Awards Season: Playing Catch-Up
Nomadland
Surprise! There’s been, like, barely any contemporary reviews last year. I take sole responsibility, because I have devoted the majority of 2020 to watching older films for the Best 100 Films lists I’ve been doing for every decade. I got ahead of myself, and did insane amounts of research; I also spent most of my writing time on these lists, so I suppose I felt like doing film reviews (that weren’t On-This-Day Thursdays or other specials) would get in the way. If you’re a newer reader, you might not know that I try to cover every single Academy Award nominee every year, and have been successful for two years in a row now. I rank every nominee in each nomination category, make predictions, and more. This year, I don’t plan on slowing down. The main difference between 2020 and 2019 is that I had a review of every single nominee, and not just coverage of each category. That way, there would always be a longer article attached to a small thought; let’s say I thought Joker was just okay, but Joaquin Phoenix was the best actor in his category (the review would hopefully justify why I felt both ways).
So, what does that mean for right now? I’ll be playing catch-up. I’ll have to guess what will be nominated this year, and I’m admittedly far more out-of-the-loop than usual. Luckily, there are many specialty websites I can follow (my awards season go-to is Gold Derby, which isn’t always accurate but is usually incredibly close). In the meantime, there are films I’ve watched but haven’t written reviews for, including a couple I featured in my Best Films of 2020 list (award season locks like Nomadland and Minari are good places to start). In the meantime, I’ll be watching works that I believe will be nominated in some capacities (including special effects and other technical categories). Not only will you be seeing reviews of more recent films that may have come and gone, but you might be seeing reviews of much older films from earlier in 2020 as well (apologies in advance: better late than never). Whatever it takes to get us in good standing.
So, I’ll be sprinkling these reviews throughout the next few months. I cannot guarantee that I’ll have every single nominee reviewed (some foreign films are difficult to get a hold of outside of festivals, and the same goes for the short films [even though the Academy usually releases compilations: the pandemic might make it difficult to do this without theatrical screenings]). However, I will try my best. Besides, it gives me a minute to watch stuff that came out recently. Considering I’m nearing the end of the watching portion of the decades project, that’s music to my ears. It’s been a fun journey, but I’d like to be back home, now.
Andreas Babiolakis has a Masters degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, as well as a Bachelors degree in Cinema Studies from York University. His favourite times of year are the Criterion Collection flash sales and the annual Toronto International Film Festival.