The Favorite, Roma and Vice Lead The 2019 Oscar Nominations

2019’s Oscar nominations are in, and it’s going to be a battle. Several movies are up for multiple awards, and between now and February 24th when the show airs there will be plenty of speculation as to who will take home the most statues. Here are the nominees.

While the Academy has the ability to nominate 10 films each year, they have yet to do so, and this year they’ve chosen 8 to receive nominations. The films up for the big award this year are Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, A Star Is Born and Vice. None of these are a huge surprise, but it’s going to be a fight to the finish. Bohemian Rhapsody, Green Book and Roma all took home Golden Globes for best picture (with Roma claiming the statue for Best Foreign Language film), yet with a different body voting for the Oscars it could be one of the other films that wins Best Picture. You also have to take note that it’s very rare for a film to take Best Picture without its director being nominated for Best Director, and this year only four of the Best Picture nominees have their director nominated as well. Spike Lee (BlacKkKlansman), Pawel Pawlikowski (Cold War),  Yorgos Lanthimos (The Favourite),  Alfonso Cuaron (Roma) and Adam McKay (Vice) are the nominees, which means it will probably come down to The Favourite or Roma taking home the statue.

This year’s Best Actress race is going to be an interesting one as well. Lady Gaga was expected to win the Golden Globe earlier this month for A Star Is Born, but was beat out by Glenn Close of The Wife. Olivia Colman also won a Golden Globe for The Favourite, All three actresses have been nominated for an Oscar as well. Joining them are Yalitza Aparicio (Roma) and Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?). In the supporting actress category Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz have been nominated for their roles in The Favourite, while  Amy Adams (Vice), Marina de Tavira (Roma) and Regina King (If Beale Street Could Talk) are nominated as well. King won the Golden Globe against a very similar group of women.

When it comes to Best Actor, the race is fairly wide open. Even though Christian Bale (Vice) and Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody) took home Golden Globes, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will win the Oscar for Best Actor. In fact only one of them will be able to. Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) was a favourite to win at the Globes and lost, and with him failing to get a Best Director Oscar nom, he may just be the favorite to win the Oscar. Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate) and Viggo Mortensen (Green Book) are also nominated. When it comes to Best Supporting Actor you have to wonder if this is the year Sam Elliott (A Star Is Born) finally gets a trophy. There was a lot of shock at him failing to get nominated for a Golden Globe, so this might just be his chance. He will face stiff competition from Mahershala Ali (Green Book),  Adam Driver (BlacKkKlansman), Richard E. Grant (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and Sam Rockwell (Vice) who all bring strong cases to the table.

With several strong films getting a fair number of nominations, this may just be the most interesting Academy Awards event in several years. We’re looking forward to seeing the final outcome on February 24th.