Navigating Awards Season

By Sandra Olmsted

While the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is the oldest organization honoring expertise, talent, and innovation in the art of cinema, it is now, by no means, the only organization handing out awards this time of year. The Oscars are still the Big Kahuna and most of the rest of the awards, well-known to obscure, are considered harbingers of what might or might not happen on Oscar night, providing one can read the signs in the tea leaves of award dregs.

Handed out by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), Golden Globe Awards open the season; however, being first has its negatives. Since the best films of the year open in theaters closest to the Christmas and New Years, sometimes the HFPA does not get to consider those films, which this year is the case with ‘On the Basis of Sex,’ the inspiring biopic about Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s early career. Although the HFPA’s “year” ended December 1 for the screening of  films for their consideration, the films that come out in December of this year may well be forgotten by next year’s nominations.

A Golden Globe going to some and not others can be an indicator of the Oscars. Much has been made of Lady Gaga not getting the HFPA’s Best Actress award although I felt Lady Gaga was channeling Barbra Streisand’s performance in the 1976 version until Gaga switched to parodying her own fame at the end of ‘A Star is Born.’ Also, HFPA awarded Best Motion Picture, Drama to ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama to its star Rami Malek; however, the film is rumored to not be much of a favorite with the Academy voters. ‘Green Book’ has buzz regarding it being a favorite with the Academy. ‘Roma,’ the Netflix film, earning Golden Globes for Best Director, Motion Picture, for Alfonso Cuarón and Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language, bodes well for ‘Roma’ when the Oscar nominations are announced.

Meanwhile, other organizations which have either regional or member-specific niche foci, struggle to balance not being overshadowed by the Golden Globes with getting most of the films screened before nominating and voting. One organization with a very specific focus is the Association of Women Film Journalists (AWFJ), of which I am a member. AWFJ’s voting members completed voting earlier this week and will announce their EDA Awards on Jan. 10 on their website, awfj.org.

With more women finally getting the opportunity to direct films, the AWFJ’s list of Best Women Directors might indicate additional directors that the Academy might nominate. Their list of women screenwriters is also relevant for potential Oscars nominees; however, I would doubt that more than one woman per category is nominated, except in the screenwriting one because the work was shared with men. I’d put directors Debra Granik, ‘Leave No Trace’; Marielle Heller, ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’; and Chloe Zhao, ‘The Rider’ on that short list of women who might be Best Director Oscar nominees.

Only one woman has ever won the Academy Award for Best Director, Kathryn Bigelow (2010) for ‘The Hurt Locker,’ and she also won the DGA’s Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film award. As of 2018, only four other women have ever even been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director: Italian director Lina Wertmüller (1977) for ‘Seven Beauties’ (‘Pasqualino Sette Bellezze’); New Zealand director Jane Campion (1994) for ‘The Piano,’ Sofia Coppola (2004) for ‘Lost in Translation,’ and Greta Gerwig (2018) for ‘Lady Bird.’

Although women directed many films before the advent of sound, women directors fell out of favor as budgets increased; however, they continued to write a great number of screenplays and still do. Combining both adapted and original screenwriting, I would think that the women writers with a chance at an Oscar nod are Diablo Cody, ‘Tully’; Deborah Davis, with Tony McNamara, ‘The Favourite’, Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini, ‘Leave No Trace’; Nicole Holofcener, with Jeff Whitty, ‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’; and Audrey Wells, ‘The Hate U Give.’ The lists that critics’ organizations come up with usually have about the same films and performances on them, as do the motion picture industry guilds’ nominations. The red herring nominations can, however, mean that some surprises are in store; especially on the guilds lists.
The motion picture industry’s guilds, however, and their nominations and awards remain possibly the best barometer of the Academy nominations and winners. The alphabet soup of guilds includes Art Directors (ADG), Cinematographers (ASC), Editors (ACE), Writers (WGA), Directors (DGA), Screen Actors Guild (SAG), and Producers Guild (PGA, not to be mistake for the golf association although plenty of producers play golf, usually with agents and financiers). Since many members of the guilds are also among the Academy’s 8176 eligible voting members, their awards often provide a predictor of the Academy nominations and even winners. The guilds announce their nominees and winners in January and February.
While the guild awards are specific to each one’s specialty, the AWFJ extends their focus on women journalists to the female characters in films and the women making films. In addition to the standard round of “Best” this and that, the AWFJ votes for women-specific awards which speak to cultural and industry trends in the motion pictures. The AWFJ website also lists several usual categories, such as the AWFJ’s ‘Outstanding Achievement by A Woman in The Film Industry’ and ‘Bravest Performance,’ that might also be indicators of which direction the Oscar winds are blowing. The inclusion of Golden Globe winner for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama: Glenn Close, ‘The Wife’ in the AWFJ’s ‘Actress Defying Age and Ageism’ category seems an indicator that the younger actresses may not fair as well as those with more chops. The process of predicting the Oscars quickly becomes reading one list against another to see the red herrings and interesting variations.
Although critics generally are not a part of the Academy unless they are also a major filmmaker on the side, critics have some sway over what is nominated through their reviews, which means that what happened at the Golden Globes this past Sunday and with the myriad other critics’ awards is also relevant for Oscar predicting. By nominating early and handing out their awards earlier than the other organizations, the Golden Globes set in motion the publicity that drives much of the Oscar nomination and voting. The average moviegoer sees little of this advertisement which includes positioning certain performances and films for nomination in specific categories. The Oscar advertising primarily targets the 8176 voting members of Academy although the critics are also a target, too. The Academy’s nominations will be announced Tuesday, January 22, and the 91st annual Academy Awards will air Sunday, February 24 on ABC.

AWFJ’s Best Woman Director
Elizabeth Chomko – WHAT THEY HAD
Debra Granik – LEAVE NO TRACE
Marielle Heller – CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Tamara Jenkins – PRIVATE LIFE
Karyn Kusama – DESTROYER
Nadine Labiki – CAPERNAUM
Rungano Nyoni – I AM NOT A WITCH
Sally Potter – THE PARTY
Lynn Ramsay – YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
Chloe Zhao – THE RIDER

AWFJ’s Best Woman Screenwriter
Diablo Cody – TULLY
Deborah Davis – THE FAVOURITE (with Tony McNamara)
Debra Granik and Anne Rossellini – LEAVE NO TRACE
Nicole Holofcener – CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? (with Jeff Whitty)
Tamara Jenkins – PRIVATE LIFE
Lynne Ramsay – YOU WERE NEVER REALLY HERE
Audrey Wells – THE HATE U GIVE
Chloe Zhao – THE RIDER

AWFJ’s Outstanding Achievement by A Woman in The Film Industry
82 women who stood on the Palais des Festivals steps at the Cannes Film Festival to protest gender inequality in festival programming.
Ava DuVernay for hiring women filmmakers for QUEEN SUGAR and other projects.
Megan Ellison for challenging the status quo and producing projects by unique and diverse voices at Annapurna Pictures.
Nicole Kidman for a banner year of performances in DESTROYER, BOY ERASED and AQUAMAN, and for opening opportunities for women in production.
Rachel Morrison for paving the road for women cinematographers with her Oscar nomination for MUDBOUND and scoring as DP on BLACK PANTHER.
Shondra Rhimes, Reese Witherspoon and all the women speaking out in the #MeToo movement.

AWFJ’s Actress Defying Age and Ageism
Glenn Close – THE WIFE
Viola Davis – WIDOWS
Nicole Kidman – DESTROYER
Sissy Spacek –THE OLD MAN & THE GUN
TEA WITH THE DAMES – Eileen Atkins, Judi Dench, Joan Plowright, Maggie Smith

AWFJ’s Bravest Performance
Toni Collette – HEREDITY
Olivia Colman – THE FAVOURITE
Viola Davis -WIDOWS
Nicole Kidman – DESTROYER
Melissa McCarthy – CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME?
Charlize Theron – TULLY
Mary Elizabeth Winstead – ALL ABOUT NINA

Golden Globe Winners in Film Categories
Best Motion Picture, Drama: Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Green Book
Best Director, Motion Picture: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama: Glenn Close, The Wife
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama: Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Christian Bale, Vice
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture: Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Best Screenplay, Motion Picture:Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie and Peter Farrelly, Green Book
Best Motion Picture, Animated: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Best Motion Picture, Foreign Language: Roma
Best Original Score, Motion Picture: Justin Hurwitz, First Man
Best Original Song, Motion Picture: “Shallow” — A Star Is Born

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