Have you watched any movies recently you want to discuss? Any films you want to recommend or are hyped about? Feel free to discuss anything here.
Please just try to provide fair warning of spoilers if you can.
The academy expanded the line-up after snubbing The Dark Knight in Picture in favor of Oscar bait The Reader. They received so much backlash that they reverted to nominating 10 nominees each year, something that hadn’t been done since the 40s.
While there are now multiple Best Picture nominees each year, each year there are a designated “Top 5.” As in the films that would have made the cut pre-expansion. Here’s a list of possible Top 5 movies, there’s a lot of argument about which movie was which but this is generally what is accepted/kind of what I think.
2009: The Hurt Locker, Avatar, Inglorious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire, Up in the Air
All 5 movies were nominated for Director. 4 of the 5 were nominated for Film Editing (another mark of a top 5 film) and all except Avatar were nominated for Acting and Screenplay. Avatar got nominated in almost all the technical categories.
2010: The King’s Speech, The Social Network, The Fighter, Black Swan, True Grit
Barely misses the cut: Inception
Inception, unfortunately, undeperformed with nominations missing both Directing and Film Editing, and was never in contention for acting nominations. It misses in favor of True Grit which was a late-breaker and over-performed in nominations.
2011: The Artist, The Descendants, Hugo, Midnight in Paris, The Help
Barely misses: Moneyball
The Help arguably underperformed with nominations but it was such a big hit that I’d imagine it would still make Best Picture.
2012: Argo, Lincoln, Life of Pi, Silver Linings Playbook, D’jango Unchained
Misses: Zero Dark Thirty, Les Miserables
Zero Dark Thirty started dying out throughout the season, and Les Mis was more of a British thing. D’jango had a lot of passion and ended up becoming the front-runner in Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor.
2013: 12 Years A Slave, Gravity, American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, Dallas Buyers Club
Misses: Nebraska, Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club over-performed and got nominated for Film Editing and Original Screenplay when it wasn’t expected to.
2014: Birdman, Boyhood, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Imitation Game, American Sniper
Misses: The Theory of Everything
Similar thing with Les Mis where Theory of Everything was more of a British thing.
2015: Spotlight, The Revenant, The Big Short, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian
Misses: Room
The Martian missed director but it had more nominations and it was a hit at the box office. Although Room probably was pretty close.
2016: Moonlight, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea, Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge
Misses: Hidden Figures
Hidden Figures maybe would have made the line-up considering it was such a big hit. But Hacksaw won too much stuff and Mel Gibson had a strong comeback narrative. Gross.
2017: The Shape of Water, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Dunkirk, Get Out, Lady Bird
There is no real alternative to these five.
2018: Green Book, Roma, The Favourite, Blackkklansman, Bohemian Rhapsody
Misses: Vice, A Star is Born
Bohemian Rhapsody was a phenomenon and won four Oscars. It would have gotten a Best Picture nomination easily.
2019: Parasite, 1917, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Irishman, Joker
Jojo Rabbit was close. But four of these got 10 nominations and Parasite won Best Picture.
2020: Nomadland, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Promising Young Woman, Minari, Mank
Misses: The Father
2021: The Power of the Dog, Belfast, Dune, West Side Story, King Richard
Misses: Licorice Pizza
At the time of nominations CODA would not have made the cut. It is the first Best Picture winner to be bottom 5.