Popes vs. hitmen, singers vs. bombshells: If Queerty picked the Oscar nominations

• Laura Dern, Marriage Story
• Ana de Armas, Knives Out
• Penelope Cruz, Pain & Glory
• Billie Lourd, Booksmart
• Jodie Turner-Smith, Queen & Slim

Supporting women have had a weak year. We should pause here to point out a ridiculous & frustrating dimension of the Oscars, or any acting award: what constitutes a leading vs. supporting performance? Turner-Smith gives a smashing debut performance in Queen & Slim, and while she’s definitely the film’s leading lady, scene-for-scene hers could be considered a supporting performance. Ditto de Armas, who actually carries the emotional load of Knives Out, more so than her better-known costars. Lourd steals Booksmart with her hilarious, often improvised performance. Cruz, in a minor but pivotal role, casts a long shadow in Pain & Glory. The lock for the nomination, however, is Dern, who gave three magnificent supporting turns this year (the other two being in JT LeRoy and Little Women). Bet on her to win, folks.

• Scarlet Johansson, Marriage Story
• Renee Zellweger, Judy
• Lupita Nyong’o, US
• Charlize Theron, Bombshell
• Jillian Bell, Brittany Runs a Marathon

Leading ladies, start your engines! By contrast with their supporting counterparts, the women gunning for Best Actress have some fierce competition for the nomination slots. Zellweger and Theron both channel their real-world counterparts so well, at times, we can’t distinguish them from the real thing. Nyong’o goes for broke in US, giving the year’s creepiest performance. Bell ruled the festival circuit for her transformative—and hilarious—work in Brittany, so we’d love to see her get her due. Johanson does her best work to date in Marriage Story, but hers could also be considered a supporting performance (see also: Jodie Turner-Smith). Should she get bumped to that category, we humbly submit Akwafina for her spectacular work in The Farewell.

• Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes
• Daniel Kaluuya, Queen & Slim
• Robert De Niro, The Irishman
• Antonio Banderas, Pain & Glory
• Mark Ruffalo, Dark Waters

And speaking of the fiercely competitive, Best Actor has the potential to become the year’s biggest nail-biter. Kaluuya already scored a nod for his work in Get Out, though for our money, he’s even better in Queen & Slim, and that says something. De Niro rises to a level of performance not demonstrated by the actor since Raging Bull, for which he won the golden statue. Banderas & Pryce are long overdue for Academy recognition, and both shine as bright as ever with their respective work. Much like Johansson, Ruffalo hits a new high with his delivery in Dark Waters as a latter-day Jimmy Stewart-type do-gooder.

Oh, but where’s Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in Joker you ask? As committed and uninhibited as he is in the film, the movie itself is utter garbage, and never quite gives purpose to the actor’s energy. We look forward to seeing what Phoenix does next…which, hopefully, will be something less painful.

• Sam Mendes, 1917
• Dan Krauss & Paul Haggis, 5B
• Rian Johnson, Knives Out
• Martin Scorsese, The Irishman
• Bong Joon-Ho, Parasite

Though he never appears on screen himself, Mendes is the real star of 1917 for getting great work out of his actors, choreographing some great action sequences, and making the entire movie look like a single shot. Scorsese—the greatest living American director–flexes his might in The Irishman. Joon-Ho & Johnson both made very intricate crowd-pleasers, and both have been snubbed in the past (Joon-Ho for Snowpiercer, Johnson for The Last Jedi). Documentarians don’t get enough credit for directing, and given that Krauss & Haggis made the best film of 2019, we think it’s time the academy rectified that problem.

• Knives Out
• US
• Marriage Story
• Brittany Runs a Marathon
• 1917

Much like Scarlet Johansson and Adam Driver, Noah Bombach does splendid work with Marriage Story. The Academy loves Jordan Peele, and since we liked US even more than Get Out, so we’d love to see it land here. Knives Out plays like the best detective stories always do: a clockwork plot where all the pieces, no matter how insignificant, come together. 1917 has as much human drama as anything this year, and Brittany Runs a Marathon gave us a case of the sniffles. Here’s hoping it did the same for the Academy.

Best Adapted Screenplay

• The Irishman
• Dark Waters
• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• Bombshell
• Jojo Rabbit

Screenwriting heavy-hitters Todd Haynes and Steve Zaillian reminded us of their creative muscle with Dark Waters and The Irishman respectively. Bombshell benefits from a creative and subtle approach by Charles Randolph. Jojo Rabbit had us laughing and weeping, while A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood had our waterworks leaking too.