Oscars: Academy Releases Nine Category Shortlists

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has taken the very unusual step of releasing Oscars shortlists in nine categories at once for the first time ever. Previously they sent out shortlists separately and at different times. This is also the first year that Original Score and Best Song have been included in the shortlisting process by eliminating all but 15 contenders in each of those categories going forward. In past years the Academy simply released a list of eligible scores and songs ,but didn’t eliminate any of them until Oscar nominations were actually announced. Check out the semifinalists for Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, Makeup/Hairstyling, Foreign Language Feature, Original Song, Original Score, Live Action Short and Animated Short below.

 

Among the biggest surprises is that Girl, the Belgian film that has inflamed the LGBTQ community and caused a huge backlash, was snubbed for Foreign Film. And although Sweden’s Border was not on the list of Foreign Language Film’s nine finalists, it did score a mention as finalist for Make Up and Hairstyling, the third such Swedish film to make that cut in that category this decade. And though Netflix’s Quincy was overlooked as a Documentary Feature finalist, the song “Keep Reachin'” made the shortlist for Best Song. This week’s holiday releases, Aquaman, Bumblebee, and Mortal Engines which all feature dazzling special effects were eliminated from the race after first being shortlisted on the Visual Effects branch’s list of 20 original contenders (now whittled down to 10). However Robert Zemeckis’ latest dance with Performance Capture techniques, Welcome To Marwen which also opens this week, did graduate to the Academy’s latest round of hopefuls, even if it is far less known than the higher profile trio of holiday openers.

 

Voting on nominations will run from January 7-14, and the list of nominees for the 91st Oscars will be unveiled on Tuesday, January 22. The hardware will be doled out Sunday, February 24, at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood & Highland. ABC will air the ceremony live nationwide.

Here are the lists unveiled today:

 

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
One hundred sixty-six films were originally submitted in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

 

Charm City
Communion
Crime + Punishment
Dark Money
The Distant Barking of Dogs
Free Solo
Hale County This Morning, This Evening
Minding the Gap
Of Fathers and Sons
On Her Shoulders
RBG
Shirkers
The Silence of Others
Three Identical Strangers
Won’t You Be My Neighbor?

 

DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
One hundred four films had originally qualified in the category. Members of the Documentary Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

 

Black Sheep
End Game
Lifeboat
Los Comandos
My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes
A Night at the Garden
Period. End of Sentence.
’63 Boycott
Women of the Gulag
Zion

 

MAKEUP AND HAIRSTYLING 
All members of the Academy’s Makeup Artists and Hairstylists Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films on January 5. Members will vote to nominate three films for final Oscar® consideration.

 

Black Panther
Bohemian Rhapsody
Border
Mary Queen of Scots
Stan & Ollie
Suspiria
Vice

 

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Eighty-seven films had originally been considered in the category. Los Angeles-based Academy members from all branches screened the original submissions in the category between mid-October and December 10. The group’s top six choices, augmented by three additional selections voted by the Academy’s Foreign Language Film Award Executive Committee, constitute the shortlist. Academy members eligible to participate in the nominations round of voting will view the shortlisted films.  Members must see all nine films before casting their ballots.

The films, listed in alphabetical order by country, are:

 

Colombia, Birds of Passage
Denmark, The Guilty
Germany, Never Look Away
Japan, Shoplifters
Kazakhstan, Ayka
Lebanon, Capernaum
Mexico, Roma
Poland, Cold War
South Korea, Burning

 

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)
One hundred fifty-six scores were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

 

Annihilation
Avengers: Infinity War
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Black Panther
BlacKkKlansman
Crazy Rich Asians
The Death of Stalin
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins Returns
A Quiet Place
Ready Player One
Vice

 

MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)
Ninety songs were eligible in the category. Members of the Music Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

The original songs, along with the motion picture in which each song is featured, are listed below in alphabetical order by film title and song title:

 

When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings, from The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Treasure, from Beautiful Boy
All the Stars, from Black Panther
Revelation, from Boy Erased
Girl In The Movies, from Dumplin’
We Won’t Move, from The Hate U Give
The Place Where Lost Things Go, from Mary Poppins Returns
Trip A Little Light Fantastic, from Mary Poppins Returns
Keep Reachin’, from Quincy
I’ll Fight, from RBG
A Place Called Slaughter Race, from Ralph Breaks the Internet
OYAHYTT, from Sorry to Bother You
Shallow, from A Star Is Born
Suspirium, from Suspiria
The Big Unknown, from Widows

 

ANIMATED SHORT FILM
Eighty-one films had originally qualified in the category. Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

 

Age of Sail
Animal Behaviour
Bao
Bilby
Bird Karma
Late Afternoon
Lost & Found
One Small Step
Pépé le Morse
Weekends

 

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
One hundred forty films had originally qualified in the category. Members of the Short Films and Feature Animation Branch vote to determine the shortlist and the nominees.

 

Caroline
Chuchotage
Detainment
Fauve
Icare
Marguerite
May Day
Mother
Skin
Wale

 

VISUAL EFFECTS
The Visual Effects Branch Executive Committee determined the shortlist. All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 10-minute excerpts from each of the shortlisted films on January 5. Following the screenings, members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

 

Ant-Man and the Wasp
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Christopher Robin
First Man
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom
Mary Poppins Returns
Ready Player One
Solo: A Star Wars Story
Welcome to Marwen

 

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