Academy Award Preview: Best Director, Best Original and Adapted Screenplay

 


The Academy Awards will take place on Sunday, April 25. The nominees were announced on Monday, March 15. Between now and the awards, I'll be previewing the different races. Today I'm looking at the Best Director and screenplay races.

Best Director:
* Chloe Zhao
* David Fincher
* Emerald Fennell
* Isaac Lee Chung
* Thomas Vinterberg

About: This is a great field and should be an interesting race. Fincher, Chung, Vinterberg and Fennell delivered some beautiful films. In fact, Fennell's film was my favorite of 2020. But this race belongs to Zhao. Nomadland is not only a powerful and engrossing story, it's one of the most beautiful films I've seen. Zhao has dominated this awards season and should continue to dominate in the Academy Awards competition.

Best Original Screenplay:
* Judas and the Black Messiah
* Promising Young Woman
* The Trial of the Chicago 7
* Sound of Metal
* Minari

About: This will likely go to Aaron Sorkin for Trial of the Chicago 7. I could also see Chung winning for Minari, though that film is more about the visuals and performances. But if I might, the one I feel most passionate about is Promising Young Woman, and the excellent script from Fennell. It's powerful and surprising. At times it's the best comedy I saw in 2020 and at times it's heart-breaking. It also felt wildly original. If I'm voting, she gets the win.

Best Adapted Screenplay:
* Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
* Nomadland
* One Night in Miami
* The Father
* The White Tiger

About: This is an interesting field as well. The Borat script seems to be a front-runner, which feels like a shame. Not only is that film highly improvised, it wasn't that great of a story to me. I am also ruling out The White Tiger, but that leaves three worthy options I'd be happy to see. In my heart of hearts, because I'd like to reward such great filmmaking we saw this year, I'd love to see Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller earn the Oscar for The Father. 

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