Academy Award Nominees: Cinematography and Music



It's Academy Awards Week, and as such I'm looking at the big races and making some predictions. Be sure to tune in for the big show to see how I fare on Sunday, February 24. And be on the look out for my official predictions on Sunday, too.

Best Cinematography:
* Roma
* Cold War
* Never Look Away
* A Star is Born
* The Favourite

 About: This is one of the big award categories, and this year the race is quite interesting. Three of the five nominees—60 percent—are films in the Foreign Films race. That's quite a showing, and quite a statement. If we were considering a winner that's not among the foreign films, I'd love to see "A Star is Born" win, but I think that's unlikely. The two films I think are probably the front runners here are "Roma" and "Cold War," and if pressed I think "Roma" is likely to win. In fact, I think it could be a big night for "Roma." So that's where I'm leaning at this point.

Best Original Score:
* BlacKkKlansman
* Black Panther
* Isle of Dogs
* If Beale Street Could Talk
* Mary Poppins Returns

 About: This is a fascinating category because of the films in it. In fact, for many nominees this could be their shot at capturing Oscar gold. And I think that will be the case for the winner. While there are a few that I enjoy here that could win, I'm leaning toward this being the place where the Academy recognizes "Mary Poppins Returns," which was a popular film this year. I think it could win this category. A dark horse might be "Isle of Dogs" which was an interesting film with an interesting soundtrack.

Best Original Song:
* "Shallow," "A Star is Born"
* "All the Stars," "Black Panther"
* "I'll Fight," "RBG"
* "Where the Lost Things Go," "Mary Poppins Returns"
* "When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs for Wings," "The Ballad of Buster Scruggs"

 About: Another fascinating category with some great entries. That being said, this feels to me like a category where there's pretty much a lock, which to me is "Shallow." That's one of the biggest songs of the year and figures to be the biggest performances of the night. I would be completely shocked, and a bit disappointed, if "Shallow" doesn't win on Sunday night.

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