemoth.

Rounding out the 10-strong Best Picture race are American Fiction, Anatomy of a Fall, The Holdovers, Maestro, Past Lives, and The Zone of Interest. Both Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) and The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer) also garnered directing nods, suggesting the international flavor of the Academy is only getting stronger.

Triet becomes just the eighth woman to be recognized in the directing category, while she was also nominated for Original Screenplay, alongside partner Arthur Harari, while star Sandra Hüller got a well-deserved nomination for Best Actress. The film also hit in the Editing category. 

Films that land in the Picture, Director, Editing, screenplay, and acting categories tend to be strong contenders, and while I’m not suggesting Anatomy of a Fall will challenge Oppenheimer for the top prize, at the very least, the French nomination committee has to be kicking itself for not submitting the film in the International Feature competition. The French went with Tran Ahn Hung’s The Taste of Things, which is a  lovely movie but did not get nominated.

Glazer’s Holocaust horror story, on the other hand, did make it into the International Feature category, a rarity for a UK production, though the film’s spoken language is German. In addition to Director, Glazer was nominated for Adapted Screenplay, and the film was recognized in the Sound category for its stunning soundscapes. Also nominated for International Feature are Io Capitano from Italy, Perfect Days from Japan, Society of the Snow from Spain, and The Teacher’s Lounge from Germany. It’s a heavily Euro-centric lineup, as even the Japanese entrant is from German master Wim Wenders.

Joining Hüller, Gladstone, and Stone in Actress are Annette Bening for Nyad and Carey Mulligan for Maestro. This is Mulligan’s third Best Actress nomination and Bening’s fifth overall (four lead, one supporting). Stone, who of course previously won this category for La La Land, has four total acting nominations (two lead, two supporting) and five overall.

Two-time Oscar winner Jodie Foster will join her Nyad co-star in celebrating after earning a Supporting Actress nomination. She is joined by Emily Blunt for Oppenheimer, Danielle Brooks for The Color Purple, America Ferrera for Barbie, and presumptive frontrunner Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers. All except Foster are first-time nominees.

Also among The Holdovers’ five nominations is Paul Giamatti in Best Actor. He is joined by Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer, Bradley Cooper for Maestro, Colman Domingo for Rustin, and Jeffrey Wright for American Fiction. Murphy, Domingo, and Wright are all first-timers, while this is Giamatti’s first leading nomination. His only previous nomination came in Supporting Actor for 2005’s Cinderella Man.

Cooper, meanwhile, can’t stop getting nominated and for the second time in his career pulled off the hat trick of a triple-nomination year. He is nominated in Picture, Actor, and Original Screenplay, the same trifecta he pulled off in 2018 for A Star Is Born, though that was in the Adapted Screenplay category. Overall, this brings Cooper’s nomination total to 12.

Over in Supporting Actor, Sterling K. Brown earned his first career nomination for American Fiction and will be joined by frontrunner Robert Downey Jr. for Oppenheimer, Rober De Niro for Killers of the Flower Moon, Ryan Gosling for Barbie, and Mark Ruffalo for Poor Things. This is De Niro’s ninth overall nomination, moving him into a tie for sixth-most all time.

We will dig deeper into all of these categories, as well as the below-the-line races, in the coming weeks. For now, here are a few things that stick out:

• Oppenheimer is one of the strongest frontrunners we’ve had at this point in the race in a long time. It was nominated in every category where it was eligible, it has broad support across every branch of the Academy, and it keeps winning prizes everywhere it goes.

• The Gerwig miss in Director stings. It’s a bad look for the Directors Branch. While they did nominate Triet, one wonders what the visionary director of one of the highest-grossing films of all time has to do. She also was snubbed for Little Women in 2019, to me an equally egregious omission. And with the ridiculous decision to place Barbie in Adapted Screenplay, where Oppenheimer is likely to triumph, Gerwig is nearly certain to be a bridesmaid yet again.

• Beyond just Gerwig, Barbie came up soft in general, despite eight total nods. Not only did it miss Director, Actress, and Editing, as mentioned, it converted just two of its three expected song nominations, with Dua Lipa missing out for “Dance the Night.” We could psychoanalyze this all day – and I’m sure that analysis is coming – but it sure feels like something was going on in voters’ minds regarding Barbie.

• The Cinematography nomination for independent legend Ed Lachman for El Conde is really cool. This is Lachman’s third career nod.

• Whatever heat May December might have had early on sure died a quiet death. With just one nomination for Samy Burch’s Original Screenplay and no acting nods for what is absolutely an actors’ showcase, something clearly did not click for Academy members. I am bummed most of all for Charles Melton.

• The lack of any nominations for Origin, All of Us Strangers, or The Iron Claw suggests a late-in-the-year release is not an ideal strategy. Oscar nominees need time to build buzz before voting begins, and late December just doesn’t cut it.

Okay, that’s all for now. As always, we’ll have more on all of this in the coming days and weeks. Until then, click here to head over to the Academy website for the full nominations list, and happy movie watching.