Month: April 2021

It’s been a strange awards season to say the least, but honestly when is it not? Not a pandemic, not even world war, has been able to stop the beast of awards season. So I wondered how it would all play out when the Academy Awards announced their postponement, for a year where so many awards-heavy films were delayed. Nonetheless, the year in film must be represented, regardless if films were even released in theaters or not. There were some pleasant surprises among the nominations (two female director nominees for the first time ever, Thomas Vinterberg for Director, Paul Raci for supporting actor) and some let downs (no Delroy Lindo? And Small Axe – which we named best film of 2020 – wasn’t even eligible?) But despite having a “watered down” awards season, the Academy Awards always manage to come out swinging with a surprise or two in the mix. And as a result, awards season became just a little more intimate this year. Here’s who will win at the 93^rd Academy Awards:

Best Picture
The Father
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
Minari
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Riz Ahmed, Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Gary Oldman, Mank
Steven Yeun, Minari

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Viola Davis, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Andra Day, The United States vs. Billie Holiday
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces of a Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Carey Mulligan, Promising Young Woman

This is perhaps the toughest category this year, as Andra Day, Frances McDormand, Viola Davis, and Carey Mulligan have all picked up major curtain raiser awards leading up to the Oscars. But if history repeats itself, and the Oscars go with the ballsier choice (like they did with Olivia Coleman two years ago), expect Mulligan to swoop in and pick it up. If not her, expect Viola Davis to take it – McDormand just won three years ago, and has already won twice overall.

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Glenn Close, Hillbilly Elegy
Olivia Colman, The Father
Amanda Seyfried, Mank
Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Sacha Baron Cohen, The Trial of the Chicago 7
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas and the Black Messiah
Leslie Odom, Jr., One Night in Miami
Paul Raci, Sound of Metal
LaKeith Stanfield, Judas and the Black Messiah

Kaluuya has picked up pretty much every supporting actor award there is this year. Except, Paul Raci wasn’t nominated against him for any of them. A critic’s favorite, expect Raci to win if Kaluuya doesn’t take the statue.

Best Director
Thomas Vinterberg, Another Round
Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
David Fincher, Mank
Lee Isaac Chung, Minari
Chloé Zhao, Nomadland

After picking up every single directing award this season, it’d seem like a miracle if anyone except Zhao were to win. However, if I had to put a dark horse that could cause an upset, I’d say Vinterberg. (How cool would that be?)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (Peter Baynham, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Erica Rivinoja & Dan Swimer)
The Father (Christopher Hampton & Florian Zeller)
Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)
One Night in Miami (Kemp Powers)
The White Tiger (Ramin Bahrani)

Best Original Screenplay
Judas and the Black Messiah (Will Berson, Shaka King, Keith Lucas & Kenny Lucas)
Minari (Lee Isaac Chung)
Promising Young Woman (Emerald Fennell)
Sound of Metal (Derek Cianfrance, Abraham Marder & Darius Marder)
The Trial of the Chicago 7 (Aaron Sorkin)

This would mark the first time both screenplay categories went to women with sole-screenwriting credit on their scripts.

Best Costume Design
Emma
Mank
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mulan
Pinocchio

Best Original Score
Da 5 Bloods
Mank
Minari
News of the World
Soul

Best Animated Short Film
Burrow
Genius Loci
If Anything Happens I Love You
Opera
Yes-People

Best Live-Action Short Film
Feeling Through
The Letter Room
The Present
Two Distant Strangers
White Eye

Best Documentary Feature
Collective
Crip Camp
The Mole Agent
My Octopus Teacher
Time

Best Documentary Short Subject
Colette
A Concerto Is a Conversation
Do Not Split
Hunger Ward
A Love Song for Latasha

Best International Feature Film
Denmark, Another Round
Hong Kong, Better Days
Romania, Collective
Tunisia, The Man Who Sold His Skin
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Quo Vadis, Aida?

Best Sound
Greyhound
Mank
News of the World
Sound of Metal
Soul

Best Production Design
The Father
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
News of the World
Tenet

Best Film Editing
The Father
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
Sound of Metal
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Cinematography
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
News of the World
Nomadland
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Again, Nomadland has picked up every award for cinematography this year, except the ASC award, which is the only one that really matters. If Nomadland doesn’t win, expect Mank to take this category.

Best Visual Effects
Love and Monsters
The Midnight Sky
Mulan
The One and Only Ivan
Tenet

Best Animated Feature Film
Onward
Over the Moon
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Soul
Wolfwalkers

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Emma
Hillbilly Elegy
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Mank
Pinocchio

Best Original Song
“Husavik” from Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga
“Fight For You” from Judas and the Black Messiah
“lo Sì (Seen)” from The Life Ahead (La Vita Davanti a Se)
“Speak Now” from One Night in Miami
“Hear My Voice” from The Trial of the Chicago 7

A mariachi band in the courtyard. Aziz Ansari trying to act lowkey. Teenagers hot boxing a car in the parking lot. A revival of a French New Wave classic everyone could care less about. A protest. A strike. One of the best first dates you’ve ever been on. And the worst. These are some of the things you may have encountered on a Friday night at the Arclight Hollywood. Yes, there are plenty of other art house and multiplex theaters in the city. But this one was special. I’ve thrown parties there, slept there, fallen in love there, fallen out of love, gotten in fights. It was more than just a cinema, but rather a romantic pulse that carried you no matter what phase of life you were in.

L.A. doesn’t feel so much as a vertical ladder you climb than a horizontal one, because at the Arclight, your past, present, and future lives intersected. Old classmates, bosses, romantic partners… no matter what career you were in or what part of the city you came from, the Arclight Hollywood always acted like an airport-hub of individuals constantly going in and out.

Equivalent to McDonald’s closing 153 outlets or Apple closing three of its stores, the announcement of Arclight and Pacific Theaters’ closure last week shocked the city and automatically sparked hopeful rumors about who could possibly save this mecca. Some things surely don’t add up: the highest grossing theater in the U.S. that provides one percent of the total North American gross? Its plug pulled just as establishments are re-opening? And with no mention or warning about the exhibitor going under? There were clear signs of trouble for Arclight just two weeks ago, when a Twitter user posted a photo of an eviction notice found on the doors of its Culver City location. ArcLight and Pacific executives have remained silent on the abrupt announcement, but it appears that a major factor in the decision was rent, the largest fixed cost for theatrical exhibitors. Culver City had a rent of $2.2 million annually.

If L.A. truly loved this theater – all of its inhabitants and players and dreamers – then surely it can be saved. If it won’t be filmmakers and studio-heads that band together to save it, then my guess would be Netflix, Amazon, or Apple, someone with enough clout (and money) that would be incentivized into buying out the theater for theatrical distribution for their own content, much like what Netflix did with the Egyptian Theater for Roma and The Irishman.

Among the top domestic exhibitors, Cinemark is considered the most likely candidate, having more solid financials than AMC and Regal and surprisingly still underrepresented in Southern California. AMC has eight of the top 12 grossing theaters in Southern California, so any more would risk anti-trust issues. Regal has fewer theaters in the Los Angeles area, but it’s been conservative in the nationwide reopening of its theaters already.

Among other candidates is the Arizona-based Harkins Theaters, which appears to have more solid fundamentals. The Mexico-based luxury theater chain Cinepolis has already made moves into Southern California with its Pacific Palisades location. Among the unlikely, however, are Alamo, which is in Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and Landmark. (Also possible is outside investors stepping in under the right circumstances and a reduced price.)

And, of course, gone is the famed Cinerama Dome – home of Hollywood premieres for decades, one of the few places in the country that could project 70mm film prints, and that damned curved screen from Hollywood’s old Vista-Vision days (three projectors playing simultaneously) that only looked good from a few select seats. But you didn’t mind it. It was a look you grew comfortable with.

In 1998, the city named the Cinerama Dome a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument, giving it some special protections. But that designation does not prevent demolition or alteration. Any plans to significantly alter the Dome would have to go before the city’s Cultural Heritage Commission, which can delay demolition for up to a year allowing community leaders to develop a way to save the Dome.

However, even if the building itself will still be standing there, its soul will be gone. Gone is the staff that you could tell truly loved movies. Gone are the authentic usher intros and assistance to find your seat, and the cutoff time for late arrivals. It was a tradition that didn’t exist anymore. But the Arclight Hollywood kept it alive.

When I first moved to L.A., the first screening I attempted to see at Arclight was a newly restored 70mm print of Vertigo. Without knowing the sprawling layout of the city, I of course arrived late, with no ticket, in the standby line. I didn’t get in that night, but it didn’t matter – I was not the only one. (I’d since return to the theater with more successful attempts – friends’ premieres, birthday parties, special screenings). Instead I bummed around Hollywood that night: passed the Palladium, the Pantages, the El Capitan, No Vacancy, and wondered what living in this strange city might be like. L.A. has long been renowned for not having a “true” city center. The Arclight, however, was my city center.