If I Picked the Oscars — 2025 Edition

The 97th Academy Awards, colloquially known as the Oscars, took place earlier this month — Sunday, March 2nd, 2025 — at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

Oscars night is the most prestigious of all cinema ceremonies, though the winners may not necessarily be everyone’s favorite. It all depends upon who you ask.

Motion pictures — the arts in general — are highly subjective. Everyone’s a critic. Some love Option A, others despise Option B. Ask ten different people to tell you their favorite films of the previous year and you’ll probably receive ten different answers.

For the first entry of this (hopefully) annual blog tradition, I’ll be sharing my own picks, express some related thoughts along the way, and offer suggestions for the ceremony’s improvement.

And the Winner Is…

Every year, almost 10,000 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences — actors, animators, agents, casting directors, cinematographers, costume designers, directors, documentary & short filmmakers, executives, editors, makeup artists, hairstylists, marketing specialists, public relations professionals, musicians, composers, producers, sound mixers, visual effects artists, writers, and so on — select movies of distinction within various categories.

Every year, someone at home jumps from a chair, screaming at the screen, absorbed in excitement or disgust over the results. Laughter & tears hand-in-hand.

Every year, someone else peruses the red carpet interviews, speeches, and interactions between celebrities, wondering if there will be controversies, scandals, or slip-ups.

Every year, there are unexpected underdogs, sure-fire wins, bewilderingly odd choices, and even some of those maligned films which make many wonder: who would actually vote for this?

Every year, legendary artists & hopeful newcomers mingle. Stars unite.

Every year, humble, behind-the-scenes people — who perhaps have never been recognized for their work ever before — get a chance to stand in the light and be acknowledged.

It is a dazzling spectacle, with occasional hiccups, and a massive deal for those in contention. Earning a trophy on this night is the most honored recognition within the entire movie industry, and the voting outcomes are an insightful reflection of current film tastes among filmmakers themselves.

My nominations actually share quite a bit of common ground with the Academy’s. Sure, some choices irk me or prompt a head-scratch, though it’s really not so bad.

For each category, I’ll present the Academy’s nominees & my nominees, followed by their winning pick, finishing with mine. Categories will be covered in the same order as Oscars night.

My lineup focuses on feature-length narrative films. Regrettably, I am not too knowledgeable of the documentaries or shorts from 2024. As a result, the following categories won’t be included:

• Best Animated Short
• Best Documentary Feature
• Best Documentary Short

Best Live Action Short is one exception. I was fortunate to attend a fantastic, informative screening of all five nominees — I’ll share more on that experience later.

Finally, please note, while I have seen quite a few films from 2024 (over 80 of them so far), there’s always room for growth & change. If, in the future, I see a movie which really deserves a nomination, I will update this post to reflect that, swapping things out if necessary.

Let’s begin!

Best Supporting Actor

For the sake of transparency, The Apprentice is one of the few Oscar nominees I have not seen.

Edward Norton almost stayed, I’ll grant him that. He is so charming in A Complete Unknown, like a warm blanket, though his character isn’t necessarily a major contribution after the first thirty minutes or so. The fact that Clarence Maclin wasn’t nominated by the Academy is a travesty. Despite its flaws, Gladiator II is carried on Denzel’s shoulders. All eyes are on him whenever he’s in the frame. Chris Hemsworth might just be the best movie villain of the year.

Kieran’s role in A Real Pain feels tailor-made. He was born for this, and he delivers such a layered performative symphony of trauma, humor, vulnerability, and sincerity.

A worthy choice, and I am in complete agreement.

Best Animated Feature

Fun fact: Memoir of a Snail is only the second R-rated film to be nominated in this category, after Anomalisa.

I didn’t mind the newest Wallace & Gromit entry; admittedly not a big fan of gnomes, but it was beautifully presented. The plot was a bit thin. The Colors Within, while also not a perfect film by any means, worked slightly better for me, and is worthy of some acknowledgement.

I wouldn’t fault anyone for choosing Flow. I actually view this film, The Wild Robot, and Inside Out 2 as near-equals, all in my 8/10 zone.

While I’ll almost always favor the independent production over a big studio effort, when a studio does deliver something truly wondrous, unique, and artistically resplendent, I’m giving the hardworking staff their flowers.

The Wild Robot is a triumph for DreamWorks, which is always a bit underrated among the animation powerhouses. They deliver so many films at such a fast pace. Yeah, a fair number are throwaways, like The Boss Baby or Turbo (whoa, that snail is fast), but they’re also giving us Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and this touching, lovely adventure about purpose, family, unity, and identity.

Best Costume Design

I would love to become a Cardinal, simply for those snazzy robes.

2024’s costume design nominees are all either fantasy adventures or period pieces, with the exception of Conclave. For my nominees, I leaned a little more into the fantasy. A Complete Unknown is gone. Wonderful work, though I wouldn’t say recreating 60s fashion is particularly groundbreaking.

The Count of Monte Cristo is in. Plenty of 1800s for everyone. This French film was completely overlooked at the American box office, and is on almost no one’s radar. It’s a shame, because this new adaptation of the Alexandre Dumas classic was one of the best overall cinematic experiences all year, far superior to another extremely problematic French film we’ll be hearing about soon.

In terms of story and overall quality, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice isn’t a contender at all in my mind; however, in the realm of aesthetics, wow — super creative.

With this win, Paul Tazewell became the first black man to ever win the category —

— and he absolutely deserves it. Took the Academy long enough! Envisioning entire wardrobes for a fictional world impresses me far more than anything rooted in reality. Oz doesn’t create itself. Every detail, every style, every moment comprises countless creative choices & hours upon hours of behind-the-scenes toil. The audience doesn’t see the process, though we are certainly blessed by the culmination of it all. The finished product is stunning.

Best Original Screenplay

I have not seen September 5, though I will boldly (and arrogantly) suggest (via research) it is not one of the five best screenplays from 2024. We can’t be wasting space when there are so many great stories in need of recognition.

Don’t miss out on Saturday Night. It bombed in cinemas, I think I heard crickets when I saw it, and that’s a shame. I want more buzz. I want critics & audiences to talk about this detailed, fast-paced, brilliant picture. Monkey Man is a bold social commentary, offering far more than anyone would expect from an action spectacle. Bless Jordan Peele for getting it distributed when Netflix got political cold feet. I’m looking forward to more directing, writing, and lead acting from Dev Patel.

Sean Baker achieved a massive, historical sweep at the Oscars, winning more trophies in one night than Steven Spielberg has in his entire life. Does he deserve it? That’s a complicated question, boiling down to preference. He certainly is versatile, directing, writing, producing, and editing Anora. Very few individuals juggle all four roles.

For me, I’m going with Jesse’s feature directorial debut. What a sophisticated, layered, empathetic piece of writing. It’s not merely great for a first-time filmmaker, it’s great, full stop.

Best Adapted Screenplay

No Dune? Really? No Dune: Part Two? I don’t even like it as much as many others do, yet it is such a glaring omission.

Do you remember the problematic French film I was talking about earlier? Here she is: Emilia Pérez. No. No. It’s conceited, disingenuous, and offensive. No research was done. No consideration was given. It’s a movie about México, without México, without Mexicans, directed by someone who doesn’t speak or respect the Spanish language. México hates it. The transgender community hates it. Trans identity was used, abused, straight up, for Oscar bait, then tossed aside like garbage. Good luck finding someone who actually enjoys this thing, aside from Guillermo del Toro.

Oh yeah, and the screenplay is entirely disposable. Garbage. Rubbish. I don’t understand why the Academy adores Emilia Pérez so much, enough to toss 13 nominations its way. It isn’t just controversial & widely disliked, both on camera and behind the scenes. It’s also, on a foundational level, a poorly-made, uninteresting, out-of-touch, low-quality experience. It will be entirely forgotten within a couple of months, if it hasn’t disappeared from most of our thoughts already. In the years to come, people will only revisit Emilia Pérez in the name of research and curiosity, to see why it is considered one of the worst Oscar nominees in existence.

Dune: Part Two is taking Emilia’s spot. 100%. I also removed Nickel Boys — only because I actually believe a different nomination would be more appropriate. You’ll see that movie again. You also already know I love Wicked. I made an entire glowing review for it, too.

Considering the dialogue alone, I respect this choice. Screenplays are more than words exchanged between characters, but damn, the words in Conclave are so smooth.

With that said, my absolute favorite script of the year is Sing Sing. This immaculate blend of real people, real stories & some flawless fictional reinforcement is undeniable. Every single moment matters. Every single word counts.

Best Makeup & Hairstyling

I had no idea Bill Skarsgård was somewhere in there.

Emilia Pérez is my only removal, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is my only addition.

This is traumatizing stuff.

It’s award-winning stuff, too.

Best Editing

Generally speaking, good editing isn’t noticeable, which makes the whole category a bit difficult to decide. It varies dramatically from person to person.

Everyone is gone except Wicked. Did the Academy forget Challengers was a movie? Also not one of my personal favorites, yet I still understand it definitely had Oscar-worthy strengths, especially in technical areas. Nickel Boys must’ve been so unbelievably difficult to edit with its first-person perspective. The Substance & Dune: Part Two belong in everything technical. Shout-out to Babygirl, I almost added you, too.

Sean Baker strikes again!

Tennis never looked so good.

Best Supporting Actress

Felicity Jones brings everything she can to The Brutalist, but the female characters in that film are written so poorly and one-dimensionally. I’m not sure Rossellini earned a nomination, either, considering she’s only in Conclave for what feels like five minutes, give or take. I refuse to give Emilia Pérez anything. Zoe is the best part, for sure, though I don’t believe being the highlight of a terrible movie warrants an Oscar.

Ariana Grande & Monica Barbaro aren’t going anywhere, because they were both utterly stunning and sensational. Mahsa Rostami and Divya Prabha gave such grounded, human performances in their respective films. I hope their inclusion on my list rounds out a more international lineup for this category.

As a whole, Nickel Boys doesn’t work for me. Some of the components really do, though. Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor is the heart & soul. When I was having difficulty staying engaged with the narrative, she would show up and immediately refocus me. Stunning work.

While she didn’t quite make it, Margaret Qualley was another name floating around in my head. The Substance doesn’t work without her. Demi Moore doesn’t get a nomination without her. The character, divided into two co-dependent parts, is still one singular act. Both women needed to be great, and both were.

Zoe Saldaña admirably lends all of her effort to this role. Still a lackluster character. Still an insulting movie.

I’m tempted to declare this a tie between Monica & Ariana. A few months ago, I would’ve been completely for Ariana, though I now lean ever-so-slightly in the other direction. Barbaro is the emphatic core of A Complete Unknown, not Timothée Chalamet. Timothée is great, don’t misunderstand, but Monica is greater. Her enrapturing portrayal of Joan Baez is an all-time, unforgettable Hollywood act. I love you, Monica.

Best Production Design

The Brutalist is not going to make my list, though I must say I admire what their team was able to achieve with limited time & non-existent cash. Conclave is impressive, too; I’m just leaning more into fantasy and unsung heroes.

The Count of Monte Cristo! So sprawling! Furiosa expands the world of Mad Max & makes the scope intimidating.

The imagination is off the charts. Goes far beyond the vision of the musical, too.

Sometimes, the Academy gets it right.

Best Original Song

Previews of the Academy’s nominees:

The three songs I swapped in:

No.

A surprise, even for me. Not entirely sure why I went for this country tune, but it plays at quite the emotional moment for our main protagonist in Twisters, and Lainey Wilson has a pretty voice.

Best Sound

I can distinctly remember a moment early on in A Complete Unknown: Bob Dylan is walking down the street in New York City, and every little noise, every person on the street, feels alive. The smallest little details could be identified and distinguished, even on a busy city block. Great job.

I’m doing something I’d almost never do: removing Wicked as a nominee. It hurts, but I wanted to make some room for Challengers. Emilia Pérez is gone, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has arrived. A Complete Unknown, Dune: Part Two, and The Wild Robot stay right where they are.

Dune is a once-every-decade sort of spectacle. Unlike the biggest fans, I do believe there are inaccessible moments, some character issues & other minor flaws, though it is, at its core, an unmissable, unforgettable cinematic experience. Engineered for the big screen. Sound is one of the biggest factors, hidden yet imperative, and it makes a monumental difference.

We’re in agreement again. Perhaps the Academy isn’t so bad. Well, Emilia Pérez…

I’m sorry to pile up on it, and I’m also sort of not.

Best Visual Effects

I suppose this was the big year for our ape & monkey friends. Three out of five nominees involve CGI primates of some kind. Humans are also primates, so actually, it’s five out of five!

Better Man & Wicked make way for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga & Twisters. Everybody else stays. I kept one ape representative, which seems fair. I’d also like to briefly mention Civil War. It achieved so much with such a tight budget, and the final several minutes of action were relentless, emotionally destructive, and infinitely engaging.

I think I can spoil this for you & say it’s also about to be my winner in the picture below.

There is no parallel this year, in terms of scale and scope. Was there any doubt, any competition? No, not really.

Best Live Action Short

We’ve arrived at the one shorts category I am familiar with for 2024.

I was fortunate to witness all five Oscar nominees for Best Live-Action Short Film at the David Geffen Theatre, part of the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in LA.

Chris Tashima, first-ever Governor for the Academy’s new Short Film Branch (it used to be clumped together with Feature Animation), spoke. He won the Oscar for best short himself, in 1998: Visas and Virtue.

The directors for three of the five films introduced their works in person, coming from as far as South Africa and the Netherlands. Various members of the crew were in the audience, cheering and shouting. Editors, cinematographers, etc.

Short films are routinely overlooked, even for a cinephile like myself. I’m so glad I had this experience.

For this category, since the five nominees are also the only live action shorts I’ve seen recently, I won’t have my own list. I will share my winner, though, since it does differ from the actual one.

There is not a single weak short here. At first, you may think The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent lacks some context & punch. Read about the true story it’s based on. You’ll change your mind.

More humorous than any of the other nominees, this story follows Lara (Ellen Parren), who, after many failed I am not a robot CAPTCHA tests on her computer, starts to wonder if she is one.

It’s smart, hilarious at times, dark, thought-provoking, and shocking. Someone behind me screamed the most blood-curdling scream at the end.

Oscar & Sophia (William Martinez, Victoria Ratermanis), along with their daughter Nina (Koralyn Rivera), head to an immigration interview with piles upon piles of paperwork & valid forms to hopefully grant Oscar a path to citizenship. Sophia is an American citizen. Nina is an American citizen. Oscar is not, but he has been married to Sophia for several years. ICE suddenly arrives to forcibly remove multiple people, including Oscar.

This is something ICE actually does in real life. The agency intentionally grabs immigrants at their mandatory appointments, in which they are trying to legally do the right thing, despite our cruel, contradictory system, and are instead nabbed, separated, imprisoned, made to disappear as a reward for their good faith.

As ICE officers are actively deporting Oscar and Nina (despite Nina being an American), shoving them into a car, taking them to an unknown location, a panicked Sophia hurriedly tries to get Nina’s passport back as proof of nationality. That’s because USCIS, the agency which handles these interviews & applications, typically holds relevant passports & other documents away from you while your claims are being processed.

Even with that undeniable proof of Nina’s citizenship, seeing ICE’s stubborn, incessant refusals to listen or yield is a terrifyingly true situation.

This short was the most mentally & emotionally devastating of the night. It definitely received the strongest response from the audience as it ended. The applause endured longer than usual, and it was a strange, mournful, palpable sort of cheer. The sense of unity in that room felt both cathartic and unbearably haunting because, I think those of us with beating hearts, critical minds, and rational thoughts know everything is about to get a lot worse in America before it ever gets better. Intimately close to home.

A Lien is empathetic & frightening. This is a straight-up horror film. Frantic, panic-inducing pacing & a numbing conclusion. It demolishes your soul & enflames your conscience. It’s not subtle, at all, though these gross injustices & horrifically dark, inhumane times call for the unvarnished truth.

Not a happy ending, in fiction or reality. I truly, desperately hope some positive, dramatic change is somewhere on that horizon.

Best Cinematography

Maria comes out of nowhere for its one and only nomination. I admit I’ve only seen the first few minutes; so far, it does seem to be shot with great elegance. I just can’t confidently place it among my personal nominees without watching the entire production.

This is the nomination Nickel Boys should’ve been destined for. Audacious, distinct, revolutionary camerawork. Whether its effect on the narrative is positive or negative is up for debate — the merit of the cinematography itself is not. Crisp.

An inspired choice. The Brutalist is not my cup of tea — well, the second half, at least. The cinematography is a different story. I love it, and it may in fact be the film’s ultimate strength.

This category is actually quite close, in my opinion. I pick Nosferatu, though the winner easily could’ve been any film among my five. The lighting in Nosferatu, oh God. The shadows. The wintry chills. Dazzling, disturbing, ravishing, terrifying.

Best International Feature

I have not seen The Girl with the Needle — I assure you I will!

More animated films should find their way into other categories; however, in this instance, I will leave Flow behind. There are simply too many international features to cover. The Count of Monte Cristo returns! A classic epic. It really takes you for a ride.

All We Imagine as Light has been snubbed. What an enthralling, sweet, immersive look at two women living their lives in Mumbai. A 10/10 experience for 90 minutes, perhaps a bit muddled for the final 30, and that’s okay.

From Ground Zero deserves more attention: it is an anthology film consisting of 22 segments by 22 Palestinian directors. It’s got documentaries, fiction, animation, and experimentation. Made by Gaza, for Gaza, From Ground Zero proves art amid death & destruction is both possible and necessary for the human spirit to endure.

Fernanda Torres makes this movie work. As Brazil reckons with the past, America is reckoning with the present. I’m Still Here is a tragedy and a resilient tale of triumph. It’s also a warning. Resist bullies, always. Reject dictatorships, forever.

There is simply no other option. Read my review to discover why this cinematic act of resistance is a miracle. The Seed of the Sacred Fig is essential viewing for all of humanity.

Best Original Score

Previews of the Academy’s nominees:

Whoa, for once, I’ve removed & replaced every single nominee. I do really enjoy most of the Academy’s picks, and I would’ve liked to keep The Wild Robot in my rotation. I just figured this could be a perfect opportunity to highlight as many lesser-appreciated scores as possible.

My decision to remove Wicked relates to Dune: Part Two. The Academy deemed the latter’s score ineligible because it was too similar to part one, and therefore not original. Utilizing that logic, nothing about the Wicked score is original, either, because it is entirely derived from a decades-old musical. Let’s cancel it out & remove both films from contention.

A compliment for Emilia Pérez: I tolerate the score. It’s fine. That is the highest praise I can offer.

Previews of my nominees:

Once again, Babygirl just barely got shut out, though it was memorable enough for me to leave a mention:

The score is more iconic than the film itself.

Absolutely bonkers, musical magic.

Best Leading Actor

Sometimes, Academy members take voting seriously, with careful consideration. Not always. Other Academy members don’t participate, or participate without actually seeing the movies. They can be extremely misinformed, making choices based upon ignorance, stupidity, or both. Most notably, two anonymous voters went against Ralph Fiennes for Best Actor because they mistakenly believed he had won an Academy Award before. They both chose Adrien Brody, who, ironically, does have a prior win. Wild.

Sebastian Stan is my only removal, replaced with Pierre Niney from The Count of Monte Cristo. Sebastian is wonderful, I’m genuinely sorry, there’s simply not enough room. As Edmond Dantès, Pierre ages before our eyes, he wears disguises, he fights, he charms, he loves, he hurts. We follow a life across two decades, we are entirely plunged into his existence, and we grow attached.

Adrien Brody elevates The Brutalist quite a bit with his lead role. It’s powerful, but damn, let’s work on these acceptance speeches. Timothée Chalamet impressively provided his own musical talents for A Complete Unknown, as did his co-stars.

Another noteworthy acting performance in 2024 (for me, at least) was Hugh Grant in Heretic. The second half of that movie doesn’t hold up as well as the first, but Hugh’s work is consistently effective.

I’ll be brief.

Giving this award to anybody else was an act of pure, unadulterated robbery. Colman Domingo offers us all the performance of a lifetime. Go see Sing Sing. Just do it.

Best Director

I love James Mangold. Should he be on this list? Meh. A Complete Unknown is great, I have a soft spot for it, but the directing isn’t necessarily special or daunting. Best Director nominees should be individuals who sacrificed or toiled greatly for their craft. They should be individuals who left an indelible mark on their picture. Get Jacques outta here.

Dune: Part Two doesn’t direct itself. Wicked doesn’t direct itself. Projects that colossal and demanding require such tight, visionary leadership.

The Substance is so different and genre-bending, it could not have been successful with just anyone at the helm. It is very much Coralie’s creation.

Payal Kapadia is an exciting, newer director, bringing her own flavor to All We Imagine as Light.

With the addition of Payal in particular, I have a radical idea in action here: nominate two women in the same year for Best Director! Crazy, right? It’s only happened once before. In the entire near-century of the Oscars, only nine women have actually been nominees — three have been winners, all within the last fifteen years.

• 1976: Lina Wertmüller, Seven Beauties
• 1993: Jane Campion, The Piano
• 2003: Sofia Coppola, Lost in Translation
• 2009: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker (Won)
• 2017: Greta Gerwig, Lady Bird
• 2020: Chloé Zhao, Nomadland (Won)
• 2020: Emerald Fennell, Promising Young Woman
• 2021: Jane Campion (Repeat), The Power of the Dog (Won)
• 2023: Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
• 2024: Coralie Fargeat, The Substance

Honestly, this is a little pathetic. Mind you, zero black people have ever won. Still. Six nominations in almost 100 years. Give Spike Lee some love, at least — he is genuinely one of the greatest, most expressive directors alive today.

I digress. The winners:

Sean Baker is a swell director, but I am surprised by the total domination he achieved at these Academy Awards. Congratulations nonetheless. Anora is one of 2024’s finest flicks.

Flee your country on foot over the course of a month, serve some time in prison, simply because you make movies — then, maybe, you can ask me about winning this Oscar over Mr. Rasoulof. He has sacrificed everything he’s ever possessed or known, everything, to be a director. Villeneuve in second place.

Best Leading Actress

This is a great selection, albeit with one major problem. Oh, Karla. For starters, the performance wasn’t ever award-worthy. Regardless, the subsequent controversies should’ve reversed her nomination. Even with such brazen red flags, and alarming behavior in the not-so-distant past, I do believe people can change. People can learn from their mistakes. They can grow. We’ll see what happens. So far, not good. Everything got real toxic real fast.

Lily-Rose Depp came to play. She does not hold back, at all, and her pure dedication, her commitment, her passion, from first frame to last, earns her a spot here. The Academy scarcely rewards horror, comedy, etc. Let’s mix it up.

There were so many noteworthy leading actress performances in 2024. Nicole Kidman in Babygirl. June Squibb in Thelma. Daisy Ridley in Young Woman and the Sea. Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Hard Truths.

Yes. There is no movie without Mikey Madison, and I genuinely cannot imagine anyone else as Ani. The ending left me with my soul on the floor. I’m wondering how Mikey can possibly top this, because her performance is one of those dominant, all-time, iconic feats. It will linger in your memory; how much you love her, how much you’re rooting for her, how much you want to laugh at her natural humor, feel her piercing pain, dream her fleeting dreams, sulk in her despair, and assuage her all-encompassing worries.

Of all the awards Anora won, this was definitely the most deserved. Demi Moore would be my runner-up.

Best Picture

We have arrived.

Can you spot the differences below?

Hint: I kept four of the Academy’s nominees.

This is currently my #6 film of 2024. Anora sneaks up on you. After the first act, you think you’ve got it all figured out. Nope. You do not. Buckle your seatbelt.

Sing Sing is a liberating light of hope, sincerity, vulnerability, and togetherness within one of the darkest, most horrific, most unjust, most suffocating environments imaginable.

Art changes lives, especially in prison, when punishment is too often the focus. Cinema & theatre exists to spread humanity like this. What an empathetic, kind, uplifting, vulnerable ordeal.

This is currently my #2 film of 2023 (behind Perfect Days), since it premiered back then, though it obviously competed at these most recent Oscars. If it were on my 2024 list, it would be #1, ahead of Wicked.

Bonus Time: New, Suggested Categories

Here are some new categories I’d like to see at the Academy Awards, some of which already exist in other, less-renowned ceremonies.

Yes, I know the Oscars are already long, yet I don’t really see the problem with expanding recognition to encompass some overlooked aspects of cinema. The show-runners seem obsessed with duration and time management, at the expense of quality, and with an element of hypocrisy. Adrien Brody delivered the longest acceptance speech in history while so many others were cut off before being able to utter a single word.

I actually believe, if the Oscars were more patient, emphasizing the importance of the moment, prioritizing detailed content — fostering enjoyment — the duration wouldn’t matter. We could all savor the night a little more. Give everyone their laurels.

Best Animated Voice Performance

Voicework in animation has no Academy presence. No one will ever be nominated in the traditional acting categories, and I think it’s a missed opportunity.

Stunning in its tenderness, misery, and hope, Memoir of a Snail isn’t entirely consistent, but Sarah Snook definitely is.

Best Stunts & Action Choreography

We’ve got visual effects & production design, cool. What about the stunts? The fights? The elaborate, death-defying tricks? People pour everything they have into action. It’s not easy, and the payoff is legendary.

Stuntwork is kind of the whole point of The Fall Guy — it’d be a bit of a shame if it didn’t win. That aspect is done masterfully. Otherwise, not a particularly remarkable movie.

Best Title Cards

Opening & closing credits consume only a tiny percentage of any film’s runtime, though they can be intrinsic to the identity of a story when done creatively.

Some title cards go for the basics. Minimalism, essential information only. Others define the overarching aesthetic. They set the pace, establish the tone, introduce the narrative, and keep the audience engaged. The year’s best definitely deserve some attention.

When I saw those names crawling across, the beautiful VistaVision, that was the most hyped I ever felt during The Brutalist‘s nearly four-hour runtime.

Best Youth Performance

I believe an award emphasizing talent under the age of 18 would help showcase & develop the future of cinema. Several festivals, international awards, and critics’ awards already offer some form of recognition for young, first-time, and breakthrough performances.

The Academy did offer a Juvenile Award intermittently between 1935 & 1961 — presented to now-household names such as Shirley Temple, Judy Garland, Bobby Driscoll, and Hayley Mills. The statue itself was also miniature-sized, but has since been retired.

Minors can be nominated for the leading or supporting acting categories, though this rarely occurs.

Leading Nominees (Zero Winners):

• Jackie Cooper, 9 (1931) — Skippy
• Keisha Castle-Hughes, 13 (2004) — Whale Rider
• Quvenzhané Wallis, 9 (2013) — Beasts of the Southern Wild

Supporting Winners & Nominees:

• Bonita Granville, 14 (1937) — These Three
• Brandon deWilde, 11 (1954) — Shane
• Sal Mineo, 17 (1956) — Rebel Without a Cause
• Patty McCormack, 11 (1957) — The Bad Seed
• Patty Duke, 16 (1963) — The Miracle Worker (Won)
• Mary Badham, 10 (1963) — To Kill a Mockingbird
• Jack Wild, 16 (1969) — Oliver!
• Tatum O’Neal, 10 (1974) — Paper Moon (Won)

• Linda Blair, 13 (1974) — The Exorcist
• Jodie Foster, 14 (1977) — Taxi Driver
• Quinn Cummings, 10 (1978) — The Goodbye Girl
• Justin Henry, 8 (1980) — Kramer vs. Kramer
• Anna Paquin, 11 (1994) — The Piano (Won)
• Haley Joel Osment, 11 (2000) — The Sixth Sense
• Abigail Breslin, 10 (2007) — Little Miss Sunshine
• Saoirse Ronan, 13 (2008) — Atonement
• Hailee Steinfeld, 14 (2011) — True Grit

P.S. Let me know if I missed anybody.

Here’s what a 2024 youth category could look like:

I also considered Mckenna Grace for her performance in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. They make her look completely different as Phoebe Spengler. She is 18 now, and while I don’t want to fault her for that, I do want to highlight inspired performances from individuals who are just a tad younger than that. She’s headed into a fruitful adult career, and I wish her the best.

Izaac Wang’s impactful, profound leading role is spot-on. If you were in middle school around the year 2008, especially in California, Dìdi feels personal, like you are being singled out. I was transported directly to my mid-2000s awkwardness, emotional volatility, bouts with peer pressure, crushes, family squabbles, AIM, MySpace, you name it.

Even if you were older or younger during that era, or you lived on the other side of the planet, Dìdi retains a universal coming-of-age quality. Izaac gives the project life. He was transcendent & entirely authentic throughout.

How About You?

Did you watch the ceremony this year? Did you have a favorite moment? What would your nominees be? Would you introduce any new categories? Did any of the winners surprise you? Amaze you? Enrage you? Let me know in the comment section below.

Feel free to explore my reviews for many of these films on Letterboxd.

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